True Happiness Comes from the Will of God!

Salvation Testimony _ Lashanay Simmons (Good News Los Angeles Church, United States)

I grew up in a community church in my neighborhood. I hated it, especially when we played Bible Jeopardy because I was unable to answer any of the questions. I knew nothing of Jesus, the Bible, heaven or hell and had no intention of learning, yet I still considered myself to be a believer of God just because I went to church and read the Bible. But I only did that because I was forced to by my mom.

I kept hearing things like “you must walk on the path of righteousness” and “the Lamb of God” and I never understood what righteousness was or why God called Jesus a lamb, or who Jesus was except that He was the Son of God, whatever that meant.

In the end, I truly despised God. In fact, I wanted nothing to do with neither Him nor Satan because I was afraid. I was afraid of being on either of their bad sides and I figured my life was okay as it was.

I attended college because school was all I knew and I figured it was the starting point to a successful, if not decent, life. I knew in my heart that I would attend a UC (University of California), although I didn’t know which one. I applied to three colleges and did campus tours. When I arrived at UCR (University of California at Riverside), I knew that it would be my school for several reasons; the main being that it was the only UC that had creative writing as a major.

My freshman year was a lonely one. I had no friends and spent most of my time commuting back and forth to school. My second year was when the party started. I moved closer to campus and it was at this new location where I met people who would turn my antisocial life into a social one. That’s when I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried many things for the first time; marijuana, alcohol, and even ecstasy. Life couldn’t get any better, until the time came when many of the people I knew were getting ready to graduate. That’s when I started to think what my life would be like once they were gone. What would I do? Would I go back to being alone and depressed? My heart was heavy with these questions.

One day between classes, when I wasn’t feeling especially good nor bad; I was only sure of one thing. I wanted to know God. A certain man asked me a question earlier. He stopped me as I was heading to the library and asked me if I knew the most important or most difficult book in the world, I can’t remember which it was he asked. I drew a blank so I said the first thing that popped into my head: James Joyce’s, Finnegans Wake. He said it was the Bible. “Ah,” I thought, “That makes sense.” Then he asked me something that would change my life forever.

“Are you a sinner?”

“Of course I’m a sinner”, I told him.

“Where will you go when you die?” My heart dropped when I realized, without him having to tell me, that I was going to hell. That’s when it became urgent. I needed—not just wanted—to know what I could do to change that.

As luck would have it, I received a flyer that day from a woman named Young, inviting me to attend a Bible seminar for three days. At this point, there were two voices in my head. One said, “You don’t want to go to that. You’re better off. It’ll be a waste of time,” and the other said, “Go.” I had free time and nothing to do. In the end the latter won.

I first walked into a room full of smiling, eager Korean people and immediately I felt intimidated. Not only was I the minority, I was the only one there. I wanted to run.

I sat in the front row and just when I wondered when others might arrive, one of the men (Pastor Eddie) said let’s get started. “Great,” I thought. I could feel the pressure building up already. In spite of my anxiety, as soon as I saw the video presentation about IYF, my heart opened up to their organization and I decided that I wanted to be a part of it.

Then the sermon started. I sat on the left side of Pastor Eddie as he preached and he took me to Romans 5:19 which said,

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

That’s when he explained two concepts, the righteous and sinners; heaven and hell. I didn’t understand what this meant but he didn’t fail to explain it in detail by taking me to many other verses in the Bible. I was so confused at the end of the day that half of me wanted to forget about it but the other half, which reminded me why I was there in the first place, was intrigued so I decided to go the second day.

I was more eager and hungry to know more so I listened intently, but still couldn’t quite shake what I had learned all my life. I was taught that I had to be a good person and do good things to meet God. In my eyes, I was not fit to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

It was the last day, however, when my life reached its turning point. There were two guys from an on campus Christian organization who attended that day. They listened as I did and while things were still a bit foggy, I began to understand more and couldn’t help but to listen. At the end of the sermon, Pastor asked if there were any questions. One of the men said, “Yes. I love Jesus. I love the Bible. I have many questions for you,” and the debate started. He flipped through the pages, pointing out certain verses. Mind you, many of his points were logical, but I couldn’t help but be more interested in what Pastor Eddie had to say.

It was then, where I remembered Romans 5:19 and could clearly see the difference between God’s righteousness (which Pastor Eddie represented) and man’s righteousness (which this man represented) and that’s when it clicked.

I knew then that I could no longer call myself a sinner and that I could no longer believe in what I had been taught all my life. I knew then that I was righteous and holy in God’s sight, not because of what I had to do, but because of what Jesus did for me. So I accepted God’s Word into my heart and threw away what seemed logical.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay longer to see the end of the debate because I had class. However, I could clearly see the will of God working in my life. There was a reason I attended UCR, a reason I had no class that day and just happened to walk by a table where people were passing out flyers to attend a Bible seminar on campus, a reason why I met brother Peter and his wife so that I could be able to attend church in LA on Sundays. It was all according to the will of God for me to receive salvation, for there to be a church established in Riverside, and for me to go out and “preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) so that others can have the opportunity to receive the forgiveness of sin just as I did. For that, I am truly thankful.