My Testimony

WHEN I was a boy of about 11 years old I received a copy of the New Testament from a group of Christians called the Gideons. When I was about 24 I had a concern that I did not know how to solve. My thoughts made me wonder if the Bible contained anything that might help. I opened the Gideons book and read it and I experienced a connection with God. One of the first things I prayed for in those days was to be free from fear. The adversary caused me to worry about a certain thing and I would pray and ask God to take away the fear and it would go. It was then that I Knew God was real and he was someone I could call upon for needs. The relevant scripture is Romans 8:15. Since then I have proved the power of Jesus Christ through prayer, grace, baptism and more. I was baptized at the Elim Pentecostal Church, High Wycombe in 1984. This was the born again experience of a repentant sinner.

BEFORE I became a Christian I believed that everything that happened was somehow predestined. However a belief in the scientific reality of determinism can be an obstacle to repentance of sin. It is not easy to feel apologetic for something that you don't think was your own fault. A truly repentant sinner is a brokenhearted soul who puts aside his scientific understanding of things and allows the Holy Ghost to convict him of his guilt and cause him to weep while he repents. For the time it takes to do this he blames himself for his sins. He thinks, It was me, I did it, I was the agent, I'm the guilty one. He does not attribute anything to the invisible powers, God his creator or Satan the tempter. The brokenheart prayer is what connects us to God's forgiveness and enough grace to live an upright life. For minor mistakes a calm recitation of words (such as Our Father who art in heaven forgive us our trespasses) may be enough to connect. But for serious mistakes it may not be enough to connect. God knows the difference between the remorseful man and the calm actor. Read Psalm 34:18.

IN 1987 the minister of a church I attended prophesied unto me from Ephesians 3. At verse 8 this chapter mentions the unsearchable riches of Christ. After this prophecy God caused events to happen that caused me to discover interesting books I have read. I discovered many of these books by chance between 1987 and 1991. Below I have listed the following details about some of the books : 1 Name 2 Year of discovery 3 Place of discovery. The Lion Encyclopedia of the Bible 1987 at WH Smith High Wycombe. The Jerusalem Bible 1987 at WH Smith High Wycombe. The Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha 1988 at Reading Library. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English 1988 at Reading Library. The Apocryphal New Testament 1988 at Oxford Library. The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Famous Phrases Late 1988 or early 1989 at High Wycombe Library. The Other Gospels (New Testament Apocrypha) 1989 at Oxford Library. The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs in 1991 at Reading Library. Ethics of Aristotle some time before 1991 at Reading Library.

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George Warner