Nick
I originally grew up in a religious household that went to church

every single Sunday but I didn’t do anything else to deepen my relationship with God throughout the rest of the week. In college, I went to church sporadically when nothing better was going on in my life. I began to distance myself from God. I thought that as long as I had been baptized when I was young, it did not matter how I lived; I would be good for the rest of my life.
One day I was walking from class during my senior year of college and was stopped to fill out a survey about whether I thought I would go to heaven when I die. I would always get uncomfortable because although I knew Jesus died for me, I could never really say with confidence that I repented for my sins or that I would be "good enough" to deserve heaven. After a talk with my friend Gabe, who is a minister from Cornerstone, he encouraged me that it would be beneficial to start a Bible study to learn more about God.
As I began to study the Bible with Gabe, I slowly got more motivated to not only continue studying the Bible together, but also read it in my personal time. I even joined other Bible studies to be able to learn as much as I possibly could. Gabe invited me to join him for church on campus. The first time that I went to Cornerstone, I remember looking at the church worship team and congregation and seeing what I could only describe as “faith.” Every single person there seemed to be absolutely ecstatic and happy to be able to come together to worship God. By the end of church, I kept hearing in my head that it was finally time to surrender myself to Jesus. One of the pastors asked if anyone wanted to come up and pray to give their lives to Christ and at that moment I could feel a heaviness well up in me. I had fully resolved that I needed to make that decision, so I asked Gabe to come up with me to the front and pray to completely surrender myself to Jesus.
Now that I am a member of Cornerstone Christian Church, I have been able to build a solid foundation of reading the Word every day and having fellowship with other members of our church. After graduating, I received a full-time job in my field in Tampa where I have continued to be part of building God’s kingdom here for the long haul. I moved into a house with a few other guys in the church, where we are constantly building our relationships with Christ and with each other. I can definitely say that making the decision to join Gabe for that first Bible study has led to the best choices I have ever made in my life. I have a level of fulfilment that I could not have ever imagined.
-Nick