Mike's Testimony of Meeting Jesus

My name is Mike. I grew up in California and would be considered by some a successful businessman. For 36 years, until 1993, my life was very unsettled. I began to feel that no matter how hard I worked at it, there was no meaning to my life. I was never at peace with myself or my situation.

I had always measured my success by my job title and annual income. Despite the fact that I had advanced to a responsible position and was financially very secure, I continued to feel more lost and out of control. As time went on, I continued to work long hours to try and overcome these feelings.

As a result of these feelings and frustrations, my personal life was almost destroyed. My marriage came very close to ending, and I could have lost the opportunity to daily watch my children grow. I searched for happiness in work, socializing, and alcohol. These things only produced complete devastation. My self-esteem was further shattered by the possibility of losing my job because of all the things I was doing.

I was at the bottom. Then one weekend my wife invited me to go to church with her. The sermon that week was to be "how to be a good dad." Well, this sounded interesting, so I went. It was only about the fourth time I had ever been to a church in my life.

The sermon talked about the problems caused by people who lived their lives like I did. What really got to me was that the pastor offered a solution to the problem. He said people who lived like I did were pulling away from God for eternity and were breaking God's rules--this is called sin. He discussed how Christ died on the cross so all our sins could be forgiven. He also said we needed to give our lives over to God and let Him be in control. If I did this, I could find peace, and would be able to go to heaven for eternity. So right there I knew that what he was saying was true. I said a prayer and asked God for help.

I immediately felt an inner peace from the Holy Spirit of God that I had never experienced before. And this peace continues to this day. I still have to face the same old problems I had before, but now I am better able to handle them and stay in control. I have now found more freedom by living God's way that I ever had before.

When you hinge your whole life on your job performance and what people think, it is impossible to have peace. We cannot do everything right, and people will not forgive you like Christ forgives you. I do not have to meet any performance standards to be accepted by God. The Bible teaches if I accept Him through His Son Jesus, that means if I believe and obey Him, He accepts me.

The Bible to me has become a road map on how to act and live. I have learned how to follow Jesus Christ. I learned that the standards that God gives us through the teachings of Jesus, are different, but better, than the world's standards. I have gladly accepted them. This has resulted in the almost total transformation of my thought processes, which in turn has made it easier to live everyday in the business world. I no longer have to dominate and control every situation. I am not perfect at it, but I am whole lot better than I used to be thanks to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit serves as kind of a guidance counselor. He leads me to make the right decisions. I mean, I don't hear voices or anything but it's like an internal compass pointing me in the right direction. And this compass is rooted through the soul to the creator of the universe. I have learned the only way to know the Creator of the universe is by faith through his Son, Jesus Christ.

I also got my family back. My wife and I have the relationship we had before we were married. The romance, love, and affection have returned. And surprisingly, the desire to find pleasure outside the home has also disappeared. I find myself counting the minutes until I can go home. I feel loved and the trust has returned.

There are still lots of daily disappointments and setbacks, but they no longer have the same disabling effect on my life as they used to have. I am much calmer than I used to be. I have a new set of priorities to live by. These priorities come from the Bible and help me to see what is important and what is not. I have learned the Bible is a very good book and you should read it! The book of John in the New Testament was very helpful to me as a new Christian.

And the greatest thing of all is that I now know I have the gift of eternal life. I am no longer looking to the job for my total sense of satisfaction. I now know what is going to happen in life. It is very unsettling to not know why we are here and where we are going. Jesus changed my life. Jesus came to be like us so we could understand what God wants of us.

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