Pieter Brits

My life before


My life before

My life before: Although I attended church together with my parents, I never had an encounter or a personal relationship with the Lord. Without realizing it, I was running away from Him. Deeper and deeper into depression.

Because of a medical problem, I had a very low self esteem and felt that everyone was laughing at me. I still remember the sad days at school, without friends. My student years were really miserable years without the Lord, and I even consider ending my own life at that stage.

A friend of mine invited me to this 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 means money and where money is, I wanted to be.

During this weekend, some of the students testified how they 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 baptized as a baby and attended church with my parents from time to time.

How my life changed

At the end of this weekend, back in Pretoria, I walked into 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 would throw it over my shoulder with a ‘X X X’ word, to lay there till the end of the year, when I had to evacuate the room.) The old Pieter was back in his own sad world and I felt like yelling out in frustration.

In a state of no hope, I took my dusty Bible from the shelf, desperately opened it at the first possible place, and started reading from the Gospel of John. In a short prayer I challenged God to talk to me - if He was for real, and if there really was a God.

After reading 10 or more verses, I realized that I understood absolutely nothing; my heart was filled with too much darkness. I prayed for a 2nd time and implore God to talk to me, if there really is a God.

A miracle happened: When I came to John 1 verse 5, I got goosebumps all over my body. According to the old Afrikaans Bible translation (‘53), I understood from this specific verse 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 on my way to hell! I, Pieter, realized that I am the darkness and God’s light is trying to shine in my life! After reading the verse for a 2nd time, I caught a 2nd truth, namely that: “The darkness could not overcome the light.” Like a little baby, I burst into tears. (You must remember, that during all these sad days of my life, I had forgotten how to cry.)

On my knees, in front of my bed, I battled in prayer with the Lord for more than an hour, and I realized that I didn’t want to go to hell!

At last, I prayed again, but this time in faith:
Asked forgiveness for all my sins
Made a decision, to open my heart’s door, for Christ to enter
Invited Jesus into my life in the same way as the students received Jesus during the previous weekend
When I got up from my knees, everything was new. It was as if an old life just passed away, and I felt like a complete new person.

My life today

As I was running very fast in a direction for 21 years of my life, I made an U-turn on that day, to run the same pace, but in the opposite direction. After 45 years, as a born-again Christian, I still live a life of victory with my Lord Jesus. It was not really stopping my former wrong habits, it was as if the Holy Spirit start ‘panelbeating’ me from inside-out. Convincing me of wrong things in my life, and for no understandable reason, I just loose interest in the wrong things that was important to me before. (Things that grieved the Holy Spirit.)

For me today, it is most important that every person in the world must have an opportunity to hear the Gospel, so he/she can also consider receiving Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord.

Not yet arrived

I am not an angel yet - and I am still living in this world, with all of its temptations and trials. I still have many problems of my own, and sometimes the tears are running over my cheeks, but there is one difference - today I can give my problems to the Lord, who really understands:

I know that I am a Child of God!
I know that my sins are forgiven!
I know that I have eternal life! When I die,
I know I will be with my heavenly King, for eternity!

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! (Hebrews 12:1, 2)

Dear Friend,

If you dare trust the Lord with the details in your life, please fill out the WEB FORM/ Talk to a Mentor, or read the article on EVANGELISM, and one of our mentors will respond to your specific need. As my life became NEW and ALIVE, yours can ALSO! Maybe you still have some questions before making this life-changing decision. Just fill out this WEB FORM and tell us about your struggles!!

Never forget: “…There is still Hope!…“

Pieter



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