MY
husband and I had been searching for God for some time. We wanted to have Jesus in our lives.
A great witness to us had been my mum. We had both noticed that she had such a Joy and closeness to God that we wanted too.
When things happened which were of worry or stress, my mum used to pray about it and gain such peace about the situation. She was always smiling, not letting things get her down. We wondered how she managed to do this.
What a great witness that was to us of what God can do in a persons life. Taking everything to God in prayer. Showing her faith in God by her actions.
There was a crusade meeting came to our city which my husband, myself and my mum attended almost 8 years ago.
The crusade was a host of Christian fellowship meetings which were held inside a large tent situated at a park in our city, Carlisle.
When we went to the meeting we weren't actively looking to be saved right there, just to see what it was all about...... God had other plans.
My husband and I enjoyed the meeting enormously, the people were so full of love for the Lord, it showed in their faces. The sermon came and as I have to admit I prepared myself for a bit of a snooze:( Sorry but I`m being honest here:)
The pastor began speaking and every word was rivetting! He spoke about Jesus in a way that I wanted to hear more and more, I no longer wanted to switch off.
Nearing the end of the meeting the Pastor asked us all to pray, it was beautiful.
He then asked us all to keep our head bowed and eyes closed, and invited anyone who would like to know Jesus as our personal Saviour and for Him to be in our lives to put our hands up.
I knew I was ready and that Jesus wanted me to be His, Jesus had spoken to me throughout that meeting.
I put my hand up.
The pastor asked us to go forward to the front and pray with others who were Christians. I went forward, and this lovely lady prayed with me and I knew this was just the beginning of something wonderful!
Jesus accepted me as I was!! Me!
He forgave me of all my sins, and there were a lot!
I looked back after praying to where my husband was sitting, I knew he would be pleased for me. But his seat was empty!
I cried when I looked across at my husband kneeling praying with someone too! He had heard Jesus too! Accepted Him in his life!! We could go forward in our Christian walk
together .Praise God!!
For me, I had previously given my heart to Jesus as a child of 7. I attended the Salvation Army and when I was younger I really did feel close to God. Faith as a child is innocent, and can be very deep.
Mine was then. I remember praying when I was full of fear and knowing that Jesus would protect me.
I stayed in the Salvation Army and joined the timbrell group, singing company and later the band. Those were very happy times there.
When I became a teenager I walked away from God. I had stopped going to the Salvation Army and done my own thing. Preferring the company of other teenagers, and hanging around. I used to feel that I was being preached at when anyone even innocently wanted to talk about God. I was so wrong.
I was 25 when Jesus accepted me again at that tent meeting. I believe I was always His, Jesus had never left me, but I left him, how sad he must have felt as I ignored him, my Saviour.
He never forsakes us, yet I just left him, stopped talking to him, like snubbing a really good
friend, My Father.
What a wonderful Saviour though to accept me with open arms! To love me just as much as though I hadn`t wronged him. And He forgave me!! Could I have done that I wonder if a friend had done that to me?
For my husband it was all new. He had only ever went to church for weddings and funerals. Thinking it was a place for
only the "holy minded", those people who liked that sort of thing, and not for him.
Everything seemed new in his life right then, a new exciting way. The only way!
People who thought they knew my husband, found out they didn't at all. As he joyously told his family and friends that Jesus had saved him. This
wasn't the same man surely was their expression:) It was but in a new way as a second chance, a new birth, being born again! God was and is wonderful to us!
He so wanted to learn it all right there and then. It was lovely to have that thirst for Gods word, to get to know God more and more, that was marvellous for us both.
Another thing that was great for him and for me was when we found a church which we knew God wanted us to attend. He felt he fitted in right away! It was nothing like he had thought all of those years.
Going back to the beginning and my mum being a great witness to us. I hope and I pray that Gods love will shine out to others too. It just shows that the way we live our lives is watched and judged by others. We can be witnesses as we live as Christians.
Ephesians ch.2 verse 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.