What MY Saviour has done for Me.

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now, so after much thinking about writing it, I finally have! :)

"I was brought up in a loving christian family where my dad was a minister, so going to church on Sundays just seemed like the normal thing to do. I went to Sunday school each week before the service and learnt many stories about Jesus, but to me, they were just stories and I saw them as nothing more.

I was taken along to church, Sunday School and the youth group, week in and week out, and was brought up to believe there was a God. However, I did not really think about the whole concept of Christianity and the death Christ had died for me, a sinner, until my Grandad, someone who I was very close to and love, had died. I remember during one of the school holidays we went to my grandparents house in Liverpool when my Grandad was ill. It was the night that we were leaving that I went to my Grandad's room to say goodbye. I went and sat with him on the bed and we were both crying, and my Grandad told me that he was going to die and that he loved me. Whilst travelling home that night and a few days later, after he passed away, I was really made to think. His death made me realise how short life was and made me wonder what the real point in life was. It was from then on that I began to listen in church, and I realised that what I was being told each week were not just stories, but were truths. As I began to listen, I found myself wanting to know God and learn more about Him.

In 2001 dad was called to preach at Wheelock Heath. It was after many prayers and God's guidance that we then moved to Winterley. I hated the decision and couldn't understand why God would want us to move away from all our friends in Wales, so for a few weeks of being in Cheshire I felt unsettled with the huge change in my life. But as the weeks went on. and I got involved with Wheelers and settled into school, everything started to feel more and more normal.

One Friday night, a few months after I started YP, a man named Paul Hinton came and spoke about heaven and hell. This message really struck me, and I realised I was heading to hell because I was living a life without God, and one that was displeasing to Him, and the only way I could get to heaven was through Christ. Over the next few weeks I started to think about Christ again.

However, I didn't do anything about my life until I went on Bryntirion in 2003, my first EMW camp, where my dad was the Chaplain. I went along with my dad, my brother, Josh, and a few other young people from church. During that week of camp, I was challenged by what was said and it was the week that I had committed my life to God. Listening to the main talks and sitting in the dorm bible studies in the evening taught me so much, and made me see that it was then that I was to come to Christ, I wasn't to keep putting it off. It was something I was certain I should do, and knew I wanted to do. On the other hand, I knew I wasn't good enough to be in God's family, and was uncertain whether God would accept me, and it really worried me.

The Friday night of camp, the night before we came home, I prayed with Karen Williams, one of the officers, and four other girls. Karen opened her bible and read to us a few verses. One of the verses was Luke 11:9-10:

“So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, recieves; he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.'

This verse really hit me. If I truly believed and asked Christ for forgiveness and to come into my heart as my personal Saviour, He won't ignore me, but will open the door to me. After talking with Karen, I went to my room and prayed. I asked for forgiveness of my sin, and thanked God for dying for me, and asked Him to come into my life and make me the person that he intended me to be. In April 2008 I was then baptised at my church.

Asking Christ into my heart was the most important decision I've ever had to make, and I can honestly say that there has not been one point in my christian life where I have regretted accepting Him as my Saviour. The Christian life is definitely not a walk in the park. Over the past few years in particular, as a family, we have faced a lot of challenges, and I know there are so many more that will come my way, but I know, as it says in Philippians, that I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. I know that through all the challenges that I will face, He is with me always, and He loves me. I cannot thank Him enough for what He has done for me, and now I can look forward to that day where I will be with Him in heaven.

I was once dead in sin, but have been made alive in Christ :)"