Testimonies Page
This page holds testimonies from some of the people who have been touched by our message of love and faith in Jesus Christ. The ages listed were correct at the time the testimony was written.
July 2006
I first learned about the Jesus Christians when I was 16 years old. My mother had brought home the book "Survivors", and I was intrigued by her testimony that the guy she got the book from was willing to let her have it for only a few pennies. I immediately started reading the book, and felt an overwhelming sense throughout that what I was reading was inspired by the Spirit of God. From there I began to visit the website and learned a great deal of information about what Jesus actually taught, and what Jesus expects of his followers.
Up until this time, I believed that what God wanted from my life was for me to grow up to be a professional basketball player who acted with circumspect behavior. As such, my life to that point reflected that life vision. However, upon being invited to look at what Jesus actually said, I realized that this is not what Jesus wanted. Jesus' plan for our lives is not for us to sell our God-given talents to earn money, and then claim to be Christian without disciplining our lives around what he taught. Rather, Jesus wants us to do what he has said (Luke 6:46), and to go into all the world and teach others to do the same (Matthew 28:19-20).
Still, at this point, basketball was the central focus of my life. I excelled in school as well. However, as I was being confronted with God speaking to me through my conscience, I began to progressively lose interest in the game and all of the politics required to gain recognition as a standout player. As the months went by, I could hear God's calling for me to obey Jesus getting louder, but I put off responding to this call by giving myself a list of excuses why I couldn't do it "yet." As I was searing my conscience at this point, my body started reacting and providing signs to me that something was not right in my life. Still, I ignored these signs and continued to do what society told me I should do.
Finally, after two years of haggling with God, I decided I wanted to work with the Jesus Christians. We had just completed spring vacation at my high school, and, being a senior, the deadline was closing for students to declare which college they would attend for the next year. I had quite a few scholarship offers to some of the more prestigious universities in the United States, but I knew that God did not want me to sign a letter of intent to go to college. Contrarily, God wanted me to sign a contract with Him to go into all the world and preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15).
I went for a trial week before joining, and became even more convinced that this was what God wanted me to do with my life. After the trial week, I went back to my parents' house with two other members of the community to inform my family in person of my decision. However, instead of being greeted with rejoicing and congratulations, it was quite the opposite. My family strongly opposed my decision, and violently attacked one of the members who had come with me. After that, they took me off seperately from the community and tried to fill me with paranoia against the community, and to emotionally black-mail me into not going through with my decision. It made me see why Jesus said that anyone who is not willing to hate his own family and even his own life cannot be his disciple (Luke 14:26)
Well, I decided I love Jesus more than I love my family (Matthew 10:37). I have been a part of the Jesus Christians community for three months. I really appreciate all of the encouragement I receive from my brothers and sisters in Christ. Also, I enjoy the travelling and being able to live communally with people from so many different cultural backgrounds. I am thankful for everything and plan to continue to serve God for the rest of my life.
- Joe
Joe, aged 18.
I first learned about the Jesus Christians when I was 16 years old. My mother had brought home the book "Survivors", and I was intrigued by her testimony that the guy she got the book from was willing to let her have it for only a few pennies. I immediately started reading the book, and felt an overwhelming sense throughout that what I was reading was inspired by the Spirit of God. From there I began to visit the website and learned a great deal of information about what Jesus actually taught, and what Jesus expects of his followers.
Up until this time, I believed that what God wanted from my life was for me to grow up to be a professional basketball player who acted with circumspect behavior. As such, my life to that point reflected that life vision. However, upon being invited to look at what Jesus actually said, I realized that this is not what Jesus wanted. Jesus' plan for our lives is not for us to sell our God-given talents to earn money, and then claim to be Christian without disciplining our lives around what he taught. Rather, Jesus wants us to do what he has said (Luke 6:46), and to go into all the world and teach others to do the same (Matthew 28:19-20).
Still, at this point, basketball was the central focus of my life. I excelled in school as well. However, as I was being confronted with God speaking to me through my conscience, I began to progressively lose interest in the game and all of the politics required to gain recognition as a standout player. As the months went by, I could hear God's calling for me to obey Jesus getting louder, but I put off responding to this call by giving myself a list of excuses why I couldn't do it "yet." As I was searing my conscience at this point, my body started reacting and providing signs to me that something was not right in my life. Still, I ignored these signs and continued to do what society told me I should do.
Finally, after two years of haggling with God, I decided I wanted to work with the Jesus Christians. We had just completed spring vacation at my high school, and, being a senior, the deadline was closing for students to declare which college they would attend for the next year. I had quite a few scholarship offers to some of the more prestigious universities in the United States, but I knew that God did not want me to sign a letter of intent to go to college. Contrarily, God wanted me to sign a contract with Him to go into all the world and preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15).
I went for a trial week before joining, and became even more convinced that this was what God wanted me to do with my life. After the trial week, I went back to my parents' house with two other members of the community to inform my family in person of my decision. However, instead of being greeted with rejoicing and congratulations, it was quite the opposite. My family strongly opposed my decision, and violently attacked one of the members who had come with me. After that, they took me off seperately from the community and tried to fill me with paranoia against the community, and to emotionally black-mail me into not going through with my decision. It made me see why Jesus said that anyone who is not willing to hate his own family and even his own life cannot be his disciple (Luke 14:26)
Well, I decided I love Jesus more than I love my family (Matthew 10:37). I have been a part of the Jesus Christians community for three months. I really appreciate all of the encouragement I receive from my brothers and sisters in Christ. Also, I enjoy the travelling and being able to live communally with people from so many different cultural backgrounds. I am thankful for everything and plan to continue to serve God for the rest of my life.
- Joe
April 2007
I grew up in the churches, was known as a "good girl" and was content with wearing the "Christian mask", also known as respectability. I was prepared to graduate high school, go to college and follow the course of a mediocre conventional life.
But God has a way of shaking things up.
Just before I graduated from high school, one of my church friends began to question the roots of his faith. He too had been raised in the churches, but was now wondering if going to church, attending Christian rock concerts and wearing T-shirts with cute Christian slogans on them was all there was to following Jesus. I was getting a little nervous about his desire to dig deeper into real Christian faith. Then my friend asked me if I could really be happy with a lukewarm life.
At that point, I realized that I had to be honest with myself and with God. I either had to stop using God and church as an excuse to live for myself by no longer calling myself a Christian, or I needed to find out what being a disciple of Christ meant. I had to learn that going to college to make a career our of singing songs about God was probably not what Jesus meant when he said "Take up your cross and follow me".
I hadn't previously considered doing the more radical things that Jesus said because I didn't think that anyone was doing it anymore, since the days of the first century church had passed. Besides, I thought, "going out into the world to preach the Gospel" without a college degree and funding from a big church was impossible! But God showed me, right when I needed, that there are people who try to live the simple life of faith and love that Jesus taught, there are people who believe Jesus when he says that God will provide for us without the support of a religious or governmental institution. God hooked me up with some of these people, who began to show me what it means to believe in Him. Really believing means truly trusting that the real God will provide your needs. True faith means reaching out and knowing that God is on your side without having to trust a paycheck or a church to keep you safe.
Jesus said that you need to give up everything, spiritually and materially, to be a disciple of his. I had always been taught that I must be willing to do that, but I now wondered, "If I am really willing to do it, why don't I just do it?" God gives back in unpredictable blessings when we give to him what was his in the first place. I had grown up thinking that I was poor, but when I took Jesus seriously about selling my possessions and truly trusting in his provision, I saw how rich I was and still am. I am learning how it is more blessed to be giving my life instead of always being the one receiving.
I began to see that there was much more to life than my sterile little church mold, as I have been learning true faith from former atheists, former addicts and even other former lukewarm churchgoers. I was amazed at the diversity of backgrounds and nationalities of people who are now working together to serve God. We all had one thing in common to bring us here: God had showed us all that Jesus was not what we had expected him to be and that his words rang true where nothing else fulfilled. For me, it was that Jesus' life and teachings were and are not conventional and definitely not mediocre. I am learning to break out of the mold.
Grace, aged 18.
I grew up in the churches, was known as a "good girl" and was content with wearing the "Christian mask", also known as respectability. I was prepared to graduate high school, go to college and follow the course of a mediocre conventional life.
But God has a way of shaking things up.
Just before I graduated from high school, one of my church friends began to question the roots of his faith. He too had been raised in the churches, but was now wondering if going to church, attending Christian rock concerts and wearing T-shirts with cute Christian slogans on them was all there was to following Jesus. I was getting a little nervous about his desire to dig deeper into real Christian faith. Then my friend asked me if I could really be happy with a lukewarm life.
At that point, I realized that I had to be honest with myself and with God. I either had to stop using God and church as an excuse to live for myself by no longer calling myself a Christian, or I needed to find out what being a disciple of Christ meant. I had to learn that going to college to make a career our of singing songs about God was probably not what Jesus meant when he said "Take up your cross and follow me".
I hadn't previously considered doing the more radical things that Jesus said because I didn't think that anyone was doing it anymore, since the days of the first century church had passed. Besides, I thought, "going out into the world to preach the Gospel" without a college degree and funding from a big church was impossible! But God showed me, right when I needed, that there are people who try to live the simple life of faith and love that Jesus taught, there are people who believe Jesus when he says that God will provide for us without the support of a religious or governmental institution. God hooked me up with some of these people, who began to show me what it means to believe in Him. Really believing means truly trusting that the real God will provide your needs. True faith means reaching out and knowing that God is on your side without having to trust a paycheck or a church to keep you safe.
Jesus said that you need to give up everything, spiritually and materially, to be a disciple of his. I had always been taught that I must be willing to do that, but I now wondered, "If I am really willing to do it, why don't I just do it?" God gives back in unpredictable blessings when we give to him what was his in the first place. I had grown up thinking that I was poor, but when I took Jesus seriously about selling my possessions and truly trusting in his provision, I saw how rich I was and still am. I am learning how it is more blessed to be giving my life instead of always being the one receiving.
I began to see that there was much more to life than my sterile little church mold, as I have been learning true faith from former atheists, former addicts and even other former lukewarm churchgoers. I was amazed at the diversity of backgrounds and nationalities of people who are now working together to serve God. We all had one thing in common to bring us here: God had showed us all that Jesus was not what we had expected him to be and that his words rang true where nothing else fulfilled. For me, it was that Jesus' life and teachings were and are not conventional and definitely not mediocre. I am learning to break out of the mold.
March 2004
I have had no church history, and didn't really call myself a Christian but I always knew there was a God or something bigger than ourselves.
When I started college in September, 1999, I also started to do a lot of drugs and just have fun with my friends. Towards the end of the year 2000 I was starting to become depressed and disillusioned with life. I found it frustrating that I could not have meaningful conversations with people. I used to pray to God to help me because I felt so low, and to give me hope.
When the attacks on the World Trade Center happened on September 11th 2001, it reminded me of the fall of Babylon which I had read about in a book called Armaggedon for Beginners, which I received (before starting college) from a Buddhist monk. I rushed home to read it and I had a strange feeling come over me, that I was being given the truth and I was being covered (it was like I was being baptised) by Jesus' teachings. The book made me see that there was meaning and a purpose in life and in particular, in the teachings of Christ.
The problem was that after recieving this revelation I reacted in fear, which slowly but surely led me down the road toward insanity and hell. I became paranoid and deeply depressed. My body hurt and I could find no way out of the hell that I was in.
I would cry to God and read what Jesus said. I would also TELL everyone that I was going to work for God and not work for money, and tell them about the other things that Jesus said. But I was deceiving myself. I was becoming more and more double minded because I knew the truth yet I was not acting on it.
I continued this way for a year until I finally made contact with the Jesus Christians to ask if I could come on a trial week with them. When I came to visit it was clear to everbody that I was an emotional wreck. The whole time I was with the Jesus Christians all I could hear were the words, ''fear not", but this was what I was doing. I listened to my fears and I left halfway through the week.
I returned two weeks later as a visitor and it was then I stole money from them to buy cigarettes. I was starting to see that doing what Jesus said was not going to be easy. So I decided to "screw it all" and to return to sin, regardless if I went to hell or not. It was strange because at this point all my depression went. I believe it happened because I wasn't doubleminded anymore! This to me signified the fact that I had blown it all. This took place around September 2002.
For the next year I drank and carried on smoking pot to drown my sorrows as I thought I was going to hell. I would tell everyone that I was going to hell and I would tell them why.
At time I would try to read my bible and pray, but I couldn't. Then in August, 2003, I wrote to the Jesus Christians again and asked if I could come to see them. I visited a couple of days a week for a little while to try to sort through issues. I made some progress, but then I would leave and return to my life and the issues would still be there.
I was contemplating suicide. I cut my body up one night because I was thinking if I hurt myself then maybe God will see that I was sorry.
Then I lost my job and I lost my flat (apartment) because of my drinking. I went to stay at my grandma's house to look after her. I was doing a lot of free work in her garden and it felt good. I could only stay there for three weeks, because nobody was supposed to be living in her house. I had to choose between trying to work for God, (which the Devil was telling me would be pointless because I would make mistakes) or returning to work for money.
So on October 1st, 2003, I went to live with the guys in London, as a visitor. At last I could read my Bible and pray, because now I was doing what I knew was right. After a month and a week I forsook all and started to work for God full-time.
I thank God for having the patience to deal with me, even after I played so many games with him for two years.
If only I had reacted in FAITH and not FEAR the first time I heard the truth. I am happy now working with my brothers and sisters and living by faith. It is the most radical thing happening in the world and each day I learn more and grow closer to God.
Simon, aged 20.
I have had no church history, and didn't really call myself a Christian but I always knew there was a God or something bigger than ourselves.
When I started college in September, 1999, I also started to do a lot of drugs and just have fun with my friends. Towards the end of the year 2000 I was starting to become depressed and disillusioned with life. I found it frustrating that I could not have meaningful conversations with people. I used to pray to God to help me because I felt so low, and to give me hope.
When the attacks on the World Trade Center happened on September 11th 2001, it reminded me of the fall of Babylon which I had read about in a book called Armaggedon for Beginners, which I received (before starting college) from a Buddhist monk. I rushed home to read it and I had a strange feeling come over me, that I was being given the truth and I was being covered (it was like I was being baptised) by Jesus' teachings. The book made me see that there was meaning and a purpose in life and in particular, in the teachings of Christ.
The problem was that after recieving this revelation I reacted in fear, which slowly but surely led me down the road toward insanity and hell. I became paranoid and deeply depressed. My body hurt and I could find no way out of the hell that I was in.
I would cry to God and read what Jesus said. I would also TELL everyone that I was going to work for God and not work for money, and tell them about the other things that Jesus said. But I was deceiving myself. I was becoming more and more double minded because I knew the truth yet I was not acting on it.
I continued this way for a year until I finally made contact with the Jesus Christians to ask if I could come on a trial week with them. When I came to visit it was clear to everbody that I was an emotional wreck. The whole time I was with the Jesus Christians all I could hear were the words, ''fear not", but this was what I was doing. I listened to my fears and I left halfway through the week.
I returned two weeks later as a visitor and it was then I stole money from them to buy cigarettes. I was starting to see that doing what Jesus said was not going to be easy. So I decided to "screw it all" and to return to sin, regardless if I went to hell or not. It was strange because at this point all my depression went. I believe it happened because I wasn't doubleminded anymore! This to me signified the fact that I had blown it all. This took place around September 2002.
For the next year I drank and carried on smoking pot to drown my sorrows as I thought I was going to hell. I would tell everyone that I was going to hell and I would tell them why.
At time I would try to read my bible and pray, but I couldn't. Then in August, 2003, I wrote to the Jesus Christians again and asked if I could come to see them. I visited a couple of days a week for a little while to try to sort through issues. I made some progress, but then I would leave and return to my life and the issues would still be there.
I was contemplating suicide. I cut my body up one night because I was thinking if I hurt myself then maybe God will see that I was sorry.
Then I lost my job and I lost my flat (apartment) because of my drinking. I went to stay at my grandma's house to look after her. I was doing a lot of free work in her garden and it felt good. I could only stay there for three weeks, because nobody was supposed to be living in her house. I had to choose between trying to work for God, (which the Devil was telling me would be pointless because I would make mistakes) or returning to work for money.
So on October 1st, 2003, I went to live with the guys in London, as a visitor. At last I could read my Bible and pray, because now I was doing what I knew was right. After a month and a week I forsook all and started to work for God full-time.
I thank God for having the patience to deal with me, even after I played so many games with him for two years.
If only I had reacted in FAITH and not FEAR the first time I heard the truth. I am happy now working with my brothers and sisters and living by faith. It is the most radical thing happening in the world and each day I learn more and grow closer to God.
March 2006
A bit about me... I was raised the only child of a single mother. My grandfather was an Anglican archdeacon. My mother was running the local Sunday-school, and I went every week. I went to an Anglican school, and soon enough I got into a group of friends there who invited me to come to their (Anglican) church in Mosman, Sydney. Even when my mother finally married, it was to a man whose parents were missionaries in Tanzania. As a consequence, I never really thought of myself as anything other than Christian. I always had a theoretical knowledge about God, and what Jesus had said.
During my childhood, I had encountered some contradictions a few times. I noticed the passage in the books of Acts, that said that all of the Christians lived together and shared everything that they had in common. When I asked my mother why we didn't do this today, she just smiled and said that the Holy Spirit was more powerful then.
My favourite passage in the bible has always been in Matt 6, where Jesus says not to worry where our food and clothes come from. There were a few times when my mother was stressing about how she was going to pay the bills, and I reminded her of that passage.
I often mused as a child about one day giving up everything , and keeping only a bible. I knew in theory that God would provide for me. In practice, my life was very inconsistant with this knowledge.
As I grew up, I got more and more into computers, and for computers, you need money. My dreams changed dramatically from having almost nothing, to earning all the money that I could, and buying the best and most 'fun' technology. I was a great hoarder of useless things as well. The more I had for myself was my main priority.
After finishing school, I started a course in Graphic Design. My plan was to go into advertising, have fun, and earn lots of money. I was only half way through my first year, when God started to give me hints that I needed to change this plan.
My teachers started to make comments like "well we all worship money anyway." I started to learn more about the world around me, and how much we exploit poorer nations for the wealth that we enjoy in countries like Australia. I started to notice that churches major on pointing out every sin except for greed, the root of all evil.
It was at this point, that I bumped into someone in Central Station tunnel, handing out copies of a book titled 'Suvivors.' It looked like some crazy apocalyptic thing, but I considered myself pretty open-minded, and conspiracy theories are lots of fun sometimes. So I went to take it, I had no money on me, but he graciously gave it to me for free. I said a short prayer to God before I started reading, that if it had truth in it, that God would not let me miss that truth. I also prayed that if it was false teaching, God would show me that too. This is not what I normally do with everything I read, but I'm glad that I prayed that prayer at that time!
I started reading on the bus immediately, it wasn't long before I'd finshed the book, and was reading through the entire website. I also did a fair few google searches for the Jesus Christians. I read through pretty much everything that the cult busters had to say, before deciding it was pretty unreasonable. It was a few days later until I worked up the courage to send an email asking to get in contact.
I met up with three guys who were living in a bus in Sydney at the time. I helped them hand out more books and was amazed at the way they lived. They even declined when I offered to buy them lunch at Burger King, because they already had some sandwiches. This really convicted me, that someone could pass up a tastier meal in order to prevent wastage.
I started coming out to help them two days a week, and the more time went on, the more I could see that the rest of my life, I was living a lie. I would go out on Saturdays to tell people that there is more to life than just grabbing all the pleasure that we can for ourselves, then later on I would go out and spend $20 on myself for a night out. Something had to change.
I decided to come for a trial week. I was still living with my parents at this point, and they were opposed to what the Jesus Christians were saying. God set things up so that they were going overseas for a holiday, at the same time that we were about to move house as soon as they got back. I had to pack up all my things anyway, and move them out of the old house. I came with the group for one week, after which I knew that this was what I wanted to commit my life to. Everything had been as I had expected it would. So, in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, I forsook everything that I owned.
I have now been working with the Jesus Christians for a bit over two years, and have travelled around the world distributing tracts. I have learned that all the stuff that I used to own, never made me any more happy or satisfied than I am now. I am also learning to let go of the spiritual baggage that I carry around, such as greed, fear, pride, etc... These things take a lot more work to forsake than material posessions, but the reward is just as real.
- Ashwyn
Ashwyn, aged 21.
A bit about me... I was raised the only child of a single mother. My grandfather was an Anglican archdeacon. My mother was running the local Sunday-school, and I went every week. I went to an Anglican school, and soon enough I got into a group of friends there who invited me to come to their (Anglican) church in Mosman, Sydney. Even when my mother finally married, it was to a man whose parents were missionaries in Tanzania. As a consequence, I never really thought of myself as anything other than Christian. I always had a theoretical knowledge about God, and what Jesus had said.
During my childhood, I had encountered some contradictions a few times. I noticed the passage in the books of Acts, that said that all of the Christians lived together and shared everything that they had in common. When I asked my mother why we didn't do this today, she just smiled and said that the Holy Spirit was more powerful then.
My favourite passage in the bible has always been in Matt 6, where Jesus says not to worry where our food and clothes come from. There were a few times when my mother was stressing about how she was going to pay the bills, and I reminded her of that passage.
I often mused as a child about one day giving up everything , and keeping only a bible. I knew in theory that God would provide for me. In practice, my life was very inconsistant with this knowledge.
As I grew up, I got more and more into computers, and for computers, you need money. My dreams changed dramatically from having almost nothing, to earning all the money that I could, and buying the best and most 'fun' technology. I was a great hoarder of useless things as well. The more I had for myself was my main priority.
After finishing school, I started a course in Graphic Design. My plan was to go into advertising, have fun, and earn lots of money. I was only half way through my first year, when God started to give me hints that I needed to change this plan.
My teachers started to make comments like "well we all worship money anyway." I started to learn more about the world around me, and how much we exploit poorer nations for the wealth that we enjoy in countries like Australia. I started to notice that churches major on pointing out every sin except for greed, the root of all evil.
It was at this point, that I bumped into someone in Central Station tunnel, handing out copies of a book titled 'Suvivors.' It looked like some crazy apocalyptic thing, but I considered myself pretty open-minded, and conspiracy theories are lots of fun sometimes. So I went to take it, I had no money on me, but he graciously gave it to me for free. I said a short prayer to God before I started reading, that if it had truth in it, that God would not let me miss that truth. I also prayed that if it was false teaching, God would show me that too. This is not what I normally do with everything I read, but I'm glad that I prayed that prayer at that time!
I started reading on the bus immediately, it wasn't long before I'd finshed the book, and was reading through the entire website. I also did a fair few google searches for the Jesus Christians. I read through pretty much everything that the cult busters had to say, before deciding it was pretty unreasonable. It was a few days later until I worked up the courage to send an email asking to get in contact.
I met up with three guys who were living in a bus in Sydney at the time. I helped them hand out more books and was amazed at the way they lived. They even declined when I offered to buy them lunch at Burger King, because they already had some sandwiches. This really convicted me, that someone could pass up a tastier meal in order to prevent wastage.
I started coming out to help them two days a week, and the more time went on, the more I could see that the rest of my life, I was living a lie. I would go out on Saturdays to tell people that there is more to life than just grabbing all the pleasure that we can for ourselves, then later on I would go out and spend $20 on myself for a night out. Something had to change.
I decided to come for a trial week. I was still living with my parents at this point, and they were opposed to what the Jesus Christians were saying. God set things up so that they were going overseas for a holiday, at the same time that we were about to move house as soon as they got back. I had to pack up all my things anyway, and move them out of the old house. I came with the group for one week, after which I knew that this was what I wanted to commit my life to. Everything had been as I had expected it would. So, in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, I forsook everything that I owned.
I have now been working with the Jesus Christians for a bit over two years, and have travelled around the world distributing tracts. I have learned that all the stuff that I used to own, never made me any more happy or satisfied than I am now. I am also learning to let go of the spiritual baggage that I carry around, such as greed, fear, pride, etc... These things take a lot more work to forsake than material posessions, but the reward is just as real.
- Ashwyn
May 2007
My mother would often tell me about her experiences growing up in El Salvador and that I should be thankful that I had things like food and a bathtub to bathe in. I enjoyed listening to the stories my father and mother would tell about difficulties they went through because of their poor background, but how, eventually, things worked out. So, from an early age I was aware that the way material wealth is distributed is not fair.
But I did little about it and went about my normal life. I was exposed to spiritual things and made aware that there is a God and that he wants us to love people but I never did much about putting my theory about God's love into practice. I felt God telling me to get serious about him after I heard a sermon from a Fillipino pastor preaching that we had to be willing to die for our faith. He had been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for preaching and suffered many things while imprisoned; including daily beatings and malnutrition. On the day of his scheduled execution, the Saudi government decided to set him free. He then said something along the lines that if we wanted to be Christians then we had to be willing to make those kinds of sacrifices and to go to other countries and tell people about God.
That sermon really convicted me, so I decided I was going to start doing what I thought God wanted me to do. I started attending church more regularly, got more involved in church activities and tried to stop "sinning," like not smoking, drinking and sexual relationships. The next year I spent trying very hard to do what I thought God wanted of me, like talking about God in school, attending church, getting involved in the worship band, and making trips to Mexico, Venezuela and Thailand to do volunteer work and "minister" to the locals. Although, I would still act hypocritical and self-righteous with my friends.
I had many wonderful experiences in my time in foreign countries, but something started to dawn on me after a little while. How could I come from such a wealthy background, and for only a few weeks out of the year, tell these much poorer people than myself, who had real problems, what to do, and then go back to my comfortable American lifestyle and forget about everyone else for the rest of the year and continue to live selfishly. I started to feel like a huge hypocrite.
I eventually left the institutional church, because I didn't understand why the church made a big deal out of drinking and smoking while the serious problems in the world, like blatant unfair distribution of wealth, were not being dealt with. I left with many questions and much confusion but also in hope of figuring out what my real conscience was saying.
After leaving the church I did pretty much what I wanted to do and I ended up becoming even more selfish. I would tell myself, if I didn't feel guilty about doing something then I would do it. I decided I wanted to become a jazz saxophonist and dedicated many hours to practicing, sometimes up to 8 hours a day. I very much enjoyed learning about music and I felt spiritual about being able to communicate with other jazz musicians in a very emotional way. I started having lots of fun playing shows around town, meeting lots of interesting people and artists and basically having a good time.
But, I still felt a huge sense of guilt. When I would listen in, I could hear my conscience, screaming, telling me, what about the third world? What about me? What are you doing with your life?
I knew I had to do something positive with my life, but I didn't know what. I would ask God what he wanted from me but I couldn't figure it out. I was enjoying music very much but I also felt so incredibly selfish. I started to feel guilty about devoting all my time and energy to myself. I knew I couldn't live such a selfish life while so much of the world was suffering. I also realized what I once thought was spiritual, emotional music, was not much more than emotions.
During this time I met some people whom I connected with in a very deep way. They were members of the Jesus Christians. They were telling me that life wasn't about making money and that God wants us to devote our lives completely to him, in loving service to others. They exposed me to the teachings of Jesus which I had never been exposed to and everything seemed to come together. I could see that the problem in the world was greed and the lack of faith that people put in God, but that I needed to personally do something, instead of just being aware of the problem.
It made so much sense, of course. God made us for a reason and that reason was to do his will. It took about a year, but I eventually decided to dedicate my whole life to God and I left my selfish ambitions to learn how to listen to God's voice above all others. God knows best, but first we have to let go of our own will to find His.
Jesse, aged 22.
My mother would often tell me about her experiences growing up in El Salvador and that I should be thankful that I had things like food and a bathtub to bathe in. I enjoyed listening to the stories my father and mother would tell about difficulties they went through because of their poor background, but how, eventually, things worked out. So, from an early age I was aware that the way material wealth is distributed is not fair.
But I did little about it and went about my normal life. I was exposed to spiritual things and made aware that there is a God and that he wants us to love people but I never did much about putting my theory about God's love into practice. I felt God telling me to get serious about him after I heard a sermon from a Fillipino pastor preaching that we had to be willing to die for our faith. He had been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for preaching and suffered many things while imprisoned; including daily beatings and malnutrition. On the day of his scheduled execution, the Saudi government decided to set him free. He then said something along the lines that if we wanted to be Christians then we had to be willing to make those kinds of sacrifices and to go to other countries and tell people about God.
That sermon really convicted me, so I decided I was going to start doing what I thought God wanted me to do. I started attending church more regularly, got more involved in church activities and tried to stop "sinning," like not smoking, drinking and sexual relationships. The next year I spent trying very hard to do what I thought God wanted of me, like talking about God in school, attending church, getting involved in the worship band, and making trips to Mexico, Venezuela and Thailand to do volunteer work and "minister" to the locals. Although, I would still act hypocritical and self-righteous with my friends.
I had many wonderful experiences in my time in foreign countries, but something started to dawn on me after a little while. How could I come from such a wealthy background, and for only a few weeks out of the year, tell these much poorer people than myself, who had real problems, what to do, and then go back to my comfortable American lifestyle and forget about everyone else for the rest of the year and continue to live selfishly. I started to feel like a huge hypocrite.
I eventually left the institutional church, because I didn't understand why the church made a big deal out of drinking and smoking while the serious problems in the world, like blatant unfair distribution of wealth, were not being dealt with. I left with many questions and much confusion but also in hope of figuring out what my real conscience was saying.
After leaving the church I did pretty much what I wanted to do and I ended up becoming even more selfish. I would tell myself, if I didn't feel guilty about doing something then I would do it. I decided I wanted to become a jazz saxophonist and dedicated many hours to practicing, sometimes up to 8 hours a day. I very much enjoyed learning about music and I felt spiritual about being able to communicate with other jazz musicians in a very emotional way. I started having lots of fun playing shows around town, meeting lots of interesting people and artists and basically having a good time.
But, I still felt a huge sense of guilt. When I would listen in, I could hear my conscience, screaming, telling me, what about the third world? What about me? What are you doing with your life?
I knew I had to do something positive with my life, but I didn't know what. I would ask God what he wanted from me but I couldn't figure it out. I was enjoying music very much but I also felt so incredibly selfish. I started to feel guilty about devoting all my time and energy to myself. I knew I couldn't live such a selfish life while so much of the world was suffering. I also realized what I once thought was spiritual, emotional music, was not much more than emotions.
During this time I met some people whom I connected with in a very deep way. They were members of the Jesus Christians. They were telling me that life wasn't about making money and that God wants us to devote our lives completely to him, in loving service to others. They exposed me to the teachings of Jesus which I had never been exposed to and everything seemed to come together. I could see that the problem in the world was greed and the lack of faith that people put in God, but that I needed to personally do something, instead of just being aware of the problem.
It made so much sense, of course. God made us for a reason and that reason was to do his will. It took about a year, but I eventually decided to dedicate my whole life to God and I left my selfish ambitions to learn how to listen to God's voice above all others. God knows best, but first we have to let go of our own will to find His.
May, 2007
I used to live in Manchester, England. I studied Visual Arts and had a part time job in a call centre. I didn't give much thought to whether there was a God or not, which isn't very clever because it's quite a major thing to consider. Then when I started to search for meaning I found it. I realised the only way out of the mess the world is in is to turn our own lives around. To focus on this power of love and not on our own selfish wants. It seemed very clear that giving yourself over to temptations would destroy your soul, you would end up creating a world of misery for yourself, rather than a world of love.
From then on I decided to quit my job and university course and begin working more for my spirit and not for material gain. I had the urge to get rid of all my possessions and to leave my old life and start a new one. I felt God telling me to leave the comfort of my friends and family and to start doing something meaningful with my life. But I was very stupid and decided to go against this direction. I was afraid to leave my life behind and trust in God. Instead I stayed where I was. I took to aimlessly wandering the streets of Manchester to fill my days.
Then on one walk I was handed a copy of 'Suvivors' (a novel based on Bible prophecy). I'm not much of a reader but this book I finished in a couple of days. The book told me three things, one; that I wasn't losing my mind (the content of the book seemed to fit with my recent thinking and it seemed the work of a lucid and rational person). Two; that there are other people out there who believe a drastic change towards light and away from spiritual darkness is needed. And three; that Jesus Christ's teachings are here so that we can make that change.
A few months went by before I actually met and joined the Jesus Christians. It was very gracious of God to give me another chance to do the right thing.
Bob, aged 23.
I used to live in Manchester, England. I studied Visual Arts and had a part time job in a call centre. I didn't give much thought to whether there was a God or not, which isn't very clever because it's quite a major thing to consider. Then when I started to search for meaning I found it. I realised the only way out of the mess the world is in is to turn our own lives around. To focus on this power of love and not on our own selfish wants. It seemed very clear that giving yourself over to temptations would destroy your soul, you would end up creating a world of misery for yourself, rather than a world of love.
From then on I decided to quit my job and university course and begin working more for my spirit and not for material gain. I had the urge to get rid of all my possessions and to leave my old life and start a new one. I felt God telling me to leave the comfort of my friends and family and to start doing something meaningful with my life. But I was very stupid and decided to go against this direction. I was afraid to leave my life behind and trust in God. Instead I stayed where I was. I took to aimlessly wandering the streets of Manchester to fill my days.
Then on one walk I was handed a copy of 'Suvivors' (a novel based on Bible prophecy). I'm not much of a reader but this book I finished in a couple of days. The book told me three things, one; that I wasn't losing my mind (the content of the book seemed to fit with my recent thinking and it seemed the work of a lucid and rational person). Two; that there are other people out there who believe a drastic change towards light and away from spiritual darkness is needed. And three; that Jesus Christ's teachings are here so that we can make that change.
A few months went by before I actually met and joined the Jesus Christians. It was very gracious of God to give me another chance to do the right thing.
2002
Before I joined up with the Jesus Christians , I was living in Sydney, Australia and it was a very selfish lifestyle indeed. I had just broken up with my girl friend whom I was living with and was feeling very depressed about my whole situation. I couldn't understand why I was feeling so depressed, because as far as I knew I was living the 'dream' lifestyle I had always wanted. I worked two nights a week (Friday and Saturday) at a night club which played decent music. The two-night-a-week job provided me with enough cash to get me by from week to week paying the rent on a flat, buying my food, public transport costs, and my pot( marijuana). I lived about two blocks away from one of the most famous beaches in Sydney, and I was sharing a flat with some English back packers who were very easy to get along with.
I had the whole week to spend as I pleased, with almost no accountability to anyone. I could get high and travel around the city, hang out at the beach, or just lounge around the flat listening to music all day. But something was wrong. I wasn't happy at all. In fact, I was quite sad and depressed. I enjoyed the lifestyle for a week or two before I started to see something that I had never considered before. It was all meaningless. I lived for myself from day to day and that was all I had to show for my life. It was pathetic.
Then one day I received a tract called 'Armageddon for Beginners' from a guy handing them out on the street. I only took it out of mild curiosity, because I did have some background in the church. When I saw the chapter titles, I skipped what I thought would be the boring stuff and went straight to the 'mark of the beast' chapter, which looked far more interesting. But within that chapter I found little notes suggesting that I should refer back to previous chapters to better understand what was being discussed. I immediately started reading from the beginning, and none of it was boring, as I had previously assumed. As I was reading, I remember having this profound feeling, as though I had found exactly what I was looking for. I remember thinking, ' I can do this!' I was learning about living by faith and the real teachings of Jesus in a way that I had never heard from the churches.
These people (Jesus Christians) were saying that we could take Jesus literally in his commands. They were saying that we could really do the things Jesus and his followers did, and live the way they lived. We could have the same kind of meaning and fullness of life that they had.
It was something I had only very briefly experienced in the church scene on mission trips and summer camps. What they were only willing to do for a week at a time once or twice a year, these people were willing to do everyday for life. So I wrote them a letter and requested a meeting. We met up in the city and discussed a few issues and arranged for a trial week. If, at the end of the trial week, I liked what I saw and they liked what they saw, then I could work with them. It was that easy. I wouldn't have to spend years in a school and I wouldn't have to pay thousands of dollars in tuition fees. All I had to do was to sincerely try to obey the things Jesus asked us to do. I couldn't believe how simple it really was. So I went on the trial week and liked what I saw. The others there could see that I had a genuine interest in trying to follow God, so they were happy to have me stay. And that's what I did.
I consider myself very lucky to have found people who are so genuinely committed to following God. I feel like my life has meaning now; that what I am doing will count for something even after I die. It is not the group that gives me this feeling, but rather, it is my commitment to trying to work in love with others and obey Jesus that does it.
Casey, aged 23.
Before I joined up with the Jesus Christians , I was living in Sydney, Australia and it was a very selfish lifestyle indeed. I had just broken up with my girl friend whom I was living with and was feeling very depressed about my whole situation. I couldn't understand why I was feeling so depressed, because as far as I knew I was living the 'dream' lifestyle I had always wanted. I worked two nights a week (Friday and Saturday) at a night club which played decent music. The two-night-a-week job provided me with enough cash to get me by from week to week paying the rent on a flat, buying my food, public transport costs, and my pot( marijuana). I lived about two blocks away from one of the most famous beaches in Sydney, and I was sharing a flat with some English back packers who were very easy to get along with.
I had the whole week to spend as I pleased, with almost no accountability to anyone. I could get high and travel around the city, hang out at the beach, or just lounge around the flat listening to music all day. But something was wrong. I wasn't happy at all. In fact, I was quite sad and depressed. I enjoyed the lifestyle for a week or two before I started to see something that I had never considered before. It was all meaningless. I lived for myself from day to day and that was all I had to show for my life. It was pathetic.
Then one day I received a tract called 'Armageddon for Beginners' from a guy handing them out on the street. I only took it out of mild curiosity, because I did have some background in the church. When I saw the chapter titles, I skipped what I thought would be the boring stuff and went straight to the 'mark of the beast' chapter, which looked far more interesting. But within that chapter I found little notes suggesting that I should refer back to previous chapters to better understand what was being discussed. I immediately started reading from the beginning, and none of it was boring, as I had previously assumed. As I was reading, I remember having this profound feeling, as though I had found exactly what I was looking for. I remember thinking, ' I can do this!' I was learning about living by faith and the real teachings of Jesus in a way that I had never heard from the churches.
These people (Jesus Christians) were saying that we could take Jesus literally in his commands. They were saying that we could really do the things Jesus and his followers did, and live the way they lived. We could have the same kind of meaning and fullness of life that they had.
It was something I had only very briefly experienced in the church scene on mission trips and summer camps. What they were only willing to do for a week at a time once or twice a year, these people were willing to do everyday for life. So I wrote them a letter and requested a meeting. We met up in the city and discussed a few issues and arranged for a trial week. If, at the end of the trial week, I liked what I saw and they liked what they saw, then I could work with them. It was that easy. I wouldn't have to spend years in a school and I wouldn't have to pay thousands of dollars in tuition fees. All I had to do was to sincerely try to obey the things Jesus asked us to do. I couldn't believe how simple it really was. So I went on the trial week and liked what I saw. The others there could see that I had a genuine interest in trying to follow God, so they were happy to have me stay. And that's what I did.
I consider myself very lucky to have found people who are so genuinely committed to following God. I feel like my life has meaning now; that what I am doing will count for something even after I die. It is not the group that gives me this feeling, but rather, it is my commitment to trying to work in love with others and obey Jesus that does it.
2002
I had spent years pursuing different ways, in order to learn spiritual truths and advance spiritually. I wanted to improve my life, my personality, and everything about myself AND I wanted to change the world at the same time. I had always rejected Christianity, as it seemed wishy washy, simplistic and based on ignorance. The 'Christians' that I knew seemed to not be interested in what was going on in the world, much less did they show any real concern or compassion for people who were suffering in other parts of the globe.
Then two years ago, I became a 'Christian'. When I 'accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour,' it was a fairly humbling experience.
I spent the next year fairly happily. With God's help I changed a lot of my attitudes. In general I was a much nicer person than I had been previously.
Yet, even though according to others, I had been 'saved', it felt like there was still something missing. I was moving in activist circles at the time and the night before one particular protest I prayed that I would meet people there who were Christian but who were also aware of the needs of others and concerned about what was going on in the world around them.
I met one Christian that day He gave me a book called "And now for something completely different". It was a collection of comics that talked about politics, economics and living by faith. What was written there amazed me. I had had secret dreams and ideas for ages and now I was reading about people who were actually living them!
I didn't meet up with the Jesus Christians community straight away. I kept in touch with the man who had given me the book, via email, although our discussions were more limited to various political ideologies as opposed to living the dream. I did however devour a few more books from the group and I compared what I was being taught at the church I was attending to the teachings of Jesus himself. (I discovered that I had never actually learnt anything about what Jesus taught at church).
I met up with the UK team of Jesus Christians when I was travelling around Europe. They said I could stay with them while I was in England. I had had further travel plans, but after staying and working with the team for three months (I had originally intended to stay for one week!) I knew that there was nothing else in the world that I could or wanted to do. To dedicate my life to working for Love (and serving others), to always be following the Truth no matter the cost, and to do this with others who are just as committed to these ideals is the fulfillment of my life's dreams. With God's strength I will endure to the end.
Kim, aged 25.
I had spent years pursuing different ways, in order to learn spiritual truths and advance spiritually. I wanted to improve my life, my personality, and everything about myself AND I wanted to change the world at the same time. I had always rejected Christianity, as it seemed wishy washy, simplistic and based on ignorance. The 'Christians' that I knew seemed to not be interested in what was going on in the world, much less did they show any real concern or compassion for people who were suffering in other parts of the globe.
Then two years ago, I became a 'Christian'. When I 'accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour,' it was a fairly humbling experience.
I spent the next year fairly happily. With God's help I changed a lot of my attitudes. In general I was a much nicer person than I had been previously.
Yet, even though according to others, I had been 'saved', it felt like there was still something missing. I was moving in activist circles at the time and the night before one particular protest I prayed that I would meet people there who were Christian but who were also aware of the needs of others and concerned about what was going on in the world around them.
I met one Christian that day He gave me a book called "And now for something completely different". It was a collection of comics that talked about politics, economics and living by faith. What was written there amazed me. I had had secret dreams and ideas for ages and now I was reading about people who were actually living them!
I didn't meet up with the Jesus Christians community straight away. I kept in touch with the man who had given me the book, via email, although our discussions were more limited to various political ideologies as opposed to living the dream. I did however devour a few more books from the group and I compared what I was being taught at the church I was attending to the teachings of Jesus himself. (I discovered that I had never actually learnt anything about what Jesus taught at church).
I met up with the UK team of Jesus Christians when I was travelling around Europe. They said I could stay with them while I was in England. I had had further travel plans, but after staying and working with the team for three months (I had originally intended to stay for one week!) I knew that there was nothing else in the world that I could or wanted to do. To dedicate my life to working for Love (and serving others), to always be following the Truth no matter the cost, and to do this with others who are just as committed to these ideals is the fulfillment of my life's dreams. With God's strength I will endure to the end.
2002
I have been a member of the Jesus Christians since late 1997, when I was 21 years of age. I met the Jesus Christians in Sydney, Australia.
I had been working in a restaurant, as a bar manager. I lived a comfortable life for my age, earning enough money to pay for rent, food, etc. and have a good time. Most of my time was spent working and basically having fun. But behind it all, I had been running away from God.
I had heard about God from an early childhood, having gone to a few Catholic schools. Although I believed IN God (i.e. in His existence), I never really wanted God to tell me what to do, and so I would try to avoid thinking about him as much as possible. As I grew older, I became quite selfish in my attitudes, and did many things that I am now ashamed of. Each time I fell into sin, I knew that it was wrong, but I would just push aside God's still small voice and hope that I would not have suffer any consequences.
As a child my mother had taught me that I should do good to people that hate me, because otherwise I would end up being just as bad as they were. I hardly ever practised it, but when I turned 21 I had an encounter with someone at a bar where I had the opportunity to excercise it. It took the form of just walking out, without arguing. As I left the bar, I immediately felt inspired, and I started thinking about Jesus, and how I had heard that when he was dying on the cross, he said "Forgive them for they know not what they do." I was really touched by His love, and I began to realise that God was right there, everywhere, and that he knew everything I was thinking. This led to me realising how sinful I was, and feeling a deep sense of shame. Along with the shame I was overwhelmed by a feeling of God's love and forgiveness. This changed my life.
From that point on, my life began heading in a different direction. All I wanted to do was to serve God and get closer to Him. I bought myself a Bible and began reading it. I started attending different churches and listening to what they were teaching, so that I could learn more. All my friends began noticing a dramatic change in my life, as all I ever wanted to do was to spend time reading the Bible. Each day I felt like I was growing closer to God, and learning more of the things that He wanted me to do in my life.
At around that time, I received a Liberator (a comic book version of the Gospel of Luke). The book opened my eyes to a lot of scriptures that I had never seen before. After reading that comic, I realised that God did indeed want me to serve Him full time, and I myself wanted to do that very much. Eventually I met up with the Jesus Christians and heard what they had to say. Everything they said made sense, because it lined up with what Jesus taught, and it was all real life faith, and not just some head knowledge of the nature of God, etc. that I was getting at other churches. I knew that I wanted to work for God for the rest of my life, even if things didn't end up working with the Jesus Christians, so I took the step of faith and gave up everything I had in obedience to Jesus.
I had worked at the restaurant for two years. And I had been undergoing a spiritual rebirth a few weeks before I met the Jesus Christians. But nothing witnessed so strongly and so clearly to all my work friends, close friends, and family, as my decision to give up everything I had and to work for God full time instead of trying to make money. To this day, I meet people whom I haven't spoken to for years (even as far back as from before the time I developped faith in God), and they have told me that they heard from a friend of a friend of my decision to give up everything for God!
Life in the Jesus Christians has been a real blessing. I have been able to develop deep friendships with like minded people, and have had the freedom to serve God every day. I truly feel like I am in the world and yet not a part of it!
Fran, aged 26.
I have been a member of the Jesus Christians since late 1997, when I was 21 years of age. I met the Jesus Christians in Sydney, Australia.
I had been working in a restaurant, as a bar manager. I lived a comfortable life for my age, earning enough money to pay for rent, food, etc. and have a good time. Most of my time was spent working and basically having fun. But behind it all, I had been running away from God.
I had heard about God from an early childhood, having gone to a few Catholic schools. Although I believed IN God (i.e. in His existence), I never really wanted God to tell me what to do, and so I would try to avoid thinking about him as much as possible. As I grew older, I became quite selfish in my attitudes, and did many things that I am now ashamed of. Each time I fell into sin, I knew that it was wrong, but I would just push aside God's still small voice and hope that I would not have suffer any consequences.
As a child my mother had taught me that I should do good to people that hate me, because otherwise I would end up being just as bad as they were. I hardly ever practised it, but when I turned 21 I had an encounter with someone at a bar where I had the opportunity to excercise it. It took the form of just walking out, without arguing. As I left the bar, I immediately felt inspired, and I started thinking about Jesus, and how I had heard that when he was dying on the cross, he said "Forgive them for they know not what they do." I was really touched by His love, and I began to realise that God was right there, everywhere, and that he knew everything I was thinking. This led to me realising how sinful I was, and feeling a deep sense of shame. Along with the shame I was overwhelmed by a feeling of God's love and forgiveness. This changed my life.
From that point on, my life began heading in a different direction. All I wanted to do was to serve God and get closer to Him. I bought myself a Bible and began reading it. I started attending different churches and listening to what they were teaching, so that I could learn more. All my friends began noticing a dramatic change in my life, as all I ever wanted to do was to spend time reading the Bible. Each day I felt like I was growing closer to God, and learning more of the things that He wanted me to do in my life.
At around that time, I received a Liberator (a comic book version of the Gospel of Luke). The book opened my eyes to a lot of scriptures that I had never seen before. After reading that comic, I realised that God did indeed want me to serve Him full time, and I myself wanted to do that very much. Eventually I met up with the Jesus Christians and heard what they had to say. Everything they said made sense, because it lined up with what Jesus taught, and it was all real life faith, and not just some head knowledge of the nature of God, etc. that I was getting at other churches. I knew that I wanted to work for God for the rest of my life, even if things didn't end up working with the Jesus Christians, so I took the step of faith and gave up everything I had in obedience to Jesus.
I had worked at the restaurant for two years. And I had been undergoing a spiritual rebirth a few weeks before I met the Jesus Christians. But nothing witnessed so strongly and so clearly to all my work friends, close friends, and family, as my decision to give up everything I had and to work for God full time instead of trying to make money. To this day, I meet people whom I haven't spoken to for years (even as far back as from before the time I developped faith in God), and they have told me that they heard from a friend of a friend of my decision to give up everything for God!
Life in the Jesus Christians has been a real blessing. I have been able to develop deep friendships with like minded people, and have had the freedom to serve God every day. I truly feel like I am in the world and yet not a part of it!
2010
The very first time I was introduced to the teachings of Jesus was in 2000 (10 years ago). It was in the form of a Christian book called "Armageddon - for beginners". It was a book based on the book of Revelation. It was handed to me by a guy, on a Friday night on the streets of Sydney (Australia).
At first I didn't think much of it, I had a little chat with the guy who handed me the book (Martin), gave him a small donation for the book, and rejoined with my friends and got drunk as I often did on Friday nights.
The next morning, I started reading the book and after about an hour into the book, I started to feel there was something very important contained in that book. The feeling was incredible. It was unlike anything I had ever read. It was discussing end time prophecy, but backed up by the teachings of Jesus and how we can practice them in today's world. The urgency of OBEYING Jesus in these last days was very clearly communicated in the book.
Previously, I had come across books on Bible prophecies, but they had very little to do with the teachings of Jesus. In the past, bible prophecy at best was telling people of what will happen in the future, but it had no real solution. The best solution the churches could offer was, to say a little prayer, so we may be saved when the end comes. I have never come across any church that touched what Jesus actually taught.
But here, in "Armageddon for beginners" there were detailed explanation on how Christ was teaching us to get away from trusting money and instead to trust HIM. I learned how Jesus taught that "you can't work for God and money at the same time" (Mt 6 & Lk 16). It also said that if we wanted to be a Christian, we must give up everything (LK 14:33). The book also showed, that the real reason why there will be a mark of the beast, is because the mark simply represent man's dependency on money. I was deeply impressed by simplicity of the message.
I contacted the group about a week later, and agreed to meet up with them in the city. Ross and Martin were the first two people I met inside a tiny mini bus that was converted into a campervan. We discussed the teachings of Jesus for about an hour and what I had to do (which was to forsake all). I left the place feeling deeply convicted. I realised that I was asked by God to obey HIS son (i.e.: forsake all), but instead I got afraid and ran.
Just to back up, my father (Victor) also passed away about three months before I first met the Jesus Christians community in 2000. Victors death was a turning point in my life. When Victor died, I felt God was trying to grab my attention, to make me see that I needed to repent.
It took me about a year (from the time I first got the book) to forsake all and to work for God.
During that year, I was going through some major spiritual battles in my head. On one hand, I had the truth, and on the other hand I had family commitment. I was expected to take on the bulk of the financial responsibility of my family (after my father died). I had a mother who was a widow now and an older student brother, who wasn't working full time.
At the same time, I was keeping regular contact with the community.
Also, at the same time, I got a steady job in as a mail room clerk in a large corporate company called, Astra-Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. Which was everything I wanted. My mother finally felt that her wayward son was coming to his senses.
As far as the system was concerned, I was making progress. I had a respectable job, I was looking after my widow mother and was doing everything by the book.
But deep inside, I was really lost and depressed. Sure, I had the things that money could buy, and I was supposed to be happy. However, there was something that was missing in my life. I was given the truth, but I was too much of a coward to do anything about it. I was miserable, but my only refuge was a copy of "Armageddon for beginners", which I read over and over again.
Initially, what really shocked me about the book, scares me even to this day. It was the description of the "Antichrist". After reading the book, I felt like it was describing me. I thought I was the antichrist, because of the sinful and evil life I was leading at the time (whic I won't go in detail).
After reading "Armageddon - for beginners", my spirit was broken. The teachings of Jesus totally smashed me into pieces.
I realised, to fix the root of all the evil (GREED) in my life , I simply had to "forsake it all" like Jesus said in LK 14:33. But, still I didn't. I was very stubborn.
It took another miracle from God to grab my attention. About a month before I decided to join the community, my car was suddenly stolen. Again, I was totally devastated. This time I felt, that it was the last call God was giving me, to work for HIM. I just had to grab it or loose it. This time I grabbed it!
I left my family about two weeks after my car was stolen, and moved into the bus with Ross. It was after a further two weeks that I left my job, sold all my possesions & forsook all. That was in August 2001.
Well, it's been about nine years since I have been with the Jesus Christians, still going and loving it. Wish you were here.
So, come on brothers and sisters, God has a VACANCY for YOU. Come and get it.
Barry, aged 35.
The very first time I was introduced to the teachings of Jesus was in 2000 (10 years ago). It was in the form of a Christian book called "Armageddon - for beginners". It was a book based on the book of Revelation. It was handed to me by a guy, on a Friday night on the streets of Sydney (Australia).
At first I didn't think much of it, I had a little chat with the guy who handed me the book (Martin), gave him a small donation for the book, and rejoined with my friends and got drunk as I often did on Friday nights.
The next morning, I started reading the book and after about an hour into the book, I started to feel there was something very important contained in that book. The feeling was incredible. It was unlike anything I had ever read. It was discussing end time prophecy, but backed up by the teachings of Jesus and how we can practice them in today's world. The urgency of OBEYING Jesus in these last days was very clearly communicated in the book.
Previously, I had come across books on Bible prophecies, but they had very little to do with the teachings of Jesus. In the past, bible prophecy at best was telling people of what will happen in the future, but it had no real solution. The best solution the churches could offer was, to say a little prayer, so we may be saved when the end comes. I have never come across any church that touched what Jesus actually taught.
But here, in "Armageddon for beginners" there were detailed explanation on how Christ was teaching us to get away from trusting money and instead to trust HIM. I learned how Jesus taught that "you can't work for God and money at the same time" (Mt 6 & Lk 16). It also said that if we wanted to be a Christian, we must give up everything (LK 14:33). The book also showed, that the real reason why there will be a mark of the beast, is because the mark simply represent man's dependency on money. I was deeply impressed by simplicity of the message.
I contacted the group about a week later, and agreed to meet up with them in the city. Ross and Martin were the first two people I met inside a tiny mini bus that was converted into a campervan. We discussed the teachings of Jesus for about an hour and what I had to do (which was to forsake all). I left the place feeling deeply convicted. I realised that I was asked by God to obey HIS son (i.e.: forsake all), but instead I got afraid and ran.
Just to back up, my father (Victor) also passed away about three months before I first met the Jesus Christians community in 2000. Victors death was a turning point in my life. When Victor died, I felt God was trying to grab my attention, to make me see that I needed to repent.
It took me about a year (from the time I first got the book) to forsake all and to work for God.
During that year, I was going through some major spiritual battles in my head. On one hand, I had the truth, and on the other hand I had family commitment. I was expected to take on the bulk of the financial responsibility of my family (after my father died). I had a mother who was a widow now and an older student brother, who wasn't working full time.
At the same time, I was keeping regular contact with the community.
Also, at the same time, I got a steady job in as a mail room clerk in a large corporate company called, Astra-Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. Which was everything I wanted. My mother finally felt that her wayward son was coming to his senses.
As far as the system was concerned, I was making progress. I had a respectable job, I was looking after my widow mother and was doing everything by the book.
But deep inside, I was really lost and depressed. Sure, I had the things that money could buy, and I was supposed to be happy. However, there was something that was missing in my life. I was given the truth, but I was too much of a coward to do anything about it. I was miserable, but my only refuge was a copy of "Armageddon for beginners", which I read over and over again.
Initially, what really shocked me about the book, scares me even to this day. It was the description of the "Antichrist". After reading the book, I felt like it was describing me. I thought I was the antichrist, because of the sinful and evil life I was leading at the time (whic I won't go in detail).
After reading "Armageddon - for beginners", my spirit was broken. The teachings of Jesus totally smashed me into pieces.
I realised, to fix the root of all the evil (GREED) in my life , I simply had to "forsake it all" like Jesus said in LK 14:33. But, still I didn't. I was very stubborn.
It took another miracle from God to grab my attention. About a month before I decided to join the community, my car was suddenly stolen. Again, I was totally devastated. This time I felt, that it was the last call God was giving me, to work for HIM. I just had to grab it or loose it. This time I grabbed it!
I left my family about two weeks after my car was stolen, and moved into the bus with Ross. It was after a further two weeks that I left my job, sold all my possesions & forsook all. That was in August 2001.
Well, it's been about nine years since I have been with the Jesus Christians, still going and loving it. Wish you were here.
So, come on brothers and sisters, God has a VACANCY for YOU. Come and get it.
2002
The ironic thing about being a Jesus Christian is that for years of my life I completely rejected Christianity, being born and bred in England which I saw as one of the most unspiritual of countries in the world. In 1999 I quit my job in media and bought a round-the-world ticket. During the following year I hungrily asked questions and devoured all kinds of books in a quest for truth, taking on board principles of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism etc. in my search through countries of south-east Asia. I had not conceptualised the existence of a 'God' at this point, but as I sought to internalise each truth, I started to perceive a relationship in the degree to which I was able to overcome my fears and the subsequent truth that was revealed through different people, teachings or synchronicities I experienced.
In Spring 2000 I made it to Cambodia where I started working for an orphanage in the middle of the Killing Fields. The country amazed me and its history shocked me to the core. For the first time in my life I realised that I had found something meaningful to put my time and energy into. Working on the land and with the children brought me as close as I have ever come to 'God' and I started to think about ways in which I could help raise the necessary income for the completion of the new orphanage building. I decided to write a song for Cambodia and soon after this commitment an offer came through by a Sydney-based music producer to help me develop and market such a venture. I flew to Australia, leaving the more humble hand-to-mouth existence I had been living in search of a very different kind of solution.
In Australia I set about working with my new music contact on the song but quickly got a feeling that something was not right with what I was doing. Unfortunately, I did not listen to my head, following the more seductive impulses of the song's potential as a route to Hollywood opened to promote it. In July 2000 I came out of a cinema in the centre of Sydney and had a curious impulse to go and talk to a fellow handing out books on the other side of the road. My life changed in that moment. I was about to meet a real, practicing Christian for the very first time. I took away the 'Armageddon for Beginners' tract and read it from cover to cover that night. Everything seemed to click into place. The teachings of Jesus and the prophesies of The Revelation and Daniel were the missing link in my understanding of the world and its current chaos.
On finishing the book, I realised just how deluded I had been in thinking that a financial solution was the best thing for Cambodia, and indeed for the world. I saw also how it had been my pride and vanity that had lifted me up to a position that could only be broken by the harsh realisation of just how empty this perceived solution actually is without childlike faith in God. This was only made possible by the living example of Ross and the rest of the Jesus Christians' faith that demolished my own belief in a material solution for the world's problems. Unfortunately I reacted strongly against this truth and failed to take the necessary leap of faith at this crossroads.
18 months later, after a good degree of soul-searching, prayer and grounding in Christian fellowship I decided to get back in touch with the Jesus Christians in England. My route to real Christianity was not an easy one. To this day I wish I had had enough faith to break myself on the cornerstone (Jesus's teachings) before it fell on me back in Australia. Only in the practice of actively living by faith and working for love full time do we stop being part of the problem. I am just so grateful that God has the grace and patience to give me this chance of being, at last, part of his solution, living and working with other dedicated idealists. It is a solution that is waiting for us ALL.
Alfred, aged 27.
The ironic thing about being a Jesus Christian is that for years of my life I completely rejected Christianity, being born and bred in England which I saw as one of the most unspiritual of countries in the world. In 1999 I quit my job in media and bought a round-the-world ticket. During the following year I hungrily asked questions and devoured all kinds of books in a quest for truth, taking on board principles of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism etc. in my search through countries of south-east Asia. I had not conceptualised the existence of a 'God' at this point, but as I sought to internalise each truth, I started to perceive a relationship in the degree to which I was able to overcome my fears and the subsequent truth that was revealed through different people, teachings or synchronicities I experienced.
In Spring 2000 I made it to Cambodia where I started working for an orphanage in the middle of the Killing Fields. The country amazed me and its history shocked me to the core. For the first time in my life I realised that I had found something meaningful to put my time and energy into. Working on the land and with the children brought me as close as I have ever come to 'God' and I started to think about ways in which I could help raise the necessary income for the completion of the new orphanage building. I decided to write a song for Cambodia and soon after this commitment an offer came through by a Sydney-based music producer to help me develop and market such a venture. I flew to Australia, leaving the more humble hand-to-mouth existence I had been living in search of a very different kind of solution.
In Australia I set about working with my new music contact on the song but quickly got a feeling that something was not right with what I was doing. Unfortunately, I did not listen to my head, following the more seductive impulses of the song's potential as a route to Hollywood opened to promote it. In July 2000 I came out of a cinema in the centre of Sydney and had a curious impulse to go and talk to a fellow handing out books on the other side of the road. My life changed in that moment. I was about to meet a real, practicing Christian for the very first time. I took away the 'Armageddon for Beginners' tract and read it from cover to cover that night. Everything seemed to click into place. The teachings of Jesus and the prophesies of The Revelation and Daniel were the missing link in my understanding of the world and its current chaos.
On finishing the book, I realised just how deluded I had been in thinking that a financial solution was the best thing for Cambodia, and indeed for the world. I saw also how it had been my pride and vanity that had lifted me up to a position that could only be broken by the harsh realisation of just how empty this perceived solution actually is without childlike faith in God. This was only made possible by the living example of Ross and the rest of the Jesus Christians' faith that demolished my own belief in a material solution for the world's problems. Unfortunately I reacted strongly against this truth and failed to take the necessary leap of faith at this crossroads.
18 months later, after a good degree of soul-searching, prayer and grounding in Christian fellowship I decided to get back in touch with the Jesus Christians in England. My route to real Christianity was not an easy one. To this day I wish I had had enough faith to break myself on the cornerstone (Jesus's teachings) before it fell on me back in Australia. Only in the practice of actively living by faith and working for love full time do we stop being part of the problem. I am just so grateful that God has the grace and patience to give me this chance of being, at last, part of his solution, living and working with other dedicated idealists. It is a solution that is waiting for us ALL.
May, 2007
Coming from a home that was free from religious expectations and obligations, I gave little thought to anything of a spiritual nature until my late teens. I had spent a significant amount of my last few years of high school in a psychedellic-alcoholic stupor, caught between an attempt to find my place in the social world and questions about life's meaning, while simultaneously engaging in a battle with depression that would continue to haunt me with suicidal thoughts for many years ahead.
As high school came to a close, I moved into an apartment with my twin brother and another friend for a stint, before rooming with the girl I had been dating for a while. Things seemed somewhat steady for a few years, aside from the many jobs I had worked during this period of my life. It was at this point that my "spiritual eye" started to open. I dabbled in existential psychology and gradually developed an intensified interest in plant-psychedelic shamanism. I hoped to gain the key to understanding life through transcendental experiences by way of mind altering edibles (or smokables). After many "trips" like this, I began to realize that I wasn't really getting anywhere in my pursuit, just a deepening depression. I continued to withdraw from others whom I felt wouldn't be able to understand me and I lost any real interest in trying to relate to them.
Fortunately, the metaphorical sun did begin to shine a few rays in my life when I was introduced to Buddhism. The words from a popular song at the time, by "The Verve", rang true for me as I moved away from the psychedelics in which I had put so much faith: "Now the drugs don't work, they just make you worse..." I decided to give different forms of meditation a serious try after being inspired by what I had learned from Buddhist thought.
A few years and unhealthy relationships later, I left college and cut back on my work schedule in an attempt to focus more heavily on the "what's it all about" questions that remained unanswered and deeply burdened me. By then my twin brother had started attending numerous churches which I occasionally visited with him, but I always had a nagging suspicion that most of it was a hypocritical show, especially after coming across some writings of the famous Russian author, Leo Tolstoy. I learned through him that there was something intensely unique about the things Jesus actually said. Tolstoy had been excommunicated from his own church for sharing these very thoughts. Wow! If this was true, I thought, then maybe seeing what Jesus Himself had to say would actually be worth a peek after all, so I did. As I read His words, I kept thinking "If the things that Jesus says are true and he wants us to follow him, why aren't the churches practicing and sharing these teachings with the world?" I saw that Jesus had reminded the people of his own time of something that an earlier prophet had said: "Very well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites -- 'they honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. In vain they worship me... rejecting the commands of God so that they can keep their own (worthless) traditions'." (Mark 7:6-9) How true.
Finally I felt my thirst being quenched in the teachings of Jesus! A short while later I was led to the www.jesuschristians.com website by way of an article that I stumbled upon while researching Christian communities. After much reading of the information that was available on this site, I started corresponding with some of the members and eventually decided to step out of the comfortable realm of theory and attempt to practice this new way of living by coming out to Compton, California where the team in the United States was located at the time.
After staying with the Jesus Christians for a little over a week, learning, living and loving with these ordinary radicals, my mind had been thoroughly blown (not washed, mind you, but blown). ;) It was now time for me to go home and sell everything that I owned, before returning to Los Angeles to begin my new life living and working full-time for God. At about the halfway point of my journey back to Kansas, the devil's fear took hold of me. I made an impromptu call to let my new friends know that I would not be coming back any time soon and that I wasn't "ready yet."
I spent six months traveling on the road with a friend and two dogs, occasionally sharing the message of Christ's teachings with new and old acquaintances that I met along the way. Because my companion did not share my vision (what little of it that had not faded away at that point) and the people whom I assumed would be most receptive were not interested, I saw that the fire God ignited in me would disappear altogether if I did not return to the path that He had already set before me -- the very one I was running from.
Another few weeks passed, full of intense internal conflict over what I would do with my life, whether to keep running in fear from the truth that I had been clearly shown or to just surrender everything in faith and obedience to God. I knew what the right choice was and so I plunged into it by hopping on a Greyhound bus to return to preaching the teachings of Jesus full-time with my new family of revolutionaries for God.
"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -Jesus (Luke 10:2)
Jeremy, aged 29.
Coming from a home that was free from religious expectations and obligations, I gave little thought to anything of a spiritual nature until my late teens. I had spent a significant amount of my last few years of high school in a psychedellic-alcoholic stupor, caught between an attempt to find my place in the social world and questions about life's meaning, while simultaneously engaging in a battle with depression that would continue to haunt me with suicidal thoughts for many years ahead.
As high school came to a close, I moved into an apartment with my twin brother and another friend for a stint, before rooming with the girl I had been dating for a while. Things seemed somewhat steady for a few years, aside from the many jobs I had worked during this period of my life. It was at this point that my "spiritual eye" started to open. I dabbled in existential psychology and gradually developed an intensified interest in plant-psychedelic shamanism. I hoped to gain the key to understanding life through transcendental experiences by way of mind altering edibles (or smokables). After many "trips" like this, I began to realize that I wasn't really getting anywhere in my pursuit, just a deepening depression. I continued to withdraw from others whom I felt wouldn't be able to understand me and I lost any real interest in trying to relate to them.
Fortunately, the metaphorical sun did begin to shine a few rays in my life when I was introduced to Buddhism. The words from a popular song at the time, by "The Verve", rang true for me as I moved away from the psychedelics in which I had put so much faith: "Now the drugs don't work, they just make you worse..." I decided to give different forms of meditation a serious try after being inspired by what I had learned from Buddhist thought.
A few years and unhealthy relationships later, I left college and cut back on my work schedule in an attempt to focus more heavily on the "what's it all about" questions that remained unanswered and deeply burdened me. By then my twin brother had started attending numerous churches which I occasionally visited with him, but I always had a nagging suspicion that most of it was a hypocritical show, especially after coming across some writings of the famous Russian author, Leo Tolstoy. I learned through him that there was something intensely unique about the things Jesus actually said. Tolstoy had been excommunicated from his own church for sharing these very thoughts. Wow! If this was true, I thought, then maybe seeing what Jesus Himself had to say would actually be worth a peek after all, so I did. As I read His words, I kept thinking "If the things that Jesus says are true and he wants us to follow him, why aren't the churches practicing and sharing these teachings with the world?" I saw that Jesus had reminded the people of his own time of something that an earlier prophet had said: "Very well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites -- 'they honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. In vain they worship me... rejecting the commands of God so that they can keep their own (worthless) traditions'." (Mark 7:6-9) How true.
Finally I felt my thirst being quenched in the teachings of Jesus! A short while later I was led to the www.jesuschristians.com website by way of an article that I stumbled upon while researching Christian communities. After much reading of the information that was available on this site, I started corresponding with some of the members and eventually decided to step out of the comfortable realm of theory and attempt to practice this new way of living by coming out to Compton, California where the team in the United States was located at the time.
After staying with the Jesus Christians for a little over a week, learning, living and loving with these ordinary radicals, my mind had been thoroughly blown (not washed, mind you, but blown). ;) It was now time for me to go home and sell everything that I owned, before returning to Los Angeles to begin my new life living and working full-time for God. At about the halfway point of my journey back to Kansas, the devil's fear took hold of me. I made an impromptu call to let my new friends know that I would not be coming back any time soon and that I wasn't "ready yet."
I spent six months traveling on the road with a friend and two dogs, occasionally sharing the message of Christ's teachings with new and old acquaintances that I met along the way. Because my companion did not share my vision (what little of it that had not faded away at that point) and the people whom I assumed would be most receptive were not interested, I saw that the fire God ignited in me would disappear altogether if I did not return to the path that He had already set before me -- the very one I was running from.
Another few weeks passed, full of intense internal conflict over what I would do with my life, whether to keep running in fear from the truth that I had been clearly shown or to just surrender everything in faith and obedience to God. I knew what the right choice was and so I plunged into it by hopping on a Greyhound bus to return to preaching the teachings of Jesus full-time with my new family of revolutionaries for God.
"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -Jesus (Luke 10:2)
May, 2007
I grew up in an environment where I was not pushed in any particular spiritual direction. Between the ages of 14 and 17, I was drawn into psychedelic drugs, because I found them exciting (i.e. seeing how different my thought processes became while on them), and because I was looking for answers.
Eventually I concluded that the answers were not going to be found in drugs like LSD. I then started to focus much more intensely on some sort of spiritual direction. After a brief trial of occultic things that offered nothing really practical or beneficial, I was introduced to various forms of Buddhism. I found Zen Buddhism most interesting. I read book after book on Buddhist teachings; types of meditation practices; the lives of Buddhist practitioners (both ancient and recent and eastern and western) and the like. I started to see myself as a Buddhist and went to various temples for meditation with other Buddhists. I began to sense a feeling of religious superiority which I enjoyed. My “spiritual path" allowed me to continue in this delusion. Looking back, I think I was more interested in the romantic idealism of being “spiritual” by practicing meditation, rather than the more challenging discipline of learning how to love and serve others.
All this time, I was still struggling under a cloud of anger that I had been carrying since my early teens, and I was hoping to find peace through my practice, but it always seemed elusive. It did not help me much when I started to get into drinking quite heavily. I would just repeat a vicious cycle of getting intoxicated, aggressive, and then feeling more and more isolated from the world. The meditation was not taking it away.
I do feel now that God was allowing me to see what else was out there, so that I might somehow be softened up into accepting Jesus, as before and even during my years of Buddhism, I was still quite opposed to God and Christianity.
When I was around 21 or 22 years old, for reasons only God knows, I began praying. I never really prayed before then, as I did not believe in a personal God, or really any god at all. I was desperate to know why I was alive, what the purpose was, and somehow for that purpose to be revealed to me, in some way. I began to be drawn to go into churches (usually when no one else was there) and just pray. I could feel a huge amount of change was going on inside me, and all I knew to do was to continue to pray, in any way I knew how.
I was living with some friends who were both professing agnostics, if not professing atheists. When I started to ask questions about whether or not there is a personal God, I could see that I was not among a sympathetic audience.
I continued to go to Buddhist meetings where we would practice Zen meditation for an hour, then discuss whatever book we as a group happened to be reading at the time. At this point, I began to see that one of the things that I was disgusted with in Christianity was just as present within other religious traditions, and this was self-righteousness. I started to take more notice of how we, as “peaceful, tolerant, compassionate” Buddhists were just as apt to mock other religions, and most especially, those within the Christian tradition. Although I do realize that a lot of people may have been burned by their religious upbringing, and that the history of “Churchianity” has a lot to be ashamed of, we were doing the same thing with our mocking, self-superior talk about them. This got me seriously thinking that if this same condescending spirit was just as prevelant among the other religions, than maybe I could risk a closer look at what Christians have to say, before I checked it off of my list entirely.
A friend invited me to attend her church, and I had yet another powerful experience that just kept validating the fact that God was real to me. I kept visiting that church, along with going to other churches, to get an idea what this whole “church” thing was all about. I started calling myself a Christian. I was reading my bible, and doing what I thought was the Christian thing to do, although I still had some things that I was unwilling to let go of in my life, simply because they were for my own selfish pleasure. During this time, I would have to say I was on a spiritual high. I had God on my terms.
The only problem I felt I had at the time was my twin brother. I loved him and wanted him to see what I saw, to become a “Christian” as I understood what being a Christian meant at the time. However, he still had the intense disdain for anything Christian that I had had previously, and he did not see any reason to change his views, so we had many long, hurtful arguments over my new views. I kept praying for him, and he kept his guard up and kept trying to share other spiritual perspectives that he was still looking into.
Then, one night as he was staying at my house, he came across the Jesus Christians website. He was actually blown away by what he had read, and surprisingly, he wanted to share it with me. I looked over the articles that he had pointed out, but I just assumed that all of the Christian websites were bound to be roughly the same. He continued to read the website, and was growing in his appreciation of what Jesus had taught. I remember that while we were still having arguments over our beliefs, he would ask me “what about the red letters?” (Meaning the words of Jesus in the Gospels). I was falling for the churchy doctrine that the WHOLE Bible is the Word of God, rather than JESUS being the Word of God. (See John 1:1 &14; Revelation 19:13) and so it seemed kind of ridiculous to me to assume that one part of the Bible was more important than another part.
It was not until much later, when he decided to visit the Jesus Christians living in California, that I looked seriously at what was being said in those articles. I was worried that my brother was being sucked into a cult, so after one phone call which ended in another argument while he was visiting the Jesus Christians, I devoted every spare moment I had to going through every article on the website with a fine tooth comb, trying to find any shocking belief that would prove that they were a cult and that he should have nothing to do with them. When he called me about three days later, I had completely reexamined my beliefs, and I was convinced that what I had read had much more truth than all I had heard throughout my time in the various church denominations.
Here was a group of people, who chose to live together, who believed that God could feed and clothe them if they simply spent their time focusing on reaching others with the amazing life changing teachings of Jesus Christ. I was also shown the answer to a question that had been plaguing me for so long, since I started to work in the system. I always wondered if there was more to life than working in a job, raising a family, worrying about bills, etc. I knew that there had to be more, but I was not finding it anywhere. Here were people who were willing to look at what Jesus taught, and not come up with reasons as to why it “did not apply to them.”
Each of us stands alone before God, and so we cannot look at what the rest of the world is getting away with in regards to disobeying Jesus. God is calling us, one by one, to listen to and obey His Son, so I have to answer to Him. I hope my life can be a testimony to inspire others to listen to the One who knows our thoughts and hearts.
Ezra (a.k.a. Jayme), aged 29.
I grew up in an environment where I was not pushed in any particular spiritual direction. Between the ages of 14 and 17, I was drawn into psychedelic drugs, because I found them exciting (i.e. seeing how different my thought processes became while on them), and because I was looking for answers.
Eventually I concluded that the answers were not going to be found in drugs like LSD. I then started to focus much more intensely on some sort of spiritual direction. After a brief trial of occultic things that offered nothing really practical or beneficial, I was introduced to various forms of Buddhism. I found Zen Buddhism most interesting. I read book after book on Buddhist teachings; types of meditation practices; the lives of Buddhist practitioners (both ancient and recent and eastern and western) and the like. I started to see myself as a Buddhist and went to various temples for meditation with other Buddhists. I began to sense a feeling of religious superiority which I enjoyed. My “spiritual path" allowed me to continue in this delusion. Looking back, I think I was more interested in the romantic idealism of being “spiritual” by practicing meditation, rather than the more challenging discipline of learning how to love and serve others.
All this time, I was still struggling under a cloud of anger that I had been carrying since my early teens, and I was hoping to find peace through my practice, but it always seemed elusive. It did not help me much when I started to get into drinking quite heavily. I would just repeat a vicious cycle of getting intoxicated, aggressive, and then feeling more and more isolated from the world. The meditation was not taking it away.
I do feel now that God was allowing me to see what else was out there, so that I might somehow be softened up into accepting Jesus, as before and even during my years of Buddhism, I was still quite opposed to God and Christianity.
When I was around 21 or 22 years old, for reasons only God knows, I began praying. I never really prayed before then, as I did not believe in a personal God, or really any god at all. I was desperate to know why I was alive, what the purpose was, and somehow for that purpose to be revealed to me, in some way. I began to be drawn to go into churches (usually when no one else was there) and just pray. I could feel a huge amount of change was going on inside me, and all I knew to do was to continue to pray, in any way I knew how.
I was living with some friends who were both professing agnostics, if not professing atheists. When I started to ask questions about whether or not there is a personal God, I could see that I was not among a sympathetic audience.
I continued to go to Buddhist meetings where we would practice Zen meditation for an hour, then discuss whatever book we as a group happened to be reading at the time. At this point, I began to see that one of the things that I was disgusted with in Christianity was just as present within other religious traditions, and this was self-righteousness. I started to take more notice of how we, as “peaceful, tolerant, compassionate” Buddhists were just as apt to mock other religions, and most especially, those within the Christian tradition. Although I do realize that a lot of people may have been burned by their religious upbringing, and that the history of “Churchianity” has a lot to be ashamed of, we were doing the same thing with our mocking, self-superior talk about them. This got me seriously thinking that if this same condescending spirit was just as prevelant among the other religions, than maybe I could risk a closer look at what Christians have to say, before I checked it off of my list entirely.
A friend invited me to attend her church, and I had yet another powerful experience that just kept validating the fact that God was real to me. I kept visiting that church, along with going to other churches, to get an idea what this whole “church” thing was all about. I started calling myself a Christian. I was reading my bible, and doing what I thought was the Christian thing to do, although I still had some things that I was unwilling to let go of in my life, simply because they were for my own selfish pleasure. During this time, I would have to say I was on a spiritual high. I had God on my terms.
The only problem I felt I had at the time was my twin brother. I loved him and wanted him to see what I saw, to become a “Christian” as I understood what being a Christian meant at the time. However, he still had the intense disdain for anything Christian that I had had previously, and he did not see any reason to change his views, so we had many long, hurtful arguments over my new views. I kept praying for him, and he kept his guard up and kept trying to share other spiritual perspectives that he was still looking into.
Then, one night as he was staying at my house, he came across the Jesus Christians website. He was actually blown away by what he had read, and surprisingly, he wanted to share it with me. I looked over the articles that he had pointed out, but I just assumed that all of the Christian websites were bound to be roughly the same. He continued to read the website, and was growing in his appreciation of what Jesus had taught. I remember that while we were still having arguments over our beliefs, he would ask me “what about the red letters?” (Meaning the words of Jesus in the Gospels). I was falling for the churchy doctrine that the WHOLE Bible is the Word of God, rather than JESUS being the Word of God. (See John 1:1 &14; Revelation 19:13) and so it seemed kind of ridiculous to me to assume that one part of the Bible was more important than another part.
It was not until much later, when he decided to visit the Jesus Christians living in California, that I looked seriously at what was being said in those articles. I was worried that my brother was being sucked into a cult, so after one phone call which ended in another argument while he was visiting the Jesus Christians, I devoted every spare moment I had to going through every article on the website with a fine tooth comb, trying to find any shocking belief that would prove that they were a cult and that he should have nothing to do with them. When he called me about three days later, I had completely reexamined my beliefs, and I was convinced that what I had read had much more truth than all I had heard throughout my time in the various church denominations.
Here was a group of people, who chose to live together, who believed that God could feed and clothe them if they simply spent their time focusing on reaching others with the amazing life changing teachings of Jesus Christ. I was also shown the answer to a question that had been plaguing me for so long, since I started to work in the system. I always wondered if there was more to life than working in a job, raising a family, worrying about bills, etc. I knew that there had to be more, but I was not finding it anywhere. Here were people who were willing to look at what Jesus taught, and not come up with reasons as to why it “did not apply to them.”
Each of us stands alone before God, and so we cannot look at what the rest of the world is getting away with in regards to disobeying Jesus. God is calling us, one by one, to listen to and obey His Son, so I have to answer to Him. I hope my life can be a testimony to inspire others to listen to the One who knows our thoughts and hearts.
2002
Hi! I'm Ulrike from Germany. I joined the Jesus Christians in June 2001. I can tell that my life changed much since then in a positive way! I'm learning to be free, not to worry about material things, to say what I really want and that it is not a shame to make mistakes in life. I can see now that all is based on the teachings of Jesus. Life is much more easier if you live your life after His teachings.
It happened at the end of the year 2000 that I went for a holiday to Australia. I am really a "travel person." I like to travel. I saw a lot of the world but I guess I missed out with my own home country. It happened when I joined a missionary training camp in 1998 that I committed myself to God. I said I don't want to travel any more for fun. If I travel, I wanted to do it for God as missionary work. After two years at the end of my studies, I really wanted to go to Australia where I had lived for 10 months when I was 16 years old. I told God that I really would like to see and visit the family again who had looked after me in my younger years. Also I wanted to share with them about having a relationship with God, because I knew especially the mother had also a relationship with God. As well, I was open to get to know a church or people who believe also in God.
When I was in Australia together with a German friend I travelled around, saw pretty much from the beautiful landscape and big and small cities and also my friends (the family I stayed with) in Western Australia. I was looking for a church or something where I really could share my thoughts with.
In Melbourne together with my friend, I met a guy and we had a brief chat. He said he was a Christian and said he had been already living 20 years working for God and living without earning money. He said that he and his friends were going to visit Germany and so I suggested that they could go to my home town. So, it happened that we stayed in contact via the internet. And, indeed, a team of the Jesus Christians came to Germany and invited me to visit for the weekend.
That was a great weekend. I felt really free in what I did with them. At this weekend, I heard a lot about the teachings of Jesus, how and where it is written in the Bible.
To obey what Jesus said, you have to take His commands literally. I didn't realise that before in my church life.
So, what was the best thing to do? To go back to my "old life" and pretend nothing happened (in my mind) and continue working in my job as a social worker (which was really fun and satisfying personally), going to church and not committing myself to anything that God really wanted?
This question went through my mind time by time after I got to know the JC personally. I decided to visit them in England where one team was based. That convicted me! Not the visit itself, more what I heard and learnt about life! I wanted to stay in the community! To learn more about the Christian life not only theoretically but practically.
So, I gave up everything in Germany. I forsook what I had like my flat, all my possessions, my job and I let go of my friendships of friends who rejected what I did. And, I even gave up my family and now I'm living as a Jesus Christian in a community. We support each other and we don't have to worry because we are living by faith in God! That is a challenge for me and not always easy. However, the main thing is to live and work for God.
Ulrike, aged 32.
Hi! I'm Ulrike from Germany. I joined the Jesus Christians in June 2001. I can tell that my life changed much since then in a positive way! I'm learning to be free, not to worry about material things, to say what I really want and that it is not a shame to make mistakes in life. I can see now that all is based on the teachings of Jesus. Life is much more easier if you live your life after His teachings.
It happened at the end of the year 2000 that I went for a holiday to Australia. I am really a "travel person." I like to travel. I saw a lot of the world but I guess I missed out with my own home country. It happened when I joined a missionary training camp in 1998 that I committed myself to God. I said I don't want to travel any more for fun. If I travel, I wanted to do it for God as missionary work. After two years at the end of my studies, I really wanted to go to Australia where I had lived for 10 months when I was 16 years old. I told God that I really would like to see and visit the family again who had looked after me in my younger years. Also I wanted to share with them about having a relationship with God, because I knew especially the mother had also a relationship with God. As well, I was open to get to know a church or people who believe also in God.
When I was in Australia together with a German friend I travelled around, saw pretty much from the beautiful landscape and big and small cities and also my friends (the family I stayed with) in Western Australia. I was looking for a church or something where I really could share my thoughts with.
In Melbourne together with my friend, I met a guy and we had a brief chat. He said he was a Christian and said he had been already living 20 years working for God and living without earning money. He said that he and his friends were going to visit Germany and so I suggested that they could go to my home town. So, it happened that we stayed in contact via the internet. And, indeed, a team of the Jesus Christians came to Germany and invited me to visit for the weekend.
That was a great weekend. I felt really free in what I did with them. At this weekend, I heard a lot about the teachings of Jesus, how and where it is written in the Bible.
To obey what Jesus said, you have to take His commands literally. I didn't realise that before in my church life.
So, what was the best thing to do? To go back to my "old life" and pretend nothing happened (in my mind) and continue working in my job as a social worker (which was really fun and satisfying personally), going to church and not committing myself to anything that God really wanted?
This question went through my mind time by time after I got to know the JC personally. I decided to visit them in England where one team was based. That convicted me! Not the visit itself, more what I heard and learnt about life! I wanted to stay in the community! To learn more about the Christian life not only theoretically but practically.
So, I gave up everything in Germany. I forsook what I had like my flat, all my possessions, my job and I let go of my friendships of friends who rejected what I did. And, I even gave up my family and now I'm living as a Jesus Christian in a community. We support each other and we don't have to worry because we are living by faith in God! That is a challenge for me and not always easy. However, the main thing is to live and work for God.
2002
As I grew up, I tried making sense of all the things that were happening around me. From as young as 10 years old, I spent a lot of time wondering why people did things. I was confused by how people said something polite to someone to their face when they really thought badly about that person and spoke badly behind their backs. Everyone seemed to think that this was normal. Even earlier, my parents had separated, and my only memories about that marriage were of arguments and violence. All this made me wonder about what I could do to have better relationships.
As a teenager I went to a Catholic school and I looked for moral guidance from the Catholic brothers there. These brothers had taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and I wanted to know what gave them this strength and conviction. As I spent time with them and understood them more, I came to realise that they saw their "calling from God" as just being a secure job. They had no more real interest in the students than the other teachers had. The entire Catholic system seemed to be based on hypocrisy that majored on asking God for things that THEY wanted, and not vice versa.
During my teenage years I spent hours just looking out my bedroom window, wondering what life was all about. At times I thought I was the only person thinking about such issues, and I felt alienated in a world that did not make sense to me. My sense of God grew during those years, and it kept me searching for more.
I was discouraged when I realised that my school friends were not searching for any meaning and were content to grow up to be pawns, used by the system. Any meaningful discussion I had with them ended in frustration.
During one summer holiday, I wrote a book to express my frustrations. I tried to sort out my own thoughts while I wrote it.
My mother was quite a bad influence, as she became more bitter with life in general and more selfish as a result.
My biggest hope at this stage was to study at a university so I could find the answers to life. I wanted to know what made people happy, and how I could find freedom and peace of mind. But my studies were much like my high school experience, in that they were geared toward learning how to work for money, and not learning for the sake of improving life and society.
After one semester, when I didn't know what further to do, I saw someone handing out tracts on the university campus, and I approached them. They invited me for lunch for further discussions. When I had a break from my studies, I went to visit the community that these people were from, and I knew that I had found the meaning of life that had eluded me all those years. I started listening to God every day and doing as He said, and I knew that He had the solutions to all the problems I had. I was inspired and relieved to be able to start living and working for God.
So far, it has been 13 years of challenges, rewards, satisfaction and meaning!
Martin, aged 32.
As I grew up, I tried making sense of all the things that were happening around me. From as young as 10 years old, I spent a lot of time wondering why people did things. I was confused by how people said something polite to someone to their face when they really thought badly about that person and spoke badly behind their backs. Everyone seemed to think that this was normal. Even earlier, my parents had separated, and my only memories about that marriage were of arguments and violence. All this made me wonder about what I could do to have better relationships.
As a teenager I went to a Catholic school and I looked for moral guidance from the Catholic brothers there. These brothers had taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and I wanted to know what gave them this strength and conviction. As I spent time with them and understood them more, I came to realise that they saw their "calling from God" as just being a secure job. They had no more real interest in the students than the other teachers had. The entire Catholic system seemed to be based on hypocrisy that majored on asking God for things that THEY wanted, and not vice versa.
During my teenage years I spent hours just looking out my bedroom window, wondering what life was all about. At times I thought I was the only person thinking about such issues, and I felt alienated in a world that did not make sense to me. My sense of God grew during those years, and it kept me searching for more.
I was discouraged when I realised that my school friends were not searching for any meaning and were content to grow up to be pawns, used by the system. Any meaningful discussion I had with them ended in frustration.
During one summer holiday, I wrote a book to express my frustrations. I tried to sort out my own thoughts while I wrote it.
My mother was quite a bad influence, as she became more bitter with life in general and more selfish as a result.
My biggest hope at this stage was to study at a university so I could find the answers to life. I wanted to know what made people happy, and how I could find freedom and peace of mind. But my studies were much like my high school experience, in that they were geared toward learning how to work for money, and not learning for the sake of improving life and society.
After one semester, when I didn't know what further to do, I saw someone handing out tracts on the university campus, and I approached them. They invited me for lunch for further discussions. When I had a break from my studies, I went to visit the community that these people were from, and I knew that I had found the meaning of life that had eluded me all those years. I started listening to God every day and doing as He said, and I knew that He had the solutions to all the problems I had. I was inspired and relieved to be able to start living and working for God.
So far, it has been 13 years of challenges, rewards, satisfaction and meaning!
March 2004
My parents raised me really well, something I am very grateful for. They taught me a lot of good things from the Bible and the teachings of Jesus and I trusted what they taught me as much as I trusted them. I was a serious child and what I was taught made a lot of sense and I took it to heart. My experiences with living by faith were similar. I didn't worry when we were in tight situations. I know that part of that was faith that my parents would come up with something, but I also think it was faith in God.
In our early days as a family we used to approach people and ask them to say a little prayer asking Jesus into their hearts. I'm not sure how deeply the people praying the prayer meant it, but I used to recite the prayer with them and would say it with meaning.
It probably wasn't until I was 14 and 15 that I can say for sure that I developed a relationship with God that was independent of my parents' influence. When I was 14 we were considering going to another country. One of the countries we were considering was India. I had a dream about going to India and thought it was God telling me that was the right thing to do. So when my parents did make the decision that India was where we would go, I went with them. India was shocking. Nothing was like I expected. The poverty was terrible I was quite scared of the country at first. After three months my parents returned to Australia and gave me the option of going with them or staying on a few months longer. I decided to stay on (with my brother and a few spiritual brothers). What the five of us mostly did during the next three months was teach English and the Bible to some Indian youth of my own age. Every day was both a cultural and spiritual challenge for me. There was no set curriculum and we had to make it up as we went along. My "brothers" basically gave me a class and I had to come up with what to teach. I had to keep asking God what on earth I might have to offer these people. Sometimes I failed (I remember crying in my room at night) but other times I felt like I did have something to offer them. I think through teaching them things like living by faith and the ways to know God's will etc., I internalised a lot of the things myself.
The main thing I learnt from it, was I couldn't just learn and keep on learning, but I had to teach others the things I had learnt myself, even if I didn't have it all worked out completely myself. I always had a problem with laziness as a child, expecting others to do things for me, and I think this experience helped me to see how selfish I was being and I started to overcome this problem.
Later when I was 15, a few of the young people in the community had an idea to do a faith walk (a bit like when Jesus sent the disciples out two by two). We had a prayer time about it and I had a vision of travelling down a long road. I felt God was telling me to do this thing we were considering. Six of us aged between 12 and 21 ended up going on a really long faith walk across the Nullarbor Desert. It's a long story and lots of amazing and good things happened on the trip. Kind of by default, I was chosen as the leader/spokesperson for the walk. At one point in the walk we hadn't eaten for two days. We had some vegemite spread and some tea leaves and people were resorting to eating them straight. Some of us were starting to grumble in our spirits. Some of the guys talked amongst themselves about trying to flag down cars on the road to see if someone could give us some food. (We had agreed not to do this unless we were desperate). I felt uncomfortable about doing this, but instead of stopping and praying about what was the right thing to do, I gave in to the pressure (some of it internal) and agreed to them flagging down cars. They tried flagging down cars for quite a while (I think it was a couple hours) and not a single car would stop. Finally when we realised we weren't getting anywhere, we stopped to talk amongst ourselves.
What came out was that everyone had misgivings about what we were doing and we all knew that we were not acting out of faith. I felt really ashamed for my lack of faith. I think I would have liked to blame the decision to flag down cars on someone else and maybe that's why God put me in that position of leadership. There was no way I could squirm out of what I had done wrong. I confessed this and others admitted to feeling similarly. We decided to stop flagging down cars and continue on our way. It was like a spiritual weight had been lifted from our shoulders. Then a few minutes later a truck stopped of its own accord and the driver gave us a huge sack of potatoes. It was like God was toying with us, just waiting for us to trust him again, before he would feed us. We roasted the potatoes over the campfire. The driver joined us for our "feast" and we were able to share with him our experience.
I remember how my dad, when I was three years old, quit his job to work for God, and how he made an agreement with God that he would work for Him providing He fed our family. My dad told God, that if we went hungry he would get a job. I guess God figured after 12 years of feeding us meal after meal, that we could handle a little bit of suffering without losing our faith! It hardly compares to dying for our faith.
In Romans 14:23 it says "whatever is not done in faith is sin". That has really proven to be true in my life. When things go poorly in some way, I can always trace it back to the fact that I forgot to ask God what He wanted me to do. And when I have asked God for direction, things go a lot better. It's a liberating feeling when I know that the only reason I'm doing what I'm doing is because it's what I think God wants me to do. Sometimes my motives are mixed, and sometimes God's will is not all that clear, but if I'm prepared to forsake my own ideas and I'm faithful to ask God to speak to me act on what little I get, I can have the confidence that I am in God's will and that it will work out to His glory. I know that is much more important than any kind of success the world can offer me.
Christine, aged 34.
My parents raised me really well, something I am very grateful for. They taught me a lot of good things from the Bible and the teachings of Jesus and I trusted what they taught me as much as I trusted them. I was a serious child and what I was taught made a lot of sense and I took it to heart. My experiences with living by faith were similar. I didn't worry when we were in tight situations. I know that part of that was faith that my parents would come up with something, but I also think it was faith in God.
In our early days as a family we used to approach people and ask them to say a little prayer asking Jesus into their hearts. I'm not sure how deeply the people praying the prayer meant it, but I used to recite the prayer with them and would say it with meaning.
It probably wasn't until I was 14 and 15 that I can say for sure that I developed a relationship with God that was independent of my parents' influence. When I was 14 we were considering going to another country. One of the countries we were considering was India. I had a dream about going to India and thought it was God telling me that was the right thing to do. So when my parents did make the decision that India was where we would go, I went with them. India was shocking. Nothing was like I expected. The poverty was terrible I was quite scared of the country at first. After three months my parents returned to Australia and gave me the option of going with them or staying on a few months longer. I decided to stay on (with my brother and a few spiritual brothers). What the five of us mostly did during the next three months was teach English and the Bible to some Indian youth of my own age. Every day was both a cultural and spiritual challenge for me. There was no set curriculum and we had to make it up as we went along. My "brothers" basically gave me a class and I had to come up with what to teach. I had to keep asking God what on earth I might have to offer these people. Sometimes I failed (I remember crying in my room at night) but other times I felt like I did have something to offer them. I think through teaching them things like living by faith and the ways to know God's will etc., I internalised a lot of the things myself.
The main thing I learnt from it, was I couldn't just learn and keep on learning, but I had to teach others the things I had learnt myself, even if I didn't have it all worked out completely myself. I always had a problem with laziness as a child, expecting others to do things for me, and I think this experience helped me to see how selfish I was being and I started to overcome this problem.
Later when I was 15, a few of the young people in the community had an idea to do a faith walk (a bit like when Jesus sent the disciples out two by two). We had a prayer time about it and I had a vision of travelling down a long road. I felt God was telling me to do this thing we were considering. Six of us aged between 12 and 21 ended up going on a really long faith walk across the Nullarbor Desert. It's a long story and lots of amazing and good things happened on the trip. Kind of by default, I was chosen as the leader/spokesperson for the walk. At one point in the walk we hadn't eaten for two days. We had some vegemite spread and some tea leaves and people were resorting to eating them straight. Some of us were starting to grumble in our spirits. Some of the guys talked amongst themselves about trying to flag down cars on the road to see if someone could give us some food. (We had agreed not to do this unless we were desperate). I felt uncomfortable about doing this, but instead of stopping and praying about what was the right thing to do, I gave in to the pressure (some of it internal) and agreed to them flagging down cars. They tried flagging down cars for quite a while (I think it was a couple hours) and not a single car would stop. Finally when we realised we weren't getting anywhere, we stopped to talk amongst ourselves.
What came out was that everyone had misgivings about what we were doing and we all knew that we were not acting out of faith. I felt really ashamed for my lack of faith. I think I would have liked to blame the decision to flag down cars on someone else and maybe that's why God put me in that position of leadership. There was no way I could squirm out of what I had done wrong. I confessed this and others admitted to feeling similarly. We decided to stop flagging down cars and continue on our way. It was like a spiritual weight had been lifted from our shoulders. Then a few minutes later a truck stopped of its own accord and the driver gave us a huge sack of potatoes. It was like God was toying with us, just waiting for us to trust him again, before he would feed us. We roasted the potatoes over the campfire. The driver joined us for our "feast" and we were able to share with him our experience.
I remember how my dad, when I was three years old, quit his job to work for God, and how he made an agreement with God that he would work for Him providing He fed our family. My dad told God, that if we went hungry he would get a job. I guess God figured after 12 years of feeding us meal after meal, that we could handle a little bit of suffering without losing our faith! It hardly compares to dying for our faith.
In Romans 14:23 it says "whatever is not done in faith is sin". That has really proven to be true in my life. When things go poorly in some way, I can always trace it back to the fact that I forgot to ask God what He wanted me to do. And when I have asked God for direction, things go a lot better. It's a liberating feeling when I know that the only reason I'm doing what I'm doing is because it's what I think God wants me to do. Sometimes my motives are mixed, and sometimes God's will is not all that clear, but if I'm prepared to forsake my own ideas and I'm faithful to ask God to speak to me act on what little I get, I can have the confidence that I am in God's will and that it will work out to His glory. I know that is much more important than any kind of success the world can offer me.
2002
I grew up in a middle class Australian family, being involved in heaps of church and christian youth activities. I consider myself to have had a very privileged upbringing with a loving, supportive family and a good education at a Baptist girls' college.
In my teenage years I started to question things. I didn't give up on my faith in God, but dedicated and rededicated my life to Jesus numerous times in church meetings, youth camps and in private, searching for spiritual direction and something to satisfy the burning hunger within me. I began to see inconsistencies in what I had been taught and what was being practised by the people and institutions I had always respected. My best friend and I became leaders of the students for Christ youth group at school. We privately confronted our school principle to express our concerns over the fact that fellow students, who we personally knew didn't even believe in God, were being asked to lead the school in prayer at the morning assemblies. Of course, the school principal never conceded and we were branded trouble makers. I was disillusioned. I also attempted to personally question my church pastor as to why he thought it was good to have nuclear weapons. The answer he gave me, while I watched his hands shaking with fear as he spoke, was that we can't love our enemies because they would trample all over us. I was shocked into realising that everyone who claimed they were Christians, were not following the Jesus that I knew from reading my Bible. I started searching all over Melbourne for a church that practised what it preached, but I was repeatedly disappointed.
When I finished my final year at school, I had to make a decision what to do for a career. Nothing appealed to me, except perhaps medicine, which I make the grades for. I became desperate for direction from God. After my religious teaching (thankfully) drummed it in to our entire class, I believed that God had a plan for my life, but I had to find it. Under amazing (I would consider miraculous) circumstances I bumped into Ross who was witnessing at a Christian Rock Festival, from The Jesus Christians. I became very attracted to this group of people I started to learn about through their literature. In particular, here was a community of Christians that was teaching the radical things I had read Christ saying, unlike anyone else I knew of.
My mother strongly opposed me visiting the group, and even sent a pastor around to the house to try to talk me out of joining the group, praying loudly for me to see the error of my ways! My eyes were wide open. My mother and family later caused the group a lot of problems as they tried to stop me from working with the community.
I forsook all my possessions and have been working with this amazing family of fantastic individuals from all over the world for the last 15 years. God has fulfilled so much of what I dreamed I wanted to do with my life, I could never have planned it better. God has a plan for our lives, and we just have to trust and follow him to find it.
Sue, aged 34.
I grew up in a middle class Australian family, being involved in heaps of church and christian youth activities. I consider myself to have had a very privileged upbringing with a loving, supportive family and a good education at a Baptist girls' college.
In my teenage years I started to question things. I didn't give up on my faith in God, but dedicated and rededicated my life to Jesus numerous times in church meetings, youth camps and in private, searching for spiritual direction and something to satisfy the burning hunger within me. I began to see inconsistencies in what I had been taught and what was being practised by the people and institutions I had always respected. My best friend and I became leaders of the students for Christ youth group at school. We privately confronted our school principle to express our concerns over the fact that fellow students, who we personally knew didn't even believe in God, were being asked to lead the school in prayer at the morning assemblies. Of course, the school principal never conceded and we were branded trouble makers. I was disillusioned. I also attempted to personally question my church pastor as to why he thought it was good to have nuclear weapons. The answer he gave me, while I watched his hands shaking with fear as he spoke, was that we can't love our enemies because they would trample all over us. I was shocked into realising that everyone who claimed they were Christians, were not following the Jesus that I knew from reading my Bible. I started searching all over Melbourne for a church that practised what it preached, but I was repeatedly disappointed.
When I finished my final year at school, I had to make a decision what to do for a career. Nothing appealed to me, except perhaps medicine, which I make the grades for. I became desperate for direction from God. After my religious teaching (thankfully) drummed it in to our entire class, I believed that God had a plan for my life, but I had to find it. Under amazing (I would consider miraculous) circumstances I bumped into Ross who was witnessing at a Christian Rock Festival, from The Jesus Christians. I became very attracted to this group of people I started to learn about through their literature. In particular, here was a community of Christians that was teaching the radical things I had read Christ saying, unlike anyone else I knew of.
My mother strongly opposed me visiting the group, and even sent a pastor around to the house to try to talk me out of joining the group, praying loudly for me to see the error of my ways! My eyes were wide open. My mother and family later caused the group a lot of problems as they tried to stop me from working with the community.
I forsook all my possessions and have been working with this amazing family of fantastic individuals from all over the world for the last 15 years. God has fulfilled so much of what I dreamed I wanted to do with my life, I could never have planned it better. God has a plan for our lives, and we just have to trust and follow him to find it.
2002
My parents did a good job of getting me to question the values of society and the people around me.
My mother used to take my two sisters and me along to all the major demonstrations in Melbourne. I learned a lot from that and enjoyed the excitement of challenging the system. However, I soon began to realise that it was not the solution to the world's problems. I could see that the same people who came out to demonstrate on the weekends would all go back on Monday and work for the same system which they were demonstrating against. I could see that something deeper than politics needed to be changed but I did not have any answers. I did not really consider Christianity because I saw religion as just another part of the whole mess, which is basically true.
I was not doing well at school. I was not motivated to learn. The teachers would tell me "you need an education!" and I would say "why?". They would say "so that you can get a job" and I would say "why?". "Because you need money" they would say. "Why?", was my reply, "what if I don't want money?" Nobody had an answer for that, so the teachers would just say "do what you're told!" I used to skip school a lot.
I am thankful now that I did not get into education at that stage in my life, because it would have probably meant a huge delay and distraction on my journey with God, which I may never have recovered from.
I was asked to leave that school because I was too far behind and so I went to a small alternative education school which had about 50 students in total. I got on better with the teachers than I did with the students and ended up having a major falling out with the main "clique" of students and was an outcast from then on. It was my fault (of course). I told one too many "stories".
During this time I spent a lot of time alone, staring out the window thinking. I started to feel like I was a slave trapped in a life that I had no control over. I started to yearn for freedom, and I think I even prayed during this time.
At the end of the term I left that school and tried out two others. I stayed at the third school, which was another alternative lifestyle school, except it was in a much worse area than the first. It was in Melbourne's red light and drug center, St. Kilda. The children I was going to school with were the sons and daughters of prostitutes and drug addicts; not that they were bad people, just that they were in bad circumstances.
We did not do much at school, except sit around and smoke cigarettes or cannabis (if anyone had any). I remember some of the younger kids sniffing glue at school. They would be so "stoned" that they did not know they had glue all over their faces. We used to laugh, but inside I knew it was very sad.
I started stealing and getting into heavier drugs (speed, cocain, LSD, and magic mushrooms). I had a friend who had a car (he was 18) and we used to drive out into the country after school where the magic mushrooms grew and we would stay out all night tripping and come to school the next day having been out all night.
My basic reasoning at this time, was that the world was going to be destroyed in a nuclear war, so it didn't matter what I did to myself. But I think God was with me even during these dark times of my life because something held me back from suicide, taking heroin (which was offered to me on more than one occasion) and sex.
During a trip on magic mushrooms I had an experience which changed my life. It was a "revelation" of what is happening spiritually in the world. For some time now I had been able to see that the world was "evil" and that most people were blind and selfish, but because my parents were atheists it had never really occured to me, that what was wrong with the world was a spiritual thing. Once I saw that, it opened the door to the spiritual world.
I began to look at everything in a different light, almost as if physical things were transparent and I could see the spirit behind them. At first everywhere I looked I could see evil controlling the world. The people, the buildings, even the traffic lights! It was frightening and demoralising at first because I saw evil everywhere. I could sense that an intelligent dark power was behind it all. At some point during this drug trip, a small ray of sunlight broke through the dark clouds of my consciousness. It was the question, "if the world is fully under the control of evil, then why are there still good things here?" God was reaching out to me.
This was my turning point, my defining moment. If the Devil is real, then God must be real too. It was at this point that I decided which side I was going to be on. I decided that I wanted the light and the good in my life more than anything else, and I set out to find out what he wanted me to do.
I discussed these issues with a friend and we made a "pact" with each other. That we would each search for "The Truth" and discuss any progress we made. My friend checked into a few different religions but they all seemed pretty bogus. Eventually, my friend met Dave, Ross and a few others from the Jesus Christians in downtown Melbourne and came home with some literature (the early Mountains and Molehills series). I read some of it but I don't remember it making a big impact on me, except I knew I would have to give up everything.
During this time I was introduced to Roland (who had not joined the community at this stage). We were still smoking cannabis at this point and we spent a few nights in long discussion.
Shortly after that I went to a Bible study organised by the Jesus Christians in Melbourne. I was confused at first, because these people had short hair and seemed so clean cut and organised, but at the same time what they were saying was more radical than anything I had heard in all my experiences with the alternative lifestyle movement. At first I could not reconcile the two realities, but then it occured to me that when you really are radical you don't have to try to look radical (externally). In fact, for the real radical, looking "systemy" can sometimes be an advantage.
I forsook all and joined the Jesus Christians at the age of 15 in the winter of 1981.
Robin, aged 35.
My parents did a good job of getting me to question the values of society and the people around me.
My mother used to take my two sisters and me along to all the major demonstrations in Melbourne. I learned a lot from that and enjoyed the excitement of challenging the system. However, I soon began to realise that it was not the solution to the world's problems. I could see that the same people who came out to demonstrate on the weekends would all go back on Monday and work for the same system which they were demonstrating against. I could see that something deeper than politics needed to be changed but I did not have any answers. I did not really consider Christianity because I saw religion as just another part of the whole mess, which is basically true.
I was not doing well at school. I was not motivated to learn. The teachers would tell me "you need an education!" and I would say "why?". They would say "so that you can get a job" and I would say "why?". "Because you need money" they would say. "Why?", was my reply, "what if I don't want money?" Nobody had an answer for that, so the teachers would just say "do what you're told!" I used to skip school a lot.
I am thankful now that I did not get into education at that stage in my life, because it would have probably meant a huge delay and distraction on my journey with God, which I may never have recovered from.
I was asked to leave that school because I was too far behind and so I went to a small alternative education school which had about 50 students in total. I got on better with the teachers than I did with the students and ended up having a major falling out with the main "clique" of students and was an outcast from then on. It was my fault (of course). I told one too many "stories".
During this time I spent a lot of time alone, staring out the window thinking. I started to feel like I was a slave trapped in a life that I had no control over. I started to yearn for freedom, and I think I even prayed during this time.
At the end of the term I left that school and tried out two others. I stayed at the third school, which was another alternative lifestyle school, except it was in a much worse area than the first. It was in Melbourne's red light and drug center, St. Kilda. The children I was going to school with were the sons and daughters of prostitutes and drug addicts; not that they were bad people, just that they were in bad circumstances.
We did not do much at school, except sit around and smoke cigarettes or cannabis (if anyone had any). I remember some of the younger kids sniffing glue at school. They would be so "stoned" that they did not know they had glue all over their faces. We used to laugh, but inside I knew it was very sad.
I started stealing and getting into heavier drugs (speed, cocain, LSD, and magic mushrooms). I had a friend who had a car (he was 18) and we used to drive out into the country after school where the magic mushrooms grew and we would stay out all night tripping and come to school the next day having been out all night.
My basic reasoning at this time, was that the world was going to be destroyed in a nuclear war, so it didn't matter what I did to myself. But I think God was with me even during these dark times of my life because something held me back from suicide, taking heroin (which was offered to me on more than one occasion) and sex.
During a trip on magic mushrooms I had an experience which changed my life. It was a "revelation" of what is happening spiritually in the world. For some time now I had been able to see that the world was "evil" and that most people were blind and selfish, but because my parents were atheists it had never really occured to me, that what was wrong with the world was a spiritual thing. Once I saw that, it opened the door to the spiritual world.
I began to look at everything in a different light, almost as if physical things were transparent and I could see the spirit behind them. At first everywhere I looked I could see evil controlling the world. The people, the buildings, even the traffic lights! It was frightening and demoralising at first because I saw evil everywhere. I could sense that an intelligent dark power was behind it all. At some point during this drug trip, a small ray of sunlight broke through the dark clouds of my consciousness. It was the question, "if the world is fully under the control of evil, then why are there still good things here?" God was reaching out to me.
This was my turning point, my defining moment. If the Devil is real, then God must be real too. It was at this point that I decided which side I was going to be on. I decided that I wanted the light and the good in my life more than anything else, and I set out to find out what he wanted me to do.
I discussed these issues with a friend and we made a "pact" with each other. That we would each search for "The Truth" and discuss any progress we made. My friend checked into a few different religions but they all seemed pretty bogus. Eventually, my friend met Dave, Ross and a few others from the Jesus Christians in downtown Melbourne and came home with some literature (the early Mountains and Molehills series). I read some of it but I don't remember it making a big impact on me, except I knew I would have to give up everything.
During this time I was introduced to Roland (who had not joined the community at this stage). We were still smoking cannabis at this point and we spent a few nights in long discussion.
Shortly after that I went to a Bible study organised by the Jesus Christians in Melbourne. I was confused at first, because these people had short hair and seemed so clean cut and organised, but at the same time what they were saying was more radical than anything I had heard in all my experiences with the alternative lifestyle movement. At first I could not reconcile the two realities, but then it occured to me that when you really are radical you don't have to try to look radical (externally). In fact, for the real radical, looking "systemy" can sometimes be an advantage.
I forsook all and joined the Jesus Christians at the age of 15 in the winter of 1981.
2002
I am a native German, the youngest child of a liberal high school teacher in Bavaria. I have three brothers and sisters. My parents' marriage broke up when I was a teenager.
I went to high school like many other kids of my age. However, I considered most of my time there was wasted. I found that school in general was occupying me with things that really didn't have much practical application, or things that are learned a lot better by some sort of practical training.
"Religion" was my most hated subject. I didn't come to terms with their concept of presenting Christianity, and so I scored my worst marks there.
At the age of around 16 I became very interested in politics, and developed a slant towards the ideals of communism. I was fascinated by communist Russia. I visited some communist countries several times, which was a refreshing experience. I read the newspaper every day, and followed up certain political issues.
However, I became disappointed. I felt that the world gradually became worse and worse, and that the politicians didn't really care.
After some time in the regular German military service I decided to study environmental technology at the Technical University of Berlin. It was a relatively new study course, and was exciting for the first two years. It gave me interesting and helpful fellowship with other students.
After that, however, I discovered that the goal of the course was to help sustain the system, instead of chopping off the root of all evil, which is greed. (God, of course, did not get any mention, as is the case most of the times in academic circles.) I didn't think much about God myself either.
I finished my studies as quickly as possible and held, after some very difficult times, a management position in a small service company. After four years of that, I felt that there was no room for spiritual development there, and I started missing that. I gave notice and quit the job.
At the same time, a friend of mine invited me to stay in India. I emigrated to India the same year, and was looking around for some meaningful work in Chennai. In the end of the following year I met two representatives of the Jesus Christians at a school in Chennai. I was impressed by their attitude.
A couple of days later I had already started working with them in practical ways. I got to know their lifestyle and the theory behind it. It came from the teachings of Jesus Christ. I discovered that working for love is more fulfilling than working for money, and when we do that, God provides. I got to know the other teachings of Christ too, and they convicted me. I decided to give up all my wealth (as Jesus demands from his followers) and to work for God full-time. And that is what I am doing to this day.
Reinhard, aged 37.
I am a native German, the youngest child of a liberal high school teacher in Bavaria. I have three brothers and sisters. My parents' marriage broke up when I was a teenager.
I went to high school like many other kids of my age. However, I considered most of my time there was wasted. I found that school in general was occupying me with things that really didn't have much practical application, or things that are learned a lot better by some sort of practical training.
"Religion" was my most hated subject. I didn't come to terms with their concept of presenting Christianity, and so I scored my worst marks there.
At the age of around 16 I became very interested in politics, and developed a slant towards the ideals of communism. I was fascinated by communist Russia. I visited some communist countries several times, which was a refreshing experience. I read the newspaper every day, and followed up certain political issues.
However, I became disappointed. I felt that the world gradually became worse and worse, and that the politicians didn't really care.
After some time in the regular German military service I decided to study environmental technology at the Technical University of Berlin. It was a relatively new study course, and was exciting for the first two years. It gave me interesting and helpful fellowship with other students.
After that, however, I discovered that the goal of the course was to help sustain the system, instead of chopping off the root of all evil, which is greed. (God, of course, did not get any mention, as is the case most of the times in academic circles.) I didn't think much about God myself either.
I finished my studies as quickly as possible and held, after some very difficult times, a management position in a small service company. After four years of that, I felt that there was no room for spiritual development there, and I started missing that. I gave notice and quit the job.
At the same time, a friend of mine invited me to stay in India. I emigrated to India the same year, and was looking around for some meaningful work in Chennai. In the end of the following year I met two representatives of the Jesus Christians at a school in Chennai. I was impressed by their attitude.
A couple of days later I had already started working with them in practical ways. I got to know their lifestyle and the theory behind it. It came from the teachings of Jesus Christ. I discovered that working for love is more fulfilling than working for money, and when we do that, God provides. I got to know the other teachings of Christ too, and they convicted me. I decided to give up all my wealth (as Jesus demands from his followers) and to work for God full-time. And that is what I am doing to this day.
2002
In 1981, I had left the last year of school because I couldn't pretend that I was interested in pursuing a career for money. I came from a secular background. My father was an atheist and my mother kind of believed in God but was never religious and hardly talked about her belief. I wasn't religious either and couldn't get into the religious scene because there was nothing there. Some of my friends tried to get me to show an interest in going to church, but I could see through it all.
I was playing pool with my friends and we were discussing what we could do with our lives. We didn't want to get a degree or whatever and make money only to spend it on ourselves. We didn't want to become slaves, but didn't have a clue as to what we could do with our lives. We felt a kind of directionless, and a sense of helplessness because we didn't have a solution.
Then one day while we were discussing our favorite topic, i.e. what to do with our lives, in walks one of our friends who says he met one of the Jesus Christians on the streets who wore a placard saying, 'Jesus is coming and boy is he pissed off' and and another saying 'Work for love not money'. We all chuckled in a cynical kind of way.
In all of our so called observations about the system not having the answers, we had overlooked one important consideration, something constructive to do with our lives. I especially expressed an interest in what our friend was saying about this group of Christians. He said that he was going to stay with them for a few weeks and send me some of their literature. He did and I read it and the material pointed to the teachings of Christ. I was utterly amazed and felt a moral compulsion to follow the teachings of Christ. So, after contacting this group, I decided to forsake all of my gear and hit the road with this radical new group. If I didn't, I felt that I would've betrayed my urgent prayer to God, made a few years earlier, which begged for a meaning in life and some direction of what to do.
I have not looked back since becoming involved as a disciple of Christ.
Roland, aged 38.
In 1981, I had left the last year of school because I couldn't pretend that I was interested in pursuing a career for money. I came from a secular background. My father was an atheist and my mother kind of believed in God but was never religious and hardly talked about her belief. I wasn't religious either and couldn't get into the religious scene because there was nothing there. Some of my friends tried to get me to show an interest in going to church, but I could see through it all.
I was playing pool with my friends and we were discussing what we could do with our lives. We didn't want to get a degree or whatever and make money only to spend it on ourselves. We didn't want to become slaves, but didn't have a clue as to what we could do with our lives. We felt a kind of directionless, and a sense of helplessness because we didn't have a solution.
Then one day while we were discussing our favorite topic, i.e. what to do with our lives, in walks one of our friends who says he met one of the Jesus Christians on the streets who wore a placard saying, 'Jesus is coming and boy is he pissed off' and and another saying 'Work for love not money'. We all chuckled in a cynical kind of way.
In all of our so called observations about the system not having the answers, we had overlooked one important consideration, something constructive to do with our lives. I especially expressed an interest in what our friend was saying about this group of Christians. He said that he was going to stay with them for a few weeks and send me some of their literature. He did and I read it and the material pointed to the teachings of Christ. I was utterly amazed and felt a moral compulsion to follow the teachings of Christ. So, after contacting this group, I decided to forsake all of my gear and hit the road with this radical new group. If I didn't, I felt that I would've betrayed my urgent prayer to God, made a few years earlier, which begged for a meaning in life and some direction of what to do.
I have not looked back since becoming involved as a disciple of Christ.
November 2001
Death should be seen as a reminder that our time on earth is limited and valuable, which should cause us to try harder to do something worthwhile in this life. But death can often be seen as an easy way out...a way to escape responsibility. Your debts are a mile high; the kids are a constant source of stress; your girlfriend or wife has left you; you were made redundant at work; you have lost the use of your body from the neck down; global warming is destroying the planet; and so on. It's easy to think, "What's the point of living? Why bother being part of the problem?" But I prefer to think that someone, somewhere in the world, is worse off than I am, and that I can contribute to making the world a better place. But I didn't always think this way.
At about the same time that I realised how to reproduce myself (sex!), I also realised that I wasn't invincible. Once I became fully aware, as a teenager, that I was eventually going to die, I became depressed. This was because I knew that what I was doing was not making the world a better place. I have been obsessed with death ever since. But, despite becoming aware of this unavoidable truth, like so many others in the Western world, I continued taking drugs, getting blind drunk, sleeping around, and driving recklessly to impress friends. Teenagers are experts at ignoring what they already know, and living like they are never going to...
But let's back up. I first faced death when I was 15 years old. I almost drowned. Around the same time, my grandmother died and I was a pallbearer at her funeral. A close relative tried to kill herself with an overdose. Her attempted suicide was, however, never talked about in the family... just more evidence of everyone's inability to confront such realities. My school life was affected by the turmoil that I was going through, and I was getting into trouble with all forms of disciplinarians at school, at home and with the police.
Teenage suicide rates have increased in most of the developed world. I tried to go down the same path. I somehow got the idea that I wouldn't live until I was 21 years old. Since my life was heading toward death anyway, why shouldn't I just hasten the inevitable? The world had nothing to offer, and I had nothing to offer it, or at least so I thought. All this s*it, was going on inside of me. Who could I share it with? No one wanted to talk about such things. So I tried, unsuccessfully, to kill myself when I was 18 years old.
Having failed to take my life, I turned to searching for answers. My search began with me trying drugs to escape unpleasant realities. I also tried to be a good church goer (mostly on the Pentecostal side of the church world). I applied to join a Bible college and I wrote to the late Keith Green's 'Last Day Ministries' in Texas. The Hare Krishnas were also on my list of 'let's see what they have to offer'. I didn't want to leave one stone unturned. I was looking for meaning in my life.
I was 20 years old when I came face to face with God. At that time, I was in a drug induced state. I was lying on the ground, unable to get up because of the drugs I had taken. It felt like I was falling into hell. I thought I heard an audible voice saying "Why do you want to keep hurting yourself?" Yes, why did I want to keep hurting myself? I should have seen that it was a clear sign to stop seeing death as a negative hurtful thing, and to get on with my life...i.e to stop hurting myself and help myself by helping others. But I didn't. It was three years later, after I had been through more drug sessions, had sex for the first time, and had other experiences that the school of hard knocks meted out to me, that I came to my senses.
Not long after that encounter with God, I met a member of a Christian community. It was during my 21st year. Roland invited me back to the community's flat in Sydney, Australia. I later discovered that the rest of the community thought I was pretty crazy, and Roland was critisised for bringing someone home who was obviously in such an unstable mental state. I was asked to leave when I showed no signs of being intereseted in listening to what they said. I was quite introverted and didn't communicate with people very well in those days. My social skills had been damaged because I had been focusing my search for meaning entirely within my own feelings.
For three long years (after my encounter with God and the community) I sought after a materialistic answer to life. I tried to get a "good" job, tried to find "finanicial stability" and I was about to go for further training in the management of a hostel I had been helping to run, when I realised that life was more than just the MATERIAL. I was about to go down a different road... that of gaining as much pleasure as I could...a life that most of my peers were going down, or at least HAD been down.
However, I had kept writing to Roland's community over those three years. I compared my two options (materialism or hedonism) with the teachings that had been presented to me at their little flat in Sydney. I had been trying to work out, despite having a mixed up mind, where these teachings were coming from and where they were going. I decided to give what they were saying a try.
I moved to Sydney and was allowed to live in this Christian community for one week. At the end of the week, I decided to work with them fulltime. Life was beginning to start again!
A year after joining, I went to India. In the first two weeks after my arrival in India, I found myself in a situation where my life and the lives of the rest of the community I was living with were very seriously threatened. (See "The Great Escape" for details.) We had to flee for our lives. I was then 24 years old, but this time I had a reason to live that was worth dying for. Death didn't seem to be such a big worry and concern for me.
So what had happened since my last encounter with death? I had found a purpose for living. I had found that we are put on this earth to love God and to love others; and until we throw ourselves totally into that mission, we will never be truly satisfied.
Each of us needs to discover purpose in life, but bitter experience in the school of hard knocks doesn't have to be part of it!
I am now 39 years old and nearing a time in my life called "mid-life crisis". I have lived half of my life (according to average statistics) and am now looking forward to newer and better things for the next 39 years (or whatever is alloted to me).
Only one life, 't will soon be past,
Only what's done for love will last!
Paul, aged 40.
Introduction:
Death should be seen as a reminder that our time on earth is limited and valuable, which should cause us to try harder to do something worthwhile in this life. But death can often be seen as an easy way out...a way to escape responsibility. Your debts are a mile high; the kids are a constant source of stress; your girlfriend or wife has left you; you were made redundant at work; you have lost the use of your body from the neck down; global warming is destroying the planet; and so on. It's easy to think, "What's the point of living? Why bother being part of the problem?" But I prefer to think that someone, somewhere in the world, is worse off than I am, and that I can contribute to making the world a better place. But I didn't always think this way.
Nothing Lasts Forever (Except God)
At about the same time that I realised how to reproduce myself (sex!), I also realised that I wasn't invincible. Once I became fully aware, as a teenager, that I was eventually going to die, I became depressed. This was because I knew that what I was doing was not making the world a better place. I have been obsessed with death ever since. But, despite becoming aware of this unavoidable truth, like so many others in the Western world, I continued taking drugs, getting blind drunk, sleeping around, and driving recklessly to impress friends. Teenagers are experts at ignoring what they already know, and living like they are never going to...
But let's back up. I first faced death when I was 15 years old. I almost drowned. Around the same time, my grandmother died and I was a pallbearer at her funeral. A close relative tried to kill herself with an overdose. Her attempted suicide was, however, never talked about in the family... just more evidence of everyone's inability to confront such realities. My school life was affected by the turmoil that I was going through, and I was getting into trouble with all forms of disciplinarians at school, at home and with the police.
Teenage suicide rates have increased in most of the developed world. I tried to go down the same path. I somehow got the idea that I wouldn't live until I was 21 years old. Since my life was heading toward death anyway, why shouldn't I just hasten the inevitable? The world had nothing to offer, and I had nothing to offer it, or at least so I thought. All this s*it, was going on inside of me. Who could I share it with? No one wanted to talk about such things. So I tried, unsuccessfully, to kill myself when I was 18 years old.
Having failed to take my life, I turned to searching for answers. My search began with me trying drugs to escape unpleasant realities. I also tried to be a good church goer (mostly on the Pentecostal side of the church world). I applied to join a Bible college and I wrote to the late Keith Green's 'Last Day Ministries' in Texas. The Hare Krishnas were also on my list of 'let's see what they have to offer'. I didn't want to leave one stone unturned. I was looking for meaning in my life.
Encounter with LIFE!
I was 20 years old when I came face to face with God. At that time, I was in a drug induced state. I was lying on the ground, unable to get up because of the drugs I had taken. It felt like I was falling into hell. I thought I heard an audible voice saying "Why do you want to keep hurting yourself?" Yes, why did I want to keep hurting myself? I should have seen that it was a clear sign to stop seeing death as a negative hurtful thing, and to get on with my life...i.e to stop hurting myself and help myself by helping others. But I didn't. It was three years later, after I had been through more drug sessions, had sex for the first time, and had other experiences that the school of hard knocks meted out to me, that I came to my senses.
Not long after that encounter with God, I met a member of a Christian community. It was during my 21st year. Roland invited me back to the community's flat in Sydney, Australia. I later discovered that the rest of the community thought I was pretty crazy, and Roland was critisised for bringing someone home who was obviously in such an unstable mental state. I was asked to leave when I showed no signs of being intereseted in listening to what they said. I was quite introverted and didn't communicate with people very well in those days. My social skills had been damaged because I had been focusing my search for meaning entirely within my own feelings.
For three long years (after my encounter with God and the community) I sought after a materialistic answer to life. I tried to get a "good" job, tried to find "finanicial stability" and I was about to go for further training in the management of a hostel I had been helping to run, when I realised that life was more than just the MATERIAL. I was about to go down a different road... that of gaining as much pleasure as I could...a life that most of my peers were going down, or at least HAD been down.
However, I had kept writing to Roland's community over those three years. I compared my two options (materialism or hedonism) with the teachings that had been presented to me at their little flat in Sydney. I had been trying to work out, despite having a mixed up mind, where these teachings were coming from and where they were going. I decided to give what they were saying a try.
A Reason for Living
I moved to Sydney and was allowed to live in this Christian community for one week. At the end of the week, I decided to work with them fulltime. Life was beginning to start again!
A year after joining, I went to India. In the first two weeks after my arrival in India, I found myself in a situation where my life and the lives of the rest of the community I was living with were very seriously threatened. (See "The Great Escape" for details.) We had to flee for our lives. I was then 24 years old, but this time I had a reason to live that was worth dying for. Death didn't seem to be such a big worry and concern for me.
So what had happened since my last encounter with death? I had found a purpose for living. I had found that we are put on this earth to love God and to love others; and until we throw ourselves totally into that mission, we will never be truly satisfied.
Each of us needs to discover purpose in life, but bitter experience in the school of hard knocks doesn't have to be part of it!
I am now 39 years old and nearing a time in my life called "mid-life crisis". I have lived half of my life (according to average statistics) and am now looking forward to newer and better things for the next 39 years (or whatever is alloted to me).
Only one life, 't will soon be past,
Only what's done for love will last!
2002
Even when I was as young as five I was aware of Jesus. My parents sent me to Sunday school, and I was happy to go. Somehow I grew up with the idea that Jesus had the answer to the worlds problems. However, as I entered my teenage years, I began to become more and more disillusioned with the example of the Methodist church my parents had sent me to.
The teaching I was receiving had become so wishy washy I felt I had no solid guidelines in my life, and I had no real idea what it was that Jesus wanted me to do with my life.
This spiritual hunger led me to look elsewhere for spiritual guidance. I encountered a pentecostal church in my Melbourne suburban neighbourhood. I was told that I could receive the Holy Spirit, and that when I did I would speak in tongues. I was told that this experience would fill the hole in my life and I would be happy thereafter and would be assured of eternal life. I figured that I had nothing to lose by trying out this offer, which was made to those in the early church in the book of Acts, so I was baptised in water and within an hour had an overwhelming experience of God's presence. I was so happy to know God was real and that I was not alone on the earth. This particular church did a lot of bible reading, and so for the next five years I read many parts of the Bible.
I would like to emphasis PARTS of the Bible, because that is how the pastor preached his sermons, by taking little bits of scripture from the Old and New Testaments to make up his sermon. What I did not realise then was that for most of the time I was studying very little of the words of Jesus in the GOSPELS, apart from selected verses which upheld the church's basic doctrines. So from age 16 to 21, I seemed to be content.
At age 20 I married a girl from the church and thought I now had everything I needed in life. But one year later, I found myself in a crisis of faith that I could not explain, just as I had had at age 16. It was like God had taken his hand off me in order to prompt me to search deeper.
I was nearing the end of a teaching degree in music, and was planning to become a teacher. But then, so close to graduation, I found the desire to teach music had left me. Nor did I have any interest in accumulating possessions, buying a house, car etc. All of a sudden this all seemed meaningless to me. For the first time in my life I began to question the very basis of the society I was about to enter, and realised, that most people were working not to create a better world, but merely for material gain. I felt I was about to devote my work- lifes energy into propping up a corrupt world, rather than showing God's way was better. But I did not know how to go about doing this. I figured that I had to do what was expected of me by society and sell my soul to the system in order to survive.
It was at this momentous cross roads that I encountered the McKay family in the Bourke St Mall in Melbourne. It was their controversial signboards with eye catching slogans that got my attention first. One signboard proclaimed that true Christians were true communists! I was jolted by this thought, and yet there it was in Acts 2:44-45, the very same chapter as my Pentecostal church had so often used selectively to only preach about the Holy Spirit.
The church I was in had taught me to be very suspicious of other churches, for they considered themselves to be teaching the only true way to salvation. So at first I did not to speak to David and his family much at all. But he gave me a copy of Mountains and Molehills, which is the commentary on the sermon on the Mount. I was particularly stuck by the section on Living by Faith in Matthew 6. Here were the simple but profound words of Christ. I began to realise that, for all my supposed bible knowledge, I knew very little about what Jesus had said in the gospels. I was amazed at how many references to money and possessions there were in there! How could I have gone to church all my life and yet not heard these things?
I returned to see David and his family at a later date to ply him with a huge list of questions as I wrestled with these new truths. I was struck by how this guy with a wife and four kids could survive without a paid job. It was because they weren't greedy, and were happy with food and clothes, and because they believed there was a real God in heaven who provided their needs. Here was the answer to my crisis, and the answer had come just when I was mature enough to respond to its challenge. The joy of my discovery was soon, however, to be matched by the fear and horror of my wife and church pastor. Far from accepting what Jesus said, I watched my pastor oppose and fight against the teachings of Christ. He excommunicated me from the church- to my amazement. My wife became possessed by her own imagined fears of what I was about to do, and decided to leave me. I realised the full truth that my marriage relationship had been built on sand. I had discovered too late that I had married a woman who loved church and social respectability more than she loved Jesus and me!
As painful as this revelation was, I knew that God had to be NO.1 or life would not be worth living in the end, nor would it be eternal.
I do not regret my choice to forsake all and follow Jesus. I have had such an adventurous and meaningful life, serving others in need, that I would never have dreamed for myself. I have learned that there are always new things to learn as we follow God, and God is seeking to take us to places beyond where we have been. Even after 20 years working full time for Jesus, I still have so much to learn about myself and how to love others (I'm a slow learner). But because I made that critical step twenty years ago I have had the time and freedom to do so.
Ross, aged 42.
Even when I was as young as five I was aware of Jesus. My parents sent me to Sunday school, and I was happy to go. Somehow I grew up with the idea that Jesus had the answer to the worlds problems. However, as I entered my teenage years, I began to become more and more disillusioned with the example of the Methodist church my parents had sent me to.
The teaching I was receiving had become so wishy washy I felt I had no solid guidelines in my life, and I had no real idea what it was that Jesus wanted me to do with my life.
This spiritual hunger led me to look elsewhere for spiritual guidance. I encountered a pentecostal church in my Melbourne suburban neighbourhood. I was told that I could receive the Holy Spirit, and that when I did I would speak in tongues. I was told that this experience would fill the hole in my life and I would be happy thereafter and would be assured of eternal life. I figured that I had nothing to lose by trying out this offer, which was made to those in the early church in the book of Acts, so I was baptised in water and within an hour had an overwhelming experience of God's presence. I was so happy to know God was real and that I was not alone on the earth. This particular church did a lot of bible reading, and so for the next five years I read many parts of the Bible.
I would like to emphasis PARTS of the Bible, because that is how the pastor preached his sermons, by taking little bits of scripture from the Old and New Testaments to make up his sermon. What I did not realise then was that for most of the time I was studying very little of the words of Jesus in the GOSPELS, apart from selected verses which upheld the church's basic doctrines. So from age 16 to 21, I seemed to be content.
At age 20 I married a girl from the church and thought I now had everything I needed in life. But one year later, I found myself in a crisis of faith that I could not explain, just as I had had at age 16. It was like God had taken his hand off me in order to prompt me to search deeper.
I was nearing the end of a teaching degree in music, and was planning to become a teacher. But then, so close to graduation, I found the desire to teach music had left me. Nor did I have any interest in accumulating possessions, buying a house, car etc. All of a sudden this all seemed meaningless to me. For the first time in my life I began to question the very basis of the society I was about to enter, and realised, that most people were working not to create a better world, but merely for material gain. I felt I was about to devote my work- lifes energy into propping up a corrupt world, rather than showing God's way was better. But I did not know how to go about doing this. I figured that I had to do what was expected of me by society and sell my soul to the system in order to survive.
It was at this momentous cross roads that I encountered the McKay family in the Bourke St Mall in Melbourne. It was their controversial signboards with eye catching slogans that got my attention first. One signboard proclaimed that true Christians were true communists! I was jolted by this thought, and yet there it was in Acts 2:44-45, the very same chapter as my Pentecostal church had so often used selectively to only preach about the Holy Spirit.
The church I was in had taught me to be very suspicious of other churches, for they considered themselves to be teaching the only true way to salvation. So at first I did not to speak to David and his family much at all. But he gave me a copy of Mountains and Molehills, which is the commentary on the sermon on the Mount. I was particularly stuck by the section on Living by Faith in Matthew 6. Here were the simple but profound words of Christ. I began to realise that, for all my supposed bible knowledge, I knew very little about what Jesus had said in the gospels. I was amazed at how many references to money and possessions there were in there! How could I have gone to church all my life and yet not heard these things?
I returned to see David and his family at a later date to ply him with a huge list of questions as I wrestled with these new truths. I was struck by how this guy with a wife and four kids could survive without a paid job. It was because they weren't greedy, and were happy with food and clothes, and because they believed there was a real God in heaven who provided their needs. Here was the answer to my crisis, and the answer had come just when I was mature enough to respond to its challenge. The joy of my discovery was soon, however, to be matched by the fear and horror of my wife and church pastor. Far from accepting what Jesus said, I watched my pastor oppose and fight against the teachings of Christ. He excommunicated me from the church- to my amazement. My wife became possessed by her own imagined fears of what I was about to do, and decided to leave me. I realised the full truth that my marriage relationship had been built on sand. I had discovered too late that I had married a woman who loved church and social respectability more than she loved Jesus and me!
As painful as this revelation was, I knew that God had to be NO.1 or life would not be worth living in the end, nor would it be eternal.
I do not regret my choice to forsake all and follow Jesus. I have had such an adventurous and meaningful life, serving others in need, that I would never have dreamed for myself. I have learned that there are always new things to learn as we follow God, and God is seeking to take us to places beyond where we have been. Even after 20 years working full time for Jesus, I still have so much to learn about myself and how to love others (I'm a slow learner). But because I made that critical step twenty years ago I have had the time and freedom to do so.
Joe, aged 18
Grace, aged 18
Simon, aged 20
Ashwyn, aged 21
Jesse, aged 22
Bob, aged 23
Casey, aged 23
Kim, aged 24
Fran, aged 26
Barry, aged 35
Alfred, aged 27
Jeremy, aged 29
Ezra (a.k.a. Jayme), aged 29
Ulrike, aged 32
Martin, aged 32
Christine, aged 34
Sue, aged 34
Robin, aged 37
Reinhard, aged 37
Roland, aged 38
Paul, aged 40
Ross, aged 42
Grace, aged 18
Simon, aged 20
Ashwyn, aged 21
Jesse, aged 22
Bob, aged 23
Casey, aged 23
Kim, aged 24
Fran, aged 26
Barry, aged 35
Alfred, aged 27
Jeremy, aged 29
Ezra (a.k.a. Jayme), aged 29
Ulrike, aged 32
Martin, aged 32
Christine, aged 34
Sue, aged 34
Robin, aged 37
Reinhard, aged 37
Roland, aged 38
Paul, aged 40
Ross, aged 42
Mail us at: fold@idl.net.au, OR write to: Godstuff Comix, P.O.Box A678, Sydney South, Australia 1235