Restoration Faith Centre

I am come that they might have life, and that they might

have it more abundantly. John 10:10 KVJ

 

John

 

I was born at the beginning of World War II while my family was evacuated to my mother’s home village of Deri, in Wales. I had a stimulating, well fed and cared for childhood, which included Sunday School and the inculcation of Welsh Baptist moralism. In my late teens I became interested in Philosophy and have spent decades in occasional study.

I did not get many answers that satisfied me intellectually, let alone spiritually, except to conclude that Existentialism is self-deception. I could never reconcile what I saw in the world with what I believed God should provide. I pitied Christians. There had to be an answer somewhere although it always seemed beyond my reach. I lived a hedonistic lifestyle, booze, girls, and sport.

Looking back over life I know now that there have been occasions when God has taken a hand in my life - the aeroplane that I did not catch which blew up in mid air, marriage, although it was not particularly a happy one, the miraculous phone call I got from New Zealand offering me a job the morning after I thought 'I will take a miracle to get us to New Zealand' - because, after 3-years trying, I was within a couple of months of the age limit to emigrate, and had no prospects.

There is a much more recent occasion: I started playing rugby when I was 21 and enjoyed it and the social environment - the partying and drinking that went with it, and I became a regular drinker. During the last 5-years of my marriage, alcohol became a refuge from life's problems. Subsequently, periodic binge drinking became habitual and increasingly frequent.  

One night, about 3-years ago, drunk and despairing I got on my knees and said "Please God help me." The next morning I got the phone book out and phoned around until I reached the Drug and Alcohol Service. They arranged for me to go into a rehabilitation centre, where I had the opportunity to establish an alcohol free lifestyle, which continues today. My children were incredibly supportive, and I give thanks to God and them for that. Sobriety gave me opportunity and the confidence to refocus on life and, Philosophy.  

My eldest son and my daughter made a mission of trying to convert me and with their help, finally, gaining some philosophical insights drawn, partly from the discoveries made about DNA, the penny dropped and I could see and understand a little of what God had done. And I am Born Again. I believe in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I believe in His Virgin Birth, I believe in Him Crucified, Resurrected and Ascended. And yes, I believe in Redemption and Salvation through Him, and Him alone.  

For Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life. None comes to the Father except through Me."