Christianity

Ok here it goes lol. This is a pretty long story but it may be interesting to some people and I believe that it's just one of the millions of testimonies throughout the world that shows our God is on the move!

As you can see from the bit of background information my family seem to be pretty cool, which they are 100%. My mum is actually the best mum in the World and I get on the best with the rest of my family so everything is well. They have always stuck beside me in life and encouraged me to do good stuff etc. and there has been many times when many families would have just left a kid like me alone which will be explained shortly. I pray and have faith that one day they will walk in the path of Jesus and become saved, someday!!!

I don't really know how to start this off so I'm just going to get stuck in and I'll probably blabber a bit and stuff but sure lol. My whole life I have believed in God and up until around three years ago I thought God was brilliant although I had never gave my life to him as I was scared of the things I would give up such as friends etc. I went to a local Christian youth club (High Street) every Saturday night which I enjoyed and I even went along to Manifest one time with some friends. Davy Beckett was speaking that night and it really touched me, I even stood upto give my life to God but when I seen that none of my mates stood up I sat back down, I suppose you can say that I got scared about loosing them and stuff and at the time I thought that a reputation was everything.

Then on the 7th May 2005 my friend was killed by a bunch of people the same age as him for his religion. As a result of my friend being killed I turned my back on God and thought that everything bad which has happened is because of Him and if He is so mighty then why didn't he do anything to stop Michael from dying or worse things such as the Holocaust. I just couldn't get my head around all of this, even though I believed in God I was so angry inside and just felt like He was the easiest option to blame it on. After this happened I still went to the youth club but things had changed, the main reason I went was to argue my point with the Christians who went there (by the way they are AMAZING people as you will see). I didn't want to learn about God and even if they told me about the amazing things God can and does do I would just turn my back and not listen to them, just being a stubborn child. I just didn't believe in their explanations or want to listen to them.

After about 2 months of this I decided to leave the youth club which wasn't a good move either. I started to drink quite a lot, maybe two or three times a week I would get 'blocked'. I then started fighting quite a lot over stupid reasons and when I was drunk I would just snap with people which was pointless. Ended up fighting 90% of the time I was out and then it built up a reputation within Antrim for being a guy who fights. At the time I loved this reputation and thought it was great people looking upto me for being able to fight an people even being scared of me. Sometimes I would even end up fighting with bouncers and stuff just for them doing their job, and when I was in my gang of people I thought it was great, I was untouchable.

I was enjoying this life and thought it was brilliant, everything was going well for me I though because I had my friends behind me and I thought thats all I needed. Then it all came crashing down. In October of last year I was fighting at a sale event held in the town which eventually I got arrested for and had to stay in a cell for the night and the police took my DNA, finger prints etc. After I was released I didn't think there would be a very big outcome of this. The week after I got a phone call from the police saying that I had been caught stealing hair gel from one of the local chemists so I had to go and sort things out for that. In the end for these two offenses I received two cautions and I was only 17 at the time. I thought everything was over at this stage then one week later I received another phone call again from the police saying that the following Monday I would be arrested for a burglary which I had committed in February 2007. I thought the whole weekend of what this could be then it came to me that the around this date me and some friends robbed the high street Christian youth club which I had previously attended for around a year. To do this we had to smash the window and I punched the glass through so it cut me. I then thought harder about it and realised that I never cleaned the blood up and so the DNA which the police gained from the fighting incident could have been linked to the burglary. So the next Monday I went down to the police station where they arrested me and it was for the burglary I thought of. At first I denied being present but then I realised that I was only digging myself into a deeper whole and eventually I confessed. It was at this point when I felt any guilt for the crime I had committed and thought about what a stupid boy I had been. As a punishment I attended a youth conference set up by the youth prosecution and had to do the following:

• 6 weeks voluntary work in high street youth club
• Pay £200 for the damages
• Make a public apology to the leaders who volunteer to work there
• Write a letter of apology

From the above you can see that I got off very lightly, much to lightly in fact. I believe that God had hi hand upon me at this point at that he was just positioning me for a fabulous turn around that was going to occur within my life within the next 6 weeks. Realisticly I should have got so much more punishment, I walked out of there without a permanent criminal record, how amazing is it that God can even bend the law, just shows that in fact He is the true ruler of this World and he deserves all the worship which He gets and soooooo much more.

At first I was nervous about attending the youth club because in my town I had been well known for fighting etc. so everyone sees me as someone who pushes people around etc. therefore I thought I would be frowned upon. However this was not the case, everyone welcomed me with open arms including the youths who attend the youth club. Then on the fourth week into the punishment I started to really enjoy myself and the company which was there was fantastic. There is a group of people aged 18-20 who help out at the youth club and I got on really well with them. On the 31st May I sat in my friends house and he tuned into the Florida Healing Outpouring.I was amazed by this and what was going on, I had never seen anything like it, God using a man covered in tattoos to heal people, save 1000s etc. Then on the Wednesday 4th June 2008 I was in my house and felt to myself I want what they have, I had never experienced a friendship like it even after all what I had done they made me feel at home and they had a huge hunger for God. I started to realise that it wasn't God's fault for the death of Michael and then I text my friend D.C saying I want to become a Christian can you tell me how to do it and he said basically what you do is ask Jesus to come into your heart and repent of all your sins. So at 22:05 that night I kneeled down on my bedroom floor and said a prayer to God asking for forgiveness and asking Him to come into my life. Right away I felt like a huge weight had lifted from my shoulders and that I had been forgived for my sins. The following Saturday I asked friends pray with me and I had great feeling, the Holly Spirit had touched me, it felt amazing, I had never experienced anything like this before. The fire in my stomach was great and I fell three times within around 10minutes of praying. I also gained my tongues that night and thought it was crazy although soon after I realised it is a gift from God.

That is basically how I became a Christian. Theres more detail which could be said about it all and the things that God has done for me. I continue to worship God and have grown more hungry for Him and want to do great things for His Kingdom. OUR GOD IS AWESOME! If there is any people out there reading this I reassure you that there is a God and he's great. He does great things. God might not always walk close beside you but He is always there to pull you through the storm and He won't leave you alone. Pray Until Something Happens!!!

Also to people young or old who are going through the reputation I went through, you will regret it seriously. At the minute I'm trying to take away that reputation and want people to see me as a nice person who they can talk to when I walk past in the street and it is a hard job to change people's first impressions but I pray that one day people in my town will forgive me for what I've done to them. Just have a think about it, do you honestly want to be grown up with kids and be out for a drink when someone taps you on the shoulder and you turn around to see someone you had trouble with when you were 17? Even if you don't want that life, it still isn't going to stop the angry person from wanting to hit you. Now is the time for change, I have experienced it so why can't anyone else? I pray that God can do the same for you as He has done for me.

Thanks for taking the time out to read this, It's been great to be able to talk to you about the greatness of OUR God.

God Bless
P.M

An introduction

Hey thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come and take a look at this Blog thing. I'm new to this so just bare with me for a we while cheers. My names Paul Mason, I'm 18 and was brought up in Antrim. I currently live in between Coleraine (with my mum) and Antrim (with my dad) but I'm going to Ballymena tech to do an HND in business and management so I'll be spending more time in Antrim the next couple of years. The past two years I was doing a business management course equivalent to 3 A-levels although I didn't get the grades to get into uni so have to wait another two years.
My main hobby would have to be football. I played a lot when I was younger but the past two years I've sort of been on and enough. Back playing for Antrim Rovers mens team now so I pray we have a good, injury free season and everything goes to plan. It's our first year together as a mens team so just getting used to the way each other plays etc. I play some badminton from time to time although I'm not great, keeps me fit though so try play as much as possible.
I have three brothers (Stevie, Dylan and Coby) and one sister (Samantha). Stevie's coming 17 in this month, Dylan and Coby are 11 and Samantha is 21. Stevie's just finished his GCSE's so he's waiting on his results for that, think he's going to tech next year though so that should be good for him. Samantha's just finished her final year in Coleraine uni doing a nursing degree so waiting on her results as well and Dylan and Coby are going into 1st year, whole new atmosphere for them so I've just been praying that they will be ok. Been a stressful year for the parents with all the grades coming out but hopefully their pleased with the results that came out.

Anyway that's enough about that aspect of my life, thanks again for taking the time to read it. God Bless

P.M