Remember

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

     The best thing that has ever happen to me was coming to the know the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior.!

 

     I am the son of Neng and Ia Yang. God gave me to them on July 22, 1980 in Manitowoc Wisconsin.  They named me Ge Yang. I am the third of five boys. I was raised in a shaman home. My Grandfather was a Shaman, but I never knew him because he died a few months before I was born. Still, even though he was deceased, my father and uncle continued in shamanism. Black magic was practiced among the elders and animal sacrifices were a monthly routine. These are some of the evils that I was accustomed too.

     I was the black sheep of the family. The only one that spent time with me was my sweet grandmother. Whenever my father would come home from a hard day of work, either my mom or I would be the sole recipient of his anger. My parents never bought me a toy. I never had the cool things a child could have. All my brothers did, but not I. I couldn’t even play with their toys. If I did, I would get beat up by my brothers or by my father. My father never spent time with me. I was the stupid one of the family therefore I wasn’t really worth my parents time. I was never really loved nor did I have any friends. Whenever I would try to play with my cousins or brothers, they would threaten to beat me up or they would run away from me because they could all outrun me.
One day I heard that if I were to see a shooting star at night I could make a wish and that it would come true. Almost every night I would climb out of the window and gaze into the heavens hoping to see my shooting star so I could wish for a friend, for someone to love me. I never saw one and my wish remained unspoken.
Alone and unloved, I sought death. I thought that if I were to die, my family might finally love me and maybe, just maybe they would shed one tear for me as I lay silent in my coffin. I attempted suicide many times. I tried slitting my throat, cutting my risk, stabbing myself in the heart, hanging myself, holding my breathe and the list continues, but the fear of pain conquered me. I could not take my own life.

When I became a teenager my cousin was murdered because of his involvement in a gang and I thought that being in a gang myself would provide the perfect opportunity for me to die. I determined to be the worst rascal on the street; my enemies would know my name; the cops would know my name and maybe I would die by one of their guns.

So at the age of 13 people began to take notice me because of the activity that I was getting myself involved with. I won’t tell you the things that I’ve done because it isn’t necessary. But it was at that time, that the demons my Grandfather had known revealed themselves to me. I would see them frequently and then I started to desire power. I was chosen to be the next shaman in line. As the years passed, I became very dangerous as a gangster and was deeply involved in illegal activity. One day when I was 16 years old, my older brother put my father in the hospital by cracking his skull with one hit. My brother fled with his wife in fear knowing that when my dad recovered, he would kill them both. I begged the gods that I worship for their help, but they wouldn’t help me. What they wanted was for my family to be broken.

Then one night in my room, I remembered that my best friend had once told me that Jesus was the true God and that He could do all things. In desperation I knelt by my bedroom window and gazed helplessly into the starry night and said,

“God, if you are God, or if there is a God, I need your help. I have this problem…” and I told God all that was in my heart and I continued, “if you will do this for me, I promise you that I’ll follow you!”

 

As the days passed I began to see the hands of God at work in my family’s life. Slowly but surely He created fellowship among my family and as He did, I started to go to church just as I had promise God. As I began to go to church, the devil began to entice me into other activities that I have never done before. As he enticed me, I gave in and once stopped going to church. There were many times that my life was in danger and there were many times that I put my family’s lives in danger.

When I turned 19, I started to go to church again and I actually got involved in the youth. There was a youth meeting in St. Paul Minnesota on July 2000 so I decided to sign up because I knew that at the youth meeting, there would be a lot of pretty girls. Three weeks before that meeting there was a soccer tournament in St. Paul so my cousin who was the leader of the HP gang called me up and asked me to go and help him annihilate a rival gang. I got there and the first day we had a huge rumble. We were out numbered 3-1 but we were the ones left standing. The cops came and we left the area and drove off to celebrate our so-called victory. That evening at the lake while everyone except me was drinking and smoking weed, I was sitting by the lake with an old friend catching up on life.
Suddenly a man came out of the darkness and began talking to me.

 

He said, “What’s up fish?”

I said, “What’s up man?”

“You remember me?” he asked me.

“No!” I replied.

“It’s me…”

Being surprised with who I was talking to I said,
 
“O man…I haven’t seen you since I was 14. Where have you been?”
 
We talk for a little bit and then he asked me,

“Fish, I want you to join us!”

I answered him, “No, I don’t gang bang anymore.”
 
Then he said, “Look, you don’t understand what I am saying, I want you to join us!”

I sternly said to him, “I think that you don’t understand me, I told you that I don’t do that stuff anymore!”

Then he said, “I know what you know.”

So I asked him, “What do I know?”

He said, “I know that you know black magic!”

I stepped away from him and, being shocked, I asked him,

“How did you know that that I know black magic? Only a few know that I know how to do that stuff.”

He replied, “My god told me.”

“Your god? Who is your god?” I asked him.

“My god is the red dragon and he is standing right there,” he said as he was pointing to the lake, “and he wants you to join us.”

“The red dragon! That is Satan!”

“Yes and he wants you to join us?”

“I can’t. I’m a Christian!”

“No you are not!”

“Yes I am, I go to Church!”

“No you are not. Just because you go to church, that doesn’t mean that you are a Christian. You have not yet made that decision.”

I then asked him, “What does he want with me?”

He answered me and said, “To prevent the coming of Christ!”

 

That was the last thing that I remember. The next thing I knew was that I found myself in my aunt’s house.
I asked my cousin if we were really at the lake and he said yes. I asked him when we got home and he told me it was before 11pm. It was around 3am when I became conscience of where I was.

I pondered on that night for about three weeks and I finally came to a conclusion. I said to myself, “Jesus Christ must be God because Satan is so scared of Him. If Jesus is God, then I want to worship Him.” On July 29, I asked the Lord into my heart and He came and made me His temple. He covered my nakedness with His robe of righteousness. He wrote His name on my forehead and He engraved His name upon my heart and made me His own. He made me His own. Wow! He made me His own!

 

After I received the Lord Jesus as my own God and Savior, I realized that the world isn’t my home anymore. I realized that the world was my enemy and the god that I use to serve without knowing him, was now out to get me. I started to serve the true Lord. I hungered for His Word. I clave onto the mighty arms of my God and grew rapidly. I learned to be a soul winner and with the Armor of God on and the Sword of the Spirit in my hand I became God’s warrior. I loved God’s word with a passion. I read it everyday and I read it every chance I could. And today I can stand boldly before you and say that I love God more today than I did when I first got saved. I love God more today than I did yesterday and I pray with all my heart that I will love God more tomorrow than I do right now. I don't know where I would be right now if Christ Jesus wasn't with me. All I know is that my is now worth living because of Him.