Growing
Up, to always be Conscious of an Eternal Inward Joy
I grew
up in the happiest place on the earth. I was raised meeting with
the believers as the local churches in the three cities in which we lived.
Needless to say, I had an awareness of God at a very early age. The
first time that I prayed to the Lord was when I was 12 year old.
It was then that I told the Lord that I wanted to give my whole life to
Him. Throughout junior high and high school, my closest friends were
my Christian friends. We went on many retreats, camps, and conferences
together. During these years, I got a taste for Christ as joy and
reality, that I never found in any other place.
My Christian
life in the local churches has been very enjoyable. The believers
my family met with loved the Lord a lot, and loved one another just as
much. My parents always encouraged me to develop, to the full, my
human potential as a responsible person in the world; but yet, as much
as possible, not to rely, depend on, or put my hopes in anything the world
can offer. I think that this has made me a very stable person.
My focus and aim is just Christ. He is the Eternal One; the only
One who will exist in me to the end, and the only reliable One in the universe.
Along with that, only those who contain Him can be trustworthy, steadfast
and real as He is.
My experience
with the local churches has been that Christ is so real and so present
with me in my daily life. He is not an activity or something that
is just "a part of my life." He actually is my life! There
is no greater joy or rest than Christ. This is the reason why I can
say that I grew up in the happiest place on earth.
Written by E.A.
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