God Saw the Wickedness of Man Was Great in the Earth

Salvation Testimony _ Grace Yang (Good News LA Central Church)

One day when I was feeling troubled and could not sleep, I tried on the thought that okay let’s just say that 2,000 years ago God really did send His son, named Jesus, to the earth to die for everyone’s sins. And as soon as I tried on that thought, great peace entered me, and I was able to sleep.

Last March, I came back to America after living in Beijing for the last 8 years. My friend in Beijing convinced me to come over to Los Angeles to help him make it in entertainment as a DJ. Being directionless for most of my life, I agreed. I thought it was a good excuse to travel the world and party, which had been my dream.

After I arrived in Los Angeles, my friend convinced me that it would be a good idea to put a $2,900/mo year lease for a huge loft in downtown LA under my social security number, among other things like our 2-year cell phone contracts, internet, utility, gas, and DJ entertainment and software.

Although I lived in the penthouse, and the young people around me envied the life I lived (artists would come over to paint on the walls during monthly LA Artwalk and we would throw crazy parties that would get shut down by LAPD), I started to feel more dark and depressed.

With no income in sight and only expenses (I had refused to get a real job because in China I always worked in media and always set my own hours), I started to wander around LA.

Sometimes I would go to the beach to cheer myself up. One day I was in the metro deciding to take the train to Long Beach. After I got on the train, I thought it was the wrong one so I got off. After I got off, I realized that it was the right one so I waited there. As I waited for the next train I saw this guy who I knew from the gym, named Brooks. We started talking and he said that he recommended I go listen to Pastor Eddie Pennoyer’s sermon in downtown Los Angeles, that it was “an interesting interpretation of the Bible,” and I decided in my heart to go the next Sunday.

In the beginning, I kept coming to the church because it was sort of fun for me to make church people angry with what I would say. I remember once I made one of the elders face red with anger when I said that man wrote the Bible and that all religions are the same, only they have different faces: Buddah for Asian people, Allah for middle eastern people, and Jesus for white people.

As I became darker, my heart felt more and more restless. I couldn’t sleep at night until after about 4am, and when I went for a walk at night time, the shadows started to look like different kinds of monsters and demons.

Although I smoked weed every day to keep myself feeling somewhat hopeful, one day the reverse started to happen. I started to feel creepy, as if I was a serial killer in broad daylight. The feeling of wanting to kill my mom, what I had felt when I was in China, came on to me in full effect when I was high. Instead of feeling good, I felt a sudden terror and fear for all the people around me, that I may kill them.

I went to a fortune teller and she offered to get rid of the bad feeling I had for $15,000. Because I didn’t have this money, I continued to go to church because it was free.

During a retreat, again I challenged Pastor Eddie that man wrote the Bible. Then he showed me Genesis 6:5, “God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of his thoughts was only evil continually.”

Then it “hit” me, at that moment I realized that man could not have written this verse in a million years.

Of all the different things I did in my life to find out the truth, from extreme sports, drugs, careers, and religions, never once have I ever fathomed that man’s thoughts could be 100% evil 100% of the time. Plus the fact that I couldn’t believe this verse in my heart meant that I could be, in fact, evil, just as the Bible stated.

After having it been proven to me that this word was true, I was open to learning more about what other things in the Bible were true. Especially about the part Jesus taking away our sins and that we don’t have sin anymore.

One day when I was feeling troubled and could not sleep, I tried on the thought that Okay let’s just say that 2,000 years ago God really did send His son, named Jesus, to the earth to die for everyone’s sins. And as soon as I tried on that thought, great peace entered me and I was able to sleep.

Since the time I accepted that Jesus took away my sin and that I didn’t have any more sin, my life has changed dramatically. Although I used to want to drink and find a reason to go out and “have fun” Wednesday through Sunday, after I drank I felt “down” instead of happy. This was because my sober self was actually more joyous and the alcohol was giving my spirit a “downer.” I tried to smoke cigarettes and it didn’t give me that satisfaction it once did.

Although I still fall into my thoughts once in a while, like not wanting to get up, when I believe in the word, such as the one, “Rise take up thy bed and walk,” my life has completely changed to be bright and hopeful.