Young Eric Resch lay terrified in his bed. Fear had gripped him ... “What happens when I die ?” He closed his eyes and imagined he was dead, but there was only a terrifying blackness before him.
He asked his family. Their inability to explain just reinforced the emptiness in his heart. “My heart could only reason, ‘Well, I know that I’m not good and not so bad, so I must be going to an in-between place’,” Eric recalls.
After several “dead-end jobs” he was 19, unemployed and miserable. Eric scanned his memory for a time when he was really happy, and decided to get in touch with his best friend Mark.
“During the next two years I was seemingly living life to the motto of ‘wine, women, and song’. These ‘happy’ feelings, however, were fleeting and constantly interrupted by the fearful thought, ‘What happens when I die?’
“Somewhere, through the ‘highs’ of marijuana and heavy metal rock music, I was convinced of the emptiness of the life I was living and equally convinced that there was an after life. Was there a god?”
One night, as Eric and another mate were enjoying the highs of drugs and music Eric noticed that Mark was not his usual self. He was not partaking in the fun, was not talking at all, he was just deep in thought.
On their way home he spoke up. “What he said was absolutely incredible,” Eric recalls.
Mark began by saying, “What you are doing is sin. You’re sinning against a holy God. He loves you and created you to know Him.”
“I was completely shocked,” remembers Eric. “I had known Mark since childhood, and knew that for many years he had attended Christian Sunday School and Youth Groups, yet these last two years we’d not discussed any ‘religious’ topics.
“Mark continued to talk about ‘the only true God’ who was eternal; having no beginning or end; who was always there in eternity even before the earth was created. He spoke of Him as being Almighty, Sovereign, and All-powerful.
“He said that God had created Adam and Eve, the first man and first woman, and placed them in the Garden of Eden. As the Sovereign Creator, God had commanded them not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Mark quoted the verse from Genesis chapter 2, verse 17, ‘When you eat of it you will surely die.’ Adam fell to temptation and disobeyed God’s command and willingly ate from the tree. Adam had sinned against God and as a result man became a sinful being. As descendants from Adam all mankind were born sinners and thus I had sinned against God. ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans chapter 3, verse 23). When Mark shared these things and that verse, it really struck a mighty blow to my heart.
“He asked us both to give reason why there has been so much trouble in the world throughout history, with wars and murders and death everywhere? Without an answer to give him, Mark stated that it was because of the sinfulness of man.”
As he processed these words Eric felt a great burden coming upon him. “It seemed as if a thick blanket of all my sins had been placed before me as, one by one, they each came into my mind. I knew that I was a sinner before a Holy and Righteous God and the deep conviction in my heart was that He must punish me for sin.
‘Then Mark began talking about God as being a God of love who wanted us to be free from sin. He quoted John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’
“I’d never, ever heard that verse before, but the truth it contained seemed so simple to comprehend.
“I knew that I surely was a sinner and deserved to be eternally punished. A great darkness lifted from my mind and I could understand that God loved a sinful man like me.
“I understood that as God He could rise from the grave victorious over death. Over and over I thought; ‘this is the truth,’ ‘this is the truth.’ My response was immediate; ‘I believe.’ In that moment, I simply placed my faith in Jesus Christ as my Saviour.
“Finally, I had the answer to my long held question, and chose eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ. I did not go out seeking God - He was the One who was seeking me.”