Easter Testimony - Rebecca U.

Jesus death and resurrection has changed my life because I have hope for a future. A future in heaven with Christ! I know that because I have trusted Jesus as my savior; I will go to heaven one day and live eternally with God. I also have hope that no matter how rough my life on earth is, one day I will be in heaven where everything is perfect.

Easter Testimony - Kaitlyn F.

I grew up in a Christian home all my life.  Around the end of elementary school, and the beginning of middle school, my faith wasn’t as strong as it should have been. Most of my friends had betrayed me, and around 7^th grade I started to watch videos that I knew my parents didn’t want me watching.  My self-esteem was really low but I kept acting like everything was okay. At the beginning of 11^th grade, God took every comfort I had and stripped it from me. I started from square one during my mission trip to Panama. That week, I got a renewed passion for God, and I slowly started to see myself as a beautiful girl who could do anything she wanted. All the lies that I was told all through middle school, started to melt away when I chose to believe what God tells me. This whole year has just been a year of growth for me. I have gained so much confidence in myself, and I started to mend broken relations and I made new friends. Most of all, my love, my trust, my faith in God has grown the most. God will break us, but we will come back stronger then we were before because we stopped relying on what we can do, and we start relying on what God can do. And as I have found out, God can do a lo more then I could every imagine doing on my own.

Easter Testimony - Emily M.

Emily M.

Before I really Knew Christ and experienced Him I had no idea what it meant to say it as David did. I had been going down the wrong path and yet the God who loves people more than anything reached down and gave me his hand and his heart and now I can say it with much humbleness

Psalm 103
Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.² Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

³ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;⁴ Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.⁹ He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰ He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.¹¹ For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.¹³ Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.¹⁴ For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

Easter Testimony - Sarah P.

Sarah P.

I think the way that Jesus's death and resurrection has changed my life is this: knowing that He died for me. Just knowing that He suffered so much, that He was tortured and crucified, really comforts me when I struggle and feel worthless. I'm not worthless; His death proves that He loves me enough to die for me! The fact that He rose again proves the same thing: His love conquers even death itself! That is such a real example of true love! When I feel tired and discouraged, I can rest knowing that the same love that conquered death can carry me through my struggles. "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." -1 Corinthians 13:7-8a, ESV

Easter Testimony - Julianna O.

Julianna O.

I've been saved since I was 7 years old but I never really understood what being a Christian meant. Sure I went to church every week and learned about Jesus and his death and resurrection a ton of times but I never really knew what it actually meant. Now a few years later, when I turned 13, I started going to youth group every week. I learned about Jesus dying and rising from the tomb but this time it was different. I could feel the Holy Spirit on me when I learned about it and I really understood what it meant. Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. When he was on the cross the curtain in the temple slit from top to bottom. That means, to me, that everyone can enter the Holy of Holies and be saved. On the third day he rose from the grave and that was a very awesome thing that happen. So now I know that Jesus lives up in Heaven with God. It makes me really happy to know that Jesus is alive and will never leave us nor forsake us.

Easter Testimony - Sarah K.

Sarah K.

Before I knew Christ, I knew that life was empty, but I didn't know what would fill it up. After He changed my heart, and His love softened my heart of stone, life became full of color and joy. I learned that to really live, I must die to myself. True Life is found only in Christ, my Savior. As it says in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The Life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Easter Testimony - TreAnna B.

TreAnna B.

I don't have any grandiose accounts of how I came to Christ, but I really don't regret that. I was born and raised in a small country town, where church was a vital part of life. I grew up in a Baptist church, and every Easter we would hear the story of the resurrection. Before I came to know Christ personally, the preacher's sermon was just that: another sermon. More boring words, more off-key singing, more of the same old church routine. However, after I came to know Christ, I begin to really look at what He had done for me. I'm not saying I fully understand, and I don't think I ever will, but I understand more now than when I was younger. One Easter about two years ago, we had a new youth pastor who wanted to do something different. So on Easter morning members of our youth group (myself included) acted out a skit to the song Glorious Day by Casting Crowns. I was privileged to play the part of Mary, and during this skit, I realized something: What I was feeling wasn't just me pretending to be Mary. It was me. I was sad that Jesus died on a cross, that He was beaten and hurt for me. I was happy when I got to see Him again (or I guess for when I actually will get to see Him again.) This realization baffled me, but at the same time, it made me feel wonderful and thankful. 

Today most of my writing still reflects this theme of sacrifice because I want to explore why Jesus did for me what He did. The more I look the more beautiful I find His actions, because honestly there is no reason. He did it for me because He loves me. What more could anyone want besides that?