Kyle's Testimony

In Psalms 96:2 we are told to  “Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. “  I hope that in the telling of HIS salvation our response would be to “sing to the Lord” and “bless his name”, knowing that he is the author of our salvation. So I want to share a little about me and my life but more importantly what God has done.

I was raised in a Christian home, where my parents were both Christians and believed the Bible to be true. As long as I can remember I went to church and Sunday school, and even attended a Christian school all of my life.

For the first 19 years of my life:

My ambition in life was to live “the American dream”. Have a big house, nice cars, and lots of money, a life of leisure, fun, and excitement. One day, far down in the future I would die and go to heaven. For me salvation was a way for me to get out of hell and the foundation for my salvation was my works. I found security in having knowledge about God but I had no true desire to have a relationship with him. Jesus, for me was a cultural thing that everybody around me claimed to know and so did I.  

When I was 18 I began a new stage of my life, the college years. My freshman year I was forced to start looking at the difficult questions of life like: what was I going to do with my life? And what was my purpose here on earth? The more I started to think about these questions the deeper I would sink into despair because I was coming up with no answers.

In between my freshman and sophomore years of college, God by his grace used two of my closest friends to help show me I was living a hopeless life. They pointed me to 2 main resources, the bible and then recommended several pastors that I could listen to. So I took their advice and began to read and listen with a deep interest.

Things that I had heard a hundred times over the years in church and had no effect on me now began to interest me. I started to read about God and hear about his holiness, justice and because of my sin I stood before him condemned. I learned about the person and work of Jesus, who humbly came to the earth, lived a perfect life, bore our sins on the cross, died, and was raised from the dead and because of him I could stand before a righteous God. 

During this time God started to work a miracle in my life, I began to see the beauty of our Lord and how truly sinful I was. I realized that I had a need and there was emptiness in my life and something terribly wrong with me. I realized that I needed Jesus but I had hurt him with my sin and I wanted his forgiveness, I wanted him to accept me, know me, and it crushed me. I remember falling to my knees in that moment of real despair and saying  “I’m sorry, can you please forgive me, can you please accept me?” and he did.

In 2 Cor. 4:4 it says “ The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” For the first 19 years of my life I had been blinded but God in his mercy opened my eyes to the “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ”. The Bible that I had one time thought was boring and dull was now coming alive. I began to have a desire to learn about my God and had a passion to know him.

The Bible describes the miracle of salvation clearly in Ezekiel 36:27-28, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules.” This is what God did in my life and this is why I am here in Japan today.

My Testimony

Maybe all of you have read this or maybe not, but I thought I would post it because it's my testimony I wrote for the fellowship here in Japan. Kyle did one also so I will encourage him to post his:

Rob’s Testimony

Like many Americans, I grew up in a Christian family and went to Church almost every time that the doors were open. At a very young age I can remember wanting to accept Jesus as my Savior and live for him. Obviously at the time I really had no idea what that entailed, but since then I have grown in my knowledge and desire for Christ. Before I came to college there was never really a time where I rebelled against God or my family. I always felt like a good kid and had some desire to grow spiritually. At the time I would say I felt pretty good about my spiritual walk.

When I came to college I knew I wanted to join a Christian club. There were many options, but my mom heard that the Navigators was a solid group so when I was a freshmen I joined them immediately, and have continued to be involved. My freshmen year I grew in my faith, it was the first time I saw students living for God because they wanted to. Growing up most people went to church and prayed and read the Bible just because everyone else did, but in college I saw people doing it when no one else was. It was different and seemed to be a lot more real. However, it was not until the summer after freshmen year that I really began to understand the Gospel and its radical call on my life.

From here on I will mainly talk about the sweet life transforming truths that I have learned that changed dramatically how I viewed Jesus, the Gospel, God and myself. It mainly has to do with the Gospel. The Gospel is everything. Unfortunately many Christians think that the Gospel is what you need to get saved and then after that you go on to bigger and better things that help you grow in your faith. I have learned that there is nothing farther from the truth. The Gospel is everything and is the source for all our growth, and all our motivation to evangelize and grow in holiness. We never stop learning about the Gospel. So what is the Gospel?

I could not even begin to touch the sweetness and glory of it but I will try to explain it and the ways it has been most important to me.  It starts with God. Who is God?, is the single most important question we can ask. If we have wrong thoughts and ideas about God we are no longer worshipping him, but merely a false image of him. According to Scripture God is the creator of the Earth. From nothing he created all things (Gen. 1). He is infinitely lovely and glorious and holy. We cannot even begin to comprehend how wonderful and terribly Holy he is. We see many times in scripture that whenever anyone gets a glimpse of His holy splendor they fall on their face in adoration and fear. (Isaiah 6, 2 Chronicles 7:1-3, etc). God is Sovereign, He is the king of the universe and nothing can happen outside of his plan. (Duet. 32:39, Psalm 92, Proverbs 16:4,6,9,33, etc). He is Just and righteous (Psalm 7:11, Psalm 5:4-5, etc). God is loving and merciful (Psalm 106:1, Psalm 103:8, etc). These are just a brief listing of the wonderful attributes of God that make up his wondrous glory and loveliness.

Man. Before any man was created God existed in the Trinity: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Trinity was in perfect fellowship with each other in fullness of all joy and love, with out any need of anything else. Then, out of the overflow of joy in themselves, God (the Trinity) created Man. We all know the story of the fall of man in Genesis. Adam chose to eat the very thing God asked him not too. And now all of us are born in sin. This topic is a hard one that no one likes to hear.  Often we like to think that we are good, but sometimes we make the wrong decision. However, the Bible says something different. Romans 3:11-12 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” And Isaiah 64:6 says that even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before God. I have heard it said before that God created the earth and said “Mountains rise up” and they obeyed, then he said “Valleys go low” and they did, “Stars shine” and they did, and then He said “Man obey me” and we said “NO!” By rebelling against our loving creator we have committed cosmic treason against the King of the Universe. I believe that the Bible teaches that we do not only sin, but we cannot do anything but sin outside of God’s mercy. We have continued to rebel against God, and put his Glory aside so we can exalt ourselves, the created over the Creator. (See Romans 1, Eph. 2:1-3) Because of this we are enemies of God according to Romans 5:10, and because He is Holy and Just his righteous anger rests on us, and we deserve it. At this point, God does not need us, we can add nothing to him, and it would be perfectly right and good for Him to punish us eternally for rebelling against Him, someone infinitely worthy of our worship.

This is what makes the Gospel good news. While we were enemies of God, deserving his wrath God the Father sent His only Son to come to earth and die in our place. As mentioned earlier in Heaven, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were in a perfect state of love, but God the Father decided to break this perfect communion and send Jesus from his Glory in heaven to live a humble life on earth. However God’s unending love and mercy does not stop there. God is perfectly righteous and He cannot accept anything unclean, he could not even accept a person who only sinned one time in their life. If he did he would be compromising his Holiness and would no longer be worthy of all Praise. Thus Jesus lived a perfect life and according to God’s plan was hung on a cross. But his physical death was not the worst part of it.  Talking of Jesus, Isaiah 53 says,  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus did not just have physical pain on the cross he bore the righteous wrath of a Holy God, for my sin. Jesus, the spotless, worthy of all praise, Lord of the Universe humbled himself and bore God’s wrath for my small, rebellious soul. And now if I have faith in Christ as my righteousness, the Bible says, that not only did Christ take my place bearing God’s wrath, but now I receive his perfect righteousness from his sinless life. Theologically this is called substitutionary atonement and I cannot think of anything more wondrous and freeing.

Now my standing with God, and how he looks at me has nothing to do with my performance. Whether I am stuck in sin, or feeling the closest to God that I ever have felt, Christ’s righteousness is the only merit I have before God. I could not stand before God righteous by myself for even one second. Christ is my only hope, and He is always interceding on my behalf. My salvation has nothing to do with my performance, but everything to do with the loving kindness and grace of Christ and his Work.

But that really is not even the best news. The Gospel means Good News. But although what I have said so far is all very good news, I think there is one specific part of it that is the highest and most precious good news of the whole thing.  The best and greatest Gift of the Gospel is God Himself. The highest and best news of the Gospel is that I now can enjoy the Beauty and Splendor of the Almighty forever. Maybe this sounds anti-climatic, but it is because I (we all) know little of God and His loveliness. 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” The reason Christ died for us is so we could glorify Him by enjoying his splendor forever. This same God who is infinitely Holy, infinitely Merciful, infinitely Lovely, infinitely Beautiful, is now through Christ accessible for me to enjoy, now dimly but soon face-to-face in fullness of joy and Glory forever.

That is just a tip of the wonderful news of the Gospel that I have learned the past 2 years. The more I see the Holiness and Loveliness of God, and the more I recognize the evilness of my own heart the more I can understand truly how great the Gospel is and what great thing it has brought me: God, himself. When I can understand and see this I cannot do anything except lay my life down for it, and tell as many people about it as possible. This is good news. Before I was told to tell people of Jesus, and I had some desire but I felt I was just obeying to obey, but now I have tasted and seen just a little of the goodness of it and I strongly desire to tell others because this is really Good News. And with any good news you must tell others. If God really did save me from the pit of Hell to the eternal joy of His presence despite my own rebellion against Him, how could I not lay down my life for him? The very message entails the response.

I have not made it. I do not desire God or the Gospel as I ought. I am not disciplined enough in Holiness or bold enough in witnessing. But these truths of the Gospel, that I am always and forever righteous only because of Christ is what helps me fight to see and savor Christ as Lord.

I will end with one quote and one Bible verse:

Jonathan Edwards said: "The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean."

Here is the Compassion of the Lord inviting us to know and experience his joy giving Glory.

Isaiah 55:1-3

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.”

Love These Quotes

“A nominal Christian is content with proving the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer. But the true Christian loves it, delights in it, glories in it, and shudders at the very thought of glorying in anything else…Let all you joys flow from the contemplation of his cross.”
- Charles Simeon

“By faith he triumphs over…smiles and enticements: he sees that all that is in the world, suited to gratify the desires of the flesh or the eye, is not only to be avoided as sinful, but as incompatible with his best pleasures.”
- John Newton

NYCBL All Star Break Weekend

This brief All-Star break has been sort of misleading. It is definitely not a break from any sort of busy schedule. Rather, it is a break from playing baseball games. Even so, I had to endure sitting through a foreverlong All-Star game (almost 4 hours) after having sat through a 13-contestant home run derby. That’s a lot of baseball in one day. The next day, today, we went to Cooperstown to fulfill one of my childhood dreams—visiting the baseball hall of fame. This was an overwhelming experience. On the precipice of exhaustion, I attempted to soak in all the history that the museum had to offer. I’m convinced that this cannot be accomplished within the span of one afternoon. I was able to enjoy the museum to the best of my ability however, as well as the surrounding shops around the town. It felt like Whoville during Christmas, except that instead of creepy little people it was filled with normal humans, and instead of an explosion of Christmas decorations there were baseball gloves, bats, memorabilia, photographs, décor, books, and any other imaginable baseball related item everywhere you looked (to continue with this analogy, the Grinch would probably have to be some figure that represented the season of Winter, or just anybody that hates baseball such as communists or child murderers). It was as if the town was founded as a celebration of the game. In a word, beautiful.

On the way to the All-Star game I listened to a Piper sermon entitled How to Fight for Joy. This is within a series of sermons based on his book When I Don’t Desire God. I also listened to an interview with him on the topic of suffering and the sovereignty of God (very light, fluffy material, right down my alley). There were a few aspects of the sermon and interview that really stuck out to me and I appreciated a lot. Many of them I have heard before, as he restated some of the foundational aspects of his book Desiring God so as to demonstrate a starting point for when people do not desire God (it makes sense). One of which was the idea of Christianity being about affections instead of decisions. I have already written about this, but something he mentioned while expounding on this point was that Satan has more accurate theology, and a better hold on sound doctrine than I ever will. However, he hates this knowledge and operates as such. This is where the difference comes in with the believer and the non believer. It is not about head knowledge and gathered information. Nor is it about stating willful decisions based on that knowledge. Christianity is about the affections of the heart and the transformation that occurs that is so radical, it is referred to as a “new creature”. This is also why Paul, in 1 Cor. 1:24 states that he works with the Corinthian church for their faith and joy. He stresses the word joy in between mentioning their faith because one cannot be without the other. Decisions and information can be turned on and off like a light switch, but affections such as happiness and joy cannot. They are spontaneous and a gift from God, and these are the evidences of a Christian. This is also why the pursuit for joy is not optional, because the pursuit for God’s glory is not optional. God gets the glory by being the source of our enthrallment.

Another aspect that Piper mentioned was one that blew my mind. I love those moments where basic gospel truths leave me breathless and my head spinning. For too long I overlooked them and my heart was far from them. The aspect was the fact that sin is absolutely outrageous. This can be seen in light of the fact that God is the supreme ruler of the universe, the source of all that is beautiful and good, and yet a piece of fruit was chosen over Him by His very own creation. Now, sins like this, in many different forms, have taken place countless times in the lives of every human being that has ever lived and ever will live. This is an enormous amount of outrageous and repugnant sin. However, and this is the part that left my head spinning, the value of the Son of God was so great that His death covered the enormity of that sin. The value and worth of Jesus Christ was so infinite that it satisfied the wrath of almighty God against the countless of outrageous acts performed against Him. This revelation of the supreme value of Jesus Christ is the kind of thing that I want to tell the world about.

One last aspect that really stuck out to me was when Piper mentioned what he has found to be a huge stumbling block to Christians on their spiritual walk. The fact that we, as fallen humans, keep on sinning despite our desire not to after we are saved brings a lot of despair, and has caused many Christians to fall away. God’s purpose behind the slowness of the sanctification process is very hard to understand. At the last trumpet, when Christ makes his triumphant return and the saints are gathered, there will be no more sins committed by the elect. This means that God has the ability to perfect us in a moment’s time. Why doesn’t He? The answer Piper gave does not completely answer the question, but does give a better perspective on how to approach the question. That is, that the slowness of our sanctification can be reflected upon and seen for how much is required to rid ourselves of all our sin. We are royally messed up. However, this shows the magnificence of the superabounding grace of God. We should look back on our journey, seeing all the sins we have committed for what they really are, and revel in the fact that God’s grace has stayed with us all this time. Every day we wake and His grace is there. This grace is—and has been appropriately described as—amazing.