Timmon Li: I was near my bed and I was on the side and I was kneeling and… I remember saying, “I know You’re up there… but I don’t know who You are…” And I really tried to pray that night, but of course I don’t know Him, and He doesn’t know me yet. Of course I didn’t even feel anything. So, later after that night, that’s when I realized that I wanted to find the true religion.
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Timmon: My name is Timmon Li and I was born and raised in San Francisco. My childhood, I was blessed to travel to places. My dad worked at [a] hotel so we were able to go to different places as a family. I really liked playing video games, and also toys, and played a lot of basketball.
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I DIDN’T GET THE POINT
Timmon: I didn’t really know too much about religion. We were semi-Buddhist, but we didn’t really practice it and we didn’t really go to the temples. But I guess you could say we only practice when we “had to” practice it. What we did was just, the Chinese traditional practices where we would go to the mountain and we would burn incense for our ancestors. But I didn’t really get what was the point of all of that. For Halloween and Christmas is pretty much they would say “just do what the other kids are doing.” They didn’t really explain anything. So for me, I never even really liked to dress up for Halloween. And for Christmas, I did like that I got the gifts because it was near my birthday. But other than that I really didn’t know what Christmas [was] all about.
And for burning the incense it’s pretty much, the story goes that the ancestors are living in their, you could say world, and then burning the incense would have them receive the money that you’re burning and they could use that in their underworld.
Timmon: Since I wasn’t really practicing Buddhism, but I did have friends who were “Catholics”, and “Christians”, and some Islam, but I didn’t really question them on why they do what they do. For me it was just kind of just hangout with my friends and I just wanna live my youth years and just play basketball. I played a lot of basketball. But for religion it didn’t really pop up to me until college years. I did believe that there is a God. There is like a higher being up there. But I was trying to search for it and I didn’t feel anything.
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I KNOW YOU’RE UP THERE
Timmon: We found out my mom had…sorry..she has kidney failure. So I remember going back home that night. And I was near my bed and I was on the side and I was kneeling and… I remember saying, “I know You’re up there… but I don’t know who You are…” And I really tried to pray that night, but of course I don’t know Him, and He doesn’t know me yet. So of course, I didn’t even feel anything. So later after that night, that’s when I realized that I wanted to find the true religion.
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OPENING UP MY MIND
Timmon: It wasn’t until, I believe, a year or two later where I was able to meet Danica Sanchez. Danica is strong in her beliefs. And she really is strong with her faith, as well. And then, that really allowed me to question why she’s really into that. I pretty much asked her what the Church Of Christ is about. And she told me that it’s a Christian Church, and then she told me the different activities that they did. So that kind of sparked another interest in me. I guess that’s one of the reasons that I decided to attend the worship service.
Afterwards I went to a few more. I signed up as a Bible student because I wanted to know more. And it wasn’t until we really dug into the Bible studies, that’s when it really opened up my eyes and my mind. And knowledge about the Bible itself. And also if you’re gonna serve God then of course you’re gonna have to listen to His words. And His words are in the Bible. So for me that kind of put one and one together.
I had a hard time, to be honest, getting through the lessons, mainly because I had to travel a lot. For transportation, I took CalTrain just to go to Mountain View, and I studied lessons with the minister. But it wasn’t really until afterwards where I was traveling that’s when I started thinking more about it, and I really thought to myself, “I really want to know more.” And that’s how that really sparked something in me.
One of the beliefs and lessons of eating blood. Because I used to eat, not quite often, but I do like eating blood. But knowing what the blood symbolizes, that’s when I kind of thought of, “Oh ok, that… I’m not supposed to eat blood.” And so from there I didn’t eat blood anymore. My family asked me, “Do you want some?” and I said, “No I’m good.”
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NOT GONNA PARTY ANYMORE
Timmon: The friends that I was hanging out with after college, we would drink and party every weekend. And breaking the news to them, only my close friends they really asked me why I’m doing this, why I’m not going out with them as often anymore, why I’m not partying, drinking. And I told them what I’ve been learning and that it’s not right because that’s not what we do as true Christians.
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HE’S ANSWERING ME
Timmon: For me it’s what was missing was, I guess there was that emptiness, something… that one piece you can say, from the puzzle, that I was missing. For me finding the Church Of Christ that’s…it’s my life now. For me remembering that prayer that I did before finally realized that He’s answering me and He’s the one that’s bringing me back. So I think that helped a lot.
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LIFE FOR GOD
Timmon: Living a life for God is more rewarding than living our own lives, what we want to do, because it has purpose. And that’s serving God. It’s not doing what you want, it’s not doing what others want, or really the pleasures of life. But it’s really understanding the doctrines, but also understanding what God wants us to do.
The world right now it’s changing, it’s kinda scary at times, but I believe that when you’re part of this Church, when you’re part of the true Church you do realize that there is hope. And for those who are saying that “as long as you believe in Christ” or “as long as you believe in God you don’t need to attend church” but obviously they haven’t been to one of our Bible studies. You should try and listen to the 28 Bible lessons, it’s free.
So you’re not wasting anything, we’re not asking you for money. The minister would gladly preach it to you. They will break it down for you.
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