Brenten's Testimony

I would like to share my testimony. My name is Brenten Powers, I was born January 28, 1977 in Sacramento California. My parents were following the Lord at the time but after a few years they divorced. My mom married an agnostic man and I grew up with my mom and step-dad. So we didn’t go to church unless I was visiting my grandparents. My grandparents were the best example in my life because they were faithful to the Lord in all they did. My grandfather was a pastor (before I was born) at a small Mennonite church in the small town of Reedley California.

• How I first believed
  

At the age of 7, I first heard the gospel and put my faith in Jesus Christ to save me. I did that a couple of times that year. First of the two times I was at a [Good News Club] in my neighborhood. My neighbors were this old couple, the woman’s name was Betty, she had all the kids over in the neighborhood to share with them the good news, how to be saved. I remember learning John 3:16 there:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. John 3:16.

And I never forgot that verse and I never forgot praying to ask Jesus in to my heart. But later that year I did pray again to ask Jesus in to my heart at another children’s outreach called Vacation Bible School at my grandparents’ church. But the reason why I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart that time was, not because I felt convicted about my sin or I wasn’t sure that I was going to heaven or not, really I did it because I wanted to get a free Bible. (: I saw them giving Bibles to the other kids who were praying. So that wasn’t the best motivation. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong in praying again. But my understanding as a seven year old was not very deep of course. I knew and I believed that Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead and that if I believe in Him then I would have eternal life.

• Calling myself a Christian
  

But after Vacation Bible School I went back home with my mom and step-dad and my sister. My sister also was excited by the Vacation Bible School, she would make me sing all the songs that we learned there, over and over again until I would just get sick of it. (: But our understanding as children wasn’t very deep and growing up in a non Christian - not a church going family, we kind of strayed from the Lord, both my sister and I. When I was about 13 years old, I started going to church again with my friend because I wanted to go skateboarding with him after church. But at the same time I was living a life like a non-Christian. I didn’t understand that being a Christian means more than believing intellectually that Jesus is alive and able to save you, but it’s putting your faith in Him in order to save you – not just so you can go to heaven when you die but to save you from the practice of sin, to save you from actually sinning, to keep you from sinning. You know 1 John is written to you so you may not sin. Jesus wants to save us not only from the consequences of sin but from sin itself which destroys our lives. But I wasn’t taught, I didn’t know that when I was growing up. I thought I was a Christian because I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart, twice!

• But I wasn't sure of my faith.
  

And so as I grew… I was 16 years old, and I started thinking, “Well maybe there are aliens, maybe we are just put here as a scientific test. Or maybe we were an accident but if not an accident maybe God is just putting some experiment on the earth. Why am I here?” I began asking those kinds of questions.

“Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Where did I come from and where am I going?”

At the same time I was living a compromised life, doing drugs, getting drunk and seeking sexual relationships with girls. That was my purpose: to have pleasure and find happiness. But when I was 16 and turned 17 I would say that was the emptiest year of my life (when I was a junior in high school, which would be the 11th year in America). I wouldn’t say I felt like I was at the lowest point in my life but it was probably the lowest point in my life because I had given myself away sexually and I had experimented in drugs and I had popularity – everything that the world said you need to be happy. But I wasn’t very happy. I had put on a mask saying “yeah” but I didn’t want people to know that I was empty inside. But all the while I was saying “I’m a Christian" because I believe intellectually in the gospel. But it hadn’t changed my life.

• Calling to live for God
  

Then these 2 girls come to me in my art class, named Joy and Leslie and they shared their testimony with me. They shared like evangelists in our school. I was sitting across the table from Joy as she was sharing the gospel with another student in art class. I was drawing and everyone else in the class were doing their drawings and so it was quiet. Everyone could hear Joy speaking but she was speaking just to this one girl. And the girl who was next to me turned and said to me, “I - I can’t listen to this anymore.” She was getting really frustrated like she didn’t want to hear this gospel (this girl turned out to be a witch). But I at that time, I remember saying, “Well I am a Christian too. There is nothing bad about Jesus. But I am not that radical, like that girl is, I am not that extreme!) What Joy was saying was basically,

“The reason why God created us was to know and to worship Him. Not that He needs us but He loves us and wanted to create people that He could pour His love out upon. He is worthy of our love, worship and service. So logically we should give our lives to Him who gave us life, especially in light of the fact that Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us. He died for us, so we should live for Him.”

To me, living for God was a new concept. But it was attractive to me because they had purpose and I was still looking for purpose in my life. So to make a long story short, they invited me to their church and I started going.

• God was really drawing me to Him during that year.

It was the emptiest year of my life but at then it was a very important year because God was leading me away from the world and to Himself. That year I went to a youth conference called “Aquire the Fire” where they really challenge you,

"Are you a Christian? And are you going to live according to your faith? What things in your life are really keeping you from growing as a Christian?"

I realized, well, there were a few things that were keeping me from growing – My hypocrisy first of all, you know, the pursuit of unhealthy relationships with girls. The second thing was listening to music that was anti-Christian, very overtly anti-Christian, speaking evil about Jesus, and basically blaspheming and speaking very angrily against the things of God. I realized that I had been listening to that music and it had been influencing me. So I decided that I would get rid of all of that music and burn it. Because I knew,

“The Lord is calling me to live for Him now like my ‘radical extremist’ Christian friends.”

So Joy and Leslie became my best friends and they discipled me. Basically after school they said,

“Why don’t you come over to Joy’s house and we’ll disciple you?”

I thought,

“What does disciple mean? Is that going to hurt?”

(: It sounds like discipline! But Jesus said (in Matthew 28)

“Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” And “if anyone wants to come after me [to be my disciple], let him take up his cross and deny himself and follow me.”

So it was the process of learning how to follow Jesus as a Christian in my senior year of highschool, which was really desperately needed in my life. So I gave my life to the Lord, and said,

“Lord, I am Yours.”

Not only did He call me to get rid of that anti-Christian music and to listen to Christian music that would help me to grow, but He also called me to make music that would glorify Him.

• Because that is the purpose of my life now - To glorify God and to love Him and serve Him.

It’s all centered – my life is centered on Jesus Christ and it has been since I was seventeen years old.