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“God has been sitting with me and reassuring me that he will always be with me! "
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Lucy Both John and I started our journey to the Lord together. Even though we have had different experiences in our journey we both feel that God has played his part in bringing us together. John and I found each other through the Lonely Hearts column and before meeting spent two weeks chatting on the phone and running up huge bills!! Whilst chatting we both found that God played a part in our lives and that we both believed in God and prayed. We believed God existed but weren’t recognising and following him as God. We didn’t realise the ways in which we were deeply rejecting him, but because of this we were still under God’s judgement and dead in our sins. But it wasn’t until things had hit an all time low that we decided that there had to be more to life than what we were experiencing and felt that we were being drawn to church. But which church? This is when Gloria my ex-mother-in-law played her part. She has been a Christian for over 25 years and attends a Baptist church in John I used to attend church when I was younger and had been confirmed. Once I joined the RAF I didn’t attend church but I still prayed and kept my faith to myself. So when Lucy suggested that we should go to church I agreed and I felt like I was coming home from being away. Some years ago I went through several harrowing experiences that I know I only got through by the grace of God, but these also left me with a lack of confidence, commitment and self-belief. I came to see that there was no way to be saved and have a relationship with God without repenting of my sin and trusting in Jesus alone to forgive through his death on the cross and make me right with God, choosing to follow him as Lord with the whole of my life. Since coming to TCM and becoming a Christian, I have found my confidence; I am committed to my marriage and most of all committed to God. I feel that a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I know that I now feel complete and that having God in my heart has made me a better person. When sitting at church I have experienced cold shivers down my back and know that this is when God has been sitting with me and reassuring me that he will always be with me. Lucy Like John I had also been christened as a baby and confirmed when I was a teenager, and have always believed in God. But I was beginning to realise that there is big a difference believing that God is there and truly acknowledging and worshipping him as God. God deserves and requires us to love him before everything and everyone and at that time I would have thought of this as outrageous. But then Gloria came into my life and for all the time I have known her she has been a Christian and I have attended church many times with her and questioned her about her faith. So when an Alpha course started at Church I agreed to go along, but unfortunately due to the lack of numbers the pastor had filled the spaces with Christians So there I was – the only non-believer or as I would say the only person that hadn’t got it – listening to all these people that had!. I came home very disillusioned with the whole thing and spoke to the pastor about my disappointment. I did not finish the course but truly believe that this is when I knew that I was missing out on something great and that God put me on the path to find him. Many years passed before I felt that I wanted to explore finding out about God, so I suggested to John that we attend church, so we started coming to TCM. Mike and Sandie invited us over to get to know us and even though I spent the whole night crying, I think the only time I wasn’t crying was when I was eating a chocolate brownie! Mike answered all the questions that I had and the strange thing was that he did this without me having to say anything. It was as if he knew what I was going to ask. One of my greatest fears that I wasn’t good enough for God and that he wouldn’t want me. But I can honestly say that, that night I knew I wasn’t good enough but didn’t have to be! This was the great news. I was never going to be good enough for God, in fact I was far worse than I ever realised because I’d spent my life rebelling against God. I was even doing this in the good things because I wasn’t doing them for him; I was doing them for me. I learnt that God loves me so much that he would pay the punishment for my sin and failure so that I could be forgiven, so that I would know him, and so that he could give me a new heart. God did want me and most of all I wanted him in my heart above everything. John Lucy and I have recently chosen to be part of God’s family, we repent of our sins and have asked His forgiveness, we have put our faith and trust in Him and now we have God in our hearts. Jesus died for us. He’s given us eternal life and we will be with Him forever. We want to follow Him and are trusting Him to hold us through all that life will hold. |
