My Testimony

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Hello my name is Kelly Powers [male] and this is my testimony. I was born in 1971, and my parents became Christians in the year 1974 with me being three years old. My parents were very simple in their new faith, and started sharing things of the Bible with me at a young age. In the year 1977 I personally invited Christ Jesus into my heart and received Him as my Lord and Savior. My parents told me about their home, awaiting, with the Father in Heaven. I wanted to be there too so my parents shared what God's Word said concerning sin and forgiveness and how to be with the Father when I die one day. At a young age my schoolteachers noticed something different about me. During a class in elementary school on an essay I was asked who was influential to me, and I responded with Jesus my Lord. Well that did not go well with my teacher and she ended up calling my home. When she called and shared her concerns with my father, he said in return that is my boy, and said he was happy that I was sharing my heart with the class in truth.

In my teenage years I, like most, got caught up in being cool, and thus got into some trouble. Your typical kid doing typical things, like watching movies your not supposed to, or drinking at a young age, etc. In my senior year, 1989-1990, I started desiring things of Christ more and was on the road to recovery. In the years of school I really did not know much about other religions, just that some were way different and some were similar, but really did not know which was which. Around 1990-1991 the Lord was opening doors for me to build that personal relationship with Him again. In that same time frame I had a best friend, with whom I spent a lot of time with in school days, call me up and share with me some interesting news. He had told me he just became a Christian and wanted to go to church. At that time I was not going anywhere, and said I would go with him. We started going to a church and attended about twice a week for a month or so. About a month after that we did not see much of each other, I thought it was work and life, but it was actually something quite different. My friend had a new girlfriend and he was spending a lot of time with her. Well when I found this out, I was also told something that took my life in a new course. He had told me he was now a Mormon, a member and baptized. His girlfriend was a Mormon and she had lead him to become a Mormon. Well that took me for a loop since at that time I had no idea what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believed or were? So we had our interesting conversations, and I tell you I was shocked the whole time on learning these things I was hearing. Well after some time my friend's girlfriend did not wish for me to talk to her or him, and for awhile I did not speak to them. It was during this that God was guiding me and teaching me what He had in store for me. I started studying Mormonism and its teaching's intensely. During this I was also studying the Bible, both in Hebrew and Greek Languages comparing with modern translations. This was where God was doing a work in my life, and revealing His wonderful Word to me and His truth contained in it. From then until now, God has blessed me with knowing Him more and more, and His wonderful truth contained in the Bible. Through that experience with my friend God gave me a desire to study for evidence and answers to many questions most of us all have. Also through it God opened my understanding to know about Jehovah Witnesses, Roman Catholicism, Seventh Day Adventists, Islam/Muslims, Christadelphians, Christian Science, and of course Mormonism, as well as other issues contained in the Bible.

I can honestly say I have no doubts about the Bible being the Word of God, and Jesus Christ being who He claimed to be, what He came to do and fulfilled on the cross, and His resurrection. The evidence is there for any open-minded person to consider. God has revealed to man who He is, who we are, and that we are in need of a Savior. For the Law, God's instructions to us reveal that we are sinners. In other words we have fallen short or missed the mark. It is like a man who shoots an arrow time after time and cannot hit the target no matter how hard he tries or how many times he shoots, he always misses. God, by nature, is perfect and holy and mankind is not. God intended for us to be with Him and bless Him, but man messed up, thus man is now in a state of prison without parole, destined forever lost. But God, who loves us, does not leave us without hope or in our state of prison, but has sent a substitute in our place with keys to unlock us from prison in order to set us free. In other words we do not have to stay in the state we are in, but can have true righteousness and forgiveness which separated us from God. Now God, by His love, bridged the gap for us. In Romans 5:8-9 it says: "For God has demonstrated His love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Since now we have been saved by His blood, how much more will we be saved from the wrath of God to come." The message of the Gospel is *good news* not bad news. You need to realize if you have not turned your life to Christ you are fulfilling what Jesus spoke of in John 3:16-21, of which I would ask you to take Jesus' words as truth. If you do not know Him and reject Him, you are dooming yourself, which Jesus said you are already judged. But if you turn your life to Christ and follow Him, then the promise is to you of one day going to be with God and being saved from your sins.

Here is a fictional story of two men on a plane with eternity in focus:

One man was given a parachute to put on and was told this will help make your flight easier. The guy thought it was strange, but tried it out. At first it was not too uncomfortable, but over time it started to get that way. As time went on there were some who were looking at him and laughing, and he was getting a little embarrassed. So after a little more time he took it off and said no more, it did not make his flight easier but harder. Now the second man was given the parachute and told to put it on, for he was going to need it later because he would have to use it to save his life. The man happily took it and put it on. After a little bit the flight attendant was coming in his area and spilled a pot of hot coffee on him, and what was his response? He could care less, he was focused on his life and the parachute. A little bit after that some were looking on at him laughing, but he did not pay attention, for he knew this was going to be used to save his life and could care less what they thought. This story speaks of us who look at our lives in Christ. Some think it will make their lives better or smoother, but life will have it problems. In life you will encounter problems and you will need that parachute to both smooth your flight now and to save you from the crash to come. Do you have your parachute on, and do you know the One who gave His life for you that you could be with Him? If not, come to Him now and receive His free gift to you that you maybe clean before Him when you die one day.

If you have any comments or questions about me or what I have studied you are more than welcome to ask. I wish you the knowledge and wisdom that comes from knowing Jesus Christ the Lord.