My first experience of Christianity was at the Church of England primary school I attended in West Cumbria. Bible stories were occasionally taught at school, and we would go to the local Anglican church for certain events. I don't have much memory of them and still had never truly heard or understood the gospel – the essential message of the Bible which shows us how to be forgiven for our sins and granted eternal life by God.
However, I do distinctly remember a lesson at school where our task was to learn and write down the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6. It became something I would recite most nights for the rest of my life, but I was kidding myself that I was already accepted and reconciled to God. He was certainly not my own 'Father who art in heaven' at this point.
I went on with a lack of understanding of who God is and my need for a Saviour. I would probably have called myself a Christian at this time and would have said I believed in the God of the Bible. But for years I would go on to live a life completely ignoring his commands and clinging to my sin, my wrongdoing. I knew nothing about the character of the God I 'believed' in, and I was rightfully due his just judgment still at this point.
