Aaron Lee Testimony and Gospel

So, I’ll start from the beginning even though I was in church a lot in my early years, I was not saved until 2001. I will never forget that day. I was born May 24th 1991, but I was reborn in the blood of Jesus on September of 2001. I was so overwhelmed with excitement and I could not wait to share this free gift with everyone around me. Jesus granted me the most precious gift, the love and mercy of God my father, and eternal life with Him. I was in love with this new family that everyone was telling me I just got accepted into. But I did not live with my foundation in Jesus, but in man. I know man is fallible and Jesus is perfect. But even Jesus did not meet man’s expectations. So, no wonder I fell short in trying to please man. Let me be honest, I barely made it off the ground in terms of people’s expectation. This need to be accepted, sent me into a tail spin of emotion, lust, pride, and a sense of entitlement. Two broken marriages, addiction, and in all of these, I never knew that what I was seeking, I already had the whole time. It would not be until the age of 31 sitting in the hospital alone, that I was given another gift, the gift of desperation. I was broken, lost, and confused. So, I yelled out “Why me God!!!” He answered “Why not you?? I have a plan for you, if only you will obey me.” I received God’s warm embrace, I was overcome with the Holy Spirit. I knew that I had acceptance from God my father, who will always love me unconditionally. That night I found Abba. I cried out not only in desperation, surrender, but I repented and died in my flesh. See God did not punish me or yell at me, He softened my heart and made the Word come alive. I finally let go and let God consume me in his love and mercy. I needed a shepherd, a guide. God answered and said “I gave you the perfect example, my son Jesus Christ, who lives in you and you in him.” So, I submersed myself in the Bible and for the first time filled up my spiritual cup. That is when God placed a sense of purpose in me to go and spread the gospel. What better place to start then in recovery. I asked for God to reveal his plan moment by moment. I watched as God used the people around me to nurture me and guide me along the proper path. It was God’s will not mine. God took my love of reading and guided me through the Bible. I spent 2 months reading the Bible everyday in the hospital. I arrived at Avenues recovery center and the Spirit led me to start a bible study, which God led everyday for 60 days at Avenues, average 20 people a night. So 1/3 of the people there, both men and women got introduced or reintroduced to Jesus. By the way, that Bible study is still going on today and growing. That warm accepting embrace that I received from God, was given to all of those that came to the Bible study, because I did not put a cover over my lamp. Others could see the light of the Holy Spirit through me. From the gospels I will share my favorite verse, which is John 10:10. I feel that this one verse sums up what Jesus came to earth to do:

“A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

The blood of Jesus has no limit and it pays for every sin. It never runs out. The Devil can bring up every sin I have done but Jesus will be there and say “no, no my blood covers that to.” We cannot earn salvation, but what we can do is spread the Word and give the gift that was so freely given to us. It is crazy to be in God’s favor, and if God is for us who can be against us. God is the beginning and the end. When I am doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven, I’m walking in his likeness. And that is the best seat in the house.




Lisa So's Testimony and Gospel

Gospel
In the beginning, God was there— three persons in one in perfect unity and community
together. He created this world and people in his own image with the purpose of glorifying
Himself through their love and obedience. Here, people could flourish, thrive, live to eternity and
join in the perfect unity and community formed by God.
But man and woman chose to believe the lie formed by the enemy and disobeyed God— when
they chose to no longer trust God but themselves, sin entered the world. Sin is any action
and/or thought that dishonors and/or disobeys God. Sin leads to death and brought death into
creation. Sin is inherent in all people now— and as death is inevitable for all, so is sin.
God in his mercy, sovereignty, and grace made a way for people to again be reconciled with
Him. Because God is holy and pure, no sin can be in union with him. This divide between man
and God was first dealt with through redemptive animal sacrifice. By the blood of a pure,
unblemished animal— our sins would be cleansed. Their blood and death would be the
substitutionary payment for the blood and death our sin causes and results in.
This system was a precursor to His final redemptive plan to send His one and only Son as a
substitutionary payment for the sins of man. Jesus is God's son, one of the persons of God and
came to Earth fully man and fully God. Jesus lived a perfect life— never sinning in thought or
action, never breaking the commands and law, healing and doing miraculous deeds so that
many would turn away from sin and return to loving God. Out of jealousy he was falsely
accused and arrested. He was beaten, shamed, shackled, and died a criminal's death. Through
the spilling of His innocent blood, through his death— he paid for the sins of all man in its
entirety and in perpetuity.
Thankfully there is more to this story— while he died and paid for our sins he also defeated
death and was resurrected three days later. In this victory over death, anyone who believes
Jesus paid the cost of sin through the crucifixion and was resurrected now has access to the life
after death— to eternal life and glory with God, and to being in the family of God, being adopted
into his family as sons and daughters. Not only that, but even in our time on earth those who
believe in Jesus are also born again with a new spirit that is regenerated and with the Holy Spirit
as our helper to lead, guide, and intercede for us. Jesus promised that he would again return to
Earth, where he would usher in a new Heaven and a new Earth where there is no more sin,
sickness, sadness. So while we long and hope for this new kingdom, He has also
commissioned us with purpose to make disciples so that more would know Jesus, be cleansed
by him, be made alive again in Him, and be welcomed into the new kingdom in Him.
In conclusion, the good news of the gospel is that anyone who believes in what Jesus did, now
takes on Jesus’ perfect record, their sins are forgiven, and they are reborn with a new spirit and
with the Holy Spirit to live reconciled to God and in relationship as adopted children to God. We
have a purpose in this broken world, we have a power to flee from sin and repent of it, and we
have an eternal future beyond this broken world of beauty, glory, and ultimate fulfillment in God.

Testimony
I was born and raised in Montgomery county MD to South Korean parents who immigrated to
the U.S. as young adults. My parents became Christians around this time period and so we
were born into a home that was regularly attending church.
While I had an awareness of Jesus, He seemed distant and far off. For reasons I can’t quite
explain, there was a deep loneliness throughout my childhood and a deep awareness that
something was wrong with me. I looked around at my older sister who seemed content, flexible,
and overall happy — I couldn’t understand why I felt so miserable, rigid, and unhappy. This
confusion and comparison created a dark place of envy and jealousy of my sister. It led me to
hate her, to force myself to compete with her, and to reject her friendship.
In high school I became driven to “beating her” academically and to get into a better college
than her. Somehow I felt this would make me someone, this would prove I'm worth something.
And so, I worked myself to the bone and became dedicated to this goal, and while I did get into
the colleges I wanted, our family couldn’t afford the tuition and I ended up going to the same
university my sister attended. It was here where I felt the weight of how meaningless life is. I
now understood that it didn’t matter how hard you worked, it didn’t matter what you did, there
will always be someone better, more connected, more “fill in the blank”. You can aim for some
vision of success but it ultimately means nothing and then you die and are forgotten by almost
everyone. This life is a treadmill— exhausting yourself, without ever progressing any meaningful
distance.
It was in this dark place Jesus met me. The summer before my freshman year of college I
attended my last youth group retreat. I had been attending these retreats biannually since 8th
grade and had heard the gospel many times throughout and since these retreats. But somehow
the gospel pierced me— it spoke to me and unlocked something in me. I remember even
praying, “God, there are so many walls around my heart that I’ve built that even I cannot take
down anymore.” In that moment, I felt a burden being released from my soul— I felt like a
weight roll off and a freshness and lightness I had not experienced in so long.
He made something new out of a cold, hard, dead heart. I wept and experienced his loving
grace and mercy, his tenderness in spite of the many ways I have cursed him and cursed his
plan over my life. I believed as I had not done before and chose to follow him since.
The road after awakening to Jesus has not been easy or simple. There were seasons of poor
theology and discipleship that brought about confusion and defiance. There were seasons of
denial and hiding from painful wounds I did not want to see or think about. Yet there are also
seasons where His word was alive and nourishing, where He was inviting me to partake in
marking dead people alive again, and where he was healing my most tender wounds with
steadfast loving kindness. He has made something new out of me and I hope I can honor him in
all I do, for he is worthy of my best and all my praise!


Eris So's Testimony and Gospel

As a young child, the one question I dreaded being asked was “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I had no answer for such an innocent but weighty question related to identity and purpose. I simply had no idea. I wasn’t sure of myself and I wasn’t sure what life was supposed to be about. So I floated through the days, weeks and years without direction. What that meant was that I was primarily influenced by what was expected of me and when I didn’t meet expectations, I chose to pursue whatever seemed to give me happiness and relief. And in all of that I was lost. In addition, my family relationships were very dysfunctional and disconnected. Things at home got a lot worse one year in high school when my mother got a severe case of vertigo and was bed ridden for an entire year. In hindsight, this put me in a downward spiral mentally, academically, and spiritually. I remember not caring about much of anything. Even though my grades dropped sharply the last two years of high school, I somehow ended up getting accepted into college and chose to go out of state because I hated being at home around my family. In Illinois, it was nice to be away and have a new start in a new environment, but I couldn’t escape myself. I was still lost, in sin, and alone. Long story short, I failed a lot of courses, dropped out and returned to MD. I was so down and out in my shame as disappointment weighed heavy on me from myself and from my parents. In my depressive state, I coped with the pain and shame by focusing on friends and girls. I yearned for acceptance, to be desired, and for purpose. After wallowing for a year or two, I ended up going to a short term missions trip to the Philippines. My reason? Because my friends at church were going. I had no business going on a missions trip to tell others about Jesus. I was the one desperately needing Jesus. But somehow I ended up going and it changed my life. I remember one day our group was on a remote island helping a super small village church bag and haul rocks from the beach to help lay the foundation of a little hut they wanted to build for church gatherings. It was hard work hauling heavy bag after bag but I remember looking out into the ocean and being astounded by the glorious view of the water, skies and trees. It was like a beautiful movie scene right in front of me. All these years of feeling a void within me, not having vision nor direction for my life and suddenly I was moved within my being in a way I never had been before. I was doing something so simple as manual labor but it was for God’s Kingdom and I realized I absolutely loved it. I loved serving God. In that moment, I sensed God speaking to me directly, affirming me as his creation whom he loved, telling me he understood what I’ve gone through and forgives me for my sin, and that I was absolutely his. The gospel that I had heard plenty of times in the past suddenly dropped down from my head and sunk deep down into my heart and I believed. I knew from then on that God had made me and saved me for his purposes. I wanted to follow Jesus all the days of my life.

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What is the Gospel? The Gospel is that God is redeeming and restoring his creation to himself for his glory.

God had a perfect design, where everything and everyone fit together in peace/harmony. God made each of us with a purpose to worship/walk with Him. Gen 1:31 “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”

Brokenness
The Bible says we went from God’s perfect design to brokenness because of sin. Sin is anything we say, think, or do that is against God or dishonors God. Instead of following God’s way, mankind turned to his own way. This broke the peace we have with God, separating us from God, and making us slaves to sin. The bad news is all who sin are enemies of God and deserve death forever. This means we all have a very serious problem.

Jesus
But there’s really good news! The good news is God had a plan to save us. His plan was that He sent his son, Jesus, who is God himself, into our broken world. He was perfect and had no sin but He willingly died on the cross in our place, receiving the punishment we deserved. Three days later, he was powerfully raised from death to life, defeating sin. Now, Jesus tells us to do two things in order to be reconnected to God.

Response
He tells us to do two things.
BELIEVE in Jesus and what He did. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus offers salvation to anyone who believes that Jesus died for your sins and was raised to life.
FOLLOW Jesus. This means we turn away from sin by living for Jesus and following his commands.

Salvation
The best thing happens when you believe and follow Jesus. He takes all your guilt and shame. He gives you his honor, his goodness, his perfect record. The Spirit of God enters you and He adopts you into his family as a loved child of God. It doesn’t mean all brokenness and sin suddenly disappears, but it does mean you no longer will receive the penalty of sin and are freed from the power of sin. God gives us true peace and joy as he makes us more and more like Jesus while we wait for Him to return one day to make everything right again, once and for all.

Mission
But as we wait, Jesus helps us and guides us to do two important things.
GROW. Grow in our relationship with Jesus so it becomes stronger and we become more like him.
GO. Go back into the world of brokenness so others can hear this good news so they can be saved too.