The story of how an ordinary working guy found God

I grew up in Falmouth leaving school at the age of 16 starting work as an apprentice plumber. Life continued and by the age of 21 I was married and started a family having two lovely children over the next few years. Having children and seeing the miracle of birth began to bring questions to my mind like; “What is life all about, why are we here and is there a real God?”

After nine years my marriage broke down and I faced up to getting divorced. Although my personal life was in ruins the plumbing business was going well with me becoming a junior partner. A year later life again took a turn for the worse, my Mum was found to have breast cancer at the age of sixty dying eight months after first being diagnosed. I remember seeing her in the coffin and asking the question; “What are you doing God?”

After a while life began to look up again, I’d met a lady, fell in love and married again. While watching the TV one evening a guy came on speaking about God saying “I don’t care who you are, what you believe or even what you have done I must tell you Jesus Christ is alive and He wants you to know Him. What are you going to do about it, this could be your last opportunity”.   After the program, we decided to see if God was real by going to every church in the town. Four weeks later I had my first experience of God.

One Sunday as I sat and watched the other people in the church singing and listened to what was being said I began to feel a warm presence then out of no-where I heard this gentle but firm voice say to me; “Philip, I love you”.Well, as you can imagine this really frightened me. I said in reply; “Whatever or whoever you are I don’t want anything to do with you, go away”. After the service I spoke to the Minister telling him I believed in God to which he replied; “If you can imagine your life like the house you live in you have invited Christ into the hallway but He needs to come into the living room of your life.”

While working the next day I began to think about all that had happened the evening before thinking; “how could God love me?” I have refused God who am I to shut God out”? So before picking up my wife from her work I went home and prayed this prayer; “God I am sorry for leaving you out of my life, please come into my life and make me the man you want me to be”. I am not ashamed to say that I burst into tears and all the anger, grief and bitterness flowed out of me as heaven filled the room and I knew I was forgiven and accepted by God.

That happened over twenty years ago now and I have found the Lord Jesus Christ to be an understanding, patient, kind, loving, powerful and a faithful friend through the ups and downs of life. He has said in His Word.

“I will never fail you, I will never forsake you.” Would you want a friend like that?