As a child, my greatest hope and ambition was to become a professional footballer. This is what I lived for, and what I wanted more than anything else in the world. When I was about eleven I made friends with someone who was going to point me to the Cross.
At this time my friend was not a Christian but his parents were, and it was through my contact with them that the turning point came in my life. I could see that his parents were different to anyone I’d met before. They had something that was real in their lives; they were honest, truthful and willing to help anyone.
I started to go to Sunday school and there I learned more about the cross, and what it meant to be a Christian. In the meantime, my friends’ parents moved to Anglesey, and it was whilst I was visiting them on holiday that I attended a gospel mission. I realised that I was a sinner before a holy and just God and that God was speaking to me. He was pointing me to the cross and there and then I gave my life to Christ and asked Jesus to come into my life and be my saviour. Since that time, instead of my main goal being football, it is now serving the Lord Jesus and telling other people about the way of salvation.
Things do not automatically become easy when you are a Christian. I was convicted that Sunday football was wrong, but I found it difficult to give it up. Then I saw the film “Chariots of Fire”, a true story about Eric Liddell, a man who had trained for four years to run in one race in the Olympic Games. When he discovered that the race was to be held on a Sunday, he withdrew but was given another opportunity to run in the 400 metres on a different day. As he was at starting blocks, a note was passed to him quoting the scripture ‘He who honours me I will honour’. Eric Liddell went on to win the Gold medal. I came out of the theatre crying, knowing about how I had let God down.
After that, I never played another Sunday game again. Whatever you have to give up for God, he will reward you a hundredfold, for God is no man’s debtor. Some time later I played for Stoke City Football Club, in opposition against England. One of my friends handed me a piece of paper before the game, and on it was written the same words ‘He that honoureth me, I will honour’. I went on to play for Bury FC for four years, and various other clubs also. Since the Lord has become the centre of my life He has blessed me in so many ways. I am happily married to two wonderful teenagers, and they too have committed their lives to Christ.
The Lord also enabled me to find my biological mother. I had a happy reunion with her and was able to spend important time with her before she died. In closing I hope and pray you too will find Christ as your own personal Lord and Saviour.
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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