Recently Pastor Mark posted on the City, asking people for stories from people who’d gotten saved in the past year or been used of God to help someone else get saved in the past year. There were dozens of stories, some of which he read during the services.
I am very happy to share the terrific news that God used me to deliver the gospel to my sister a few months ago in a way that I got to see her faith in Jesus happen right before my eyes. I even spoke with her moments before reading your post on the City for these testimonies and she plans to attend Mars Hill Church in Federal Way for the first time [this Sunday].
As it happened I was taking the advice of building relationships in order to allow the Holy Spirit to create opportunities for sharing the gospel. I was spending some time with my sister. We went to a movie and then to lunch afterward. We were sitting in Ruby Tuesday when we began to discuss Jesus. I asked her about her relationship with him. She explained that she believed in “god” but that when she thinks about “god” she doesn’t really think much about Jesus. She told me that she prayed all the time and it would often make her feel really good but it didn’t ever lead her to Jesus or the Bible, and that Christianity is just one of many different ways God is revealed. So I kept asking questions like, “Do you think the Bible is true?” She said yes. I began to then tell her what Jesus says in the Bible about himself and what others in the Bible say about him. I could actually see the light going on in her face as the truth became clearer to her. Before long she was telling me how much she needed Jesus and that he is the only way. I sat back in amazement at how the Holy Spirit revealed the truth to an unbeliever much as I was amazed when it happened to me. I trust she is on her way to growing in faith and understanding. My hope for her is entirely in Christ and that is great hope.
All Glory to Christ Jesus,
–Greg
Olympia
I was raised in a very strict Mormon home growing up. My parents were good people, very loving, but I just couldn’t seem to live up to the standards that were set upon me.
I left the church at 19 and started living out a life of sin. I worshiped myself, giving in to every desire, with no regard to others, myself and God. I didn’t believe in him anymore, and thought that the God that I had known didn’t love me because I just wasn’t good enough.
Somewhere around the time I turned 30, I started questioning my existence, looking for meaning in my life through spirituality. I explored many different ways to worship, but they all were teaching complete reliance on myself and I just couldn’t seem to find peace.
Along the way, my obsession for alcohol took charge over my life, as I was trying to escape my feelings of fear and loneliness. This lead to nights of self-loathing, all kinds of sin and poor decisions. I had begun putting my life and others’ lives at risk.
Soon after, God placed a Christian man in my life who had had similar struggles with alcohol and had been saved by the grace of God. He shared with me his experience attending Mars Hill and what Jesus had done in his life. I attended some AA meetings with him, and through the program I got sober. At the same time I was curious about Mars Hill, so I started attending church. After a few visits the Holy Spirit placed it on my heart that everything I had thought about God was wrong, and that in fact, he was a loving, kind, merciful God, who sent his son to die for my sins, so that I could be forgiven. By his grace, I was saved back in May 2010.
I am still part of AA and go to meetings, but I know that it was God who lifted my obsession to drink. It is a gift to have the opportunity to go and be on mission in AA. There are so many people searching, and through the Holy Spirit, I’m grateful to share with others how God continues to work in our lives, drawing us closer to him. Praise Jesus!
–Sara
Downtown
I grew up with great parents and very active in the Catholic Church. I always looked up to my parents when it came to faith—it was they who helped me get close to God during my childhood. As I grew up and went to college, I distanced myself from the church but felt comfortable that my past participation was “good enough.”
After college, I met my wife Amie, who was baptised Christain at the age of 12. We had many arguements as she pushed the Bible, but I pushed away because I grew up with God and “didn’t need anyone to tell me how to have that relationship.” However, I didn’t pray and took God for granted. Over the past two years, Mars Hill Church, through the great sermons and Community Group, I learned how far away I was from Christ. Over the past two years my faith has grown leaps and bounds. Just a few weeks ago, I was baptised with my two children Eva and Ben, with Amie cheering on! I always wanted to be a great dad, but to walk through that “”http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/luke/jesus-the-narrow-door">narrow door" with my children is truly a dream come true—and still brings me to tears. My marriage and life balance is better than it has every been, all due to giving my life to Jesus Christ. This is only the beginning: I am so excited to continue to grow with Christ while focusing on shining his light on others!
–Bryan
Bellevue
In the past year I watched my younger brother go from calling the Bible a “dumb old handbook for dumb old folks” to one more beautiful way to share that Jesus is King.
You see, we grew up in a Greek Orthodox household that didn’t disprove of the Bible, but held it as more of a set of guidelines written for people who couldn’t otherwise think for themselves, who were unintelligent and couldn’t figure Jesus out otherwise. … I began a Bible study a year before this and he finally agreed to come. I gave him an ESV Bible and told him about a young man named David who defeated a giant. He laughed and said, “You mean that kid with a slingshot? Haha, sure.” I’ll never forget that night when he charged into my room and exclaimed, “Have you read this thing? I mean seriously! Cuts his head off with the other dude’s sword?!” And from that moment on I’ve watched a boy who held Christians as “nimby pimby whiners” to a man professing Jesus as the King, one and only, and striving to serve him and his people.
God has used him in my life as an encouragement that even the toughest guy can be changed, and uses him now in the Air Force as an encouragement to his fellow airmen, and as a reminder that a man of God must sometimes wait, but must always be willing to stand.
–Demitrios
Ballard
Jesus wants this to be your story. Jesus wants this to be the story of the people in your life. Come on Sunday, come on Easter, and sign up to be baptized.
