I'm giving my testimony tonight for a Christian group on campus that I am part of and I'm not really sure what bible verse I should put with it. Any input would be great.
Here is the testimony, it's basically how I came to know Christ. Sorry that it's in one huge block.
As a kid I grew up in what was more or less a Christian home. We went to a non-denominational church every Sunday until we moved when I was in second grade. For the first few weeks I bugged my parents to go to church on Sundays, but pretty soon they got tired of waking up early and driving 20 minutes to go to church. We never bothered to try to find a new home church. For the next few years I never really gave as much as a second thought to God or going to church. Then in February of sixth grade, my dad told me what was possibly the scariest news I had heard in my life. My mother was in the hospital, in a diabetic coma. For the first couple of weeks I didnt think too much of it. I missed my mom, but I thought everything would just get better and everything would be fine. Yet, during that second week, the doctors said that we should think about taking her off of life support. I kept telling my dad no and thats when I started praying again. That was actually how we found our home church. There was a diner that we usually ate at after my weekly dance classes. My parents had become good friends with one of the waitresses, and she ended up telling someone from the church down the street about my mom. Some of the members of the congregation started praying for her, and when we heard about that, we decided to visit the church, mainly as a way of thanking them. Well, we kept on going back. About a month later my mom did come out of the coma and started the slow process of recovery. In the meantime I had made some friends at the church and I wanted to keep going back. I kept going to that church through the end of Confirmation classes in 8th grade, and then partway through my freshman year of high school. That was when I started going to church less and less. It was like I decided that weekends were the only time when I could ever sleep long enough, and so I started skipping church altogether. In school I started hanging out with some people that I probably shouldnt have. My best friend of the time was more or less atheist, and the more I hung out with her, the more she started trying to convince me of stuff that she thought. And despite believing that my mom had gotten better because of prayer and God saying that it wasnt her time yet, I started going along with her, probably just to feel like I fit in. I had very few friends in Elementary and Middle school, and the ones I had, for the most part, werent even true friends. So I had decided that I shouldnt take my chances, even though somewhere deep down I felt sick every time I found myself agreeing with what she said. This went on for about a year and a half, until May of my sophomore year. I was in a theatre production with some people from my school, where a girl from my church was directing. She had gotten the church as our performance space and she asked me to put up flyers on the bulletin board downstairs. Somehow, that was the little push I needed to start going back to church. It was a relief to be back in church, and I started hanging out with that group of people from my school less and less. At the same time, it still felt like I was only going through the motions of being Christian. One Sunday my youth pastor asked me to come with the youth group to a national youth conference called CHIC. It met once every three summers and it was open to students in high school from Covenant churches around the US and some in other countries as well. I had heard about the conference from someone who had went in 2000, and despite not knowing too many of the people going, I wanted to go and have the opportunity to change my life and faith for the better. Starting with that first night on Thursday, I felt really out of place. I knew some of the songs, but I still felt kind of awkward being there. That changed on Saturday night. They were serving communion to the 10,000 or so teens that were there. The speaker that night was talking about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, and there was a guy there who was doing a painting on the stage at that same time. He had written All My Sins on the top, and had proceeded to paint a portrait of Jesus below. He ended with covering up the writing with more paint at the end, finishing at the same time as the speaker. Even today the main thing that sticks out from the speakers message was that even though Jesus died for our sins, we didnt need to feel guilty about it. I felt myself starting to cry, even though I didnt know why. It actually kind of scared me at first, but it was a very calming feeling. It was the first time that I really felt Gods presence in such an obvious way, and I realized how many things there were in my life that I needed to give up to God in order to change my life. It was that night that I really came to know Christ. I still have moments of doubt today, but I know that I have to keep my trust in God no matter what.
Here is the testimony, it's basically how I came to know Christ. Sorry that it's in one huge block.
As a kid I grew up in what was more or less a Christian home. We went to a non-denominational church every Sunday until we moved when I was in second grade. For the first few weeks I bugged my parents to go to church on Sundays, but pretty soon they got tired of waking up early and driving 20 minutes to go to church. We never bothered to try to find a new home church. For the next few years I never really gave as much as a second thought to God or going to church. Then in February of sixth grade, my dad told me what was possibly the scariest news I had heard in my life. My mother was in the hospital, in a diabetic coma. For the first couple of weeks I didnt think too much of it. I missed my mom, but I thought everything would just get better and everything would be fine. Yet, during that second week, the doctors said that we should think about taking her off of life support. I kept telling my dad no and thats when I started praying again. That was actually how we found our home church. There was a diner that we usually ate at after my weekly dance classes. My parents had become good friends with one of the waitresses, and she ended up telling someone from the church down the street about my mom. Some of the members of the congregation started praying for her, and when we heard about that, we decided to visit the church, mainly as a way of thanking them. Well, we kept on going back. About a month later my mom did come out of the coma and started the slow process of recovery. In the meantime I had made some friends at the church and I wanted to keep going back. I kept going to that church through the end of Confirmation classes in 8th grade, and then partway through my freshman year of high school. That was when I started going to church less and less. It was like I decided that weekends were the only time when I could ever sleep long enough, and so I started skipping church altogether. In school I started hanging out with some people that I probably shouldnt have. My best friend of the time was more or less atheist, and the more I hung out with her, the more she started trying to convince me of stuff that she thought. And despite believing that my mom had gotten better because of prayer and God saying that it wasnt her time yet, I started going along with her, probably just to feel like I fit in. I had very few friends in Elementary and Middle school, and the ones I had, for the most part, werent even true friends. So I had decided that I shouldnt take my chances, even though somewhere deep down I felt sick every time I found myself agreeing with what she said. This went on for about a year and a half, until May of my sophomore year. I was in a theatre production with some people from my school, where a girl from my church was directing. She had gotten the church as our performance space and she asked me to put up flyers on the bulletin board downstairs. Somehow, that was the little push I needed to start going back to church. It was a relief to be back in church, and I started hanging out with that group of people from my school less and less. At the same time, it still felt like I was only going through the motions of being Christian. One Sunday my youth pastor asked me to come with the youth group to a national youth conference called CHIC. It met once every three summers and it was open to students in high school from Covenant churches around the US and some in other countries as well. I had heard about the conference from someone who had went in 2000, and despite not knowing too many of the people going, I wanted to go and have the opportunity to change my life and faith for the better. Starting with that first night on Thursday, I felt really out of place. I knew some of the songs, but I still felt kind of awkward being there. That changed on Saturday night. They were serving communion to the 10,000 or so teens that were there. The speaker that night was talking about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, and there was a guy there who was doing a painting on the stage at that same time. He had written All My Sins on the top, and had proceeded to paint a portrait of Jesus below. He ended with covering up the writing with more paint at the end, finishing at the same time as the speaker. Even today the main thing that sticks out from the speakers message was that even though Jesus died for our sins, we didnt need to feel guilty about it. I felt myself starting to cry, even though I didnt know why. It actually kind of scared me at first, but it was a very calming feeling. It was the first time that I really felt Gods presence in such an obvious way, and I realized how many things there were in my life that I needed to give up to God in order to change my life. It was that night that I really came to know Christ. I still have moments of doubt today, but I know that I have to keep my trust in God no matter what.
