Here is another testimony that was shared last Sunday night.
Craig Coles is a member of the same homegroup as myself and also attends the same church.
I am originally from a small farming community in South Canterbury called Maungati.
I attended Maungati primary school, a small rural school with a role at the time of only 30 or so. That didn’t mean it was too small for God to care about. He arranged for a bible-in-schools teacher to visit us weekly to share the word of God with us. I used to enjoy hearing the stories about Jesus and the characters of the Old Testament. While I did believe the message that the bible-in-schools teacher brought to our school, I didn’t make any commitments to God or accept His gift of salvation.
Years later, I was in another educational institute, the University of Otago. In my first year, I became friends with a fellow first-year student, her name was Jane.
I still have a very vivid memory of an occasion that soon after lead to a life-changing event. And that was, an unintentional, but undoubtedly God-inspired, meeting of my friend, Jane, with one of her friends. She introduced me to her friend, Cheli, and had a brief word with him before he went on his merry way.
I asked Jane "Jane, who is that guy?". She responded by saying that he was the leader of her cell group. I was amazed! I didn’t realise that some people were so into Biology that they had groups where they only studied cells. I seriously did have this thought in my mind which I shared with Jane. As you are probably aware, "cell groups", also known as "home groups" are in fact a place to study God’s word, the bible, among a small group of people. The way she explained it was as follows: Our cell group is a place where we meet to sing songs to God, study the bible, eat some food and enjoy each other’s company. I asked her where and when they met and whether I could come along too. I believe part of the reason for my keenness to attend this meeting was due to what I learnt from my bible-in-schools teacher about God and the bible.
I attended the next cell group meeting and joined in on the singing, the studying and the eating. During the week between that cell group meeting and the next, I started to think about my future. I seemed to be able to imagine what things would be like until death but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t work out what was next. This was a question I brought with me to the second cell group meeting. I shared this with Jane and she said I should talk to Cheli, the leader of the cell group, about this. And so I did. He guided me through a bunch of bible verses which very quickly and clearly brought a series of important truths to my attention.
Moments later I repented of my sins, asked Jesus to be Lord of my life and received his gift of salvation.
Months later, I was able to encourage my former bible-in-schools teacher with my exciting news. He was very pleased.
There are three points I want to highlight from my testimony:
1) The man who freely gave his time to visit our school and shared the word of God with us was fortunate in my case to get some encouragement that his work had made a real difference.
I’d like to encourage you by reading the following verses from Isaiah 55:10-11
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it flourish, so that is yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it".
Therefore, rest assured, that it is beneficial, even eternally so, that we should spread God’s word.
2) My friend, Jane, could have taken the initiative to ask me whether I would be interested in learning about God by attending her cell group. I encourage you to be more open with your friends about your faith. Be ready to proclaim the truth at all times.
3) This is the last and most significant point, from my perspective. In fact, it’s all about perspective - the perspective of people who believe in God’s promise of eternal life versus those who don’t have an eternal hope.
Phil 3:19-21 says "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
In this passage, it said "Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven". My desire is to focus on the eternal rather than the temporal; the unseen rather than the seen; doing God’s will rather than sinning.
I don’t always succeed in all these areas. I fall short of the Glory of God but am justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
And for that I am truly thankful.
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