Because of God’s complete providence I have been saved. I grew up near San Diego with my older brother Jake, and we were raised by two loving, typical Asian parents who stressed the importance of grades, school, and a successful future career. I began working at my parents’ restaurant starting in junior high, and I was blessed to learn from my parents how to be respectful, how to disciplined, and how to work hard to get what I wanted. Throughout junior high and high school, I continued learning things, but looking back there was one considerable thing that I never learned. I had never learned that I was a sinner, nothing but a mere sinner before a holy God. Even though I attended church several times and had friends who claimed to be Christians, the reality of God’s existence and my accountability to Him never struck my mind. I claimed that I was a Christian just because I went to church, and my outward good deeds made me feel like I was a good person worthy of heaven. I was too blind to see that behind my façade were the deep lusts of my flesh. My pride in school fueled my life, and I was hardened to the point where my sin bore no weight before my own eyes. In high school my perspective was so limited by my worldliness that I only wanted to get into UCLA, get a job, be successful, and make a lot of money. I called myself a Christian but I was far from God with no knowledge of Jesus Christ.
When I was in high school, God graciously brought my brother Jake to Christ and began using him as a light in my life. I noticed a change in his life that was not just limited to his prayer or his reading of Scripture, but was shown in his new love and concern for me and my parents. For the first time I was introduced to this love I had never before seen, and it made me question what exactly happened to Jake that made him a changed person. On a car ride one day Jake tried to share the good news of Christ with me but my heart was still hardened. I was so focused on my academics and getting into UCLA that I was completely indifferent. In an effort to change the subject, I distinctly remember promising him that I would look more into Christianity if I got into UCLA and had more time.
Months later it was all by God’s grace and providence that I was accepted into UCLA. I reluctantly went through with my promise. In my freshman year, Jake introduced me to a fellowship (Grace on Campus), and it was there under faithful preaching where God softened my heart to finally allow me to hear and understand the true gospel. It was God who showed me that there was sin in my life. My pride, my impurity, and my treatment of school as an idol were both outward and inward examples of sin, and these sins were an offense against Him who created me. In God’s absolute holiness I was deserving of judgment for I had broken God’s law of perfection. Because God’s throne is built on righteousness and justice, it was just that I be condemned and face the wages of sin. No good deed would make me a good enough person worthy of heaven because I was a sinner at heart and by nature a child of wrath. Though I gave God no reason to love me, He gave me a heart to believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God had willingly took the wages of sin upon Himself in my place on the cross. I can rejoice in the fact that Christ not only died, but He rose again. By God’s grace I have been saved by nothing but faith in Christ and His sacrifice for me.
I was once living a life of rebellion so focused on the pursuit of earthly wealth and treasure. But God has graciously given me a desire to serve Him and a yearning to bring glory to His name. My former lusts and pride no longer have dominion over me because it is Christ who reigns as Lord in my life. God has allowed me to know Christ who has saved me, and it is through prayer and the reading of His word that I can trust wholly in His goodness and character. God has given me a longing to proclaim Christ with everyone for it is only Christ who can save and who is worthy of all praise.
When I was in high school, God graciously brought my brother Jake to Christ and began using him as a light in my life. I noticed a change in his life that was not just limited to his prayer or his reading of Scripture, but was shown in his new love and concern for me and my parents. For the first time I was introduced to this love I had never before seen, and it made me question what exactly happened to Jake that made him a changed person. On a car ride one day Jake tried to share the good news of Christ with me but my heart was still hardened. I was so focused on my academics and getting into UCLA that I was completely indifferent. In an effort to change the subject, I distinctly remember promising him that I would look more into Christianity if I got into UCLA and had more time.
Months later it was all by God’s grace and providence that I was accepted into UCLA. I reluctantly went through with my promise. In my freshman year, Jake introduced me to a fellowship (Grace on Campus), and it was there under faithful preaching where God softened my heart to finally allow me to hear and understand the true gospel. It was God who showed me that there was sin in my life. My pride, my impurity, and my treatment of school as an idol were both outward and inward examples of sin, and these sins were an offense against Him who created me. In God’s absolute holiness I was deserving of judgment for I had broken God’s law of perfection. Because God’s throne is built on righteousness and justice, it was just that I be condemned and face the wages of sin. No good deed would make me a good enough person worthy of heaven because I was a sinner at heart and by nature a child of wrath. Though I gave God no reason to love me, He gave me a heart to believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God had willingly took the wages of sin upon Himself in my place on the cross. I can rejoice in the fact that Christ not only died, but He rose again. By God’s grace I have been saved by nothing but faith in Christ and His sacrifice for me.
I was once living a life of rebellion so focused on the pursuit of earthly wealth and treasure. But God has graciously given me a desire to serve Him and a yearning to bring glory to His name. My former lusts and pride no longer have dominion over me because it is Christ who reigns as Lord in my life. God has allowed me to know Christ who has saved me, and it is through prayer and the reading of His word that I can trust wholly in His goodness and character. God has given me a longing to proclaim Christ with everyone for it is only Christ who can save and who is worthy of all praise.