Before I left Britain in the 1970s, to take up as it would turn out to be, my life's work helping developing nations of the Middle East to improve their economic condition, I used to think a Christian was someone who was born in England, been christened as a baby and did nobody any harm.  And that's how I tried to live my life as a whole.

One day a Lebanese businessman said to me, "Well Christopher, you are a Christian aren't you?"  And I said, "I think I am".  He said, "You don't sound too sure."  That night I found I couldn't sleep, I was really worried.  I thought, "Am I a Christian?  Does it really matter if I am a Christian?  What if I'm not?  Will I go to heaven?  Is there a heaven?  Is there a hell?  What will happen when I die?"

All these questions started going round inside my head.  God loved the people of His world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who has faith in Him will have eternal life and never really die.  John 3:16.   Whereas before I used to worry what will people think about me... now all that matters is what does Jesus Christ think about me!

Now I truly know where I'm going; I know one day that I shall be in heaven.  I don't know exactly if the path which I would map for myself is the same one that Jesus Christ, the living God has planned out for me.  However, I do know that the Bible says: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

So thinking back on the chanced encounter with that astute Lebanese businessman, it probably was one of the most profound questions that anyone had occasioned to ask me in my life.  However, philosophically speaking, the truth of my belief at that point probably mattered little because I now know Jesus Christ, and I belong to Him and I am a new person and my past is forgotten and everything is new.  2 Corinthians 5:17