My name is Mark and this is my story. When I was a boy I learned about God from my parents and my church. My parents were religious and said they believed in God, but in many ways how they lived their lives did not demonstrate true belief in a holy God.
As a young boy I believed all the things I was taught about God. I believed He was the all-powerful, all wise Creator of the earth and universe. I believed what the Holy Bible taught about creation in the book of Genesis. Later when I went to school I heard my classmates mock belief in the Bible. I began to have doubts about the Bible and belief in God. During this time I was also taught theories of the beginning of the world and life. I was told the world and all the order in the universe began from a “Big Bang”. Out of an explosion the earth and all the planets and galaxies were set in order. I was told that through the course of millions and millions of years life came into existence, and developed by chance into its many different and complex forms. I reasoned that this was science and that my school teachers had more knowledge than those who taught me the Bible. I rejected belief in the Bible and chose to believe instead in the Big Bang and the theory of evolution. I rejected solid “evidence of design”, that is seen in all of creation, which points to the designer, God. Instead, I placed faith in theories that go against the laws of nature; believing that a “Big Bang”, an explosion could create order and that evolution over millions of years could randomly produce orderly and complex forms of organisms. These processes are contrary to the observable second law of thermodynamics which demonstrates there is a tendency toward moving from order to disorder in the universe.
I lived about eight or nine years in this state of disbelief in God and belief in “scientific” theories contrary to the observable laws of nature. I remember my cousin and me foolishly calling out to God, “If you exist, strike us dead.” But God shows love and patience with foolish children. Life for me went on as purposeless and meaningless. I filled my time with senseless activities trying to entertain and amuse myself. But emptiness and loneliness filled my heart.
When I was 17 my parents who were together were not getting along with one another. They were often unhappy and yelled at one another. One time when I heard them yelling about getting a divorce, I thought I have my whole life ahead of me, I want a better life than this. I want a happy life. But where could I find this better life, this happy life? I had no idea. I did not think it could be found in God, because I thought I already knew about Him, and He did not bring me nor my parents happiness.
That summer before my last year in school, I went away from home for six weeks and lived with friends of our family. They were younger people with two small children. I enjoyed living with them. Life was much happier there. They believed in God and lived their beliefs in their daily lives. While I was there I went to church with them on Sundays. There I met true believers who lived their beliefs according to the Bible. How I wished I could believe in God as they did. But their Bible to me was not trustworthy. It was not believable.
I went back home to finish my last year of school. Since both of my parents worked, I came home from school to our empty house. One day I turned on the radio and switched stations to find some music that I liked. As I was switching stations I heard a song on a Christian radio station. The words of the song gripped my attention. “I don’t need to understand, I just need to hold God’s hand.” I began to listen daily for this song and heard other songs and Bible teaching. I started understanding Bible truth. I wanted the peace and joy that I saw in the lives of Christians that I met. But I still did not believe their Bible was trustworthy. There were many things I didn’t understand. I had placed my faith in theories of the Big bang and evolution. But now I came to realize that if I wanted to receive the same joy and peace they had in knowing God and His forgiveness of sin, I would have to turn to God from my sin and receive Him by faith. One day after several weeks of tuning into Christian radio broadcasting I finally understood what I needed to do. I got on my knees by the kitchen table and called out to God in prayer and turned to Him away from sin. That moment, by putting my faith in the finished sacrificial work of Christ on the cross in payment for my sin, I was saved from my sin and its penalty.
The day that I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior was a turning point in my life. It was the beginning of true spiritual life, a better life, life more abundant and life everlasting. It was the day of spiritual birth. Since then I have lived over 40 years as a new person in Christ. All this was made possible by receiving God’s forgiveness of my sins through the sinless sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
II Corinthians 5:17 is a verse in the Bible that explains the change that has occurred in my life. It states “Therefore if any man be in Christ; He is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Jesus Christ Himself said, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7)
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