In English my name is Isaiah, but in Hebrew my name is “God is my salvation” and that is certainly true in my life today. As a child, I was very much aware of the bad person I was. I knew that I had to trust in Jesus to be saved, but the Bible scared me with its verses about judgment on sin. I was enslaved to it and ashamed every time I realized that I had hurt God by doing something I told Him I would never do again.
I felt like a horrible wretch who not only did little that was good, but was also doing evil. As far back as my memory goes I can remember my mom and dad telling me about Jesus’ sacrifice for me, but it wasn’t until much later that God showed me how wonderful this gift really was and how much He loved me. Two events sent by God changed me completely. One of them began in my junior year in high school. For Spanish class we had a very strange teacher. She had been a missionary in the Middle East and was full of God’s Spirit. She endured great struggles and these made her into what she was. Many of the students and faculty didn’t get along with her as her class was challenging, very random, and very uncomfortable. Students were always confused about what was happening and would be asked to dance around the room to praise songs in Spanish and randomly go out and talk to Mexicans in Spanish. Lines of angry students, parents, and faculty would show up at her desk after school and mean comments and jokes about her spread throughout the school. God put compassion in my heart for her and we became quite good friends. I saw she was different from everybody and I really admired her love for God. This changed me and just out of love I would do uncomfortable and challenging things I would have normally never have done. This was the first major event that began to change me.
The second event came right at the end of my junior year. I was invited to go along on a mission trip with my youth pastor. I had given up youth group long ago and thought it a little strange that he invited me to go, but I thought it would be a good thing to do for God and decided to go. I had been on many other mission trips before, but this one truly changed my life. The people on this trip really reached out and loved me. They wouldn’t let me be alone and we started to get along really well. Very soon I realized how much I loved these people and how they really did love God just as I did. At this time God’s Spirit came upon me in a way it never had before. It was intense and white-hot! The most powerful love exploded in my heart like never before. Perfect love cast away my fears. I had been terribly wrong about all the other people around me in school and in church. I decided that I would not be the same person I was when I got home. When I returned home the difference was immediately recognized. I started going back to youth group and I tried to show love to everyone. I was much more open and God helped me to reject any fears in my heart. Sin was eradicated almost completely in my life. I still stumble, but not like before. I now work hard to serve and be alive to Christ at the same time as being dead to sin. I look forward to how God continues to have me grow. I now understand that I am a new creation. Jesus had been my Savior, and then my Friend, and now he was truly my Lord. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5: 17) All thanks and praise unto my God, it is through Jesus that I am saved! I invite you to trust him with your life too.
