A True story of how God entered and changed my life. Just 20 years ago people knew me as a tough and violent person. You may not have been as bad as I was, but you do need the living Jesus Christ, and He could change your life, too!
I was born in Oulton Broad near Lowestoft England. I come from a family of five children, having two brothers and sisters, a Spanish father and an English mother. I was brought up with very little discipline and in my early teens started getting into trouble with the police. At around the age of fourteen I was sent to a Remand Home for riding motorbikes under age and at the age of fifteen I was back in court for the same offence, but this time I received a sentence of up to three years in Kerrison Approved School in Suffolk. At first I was bullied and pushed around but soon I learned to look after myself and became known as a fighter. After serving around nineteen months I was released but soon after I was back in court this time on assault
charges.
I was then sent to North Sea Detention Center near Boston for three months. After everything I had been through, I came out a hardened man and continued with my life of crime. I thought nothing of lying, cheating
and stealing, and would do anything for my own gain. In 1968 I married my wife Janet and had a son. My wife wanted him christened but I wouldn't set foot in a church for any reason. I became a bouncer at a seedy nightclub in town and then became a tattoo artist. My wife had always wanted another child but seventeen years went by before we had a baby daughter. Once again my wife wanted to have our new born christened but this led to several arguments, in the end I agreed. At the time I was having a speed boat built, and when I went over to the boat yard the men who worked there had to shut ther doors so ther women could not hear my filthy language. One day I was talking about my wife wanting the baby christened
when one of the men at the boat yard asked me to go along to his church.
He told me that they did dedications instead of christenings. Well, we went along one Sunday morning and continued to attend each week. By the time my daughter was dedicated to the Lord on her first birthday, the Lord had started to work in my heart. As the gospel was preached I gradually realized that God had sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins and that I had to ask Him to forgive me and come into my life.
One Sunday afternoon in November 1986 I cried out to the Lord Jesus for mercy and asked Him to save me from eternal damnation. From then on my life changed. I found that I could not swear or do any of the things I had been doing. A few weeks later I stopped tattooing because I knew this was not what He wanted me to do.
What had changed? I agreed with God that I am , a sinner. I accepted that Jesus' death on the cross was the only way I could get those sins removed. He did that to give me a new life in Him, eternal life that will last forever. I did not become religious but found a person, God's only Son who loved me and wanted me to be His. He promised never to let me go! Even if I let Him down I am in His safe hands. The Bible says... "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."(2 Corinthians ch.5 v 17)
Now I live each day for my Lord and Savior who suffered and died for me so that I could have my sins forgiven and receive eternal life, I am now 'born again' I have eternal life, and through the Grace of God I am going to heaven. Would you also like to go there?
"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
(Ephesians ch 2 v 8)
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John ch 3 v 16)
Where do we go from here?
Recently, and for some time, there has been much discussion on TV and radio about the mystery
of out-of-the-body experiences. People who have been on the point of death, but have been revived, describe how they apparently left their bodies, so that they could see their bodies, seemingly lifeless, below them. When you die your spirit or soul - which is the real you - will leave your body as an empty shell and, if you are born again, go to live in heaven with the One who has saved you. But if you rely upon your own merit, then you are not born again and you will come under judgement and will be sentenced to everlasting punishment.
Do you know where you are going?
All who want to go to heaven "Must be Born Again."
Jesus talked about heaven, and He said, "In my Father's House are many mansions." Also He said "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me." (John ch 14 v 2,6.)
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior there is. If Jesus is right (and He most certainly is),
then all other ways are wrong! Religions are a waste of time; they cannot save you, only Jesus can, God did not create the religions of the world; man did, to satisfy his conscience! Man is "forever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Timothy ch 3 v 7)
This is not Religion, it is Life!
Do you know the one who died on the cross for you?
When Jesus came He told us something that no religion has ever thought of, and which contradicts
the basic principle of all religions. He said, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God." (John ch 3 v 3). Jesus said that He is the only way to God the Father, and the new birth is the only way to heaven. What did He mean?
He meant a spiritual birth whereby a person is able to confess his sins to Jesus Christ, accept Him as Savior, and receiver a new life. This is the Gospel.
Look and Live. Out of Religion, and into Christ!
May we offer this prayer as your first step?
TO BECOME A BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIAN
"Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you died for me.
I acknowledge that I am a sinner.
Please come into my life and forgive my sins.
And save me. Amen."
Way of Life, 148 Blackisland Road, Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, N Ireland BT71 6NL
For further information contact Andy and Janet Acamon (01502) 732727
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