Hello,
I thought I'd post my testimony because it may help someone (or not, but all testimonies are cool to read anyway!
)
Ok here goes:
My parents and most of my family are not christian, and I wasn't either. I had no interest in God as I was growing up. God was just something other people were interested in like cars, or music, or computer games etc. We moved house when I was 12 and as we were moving in a guy came over to say hello. The guy was a christian guy, called Peter, who was just visiting someone in the street and saw the van. Peter's wife Rosemary ran a bible study group for younger teens and so I went to that. Not because I was interested in the bible but because I wanted to meet more people in the area. I kept going though because we got to have crisps and drink at the end and we could play darts which was fun.
I got too old for the bible study group, but a christian youth group started up in the town where I lived so I went along to that, as Peter was one of the leaders. I was about 14 by now. But I still wasn't interested in God. I went because I got free food, I got to have fun and play games,there was lots of friendly teenagers there, and there was nothing to do on a Sunday night anyway! For all that all i had to do was sit through a talk for 20 minutes and get bored. Result!
When i was 16 something really got me down, I can't remember what it was now, but I remember I was lying in bed and I just suddenly began to wonder if this 'God' was actually there. So I asked Him! For the first time ever I prayed. God answered! It's a bit of shock when you aren't really expecting it! I think God spoke to me but i'm not entirely sure. What I am sure of was that I got an urge to go and read the bible (I now know that was the Holy Spirit- so I know God answered my prayer). So the following week at youth group I asked the leaders for a Bible and they gave me one. They said to start at Matthew and I'm glad they did because to me the Bible was no different to any other book, you know start at page 1 and finish at the last page, I probably would've given up about half way through Genesis if I did lol!
Anyway, I read through Matthew and Mark and Luke and I completely got the wrong end of the stick. I got really angry, incensed even. Jesus was this nice man who came along, helped a lot of people (feed them, healed them etc) and said some interesting things and then those morons went and nailed him to a cross!! That's the worse injustice ever!!!! Thats what I thought, untill I read John's gospel.
I started John's gospel, still angry about Jesus death, and as I read through I came to John 3:16. When I read those few lines, God turned the light on! I saw, for the first time, that Jesus was more than a man and that His death showed just how much God loved us. It wasn't such an injustice. With this new insight God have given me the rest of John's gospel lit up and I saw all the amazing things Jesus did in a whole new way. I even noticed that He raised from the dead this time as well (it didn't register when I read the other gospels). One thing did still bug me though. Who on earth was 'the disciple that Jesus loved'?! That drove me nuts! Of course, it's John! and when I read that I was like "WOW! That's sooo cool! I'm reading something written by a guy who actually spoke to Jesus, was actually with Jesus, he saw Jesus' death and resurrection. He was there!" That was the clincher. I believed.
Problem was, i didn't know what I was supposed to do once I believed. I told Peter that I had become a Christian and he arranged for me to go away on a christian camp. He gave me a lift there but i was on my own. The other teenagers were so friendly and accepting that I forgot that I had come up on my own. That fellowship, coupled with great teaching on the christian life, really helped me understand what I was supposed to do.
That was 5 years ago, and since then God has done so much in my life and helped me in so many ways. I could go on all day, but i've gone on long enough for now. Maybe I'll say something about how God has helped me another time.
I thought I'd post my testimony because it may help someone (or not, but all testimonies are cool to read anyway!
)Ok here goes:
My parents and most of my family are not christian, and I wasn't either. I had no interest in God as I was growing up. God was just something other people were interested in like cars, or music, or computer games etc. We moved house when I was 12 and as we were moving in a guy came over to say hello. The guy was a christian guy, called Peter, who was just visiting someone in the street and saw the van. Peter's wife Rosemary ran a bible study group for younger teens and so I went to that. Not because I was interested in the bible but because I wanted to meet more people in the area. I kept going though because we got to have crisps and drink at the end and we could play darts which was fun.
I got too old for the bible study group, but a christian youth group started up in the town where I lived so I went along to that, as Peter was one of the leaders. I was about 14 by now. But I still wasn't interested in God. I went because I got free food, I got to have fun and play games,there was lots of friendly teenagers there, and there was nothing to do on a Sunday night anyway! For all that all i had to do was sit through a talk for 20 minutes and get bored. Result!
When i was 16 something really got me down, I can't remember what it was now, but I remember I was lying in bed and I just suddenly began to wonder if this 'God' was actually there. So I asked Him! For the first time ever I prayed. God answered! It's a bit of shock when you aren't really expecting it! I think God spoke to me but i'm not entirely sure. What I am sure of was that I got an urge to go and read the bible (I now know that was the Holy Spirit- so I know God answered my prayer). So the following week at youth group I asked the leaders for a Bible and they gave me one. They said to start at Matthew and I'm glad they did because to me the Bible was no different to any other book, you know start at page 1 and finish at the last page, I probably would've given up about half way through Genesis if I did lol!
Anyway, I read through Matthew and Mark and Luke and I completely got the wrong end of the stick. I got really angry, incensed even. Jesus was this nice man who came along, helped a lot of people (feed them, healed them etc) and said some interesting things and then those morons went and nailed him to a cross!! That's the worse injustice ever!!!! Thats what I thought, untill I read John's gospel.
I started John's gospel, still angry about Jesus death, and as I read through I came to John 3:16. When I read those few lines, God turned the light on! I saw, for the first time, that Jesus was more than a man and that His death showed just how much God loved us. It wasn't such an injustice. With this new insight God have given me the rest of John's gospel lit up and I saw all the amazing things Jesus did in a whole new way. I even noticed that He raised from the dead this time as well (it didn't register when I read the other gospels). One thing did still bug me though. Who on earth was 'the disciple that Jesus loved'?! That drove me nuts! Of course, it's John! and when I read that I was like "WOW! That's sooo cool! I'm reading something written by a guy who actually spoke to Jesus, was actually with Jesus, he saw Jesus' death and resurrection. He was there!" That was the clincher. I believed.
Problem was, i didn't know what I was supposed to do once I believed. I told Peter that I had become a Christian and he arranged for me to go away on a christian camp. He gave me a lift there but i was on my own. The other teenagers were so friendly and accepting that I forgot that I had come up on my own. That fellowship, coupled with great teaching on the christian life, really helped me understand what I was supposed to do.
That was 5 years ago, and since then God has done so much in my life and helped me in so many ways. I could go on all day, but i've gone on long enough for now. Maybe I'll say something about how God has helped me another time.
