I grew up on the Isle of Man in a non-Christian home. If the things of God were spoken of at all, it would be dismissively and, sometimes, in a hostile way. Over time, God providentially placed a Beach Mission right down the road from my house! It was run every summer for two weeks by a group of Christians from the Wirral.
From an early age, I began to regularly attend the Mission. Here, the Bible was taught, and God was talked about openly and positively – which was not something that I had experienced before; it was new to me. Later, through this Mission, and despite only being around Christians for 2 weeks a year, I would come to believe that God exists, and that Jesus had died for my sins, but I really had no idea what that meant.
God graciously worked in my parents’ hearts to the point that they would eventually drop me off regularly at Sunday School from around ages 10-12. Once I got too old, I stopped going to church and continued to live my life as if I didn’t know God, thinking that if I believed that he existed, that’s all I needed. I just didn’t know that there was anything more to the Christian life than that.
God used the patience and work of faithful Beach Mission leaders who would continue to sit with me and answer my questions. A few years later, after conversations with Beach Mission leaders, I began to realise that I knew about God, but didn’t really know him. I was desperate and lost at this point. I didn’t own a Bible and my parents didn’t allow me to go to church, so I lived life without having anyone to to steer me onto the right path. I was left undiscipled. No one was there to show me when I drifted (which I often did!) or from God’s word, to show me the right way to live.
Eventually, I ‘rebelled’ against my parents’ wishes and walked to a nearby church each week, and I discovered that there was a Christian Union in my school, so I attended that also, as well as the weekend residential that they ran, and summer camps with my Beach Mission friends. It was during this time that I came to know the risen Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.
God opened my eyes to the gospel. He revealed himself to me. I became convicted of my sin and came to a true realisation of who he is. I had come to realise that God wasn’t a distant being who created the world and left us to it, but an ever-present Father who loves me and sent his son to die on the cross, to save me from eternal misery and into eternal communion with him. I now strive, joyfully, to live my life in his service, to his glory.
1 Peter 1:3-5 says: ‘Blessed be the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’
It is in this hope that I now live free of fear, and I am so thankful that God has worked in my life to bring me into the knowledge of the salvation that Jesus Christ has bought for me.
Try God.
Also Read:
- Men in the Bible: A Man of Considerable Goodwill
- The Myth of Omnipresence (1): The 5 Places God Always Is
- Overwhelmed
- Great Truths Adults Learned
- I Passed a Professional Exam and Got a Job After 10 Years
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