For the most part, I grew up in a Christian home with a Christian upbringing. My family and I moved from Taiwan to California when I was two years old. Back then, we didn’t go to church because we followed the Buddhist/Traditional Chinese ways of my relatives. My parents started going to church when I was around 5 years old and I’ve been going to church ever since. In first grade, I started going to a program called AWANA (it’s a program for kids to memorize Bible verses) and that’s where I was first exposed to Scripture. I memorized verses such as 1 John 4:19 which says, “We love, because He first loved us”. Each week, I was exposed to Gospel truth in the verses that I memorized and the leaders helped me to understand what I was memorizing.
Looking back on it now, I never doubted these Bible verses; instead, I read them and memorized them as truth. I wasn’t the least bit skeptical and never really questioned them, which I now understand to be God’s grace in my life. God graciously opened my eyes to my own sin and helped me understand my own need for salvation and the forgiveness of sin. I don’t remember the exact day or time of my conversion but I gradually learned more about who God is, how He loved us, and why we worship Him. My knowledge of heaven and hell was very basic back then, but it was also very real. Through memorizing those Bible verses, I understood that God had demonstrated His love toward me by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for sinners like me. He didn’t come to die for righteous people, but He came to die for sinners like me in order that we may be made righteous through Christ’s blood.
In high school, my church hired a new youth pastor who was from the Master’s Seminary. He came in and preached the Word like I had never heard before. He helped me grow theologically and deepen my understanding for the Word. He taught things like the holiness of God and how to study the Bible exegetically. It was during this time that I grew the most in my understanding of Scripture and my walk with God. As I was considering where to go to college, I knew that UCLA was at the top of the list because of Grace on Campus. God was gracious to place me at UCLA Grace on Campus and at Grace Community Church where I’m able to learn more about God’s grace in my life and grow in my theology. Week in and week out, the sermons from the pulpit are a great source of encouragement to me in my walk and they remind me of the difficulty of the Christian life.
I’m thankful that the Lord is patient with me as I learn to trust in His provisions. Living the Christian life has never been easy, but I’m thankful that He sustains me each day to live as a child of God, made holy and separate by the blood and love of Christ.
Looking back on it now, I never doubted these Bible verses; instead, I read them and memorized them as truth. I wasn’t the least bit skeptical and never really questioned them, which I now understand to be God’s grace in my life. God graciously opened my eyes to my own sin and helped me understand my own need for salvation and the forgiveness of sin. I don’t remember the exact day or time of my conversion but I gradually learned more about who God is, how He loved us, and why we worship Him. My knowledge of heaven and hell was very basic back then, but it was also very real. Through memorizing those Bible verses, I understood that God had demonstrated His love toward me by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for sinners like me. He didn’t come to die for righteous people, but He came to die for sinners like me in order that we may be made righteous through Christ’s blood.
In high school, my church hired a new youth pastor who was from the Master’s Seminary. He came in and preached the Word like I had never heard before. He helped me grow theologically and deepen my understanding for the Word. He taught things like the holiness of God and how to study the Bible exegetically. It was during this time that I grew the most in my understanding of Scripture and my walk with God. As I was considering where to go to college, I knew that UCLA was at the top of the list because of Grace on Campus. God was gracious to place me at UCLA Grace on Campus and at Grace Community Church where I’m able to learn more about God’s grace in my life and grow in my theology. Week in and week out, the sermons from the pulpit are a great source of encouragement to me in my walk and they remind me of the difficulty of the Christian life.
I’m thankful that the Lord is patient with me as I learn to trust in His provisions. Living the Christian life has never been easy, but I’m thankful that He sustains me each day to live as a child of God, made holy and separate by the blood and love of Christ.