20 something years in a traditional denominational church and yes, I'd heard a lot of and read a bit of the Bible. I was familiar with most of the parables, Jesus' life and a lot of other Biblical stories - I thought I was familiar with the pertinent details a Christian ought to know. I'd read the whole of Genesis. And struggled through Deuteronomy. I've even had my share of exploration and doubt and spent some time wondering how accurate the Bible actually was and if I needed God at all. But slowly I felt God calling me back and I came full circle and returned to Him. I was that lost sheep He went searching for and found at one time, the prodigal son who returned. But...
... my true moment of Christian Epiphany came on 6th August 2004, when I attended an evening service at New Creation Church. I was brought there by a friend, and I was more than a little suspicious of what I termed a "happy clappy" type of church. But from the moment their senior pastor, Pastor Joseph Prince started talking, I was captivated by his message. I sat there for the full hour-plus sermon, awe-struck and soaking up the message I heard like a sponge. The words spoke to the depths of my spirit, which heard it and whispered, Yes, this is right. After the sermon, I rushed to find some pen and paper and sat down to write everything I could remember (to my amazement, I found I could actually remember quite a lot).
One of the first few things I heard that I was struck by was this -
If you do bad things, do you lose favour with God?
No.
If you do good works, do you gain favour with God?
No.
And that one does not do good works to gain favour with God, one does good works out of love for God.
If you do bad things, do you lose favour with God?
No.
If you do good works, do you gain favour with God?
No.
And that one does not do good works to gain favour with God, one does good works out of love for God.
I also learnt about grace, and the law. Sure, grace is a concept Christians know about. We have been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. He died for us, took our sins for us. But what about the law, how did that all fit in? I learnt that Jesus fulfilled the law, and that because we are now under the New Covenant, we are no longer under the law of the Old Covenant- the Ten Commandments. We are no longer under the Ten Commandments? What was all that about? I'd grown up watching and loving the Charlton Heston movie "The Ten Commandments" - they showed it once a year every Easter, so I probably saw it more than 10 times. I'd thought the Ten Commandments were an essential part of Christian life... well, I finally found out that yes, it mattered for B.C. people (pre-Jesus), but that today, because of Jesus' sacrifice, all our sins have been forgiven, and we are under the New Covenant of grace! (I'll write more on this at a later date, as it needs further explanation...)
On the evening of my epiphany, I also took my first step into really knowing and feeling God's love for me. It became so much more than a general - hey, God loves you - it was this awesome knowledge that He loved me personally.
I will always look back and remember that feeling of epiphany and revelation, and how for the first time, I felt so alive, loved, and at peace.
