Eddy's Testimony

Before I became a Christian, I felt that life was OK for me and I didn’t need any religion in my life. After I went to graduate school, I met Chris at my school (he played guitar at Bible study here before Julie). I also met some foreigner friends from church. We became friends but we didn't talk about Jesus a lot. Then Chris held an extra Bible study for me and my classmates. So I got more opportunities to learn about God.

At first, because I wanted to improve my English, I thought I’d like to attend Bible study. Each week Chris started to teach us about Jesus. I'd liked learning more, but I didn't believe it when Chris said God healed his cancer or something else like that. I thought that could be relative to any religion, and it didn’t make sense for me. Other times I heard people lose their keys or cell phone, and they pray to God, and when the items were found, they feel God is amazing or great. If they didn't find items, then they will tell themselves God has a plan, so it's OK, but that didn’t work for me.

So I continued learning about Jesus for a year and a half. I didn't used to go to church or read the Bible a lot then (or even now), but I just keep on learning. I am not that kind of person who would say right away "Oh, God, please come to my life." Everything has to make sense for me before I believe it. So I started thinking about my relationship with God, and I wondered if God meant anything to me.

I was born into a Buddhist family, so I did compare the 2 religions, and tried to find out what is different between Christianity and Buddhism. All the time I found that the Bible teaches us that we are sinners. When I was child I felt this was very weird for me. I thought “I don’t do anything bad. I don't steal. I don't rob. Why am I a sinner?” But then I was reminded that I needed to be humble. Am I capable of doing bad things more serious than stealing or robbing? Yes, I could. And sometimes we don't know what we've done. All of us are able to do some really bad things. So I have to take every step very carefully, because I am not perfect!

A lot of people believe in Buddhism where it says they could pay for their sins by doing something good, like helping people. It sounds like it makes sense, but I don't agree that people they could pay for their sins by doing anything. Does it mean they could always pay for their sins by giving away more money? Even if they know they are going to do something bad? People think they did pay for their sins and then keep doing bad things again. They don't feel that they are a sinner.

I believe I am a sinner, and I am not able to pay for my sin without Jesus. I know God died on the cross to pay for my sin. I never ask God to bring me more good luck or take away all of the bad things that happened to me. He told us “If any of you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it.”(Mark 8:34-35

The Bible reminds me that we are not perfect, so every step I take needs to be taken carefully. For example, I could hurt someone deeply and not know it. God looks at all people equally, no matter if I just a student or a criminal. That is how I came to believe in Jesus; it totally makes sense to me. After I understood the meaning of "we are sinners", I felt I needed to keep learning more about his Word and that He is the only way.