Andy Finch Testimony-

My walk with Christ took me a long time to figure out. Sometimes I feel I did things a little backwards, but that is how God designed it. I grew up in a Christian home, so I knew about God and believed in Jesus Christ from a young age. I am glad that I accepted Christ when I was young because I know that those early roots are what saved my life.

Everyone must figure out things for themselves. Even though your parent tells you the stove is hot, at some point you probably reached out and touched the stove. Now you could have saved yourself some pain, but now you really know how hot it is. I kind of went with that philosophy with growing up and got burned many times. Wasn’t until the third degree burn that I actually said enough.

Snowboarding, as everyone knows, especially in the early days, was just a bunch of punk, stinky, partying hoodlums. Well some of that is true. Not knowing any other Christian snowboarders I got sucked right into the party scene. The sin I was living in definitely put a distance between God and I. I incurred an injury on a trip and with a return ticket a couple weeks later I decided to stay and enjoy Gods beauty in New Zealand and read the Bible cover to cover. I never spent any time reading before this. Now reading the Bible cover to cover took a little over a year for me, but God worked more in my life during that time then ever before.

While finally spending time in Gods word I was born again, deciding to not have sex again until I was married. A year after that decision God blessed me with the girl I would marry a year after we started dating. God blessed me with a Godly woman that would help my relationship with Christ grow and flourish. It wasn’t until I truly feared the Lord that my life really turned around.

God has interacted in my life in so many ways it is hard to briefly explain how. I know he is real, but through life God has shown his presence, glory, mercy, creation, redemption, and realness in ways that are way more powerful then any scientific fact. I encourage people to give God a chance to bring real joy into their life and knowing true peace through the blood of Christ. Find out how real he is by giving him a chance in your life.

Simple Gospel: We are all sinners, which we were born into, and have a penalty to pay for that sin. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Romans 6:23 tells me that the penalty for that sin is eternal death and eternal separation from God, but God gives eternal life through His Son Jesus as a free gift. Romans 10:10 explains it is through our mouth that we confess Jesus is Lord and our heart that we believe and are justified. Only faith can save us and through no works is it possible, which kills religion. It is through a relationship with Jesus we find eternal life and true joy in this life.

I do wear many different hats these days as a husband, father, snowboarder, handy man, deacon, construction worker, property manager, commentator, TV host, evangelist, youth leader and what ever else God would have me do, but no matter what, my life is in the hands of Jesus Christ and I look to honor our creator and savior.

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