Pastor Blogs - Jen Berry's Testimony

Growing up, I always lived in a nice house, went to a great school, and had a loving family that provided for me and supported me. However, starting in middle school, I began to care a little too much about what other people thought of me, so I started doing things I knew were wrong  in order to be accepted.  But the sin in my life left me feeling empty, knowing that I was such a fake.  I was still making good grades and attending church most every weekend so my life looked pretty good from the outside.

However, the week before I started school at UK I participated in a volunteer event where I met someone from CRU, a Christian ministry on campus.  They told me how God created me and had an amazing plan for my life that was so much greater than the one I had for myself. They explained God's holiness and my sinfulness and how my disobedience had separated me from Him.

Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  God sent Christ, His only Son, who lived a life I could not live, one without sin; then died on a cross as an atoning sacrifice to save sinners like me no matter where they’re from, or what they’ve done and as a result they worship Him for all eternity.

I had heard about Christ in church, but now the Lord was making clear to me that Christ had died for me personally and that He was now making me alive with Him to walk in newness of life.

The Bible says this is the result of God’s grace, a salvation that is a free gift to me.  During that week God showed me that I needed to turn from the way I was living and to trust Christ to direct my life.

After coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, I knew I had been created in God’s image and that His love for me had now set me free to live for Him instead of living to please others. He has forgiven me and loves me despite my flaws. I am so thankful I have found the complete happiness that I was looking to find in college, not in the way that I thought I would, but through my relationship and daily surrender to Jesus Christ.

God’s grace is not just for me, it is also for you. He has written the story of your life before you were even born and I want you to come to know Him and love Him the way I do.