My testimony
During my adolescence, sports played a big role in my life, especially handball. I followed in the footsteps of my brother JF, who played in the national team, had joined the Joinville battalion, and had been selected once for the French national team. I dreamed of being one of those players who made history in his sport. At the age of 17, some Christian friends of my father invited me to a ski camp in the Alps at Flumet as part of the University Bible Groups. Skiing, why not? I wanted to learn the basic techniques to master this sport, which I knew little about. In the afternoons, after outdoor outings and the physical effort imposed by the ski lifts and the descents of increasingly steep slopes, returning to the chalet and studying the Bible brought my heart rate down.

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Chapter 2, studied the following day in small groups scattered throughout various rooms of the chalet, begins with verse 1: "Whoever you are, man, you who judge, you are inexcusable. For in judging others you condemn yourself, because you who judge act as they do." It was like a stab in my conscience. Paul, you think you are a good person, but in fact, look at your actions, you are no better than others, your fellow men.

 

The next day, chapter 3 drives the point home. I no longer entertain any illusions about my spiritual situation in God's eyes. Verses 9 and 10 constitute a universal and final verdict of humanity: "For we have already proved that both Jews and Gentiles are under the dominion of sin, as it is written: There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks God";... I feel greatly concerned. At this point in reading chapter 3, there seems to be no hope for me to please a God who so rightly sees my injustice. How could I escape just condemnation?

Fortunately, chapter 3, verses 21-25, continues with these beautiful promises: "But now the righteousness of God, as witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, has been revealed... the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. There is no difference: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption found in Christ Jesus. God set him aside as a propitiation for those who believe, through his blood."

As I pondered these thoughts, I heard a gentle voice deep within me, which I attributed to God: "Paul, give me your heart." After much hesitation and much inner debate, I finally said yes to God and went up to one of the chalet's dormitories to be alone with God and talk to Him. I repented, confessed my sins (already numerous despite my young age), and gave my heart to Jesus, telling Him that I believed in His sacrifice, the only one capable of saving me from condemnation. I also told Him that I believed He was risen and alive at the right hand of the Father. I didn't understand all the implications of what I had just done.

​I have in fact expressed the faith of the believer who seizes the saving effects of the work of Christ on the Cross: substitution of condemnation, redemption of my soul obtained by Christ, expiation of my faults, purification of my conscience, feeling and certainty by faith that God considers me righteous. I rise again, a new man after this experience of "conversion". From now on, I will live to serve my Lord and my master.

 

The poems that I wrote and set to music in the first part of my Christian life express my joy, my happiness at having come to faith, admiration for Jesus Christ and gratitude for His work. I now invite you to discover them at the rate of one poem/song per week.

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