Hello, Berean family, my friends and family from NorCal, and those who are tuning in online. My name is Brian Chisaki, and I am a second year mechanical engineering student at UCI. Today on this Easter Sunday, I have the privilege to be sharing my testimony of faith. Growing up, I always assumed that I was a Christian, because I was fortunate and blessed to be raised in a Christian household.

I always did Christian things. I was always around Christians. I was active at church, and I also received a Christian education until the eighth grade. However, despite all these things, and even saying the prayer in the first grade, I do not believe I was genuinely safe, as my life was devoid of any relationship with the Lord, and my life and desires did not align with that of scripture.

This is evident as the appeal of church began to diminish in high school, where secular and worldly thinking began to infiltrate into my mind and into my heart. I began to prioritize my pursuit of academics, extracurricular activities, and ungodly relationships over the Lord. Without even knowing it, I began to fall into sin and conformity to this world, as I would indulge in my flesh, seek the thrills of life, and would eventually stop attending Bible studies or church activities, aside from Sunday service.

I lived a double life, where I put up a good church front, but be like the rest of the world when I was away from it. As I entered college, I began to further walk down a path of sin and destruction. I used the freedom I had in the dorms to engage in unwholesome and sinful activities, but it was also here that, by the grace of God, a family friend of mine introduced me to Bruin Community Church.

I remember distinctly that the first time I attended this church, Pastor Peter preached on the wheats and the tares. This sermon was shocking and profound to me, as the gospel was unadulteratedly preached to me in a manner that created unease and uncertainty whether or not I truly believed. As I continued attending this church, I was further challenged by the difficult sermons that were preached here, as I found more and more inconsistencies with my double life through scripture.

Though I may have been adding to my biblical knowledge and trying on my own accord to fight and kill sin, my heart was still so far removed from the Lord, and I was still so empty and so dissatisfied with my life. But things change. I remember that on this one day in fall last quarter, or last year, after ending a fight with my girlfriend at the time, I felt absolutely broken and alone.

To make matters worse, my roommates were away at some party, and I did not have anyone to talk to. I was distraught because I had placed my identity and my hope in this relationship. Hopeless and broken, I came before the Lord and prayed to him for peace and for comfort, and in that moment, I had an epiphany about the love of Christ.

I recognized that if my feelings of longingness and love for my girlfriend were so strong, how much more does our heavenly Father have and long for us? How much more does he love us, and how much more do we hurt him when we sin and choose sin over him?

Those questions hit me hard, and for the first time in my life, the depths of my depravity before a perfectly just and holy God became so crystal clear to me. My eyes were opened, and I was absolutely humbled by the fact that our heavenly Father so graciously loved broken and undeserving sinners like me, that he offered his one and only son, Jesus, to die on that cross for my sins.

Knowing that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life, I decided in that moment to confess my sins before him and make Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior over my life. Ever since that day, my life has slowly been changing and transforming to that of the desires of our Lord.

By his Holy Spirit, he has allowed me to better resist and kill sin and also ignited a passion and a fire to read and study his word. It was challenging to trust and obey in him, but God proved sovereign and good through it all. By his loving kindness and the good and disciplining Father that he is, he allowed me to experience hardships of months in quarantining, ending and letting go of relationships, and experiencing tremendous heartbreak to ever draw me closer to him.

I am so thankful for the trials and tribulations that he placed in my life, for the testing of my faith has brought genuine perseverance, character, and assurance of salvation. I stand here today to testify that I am truly a follower of Jesus, that he is my Lord and Savior over my life, and that I have been bought and purchased by the blood of Christ.

Though I know I will still stumble and I will sin again, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Thank you and God bless. >> My name is Alan Wilkes Lauder, and I am a senior member of the staff.