- Good morning, everyone. My name is Joanne and I'm a second year student at UCI. I've been at Berean for a little over a year now and today I'm going to share my testimony of how I came to know Christ. I was blessed to have been raised in a Christian household and because of my background, I grew up thinking that my Christian faith was inherited like a family trait, something that couldn't be shaken because I was born into it.

I partook in church activities that I believed would solidify my role as a true Christian. I attended Sunday school, went on several mission trips, helped organize fellowship and volunteer events, and took communion alongside my family. Back then, I perceived these acts of service as demonstrations of my definite salvation.

I thought to myself, "I mean, I'm doing things because I love Jesus, right?" I believed in a work-based salvation and even got baptized in 2011 at the age of 10 after reflecting that these good deeds must equal the marks of a true Christian. However, my faith was tested when I entered high school.

I started to depend on the new friendships I made at church for my spiritual health and continuously felt more and more distant from God whenever each of our mission trips was over. Following the splitting of my home church and seeing as a result people get close to me, get hurt, and step away from the church, I questioned the validity of Christianity and ultimately God's sovereignty over his children if Christians still had the ability to hurt each other and act in opposition to what his word laid down.

I began to feel discouraged from seeking out any further contact with church and eventually stopped attending church during my freshman year of high school. I would identify myself as a Christian when asked, but truthfully, I lived my life like a non-believer and I only sought to live for my own fleshly desires.

My skepticism of the church carried over to my first quarter at UCI. I began to get caught up in the college life that I had yearned for, making reckless decisions and trying to forge a new identity under bad influences. Strangely enough, however, I was never completely satisfied in my pursuit of the things I thought would make me happy.

By God's grace, my disappointment in pursuing things other than Christ reminded me even more of his constant presence, of the hope and joy that is found only in him. In hindsight, I can now fully see how God was working in my life through the people he sovereignly placed in my life.

Even amidst this whirlwind kind of college environment in which I was exposed to a lot of new temptations, by God's grace, he grew a desire in me to know him more and to understand what it meant to be reconciled to him. Early last year, I happened to bump into my suite mate who had just come back from an event led by a parachurch called CCM.

After telling her how I was curious about finding a local church, she immediately invited me to a CCM meeting the following night. It was through the parachurch that I first heard of Breein, and I was immediately challenged as I interacted with Christ-centered college students who lived out their faith.

As I began attending Breein regularly and learning more about Christianity through inductive Bible studies and Sunday services, God began to convict me to read the word and give me a renewed understanding on who Jesus Christ was. I began to grow in my faith even throughout the pandemic, learning about God's divine holiness as well as the riches of his divine mercy and grace in the gospel.

I was convicted by the weight of sin, which are transgressions against the holy God who commands us to walk in the light as he himself does. Christ's death and resurrection atone for these transgressions, and for this we must confess our sins as he is faithful and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

As I contemplated this new truth, I was continuously humbled by the knowledge of God's love. Even though God knows the true depths of my sin, he still gave up his son to pay the penalty for my sin so I can be reconciled and have peace with him. There is no amount of work or service I could do to earn my salvation, and it was only by his grace through faith.

And because of this new knowledge, I now have a desire to worship him, love him, and follow him. Although I tried to push God away numerous times throughout my life, looking back I can truly see his loving kindness to the encouraging brothers and sisters I met over the past year, who continuously spur me on to grow more in the knowledge of the Savior who died on the cross and now calls me to follow him.

My decision to be baptized 10 years later comes with a new understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection, as well as my new confidence in affirming his lordship over my life. A verse that is especially encouraging to me is Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Thank you.