Pieter shares his faith with Daleen
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The year 1974 was the most important year of my life. The year that I received Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord.
My student years were really miserable years and I even thought on ending my own life.
A friend of mine invited me to a 'special' Spiritual student weekend. As
the official photographer of the Pretoria College of Education, they
wanted me to bring my camera along.
I didn't even know what the meaning of a Spiritual weekend was, but my
camera meant money, and where there was money, there I wanted to be.
During the weekend some of the students witnessed how they had received
Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. Actually I was very upset because
of all those lies (so I thought). I believed that I was a Christian because
I was baptised as a baby, and attended church from time to time.
At the end of this weekend, coming back to my old miserable hostel
room, with the unmade bed and 'flop' photo's lying around all over the
floor. (If a photo was not 100% good, I threw it over my shoulder with an
'XXX' word, to lie there till the end of the year when I had to evacuate
the room.) On my door there was also an inscription: "Pieter's Dark
Cave".
The old Pieter was back in his own sad world, and I wanted to yell
in frustration.
As a last resort, I took my Bible from the shelf, opened it, and
started reading from the Gospel of John.
Before reading, I prayed and challenged God to talk to me if He was for
real and if there truly was a God. After I had read 10 or more verses, I
realized that it didn't make sense to me and I understood nothing at all,
my heart was too dark at that stage. I prayed for a 2nd time and asked God
to talk to me, if there really was a God.
When I came to verse five, I got gooseflesh all over my body. According
to the old Afrikaans translation, I understood that the light shines
in the darkness, but the darkness could not overcome it.
For the first time in my entire life I realized that I am the darkness
and that God's light is trying to shine in my life. I read the verse for
a 2nd time, to catch the 2nd truth, namely that the darkness could not
overcome the light.
Like a little baby I burst into tears as all this was just too much
to bear. (During those days, life was so bad for me, I had even forgotten
how to cry.) On my knees, in front of my bed, I battled in prayer with the
Lord, for more than an hour.
At last I asked forgiveness for all my sins. I didn't want to go
to hell, and opened the door of my heart for Christ to enter.
In the same way as the students received Jesus Christ during the previous
weekend, I invited Jesus to come into my life.
When I stood up from the bed, everything was new. I was running very fast in a direction for 21 years of my life, but that day I made a 'U' turn to run the same pace, but in the opposite direction.
Today, after 29 years, I am still running the race. For me it is most
important to give every person in the world the opportunity to receive
Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.
I am not yet an angel, and are still part of this life, having problems
of my own, but now there is a difference; now I can give my problems
to the Lord who really understands.
Since April 1974 the Lord's light also overcame the darkness in my past. Today I run the race with perseverance with my eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of my faith. (Heb12:1, 2)