All articles in category Articles
By Mark Thomas
Article
December 2018
Articles > Guest column
Healthy Christianity
Christianity is to affect the whole of life, and one of the great dangers Christians face is that of imbalance. They must always be on the lookout not to overemphasise some things and underemphasise others. Church history teaches us that imbalances not corrected can lead Christians away from the faith altogether. If Christianity is predominantly in our heads (intellectual understanding of the faith), with little emphasis on the heart (what we experience and feel) or hands (how we live from day to day), then we are in danger of a dry or dead orthodoxy. Balance If we overemphasise experience and feeling, it can lead to...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
Burden of guilt removed
I was born in Sticker, near St Austell in Cornwall, and my earliest memories are of attending the local Methodist chapel and Sunday school. When I was 15, I saw a film on the crucifixion at the cinema and was challenged by an evangelist afterwards. Then, when I was 17, I left school and got a job in local government. At this point I began to pray, and considered I was a Christian because of my religious observances and reasonably upright life. But I realise now that I was mistaken. About two years later, I was invited to a mission meeting at Nanpean where I...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
From creation to Christ
I was brought up in a Christian family where the Bible was taught, and from a very early age was surrounded by other Christians. However, this did not mean that I was a Christian myself, although at times I thought I was. But I had not personally accepted Jesus into my life. Deep down, I could see the urgent need for having a Saviour, but ignored it, and decided to become a Christian a lot later on in life, so that first I could live my life the way I wanted without having a higher authority that I had to explain my actions to. When...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
Drawn by God’s Word
I was born in 1964 and brought up in South Yorkshire. I have been married now for 28 years. Before my marriage, my interests were football, going to the pub and just having a good time, and I still wanted this life to continue after marriage. Neither my wife nor I had any interest in Christian things. Two beautiful girls were born to us. Our eldest daughter had a serious illness and died aged six years. The loss of our child affected us both terribly and, in my ignorance, I actually acknowledged God in a way, because I blamed him for the pain and suffering...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
Growth in Christ
I was born into a Christian home in Brunei. As a child my parents taught me about the Lord Jesus Christ from the Bible. My father is a preacher in our home church and my mother translates the sermons into Mandarin. However, it was not until I was 13 that I realised that I personally was a sinner and needed to believe for myself in Christ. I then accepted him as my Saviour and I experienced the joy and peace that he brings. When I was 16, I was baptised as a believer. In 2014 I left Brunei to study at the University of Sheffield...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
From confusion to conversion
My mother very sadly died when I was only 11 years old. My uncle and aunt, who already had five children took me in. They were kind but poor. After the war I was introduced to a very lovely man, who became my husband. The marriage produced two children, a son and a daughter. I recall that the thought of becoming a mother filled me with delight and also fear. What a huge responsibility! Could I, could we cope? However, the children did survive! We had them christened, as we thought that was the right thing to do. But we really had very little knowledge...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
Overwhelmed by God’s love
Many years ago, I found myself in a hopeless, helpless state; at a place in my mind where nothing made sense. I had become extremely cynical and could see no point in anything. The world seemed to be a place of suffering. Happiness had become an elusive state of mind that didn’t last and I didn’t expect it to — it never had and couldn’t be trusted. I had my own business. I travelled. I had friends, and outwardly was ‘doing okay’, but inwardly I had arrived at a place where peace didn’t seem to exist. Towards my friends and family my face was false,...
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By William Macleod
Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
What Jesus means to me
The Bible says that to believers Jesus Christ is ‘precious’. They love to speak of him and what he means to them in their lives. Jesus Christ means more to me than anyone else. As the apostle Paul says: ‘To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21). He is more important than my parents, my children, my delightful grandchildren; yes, even than my wife, and she is very dear to me and has been for the last 37 years. She couldn’t have been a better and more loving wife, but then, I got her from the Lord! I cannot remember...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
Hearing the true gospel
I was not brought up in a Christian family, but my parents had a friend who helped with leading a Sunday school. Therefore, my sister and I went along. I don’t remember much about it and it didn’t seem to make any impression on me at the time. Despite this, I often used to come home from playing with friends or from school saying to my parents, ‘Do you know that so-and-so doesn’t believe in God?’ I don’t know what my parents thought of that, as there was never any discussion about it. My sister and I also used to go to Girl Guides, part...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
God’s love working everything for good
Having grown up in a Christian home and attended church since I was born, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God. I definitely had a good understanding of the fundamental core of Christianity: that I was a sinner, that I was loved by God, and that there was forgiveness and salvation in Jesus’ death and resurrection. But, as I was aware from the age of eight, I didn’t know if I was necessarily a Christian. Even though I knew the information, the way I lived my life wasn’t much changed by it. Transforming power It is here that I want to...
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Article
December 2018
Articles > Evangelistic
Found by the Good Shepherd
I was born into a Christian home in Sheffield and lived in the city during World War II. I had two sisters and two brothers. My parents took us to church and Sunday school. I loved reading and, at the age of 11, read a Christian book written for children that explained Jesus as the Good Shepherd, who came to seek and to save the lost. This book set me thinking and, as I then began to read the Bible, I very gradually came to understand what Jesus had done for me in dying on the cross. Eventually I came to experience the joy and...
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