A year ago I use to swear every three words. I was a really angry person, I had a lot of hate, I wasn't overly kind, I really didn't care about other people that much. I was lazy. I didn't even know what social justice was, nor did I really care. I didn't go to church, I didn't come to bible study, and I certain didn't really have a place in my life for Jesus. There was one person in this world that I cared about and that was me. I don't know what people are supposed to remember about their childhoods. Mine is of my mother chasing me around the house with a metal-edged ruler. I remember being woken up by my parents physically fighting. I think that sums up the kind of relationship I have with my parents.
I never trusted anyone or had anyone to talk to - when I was seven my family moved to Australia and I didn't know too much English. So I ended up lying about things to try to fit in. I remember people asking me if I knew how to play cricket. I didn't even know what it was but I just said yes anyway. You know that guy that made up stuff that they didn't actually do or have? Well that was me.
I remember at 16 when I physically fought my dad and I grabbed the car keys before I left the house. It wasn't the first time I'd try to run away, but every time they would bar the doors, that's how the fight started. It was then barefoot, sitting next to the car that I thought about driving off the Toowoomba range and killing myself. That night I rejected God, I'd had enough. He didn't care; if he cared he surely would have stopped the pain for me. But looking back, God has always been there, he stopped me that night back when I was younger I had prayed for a little sister and he gave me one, even though my mother had already lost a child during pregnancy once before. Well the only thing that stopped me that night was because I couldn't let her go through worst than what I had to go through by losing her brother.
I used to come home from school, grab my CD player so that I wouldn't have to listen to my parents. I would sit in my room all afternoon after school, and I wouldn't come out except for meals. This is termed as a mental condition called escape - at uni I found a new form of escape through alcohol.
Yet God has a funny way of using everything even bad things to glorify himself. It was at this time last year; my mate Scott invited me to church after a jug of beer at the pub. So I went with him to church at Citipointe. God had being knocking for a few weeks on my heart and about the 3rd or 4th time Scott nudged me to go out the front, and offered to come with me. This bit is for you guys - all it took was a nudge from a friend.
About 4 months later we went to the Unlimited Conference **shameless plug** - the worst and best weekend of my life. When you realise that you've been stupid all your life - that's not a very good feeling. That weekend God lit a fire in my heart and it still burns today, as I'm sure it still burns in the heart of others that were there and are here tonight. I decided to answer his call.
One of the leaders at UQ Student Life showed me this passage about a month ago, which was repeated at church last Sunday: Galatians 5:22
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
It's almost funny when the bible smacks you in the fact like that. I didn't realise how completely I've changed from who I was.
I can't answer every question you have about my faith, every single fact about the bible's authenticity, things about Jesus, about creation, about suffering in the world, about God - but that's why I'm here. I've found that the more I look the more answers God gives. My life has been changed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ - he died on that cross for me and without him I would not be here. He's asking you right now, he's been waiting all your life, wanting to know you. If you're wondering who God is, who Jesus is, if you're thinking what there might be something more in this world then I encourage you to go find the truth and I know he will answer..
Matthew 7:7-8
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
In Christ,
Clint
I never trusted anyone or had anyone to talk to - when I was seven my family moved to Australia and I didn't know too much English. So I ended up lying about things to try to fit in. I remember people asking me if I knew how to play cricket. I didn't even know what it was but I just said yes anyway. You know that guy that made up stuff that they didn't actually do or have? Well that was me.
I remember at 16 when I physically fought my dad and I grabbed the car keys before I left the house. It wasn't the first time I'd try to run away, but every time they would bar the doors, that's how the fight started. It was then barefoot, sitting next to the car that I thought about driving off the Toowoomba range and killing myself. That night I rejected God, I'd had enough. He didn't care; if he cared he surely would have stopped the pain for me. But looking back, God has always been there, he stopped me that night back when I was younger I had prayed for a little sister and he gave me one, even though my mother had already lost a child during pregnancy once before. Well the only thing that stopped me that night was because I couldn't let her go through worst than what I had to go through by losing her brother.
I used to come home from school, grab my CD player so that I wouldn't have to listen to my parents. I would sit in my room all afternoon after school, and I wouldn't come out except for meals. This is termed as a mental condition called escape - at uni I found a new form of escape through alcohol.
Yet God has a funny way of using everything even bad things to glorify himself. It was at this time last year; my mate Scott invited me to church after a jug of beer at the pub. So I went with him to church at Citipointe. God had being knocking for a few weeks on my heart and about the 3rd or 4th time Scott nudged me to go out the front, and offered to come with me. This bit is for you guys - all it took was a nudge from a friend.
About 4 months later we went to the Unlimited Conference **shameless plug** - the worst and best weekend of my life. When you realise that you've been stupid all your life - that's not a very good feeling. That weekend God lit a fire in my heart and it still burns today, as I'm sure it still burns in the heart of others that were there and are here tonight. I decided to answer his call.
One of the leaders at UQ Student Life showed me this passage about a month ago, which was repeated at church last Sunday: Galatians 5:22
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
It's almost funny when the bible smacks you in the fact like that. I didn't realise how completely I've changed from who I was.
I can't answer every question you have about my faith, every single fact about the bible's authenticity, things about Jesus, about creation, about suffering in the world, about God - but that's why I'm here. I've found that the more I look the more answers God gives. My life has been changed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ - he died on that cross for me and without him I would not be here. He's asking you right now, he's been waiting all your life, wanting to know you. If you're wondering who God is, who Jesus is, if you're thinking what there might be something more in this world then I encourage you to go find the truth and I know he will answer..
Matthew 7:7-8
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
In Christ,
Clint
