back to index2021-4-11 Jamie Yim Baptism Testimony
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Hello, my name is Jamie, and I am a junior in high school in the youth ministry. 00:00:13.300 |
This is my testimony of how God has worked in my life. 00:00:18.580 |
I was born in New York and was a pretty big troublemaker as a kid. 00:00:23.520 |
I grew up going to church every Sunday with parents who were faithfully serving the Lord. 00:00:29.480 |
At a young age, I heard the gospel, but it had no personal meaning to me. 00:00:34.600 |
My family moved to Maryland when I was in third grade, and when I was around eight or 00:00:39.920 |
nine I was exposed to lustful things by a friend, and I quickly grew an addiction. 00:00:47.440 |
Along with this, other sins opened up in my heart, such as lying and deceiving my parents 00:01:00.000 |
I felt a little bit ashamed for my sins, but I was also clueless at the same time and did 00:01:06.200 |
not realize the extent to how sinful my actions were. 00:01:11.520 |
About a year later, my mom caught me in one of my lies. 00:01:15.240 |
This led her to ask me, "What else have you been hiding?" 00:01:19.440 |
I confessed to her my lust problem as well as many other things I had been hiding and 00:01:28.400 |
While confessing felt like a huge weight was lifted off my heart, I still did not understand 00:01:34.480 |
how wretched of a sinner I was before God and how much I needed salvation. 00:01:41.240 |
But I could see how grieved my parents were that at such a young age my heart was so full 00:01:48.040 |
It was at this point that I started to look to God through prayer and reading His word 00:01:55.320 |
A lot of things changed in my life, but for the wrong reasons. 00:01:59.480 |
I did not struggle with lust as much and became a better behaved kid, but these were just 00:02:05.360 |
to please my parents who I had grieved a lot. 00:02:09.080 |
It was clear that I still did not have a relationship with God. 00:02:14.160 |
Two years later in seventh grade, I was at a retreat where a lot of people gave their 00:02:20.680 |
It was a blessing for me to hear about God's work in these people's lives. 00:02:26.400 |
After this retreat, I came away with a sense of desperation, realizing that my fate was 00:02:35.340 |
I thought about how miserable and unfulfilling life would be if I continued to live in sin 00:02:45.560 |
God showed me how true life and joy outside of Him was impossible. 00:02:50.760 |
A few days after the retreat, I repented of my sins and Christ came to my heart. 00:02:56.560 |
For the first time, Christ's love through the cross became real to me and I had peace. 00:03:02.640 |
I felt so much gratitude to God knowing how much grace He had poured out on me. 00:03:08.760 |
There have been trials that tested my faith to prove its genuineness. 00:03:13.760 |
In 2017, my family abruptly left our home church and moved out to California a few months 00:03:21.160 |
later to a new church with a different culture. 00:03:25.700 |
My parents said that the old church and its teachings were no longer following God. 00:03:31.160 |
This really shook my faith and for a while, I struggled in my relationship with God. 00:03:37.480 |
I had a hard time understanding why God would lead us out of the church where I had first 00:03:46.640 |
But by God's grace, especially during the last several months of COVID, He gave me a 00:03:55.200 |
I now see how Christ used the struggle I had to show me more clearly the treasure I have 00:04:02.760 |
He has shown me that no matter the circumstances or hardships, He is the same unchanging God 00:04:09.600 |
and is always worthy of my worship and all that I am. 00:04:15.000 |
One passage that applies to my life is Titus 3, 3-7 which says, "For we also once were 00:04:22.340 |
foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending 00:04:29.000 |
our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. 00:04:34.280 |
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, 00:04:40.840 |
not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy 00:04:46.920 |
by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon 00:04:53.200 |
us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would 00:04:59.480 |
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 00:05:03.760 |
I am so grateful to God for the mercy He poured out on me through Jesus Christ. 00:05:08.880 |
I am the person that these verses speak about, foolish, disobedient, and enslaved to my lusts 00:05:15.120 |
and pleasures, but purely by God's grace can I stand before Him righteous in His eyes. 00:05:22.600 |
I continue to battle my flesh every day, but my prayer for myself is that I grow spiritually 00:05:28.400 |
daily and never forget what Christ has done for me and live this new life to glorify Him. 00:05:59.280 |
We understand that when you go into the water, you are united with Christ in His death. 00:06:04.680 |
When you come out of the water, you are united with Christ in His resurrection so that you 00:06:12.280 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.