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2007年07月13日
My Testimony by YG
My Testimony by YG
I remember a dream I had long long time ago before I was spiritually born-again. I guess I was in my kinder garden that time…In my dream, I met God… I know it might sound all wired, but that was Him I saw in my dream…and it was a very important experience to me. Since then, somehow I’ve always felt that God is always with me…even though I didn’t notice that and accept Jesus as my savior until later on in my life.
First of all, I would like to give you a bit of my family ground; I was born in 1985, in Osaka, and was brought up in non Christian family. My father and my mother got married when they were still teenagers, and they had me. And I also have two younger brothers. I was born and grew up in a very typical Japanese family. I was completely insensitive to religion. My house, as well as other Japanese houses, had one room with ancestors’ photographs as a symbol of Buddhism and another room with a small shrine to Shintoism. My father taught me his philosophy that human beings can do anything with his/her constant endeavor. I lost my father when I was 9 years old by an accident, and since my grandmother is a strict Buddhist, we followed Buddhism way to have our Dad’s funeral. Since then, my family believed that our father became a God since he died.
And some years went by, when I turned 18 years old; I decided to go to Canada for my University. And I got to know one Japanese guy who is a Christian, and when I was telling him that I could play the piano, he asked me to come to Church to play the piano for Japanese Alliance Church. That was how I started to come to Church every Sunday for the service. At that time I never imagined that one year later I would be baptized. However, the past few years have been the most meaningful for me in my entire 22 years of life. I am strongly confident that it is by God's grace that I was being baptized after one year in Canada.
I remember that I did not feel nervous at all about visiting the church in those days. It might be because I used to go to a kindergarten which was owned by a church. Then, I came to learn that God always utilizes a person in the best way for him or her. I do not know how much I was relieved by this. In addition, the Bible study and worship each Sunday has provided me with opportunities to contemplate the relationship between society and myself based on what is said in the Bible. The Bible and the study group have led me to understand that I have been a hypocrite because I have thought I could do anything on my own. I came to accept the fact that Jesus became a sacrifice for me, an arrogant child. His cruel death gave a serious meaning to me.
When I came back to Osaka for summer job in 2005, there was one thing that I didn’t want to do no matter what…that was to celebrate my Dad as a God. I wasn’t saved yet that time, but since I started to know about God, I knew it was wrong to celebrate dead people as a God. Every year, on July 12th my family have Buddhism anniversary for my Dad since that was the date my father died. I didn’t want to attend that celebration, so I asked my people from Church to pray for me. I thought there was no way not to attend that ceremony because I am the oldest sister and the only daughter who was supposed to be at the ceremony to help my mother. I didn’t know what to do, so I prayed God, like this…”Father，if you really exist, show me that you can help me…” yes, I put God to a test. Now when I think about it, I can’t believe that I actually tested Him for my personal reason. I know that was real foolish of me. But anyways, I’d been praying Him. And three days before the ceremony, the miracle had happened. I still don’t know how that happened, but I came not to attend the ceremony. I was so surprised because I knew there was no way to avoid it…but God had listened to me although I was very arrogant, and he answered my prayer..,and made me believe in Him. And finally i came to know that although I didn't know it, God was still at work in my life; he wasn't ignoring me, even though I was ignoring him. and Finally, I completely surrender to Him.
The same year in December, I got baptized at Japanese Alliance Church, and had accepted Jesus as my Savior. it was during our Christmas service, I believe that God has led me to be baptized at that church, on that very day. I have had many experiences over the past year that can only be attributed to God's grace. There have been many more great experiences and I would love to share all of them with you, if time allowed. Now I know that it was not "chance" that I went to church but that it was all part of God's plan. God began knocking on the door of my heart.
"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)
Things that once seemed so important weren't important any longer.
I praise God for directing me to live a life based on His Word. I want to make sure that my family and I do as God wants, and as the result of that, we can be free from worry about the future and build our future upon the solid rock, Jesus Christ.
投稿者 bethany : 2007年07月13日 11:20
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