My Journey - A Testimony
Throughout my life I have always been interested in the concept or faith, religion and spirituality. In my 'early' days I chose to follow my Mum's Christian faith and after deciding to get confirmed at the age 12 I became a server. However after a while I didn't feel enthused about this 'faith' thing and moved on with my life leaving thoughts of religion and spirituality behind for a while. When I started to travel Australia in my late teens I met many people of different backgrounds, faiths and religions and once again started to ask my own questions. Then on my return I started to discuss various religions and spiritual view points with friends of different religions from Anglicans and Quakers to Buddhists, Muslins and Krishnas and perhaps more importantly my Mum, who's genuine and devoted faith in Jesus was inspiring.
One thing for me however became apparent that despite knowing about these religions none of them appeared to inspire me, I didn't feel any of them could hold sway and actually be 'real'. I started to read books and much of my early to mid twenties revolved around a more 'spiritual' than religious search, taking on board much of what had been written by various authors. Then in 2007 I moved to Surrey and through a certain chain of events that trough work I got involve with Rezurgence (http://www.rezurgence.com) - for those who don't know, Rezurgence is a Christian based charity that travels around supporting riders and mechanics at Downhill Mountain Biking events, both in the UK and Europe. In Rezurgence I met some great people who have become very close friends and over the course of the following 18 months I developed a close friendship with Will, who's honest testimony after many straightforward and open discussions lead to think that maybe just maybe Christianity did actually have possibilities and it was after this that I decided (spurred on by my mum's testimony of her alpha course many years previously) that I would enroll on an alpha.
By chance looking for an Alpha I came upon Jubilee Church Farnham (http://www.jubileechurchfarnham.org) and the friendly response to my enquiry and invite to a BBQ which incidentally I didn't attend gave me assurance that at least they were nice people I was to spend 10 Thursday evenings of my life with! So I arrived. And dinner was nice, the first couple of weeks passed smoothly, I didn't have to speak much and spent most of the time listening, some questions were being answered and some not and so over the following weeks I also spent a few lunches with Sean (while I ate healthy salads and he have the Cheese and bacon Burgers - honestly it was that way round, well once). All of a sudden as questions that had been floating around my head started to become answered, others became less important and some even irrelevant while new ones sprang from ideas I’d never contemplated. I came to realise that Christian's weren't all stereotypical sandal wearing evangelists (that was how I was introduced to Will) but normal genuine folk like me, lol
Over the course of my Alpha there were two key points and as I'm not Nicky Gumble (the Guy that invented it) I'm not going to even try to explain the complexities of it all, but safe to say I was shown enough irrefutable evidence in my eyes to believe that Jesus actually existed AND more importantly that he Is the Son of God. So now with the theoretical point out of the way and I was well on my way to believing that the whole concept of Christianity was true! The next major point for me was on November the 17th two days after what is known as the Alpha w/e where we take a w/e away to discuss the Holy spirit. That w/e I had been a little caught up in it all but on the way to work on that Monday morning I came to the conclusion that Christianity was the bag for me and I asked Christ to come into my life. And after this happened... well the first thing I noticed was a pure elation in feeling settled, I was no longer looking but had found, a bit like that relief you get when you think you've lost your wallet but you find it in the fridge, well maybe that’s just me, but oh so much greater. I had been looking for an answer so long and suddenly the comfort and settledness I felt confirmed it all for me. I started to see the path that Jesus had laid down for me, and how his Spirit had guided me along the way through the places I’d been and the people I'd met.
Since coming to faith in November I have not I must had any visions of angels dancing or witnessed miracle healings, but I'm only starting out! What I have noticed is my attitude to life, I have started to approach life with a much more relaxed approach, obstacles I perhaps made for myself seem to no longer be present and my relationships with people have become much more honest and open. God still has a lot of work to do with me as no ones perfect but I can see the way his spirit is working within me, and the people around me, and I'm so excited about what is still to come in my life. However on February the 15th this year I did feel God touch me and while at church that Sunday morning I was overcome with an unstoppable urge to speak out and bring a word to the Church, as if God himself was spilling out through me, and on that note I feel I shall conclude and just thank the Lord, Christ Jesus for coming into my life and what he has done and is yet to show to me.
Originally posted by: Wyndham