“One changed life can change the world…”
The impact of one changed life cannot be ignored. And it says in the word of God that “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)
Below you will find stories of real people whose lives have been changed by the saving power of God, through His son Jesus Christ.
I had an ordinary middle class childhood in a pleasant Irish seaside town surrounded by loving and supportive parents. I did reasonably well at school and although not particularly wealthy, I lacked for nothing. We even attended church regularly, and although God seemed a rather remote and somewhat austere figure who we should fear, church attendance did give me a good sense of right and wrong and an awareness of the need to consider the needs of others in my personal choices. Outwardly I was comfortable and secure.
However Jesus himself said that “Life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions”. We live in materialistic society where success is measured by our consumption, our jobs, our cars, and the amount of stuff we own. When reduce life to the material and ignore the spiritual aspect of our beings, we do so at our peril. What Jesus meant was that the secret of REAL life is much more than scurrying working to buy more stuff – the meaning of life won’t be found there.
Although outwardly happy and content with every material need met, internally where no-one could see, I had an aching emptiness and longed to understand life’s purpose. I remember even at seven years old considering what life was about whilst lying in bed and at eleven sitting in the garden alone on a summer’s evening looking at the stars and being oppressed by melancholic thoughts about the vastness and anonymity of the universe and my place in it!
The turning point came when a Christian friend invited me to his church. The people were kind, genuine and loving and although I thought they were all slightly mad I was attracted to something I knew they had which I lacked which, although I didn’t realise it, was inner peace. A few weeks later it was Easter and the leader of the church spoke on Jesus’ Resurrection. At that moment I knew that I believed it, that it had actually happened and that therefore everything Jesus had said about himself was true.
Christians are often accused of having “blind” faith, but real faith, as the Christian writer Ravi Zacharias says, is the response of trust based on “the prophecies, person and work of Christ, His resurrection from the dead and numerous other affirmations [that] do have points of verification in history”. Although I didn’t know it at the moment, I have since researched the resurrection intensively and it stands the weight of two thousand years of scrutiny as a historical event. Since it was true, I knew I had to act, and that night I kneeled by my bed and asked Jesus to forgive the wrong things I had done and take control of my life.
From that moment my life has changed; I came to experience a deep sense of emotional peace and an inner completeness which can only be described as the lights coming on in my heart or the jigsaw pieces falling into place. I have come to realise that a fulfilled life is one that has the will of God as it’s focus not the appetites of the materialist culture we live in today. If you feel an emptiness inside or a purposelessness to your life – ask Jesus to reveal himself to you – I have experienced personally that he alone can meet those inner needs; nothing or nobody can do that but Him.