"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." (Romans 6:1-14)This past weekend was epic. I finally did something I've been wanting to do for the past few years. I publicly declared my love for God and was baptized in front of several hundred people. I wanted to get baptized because 1.) Jesus got baptized 2.) Jesus commanded believers to get baptized as an act of obedience and 3.) It is an outward expression of the inward transformation that had already taken place in my life when I accepted Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.
Now typically, before a person gets baptized, she will give a brief testimony that explains what she was like before she knew Christ, how she met Christ, and finally how she changed post-Christ. When I signed up to get baptized at the Frontline Fall Retreat, I was told by the staff that my testimony had to be 20 seconds. WHAT?!??! I can't even eat complete an order at the Starbucks drive-thru in 20 seconds if I wanted to, so how am I supposed to clearly share my life story that details the radical transformation in my life as a result of Christ? As a joke, my friends and I decided the only way to make it work would be to avoid talking in sentences and using articles, and instead just speak one-three words at a time. However, I ended up really liking the idea and decided to just go with it. The below text is what I ended up with. I also have a longer version of my testimony below in case you're curious.
Hi I'm Chessy, and I like to think outside the box.catholic. indifferent.UVA. success. party.dazed and confused.atheist brother. found Christ.constant peace. my jealousy ensued.discovered frontline. gospel made clear.fence sitter still. it was pretty painful.something changed.chose Christ. final answer.SERENITY NOW!
Long version:
I was raised Catholic. My family went to church every Sunday for the most part. I always remembered believing in God, but that was the extent of my 'religion'. I went to Sunday school because my parents made me. Sunday school and confirmation was a complete blur. (In fact, I remember years later when I was in a small group and people would ask me what the Catholic church's stance was on certain theological topics, and I would honestly respond with "I don't know".)
High school was the first time I was taught about other religions, and it led me to question my own beliefs. I remember feeling disappointed when I would ask a specific question about why my church would performed a certain ritual and the answer I was given was "because that's what we are supposed to do". Upon starting college , I went to church a few times. However, I quickly lost motivation to go to church when I would stay out till 4am partying on a Saturday night. The last thing I wanted to do was wake up early to go to something I didn't understand and wasn't excited about. The icing on the cake was when the media started to report about how priests, who were portrayed as 'holy' and somehow incapable of 'bad sins', were caught molesting altar boys...SICK.
The rest of UVA was spent under the 'play hard, work hard' mentality. I studied and got good grades, but I also went out partying and drinking most nights. I was convinced my purpose in life was to be happy, and for the most part I thought I was achieving it.... well except for those times when I should have been happy from a worldly perceptive (good friends, sorority, family, health, academic success, etc) yet felt empty. Around the same time, my older brother, a former athesit, was suddely attending church, and eventually started calling himself a 'born-again' Christian. I was EXTREMELY skeptical, and thought he had joined a cult, mainly because 'born-again' sounded like a term crazy people use, and especially when I saw him get baptized in a neighborhood swimming pool. (Keep in mind, I was brought up in a very traditional Catholic church, where baptisms were performed on babies in a church with holy water and priests, and not on adults in a pool with a random pastor . Additionally, I had never read the bible so I wasn't aware that the term 'born-again ' was in fact a legit thing to call a Christian thanks to Jesus coining the term in John 3:1-8 ). My skepticism eventually turned into curiosity when I realized that my brother wasn't just going through another phase. He had completely changed his lifestyle, and although he gave up many worldly things, he had joy and constant peace.
I decided I wanted to find that peace, or at the very least just check out a non-demoninational church, to see what my brother's hype was all about. Through a friend of a friend, I was taken to a church in Bethesda, but had a 'blah' experience. This friend of a friend told me I might like the music at McLean Bible church better. I ended up going to McLean Bible church by myself. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed when I walked into a church of several thousand people and heard the sound of electric guitars and drums coming from the main sanctuary. I remember thinking to myself how I would never again trust a stranger's opinion about anything... but then a man came out, Todd Philips in fact. He started talking and I found myself instantly engaged. I felt like I was sitting in on a college lecture. His speech was extremely well structured, with 3 main points, and each point was affirmed by scripture verses... HOW LOGICAL! He also shared about how the message related to his own life and challenged the audience to apply it to their own life. SO COOL! I knew this was a place I would want to keep coming back to. After the service I went to the new comer meeting, and signed up to be part of a small group so I could try and learn more about the bible.
Over the next 6 months I was like a sponge. New information was flying at me daily that I had never heard before. God wants a personal realationship with me, huh?! God show us grace and offers us a free gift of eternal life just by believing that Jesus is God, and he died for our sins, say whaaaaat? You mean I don't have to earn my way to heaven?! You mean I can be 100% certain of where I will be going when I die, and that regardless of what I do, I can't do anything to screw it up? COOL.
Despite all these new truths being spoken into my life, I was still sitting on the fence. It wasn't until one night when I heard a sermon about how Jesus doesn't want us to be fence sitters. The pastor told us how Jesus plainly stated "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters" Matthew 12:30. The pastor then said it was time to make a decision, and had everyone bow their heads . I remember he asked people who wanted to stop being fence sitters to stand, and it was at that moment that I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as lord and savior of my life.
So that was the start of my relationship with Christ. Almost four years have passed, and I've changed in so many ways... I no longer rely on drinking as a way to have fun.. I no longer get drunk and seldom drink..I know everything has a purpose including the trials of my life and often find myself looking for ways to grow as a result of the trials...I know the purpose of my life is to bring glory to God and I try and base all my thoughts, deeds, and actions around this truth...I have been able to use the comfort Christ has given me through the storms of my life to comfort others when they are going through a hard time... I have been able to forgive people that have severely wronged me... etc. But guess what, I'm still imperfect. I still sin just like anyone else, yet Jesus's love for me is unconditional. He will never change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. me the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8) . AMEN!
High school was the first time I was taught about other religions, and it led me to question my own beliefs. I remember feeling disappointed when I would ask a specific question about why my church would performed a certain ritual and the answer I was given was "because that's what we are supposed to do". Upon starting college , I went to church a few times. However, I quickly lost motivation to go to church when I would stay out till 4am partying on a Saturday night. The last thing I wanted to do was wake up early to go to something I didn't understand and wasn't excited about. The icing on the cake was when the media started to report about how priests, who were portrayed as 'holy' and somehow incapable of 'bad sins', were caught molesting altar boys...SICK.
The rest of UVA was spent under the 'play hard, work hard' mentality. I studied and got good grades, but I also went out partying and drinking most nights. I was convinced my purpose in life was to be happy, and for the most part I thought I was achieving it.... well except for those times when I should have been happy from a worldly perceptive (good friends, sorority, family, health, academic success, etc) yet felt empty. Around the same time, my older brother, a former athesit, was suddely attending church, and eventually started calling himself a 'born-again' Christian. I was EXTREMELY skeptical, and thought he had joined a cult, mainly because 'born-again' sounded like a term crazy people use, and especially when I saw him get baptized in a neighborhood swimming pool. (Keep in mind, I was brought up in a very traditional Catholic church, where baptisms were performed on babies in a church with holy water and priests, and not on adults in a pool with a random pastor . Additionally, I had never read the bible so I wasn't aware that the term 'born-again ' was in fact a legit thing to call a Christian thanks to Jesus coining the term in John 3:1-8 ). My skepticism eventually turned into curiosity when I realized that my brother wasn't just going through another phase. He had completely changed his lifestyle, and although he gave up many worldly things, he had joy and constant peace.
I decided I wanted to find that peace, or at the very least just check out a non-demoninational church, to see what my brother's hype was all about. Through a friend of a friend, I was taken to a church in Bethesda, but had a 'blah' experience. This friend of a friend told me I might like the music at McLean Bible church better. I ended up going to McLean Bible church by myself. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed when I walked into a church of several thousand people and heard the sound of electric guitars and drums coming from the main sanctuary. I remember thinking to myself how I would never again trust a stranger's opinion about anything... but then a man came out, Todd Philips in fact. He started talking and I found myself instantly engaged. I felt like I was sitting in on a college lecture. His speech was extremely well structured, with 3 main points, and each point was affirmed by scripture verses... HOW LOGICAL! He also shared about how the message related to his own life and challenged the audience to apply it to their own life. SO COOL! I knew this was a place I would want to keep coming back to. After the service I went to the new comer meeting, and signed up to be part of a small group so I could try and learn more about the bible.
Over the next 6 months I was like a sponge. New information was flying at me daily that I had never heard before. God wants a personal realationship with me, huh?! God show us grace and offers us a free gift of eternal life just by believing that Jesus is God, and he died for our sins, say whaaaaat? You mean I don't have to earn my way to heaven?! You mean I can be 100% certain of where I will be going when I die, and that regardless of what I do, I can't do anything to screw it up? COOL.
Despite all these new truths being spoken into my life, I was still sitting on the fence. It wasn't until one night when I heard a sermon about how Jesus doesn't want us to be fence sitters. The pastor told us how Jesus plainly stated "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters" Matthew 12:30. The pastor then said it was time to make a decision, and had everyone bow their heads . I remember he asked people who wanted to stop being fence sitters to stand, and it was at that moment that I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as lord and savior of my life.
So that was the start of my relationship with Christ. Almost four years have passed, and I've changed in so many ways... I no longer rely on drinking as a way to have fun.. I no longer get drunk and seldom drink..I know everything has a purpose including the trials of my life and often find myself looking for ways to grow as a result of the trials...I know the purpose of my life is to bring glory to God and I try and base all my thoughts, deeds, and actions around this truth...I have been able to use the comfort Christ has given me through the storms of my life to comfort others when they are going through a hard time... I have been able to forgive people that have severely wronged me... etc. But guess what, I'm still imperfect. I still sin just like anyone else, yet Jesus's love for me is unconditional. He will never change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. me the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8) . AMEN!
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