What are the means God uses to draw His people to Himself? How does God use the most difficult circumstances in our lives to reveal the depths of our sin and misery? In this video, Christopher Yuan shares his testimony of how he came to faith in Jesus Christ, citing three key events that led to his eventual conversion. After coming out of the closet and witnessing his parents’ conversion, Christopher Yuan became heavily involved in drug dealing and was kicked out of graduate school. Following his arrest, time in jail, and receiving news he was HIV positive, Christopher began reading the Bible and understanding the reality of God’s holiness. Through these circumstances, Christopher was converted to faith in Christ and now spends his time sharing the Gospel with others.
- Rejecting Christ
- Encountering God
- Radical Transformation
How Christopher Yuan Became a Christian
I was not a Christian growing up, but I struggled with these feelings. I knew I was different. I came out of the closet in my early twenties. I’m from Chicago. I moved to Louisville, Kentucky. I was pursuing my doctorate in dentistry. And came out of the closet. Then actually that crisis brought my parents to faith and they began pursuing me. I wanted nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately, I got involved in drugs. Not all gays and lesbians do drugs or are promiscuous. I started selling drugs. I was kicked out of dental school. Moved to Atlanta, Georgia. And in Atlanta, I began doing what I knew how to do best, and that was sell drugs. I began supplying drugs while, all this time, I had parents at home that were praying for me and they prayed for a miracle. And they weren’t praying that I would become straight, but they were praying that I would know the living God. So they prayed for this miracle.
My parents came to visit me one time in Atlanta. I kicked him out. My dad gave me his Bible. I threw his Bible away. I was so far from God. I wanted nothing to do with them, nothing to do with their religion. Well, they prayed for a miracle and they knew that that’s really… It was going to take a God-sized miracle and turn things around.
Finding the Bible
And this miracle came with my arrest and I found myself in jail. And of all things, I found in Bible in the trashcan. I began reading it and it began to convict me and challenge me and reveal my sins that I rebelled against God, against my parents, against my government.
And then I got the news that I was HIV positive, and that was kind of the lowest of the lows. From that, a few days after, I saw written on the bottom of a bunk, somebody had scribbled, “If you’re bored, read Jeremiah 29:11.” “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I didn’t know what that meant, but it spoke to me and gave me that, no matter what I had done in the past, He still had a plan for me.
So I began reading the Bible. I had lots of time on my hands. And I realized after I was reading the Bible that I really had some paradigms that needed to be broken. First of all, I thought that my identity was in my sexuality. The world told me, “You are gay.” And I was telling myself, “I am gay. This is who I am.” But as I read through God’s word, I realized this is not who you are. My identity should not be in my sexuality, but rather my identity should be bound up in the person of Jesus Christ.
Becoming Christian
And that was radical transformation. And I think sometimes as Christians, we have a tendency to want to focus so much on the immorality of something, whatever it is, not just the issue of homosexuality. But if people don’t have that Biblical framework, they can’t understand that. And I think what was really almost like a game-changer for me was that, once I realized that this is not my identity, things began to put things in place. And I think that’s more Gospel-centered. We need to focus on Jesus. I mean, it’s just plain and simple. That’s who I am. My identity is in Christ.
And so I began to study God’s word, and I realized that another paradigm that I needed to change was that my goal was not heterosexuality. We have built up this false impression of what healing would look like for someone dealing with gay feelings is that they need to be straight or they need to no longer have those feelings. But that’s not what the Word of God says. The Word of God is not calling someone to be straight. The Word of God is not calling us to get rid of our temptations, but the Gospel is calling us to live a life of holiness, even though we might be tempted. So it’s not pursuing heterosexuality or homosexuality, but it’s just pursuing holiness.
So that was really an eye-opening for me, and that just rocked my world. And where I am now, God called me to full-time ministry and I applied to Moody, got in. And I went on to get my masters, got my doctorate, and now I’m just speaking on the issue of sexuality. And I had the blessing to write a book with my mother. So it’s really just amazing. I mean, I kind of can’t believe what God has done from a person that the world would’ve just tossed away.
