A new meaning to life
Hi, my name is Tim. This is the story of how I became a Christian, coming to know Christ as my own personal Saviour and Lord.
The first thing I want to say is that it is God who makes a person a Christian and that he is often at work in a person’s life months and years before the day of their conversion. God started his work in me when I came to Leicester as a student in 1976.
On my own, and away from home, I started thinking about death and began to fear it. I wondered what happens after death. Nobody could give me an answer. A few years later, after a relaxing holiday in the south of France, I came to think that man was never meant to die.
I have always played a lot of sport and kept fit. My fitness at that time as a third-year student, and the tranquility I had enjoyed on holiday, made me think that we weren’t meant to die and death was an intrusion.
I started to think about God – that there was a God. I started to study the Bible. After a month of reading it I came to understand how Christ had died for our sins and my sins. I realised I was a sinner. I saw the sins that I had committed were wrong and against God. The greatest sin I saw was the pride in my heart.
Different person
At the same time I knew that God forgives sin, because Christ had died for our sins. On a wonderful afternoon, never to be forgotten, I knew my sins were forgiven and that I had peace with God. That evening I had the best night’s sleep I had ever had and the next day I knew I was a different person. I had become a Christian.
I read the Bible more and more and then started attending Melbourne Hall church in Leicester. My Christian life became an exciting new world, which opened up to me like when a caver discovers a large cavern of precious gems.
I experienced peace and joy as I discovered God’s great love for me and his wonderful plan of salvation in the gospel. Everything in my life took on new meaning and significance. I saw things through different eyes.
Now I knew what happens after death. Christ conquered death when he died on the cross. As a Christian, I know that when I die I will go to be with Christ in heaven. What a wonderful future awaits all those who put their trust in him!
God not only makes a person a Christian, but he also keeps them by his grace and power. Thirty years later, I am still a Christian (God doesn’t let go of his children). I would encourage whoever reads these words to put their trust in Christ.
In the Bible, God promises that we will find him when we search for him with all our hearts. I know that promise is true. Why don’t you put God to the test and seek him today? Read the Bible. Attend a Bible-believing church. God will never disappoint you, and you will never be ashamed.
Tim Oldridge
