I didn't wear jeans. Did you hear that? I didn't
wear jeans! Ok anyone following me on Twitter knows what that means. I am so excited to
be here and truly you guys have just pumped me up to be here and I thank you for all the
Tweets I've gotten and the excitement and the enthusiasm for you. I would like to say
right now that I would like my children to come here when they go to college. I wanted
to tell you that I was going to talk about my book, "Reshaping It All," which is a book about,
it's a motivational tool for physical and spiritual fitness. It's about putting your
faith into the forefront of your relationship with food but I decided I wasn't going to
share it this morning. I decided that I wanted to just share with you my testimony instead.
The words may be words that you've heard so many times because I know that so many of
you, I mean you're here at a Christian college and you know the Gospel message but I just
don't think we can hear it enough and I think everyone has a unique story, their own testimony,
and that's just what was put on my heart today, was to share with all of you. I'm going to
back up one quick second because I think this is a really cute story and just for a "Full
House" reference for you guys. I will tell you my favorite person on "Full House" is Dave
Coulier. Why? Because he introduced me to my husband, when we were doing the last season
of Full House. Dave is a huge hockey fan. You guys have great hockey here, guys and
girls hockey. And Dave had invited me to a charity hockey of both celebrities and pros,
and he had told me before he said, "Hey, I want to introduce you to these two really
good Russian hockey players." And I'm like, good hockey player, cute guy. I'm all over
it. I went to the game to see Dave, he introduced me to Val , and it turned out that Val and
his brother Pavel had come from Moscow, Russia just two years earlier and they didn't speak
the language here very well. So they used to have their morning skate, and practice,
they'd take a nap, they'd wake up with a cup of coffee, and they would watch "Full House,"
because it helped them learn English. And so Val was excited to meet me. We kind
of hit it off, exchanged numbers, and in less than a year we were engaged, and now we've
been married for 15 years. And we have 3 children. I have a 13 year old daughter, and two boys
that are 11 and 9 years old. So that's my "Full House" of my own. Okay, I'm just going
to share with you guys my story. A lot of people assume and think that I came from a
Christian home, and I didn't. My mom was actually was a believer, but my dad wasn't. My did
didn't believe in a God, he didn't want religion taught in our home and he asked my mom not
to discuss religion and if it was something that we wanted to decide, and make a choice over
when we were older, we could do that then. So I didn't grow up in a faithful household,
but I grew up in a very moral home. My parents taught me the difference between right and
wrong, they kind of lived life by the golden rule, to be good to others, and I learned
to be an obedient child, and be pleasing to other people and say my thank you's and be
respectful. I also have two older sisters and an older brother. You guys might know
my brother, Kirk Cameron. And so, the first time I actually ever went to church, I was
12 years old, and that's because my parents were going through a separation. A really
difficult time in their marriage. They were thinking about divorce, and a friend had invited
the family to go to church in hopes that it would help my parents work out their problems. So
I remember the first time I walked into the church, I didn't even know we were going there
because my dad said just get in the car, we're going somewhere, I'm not even going to tell
you where we're going. And when we walked into a church, I thought, man this is really
serious if my dad is willing to go to church. And I sat in that church with my sisters and
I had no idea what to expect because I didn't know anything about God, I didn't know about
Jesus, and I was just uncomfortable and I just kind of giggled at the whole thing because
I didn't know what they were taking about. But we continued to go to church every week,
and what I really liked about church were the people that were in there because they
seemed so genuinely kind and caring and happy to be there. And so, as I listened to the sermons
each week, again not truly understanding at the age of 12 what it was all about, I knew
the difference in many of those people's lives who I liked that were sitting in there. The
difference was Jesus. So the pastor had said one Sunday, "If you would like to receive
Jesus in your heart, raise your hand, let us know, and we will say a sinner's prayer
with you." So I raised my hand, I bowed my head, I prayed the sinner's prayer, and I
received Christ and a few weeks later I was baptized with my brother and a couple other
of my family members. And I was very excited about my new Christian life. I was excited to learn
about God, to learn about Jesus, but at the same time, I was 12 years old, I had been
working on "Full House" for two years, and the show was becoming very popular, and I had a
very busy schedule, going to school full time and doing the show full time. Not only that,
but on the weekends I would travel to do publicity for the show, do interviews, radio interviews,
do huge public appearances at malls and civic arenas to sign autographs. So I had a very
busy life but a very happy life. I was extremely excited about it, couldn't be more thrilled
to be on television, working with people that I absolutely loved and adored, and even more
than that, my parents had worked through their problems, I had a strong family life at this
point at home as the years went on. And I had fans and people that looked up to me and
would come up to me and tell me what a good role model I was. I loved all of that. I loved
that I was able to travel and go to places in the world because of the work experiences
that I probably wouldn't have been able to do. So I led a very blessed life, there was
nothing that I cold possibly complain about and I didn't, I really marveled in all of
it. But because I was so busy working, my church life really slowed down over the years,
and especially into my teenage years. And so going to church really became more of an
afterthought for me because there were so many things that as the years went on, they
just became a little bit more important in my life. And so I went to church when I could,
I went when I had time, when I wasn't too tired. My mom understood my gruesome schedule
so she wasn't forcing me to go to church. But I thought to myself I can talk to God
and pray to God any time I want to because I asked Him into my heart and I know He lives
inside of me so I don't really need to go to a church building to go talk to God. And
so that really became my habit over the years, was just kind of talking to Him, praying to
Him when I needed Him, when I wanted to throw out a little shout out of thanks to Him, and
that's really what my relationship with God became all about. It wasn't much of a relationship
at all. By the time I was 18, I moved out of my parent's home and I could pretty much
could do whatever I wanted, because I had my own money, I wasn't dependent upon my parents
for money. But I wasn't your typical child star that you read about, so I don't have
the testimony of "Oh, I got out on my own and then I decided to get mixed up in drugs
and alcohol, and go down the deep road, get my mugshot taken five times within five years
and not really serve the jail time that I should be." That wasn't my story. I was the
good kid, and I liked being the good kid. I liked pleasing my parents. I was the kid
that when I moved out of my parent's house, I called when it was 11 o clock to say "hey
mom, hey dad, I'm home, just wanted you to know that I'm safe." I really enjoyed pleasing
them. I also liked when I was working, the best thing for me at the end of the day was
to have the director, or the producer come up to me and say, "Candace, great job today.
You were fantastic today." And so the person who I am, that God made me to be, the inside
of my core, I loved to feel praised, it in turn makes me a people pleaser, I really like
that. And so I wasn't interested in trying drugs, or going I've got to just get out into
the real world. That just wasn't me. But there were certainly times in my life when I thought,
well, maybe I want to try something that my parents told me I shouldn't. I thought well,
try something just to say I did because, well, these are my teenage years and it's kind of
the time that you're supposed to live it up and make your mistakes and do some wild and
crazy things. But really, the things that I considered a little bit wild and crazy just
weren't that at all compared to what some of the other kids I knew were doing. And even,
what a lot of other child actors were doing. So I thought to myself, you know, if I had
a little wild and crazy party at my house once in a while, that's not really a big deal,
and I thought to myself, if the very worst thing that I'm doing is being intimate with
my boyfriend, and I'm not married, and I know my mom told me that I shouldn't, if that's
the worst thing that I'm doing, is having sex before marriage, it's really just not
a bad thing at all. I mean, compared to what all these other people are doing, I know how
bad these people are. So when I continually compared myself to other people, I thought,
I'm pretty much a saint compared to all of them. And I thought, you know, I really do
have my whole life ahead of me, to live on the straight and narrow path so we kind of
have to figure ourselves out right now, and I should maybe do some things that I know
are wrong. And I would continually think about the people that were worse than me, and when
I would feel a little bit convicted or guilty, I would think about all the good things that
I did, which were a lot. I thought about the time and the money that I would give to charity,
and the acts of service that I would do. And I thought to myself, you know if God one day
had to weigh the good things that I do, with the bad things that I do, well my goodness
definitely outweighs the bad. And so while I gave into some of those temptations once
in a while, I thought about God, and I said, well, when I do these things I know were wrong,
what does God really think about it? And I thought, well, I know God is a forgiving God,
God is a loving God, He'll forgive anything if we just ask Him. And so I thought, okay
I just need to ask for forgiveness when I do those things that I know are wrong. And
so I was a good kid most of the time, and then something would come up that I clearly
knew was wrong, I know the difference between right and wrong, I knew I shouldn't be be
and I thought, well I want to do it just this once, and so I did, and I thought, okay, I
know God wouldn't be pleased with that, so I'm just going to ask for forgiveness. God
would you please forgive me for doing that? Okay, I just prayed a prayer of forgiveness,
so I'm good to go. And then I would be my good little self, going on to the next time,
and something else would come up. It might be a long time in between, and I would say,
I know I shouldn't do it, but I'm just going to pray, Lord, I know I shouldn't be doing
this right now, but I just pray that you would forgive me for it and I promise I won't do
it again. And I do it, and then I'd just go back to praying again. And I thought, this
kind of feels too easy. I mean, is that really how God works, that I can do something, that
I know is wrong, but because He's a forgiving God, I can just ask for forgiveness, and He's
going to forgive me for it? And it kind of seemed a little bit too good to be true, and
at the same time, I don't know if I really wanted to know if it was truthful or not.
Because quite frankly, I'm a really good person, and I'm living a really good life, and so
if I'm doing something that is wrong once in a while, I just don't think that that's
very bad. At times I would even rationalize and say, my life is going so well, I seem
to be so blessed, that God has given me these things, that I'm sure He'll overlook the stuff
that I know I'm doing is wrong, and will forgive it. And it wasn't until one day my sister
in law Chelsea called me and said, "Hey Candace, your brother and I are doing this movie called
left behind, have you ever read the books?" And I said, "no, I haven't. I've never even
heard of it." And so she said, "Well I'm going to send it to you, it's so great you've got
to read it." And I said, ok, great. Well, I'm sure most of you are familiar with the
Left Behind books. So, as I started to read it, there was one character that stood out
to me and it was Pastor Bruce Barnes. And as I'm reading the book, the rapture has occurred,
this group of people have been left behind, trying to figure out what happened, and Pastor
Bruce Barnes knows exactly what happened and why He had been left behind. But see, not
really being in the word, not really being a walking Christian, I couldn't really understand
how a pastor could be left behind. I figured the authors probably never even read the Bible,
because a pastor can't possibly be left behind. And then in the book, Pastor Bruce Barnes
is talking to the group of people, understanding exactly why he'd been left behind and he says
this to them, "I loved church, it was my life, my culture. I thought I believed everything
there was to believe in the Bible. The Bible says that if you have eternal life, if you
believe in Christ, you have eternal life. So I assumed I was covered. I especially like
the parts about God being forgiving. I was a sinner and I never changed. I just keep
getting forgiveness because I thought God was bound to do that. He had to. Verses said
that if we confessed our sin, He was faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. I knew
other verses said you have to believe and receive to trust and abide, but to me, that
was sort of theological mumbo jumbo. I wanted the bottom line, the easiest route, the simplest
path. I had a real racket going and I bought into it. But deep down, way deep down, I know
better. I knew it was too good to be true. I knew that true Christians were known by
what their lives produced, and that I was producing nothing. But I comforted myself
that there were worse people around that called themselves Christians. I used what I thought
was my security as a license to do what I wanted. I could basically live in sin and
pretend to be devout." After I read that part of the book, I applied what Bruce said to
my life, and I thought, "That's me, that's exactly what I'm doing, that's exactly how
I'm living." You know, I had given my life to Christ at 12 but over the years, it just
kind of faded away, and yet I continued to call myself a Christian for all of those years,
but I realized that I certainly wasn't producing the fruit that Christians are known to produce,
and in fact, I too had been using God's forgiveness as a license to live my life the way I wanted
to, not the way he wanted me to. So then I thought to myself, so does that mean if God
came back right now, at this very moment, that I would be left behind? And then I thought
to myself, well what if I died right now? Does that mean I would be going to hell? And
all of these questions started to stir something inside of me, and I thought to myself, I don't
want to get this wrong. I don't want to get this wrong. I don't want Christ to come back
and I've been left behind because I just didn't really know the answers, I didn't spend any
time reading the Bible, I don't really know what it says, I'm just calling myself a Christian,
but really, I'm just a good person. So I thought to myself, I need rules! I want rules from
God. I don't want them from my parents, or this person or that person. I need to know
what God says of how I know I'm going to go to heaven. And yet every time I would open
my Bible, it would just look like a foreign language to me. Because I didn't know where
to start, what to read, what to do with it. Well, very soon after my brother had given
me a book that is called, "The Way of the Master," by Ray Comfort. And my brother said, "I have
read a book that has really rocked my world, Candace. I've seen something in the Gospel
message that I've never seen before, and I hope that you would read it." So you have to
understand that at this point of my life, yes I've called myself a Christian for so
many years, I realize that I'm not walking a Christian walk, and yet, I clearly knew
that my brother had been for many years, because quite frankly, we all thought he was a little
weird. You know when that change happens with someone in your family and you're like whoa,
they're all of the sudden Christian and know they're making decisions that you would have
never thought they would make. and that was my brother within our family, because none
of us has quite gotten it yet. None of us claim that for ourselves yet. So when he said,
"I've just read a book that has shown me something in the Gospel that I never saw before" I thought,
well, I know he's a solid Christian, walking the walk; I want to read the book. So, as
I continued to read the book, or as I read the book, "The Way of The Master," it talked
about the ten commandments, and right away I went, "Those are rules! Those are rules
from God!" I was so excited about reading the ten commandments and I thought, well,
I know the ten commandments, pretty much, they're you know, the ten commandments are
really old and I don't know exactly how I'm supposed to apply them to my life today. But
as I continued to read, the ten commandments showed me my sin in it's true light. See when
I prayed that sinner's prayer when I was 12 years old, I asked God to forgive me of my
sin. But the truth was, I didn't even know what my sin was. Because I thought, I'm a
good person. But now the law showed me my sin, and as I went through every single commandment,
I saw that I had broken all of them. And then I learned that God was going to judge me by
His standard, and not the world's standard. I love this analogy. There's a little girl,
she's looking at a white sheep as it ate green grass, and she though how nice and white the
sheep looked as it ate the green grass and then it began to snow, and she thought how
dirty the sheep looked against the white snow. See, it was the same sheep, but a different
background. So when we compare our sin to the standard of the world, we all come up
reasonably clean. But when we compare our sin to the snow white righteousness of God's
law, we'll see that we are in fact filthy dirty. So while for so many years I thought,
I'm a good person by the world's standard, I finally saw for the first time in my life
that I am not a good person by God's standard. And if God is going to judge me by His standard,
I'm left guilty. Guilty of a crime leads to punishment and God's punishment is hell. And
I thought to myself, if God is really a good God, would he really send someone to hell?
And then I read this analogy. There's a man standing in a court. He's been convicted of
murder basically, all the evidence is before him. As he stands before the judge and the
judge is about to convict him, he says, "what so you have to say for yourself?" and the
man says to the judge, "Yes your honor, it is true, I did commit this crime, but I'm
sorry from the bottom of my heart, truly sorry. You're a good judge, will you forgive me and
let me go free?" What would the judge say? No, if I'm a good judge, justice must be served.
You have to pay for your crime, regardless of how sorry you are, I'm glad that you are,
but you still have to pay for your crime. So if God is a good and just judge, like the
Bible says he is, by His very truth in nature, He must punish those who have sinned. And
the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:9, "Don't you know that those who do wrong will have
no share in the kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves, those who indulge in sexual sin,
who are idol worshippers, adulterers, prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards,
abusers, swindlers, none of these have their share in the kingdom of God." And it was the
first time in my life that I saw God as a holy God, and a just judge and not just this
little, innocent, sweet, loving God that I created in my own mind and conveniently left
the other parts out to satisfy my own thought of who God should be, and to satisfy the way
I thought my life should be lived, and what I considered to be good. And I thought, well
what do I do now? Because my heart was certainly convicted. And it was then I was told of the
good news. It was then that I was told that God is a loving and merciful God, and that's
why He sent His one and only son Jesus Christ to die for your sin. Because He lived the
absolutely perfect life, never disobeying the Father. It's as if I'm standing in front
of a judge in a courtroom. I've gotten a ticket of a hundred thousand dollar fine to pay and
I stand before the judge and say, "I don't have a hundred thousand dollars to pay." And
as the judge is about to sentence me to prison, a man walks in the room that I don't even
know, hands the judge a check for one hundred thousand dollars, and says, "Judge, this check
is in honor of Candace." The judge takes the check, and says, "Candace you're very fortunate,
you're fine has been paid, you're free to go." See, I broke the law, but Jesus paid
my fine. Now I can be set free from the law of God because Christ took my punishment for
me. See, The gospel message for me had never been clear until this point in my life because
I never understood that I was a sinner. I always considered myself to be a good home.
Especially coming from such a moral home. And it was for the first time to finally see
my sin in the mirror of the ten commandments, understanding that I'm actually deserving
of hell, and yet God extends grace to me. That then sent me into a place of Godly sorrow,
where I utterly felt sorrow for what I'd done before a Holy God, and that sorrow led to
repentance, I know you know repentance isn't just confession of the mouth, repentance is
confessing it but then turning 180 degrees from it. Not wanting to have anything to do
with it anymore. And then, out of utter gratitude do I want to live a life that's pleasing to
Jesus. And that's what made the difference in my life. I then came from a place where
I go, "God, I want to serve you, I so desire to serve you." And it became a life about
not just getting that good job Candace from a director, good job Candace from mom and
dad, I long in my heart, it brings me to tears to think about it. To stand before God one
day and have Him say, "Candace, well done my good and faithful servant." Those are the
praises that I long to hear from a Holy God. But my heart became so sensitive and convicted
at that point in my life, and still today, and I realized that no, I'm not going to be
perfect from here on out, but the difference is diving into my sin, knowing it's wrong
but doing it anyway is kind of like spitting on God. But will I fall, will I trip up, absolutely,
I'm going to. I'm a human being, and it's life. But I'm going to learn from it, I'm
going to move on, I'm going to correct it. I love this verse in Ezekiel 36:26 when he
says, and I put it to myself, it's Candace, " I will give you a new heart with new and
righteous desires. I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of
sin and give you an obedient heart." And I tell you from that day God did exactly that
in my life. And He changed my life in so many ways of just changing my viewpoint of things
that were important to me, that aren't, changing my desires, my priorities in my life. One
of the biggest reflections of my life today in that sense is how I look at the entertainment
industry. I took a 10 year hiatus from working so that I could be a stay at home mom and
raise my kids, and when I've come back in the business, came back about three years
ago, I grew so much in those ten years with my time with the Lord, that it's not just
about getting a great part and doing a great job, it is totally become a mission field
of how can I please God with what I'm doing, what parts can I choose that will honor Him,
how can I share my faith with others in this industry? For me it's not just about being
in Christian films, or within the Christian entertainment industry, I want to be out there,
but I want to be a light to all of those I'm around. I want to represent Christ well in
all that I do. Some small ways, they seem so small but I know that God is cheering me
along in the way because all those little, small, the accumulations of small decisions
that we make are sometimes much more valuable, not sometimes, they are always more valuable
than one huge decision in our life. And so things like, even being on the show I'm on
now, make it or break it, I play this Christian girl, which I didn't even ask, that was just
a blessing from the Lord. But I have been able to publicly speak about abstinence on
television, and speak about God, and play a Christian character that's not just your
stereotypical hypocritical judgement Christian on television. Which I can't stand, so I'm
very thankful for being able to play that part and have that platform. I did a movie,
a television movie not long ago, and I talked to the director before we started and I said,
"hey, can we remove all the omg's, all the oh my God references in this movie? Because
it's just such a great wholesome family movie and really this is offensive, because it's
actually using God's name in vain. It's actually blasphemy." And you know, I actually get some
eyes that pop out and go like, are you kidding me, but you know what, that's what I'm convicted
about, and I go, those are the little, small differences that I want to try to make within
the industry of whatever I'm doing. And I'm happy to say that those were all removed from
the movie. I was so thankful. A lot of it has come down to my own convictions in the
life and the integrity that I hope to show towards others. You know, even making a decision
in this industry, because it's not easy to be a Christian in the industry, I'll tell
you that straight up, because I get asked so much. It's not easy. I've taken a stand
to say, I don't even want to portray a character that's having premarital sex on television,
because I just think that's feeing into a culture that's just displaying a gross amount
of sensationalism that I don't want to be a part of. No matter how great the movie or
the role might be, again that is something where I've gone, I need to draw these boundary
lines for me within the industry because hollywood, and not just hollywood but the world, when
you are all ur there, the world has a way of defining you if don't know who you are
before you get out there. So for me, I've had to learn who am I, what principles, what
convictions, what values am I going to stand upon before I go out there, because I must
know what they are before I take my first step because man, they will try to just make
them for you and you can so easily get sucked in to it. And so, I just ask you right now,
what are your convictions? If you stand up, or you examine your heart right now, where
are you in your walk with Christ right now at this very moment are you standing on the
convictions that you always thought that you would? Have you slid back a little bit? You
know, I know that there's so many of you that are just solid in here, and I just pray that
you will continue to say, man, I'm going to be a light in whatever industry I'm going
to be in, and I'm going to make it a point to share my faith with whomever I'm around.
Just like, me, that's my goal, to whomever I'm working with I try to share my faith.
And I want to take you through just a couple of those ten commandments, just to wrap this
up, because it was something that so convicted my heart and I think it's always something
good to review. Although we're not bound by the law anymore, it's just a reference point
to show us that we are always in need for a savior, that we're in need for Jesus because
we can't live up to the law. But if I go through a couple of these, have you always put God
first in your life, always? Have you ever taken God's name in vain? Have you ever murdered
anyone? Ok, I know that most of us think we are pretty safe on that one, I actually got
an email about it through my site and this girl wrote me. She said, " Dear Candace, just
wondering, I read your testimony page and saw that your were guilty in the past of breaking
all ten commandments, so it made me curious who you murdered and the details that led
up to it?" But I know that you guys know that Jesus said whoever is angry with his brother
is subject to judgement and he who hates is a murderer because God is a judge. He judges
the thoughts and intents of our hearts. So if we go through even a few of those ten commandments,
how do we hold up? I mean if you place it against God's standard, not the world's standard,
are you innocent or guilty? Deserving of heaven or hell? I know you know your fine has already
been paid through the blood of Jesus Christ and that is an amazing gift that I pray that
you will embrace not only because maybe you grew up in a Christian home or because your
parents forced you or begged you to go to Liberty and just go to a Christian college
but because you own that yourself, you believe in the death and resurrection of Christ, you've
been convicted of your sin, and that you move forward in a life that wants to please and
be obedient to God. Amen? Thank you very, very much.
