Why I'm A Christian

    I was brought up in a Christian household - both my parents were committed Christians, and I was taken to church pretty much every Sunday. To be honest I often found it quite dull.
    As I moved into secondary school, my parents/youth leaders encouraged me to start reading the Bible. I got hold of some daily Bible study notes, called YP's, and started to read them fairly often.
    At one point as I was reading them, the Bible notes said that you needed to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't think I really understood what this meant, but prayed to God anyway that he would fill me with the Holy Spirit.
    I didn't really think much more of it, and didn't notice any particular difference. But a few months later, the youth group from my church were going to Spring Harvest - a big Christian gathering held around Easter time, usually at the Butlin's camps in Minehead and Skegness. As far as I can remember I didn't really have much expectation of anything exciting happening there - just nice to have a holiday with some friends, and without parents!
    One evening while we were there, one of the youth leaders took us to something called a 'Holy Spirit Meeting' or something like that. I can remember very few details about that particular evening, but what I remember is sitting there, hardly saying a word (while everyone else was talking about what was going on), and having a stronger and stronger urge to burst into tears. I don't think I really knew why I wanted to cry, but definitely realised that it was God moving in me. I resisted the tears (probably didn't want to look like a 'wimp' or something) but continued to be pretty detached from what was going on & wanting to cry, and I was aware that two girls from my youth group were having some kind of similar experience, although being more open about it. As we left the meeting my youth leader was talking to them, and I knew that I had to tell him that something was happening to me too. That's where my memory of that evening pretty much disappears - I think we prayed quite a bit, and I think I knew that evening that I had become a Christian.
    The story doesn't end there though - my brother also became a Christian within the next couple of days, and numerous others from our youth group had some kind of Spiritual experience there. However, it is often easy after such an experience to return to your home church, lose the excitement, and allow yourself to slip away from being a Christian. God has continued to remind me though, since I became a Christian, of who He is and what He does. Sure there have been times when my relationship with God has been better & worse, but ultimately I have kept on learning and am still learning about God, and it's all good news (when you think about it hard enough)!
    I still have a lot to learn, and I pray that I will continue to grow closer to God for the rest of my life on this earth, and I look forward to eternal life with Him in heaven!

If you want to know more about Christianity, I would recommend that you read some of the Bible - the 'gospels' (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) are a pretty good place to start. Also, ask me or any other Christians you know to tell you more about it - if you want you can contact me at gptucker@gptucker.net