Jesus knows me

My story has not ended. I stopped writing in my most recent post as it was time to go to school. I woke early on Monday morning and I thought it would be nice to share my testimony with my beloved students. It honours God to let people know about His goodness, and perhaps it could make a difference in someone's life. Let's pray that it will.

Coming back to my sharing, well the thing that really struck to the core of my being is the humanity of God. The Gospel was repulsive and appealing at the same time. It was repulsive because at that time, at age 22, I was brought up with a religious worldview that God was (and is) a being who far exceeds a human being and to think of God coming in human form was ridiculous. I used to worship God at a distance and calling Him father was unthinkable. It would be considered a blesphamy to call a man God, worse yet, to call a man the Son of God.

In the bible, Jesus was more than a mere prophet gifted in healing. He had the power of ressurection, able to command nature and contrary to the accounts told to me, Jesus of the bible declared himself Son of God. Imagine my horror to read about Jesus in the gospel which contradicted all I have learnt all my life.

Yet the power of God's Word consumed me, and the truth of God's Word overcame my initial instinct to reject outright the alien message of the Gospel. It wasnt really because I believed that the bible was authentic, as I was brought up believing that it was corrupted to begin with and therefore held no truth.

I simply believed because as I read the word of the bible, the truth of Jesus' word manifested itself in my life. I saw my sinful life as the bible declared it, and thought of myself righteous no more. I believed in Christ because of His profound love for me. He died on the cross so that wretched people like me could have a new beginning.

Six months after my first encounter with Christ, much of my religious piety came crashing down. Jesus showed to me the worthlessness of outward piety with little inward renewal. Yet I hang on to my life, out of fear of family reprisal and disaproval of my friends. It was a lonely existence those few months, being wedged in between a growing desire to worship at Jesus' feet and the need to keep up appearances.