Amy's Testimony

Have you ever had a revelation about something that now seems so obvious to you? Like you thought you knew all about something and then suddenly.. pop! Like a light bulb comes on and you realize what you thought you knew was nothing and now everything is clearer? That’s how it was for me the day I met Christ.

Sure I’d met God before on numerous occasions, almost every Sunday of my life. But one day was different, He became more than a casual acquaintance... He became my friend. It’s weird for me now to think about... it came about so suddenly. Someone simply asked me if I wanted to have a personal relationship with God. That question rattled me to the core.

Personal? God’s not personal. He’s a... being, He’s untouchable. How can anyone possibly have a personal relationship with God? After all He’s... God! You can’t touch Him or see Him. How is that personal? I remember the night clearly because it was the first time I really thought about knowing God personally. I’d heard people say it before, many times in fact. As a matter of fact, I think I had said it before. You see I grew up in a Christian culture, I knew all the lingo, but I guess I had never thought about it before... God can be personal? What did that mean, really?

I have to say I freaked out the more I thought of that statement. God was not personal to me. I had my life and He had His. I went to church on Sunday because I was supposed to. I tithed because I was supposed to. I was trying to be good because I was supposed to be. But now they were saying those good things were not good enough? I knew I sinned. I’d lied before, but I was basically a good person. Then they told me my sin separated me from God. I realized then that maybe that was why I didn’t know God personally. I was very distraught because I realized that they had something I wanted, a personal relationship with a real, living, touchable, visible God

I knew that the wages or penalty for sin was death. A death penalty. And I knew that the only provision or payment for my sin was to accept Christ’s sacrifice as payment for my sin. Amazing that I knew it, but had never thought about it before. The light came on and it became clear to me... I had to admit to God that I was a sinner, but that wasn’t all, I had to accept His payment for my sin. That’s why He died on the cross! Another light bulb came on! I accepted Christ that night. I was eleven years old. I struggled to achieve a deep intimate relationship with him until I was twenty-two. The first ten years my walk with the Lord had it’s ups and downs. I am now in my thirties and for more than ten years I experienced what I would call a consistent and “personal” walk with a living and “personal” God!