Today marks 46 years since I put my trust in Jesus. I’m sure I’ve told the story many times. It was a Sunday evening and we were with our parents at Sunbridge Road Mission. The Gospel was preached week by week there but they also had a tradition of marking out one Sunday as “Decision Sunday” where people were encouraged particularly to make a decision to follow Jesus. In the evening service there had been a testimony from a lady called Vera Parker and a Gospel message. The other practice the church had was what has often been referred to as an altar call. You were invited to make your way to the front and pray with someone.
Well, my sister wanted to do this but being a little shy, she asked my mum to go up with her leaving me say with my dad. I asked him what was going on and he explained that Liz wanted to ask Jesus into her life. I said that I wanted to do the same and asked if I needed to go up the front. Dad said “no, we can pray right here” and we did.
So, there I was, committing my life to Jesus as a 5 year old. You might think that this makes for quite a tame testimony and I guess it does. I don’t have one of those stories of Jesus turning my life around from drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling and violence. What I do have though is a story of real forgiveness. The Bible is clear that all sin whether young or old and whether we consider our sins small and respectable or big and shameful. That forgiveness stretches forwards as well as back so that all the wrong things I’ve gone on to do were forgiven there and then as well. Moreover, I have a sense of what God has preserved me from, where I might have been tempted, or in the words of the hymn “prone to wander”.
And my testimony in terms of my story of a life lived with Jesus has been far from dull. There have been many times when I’ve know Jesus’ presence to take me through the challenges of life, grief and loss, anxiety and depression, big decisions to make, marriage and adoption. Then there’s been the privilege of serving in Gospel ministry and through that the people who have come into our lives from different backgrounds, the opportunity to speak to students in CU meetings or South American asylum seekers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and church planters in Egypt.
Best of all is the grace of knowing Jesus all through my life.
Faithroots 