I became a Christian as a sixth grader and since that day I received Christ for my forgiveness and as my Savior and friend and life really, I have found God faithful and the Bible to be true and trustworthy.

So, my family immigrated to the United States when I was in grade school. And I knew only a few words of English and without English as Second Language programs in public school in those days, you were plopped down in a class and expected to learn by assimilation. And so in essence, at school, I was blind because what I could see of the words didn’t have meaning to me, and deaf because all the instructions I heard were unintelligible, and dumb for I could not speak in a way that others around me could understand. But there was a lot going on around me and the only things that got through loud and clear was teasing and getting bullied. I didn’t need to understand English to understand that.

But I grew up in a loving Christian home and had a lot of support. But life in America was challenging. Ever since I was a small child, at church and at home, I heard in Chinese, and later in English, about our God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. I heard about how Jesus came for sinners, died on the cross so that sinners could be forgiven and saved from their sins. I heard about Jesus being buried in a tomb and then on the third day, He rose from the dead and the women who went to the tomb to anoint his body when it was still dark. They got there only to find in the tomb the burial cloths, the linen wrappings but no Jesus. When Mary lingered weeping at the tomb, the Lord Jesus met her resurrected from the dead. They were loved much by the Lord and how they loved and devoted themselves to the Lord Jesus in response. And I heard how the Lord restored Peter after he had denied three times even knowing the Lord Jesus.

I was very familiar with the Bible, even quite touched and inspired by the gospel accounts. But you know, I had this thought that Jesus did die for sinners, but how do I figure in since I wasn’t a sinner. I was a good kid. Got good grades, listened to my parents and compared to most kids and even my own siblings, above average good.

Well, in the sixth grade, during Sunday school, by now I could understand spoken English quite well, the teacher gave a very simple message about the good news of salvation. She told us how we need to have our sins forgiven and to accept Jesus as our Savior and into our hearts. The message was very simple and everything she said I had heard before, but that morning, it was as if the words were lights shining into my heart and I saw that I was a sinner. I hadn’t killed anyone, nor bowed down to idols, (and I saw a lot of that growing up in Asia) but I saw in a very simple way that in the ways that I thought I was good was not good enough in the eyes of perfectly righteous God. Sometimes our conscience tells us that, but that day, the Word exposed my heart. What no one else could see, God sees. On that day, it was just a simple recognition that I was a sinner in the eyes of God and, I receive Jesus, for forgiveness, for this sinner, for salvation, for life. At the exact same time we see our sinful hearts exposed, God comes with love and forgiveness in His Son. So, when the teacher led us to pray, I prayed with her and confessed I was a sinner. And in simple faith, I received Jesus for my forgiveness and as my Savior, my life.

For us to be a Christian is not so much that we believe in a certain doctrine or creed, we are Christians because we have received Christ’s life. It’s a life thing. A relational thing. And since those days in sixth grade, I can talk to my Lord in prayer at all times. And lots of my prayers from those days until now relate to my need. Lord, please do this for me, do that for me, help me find my keys, can you get that bully’s family to move and go to a different school or something, I can’t understand this assignment, help me on this test.

More and more, I realize that I need Him more than I need the help He provides. And prayer is not always a thing to do before meals and at prayer times. All day long, “O Lord, I need You.” Just the other day, I was doing an eye exam, I am an optometrist by occupation, and I can get across my instructions fairly well, even with non-English speakers, but this man was not getting it and I began to lose patience and became frustrated. Just then, as I often do, I paused, and breathed, Lord, I need You. Seems kind of humbling maybe, but the Bible tells us, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And I don’t know how the Lord does this in us, (just like I am still amazed at how we see and how the cornea is a living tissue and yet optically transparent) anyway, the Lord becomes grace to me and in me. I know that this man had a much better experience of an eye exam from that point on when I turned to the Lord and let Christ in me be expressed in me towards this man.

I am convinced that this life we live here on earth is meant to be lived powered by Christ. We enjoy Christ as grace and people around us received grace because of Christ in us. I haven’t yet reached the end of His mercy nor exhausted God’s grace. And I am finding out still the greatness of the salvation I received all those years ago. It is much more than just my own personal salvation. God has a plan for us, each of us, to live out the life of Christ, and much more, for us all to express His life and fulfill His purpose in a greater way that can only happen when His people come together in oneness. We are here for His glory, that is amazing! He has given us the precious Bible that we can be filled with the Word of God to live on and to know Him: the Word and Christ’s life. God so loved us!