My search for the Truth

I was a baptised and practising Roman Catholic, who regularly attended mass at my local church.

I wasn't a devout Catholic like my father was, but I did try and take my religion seriously and attended mass most Sundays (it was compulsory while I was growing up to attend holy days of obligation and each Sunday.)

My parents (both sides) were Roman Catholic, with my father's family going back some five generations and even producing four priests, with one being a Canon and another a Dominican. 

(Happily sharing the Gospel with this Catholic lady in Manchester)

When I was about twelve, I first served mass as an altar boy. This is for any Catholic a great privilege and quite a responsibility. I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed this then sacred duty. However, this only continued until I was fifteen or so.

I would be raised in Catholic schools, one being run by the De La Salle Brothers. 

Throughout my Catholic life, we would visit Aylesford (a Marian shrine) several times, meet numerous priests and bishops, and even entertained the late Cardinal Tom Winning of Glasgow (2nd most powerful priest in Britain), when he visited our church to speak at a meeting that my father was chairing (tragically neither of us were saved at that time, so we were unable to witness him.)

(Our guest Tom Winning)

www.excatholicsforchrist.com/articles.php?PageURL=Winning.htm

But I can honestly and truly say that Jesus Christ, sin, repentance and the new birth, never featured in my life at all. Nor would I ever be encouraged by my parish priest to witness to lost souls by sharing the gospel with them - something I now do with people regularly - it was a private faith, today called easy-believeism.

It would not be until the year 2001 that my life started to change and Light came into my world. 

My conversion from a practising Catholic to a Bible Believing Christian is primarily down to the change that I witnessed in my father's life. One day I heard him listening to an old time American preacher. I remember saying to him: "Why are you listening to this? You're a Catholic and we're good people." He responded by saying to me: "It isn't enough for me now. I need something else. And I am not a good person." Now, I must say that for a person who went to church every day, was on most church committees and had even penned a book about our church (which sold very well), this amazed me. This was to be a major turning point for my father and little did I know, for me too.

During this period, I was a singer with my own big band orchestra. We were at the level of semi-professional (I even worked with a trombonist who played with Frank Sinatra) and I absolutely worshipped this musical world that I was a part of.

(Sharing the Gospel with this argumentative man in Burnley) 

As band leader it was my responsibility to not only hire and fire musicians but also to find adequate venues to rehearse the orchestra, sometimes twice weekly. On numerous occasions I was able to secure two different church halls. I distinctly remember one being a Methodist church and one of the elders of that church, for a period of perhaps 18 months or so, never once witnessed to me or my musicians.

All I recall him stressing was that "no smoking or alcohol was permitted on the premises." Also intriguing was how our keyboard player was their Sunday organist and he too never shared the Gospel with me or the 17 other guys. One can be "religious" yet not saved. Needless to say, when I got saved, Gospel tracts were sent to both parties and other "religious" people I had long known, prior to my new birth.  

From that day forth, I gradually lost interest in my music and other secular interests that I once cherished. I would later go on to sell all my musical orchestrations and PA system and even witnessed to the singer who came to buy my charts, by giving him a tract. Money raised from this went to needy Christian communities around the world. And you know what, I don't miss it at all and neither will you (1 John 2:15,16.)

However friends left me, because I would witnesses to everybody I knew, including old and new friends, plus workmates. Family relations would also be strained and continue to this day. This is even spoken of by the Apostle Peter:

"Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." 

I would even write to people I hadn't been in contact with for years. I would take a guess and say over a thousand people got Gospel tracts from me after my conversion. 

On two occasions when I've used a public phone box, the phone has rung and subsequently I was able to pick up and witness to total strangers. I've even read how a postman got saved after reading an unsolicited copy of Mark's Gospel. Only recently I found somebody's testimony in a phone box near me, but this tract wasn't written very well. The approach was an emotional one. What we need is a moral one and make sure if you use tracts, the message is clear on repentance and faith in the blood of Christ alone for Heaven.

 

 

 

(Witnessing on the streets of Brighton but this time an elderly Jehovah's Witness,

wanted to know more about the Biblical Jesus and His Deity, John 8:58)

James' Open-Air Testimony