Category Archives: Adult Testimonies

Adult Testimonies

Neil.

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  2016-10-27-10-34-06              We went to the funeral last week of an old friend of many years. We had seen him periodically over the years since we all grew up together, and he was always a joy to meet. His hearty “Ho,ho,ho” would ring out during the conversation each time, and he never failed to ask “How are doing Brother?”  We knew what he meant, and also knew what he wasn’t asking. My mind went back to the time that Neil became a Christian….this is how it happened….

We grew up together in a small country area that was serviced by a large timber mill where most of the men folk of the district were employed. It was the sort of place where everyone knew everyone else and all of their business as well. The  district was sort of loosely divided into those who attended the local church and those who didn’t….Neil was one of those who didn’t.

There were about half a dozen young fellows at that time in the early nineteen-fifties who were at a loose end at the weekends and who used to get together and roam around the road (there was only the one road in the place!). One Sunday afternoon one of the men who went to the church was on his way home from delivering the children who had been to the Sunday School and he stopped when going past this group of loitering young chaps.

“Hey,” he said as he pulled up, “Why don’t you guys come to the service tonight? We’ve got a good preacher speaking, you want to come and hear him!”

So later on most of the group did turn up at the service, sitting rather sheepishly at the back of the church. There was some hearty singing to the old pedal organ playing the hymns, and then the preacher spoke. He was indeed very interesting, talking about the way the stars were all put in place  by the Great Creator, and then telling the timeless story of Jesus Christ.

For the next few Sundays, the group turned up again at the church, and then after that most of them drifted off having lost interest. But for some reason Neil kept on going, and one of his mates turned up as well. The next Sunday, Neil was walking along the road heading for the church when Keith pulled up beside him in his old Morris 8 car.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“I’m off to church”, Neil said.

“Well, hop in,” said Keith, “That’s where I’m going too!”

So for the next few Sundays, the two boys went to the little church together. There was a variety of preachers, some of them local men and other visitors who came and preached the old, old story of how Jesus Christ came to earth to pay the price of sin for all people.

Gradually these truths began to sink into the hearts of these two young men and they became convinced of the truth of what they were hearing and turned to the Lord in all sincerity. Their other old mates left them alone now, knowing that they weren’t interested in the old ways of loitering around the roads.

Neil spent every spare minute with Keith and the two of them would talk of what they were learning from the Bible and from the church services. Later on Neil left the district and moved to the big city. Over the years he had his ups and downs, as we all do, and for a period neglected his Bible reading. But when things got a bit tough for him, he turned back to the Lord with all his heart.

Keith met up with him again one day, and said, “You seem to be happy all the time….why is that?”

“Well, it’s like this”, Neil said, “I know I wandered away from the Lord for a while, but I realised that I was in the wrong, and I asked  God for forgiveness for my slack way of life. There are things in my life that I can’t change now, but I’ve confessed it all to the Lord, and I’m back into reading the Bible again. That’s why I’m always happy!”

It was always a joy to meet up with him after that, and to hear his cheerful “Ho,ho,ho” which preceded his conversation. So it was a shock to hear that he had had a severe stroke which he didn’t recover from. Keith felt honoured when he was asked to take his funeral service, and this was the story he told about Neil during the service.

Of the original group that had wandered the roads on those Sundays long ago, some had passed on, but there were still a couple of them at the funeral service. They are old men now, and have never come to see what Neil saw all those years ago and sadly they haven’t made preparations for this, the greatest trip of their lives that will overtake them shortly. This is the trip that Neil prepared for, so that we can be confident of where he is now….rejoicing in the presence of his Saviour in heaven!

Adult Testimonies

“I Wish I hadn’t Done it!”

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     CRYWOMAN                                      The old lady and her daughter sat in my study looking a little uncertain. “What can you tell me about my mother’s family?” the older lady asked, “I know a bit but not back to my grandparents or where they came from”.

It seemed a strange request, but as it happened, I had done quite a bit of research on the background of this family as we shared a common ancestor. We’ll call this lady Ellie for the sake of this story, and her mother Essie.

Ellie had been adopted by her parents  from birth, but never knew this. Living as they did in a small country district where everyone knew everyone else, it was inevitable that the other children at school knew that she was different. Ellie wasn’t even sure what being adopted meant, all she knew was that she was different to the other children, and she had to endure many taunts in the playground because of it. Not only that, she was an only child in a day where large families were the norm, and this too made her stand out as “different” to the  other children at school.

When Ellie grew up, she left the district to get work in the same city she had been born in, and here she met and married her husband. They eventually had five daughters and one son. As a young mother, she missed her real mother so much that she made up her mind to find her. She eventually tracked Essie down. She too, had married and had other children, but had never told any of them about her “disgraceful” youth. Neither her husband, nor her other children knew of the existence of Ellie.

When she knocked on their door and Essie opened it, Ellie told her who she was, and that Essie was her birth mother. Essie was so horrified at the ramifications of this spectre from the past, that she slammed the door shut in Ellie’s face, and refused to acknowledge her. All Ellie’s dreams of a tender reunion with her real mother dissolved in a moment, and the realisation that she was nothing more than an unwelcome embarrassment to her overcame her as she stumbled away down the path and back to her home. When she got there, she tore the only photo she had of Essie into small pieces, and threw them into the rubbish bin.  She felt that life indeed had dealt her a raw deal, and the seeds of bitterness and resentment grew and festered in her mind.

Many years passed by, and Ellie’s daughters grew up and married themselves. Her youngest daughter married and went off to the States to live, and her brother followed her never coming back to New Zealand. Ellie felt as though they had deserted her, and it was just one more nail in her coffin of resentment.

Her eldest daughter married and moved right away from the city, and then one of the other two girls was diagnosed as having cancer. She didn’t survive this, and once more Ellie felt bereft. Then to her horror, she heard that her eldest daughter who lived many miles away up north, had also been diagnosed with cancer. So Ellie lost this daughter also, and although the baby survived and was brought up by his father and new wife, Ellie never saw anything of him. She often thought sadly of how he was her last link with her eldest daughter.

More years passed by. One day there was a knock at Ellie’s door. She opened it to see an old lady standing there (it was Essie).

“I’ve come to see you before I die”, she quavered.

Ellie was so angry…who does she think she is, after the way she  treated me? she thought. It gave her great pleasure to slam the door in her mother’s face, and watch her go down the path.

She heard a short while later that her mother had died, and there had never been any reconciliation between them.

Now here she was sitting before me wanting to know more about her real family. I was able to fill her in on her real mother’s side, who they were and where they fitted into the jigsaw of genealogy.

I had seen this lady periodically coming to the ladies outreach meetings at our church without knowing anything of her background. She had always looked so sad and miserable. Although there were many times when the topic of God’s love and forgiveness were spoken of, she never approached anyone to ask how this might help her even though the invitation to do so was frequently given.

As she told her sad story, it impressed itself on me what a difference it would have made to her if she had only done this! As far as I knew, she never did forgive her mother, and died still in her sadness and regrets of what might have been.

I include this story here as a warning of what bitterness and resentment can do to a person when it is not dealt with promptly. It is only natural to feel these things in the face of disappointments and hurts, but never let it stay and fester. The Bible tells us that these things have roots, and we are to get rid of them before they grow…

         Watch carefully in case any person fails to show the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springs up and troubles you.    (Hebrews 12:15)

Adult Testimonies

The Importance of Reading the Bible

BIBLE1As new prisoners came into the system, Harold always had an introductory chat with them, finding out why they were there and filling in forms. He wasn’t always able to introduce the matter of spiritual topics at the beginning of their time in prison, but did it whenever there was an opportunity.

This particular man was in for child abuse, and as the conversation moved along, Harold was able to bring it around to spiritual things. The man was convicted while Harold was talking with him and admitted that what he had done was sin in the sight of God, and he realised that he had to do something about it. Harold was able to tell him how to pray and confess his deeds as a sin against God, thus becoming born again.

The next day, Harold saw him again and asked how he had slept now that he had made his peace with God.

“You know Boss”, he said, “It’s fascinating! I woke up as usual and lit up a cigarette like I always do, and it tasted terrible! I threw it away and haven’t wanted one since!”

Harold was so pleased to hear this, and encouraged him further.

Not every one who turned to the Lord had such an immediate deliverance from this debilitating habit…..some men indeed, had quite a struggle to give up smoking.

But Harold kept in contact with him and was able to encourage him to continue reading his Bible and doing the Bible Study Courses he was able to get for him.

The prison population was around 400, and over time, Harold was able to see forty men do the Bible Courses. Other than that, there wasn’t much follow-up work done with the men, especially when they were transferred elsewhere or moved out of the prison system altogether. When he could, Harold would contact the local minister where they were going and hope they would follow them up, but there was no guarantee that this would happen.

Those who were able to, would find a church they could go to, and continue with their daily readings of the Bible. This would continue to feed them spiritually, and they would grow in their faith.

 

Adult Testimonies

Bob’s “If only”….

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      As Bob came to in the darkness, he wondered where he was. There were unfamiliar sounds going on around him, and a distinct disinfectant smell. He  realised he was in a bed, but he was sure it wasn’t his own one. He tried to turn over and nothing seemed to be working. Whatever had happened to him?

Ah, he remembered now. He had left the local pub at closing time and found his way to his car. He remembered driving towards home and over the bridge that spanned quite a sizeable river on the way, but nothing more after that.

Bob had indeed driven over the bridge, but he had failed to see the corner immediately after it, and continued straight ahead up the bank where the car had flipped over. Bob had not been wearing his seat belt and he was thrown out. As a result his spinal cord was badly damaged leaving him a paraplegic. He was in hospital for a long time, and it took him several months before he admitted that his situation was actually his own fault.

First of all he railed against the fact that his seat belt wasn’t on, but he was the one who had not buckled up. It never occurred to him that if he hadn’t been drinking until closing time, he would have been capable of driving safely, so that was another nail in his coffin of blame, as it were.

No-one knew when it finally dawned on him that perhaps God was speaking to him through this accident. It wasn‘t that he was a stranger to the things of God. There had been a time when he had made his decision to follow the Lord, and was enthusiastic in his attendance at his small local church. But the older men tended to curb his youthful enthusiasm and he became discouraged. There came a day when he heard some more criticism, and that was it as far as he was concerned. He had had enough, he said. If that was how they felt, then he was finished.

Bob never attended a church service on a regular basis again, and in time, no-one would have recognized him as being a Christian. Years passed by, and his family arrived and grew up. In his time of reflection now in his hospital bed, he remembered different times when he felt that God was perhaps speaking to him.

There was that time that he had been feeding hay out to his cattle and carelessly thrown the loose bailing twine into the cab of his utility truck. As he drove onto the road, he got out to shut the gate behind him, and as his feet became tangled in the twine he fell onto the road. A car came around the corner and nearly caught him before he got up. Bob wondered at the time if the Lord was speaking to him, but he mentally shrugged it off as coincidence, and let the opportunity go by.

Then there was another time not long before this, when a visiting evangelist had come to the district. Bob attended one of the meetings, and was strongly moved to respond to the appeal when it was given at the end, but he thought of his drinking mates and what they would say to him. Just the same, he had to hold tightly to his seat with both hands to keep from making the move along the aisle when others were going down to the front.

“There’s still plenty of time”, he told himself.

Now he wondered if things would have been different if he had made that move back then. It began to dawn on him that perhaps all this was his own fault, and all because he kept shutting the thought of God out of his mind.

“Perhaps God IS speaking me” he said to himself, “If I had taken the step when that preacher was asking people to come forward, perhaps none of this would have happened!”

How right he was! He wouldn’t have been at the pub this particular night if he had done that!

By the time Bob was discharged from the hospital and able to go home, he had confessed his willfulness  and disobedience to the Lord and received full forgiveness for it all. Bob was full of joy in his mind and heart now….not for the position he found himself in, but in the fact that now he had made his peace with God once more.  He was able to pray again, picking up where he had left off when a young man. But in spite of that, nothing could give back the years he had wasted, and this was a constant regret to him.

He enjoyed the visits he had from other Christians who knew him, and to talk about the things of God was one of his greatest joys.

He now spent his days in his wheelchair looking out of the large windows of his living room across the town to the harbour in the distance. He had once served on the local harbour board, and was particularly interested in watching the container ships and tankers moving in and out of the harbour.

He lived for a few more years, and told one of his visitors not long before he passed into the Lord’s presence, “You know, I would sooner be like I am now, and able to enjoy these times with the Lord, than to be what I was once, able to walk but still running away from God. It doesn’t pay!”

          The Apostle Paul wrote….. In case I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.         And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”  . Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.       (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

 

Adult Testimonies

One Man’s Choice

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The Lord said, “My Spirit will not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3a. The following story illustrates this very clearly…..

“Hi Ozzie”, Bob sang out as he drove up to the house, “Are you coming out with me tonight to the church service?”

“Aw, I can’t make it tonight”, Ozzie said, “We’ve got a visitor coming for tea, so that cramps my style a bit. Maybe next Sunday.”

“OK, That’s a pity”, Bob said as he swung the car around.

He went down the road in a thoughtful mood. He had been taking his cousin Ozzie to the church services for nearly twelve months, and he had noticed a big difference in him in that time. His language had cleaned up, and he seemed to be more cheerful and not so complaining.

Bob hoped Ozzie had been really listening to the different preachers as they spoke each Sunday night, and not just been enjoying the singing and company of the other people there. After all, that was only part of it all. He thought of those verses in the New Testament where Jesus frequently said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.

He knew it was one thing to hear what is being said, but quite another to let the words sink into one’s mind and then down to the heart and then put them into practice .

Bob knew what it had been like for himself….once he was faced with the facts, there was no turning back and now he couldn’t have been happier. Now he really wanted his cousin Ozzie to know the same peace of mind and heart that he had found.

But from that time on, Ozzie seemed to be making more and more excuses as to why he couldn’t make it on Sunday nights. The day came when he told Bob that he wouldn’t be going any more….it just wasn’t convenient, he said.

Bob was disappointed, but he knew that people have a free choice. He had made his mind up himself to continue going to the church services and as he did, his understanding grew. He wasn’t going to let Ozzie’s attitude change his mind.

Over the intervening years, they met occasionally and still did certain jobs together (both were farming), but the old camaraderie was missing. More years went by, nearly twenty in fact.

Bob was visiting his father one day. “You know, I had a visit from Ozzie the other day”, his father said. “He said a very strange thing. He told me that he’d had a very vivid dream one night recently…. He dreamed he saw a big blind coming down from the sky and he knew that it was between him and God. And then he said, ‘You know Unc, I couldn’t come to God now, even if I wanted to!’ I really didn’t know what to say to him”.

Bob knew the verse in the Bible where God says He won’t strive with people for ever, that there comes a day when He will take people at their word, and leave them alone. He was very sad to hear that, and yet he himself had been unable to pray for Ozzie for some time, and felt that this was indeed a message from the Lord concerning him.

We do well to take heed to the consequences of Ozzie’s choice and realise what a sad plight he was in. His attitude was still the same when he eventually died….he couldn’t call on God even if he wanted to!

Adult Testimonies

Bob’s Challenge

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 “If only”…. 

As Bob came to in the darkness, he wondered where he was. There were unfamiliar sounds going on around him, and a distinct disinfectant smell. He  realised he was in a bed, but he was sure it wasn’t his own. He tried to turn over and nothing seemed to be working. Whatever had happened to him?

Ah, he remembered now. He had left the local pub at closing time and found his way to his car. He remembered driving towards home and over the bridge that spanned quite a sizeable river on the way, but nothing more after that.

Bob had indeed driven over the bridge, but he had failed to see the corner immediately after it, and continued straight ahead up the bank where the car had flipped over. Bob had not been wearing his seat belt and he was thrown out. As a result his spinal cord was badly damaged leaving him a paraplegic. He was in hospital for a long time, and it took him several months before he admitted that his situation was actually his own fault.

First of all he railed against the fact that his seat belt wasn’t on, but he was the one who had not buckled up. It never occurred to him that if he hadn’t been drinking until closing time, he would have been capable of driving safely, so that was another nail in his coffin of blame, as it were.

No-one knew when it finally dawned on him that perhaps God was speaking to him through this accident. It wasn‘t that he was a stranger to the things of God. There had been a time when he had made his decision to follow the Lord, and was enthusiastic in his attendance at his small local church. But the older men tended to curb his youthful enthusiasm and he became discouraged. There came a day when he heard some more criticism, and that was it as far as he was concerned. He had had enough, he said. If that was how they felt, then he was finished.

Bob never attended a church service on a regular basis again, and in time, no-one would have recognized him as being a Christian. Years passed by, and his family arrived and grew up. In his time of reflection now in his hospital bed, he remembered different times when he felt that God was perhaps speaking to him.

There was that time that he had been feeding hay out to his cattle and carelessly thrown the loose bailing twine into the cab of his ute. As he drove onto the road, he got out to shut the gate behind him, and as his feet became tangled in the twine he fell onto the road. A car came around the corner and nearly caught him before he got up. Bob wondered at the time if the Lord was speaking to him, but he mentally shrugged it off as coincidence, and let the opportunity go by.

Then there was another time not long before this, when a visiting evangelist had come to the district. Bob attended one of the meetings, and was strongly moved to respond to the appeal when it was given at the end, but he thought of his drinking mates and what they would say to him. Just the same, he had to hold tightly to his seat with both hands to keep from making the move along the aisle when others were going down to the front.

“There’s still plenty of time”, he told himself.

Now he wondered if things would have been different if he had made that move back then. It began to dawn on him that perhaps all this was his own fault, and all because he kept shutting the thought of God out of his mind.

“Perhaps God IS speaking me” he said to himself, “If I had taken the step when that preacher was asking people to come forward, perhaps none of this would have happened!”

How right he was! He wouldn’t have been at the pub this particular night if he had done that!

By the time Bob was discharged from the hospital and able to go home, he had confessed his willfulness  and disobedience to the Lord and received full forgiveness for it all. Bob was full of joy in his mind and heart now….not for the position he found himself in, but in the fact that now he had made his peace with God once more.  He was able to pray again, picking up where he had left off when a young man. But in spite of that, nothing could give back the years he had wasted, and this was a constant regret to him.

He enjoyed the visits he had from other Christians who knew him, and to talk about the things of God was one of his greatest joys.

He now spent his days in his wheelchair looking out of the large windows of his living room across the town to the harbour in the distance. He had once served on the local harbour board, and was particularly interested in watching the container ships and tankers moving in and out of the harbour.

He lived for a few more years, and told one of his visitors not long before he passed into the Lord’s presence, “You know, I would sooner be like I am now, and able to enjoy these times with the Lord, than to be what I was once, able to walk but still running away from God. It doesn’t pay!”

Adult Testimonies

The Importance of Bible Study

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Harold was an officer in the prison who was in charge of the prisoners as they came in to the prison. He had been a Christian for many years and saw his job as a chance to speak to the inmates as opportunities presented themselves.

As new prisoners came into the system, Harold always had an introductory chat with them, finding out why they were there and filling in forms. He wasn’t always able to introduce the matter of spiritual topics at the beginning of their time in prison, but did it whenever there was an opportunity.

This particular man was in for child abuse, and as the conversation moved along, Harold was able to bring it around to spiritual things. The man was convicted while Harold was talking with him and admitted that what he had done was sin in the sight of God, and he realised that he had to do something about it. Harold was able to tell him how to pray and confess his deeds as a sin against God, and when he did this he became born again.

The next day, Harold saw him again and asked how he had slept now that he had made his peace with God.

“You know Boss”, he said, “It’s fascinating! I woke up as usual and lit up a cigarette like I always do, and it tasted terrible! I threw it away and haven’t wanted one since!”

Harold was so pleased to hear this, and encouraged him further.

Not every one who turned to the Lord had such an immediate deliverance from this debilitating habit…..some men indeed, had quite a struggle to give up smoking.

But Harold kept in contact with him and was able to encourage him to continue reading his Bible and doing the Bible Study Courses he was able to get for him.

The prison population was around 400, and over time, Harold was able to see forty men do the Bible Courses. Other than that, there wasn’t much follow-up work done with the men, especially when they were transferred elsewhere or moved out of the prison system altogether. When he could, Harold would contact the local minister where they were going and hope they would follow them up, but there was no guarantee that this would happen.

Those who were able to, would find a church they could go to, and continue with their daily readings of the Bible. This continued to feed them spiritually, and they  grew in their faith as a result.

Adult Testimonies

Audrey’s Story

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This story shows how God works in different ways to bring people to Him.  Audrey’s story shows a different angle of God’s workings in a human heart to what we might be used to.

Audrey was a  middle aged home help and addicted to smoking, coffee and T.V. when she wasn’t working.   She never gave God  a thought.  She began  working for an elderly God-fearing  lady. This lady never spoke to Audrey about her faith, but Audrey saw the Bible beside her bed, and noticed  her gentle loving manner.

One day she gave Audrey a CD  of  testimony to take home and listen to. As usual that evening, Audrey immediately turned the T.V. on, made her coffee and lit a cigarette. Before going to bed, she decided to listen to the CD, and heard the speaker tell how God had given him the strength to give up smoking.

She thought, “If God did that for him, perhaps He could do it for me too!”

Waking up the next morning, she didn’t think of her cigarettes once. After a while, she thought in wonderment, “I haven’t had a smoke yet!” and stretched her hand out for the packet.

While taking the first breath of smoke, she found it was utterly horrid to her, and she  threw it down. Twice more she tried to smoke with the same result.  After this, she never smoked another cigarette. She took the CD  back, not telling the lady of her experience.

Shortly afterwards, her daughter arrived back from Australia and stayed with her. Usually they wouldn’t be together  for five minutes without verbally sparring with each other. But this time, Audrey held her tongue when her daughter baited her.

“What’s happened to you Mum?” she asked “You’re different!”

Without even stopping to think, Audrey replied, “It’s the love of Jesus”.

With that confession of the name of Jesus, the light dawned on her soul, and Audrey was never the same again.  She found she had a totally different outlook on life. Now she wanted to be with other Christians, and to go to church services….something she had never done before. She wanted to learn what was in the Bible, and found it was a really interesting book to read….she just couldn’t put it down.

Audrey had heard vaguely about Moses….after all they had made a film about the story of crossing the Red Sea, but she had no idea what led up to it. Of course she had heard something about a boy called David killing a giant, but she didn’t have a clue exactly what happened. Then there was the story of the whale swallowing Jonah, but she had thought that no-one with any sense would take any notice of a story like that! But now she read in the New Testament that Jesus had said it really had happened.

Every page she read opened her understanding further. She couldn’t get enough of it. As she read the book of Psalms, she found to her amazement that David was just like we are because sometimes he was terribly happy and other times he was right down in the dumps.

She found that Peter was always opening his mouth and putting his foot in it. He never knew when to shut up! Then there was that young man called Saul who hated the early Christians so much that he was dragging them off to prison and if he could,  he would have their heads chopped off.

Yet one day God called out to him from the sky, and he fell to the ground. When he got up he found he  was blind. He knew that it was Jesus Himself who had called out to him. Then there was the man who went to him and touched his eyes, making him see again. What a difference it made to  him once  he believed in Jesus and began to preach about him!

Audrey knew that she was like each of those people she was reading about, and she knew that what God had done for them, He would do for her. As time went by, she realised that her old life held no more appeal for her…her new life gave her all she had been looking for. She now had new ideals and aims, new friends and new attitudes. Her old life had gone now that she knew Jesus Christ as her own personal friend and Saviour. She found she could talk to Him each day and tell Him all her problems, and He gave her the strength to do the right thing.