Living here in America, I believe in the freedom of religion and that it is up to ones choosing how they believe. I am a Christian. As such we are to give a reason for our faith (1 Peter 3:15).

Here is my testimony:

I was born in Mexico City. Majority of the population there is Roman Catholic, and as such I was baptized as an infant [I don’t agree with this since salvation comes by way of one’s individual choice, not of one made for them by others]. My biological dad decided he didn’t want to be a family. Several years later, a man by the name of Sam Wells came into our lives. He married my mother and brought us to the U.S. to live and for me to get the best education. He raised me as a Southern Baptist. Yes, I grew up in the church but that is not why I believe what I believe.

When I got to college, I did what a majority of young people do when they go away to school. They stop going to church and get heavily involved in drinking and partying. As such, to my dumb surprise, my grade point average dropped drastically and was placed on academic probation and lost my scholarship. I gave up the drinking and focused on my studies and was able to raise my grade point average back to a reasonable level. At this same time I went to church but I didn’t live the rest of the week like I did on Sundays. [I have noticed that a lot of people do that].

After college I stopped going to church entirely, started drinking again, and also started to hang out in places I never thought I would. Without going into great detail, I saw a lot of things that I never thought I would. My thought was “Freedom – I can now go and do what I want, when I want without any kind of hindrance”. I lived like this for nine years. I was in relationships that were strongly sexual. They also never lasted very long. This life that I had chosen, which seemed “right”, seemed to have no hope. Was this all that there was to life??? I couldn’t believe this was all there was. I had to ask the age old question, is there more to life? I moved to Michigan for a job, not knowing a single soul there. I spent a lot of time reading and eventually started going back to church. I found a little American Baptist church that I started attending. Here is where my life changed.

I started getting involved in bible studies. Not just reading and answering simple questions. We got into deep discussions and questions about the subject matter and it's relavance to today. After living the way I had for the previous nine years, I was now at peace with where I was in life, began building strong lifelong relationships, and now had hope. What changed me? It’s not what but who. His name is Jesus Christ. One of the definitions of faith is “Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence”. No one in history, but Jesus Christ, made the lame walk, the blind see, healed the sick without drugs or surgery, and gave life to the dead. Not only that but after he was crucified, his body was very well guarded in order to stop the spread of the newly founded Christianity. His tomb was empty with only a piece of cloth left behind. His resurrection came true. Shortly after this, and for the next several centuries, Christianity grew like a wild fire. This is why I believe what I do: I have lived a “free” life, with no hope, no peace. I met and started having a relationship with Jesus Christ, a man I had only just read about. I saw he gave up his life and suffered a great deal of pain for me (and the whole world). For paying the price of death on my behalf, I now lift him up and am called (as all Christians) to be a witness of Jesus Christ.

 Now that I have given up my life for Christ, I am now more “free” than I have ever been. Would you like to experience this same freedom? How will you know you’re going to heaven? Just because we are free doesn’t mean that doing everything under sun is to our benefit. We are told that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The second word here is ALL. Not me, not my neighbor, but every living person on earth. You may now be asking yourself “so how am I able to approach God”? God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). How does this bring us closer to God? For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). OK, so how do we receive this gift? That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Romans 10:9-10). How do I know that this will keep us close to God? For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). This tells us that once we accept Jesus Christ as Lord, we are saved and nothing in this world will come between us and the love of God. How does one confess this? There is no one right way but the most usual way is by saying this prayer:

“Dear heavenly Father, forgive me of my sins. I have sinned against you. I know that I am a sinner and in need of forgiveness. I also know that I can receive that forgiveness through your son, Jesus Christ. I ask you to forgive my sins, and receive me as your own. I give my life to you today. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Congratulations on saying this prayer and welcome to the family of Christ. Being a Christian doesn’t mean life is now going to be easy. Life is still life. Only now we have hope on where we are going after this life. As we grow physically, we also need to grow spiritually. You are now a babe in Christ. Growing to maturity will not take the 20 or so years. It will actually take a lot less. I recommend you start by reading the book of John, followed by Romans, both are in the New Testament of your Holy Bible. You also need to find a good bible based church to go to on a regular basis. If you have any questions feel free to send me an e-mail or go to the following link: www.lifepointsc.org. Again, thank you for reading this. If you have accepted Christ as your savior, congratulations.

Raul Wells