Saturday, January 9, 2016

How One Christmas Changed My Life

December 24, 2013

In December 1988, we accepted an invitation from two of our friends to a Christmas celebration at their church. We sang some songs and listened to someone's sharing, but I only remember the drama that night. It compared and contrasted the lives of two women, one with and one without Jesus Christ. Somehow that gave me a glimpse of hope.

On January 1, 1989, I started attending church. Not wanting to introduce myself, I intentionally arrived late and departed as soon as the sermon was over. Nevertheless, I did go to church every Sunday. Then on Saturday, January 28, I attended an evangelistic meeting in the evening. The speaker was a medical doctor who, like me, was a foreign student from Hong Kong. My accomplishments seemed small compared to his, yet he had felt the same emptiness I was feeling! Facing terminal illness, he had cried out and God gave him double healings. I sobbed when I heard how God restored his relationship with his wife, and that he had written letters to be mailed to his children as they grew up without him.

Then someone led us in singing a song, What a Friend we have in Jesus (that I had never heard before). The verse "Oh, what peace we often forfeit? Oh, what needless pain we bear? All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!" was my wakeup call. I cried for the years I had tried so hard to fix my marriage and my life, on my own.

I found what was missing in my heart and received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. The miracles in my life started in Christmas 1988 when I finally said "YES" to the invitation of a Christmas program. Thank God for loving and faithful friends who did not give up after me saying "NO" for six years! To God be All Glory!

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