ARME 1: Soquel, CA - Aug 2009

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ARME Bible Camp

ARME 2009 Testimonials Session

We're going to have a time again of hearing testimonies.

When I grew up, I would read the Bible stories, but I would think, well, those were special people that God chose and used.

Later, you know, when I got serious about my Christian walk and I'd hear the testimonies of others, I'd be like, wow, if God could do that through you, maybe He could do that through me.

And it would inspire me to want to live a life of greater obedience, a life of greater surrender, a life of greater faith.

And so, at this time, as we have a number of individuals come up and share their stories, it's so that you can be inspired to want to go just a little higher in your experience.

Because we don't want to go back home being the same as when we came here.

At this time, I'm going to ask a number of individuals to come and take these chairs here on the side.

I'd like to call up Melissa Miranda, Marlena Gonzalez, Tiffany San Martin, Robert Christostoma, you Robert Christostoma, if you guys want to come on over to this side.

Okay, because We want to hear many testimonies and because of the limited amount of time, we're going to only give each person 2 minutes to share, but it's amazing how much you can really squeeze into 2 minutes.

And after the first minute, they will be notified that they've got a minute left.

And then before the last 30 seconds, they will also be notified.

We'll just have a word of prayer before we share.

Dear Lord, thank you for the work you're doing in our lives, Lord.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak through each person who will be sharing this morning.

I pray, Lord, that you'd minister to our hearts and inspire us.

At first I was afraid to give my testimony, but then I remembered a text popped into my head.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment.

He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

I recently made the commitment to follow God and give my life to him completely back in April.

I didn't lead too bad of a life by my standards back then.

I loved movies a lot and just before I really made the commitment, I had gotten really deeply into music.

And I believe that I was, I still, I thought I was Adventist, because I believed in the principles.

I had known them since I was like a child.

But it's not something that I really took too seriously.

And I didn't really feel the need to give up the things that I had treasured in my life.

My motto was kind of like, What I listen to or watch isn't any different than what everyone else is doing.

Just because I listen to crazy music and I read books and watch movies about wizards, it's the same thing.

So I said, why change if you guys are doing it too?

So what I didn't realize is that that should never have held me back from being the Christian that I should have been.

And my parents introduced me to a pastor that they found on YouTube, and they assured me that he was just amazing.

And I watched a few of his sermons, but I was kind of apathetic to them.

I would daydream on purpose, but I could tell that there was something about him.

And 1 day I heard a sermon, The Beast from the Abyss, and I was definitely unable to ignore that 1.

And by the grace of God, I was able to reexamine my life and see how foolish I was to be holding on to the things of this world.

I thought about it for a while and then I made the decision I don't want anything but Jesus.

I threw away all my DVDs and all my music and everything that was holding me back.

And for a while I was going really strong.

Then it started getting harder and harder, although a wise man warned me that this would happen, that Pharrell would try to take back what was his.

Eventually I started wondering why I made the decision in the first place.

It was a constant battle and the devil was winning.

And my father told me that Ivor Myers would be there and it was settled.

I didn't know what to expect, but since I've arrived, it's been a constant blessing.

I have, it was everything I could have ever hoped for.

I have gained truly so much knowledge, and I have been armed, and when I go home, things are gonna be different.

The devil has so, so many tools to deceive us today and as the Bible says, The only way to survive is to keep our mind state on Christ.

I have been so blessed to have met many of you and to feel and find that I'm not alone and there are still some who want to follow the truth and it's very encouraging.

It just reinforces me to remember that when the time comes, I want Jesus to know me.

I'm very nervous, so I talk a little faster.

I talk fast as it is, but I talk a little faster when I'm nervous, so hopefully I'll make it in time.

Listening to other people's experiences has brought me back, Because what I told Brother Martin was very short.

It was about how the Lord led right there.

But the reason that I wanted to come is because a couple of years ago, we watched my husband's sister, my sister-in-law, gave us a DVD from Escape from the Black Hole and for a while we didn't watch it and we didn't, well, maybe 1 day we'll, and then this 1 Sabbath, we didn't go to church, we're like, oh, let's watch that, you know, and get something out of it.

And we watched it and we were just like, wow.

And so then immediately we got up, we started grabbing all of our movies, all of our music and all of this.

That didn't happen, it ended up in a box.

And then we moved, so that box ended up being the Ottoman.

So for a year that stuff has been in there.

So but I was always feeling, I was raised in Venice and my parents are, my mom went to, she studied theology in Antillian in Puerto Rico and my dad loves it too and they're both Bible workers And so I've grown up with it, and it was so difficult to grow up with it and hear people, whatever church that I go to, I'm like, oh, do you know Isabel Rivera?

Oh my goodness, yeah, your parents, this and that.

I was suspected dead, that I wouldn't wake up from the coma.

And so when I woke up, everyone was like, you're such a miracle.

And I just thought, dear Lord, this is even more of a burden that I'm not living in your way.

And everyone's expecting me to be like, after I, you know, was out of the car accident and the Lord saved my life, I have never gone back to the life of sin.

And I've never, and I wasn't experiencing this.

And I know now that it was because I didn't know how to study.

I didn't know how to have that connection, that deep, close connection.

And so people knew how I was raised, and they knew, and I just, I felt so inadequate.

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ARME 2009 Testimonials Session

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