When I reached the age of eighteen, I left that Godly home and went to live with all my friends in a large house near the Malone Road in Belfast, at the corner of Myrtlefield Park. I began to drink alcohol and smoke and now I realise I was looking for satisfaction in the things of the world, but I couldn't find it.
One Sunday night I picked up the Belfast Telegraph newspaper and began to look through it. It was 30th March, 1985. I came to the church advertisement page and noticed that the Whitewell Metropolitan church on the Shore Road in Belfast, was having a Gospel rally the next night, so I decided I would go along to that meeting.
I enjoyed choir and the gospel groups as they sang the Gospel message and when then
Pastor McConnell preached the Word of God. It was a message for me, and when The Pastor made the appeal for anyone who wanted to come and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their own and personal Saviour, to put up their hand to indicate that desire, I nearly put my hand up. But the devil never gives up without a fight and I sat on that hand.
However, the Lord was drawing me with His cords of love and eventually I raised my hand and the Pastor saw it. As he led in prayer, I came as I was to the Saviour and asked the Lord Jesus to come into my.heart and save me, for He has promised, "Him (or her) that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. I just rested on His promise, knowing that Jesus had died for me and shed His precious Blood to pay for all my sins in full. The work of my salvation was finished by Jesus on the cross, for "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5. I was saved, born again of the Spirit of God, that Sunday night, 31st March, 1985.
That was 27 years ago, and the Saviour, Whom I trusted that night, has kept me ever since and He has promised me, "I will.never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5. I can say with the apostle Paul, "I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." II Timothy 1:12.
The Lord Jesus Christ saves, and He keeps and He satisfies! The devil a thief and the Lord said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10.
The hymn that the congregation sang on the night I was saved, gives my testimony in a nutshell,
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now I'm found,
Was blind, but now I see."
When the Lord took my natural Mum Home to be with Himself in 2009 and my.Aunt a year later, I proved God to be "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." II Corinthians 1:3. The Lord has given me His sufficient grace and strength every circumstance and situation I have faced. He is my dearest friend.
Do you know and love Him as your Saviour? If not, why not come to Him now? The Lord has said, "I am.the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." John 14:6. So "Seek Ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near." Isaiah 55:6.
Remember the promise of God: He forgetteth not the cry of the humble." Psalm 9:12.
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