When I met Jesus Christ - Joycenel Sigod Pick
I took an international English test about two weeks ago and I was asked to talk about a life-changing event that happened to me. I had three or four life-changing events in mind but I was only asked to talk about one. So I talked about the one which had impacted me the most – and that is accepting Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. It changed my life for good!
There were so many people who had shared the gospel with me and I just listened to them letting their messages go into one ear and out through the other one. I found their idea of salvation kind of weird. I used to find those people who declare that they are definitely going to heaven arrogant. How can that be? All my life I have been taught that good works and praying to the right saints were going to get me to heaven.
For so long, I have been refusing to subject myself to a belief that was so different from mine. There used to be a weekly bible study in our boarding house, this was when I was attending university, and I would make sure that I would be somewhere else every time it was done. There would be times that I would forget to leave the boarding house before the bible study would start and I would have to hide with two other friends until it would be over. I had been doing that for so long until one day the bible study leader saw me and somehow convinced me to just sit and listen. I did that. I sat in with the group and I listened. I can’t remember the details of what happened after attending that session but about a month or so after that I was saved.
It was the 21st of February in 2007 that I finally accepted the truth about Jesus Christ being my savior. I remember crying my heart out and professing that indeed Jesus is Lord. Jesus revealed Himself to me in a very personal way. My heart had become receptive. I had acknowledged and accepted that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me. God had been preparing my heart for a long time. I realized then how hard God had tried to reach out to me. It dawned on me how many times I had to reject His message of love and salvation. And I knew then that God must love me so much that He had never given up on me. I was just Joycenel, an ordinary teenager, but God, with His immeasurable love and boundless grace, had made an effort to take me back to His arms. How awesome and kind is a God like that?
In less than a month’s time I was able to save some of my allowance and was able to buy myself my own bible. And everyday I would read my bible. I would read and meditate on God’s Word when I wake up, before I go to sleep, and even during the afternoon when I would not be studying. And it was an overwhelmingly great experience every single time. My favorite verse then, and even until now, is Psalm 34:8 which says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him”. I was feeling drunk of the overflowing goodness of God.
I felt lighter and happier since then. God planted joy in my heart and I began to actually experience it. I started looking at life in a totally different perspective. I understood that that time we have on Earth is so little compared to the time that we will be spending with our Father in heaven. And there is ultimate joy in knowing that one day I will be in heaven with Him and I am certain of it.
I had a great start but I have had so many struggles as a Christian. There was a time when I just stopped going to church, stopped reading my bible, and I refused to talk to God for a long time. And after that, there was a long period wherein I did church hopping as I was scared to make a commitment. There were so many times that I have sinned and did the wrong things. But as the Word of God in the book of Philippians says that He who began a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. I am confident in my God that He will finish what He started in me. And sure enough, God has been continually doing amazing things in my life.
Joycenel Sigod Pick
9/6/2014
Melbourne Australia
