my story!

Hello! 

I am so glad that you decided to stop by! If you are reading this you are probably interested in learning a little more about me! 

My name is Emily Knollenberg, and I am a senior at Porter High School! I love sports, calligraphy, painting, photography, smiling, and of course JESUS! There are so many people and experiences that have shaped me to become who I am today. And as I look back through my short life I can see the Lord’s faithfulness sprinkled gracefully through it all. 

Everyone has a story, a different story that is unique just like a fingerprint. My story began in a small town in Minnesota. I was born to a loving family and have two older brothers! I grew up going to church, but that’s the thing I just went to church. I wasn’t a born-again member of the body of Christ. I knew that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, and somehow that saved me. I knew that I was supposed to love my neighbor as myself and be kind to the people around me. Yet I saw Jesus as a distant savior, not as my father, my friend, and the Lord of my life. I understood the truth of the gospel in my head but it didn’t change the way I lived, I remained separated from God and dead in my sin.

We moved to Houston Texas my 7th grade year, and I became plugged into a local church. It was then that the Lord continually tugged at my heart to come to Him in surrender. To lay down my prideful pursuit to be liked or accepted by my piers, and I realized that it was only Jesus that could satisfy the deepest part of my soul. My 8th grade year I gave my life to Christ and was baptized shortly after! It wasn’t an instant transformation and to this day by the Spirit I am being conformed into the image of the Son from one degree of glory to the next! As He calls His followers in Luke 9:23 to “deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow me,” Jesus is saying that it will not be easy and it will come at a cost, yet the cost is nothing compared to the riches of knowing Jesus – and it is through the denial of ourselves that we are raised to walk in the newness of life (Romans 6:4). 

Since then the truth of the gospel has penetrated the deepest part of my heart. I have struggled, and wrestled with the fact that I can stand before the King justified! There is nothing that I have ever done to deserve God’s love, and honestly I will never understand why God has loved me, forgiven me, and called me his daughter. I’m forever grateful for the family, friends, teachers, and pastors that have showed me what it looks like to follow Jesus and be His disciple!  

I used to think that I didn’t have a story, and that my story didn’t matter. But anyone who knows Jesus as their Lord and Savior has the most miraculous story ever told. I once was dead but now am alive with Christ, I was blind but now I walk in glorious light, I was lame but now I leap with joy! No one is too good for God’s grace, neither is anyone ever too far gone for His redeeming love! 

That is why I will spend my life praising His great name, for He is worthy of every breath in my lungs!! This world will fade away, but the Word of the Lord will remain forever!

I am so excited to bring the truth of the gospel to the nations and take small steps of faith to fulfill Jesus Christ’s great commission!! And to hand over the pen of my life to the great Author and allow Him to continue to write the rest of my story!!