I look back over my life with much gratitude to God for the examples that were set for me when I was growing up. Both my parents loved Jesus, and still love Jesus, with all their heart. From before I was born, they were committed to serving God and always looked for ways to do that. What this meant was that throughout my life, church played a major part. I can’t remember a Sunday, when growing up, when we did not go to church. I have come across a number of people that have had a similar upbringing as me who have resented their parents for taking them to church – I don’t resent mine, but I am thankful to God that they took the time to invest in eternity.
Growing up in a church also meant that a major part of my life was being involved in church activities, especially the youth ministries in the church. The church that I spent most of my childhood in was a church that, most of the time, invested in the next generation. I remember Sunday School classes, Sunday School picnics, Christmas parties and many other fun activities. Yet, despite church being a major part of my life, I remained an unbeliever. If you are not a Christian and you are reading this blog, you must realise that many people go to church without ever having come to know Jesus Christ as their own Saviour. This was where I was! No one has ever been born into this world a Christian. Just because you have passionate Christian parents does not make you a Christian. Jesus said, “You must be born again!” This is what I never knew.
When in High School, I even made attendance at the school SCA (Student Christian Association) a standard feature in my school week. I did this primarily because of the fact that my oldest brother was very involved in the SCA. Even when he wasn’t there I continued. In my standard 7 year, I began to play badminton and another friend who played with me, began to speak to me of my relationship with Jesus Christ. As I write this and think back to that time, I am not sure that too many people had taken the time to speak to me about my own relationship with Jesus. But God was at work because in the following year, something radical happened in my life.
For the casual reader, what I am about to tell you may not seem all that radical, but I can assure you that it was. When we only see things on a human level apart from the activity of God and without an understanding of the seriousness of the human condition apart from Christ, we cannot understand the work of God in salvation as being radical, yet it is the most radical experience anyone can have. Let me tell you why and what happened to me.
Part of the heritage that my parents had passed on to me was the importance of reading the Bible. The Bible was a major feature in our home. After Supper we would have “Bible Time” where, before even leaving the supper table, the Bible would be brought out, Scripture read, and some instruction given. After that, one of the children would pray and we would be allowed to leave the table.
From a young age, my parents would also buy Scripture Union’s Bible reading notes so that we would learn to build a personal relationship with Jesus. This was what God used to speak into my life because one evening, when reading my Bible before going to bed, the Lord opened my eyes to see myself as I truly was and helped me realise my need for a Saviour. I came to realise that I was a desperate sinner who was dead, blind, rebellious to God, and even the best things I was doing were as filthy rags in the sight of God.
I remember sitting on my bed that evening, weeping at the realisation of my sinful and helpless condition and calling upon God for grace and mercy, asking God for forgiveness for my sin and surrendering my life to Him. The Bible says that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That night a lot of things happened that I am still getting to understand. That night God saved me from my sin and from hell. That night God made me His own son. That night God forgave my sin and cleansed me. That night was the beginning of my new life in Jesus. I stand now before God, humbled and yet grateful for His mercy and grace because He has given me what I have never deserved – Salvation. In actual fact, it was God, in His kindness, bringing me to repentance. He had made me for His glory and I had rejected His purpose for my life and had been living for my own glory.
That is why I say that what took place in my life was radical. I believe that any true conversion is radical because it is God at work in the life of a sinner and transforming him into a saint. It is God working the miraculous by taking what is dead and making it alive, taking what is blind and giving it sight. It is God take one who is rebellious and making him a son. That is radical!
This doesn’t mean that all of a sudden I was this big saint that was going to save the world. There was a lot of the old Bruce still alive and there were many things that I still did that did not bring glory to God. But God had begun something that He was determined to take to completion. The blessing is that He is still busy with me today.
Looking back, there were so many people who played a vital role in my life bringing me to this place, but ultimately it was God who was at work in my life. I am sure that, at times over the next few years, many would have questioned the reality of that experience. There were times when I fell hard, times when I was the hypocrite of hypocrites, but God was at work in me and I can see His loving hand sustaining and protecting me. That was the beginning of a very exciting walk with God in which, daily, I am a recipient of His undeserving kindness.
Friend, if you read this and you are not a Christian, my prayer for you is that you too will come to know Him who is the source of eternal life. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” 1 Tim 1:16 (ESV)
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