Our God changes lives and it has been a joy to share our stories of what this has looked like for us to many students in the Christian Studies classes. Among those who shared their testimony today was Jess. Here is Jess’ testimony:
“I grew up the eldest of 5 kids so naturally, was good at being bossy and good at being good. But in highschool I started reading accounts of Jesus for myself in the Bible. And I came across a woman who was anything but good! And even though she’d lived a shameful life, she approached Jesus. And instead of rejecting this rule breaking, shady lady, Jesus recognises her many sins but also says the woman is forgiven. Not because she was good or kept rules. But because Jesus offers forgiveness BECAUSE no one can keep the rules. He died to pay for this forgiveness.
“This was such a different picture of Jesus to what I’d had. I realized I hadn’t been following the real Jesus.
“So I had to make a choice. Either the real Jesus was someone worth following or he wasn’t. And I looked into a bunch of things – but the thing that kept getting me was who Jesus was – he treated people with such integrity, he cared for the weak and the helpless, he spoke with authority but also humility. He publicly told people he’d die and three days later come back to life – and actually did it.
“And I realized that I needed to stop relying on my rule keeping or my goodness – but admit to God that I wasn’t actually good enough and couldn’t keep enough rules. And ask God to forgive me because of Jesus’ death on the cross. Best decision of my life.”
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