How Ian Christiensen found Jesus

One day when I went there he said there's another priest that I want to introduce you to. He introduced me to another priest and I looked into his eyes and something inside of me said, 'This is what you're looking for'. In all the other places that I went to after I heard 'seek and you will find' and after I had that experience, I would go and look into the eyes of the people and something would say, 'this is not what you're looking for'. When I saw this priest, he had actually had what was called a 'born again' experience. He was what they call a spirit filled priest.

He drove me to a home group and there I saw a whole bunch of young people playing guitars, singing. They were Christians from different denominations, which was interesting. They weren't just Roman Catholics. I loved the joy that I saw on their faces, the way they embraced each other and I just knew straight away that this is what I was looking for.

As I mixed with them they began to talk and tell me about the Jesus who is still alive who had risen from the dead and who could change my life. That's when I began to hook into that. You know, originally I didn't think that Christianity had the answer as I had grown up in a nominal Christianity. When I saw a reality and joy and the fact that these Christians actually looked so peaceful, it attracted me, because I didn't have any of that and I wanted it.

Jonathan: Did you get it?

Ian: After being amongst them for a few months, I heard that if you wanted to connect with God through Jesus Christ, what you had to do was to ask him to remove the barrier between you and him. They said that barrier was sin. I didn't need to be convinced that I was a sinner. I had broken a lot of the Ten Commandments. So being convicted of the fact that I had sinned, I asked God to forgive me and I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life.

My life dramatically changed instantly. It was like someone had put something fresh on the inside of me. I was drinking very heavily and taking tranquillisers, but it's almost like I knew you don't need that stuff any more. I remember taking the tranquillisers and throwing them into the River Brent. I enjoyed having a beer and so on but actually after that I didn't feel that I needed one, I could take it or leave it. I didn't need to have a lot of drink because the kind of peace that I felt after a few beers, I had without the beers. That was miraculous, that was supernatural.

Jonathan: What about some of the deeper issues? You mentioned about your depression; how did you deal with that, or how did God deal with that?

Ian: When I began to mix with Christians and then hear teachings from the Bible and hear some of the teachings of Jesus, I began to embrace these teachings. As I began to live out this Christian life I had discovered, which I was really excited about, it was even more exciting than tennis because of the great change that had taken place. I knew that somehow God had touched my life and he had changed me and I knew that he could do that for anyone else. I would tell all my friends and a lot of them were tennis players. I would tell them what God had done for me and many of them became Christians.

Within six months I started to sleep through the night. At first it was three hours, four hours, five hours and gradually within a year the insomnia disappeared. My whole life turned around.

I met a really nice girl and two years later I asked her to marry me and my life went from the absolute pits being suicidal, to being healed of this depression and having this inner peace, which I still have.

That was 1974 and I have never lost that peace unless I've engaged in an attitude that was wrong and had not said 'sorry' to God. My life dramatically changed and now years later I am married with kids.

Jonathan: It's an incredible story that you're sharing. Although its unique to you there are millions of people around the world who share they've had similar experiences to what you've had, in terms of an encounter with Jesus Christ and that somehow being the beginning of a remarkable transformation.

Ian: Yes, that's right. I remember walking down the street in Wembley, where I've lived most of my life and I walked past a church. Around that time there were times when I would walk down the street with a cider bottle, drinking it to try and sort of maintain my equilibrium and be able to talk normally to people. I saw this board. It said something like, 'Do you have problems? Are you depressed? Do you need help? Phone this number'. That was a connection that I made. It was actually a local church outreach.

I went and this lady counselled me and she pointed me in a direction that I didn't think I wanted to go. I really didn't think that Christianity had the answer to my problem. I wasn't even looking there, but this board and this lady counselled me, gave me hope and pointed me in the direction of Jesus Christ, who through his teachings claimed that he could help us, forgive us and give us a brand new life. That's exactly what I got. I got a brand new life. I never regretted it. I have been a follower of Christ for 35 years now and I have never regretted my decision. It's the best decision that I've ever made, apart from getting married.