Jesus loves me,
this I know
In July 2020, I turned 76. With the advance of my age, I feel the echoing of Paul’s conviction more strongly than before. Paul said that “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (1 Tim. 1:15). It is really a mercy to be born as a third generation Christian, and especially in an idol-worshipping country, China. How my grandfather became a Christian, I don’t know, but I do know that he was predestinated according to Ephesians 1:4-5. Now my two college kids are also baptized Christians and can tell their experience with the Lord.
I was born toward the end of WW II and was forced to move to Taiwan in 1948 with my parents because of the Chinese civil war. I was baptized in Grade 9 and realized the pathos of the Lord’s loving-care, the last year of my high school. I then moved away from home to college. After college, I experienced more the reality of my Savior during the mandatory one-year ROTC assignment in an infantry camp. I then worked in a sugarcane plantation for two years. I was admitted by the University of Arizona in 1971. Oh, how close the Lord was to a young man who crossed 6,000 miles of ocean and landed in a foreign country. I got married in 1971. I got my Master’s degree in 1974 and doctorate in 1977. I’ve lived in Orange County and the Bay Area in California; Boise, Idaho; St. Paul, Minnesota; and then in 1984, San Antonio, Texas. I was laid off twice in 1980 and 1981 during the economic recession caused by the oil embargo and high inflation, but the Lord was always faithful to take care of my family of four. I have no want in Him, even though I was out of work for six months in 1981. Now I’m a department head of a nationwide consulting firm in Austin. It seems that I have an established career with 15 scientists under my supervision, but in reality my Lord is more trust-worthy than my job.
Moody said that before one gets into the gate of becoming a Christian, it says on the outside “Whosoever will, come in freely”; after one gets in and looks back toward the gate, it says, “Predestined to be saved.” God saved me according to His good pleasure as revealed in Ephesians. It is God’s purpose to preserve me and energize me so that I can be transformed with all other Christians to be a member of His Body, His Bride. The more I grow old, the more I feel that I’m a poor sinner, and an earthen vessel. But, hallelujah, I the poor sinner do have the Treasure in me, who is the Christ, my Lord Jesus. What kind of love God has bestowed on me?!
J.Y.
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