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1. Where am I coming from? I was born and raised in a small town in the North of England in the 50’s. I was sent to Sunday School as a matter of course until I was seven or so. The Sunday school was part of the local Church of England Parish church. I can’t remember much of the early years there but I do remember a TV programme or maybe it was radio about Hellfire. This really got my imagination and I remember, lying in bed, praying not to go to Hell. I was confirmed in the Church of England when 13. I remember that my vicar introduced us to the bishop of Jarrow as having memorised the Lord’s Prayer, The Communion Service and the Catechism. But he had never checked and that I certainly had not memorised two of the three. This made me think as I sat in that big church that these men did not seem to know what it was all about but maybe someone else did. At university I met someone who did know what it was about. A Japanese who explained that he had tried to understand the message of Jesus. He had found a verse John 7:17 where Jesus says: “If any man’s will is to do his[God’s] will he will know if the teaching [Jesus’] is from heaven or I[Jesus] am speaking on my own authority”. By trying to put others first for two weeks he realised he could not and decided that he must be a sinner as the Bible describes the human condition. We went on to do a Bible study, which detailed how I could be freed from guilt by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. The night of the second of three studies I prayed for Jesus to save me and to come into my life and heart. It is worth explaining how I came to commit myself to believing the Bible “cover to cover”. As a student I used to be an enthusiastic – if not artistic – amateur photographer. I was asked to photograph a couple for a prayer letter. While waiting for his fiancé to get ready Bernie asked me if I believed the Bible was God’s word. I said I had not though about it but it seemed it must be. Bernie was talking about unequivocal trust in the Bible as the final answer to any of life’s issues, and committing myself to God on this issue. I put this on hold until that summer when I was listening to another speaker talk about the same thing. At that time I saw it as the hand of God in my life and made the commitment that summer to believe the Bible completely – still not even having read all of it at that time. (To believers coincidences such as this are evidence to them that God is communicating with them. In this case the incidents were probably not independent and the subject of the inspiration of the scriptures and their infallibility needing to be accepted by faith is a common one.) After this my life was filled with Christian things. For the last 29 years or so I have been an active Christian. There have been periods when I have been fairly charismatic. (Not a personality trait but a particular position in Christian doctrine) I have tried praying in tongues. These are the least of the ”Spiritual Gifts” while I enjoyed this there was nothing in my experience to say that it was anything other than self-produced. |