Christian Testimony

"The Lord Jesus will not cast away His believing people because of shortcomings and infirmities. The husband does not put away his wife because he finds failings in her. The mother does not forsake her infant because it is weak, feeble and ignorant.

"And the Lord Christ does not cast off poor sinners who have committed their souls into His hands, because He sees in them blemishes and imperfections. Oh, no, it is His glory to pass over the faults of His people, and heal their backsliding, to make much of their weak graces, and to pardon their many faults." -- John C. Ryle

I'm reminded of a time in my life where I had just got saved and had started turning my life over to the Lord.

I remember that I was so excited about what was happening in my life during that time.

I felt relieved and liberated, being that I finally had some sort of real purpose and direction, within this world of darkness and confusion.

You see, I always knew that there was a God and I also knew that Jesus was the way to true salvation.

I'd came to this conclusion, after I had learned that all the prophecies that had been recorded within God's Word had come to pass, or were now in the process of being fulfilled.

This fact alone is extremely important, for I knew that it proved that the Word of God is truly divine. I had also learned that Jesus was the main focus point, or theme -- that had been echoed throughout the entire Sacred Record. Personally I'd found that impressive, being that it took over 1500 years to write the Word of God, and for the mere fact that the work was done by forty different prophets and apostles that had been led by the Spirit of God -- yeah, I must admit... I was impressed.

And more things were made clear me, for it was revealed to me that Jesus had also fulfilled every prophecy within God's Word that had been foretold about the true Messiah.

I had also learned that Jesus was the first to point out that you could have a connection with God that was not only spiritual, but very natural and personal as well. Being that I had always sensed a connection of some sort, and although I didn't quite understand it, this connection (although vague) compelled me to what to know more about God. On top of this, none of the so-called intellectuals were able to refute the claims that the Word of God had declared to be true.

Some of these so-called intellectuals were so desperate to come against the Word of God, they had even stooped to deceptions and lies, and yet, the Word of God still reigns. Yeah, it was obvious that there were something about the Word of God and Jesus Christ, and it was a no-brainer to try and pursue it.

To put it simply no other person had the answers like Jesus Christ did and continued to do, when it comes to humanity and salvation. Sure you would have some false prophets and teachers that would try, but they all would come up short in their self-glorified attempts. You also had some of the so-called intellectuals that believed that all creation was caused by random acts and holds no real purpose.

Then there are some people who were searching to find missing links through some type of scientific method. Some even believed that all creation had to be some type of illusion. After learning this, I wish this was true, for this would have caused my bills to be some type of illusion, and being that they were -- I wouldn't have to pay them anymore. Yeah that would be nice, but unfortunately, it's not.

Next there were others who believed that after death we are reincarnated, and based off the merits that you have earned through life determines how you will live your next life. This simply doesn't make sense, since it's a known fact that "time" is winding down along with this natural world and all things that are associated with it will eventually pass away. After this happens... then what? What will you be reincarnated to from that point forward?

Others believe that we were once immortal beings who got bored and created the universe and all things in it, so that we can play some type of "Game of Life" by becoming mortal human beings. But what we didn't realize, is that once we became mortal, we would forget our true identity as immortal gods and because of this, we also had forgotten how to get back to the supernatural realm. Now that's something and quite interesting... But tell me, what kind of god gets lost and on top of that... forgets who he is?

Be that as it may, others have just given up trying to seek out the one true God, by simply denying that a master creator does not exist. Personally I can't see how you could deny that God exist after looking around at this awesome creation -- is simply beyond me. Oh well... bottom line, none of them could see past the natural world and into the spiritual like Jesus Christ.

Now at the top of this testimony, I began by saying that I had "just got saved". So after knowing all of this, why did I feel that I wasn't saved? I mean after all, I claim that I already knew that there was a God, and I believed that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of humanity... Hold up, did you catch that? Notice how I didn't say my "personal Savior" but I referred to Jesus as "The Savior and Redeemer of humanity"?

You see, at that point in my life I thought that I had messed up so much in my life, I felt that I was beyond saving. So therefore, I wasn't able to see Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. I totally felt like I wasn't worth saving in the first place. And I hated rejection, so why try? I'll tell you this, it seemed like everything I tried to do would end up being messed up or destroyed somehow. Simply put -- I just knew that I was cursed.

And because of this I had given up on being saved, to where I would not even pray for myself. Since I felt like God had cursed me then why would he listen to my prayers? That's right, I felt that God would laugh at me if He heard even the whisper of a prayer that would dare come from my lips and mind.

Now get this... I would pray for others? I would pray whole heartily and earnestly for them. I really wanted God to help them and I begged Him to please listen to my plea for the people I cared so much about. I pleaded with Him to not allow my short comings and evil ways get in the way of Him answering the divine petition that I had just placed in front of Him.

And guess what? God would answer my prayer! I would be like: "Thanks for listening God, thank you so much." Then I would go on with my life, just trying to survive on my own.

Now the reason why I thought the way that I did, I had adopted and had allowed myself to be influenced with a worldly and self-defeated type of mindset at that point within my life. You see, there was a time in my life where I was really angry towards God. I was so angry with Him, I had actually told Him so. And it wasn't in a pleasant prayer voice either... it was in an angry, loud and disrespecting voice. After I had done this immature action towards the One who had given me the ability to exist, I thought that I had just messed up with God in a very big way. And so therefore, I just knew I was on my own from that point on.

Now get this, I was so angry with God that I didn't care about being on my own and separated from Him. I was determined to make it on my own -- as long as God allowed me to breathe and to see another day. Yeah that's a contradiction, I know. But to be honest, I was confused and living in a world of chaos. My world was so chaotic that I had no purpose or sense of direction. After I had separated myself from God, I had also separated myself from my true purpose and the path He had placed me own.

Now some time had passed from this point in my life and I had also adopted this idea that I didn't have to go to church to believe in God. I kept hearing about all of these so-called men and women of God who were self-righteous, and behind closed doors they were constantly doing morally bad things and some breaking the law.

I thought, "Why in the world would I go and listen to these people? They are nothing but fakes and hypocrites, and they're probably in the same boat that I'm in on top of that?" Remember, I felt like I didn't deserve to be saved, because of all the bad things I had done and kept doing.

Now you don't have to go to church to believe in Jesus Christ. But I've seen tremendous blessings happen in my life on a whole different level when I do go to church and serve God on a regular basis. When I wasn't going to church and serving God on a regular basis, it seemed like I was just barely getting by.

Now its your call? But nothing beats a public display of your faith and devotion by going to church. I've also learned that God will reward you according to your efforts when it deals with Him. If you want God to show up for you, then you must show up for Him. Now there's a lot more reasons and benefits on why you should go to church. But this page is dealing with a different topic for right now. (Sorry church leaders)

Now one day when I was at work, the Lord allowed this co-worker to witness and share his Christian testimony to me. I was at a point in my life, were I was very sharp and quick with my arguments and was very good at shooting down anybody who would dare try to tell me about God. After all, I felt like I knew God quite well.

Besides, as far as I knew, this person talking to me is probably a fake and phony like all the rest I kept hearing about. So I had developed what I like to call "a set of conversation interview questions", and if people couldn't answer them the way that I felt they should be answered. Well guess what? I wasn't going to listen and have a conversation about God with them.

But I will never forget this one particular co-worker (who was just hired by the way) who answered my entire set of silly conversation interview questions the way that I thought they should be answered. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe that he was able to crack my silly code.

So we ended up talking the whole entire night about the forgiveness and unconditional love of God. We talked so long, we were afraid that we would eventually get rained on being that the clouds were extremely dark and the sky was rumbling. On top of that, rain had been forecast for that night.

Ironically right after we had finished our conversation and had gotten into our cars, the rain came pouring down, very heavy. I remember feeling like God had held the rain back, just long enough for me to come back home to Him. Thank you Lord!

Every since that night I never left Him again. Yeah I still made mistakes. But instead of accepting them as a part of my human DNA or some kind of curse, I would just ask God to forgive me and help me to do better. Did you catch that one? I was finally praying to God for myself!

Now after I had accepted Jesus Christ as my beloved Savior and Redeemer, at that point I was now forgiven for all the wrong that I had done throughout the years. But I was still fearful that I would pay a heavy price through reaping for all the wrong things that I had done previously in my life. I know some are shaking their heads, but this is how I felt and I was ready to accept responsibility

I knew that I would reap everything bad that I had sown throughout the years and believe me... I had sowed a lot of bad seeds. So I knew that I would have to endure a bad harvest for a period of time in my life, or perhaps for the rest of my life.

But I didn't care at this point and I was excited and very happy knowing that although I might suffer from this bad harvest for the rest of the days that I had left on this planet -- I would still be saved from eternal damnation. I knew that I would still make it in Heaven, because I had stopped being angry at God and had accepted Jesus as my personal Saviour and Redeemer. Making it into Heaven is very important to me, so from that point forward, everything I did was done around trying to please God in some kind of way.

I had to humble myself, and when I type humble, I mean humble. For I was very stubborn and mean, I was so mean, that the only time I was happy is when I made others sad. I couldn't stand seeing others happy when I felt like I was living under a curse. Yeah, I was messed up, and yet God allowed me to live long enough to come back home to Him. Now some time had went by and I came across this very important Scripture:

"But the end of all things are at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity covers a multitudes of sins." -- (1 Peter 4: 7-8)

Now this Scripture helped to shed some great insight into the forgiveness of sins that I had already sown. You see, when people think about sins being forgiven, they're thinking about the sins that they are asking God to forgive them for at that time. But what about all the ones that I forgot, or didn't give thought to ask forgiveness for?

Well although God will wipe away all your sins, He will also wipe away most of the reaping you had incurred from the bad seeds that were sown from your sinful ways in the past. Now I know this page is getting long, but give me a few more sentences to explain. I know that we will reap what we've sown, but reading this Scripture and really understanding it, allowed me to see that if I was to help, support, witness and comfort others whole heartily and earnestly?

Then the reaping from the sins that I had sown throughout the past would be wiped away. Now if I had to reap what I had sown, that was okay... because my salvation was more important to me than suffering from my sinful ways from the past. But if I could lighten the load from the reaping I was going to endure, then why not?

That's like getting a pardon straight from the President of the country you're a prisoner of. So this is one of the many reasons why I started this website. One of the many reasons why I shared my Christian testimony with you all. One of the many reasons I've learned how to take away the limits and be all I can through Jesus Christ my beloved Savior.

I thank God for allowing that co-worker to share his Christian testimony with me. For if he had not done so, who knows where I would be at -- this very day? I hope and pray that my very own Christian testimony will be a blessing to people around the world and help encourage them to want to learn more about their Heavenly Father as well.

Thank you God for not giving up on us - thank you for allowing us all, the chance to come back home to You.

Antonio L. Mitchell