Lucas

Lucas (in the middle)

I was born into a Catholic family, going to mass every Sunday and attending a Catholic school for my elementary and middle school years. I would even pray often. But what I realized is that most of what I did was not out of faith but stemmed more out of an obligation and habit I had developed. My perspective of religion was mostly a set of strict rules which led me away from God. I never really understood the love of God. This got to the point that the Lord had become just an afterthought in my mind, as I indulged in further sin, stopped going to church and never prayed.

There was a very low point in my life in the beginning of 2024, where I had noticed my errors and set this incorrect notion in my mind that I had to work to get right with God. I thought that my sin meant I needed to do something for God so that I could be forgiven. That idea rode in my mind for a long while until I met a campus minister that approached me as I walked back from class one day. I eventually agreed to a Bible study.

As I did the Bible studies, I learned a lot of what I had been doing wrong, and other peoples’ testimonies helped me realize the error in my thinking. I consequently gave my life to Jesus in one of those Bible studies seeing that He did the work that saved me instead of me working for it. That night is one I’ll remember for the rest of my life, as it was the first time I actually felt the love and grace of God within me. The subsequent months after that, I began to desire to read the Word, and deepen my relationship with the Lord, which as a result led me to being placed in Cornerstone Church. As I finish up my last year in college, I intend to do so with the Lord, and to continue growing my relationship with Jesus for the rest of my life.

- Lucas