Adam White

When I used to live in Bath and commute to Swindon I would travel along the A4 and pass through Corsham every day. Today was the first time I turned off of the A4 and took a look at what Corsham was all about.

First on the agenda was a wander around the shops of Corsham. I wouldn’t say it had a lot to offer but there was a lovely little greengrocers (a rarity these days) and a nice deli.

Next came the main event: a trip into Corsham Court. The inside of the huge property was lined with numerous works of art. It was excellent to have a wander round and view all the beautiful pieces that had on display. Sadly no pictures were allowed so I couldn’t show you any of the huge paintings they had hanging on the walls.

After this a wander around the grounds was called for. This was more beautiful than the insides! The grounds were filled with peacocks and little nooks and crannies filled with all manor of beautiful trees and plants. I recommend you have a look at the pictures of the day in my gallery.

I do like my Saturday trips out to see some of the amazing things England has to offer.

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Today was beautiful. After all the snow and cold we have had recently it was a pleasure to wake up to proper sunshine. So, what do you do on a rare Saturday like this? Go for a ramble of course!

After a short drive to Newbury it was time for a 3 mile Hike around some lovely, early-spring countryside.

The highlight of the walk had to be Donningtion Castle…

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The next part of Andy Stanley’s sermon series focuses on relationships with other Christians that have helped shape and grow your own faith. Andy asked two questions which I am going to answer here:

1) Name someone who had an impact on your faith before you were a Christian
For this one I am going to name two people. Firstly there is my friend Catherine. I met her when I moved to Swindon when I was still at university to work for a year at Tyco Electronics. I was very much an athiest and she was a life-long Christian. That year did not change my faith views but it did open my eyes to what Christians were really like (as in normal people). God planted some seeds that year which bore fruit when I went back to university.

The second person is my friend Heather. Shortly after I got back to my life of academia Heather (who I had only known since my second year of uni) revealed to me that she was a Christian too and invited me on an Alpha course. I decided to go for it and see what would happen. Ten weeks later, I prayed a prayer of salvation to God and became a Christian.

2) As a Christian name someone who had an impact in growing your faith
However, that wasn’t the end of my story. After I became a Christian I was still very much walking in the dark. I didn’t attend church and was seriously lacking in the support and guidance that a church can bring. After about two years I began attending Swindon Family Church and after about six months of being there God spoke to two people in the church and put me on their hearts. These two people were my friends Franck and Lindsay. Thankfully they listened to God and invited me over for dinner. We talked and got to know each other a little better and I went back to their house week after week after week. Through this relationship I got to ask all the questions I had and talk about all the frustrations I had. I learned a lot and grew as a Christian but it wasn’t until December last year that the real breakthrough came. They had to have my negativity and endless questions week after week for months and months before something in me cracked and I broke down. Something was released that day and I have been on the rise with God ever since.

The last question is my question: How can I be an influential relationship in someone else’s life? That is in God’s hands and I have to be responsive when he puts someone on my heart. I just hope I can tackle it with the love and patience that others have shown me.

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It is best to start my testimony with some history: I was not born a Christian. I did not attend church growing up and by the time I was a teenager I had come to the conclusion that religion was a dying fad and that science had virtually killed it. I was confident in evolution, the big bang and all the answers that modern science had provided. To me the stories in the bible were just that; stories. Jesus was just a man who was made up and written about in a book.

So how did all this change? You can read the history of where I came from on my About Me page but in summary, when I moved to Swindon as a student to work I met some Christians who were not at all what I expected. In my mind Christians sit in pews in a cold church and sing hymns like on Songs of Praise. Suddenly I was confronted with normal people who were funny, enjoyed life and weren’t at all odd. They just loved God and attended church every Sunday.

I still resisted though. The fact that I met some people that were normal didn’t change my mind about religion. But I went through some tough times at the end of my working year that got me asking questions. So, when I went back to university and found out that one of my best friends there was actually a Christian too I was very surprised! She invited me on something called an Alpha course that her church was going to be running and I thought “Why not?” I went on it and by the end I thought all my questions had been answered, I asked God for forgiveness and I considered myself a Christian. I got myself a bible and started to pray. The peace that came with this decision was quite remarkable but I still didn’t go to church or really change my ways very much.

Fast forward about a year and I was living in Swindon again and I still wasn’t attending church but my housemate Phil was. He started to run a football game on a Saturday and he would invite various people from his church along and through that I got to know a variety of new Christians.

When it was time for Phil to get baptised I thought I would attend and check it out. I made the decision there and then that no matter how weird it was I would continue to go back week after week. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all. The church was in a renevated warehouse, there were comfy chairs, not pews and the music was modern and kinda cool and not hymny at all!

I still struggled though. I came from a history of science and fact and this “blind faith” that I was working with didn’t suit me at all. It got to the point where I stopped attending church as I was finding it too confusing. Thankfully God was looking out for me and He put an idea in the minds of two people who are now very good friends of mine to invite me over for dinner to get to know me better. I ended up going round to see them every week for months. I would ask them lots of questions about God and religion and sometimes I would get frustrated and other times I must have frustrated them so much. I tried to trip them up and I think I had it in my mind that if I could convince them that they were wrong then I would have my answer. Thankfully I was never successful!

All these discussions were great and really helped but there were just some questions that couldn’t be answered or I wasn’t content with the answers I was given. I needed to know some facts. I am a scientist and I need to know solid facts about this story I was meant to be believing. There were far more than I was expecting to find: Jesus wasn’t just some character in a tale. He actually existed! Also the bible is considered a more reliable document than the writings of Plato and Homer!

So with these new facts at my disposal I was able to come to God and church with a fresh mind and renewed confidence. And the more I trusted in God the more He has blessed me and helped me along. I got baptised in 2007 and despite the occasional hiccup I’m moving on leaps and bounds with God all the time.

It wasn’t easy for me to be a Christian. My head was trying to stop me at every opportunity but in the end it was the facts that convinced me to trust in God with everything. I’m still a work in progress and I think I always will be but I now know I can trust God with everything. I just have to remember to walk in that and continue to grow under His direction.

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Lindsay has posted an interesting bible study on our needs and God’s riches on her website.

I think it is amazing how God seems to talk to us about something from so many places at the same time. My church preached on Sunday about God vs Gold and then last night I happened to listen to a couple of Northpoint sermons on money. And then today I read this bible study by my friend Lindsay saying almost the same thing again!

The challenge I feel God is setting for me is to re-evaluate what I am doing with my riches. God has given me all that I need and has blessed me with much more. But what should I do with the more? Should I be saving it for a rainy day like the rich man in Luke 12:13? According to Jesus no. We have this view that when God blesses us with extra it is for us when in fact it is for us to give to others.

The best explanation I have heard is to give first to God, then save and use the rest to live on. I feel challenged at the moment to work out what I need to live on and use the rest more wisely (i.e. no more DVDs that I don’t watch or books I never read) but to save some and use the rest for the glory of God. I also feel like I need to look at all the things I already have and work out how I can best leverage them for God (this could mean giving things away or maybe using them for a better purpose than gathering dust in my garage/loft).

When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount he clearly says we should store up riches in heaven and not on earth (Matthew 6:19). Am I being a good steward of things here on earth? I think I could do better as I am storing up too many things for myself.

A Spirit-led rethink is needed I think!

Posted by Adam under Faith | 2 Comments »

Saturday was the big 30th fancy dress party where everyone was meant to come as something from their youth. We had everything from Postman Pat to James Bond. But what did I go as I hear you ask? Well I, along with birthday boy Phil and my best mate Franck, went as… Ghostbusters!

On Sunday 13th July we were all sat in my lounge joking about what fancy dress costume to go as. From somewhere (and I can’t remember where) the suggestion of all three of us going as Ghostbusters came about. At first I had it in my head that we’d just be strapping vacuum cleaners to our backs and nothing more but after a couple of meetings a much more adventurous plan started to come together.

In the end we had huge plastic tubs strapped to our backs with everything from a microwave plate to a a garden solar light finding it’s place. All those old PCs I had stored up came to use when I carved them apart for old hard drive magnets, heatsinks and lots of wiring.

I think pictures speak louder than words so head along to my Ghostbusters costume gallery to see all the photos from the six weeks it took us to create our masterpieces.

Oh, and a HUGE thank you to Lindsay who helped us out loads!

Posted by Adam under Personal | 2 Comments »

My friend Lindsay has just posted a very interesting bible study on hell based on Ezekiel 18:32. She was talking about who goes to hell and why but it got me thinking about what is hell?

I have always wondered about hell. My biblical knowledge isn’t exactly extensive but I don’t recall it ever being mentioned in the old testament anywhere. Nor heaven for that matter although this could be implied with the various people who got taken up to be with God.

With the coming of Jesus a new covenant was established and the “modern” ideas of heaven and hell were formed. Does this mean they didn’t exist before then? I don’t think so. So either there has always been a hell and God happily sent all his followers there without warning or hell is not exactly what we think it is.

I’m sure there are some passages in Revelation that explain that hell is a fiery and unpleasant place (understatement) but lets have a wander into theory for a second… I’ve always considered the fact that maybe hell is just the absence of God. Maybe hell is what I used to think of as death when I was an atheist: nothing. An eternity of darkness and nothingness without God.

This makes the whole resurrection thing make more sense in my head as Jesus coming back to life to live at God’s side doesn’t mean anything if you have to die to be in heaven. If death is death and you can only get to heaven by being alive again through resurrection then it makes more sense to me. In order to get to a fiery place called hell would mean having to be resurrected as well surely?

Now I’m sure I am very wrong in all of this and that there are lots of biblical verses to tell me as much. I think I need to go away and do a bit more research to learn more!

However the important thing is not what hell is, it is that there is one. If this is the case then it makes sense to me to find out what I need to do to not go there! I believe that this is a fairly simple job and can be done by just believing that Jesus was the son of God and that he died in order to forgive my sins and give me a clean slate before God.

if you are anything like me though then you’ll want to know as much as possible before you start believing something. Especially something with such a negative image like it has today!

I advise everyone who is not already a Christian to do a little bit of research on what could be the most important decision in your life. If what happened 2000 years ago on a cross was for real (and I have come to the conclusion it was based on lots of compelling historical evidence) you owe it yourselves to discard whatever preconceptions you have about religion and try and find out a little more.

One way to do this is through books but the easier way is through an Alpha course. This is a 13 week course that goes through the basics of Christianity. I went on it when I was still an atheist and it is a great course as they don’t preach at you and try and convert you. They let you be as stubborn and negative as you want. They are only interested in giving everyone a chance to make up their own mind.

My church is running a course at the end of September. More details will be coming soon but in the meantime if you are in the Swindon area and interested in finding out more let them know. I’ll put up another post in the near future as the details become available.

For those of you not in the Swindon area then don’t worry as there are Alpha courses running all over the country. Have a look at http://uk.alpha.org/findacourse to find your nearest event.

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