Guy travelled down the different lanes of life earnestly seeking the truth. It was only when Guy saw that all the avenues had one common denominator that hope, freedom and forgiveness came.
Why did I survive?
A few times in my life I’ve been close to death. I would drive while I was drunk or stoned. One time I was hit by a freight train! The driver’s section of my car was squashed down and the steering wheel was pushed a long way back. Somehow I ended up in the back area of the car and escaped death and recovered consciousness in hospital a few days later. A few months later I wrapped my Valiant around a concrete and steel pole when I was doing about 80 m.p.h. The driver’s side of the car was pushed in a long way and it took them two hours to cut me out. Two days later I ‘came to’ in hospital. When things like this happen you wonder why you’re still alive. These experiences got me thinking about what life was all about and what happens when I die.
Truth exists – keep searching!
I came across many channels of information from things like New Age and Occult and I started to practice these. I was looking for answers. There are a lot of entertaining philosophies and nice ideas around and people tell you all sorts of things but when you start to look there are not really many answers out there. If you are seriously looking for truth, you just keep searching and searching, looking until you find it.
Down the dark lane
I am ashamed today that I did go the way I did … down the dark lane of life. It was a miserable state of affairs the way I treated my body. I had a beautiful, loving mother and a loving father and I have really shamed them in my life. I don’t have any excuses at all for the way I behaved. I can see the things about me influenced me and I made the decision to go the way I did. There is darkness in the world and there are things trying to stop us reaching the ultimate goal, which is the freedom and salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ offers.
Enticement for a young mind
Music, movies, even cartoons and my peer group all had a very enticing influence on me as a young person to do anything except what my parents told me to do. At the time I didn’t realise that the peer group had its own set of rules that I was unconsciously following. I made a real fool of myself. If alcohol were involved … I would go for the stronger one. If drugs were involved I would try a combination … the more the merrier. It is a miracle I am still alive.
The one common denominator
After years of searching down different tracks of different belief systems and finding flaws in them, I noticed there was one common denominator. The name Jesus kept coming up. Even though they only ever quoted Jesus as a prophet or a great man or great teacher, for some reason Jesus was always there. I had met people who called themselves Christians but my approach was very philosophical. I reasoned that Christianity was a nice idea for those who liked it. When I looked into why people needed Jesus, I would philosophise it away … it wasn’t me … I didn’t need that. I thought I was right in regards to this matter but I still had to keep searching and I kept finding different answers! I was searching for a natural way of living, which led to a bit too much ‘freedom’ in the way we treated the opposite sex.
More than just a great teacher
I decided I was going to give my whole life and soul to the cause of finding justice in a certain area. Now a fellow who lived in my area was in the same field I was interested in and I asked him to come out to talk to me. Now it turned out that he bought over bibles and started to share what they said. He sat down and started reading bits of the bible. “The wages of sin is death” … “We have all sinned and if we turn and return to the Lord He won’t bring His judgements on us.” He also looked at some of the prophecies1 written before Jesus lived on earth that were fulfilled when Jesus came to earth. The bible had predicted Jesus as the coming king. These ideas started to appeal to me. I thought; “So this is what Jesus is all about.” Before, Jesus was just a great teacher to back up what Buddha or Krishna said or to back some other mob selling their wares.
He had to suffer and die for the things I did wrong
This fellow showed me in the bible where it was foretold that Jesus had to suffer and would ultimately give up life. Jesus had to be beaten and whipped and nailed to that cross. Up until this point in my life I didn’t really know who Jesus was. Now I started to see that the reason Jesus had to die was because of me. Jesus was innocent but He died in my place, being punished for my sins so I could obtain forgiveness. I started to see that in the eyes of my Creator I had done things that were way out of line … things that make Him sad.
The truth bought freedom and a release
In a few days I was bought to a point of repentance. I dropped to the ground and I spent hours and hours there begging the Lord for mercy. At this time I was thinking of all the things I had done that were wrong throughout my life. During this time when I was asking for forgiveness I was crying … it was like a release. By the time I had gone through everything the tears had turned into tears of joy and laughter because I had finally found the truth. I had been looking for the truth all these years and when I finally found it, this truth had set me free. Words like ‘halleluiah’ (or praise the Lord) suddenly had real meaning to me. In the past I would have viewed anyone who said things like ‘halleluiah’ as being way off track or in need of some sort of psychological help, or people who needed some sort of crutch.
I resisted for so long
The Lord has always been very gracious to me, always had His hand in my life, patiently and gently drawing me and keeping me going. The devil tried to kill me through car accidents and drug overdoses but God has not allowed him to do so. I went down my path to find the truth and I tried everything but I resisted coming to Jesus for so long. I realise that all the knowledge I acquired in deep mediation and listening to various teachers was not worth a ‘pinch of salt’ when compared with what I have found through Jesus. The faith I was given and the wisdom that comes from knowing Jesus is immense and mind blowing.
God’s goodness
I read the bible and it explained why God put a rainbow in the sky. And God said, “I have set a rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth … never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life” (Genesis 9:12,13,15). I could now really appreciate the beauty of the rainbow even more as I realised it was a sign of the Creator’s goodness. I sat down under a gum tree in a paddock. (I used to be a bit ‘hippy’ … some people would say very ‘hippy’!) I looked at these big bull ants coming up to have a look at me but I had no fear of things. I was bubbling over with happiness as I realised that God loved me and I need not worry.
Joy, hope and new life
Why should God forgive me? I did some things that were pretty off. It wasn’t as if I was getting back at the world because I wasn’t loved. My family gave me plenty of love. The enemy somewhere had somehow caught me up but God did forgive me. God gave me new life and hope. I used to think the concept of hope was pathetic and useless … a waste of time … something that was in the future and nothing to do with the here and now. But I now had to adjust my thinking. God had given me peace in my heart that surpasses all understanding. God has provided for me and comforted me. Through my own doing, I have also had some disastrous things happen in my life since I became a Christian but God has refreshed me and given me wisdom.
Given me more than I could have imagined
I had seen lots of people die and commit suicide. In the past, it was no trouble to knock back a bottle of overproof rum in the evening as a nightcap after a day of drinking but God delivered me from the bondage of alcohol and I haven’t felt like drinking since. To still be alive and to have this addiction taken away from me was a miracle of God. God has given me a wonderful family and friends and a wonderful friendship with other Christians. I’ve got a more abundant life and I can’t praise Him enough for the joy in my heart.
Jesus – a hard act to follow
When you look at Jesus Christ and at what He did by being mocked, whipped and nailed to the cross for all the things we did wrong, you realise Jesus is a very hard (impossible) act to follow. When I think of the forgiveness I have received I find it hard to comprehend. I would like to thank God for His gift of faith and a soundness of mind that I didn’t have before, for reason and understanding and for perception and depth.
Jesus tells us time and time again “I tell you the truth …” and what Jesus says can be relied on.
Jesus promises us that if you “know the truth, … the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
Guy
1Prophecies
Prophecy involves in part foretelling things that are going to happen in the future. The Old Testament (the first 39 books of the bible) was written before Jesus was born. Writers in the Old Testament predicted that someone very special was coming. Because of this, people were expecting the Messiah (called Christ) to come. (See John 4:25.)
Jesus showed He was the promised Messiah by fulfilling these predictions through His life, death and resurrection.
Come to know your Creator (animation)
The Reason (music video)
