Spread the Fire - March 2008 - (Page 16)

Our conversation continued until the early hours of the morning. I wasn’t sure what had happened to them, but something had changed. Their attitude reflected love and peace. Their talk wasn’t the usual coarse banter because they were talking about the new person in their life, Jesus Christ. Until that moment, I thought Christianity was for the helpless and the emotionally challenged, certainly not me. I was doing fine. I didn’t need God. My life was good; and despite becoming somewhat disillusioned with my love life, I was happy with my career. I had appeared on numerous TV shows, had two record deals with songs in the Irish charts and had even represented my country in an international song competition called the Eurovision Song Contest which was broadcast to over 50 million viewers. Jesus Christ wasn’t for people like me. I believed in God, but their obvious passion made me question my concept of Christianity. This type of devotion seemed a little excessive. After all, if God was so great, why was church so boring? As the hours went by, I realized that they had something that I didn’t: the knowledge that God loved them. So after hearing more about God’s love and that He had sent Jesus to die in my place, I concluded that I needed God, too. When I realized that if I had been the only person on the earth, God still loved me enough to send His only son, Jesus Christ, to die for me, I became a Christian. In my culture, a debt was a big thing. The fact that I owed God the life of his Son drove me to distraction, and I realized that I could never pay him back. I reached the conclusion that ‘a life for a life’ was the only way to do it. If Jesus was willing to give his life for me, then I should give my life for Him. God’s love won me, not the fear of hell. The way Kevin and Paul talked about God’s love had a profound effect on me. As I left the apartment that night, they handed me a Bible and told me that God would answer all my questions as I read it. The hour-long ride home seemed eternal. I felt God’s love pouring into my heart and I cried and cried the whole way home. During the next three weeks, I kept hearing God speaking to my heart about all kinds of things. I would meet people and just know things about them. Having the awareness of God’s love in my life seemed to really affect people, and many of them became Christians. I didn’t know a lot about Christianity; but I knew Jesus, and more importantly, I knew that He knew me. Spending time with God became my greatest priority; and I would talk endlessly to Him about all kinds of things. I didn’t really read the Bible Kevin had given me. To be honest, I didn’t understand it; but one day, I had a question that I needed to ask God and picked up my Bible to find the answer. I asked God, “Is it wrong for me to be gay?” I didn’t know if the Bible would say anything about this, but I felt that God wanted to answer my prayer, so I opened the Bible randomly and S TF - 1 6

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Spread the Fire - March 2008

Spread the Fire - March 2008 Contents In the River Save Sex? Simon’s Story The Key To Overcoming Lust It’s Time for the Double Blessing International Itinerary Resource Center Catalogue Upcoming Events Visitor Information

Spread the Fire - March 2008

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