00:00
So, from a very young age
00:02
I basically saw Christianity as the thing
00:07
that my parents were telling me to do
00:09
and therefore I didn't want to do it.
00:11
My name's Ben and this is my story.
00:15
I grew up in a Christian family.
00:20
that my life would be a lot easier
00:23
if I acted Christian
when it was convenient
00:28
but I didn't believe it was true.
00:31
I was a very good
Christian boy in the house
00:34
but when I was at school
and in my social life
00:37
I was as un-christian if you can imagine
00:41
as one could get almost.
00:44
I got into a lot of
trouble at secondary school
00:48
for picking fights with other children,
00:54
I would just generally
was a real horror, pain
01:01
But I was living this double life.
01:03
When I was about 15 that tension
01:06
of living this double life came to a head
01:08
and I began to realise
that actually this life
01:11
was unsustainable, it
was just too much effort.
01:15
I had to either say no or yes to God.
01:19
And so, I remember I was on a beach
01:21
in the Lake District and I prayed,
01:24
and it was basically a prayer
of God if you're up there
01:30
but I need something to go on,
01:33
I need evidence, can you show me a sign?
01:37
Six months later I was given a DVD,
01:43
and that DVD was the
debates between John Lennox
01:47
and Richard Dawkins
01:48
but it was the first
time anyone in my life
01:51
had shown me that there is evidence
01:56
that there is reason to believe.
01:59
And so, aged 15/16 I began
looking at the evidence,
02:04
and then by the time I hit kind of 18
02:06
I had amassed this back log of evidence,
02:09
and I suddenly realised hang on a minute,
02:11
the evidence doesn't point towards atheism
02:15
but actually points massively
in favour towards Christianity
02:19
being true, and at that
point I went basically
02:22
okay, fine God, you win.
02:23
I was convinced by the evidence
02:25
and my faith followed suit.
02:29
My life changed considerably.
02:31
I, you know, stopped being a bully,
02:35
stopped being a brat, stopped
being an arrogant sod,
02:38
and that wasn't an overnight switch,
02:40
I'm still growing in that,
02:44
but I feel that compare me
02:47
to the 15/16 year old Ben,
02:50
and I think it would be worlds apart.
02:55
If you'd known me aged 15/16
02:58
you would have put me
in the latter category,
03:00
you would have put me in the category
03:01
of there's no way he
would become a Christian,
03:03
he's too hard headed, he's too stubborn,
03:06
he's too bad, he knows too much.
03:09
Don't ever label someone
03:16
Don't ever label someone
03:17
as they would never become a Christian.
03:21
We know that becoming a
Christian is a miracle from God
03:23
and the opening of spiritually blind eyes
03:28
but God did it for me, he can
do it for your friends too.
