Jesus and Me
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have 1 Peter 3:15
Below is the story of how I came to know Jesus. I hope if you know Jesus this will encourage you in your walk, and if you don’t know Jesus that you would want to find out more.
There are two ways in which coming to know Jesus happens. There is either the Saul to Paul way as we see in his great coming to Christ in Acts 9, or there is the Timothy conversion – learning the scriptures from birth and gradually maturing in the faith (see 2 Tim 1:5). I am the latter of the two.
I always used to go to Church when I was young, with both my parents being Christians I kind of had too. However, although I think I always believed in God, I don’t think in my early life I ever grasped the message of Jesus and what the gospel really meant. I remember always trying so hard to live a good life even when I was really young but I would constantly screw up. (This generally happened anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours after I made the commitment!) So once I sinned and went wrong I thought I would give up because I had failed now, I would try again next week or maybe not for a long time. I was trying to attain salvation through a ‘good’ life, I didn’t understand this had already been done for me in Jesus dying on the cross. At that time all Christianity was to me was rules and legalism.
As I grew up more I would have said I believed in God, probably even that I was going to heaven. I would still call on God when I felt like it and didn’t take Him seriously. However when I was 13 God started to show me more about what knowing Jesus really was, not legalism and rules but liberating freedom. Then I went on a CYFA venture called ‘Foremarke’ in the summer and really saw how people could have a fulfilled life by knowing Jesus, not a life of law and boring religion. I saw this especially in a man called Jimmy Bell who has ever been a constant encouragement to me through his passion for Jesus, and his life has had a huge impact on me. Now on that camp I committed myself to Jesus. I’m not sure if this was the first time I ever did this as apposed to committing myself to ‘living a better life’, but straight after that camp I got home and things got very tough. Some very personal things happened in my life which I won’t go in to here, things that have affected me ever since, but things did start to change in the way I was living! All my friends at school knew I went to Church before that summer but all they saw was swearing, rudeness, arrogance, bullying, coarse joking and bad behaviour. This began to change for the better as Jesus worked in me, and soon I was able to be having great talks about Jesus with all my friends. He did great things in those times! About 6 months later on March 27th 2005 I was baptised at Bishop Hannington Church, Hove.
My last year at school was great! Another man who has had much influence in my life, Ross Ciano, ran a Christianity explored course with my school mates as they were really interested in Jesus. So often in that year Jesus blessed me with opportunities to share the gospel with friends and teachers. But the pressures of this world are many, and it has not been all plain sailing since those days. Countless ups and downs come with being a Christian, and also just in general with what life throws at you. The battle against un-belief is a constant one that is ever present in the life of a Christian, and assurance of forgiveness is a tough one for me. But I know that through Jesus’ death and resurrection I am declared Righteous before God and so have full assurance that nothing can separate me from His love. I hope as you read these words you can echo them for yourself, and if you cant then please do find out more about Jesus:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword…
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35,37-39)
Amen!