I wasn’t raised in a “Christian household” and went to a public school. Bullied and interested in science, I found myself quickly to be quite the angsty atheist. I was an atheist for as long as I can remember. When in Year 7 (2017), the Gideons came to our school, I unwittingly took a New Testament. Though I was apathetic, I kept it always in my bedside drawer. I’d occasionally flip through it, sometimes going to the “help with life’s troubles” section at the front.
By 2019, I was hurting. I fell into multiple addictions, and began seeking. I had seen several people around me who knew Jesus and they were different. They loved. They cared. In 2020, I really hurt a lot of people around me. I had become the most prideful, selfish, narcissistic and manipulative person I knew. Amidst that, I was invited to a Bible study through Genesis and Exodus. I accepted out of a fear of missing out, but it got me into the Word of God. I was using an online version of the Bible. After several weeks, we got into Exodus and it really hit me – wow, this is a perfect foreshadowing of what Jesus did on the cross. I can only explain it as God producing within me the desire to know Him, but I eventually gave my heart to the Lord, repented of my sins, and received forgiveness in Christ, turning to follow Him forever after.
“After several weeks, we got into Exodus and it really hit me – wow, this is a perfect foreshadowing of what Jesus did on the cross.”
After becoming a Christian, I was just using an online Bible for the Old Testament, but I always brought the Gideons New Testament with me wherever I went and read it daily through the Gospels. My foundation is on the Word, and through that I was able to know the Word who became flesh more intimately.
I have no words to express my gratitude to you and to the Lord. Praise the Lord, it is Him who gives the growth, and you were obedient and planted seeds. I still have my red New Testament and it is still very fruitful. This has been the single most precious possession I owned for a long time, and is still one of my most precious. I’m 18, and look forward to the rest of however long the Lord has given me to serve Him on earth.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17