My Testimony - Part 3 - Getting My Full Attention

Before I continue with my testimony I have to make a comment.

I can appreciate that some people who might read my testimony, could think that it is fanciful and that it is not true. You might even think that what I will talk about in this post is something that God would not do. But I believe that God is interested in the minutia elements in our life and will reach us in any way he can. As you will find out it took a very unusual event to make me wake up, to the reality of a living God.

I take the person of the Lord and his love seriously, and do not underestimate his power, and in my postings I seek to honour him.

I can only say, that what I write about, is what actually happened to me. You will either believe me, or you will not. My testimony is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. With God's help I will honour his saving grace in my life.

To put things in context I think I need to explain a bit more about me, and what makes me tick. The relevance of me telling you about this will become apparent as I tell you my story.

For over 20 years my work involves using data to make decisions. The desire and drive for clarity of evidence, the use of structured problem solving methods are what I do on a day to day basis as part of my job. Another part of my job involves teaching engineers the tools and techniques, that use data to solve complicated business / engineering problems.

So you could say that my mantra is 'show me the data'. I like to see the data and to prove statistically that something is real. It is even better if I am there to observe the process that produces that data. I am a firm believer in the phenomena of cause and effect, and that is how the Lord grabbed my attention, events that would 'prove' to me, that He was real.

As part of the Alpha course I talked about in the previous post, there is a session on the gifts of the spirit. Following on from the watching a video about that topic, I went into a small group to discuss what I had heard.

To open the conversation the small group leader, called Piers, started with a sentence that I will never forget. I could see that he was finding it difficult to start the small group in conversation.

He mumbled a bit and then said something that was so off the wall, so way out, that I will remember it for the rest of my life. He said "What if I were to say to you that you woke up this morning, and you were in such a hurry to get out you you ripped your new Marks & Spencer's shirt on the bedroom door handle, and you have a sore big toe".

I have to admit that I was amazed at this sentence, but for all the wrong reasons. If I could have said "Ugh", I would have. All the rest of the small group looked just as bemused as I did.

In our small group was the minister of the church, and he proceeded to ask in an incredulous tone of voice. "What did you just say"?

All eyes turned to see what the Piers would say, and he repeated what he had just said. "What if I were to say to you that you woke up this morning, and you were in such a hurry to get out you you ripped your new Marks & Spencer's shirt on the bedroom door handle, and you have a sore big toe".

As he finished speaking I could see that he was in full discomfort mode, and he seemed to be thinking what to say next, when the minister said. "That happened to me to-day".

Now all eyes turned to look at him. He explained that earlier on that day he got up and was in a hurry to get out of his house to go to an important meeting. He told us that he had indeed put on a new Marks and Spencer's shirt and had caught the sleeve of the shirt on the bedroom door handle and ripped the shirt.

Then he proceeded to remove his shoe while explaining that he hurt his big toe playing indoor soccer two nights before. He did not have to tell us that it was very painful as he showed us all a blackening toenail, on a toe that was much bigger than it should have been.

Everyone was stunned into silence. Piers had just spoken what I know now to be a 'word of knowledge'. You had to be there to see that this was something that was spontaneous and wonderful. No big theological revelation, but just knowledge of a couple of everyday events that only God and the minister knew about.

Could it have been a staged event? I hear you ask? No! You could 'feel' Piers discomfort, and the minister I had come to know as a faithful servant of the Lord. The look of embarrasment on Peirs face when the words left his lips left me in no doubt, that this was real and not staged.

I was shocked because I knew that the probability of this being put down to pure random chance events was out of the question.

Think about it, think of the accuracy of the word of knowledge:

The correct day
The correct part of the day
The fact that the minister was in a hurry
The correct type of garment
The correct make of garment
The correct door in the house
The correct object that damaged the shirt (door handle)
The correct explanation of the damage to the garment (ripped)
The same person having a sore big toe

The Lord knew that that event would grab my attention. This was a 'Divine' moment and I went home that night determined to seek this all knowing God, not fully appreciating that he was always there with me, and that had planned further revelations of his love and care for me over the following months.

I have over time told this event to a number of people and I can say that the reactions have been from full acceptance to the look of 'are you for real'. But again all I can say is this really happened. It also told me that God has a wonderful sense of humour, and used this 'funny' set of events to catch my attention in a profound way. I have found that some people think that God is only interested in the 'big stuff', but I have found and I believe that God is interested in the 'small stuff' that makes up our daily lives and well as the 'big stuff' that can impact our lives. Let us take everything to the Lord in prayer.

I thank you my Lord. for your love and continuing care.

1Co 12:8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit.

Finally ............. a thought for to-day

Mankind's limited potential highlights God's limitless power

My Testimony - Part 2 - The Journey Begins

Fast forward 40 years and you find me happily married with three fantastic children. My wife Hazel and I had Jennifer and then 13 months later we had our twins Amanda and Gillian. It was when they were about 12 or 13 years old that I got offered a job at Rolls-Royce in England. (Before you ask the answer is "No I do not own one"! I work for the aero engine part of Rolls-Royce). This meant that since then I worked in England during the week and returned home to Northern Ireland at the weekend.

Amanda our 'middle' child started attending a church in our home town during the week, to learn the guitar. Then she started to attend the church services on a Sunday. Then she 'got saved'.

I periodically attended another church with my wife and it was out of curiosity that we both went along to see what was so special in this church. What was special was that we both started to cry during the praise and worship. Why cry? We had never cried at any service before so why now? Why did the worship service have this effect? I know now that it was the work of the Holy Spirit, drawing us closer to the Lord.

Over time I felt at home in this Pentecostal Church in my home town. As the family started to attend the church my other girls soon gave their lives to the Lord.

At the same time when I was working during the weeks that I was in England, I started to attend an 'Alpha' course, run by my local 'Church of England' church. This Alpha course was for people searching for the meaning of life and I met that entrance qualification.

The focus of the teaching and the subsequent discussions was on the reality of the Lord and the work of the Holy Spirit. Little did I know that in this course God did something that would stop me in my tracks and confirm in my mind and then in my heart that God is real and active right now. This event that I will cover in my next post was the prime event that started my walk to the Narrow Gate.

Finally ............. a thought for to-day

Venture into the unknown with faith in God

My Testimony - Part 1 - The Early Years

I was brought up in a small town called Dromore in County Down, Northern Ireland. My family went to First Dromore Presbyterian church. Christianity has been part and parcel of life in Dromore dating back to the time of Saint Patrick. The picture is of a Celtic cross that still stands beside the cathedral in Dromore to this day. It dates back to the 9th century. Pointing all that time to the cross of Jesus Christ.

On childhood related memories I have one memory that has been etched in my mind by the Lord. I went on a few occasions to stay with my paternal grandmother during my summer holidays. She and my grandfather, lived in a big rambling house. In my memory it contained big rooms, lots of rooms.

In one of these rooms lived a very old lady. My great grandmother 'Granny Bell' who was well into there 90's was being looked after by my grandmother, and as I passed her room one day, spied me passing and looking intently at me, called out "Are you saved?"

I was only about 8 or 9 at the time and did not know what she meant, so I said "I don't know"! I still remember this as if it were yesterday, as she ushered me into her room, made me kneel down at the side of her bed, and as she knelt beside me she prayed and she prayed. It was a fervent prayer!

I know in my heart that this was a prayer for my salvation, and it was many years later that it was answered. God's timing is not always our timing, and in his sovereign will God answered the prayer of this righteous woman, many years after she had gone to be with him.

Just a 'wee' bit more on my great grandmother. She was a direct descendant of 'Jenny Geddes' (worth a search on Google for that story). She would pray for hours on end, and so fervent were her prayers that my grandfather often had to ask her to be quiet, as she prayed on into the middle of the night, so that he could get to sleep.

How she became a prayer warrior is a remarkable story, but true testimony to God's mercy. As a young woman she was partially disabled in one of her legs, unable to walk up a flight of stairs, having to pull herself up stairs on her hands and knees. She had seven children and when her husband suddenly died, she was left with a young family and a small farm to run.

Her disability meant that she could not run the farm successfully and at the point of desperation she prayed with a sacred promise, for her affliction to be taken from her. Her sacred promise was that she would serve the Lord for the rest of her life.

Shortly after that prayer she fell into a coma for two weeks, and was thought to be near deaths door. It was my grandmother who found her cooking breakfast early one morning, standing on two perfect legs. Her disabled leg had been fully restored. That woman kept her promise, and served the Lord faithfully until the day she died. I will talk about Granny Bell again later in my testimony, and how I know that her prayer was answered.

Jas 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Please Note: The fervent prayer of a righteous woman also avails much!

Finally ........... a thought for to-day

Faith and love are vital to effective prayer

My Testimony - Introduction

I got a pleasant surprise to-day, I thought that I was due to give a talk to the Christian fellowship group that meets each Thursday at dinner time in work. I once again relied on my memory only to find that it is my turn next week and not to-day.

Why was I pleasantly surprised? Well, coming back from holiday I was not fully prepared to talk about 'numbers in the bible' and my opening line the the assembled people before me would have been an apology for this lack of preparedness. SO I get an extra week to refine my work for this talk.

But then I remembered that the following week I am giving my testimony. Now that is something that I have never talked about for more than 5 minutes and I have a 30 minute time slot to fill.

To be honest, I think I really need the Lord to remind me, of the memorials, the Ebenezer memorial stones, marking the many instances of mercy and help that I have received from the Lord, on my journey to faith.

1Sa 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."

So what better way but to Journal my story. In reality it is the Lord's story on how he saved me. So over the following days, with the Lord's help, I will chart my walk, so that I miss nothing of significance for my testimony in two weeks time.

As I typed in the title to this post, I saw that it read. 'My Yestimony'. That is what it was, that is what it is, my 'YES' to my Saviour's call.

Lord bring to my mind your blessings, the times I was very aware of your hand on my life.

How from a small child you have blessed me. How I owe it all, everything I am, everything I possess and hold dear in my life from my wonderful wife, my beautiful Godly children, my friends, my family, all can be traced back to your love and blessing. I am so blessed. Thank you my Lord.

Finally ............ a thought for to-day

Faith in Christ is not just a single step but a life of walking with Him

A 'hand' but not as we know it

We see some 'strange' verses in the Bible. This is one of them.

Pro 30:28 The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, And it is in kings' palaces.

I had a look to see if spiders around my home had 'hands' and I came across this picture. No microscopes three to four thousand years ago. This is the 'hand' of a common garden spider. This is how it clings to and moves along it's web in your home, in king's palaces and in my home, (if they ever get a chance to weave them with my wife Hazel's keen eyesisight and efficient dusting techniques).

How great is our God. In the big universe and the microscopic worlds around us. Every word the Lord has given us in his word has meaning and contains a truth.

Finally ......... a thought for to-day

Through prayer, finite man draws upon the power of the infinite God.

Anger

How is it that small things, in the bigger scheme of things can consume your every waking thought. Day-to-day things that 'happen' to us, can have such negative effects on our peace, and affect our walk with God.

If people take actions that affect us in a negative way, the normal response is to get annoyed, then upset, finally angry. Before you know it, you are railing about the injustices you see in the situation. We are expert at seeing how inconsiderate and thoughtless other people actions are when they directly affect us.

Our minds go into overdrive and we play and re-play the event that caused the anger over and over. I usually find that well after the 'event' ,when I am in post mortem mode, I come up with some pretty snappy 'one liners', really excellent 'put downs' that would have made my point, and allowed me to gain the moral victory that from my viewpoint I so richly deserved.

It is usually then that I am reminded, that I am supposed to love the person who has hurt or offended me, I am meant to turn the other cheek, I am meant to forgive before I can be forgiven. Now that is hard, especially when your internal justice system, has judged the other person guilty.

Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

If we walk in the spirit the bitterness and anger we feel in the natural will be replaced with a peace. Blessed are the peace makers. Anger takes away our peace, and our blessing, and gives direct access for Satan to put his poison, into our thoughts.

Col 3:8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

It is a choice we make to put off all these things, and to put on the armour of God. Allowing us to be slow to get angry thereby maintaining our peace.

Pro 19:11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression.

Lord give us the ability to recognise when we are about to 'get angry' and give us the wisdom to deal with these situations to reflect your life in us.

Finally ............ a thought for to-day

Open your ears to God before you open your mouth to others.

Part 7 Self-Will

Do I insist on doing it MY WAY?

I have a tendency to use that line from the song sung by Frank Sinatra (with a slight personal modification) which now says "I'll do it my way". In the Lord's prayer we say "Thy Kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". It's a choice we have to make to submit our wills to him.

What word comes easiest to a child. NO! It pains me, if I see children rebelling against their parents. I see this in supermarkets, in car parks, everywhere.

We teach (sometimes force) our children to try to be the best, to beat the other children at all costs, to be top of the class. Get what you want, make yourself heard.

We even have people pay good money to have someone tell us to 'visualise yourself being successful', and unfortunately I see this type of mentality and teaching creeping into many churches. Especially the television evangelists. Now, I do admit there are some God anointed pastors preaching the word on television channels. People like Pastor Charles Stanley from Intouch Ministries comes to mind, but there are too many 'show business pastors', lovers of self image and not lovers of souls.

The 'name it and claim it' pastors, the type of pastors who say "Sow 1 dollar to get 100 dollars back" type pastors. Pastors who fleece the sheep rather than care for and shepherd their sheep. (I feel my blood start to boil ,and as I have high blood pressure it is not a good to have 'boiling blood', so I will stop there). Do they not realise that they will be judged more sternly for their sins?

God's will is not being fully done on this earth as YET. But a day is coming when it will all be put right. Until that day, may we follow the example of our Lord, when he daily submitted himself to the will of the Father. He said he did nothing on his own initiative, but only that which he saw the father doing, and heard the father saying (John 5:19,20,30). "Not my will but thy will be done" was the Lord's prayer. May it become ours.

Finally .......... a thought for to-day

When you grasp, you lose; when you give to God, you gain.

Part 6 Self-Sufficiency

Do I feel that I don't need to know God, to know God's love?

The majority of the world has this attitude to God. Humanists in the UK pay for adverts to be put on busses with a slogan that says "There's probably no God! Now stop worrying and enjoy your life".

Notice what the humanists are implying? All your worries are down to this superstitious belief in a God that probably does not exist they say, enjoyment comes in ignoring God. Have you come across masses of people worrying about the existence of God? Are our churches full of people looking for God?

A more sinister aspect of this type of propaganda is that by implication those who believe in and serve this living God are part and parcel of the problem, it is us who are keeping back the full 'freedom' that allows individuals to 'enjoy' life.

But back to my question, what do I think of me being self-sufficient? If I were to ask that question as my 'old man' just living to satisfy my flesh then my answer would be Yes I am self sufficient. But the God shaped vacuum in each of us can only be filled by God. Any time I have looked to achievements or possessions to fulfil me I find the 'buzz' the 'satisfaction' is very short lived.

But my inner being, my soul and my spirit can only be touched by the Lord. My sense of belonging, my reason for existence is found in the Lord and fully realised when I put on the 'new man'.

Lord may I learn to rely on you more and more so that my life can be fully lived based on your sufficiency.

Finally ......... a thought for to-day

To master temptation, let Christ master you.