{"id":1225,"date":"2009-10-10T20:19:50","date_gmt":"2009-10-10T09:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2009-10-10T23:52:41","modified_gmt":"2009-10-10T12:52:41","slug":"my-witness-to-jesus-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2009\/10\/10\/my-witness-to-jesus-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"My ‘Witness (to Jesus) Talk’"},"content":{"rendered":"

1969 was a quite a year! <\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the special events of 1969 that you recall? The accompanying photograph of \u2018Time\u2019 magazine\u2019s cover \u20181969\u2019<\/a> highlights some of these special events, and the magazine\u2019s articles are a goldmine of information about the year 1969.<\/p>\n

\"1969\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At a personal level, a very special event happened for me in 1969. I was doing my final year engineering design project at Melbourne University when a lecturer set up a television set and we watched the first man walk on the moon. Wow! That was extraordinary. It seemed like technology was going to solve the world\u2019s problems. Engineers would rule the world! But that same year, people of my age were being destroyed by that same technology in a war in Vietnam. I came to realise that technology could be used for great good or for great evil.<\/p>\n

The following year, I commenced work as a Chemical Engineer in a petrol refinery and I also commenced a degree in Economics and Political Science at Melbourne University. In part, I commenced this second degree because I wanted to better understand the world of politics and economics that so dominated our society\u2019s major decision making; including decisions about technology being used for good or for evil.<\/p>\n

Through my studies I became a minor expert in the economic-political \u2018isms\u2019: communism, capitalism, socialism, Marxism. But it was clear that none of these \u2018isms\u2019 in themselves, actually worked!<\/p>\n

In my third and final year, an extraordinary event happened. Dennis, one of my former tutors in economics invited me to do a Bible study on the life of Jesus Christ! Now that, was unusual. It had never happened to me before! But I was curious. I thought, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve studied mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering, economics and politics. So why not study the life of Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n

Through my study of Jesus Christ I came to realise that he presented the reason why neither technology nor any of the \u2018isms\u2019 were the answer to the world\u2019s problems. Jesus said that the reason for the world\u2019s problems was me! And you! All of us have a basic flaw. This flaw disables us from loving one another and caring for this world in the way that we should. Technically, this flaw is called \u2018sin\u2019. Jesus said that I was a lost son, a rebel against God,\u00a0that every person was a rebel against God, and through this rebellion\u00a0against God the Creator, the world had become chaotic. Jesus through his life, death and resurrection was calling me to return home to him, to be forgiven and reconciled with my Creator.<\/p>\n

After some months of wrestling with the life and ministry of Jesus \u00a0and through many discussions with Dennis, I made the decision to become a follower of Jesus Christ. So it was that one evening I knelt by my bed and asked God to forgive me for\u00a0my rebellion, for leaving him out of my life and asked him to accept me as his child and to give me the strength to follow Jesus all the days of my life.<\/p>\n