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Many people grow up in religious traditions, attend church regularly—and yet their hearts remain empty. The Bible says, “But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him” (Deuteronomy 4:29). I began to search—and found much more than I had expected: a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
A faith without depth
I was born into a German-Greek family. I spent my entire school career in Greece. At home, we had a rather distant relationship with Christianity: the holidays were social events, Jesus merely a historical figure. The Church in Greece seemed more like a political entity; we kept our distance. We prayed the Lord's Prayer every morning at school, and sometimes we were even taken to the Orthodox church. People like me considered ourselves Christians because we professed it – or so the thinking went.
When I came to Germany with my parents in 1997, I immediately became a very busy student. I owned a New Testament and read it completely, but then put it aside.
The search for truth
Due to health problems and the bitter experience of being abandoned in my marriage at the time, I began to search for a Jesus who would speak to me.
My solution at the time was to embrace Protestantism, specifically a state church, because services there were held in everyday German and not in ancient Greek. In my distress and loneliness, I could only imagine a Jesus who would turn to me.
Years passed, and I met my future wife. We married, and she came to Germany. She had even less formal knowledge of the Bible than I did because there was no religious instruction in Russia, and her family—just like mine—was Orthodox. I was very embarrassed that I, who wanted to introduce her to this newfound, supposedly true Christianity, had so little to offer!
Unexpected encounters
Many unanswered questions troubled me. But then, from a completely unexpected direction, a door opened:
My wife, who had no social contacts besides me, happily told me how she had met a woman in a truly miraculous way. This happened in the waiting room of a pediatrician's office, where she was with our almost one-year-old daughter. I repeatedly asked my wife—because it surprised me—how she had dared to meet someone, given her shyness. It turned out that the other woman's baby had smiled at my wife for so long that they struck up a conversation. What's more, the woman spoke Russian!
Very soon I got to know the rest of the family: Her husband once helped me in a time of need, even though he only knew me by reputation. When they invited us to their home, we felt very welcome. They offered to let us join them for a church service. My first reaction was: "Okay, we'll give it a try. If necessary, we can always invite them back." But that was just my pride talking.
So we went to the church in Speyer, where I had lived less than a kilometer away for the past ten years. The loud prayers didn't surprise me, because I had read the Acts of the Apostles and could put them into context. At the time, I didn't immediately ask myself why I had lacked this, because I hadn't asked myself many other questions either. The sermons were more biblically grounded than anything I had ever heard or read before. I was prepared for anything I might have rejected.
But it was preached by Jesus himself – I couldn't deny that. When my wife asked me, as head of the family, whether we would be going to the Protestant church again the following Sunday, I answered quite firmly: "No, we will definitely only go to this congregation from now on." So we attended the services in Speyer every Sunday.
At that time, I caused a car accident, but thankfully no one was injured. I was very embarrassed that I had badly damaged the other car due to my inattention. Our daughter was screaming loudly in the car. I expected to be angry with the other driver, but instead, a young man got out of his car and even comforted my wife and me, offering words of encouragement. It's hard to believe, but out of the 50,000 inhabitants of our small town, I had not only crashed into a fellow citizen, but also into the cousin of the man I had first met!
In retrospect, I found it all the more unpleasant, but neither man said a word about it after the incident. We not only became good friends, but soon also brothers in Christ.
The moment of decision
The change that Jesus brought about in me only came through a deep feeling of my own sinfulness and lostness – the path that led me to conversion.
It happened during one of the church services, when not only the sermons, but even the hymns seemed to be addressed directly to me. I sang "Must I go with empty hands?"
I remember the hymn "Are you pure in the blood of the Lord?" particularly well. I wept bitterly because I knew the answers to my own questions, and they were incredibly painful. My wife kept handing me tissues. No one looked over at me, which made it easier for me to stand like that before the Lord. I had often seen someone convert and allow someone to pray for them. But I didn't know that this was always possible, so I said to my wife, "Perhaps it's only rarely possible; if necessary, I will die knocking on God's door."
I was all the more relieved when the opportunity arose. The loud prayers everyone was engaged in also helped me overcome my shyness. I felt significantly better afterward. After that moment of decision, my faith underwent a profound transformation.
I attended the Bible course for water baptism because I wanted to learn more about the Bible. The announcement, "Last chance to register for the course," sounded like a final warning. The course was very informative. The fellowship hour, which I soon began attending, also brought me closer to God in a way I had never experienced before. The fact that I was considerably older than most of the others didn't bother me. Many a person has been healed of paralysis by the Lord at the age of 38 (see John 5:5).
My baptism in the Holy Spirit on July 2nd and the subsequent water baptism on September 2nd, 2018, are days I still remember with great joy every year. Another immense joy was that my wife also embarked on the same path of faith and we now serve the Lord together.
All glory to God alone!
Christos Batzios
Municipality of Speyer