Baptism Testimony

This is the testimony that I gave at my baptism service on 5th Feb 2006.

I have been brought up in a Christian family, for which I am immensely thankful. I think I must have become a Christian when I was about 9 or 10, but there was never a definite moment when I can recall giving my life to Jesus. However, I’d like to talk more about some of my experiences of being a Christian and how Jesus has helped me in my life, and how I have discovered more and more of Him.

I can remember when I was about 8 or 9 I was really afraid of dying. I remember running down stairs crying, and my father would read from the beginning of John 14:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

At the time I heard this, I really felt at peace in my heart. I know now that this was God at work within me bringing peace from my distress. It is such a relief to know that Jesus knows what will happen to each and every one of us and is in heaven right now preparing our never ending home. If we are Christians, we know that when we die we will go to be with God forever, which is such an amazing light at the end of the tunnel.

Through my teenage years, I was blessed by having a good youth group at my church. I had several good friends there and some good teaching in my home church. I also went to the Christian festival, soul survivor, where I learnt a lot about God and also experienced Him in various different ways. There, I realised that being a Christian is not about trying to feel bad about yourself, but rather I am allowed to enjoy worshipping God because of his grace towards me! At that time, I had a few good Christian friends and we talked a lot about problems we had and looked at the Bible for ways of solving them. This helped me to deepen my knowledge and love of God. However at that time, I wasn’t particularly active in sharing my faith or putting it into practise.

When I came up to Cambridge, I started telling lots of my friends about Jesus, because I started to realise how important He is. I switched to Theology in my second year, so I could learn more about God and his wonderful message to us. This study has really helped me to get to know more about God and this knowledge has made me realise how much more amazing God is than we can ever realise. When I look at some of the amazing intricacies of the Bible I cannot help but give praise to the God who had it all worked out before the beginning of time!

I’ve never killed anyone, but I know that I have sinned many times against God in various ways. For example, I have always wanted to be the best at most things, and although that in itself is not a sin it does lead to some. When I was younger I always used to try to make myself look clever by putting other people down and only seeing the bad things about them not their good aspects. I know that this is sin because in doing this I am not loving them as I know that God would want. I also know that because of these sins, I am not able to stand before a perfectly just God, because I deserve to be punished for these sins. The amazing thing which I thank God for each day is that he allowed his Son to suffer that punishment which I deserves so that I am able to enjoy a friendship with him in which he can help me overcome more of my sin. Without this assurance, I would be so worried about dying, because I know I deserve to be punished, but because Jesus has taken my sin away I am no longer scared by this prospect!

In a similar way, I’ve never had anything particularly bad happen to me, but I know that things will in the future. Even though I know this will happen in the future, I am not worried because I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and that I cannot be separated from His love by life or death, angels or demons or anything else in the whole world.