my rebirthday

μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν, οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ~ John 3:3

I just realised that today was my 10th rebirth-day, that is, I became a Christian exactly 10 years ago. My old self had passed away and my new life in Christ had begun. When I was young I always had a 'fear' of God but I never really committed myself to idea of following Jesus until I met my friend Mark.

My mother wanted for me to go through confirmation classes in a church. At the time we went to Magheralin Church of Ireland but I also attended the Boys Brigade at High Street Methodist in Lurgan. Mum said I could choose between the two and High Street offered a 12 week course in comparison to Magheralin's 18 months. So being a teenager, weighing up the options, obviously I chose High Street!

Little did I know God had a use for this vanity. This is where I met my mate Mark. It was his zeal, his lifestyle, his passion for God like I'd not seen before that intrigued me. For the first time, I had met a Christian who actually seemed to be living out the promise given to us in John 10:10 and I wanted some of this. There was something so much more exciting and fulfilling in Mark's witness, than what the world had to offer.

So the 12 weeks passed, I still hadn't made a commitment and it was the eve of my confirmation. I felt a stirring in my spirit, a choking in my gut, in response to the fact that I was about to stand up in front of the church and declare my faith in a God I hadn't commited to. So simply, in the stillness of my bedroom, I asked Jesus into my heart. Now since then I probably have 'given my life to Jesus' about 20 times in various meetings. You know - those meetings where the speaker tries to convince impressionable teenagers that maybe we didn't do it right the first time. However, I look upon that day, December 19th 1999, as the day God saved my life.

So rather cliché, there has been both mountains and valleys since then, but I praise God for my salvation, and I have indeed experienced the promises of John 10:10 in my own life. I realise my testimoney is not exactly exotic in compared to drugs and alcohol testimoneys, but I believe every Christian has an exiting testimoney. I mean come on, try to wrap your imagination around this - we have met with the living God, the very being that holds the world in one hand, and can speak galaxies into existance...

holy cow!

so now I encourage you to share your story...