Have you ever been misled? I was misled to as a boy. I grew up in a very religious home where we did a lot of religious stuff. I was told if I kept all the religious rules of the church and did good, I would be in right standing with the priest, God and have a happy life. What a lie! I started reading the Bible for myself and saw how this religion contradicted its teaching. I was exposed to a perverted priest (He's lucky he didn't try anything physical with me.). I also saw many hypocrisies in what the religious adults taught compared to the Bible. Many adults I was exposed to were alcoholics, adulterers, womanizers, wife-beaters, gamblers, child abusers, drug users, convicts, thugs, etc, etc.
So, I rejected the Roman Catholic religion and became a pagan. I lived for pleasure, status and stuff. I was a good heathen by the world's standards. I was blessed with the ability to knock people out, so, I became a boxer. I represented the USA in international competition; won the National Golden Gloves; 7x state champion; and 5x Golden Glove Champion. Unfortunately, I went to CCSF and SFSU and got my mind fried and polluted by the Humanists, naturalists, evolutionists, atheists, moral relativists, sexual perverts, and New Age Occultists who were my teachers. While in college, I had a "mi vida loca" episode in that I was living a Tuese gone wild and crazy existence.
In October of 93, I was on a boxing trip to Texas, when I was divinely appointed to room with Dr. Norman Luebkeman (Doc), an official judge. It was divine because of the conflict of interest of a judge rooming with an athlete. Doc befriended me and over the course of a year through his life and love, he introduced me to Christ. I knew of Jesus at a young age but didn't personally know Him. I lived as a civilized sinner hiding most of my sins from the public radar. I did many things I�m ashamed of. I thought by satisfying all my self-centered desires, I would be fulfilled. I was dead wrong! I was still empty as can be, until God made this blind man see, that the God-shaped vacuum in me, could only be filled by He. I tried filling myself with partying, accomplishments, girlfriends, titles, philosophies/religions, knowledge, good deeds and money. Those things didn�t work. They left me empty. The vanity and futility of life: we're born, we fiddle around for x amount of years and then we perish. "Meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Just like Mick Jagger said, I, too, couldn't get no satisfaction! I found myself asking the ultimate questions of life: What is Truth? What's the meaning of life? Why am I here? How should I live? Where did I come from? Does God or gods exist? Where am I going when I die? --If we're all just accidents, then life is ultimately a meaningless race towards oblivion and annihilation. In fact, like the song says, we're living in oblivion.
Doc shared with me The Gospel, which means �Good News.� It's Good News because there's some serious Bad News. This is the simple message that totally changed my life:
A loving God continually blesses us. As ungrateful creatures (sinners), we rebel (sin) against Him. So righteous judgment awaits us all (This is the Bad News). But God has made a promise of Grace (a gift; unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor). Christ accomplished undeserved salvation for sinners. To be saved one must believe upon Jesus. The Holy Spirit enables a person to come to Jesus. Those who are saved lead new lives.
This word, �grace� opened heaven to me. I grew up thinking that to be right with God, I had to be a good religious person. This is totally wrong. Heaven is a gift that Jesus Christ purchased with His shed blood on the cross for His people and is received by grace through faith.-- "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." Grace means undeserved, unmerited, unearned favor/gift of God. It is God who grants this gift of grace to whomsoever He chooses.
�For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith�and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God� not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.� Ephesians 2:8-10
In September of 1994, I shared with Doc that I wanted to be closer to God. He smiled and said he believed that the Holy Spirit had touched my life. We prayed. I repented of my sins and trusted Jesus with all my heart. I remember feeling a powerful cleansing deep within my soul. It was like an ocean flood of God's love, peace, purpose and joy pouring into me. I felt so clean as if I had never done anything wrong and experienced a joy I had never tasted. That day powerfully confirmed in my spirit that I belonged to the Lord. Life hasn�t been the same since! And it hasn't been a bed of roses either. Life is sweet with The Lord in it, but it's war in many other ways.
After being rescued, I found a great community of believers with whom I grew in the Faith. I turned into an avid reader of Scripture and Christian literature (theology, apologetics, philosophy, discipleship-Christian living) in that you couldn't find me without a book. My car became a seminary in that I had Christian radio booming all the time. After a few years, I felt led to become a missionary, so I went to suffer for the Kingdom in 80-degree tropical heat and on white sandy beaches in Hawaii from 1997-2000. Hehehe! ;-P Remember, there's another side to paradise that is dark and evil. --Anyhow, that is where I received my Jedi training in ministry; my faith was like on steroids out there in that I grew so much.
I returned in 2000 and was ordained as a Christian Minister/Teacher at a Chrisitain School in San Bruno as a Bible, P.E., Math and teacher/ coach. So, I'm spoiled because I get to teach little ones about Jesus and big ones, too, and the Lord provides. I also serve in Jail ministry at the 850 Bryant�s- Hall of Justice and lead a Christian ministry, called ARM: Always Ready Ministries. It specializes in Discipleship, Evangelism and Apologetics among youth, college and adults. Teaching, defending and proclaiming the Gospel is my passion. --I so desire to seek God's Kingdom, Righteousness and the mission I believe He has given me and that is "To know Jesus Christ and to make Him known."
If you know The Lord as The Rescuer of your soul and Master of your life, then I hope my testimony has been encouraging. If you do not know The Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and King, it is my prayer that He would grant you His amazing grace and the gift of His Holy Spirit.
Thank you, my sista for reading! I'm encouraged by you.
Let's be a blessing to those around us by spreading the beautiful aroma of Christ. May our life stories be read by all and tell of His glory.
2 Cor 3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
