My Testimony

Last Wednesday at youth group, we talked about sharing our faith. We "quickly" studied Acts 22 and looked at Paul speaking and sharing his testimony. If you don't have your bibles, here is the scripture:


Acts 22: 1-21 (Start)


¹ “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”
² When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: ³ “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. ⁴ I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, ⁵ as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
⁶ “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
⁸ “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ⁹ My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
¹⁰ “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ ¹¹ My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
¹² “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. ¹³ He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
¹⁴ “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. ¹⁵ You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
¹⁷ “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸ and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’
¹⁹ “‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. ²⁰ And when the blood of your martyr^[a] Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’
²¹ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”


Acts 22: 1-21 (End)




We then talked about the 3 steps in your testimony:

1. Who you were before Christ?
2. How you came to Christ?
3. What is God doing in your life right now?

Looking at these steps, Paul had all three.

1. Verses 1-5 (Who Paul was before Christ)
2. Verses 6-13 (How Paul came to Christ)
3. Verses 14-21 (What God is doing in Paul's life now)

Below is my testimony, and I hope you enjoy it.

I have always grown up a Christian. I was raised in a Christian home, and was baptized as a baby and was always told that Jesus loved me and died for my sins. But I feel like I didn’t grasp the full meaning of that. I always went to Sunday school and went to VBS thinking I was growing, but I wasn’t.

It wasn’t until about 7^th grade that I finally connected the word Jesus and love together with my heart. It was on the Great Escape that I finally accepted him and knew he is my Lord and Savior. He loved me even though I was a sinner, and still am. And hadn’t quite accepted him fully yet…he still loved me.

Last summer, when I went on my first mission trip, did I grow, but it came with a lot of pain. After fully knowing that I was going on this trip, did Satan test me. A couple of months prior, Satan kept whispering to me that I wasn’t going to impact anyone. All I could do was replay that statement in my head. I was petrified. I really thought that I wasn’t going to impact anyone. Then mission trip came and God finally became real. On the way up I was getting homesick and I knew right then and there that was Satan. I was scared and sick. But by the time the 3^rd day came, God showed me this verse, Philippians 4:11—“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” That is when about the 3^rd day, I didn’t want to leave. I was so excited and was having the time of my life with everyone and that Satan was staying far away. And he knew not to tempt me again. I knew that God wanted me to go on that mission trip and I am so grateful that he told me to go because I impacted so many lives.

Just recently, I have been struggling with prayer. My leader, Lauren has been trying to help me but there is all this stuff blocking my way. I have a negative thought in my brain and it is telling me “I can’t.” I need to get that negative thought out of my head and put in positive thoughts. I know that I can do this, and I know God wants me to do this and so does Lauren. But I can’t. I am going to change that. I promise I will. I first need to change my thoughts. Second, I need to take the leap of faith and know that no matter what I do or say, Jesus is going to catch me and pull me back up. I need to fully put my trust in Jesus and not worry what others think or what I think. Because they don’t matter…the only thing that matters is what God thinks and he thinks no matter what I say or how I say it, it will be perfect. I am working with Lauren on fixing this and I promise that I will stop saying “I can’t” and change it to saying it boldly that “I can.”

God loves me through every good and bad thing I have done. I can’t thank him enough for what he has done for me.

I love God and am so thankful.

Hope you all have a great night and I love you!

Been a while...

Sorry guys it has been a while since I last blogged. I have been so busy with school, it is like taking over my life. School is busy and keeping me on my toes. Life has been good so far. I need a break though. I just need to finish up this coming week strong and then I will be able to relax for a couple of days.

On Friday, I did Special Olympics. It is a program that you get to be around special needs children and dance and play games and have loads of fun. I had a girl named Victoria. She had some difficulty with her motor skills and she has a disease that causes her hands to turn purple and freezing cold. She was as sweet as could be. We danced to the Macarena, If You're Happy and You Know It, and the Chicken Dance. We played Valentine's Day games like hit the heart and Valentine's Day tic-tac-toe. We also played volleyball. I had a blast!


Below is a picture of Victoria, my friend Kaitlyn, and myself.

Well I hope you all have a great day! And I will blog later!

I love you and so does God!