Mike's Story

Transcript

My wife asked me to go on the Christianity Explored course. She’d been on it two years ago. But I was rather reluctant to go on the course. However, by going to church I’d spoken to people - Christians at church - who’d said it was a good course. And I’d also noticed how happy and contented Christians seem to be. So I thought perhaps there might be something in it that was worthwhile for me to go and see. So I rather reluctantly agreed with Maureen yes I’d go along.

I found the Christianity Explored course very interesting. It was informative, it was well structured and well organised, but most importantly it answered many questions that I had. The two major questions that I had was whether I could believe the Bible - that it was an actual factual representation of what happened. And the second one was whether I could believe in the resurrection.

And the minister and the Christian leaders who were on the course were always able to go to the Bible to give me the answers, and the Bible always provided the answers to me which I found pretty conclusive.

The second part was whether I could believe the resurrection, and I was given other references to read which helped me to understand the proof behind the resurrection. The course opened my eyes to who Jesus was, why he came to earth, and he came to save us. And that was the most important question that was answered for me.

I’m not sure that I was a Christian when I finished the Christianity Explored course but I’d certainly learned enough from the course for it to make me want to know more about becoming a Christian. So I met up with the minister on a one-to-one basis for a few sessions where we discussed the questions and also talked the doubts that I had. And I explored with him the fact that I wasn’t perfect and I didn’t think that I was cut out to be a Christian. But it became more and more obvious that Christians know that they’re not perfect and that it wasn’t something that I should worry about, because Jesus had come to earth to save us from the fact that we’re all sinners and that we’re not perfect. God understood that – that’s why he sent Jesus who was there to save us from that sin.

And so I realised, with help from the minster, that I had become a Christian because I believed in Jesus.

Since I became a Christian I’ve become more content. I’m certainly more tolerant of people, and I feel that I’m now leading a better life. I was the only non-Christian in my family, but now I feel that my wife and my son and myself are more of a family now – we’re part of God’s family - and that we can enjoy our life living the way that Jesus wanted us, needs us, to lead our life. And we’re very happy to do that.