WILLIE’S
STORY
Jesus
tells a story of two men who went up to the temple to pray. One
was a well known sinner who had committed many sins – he
had cheated many people. He was very ashamed of what he had done
and could barely look God in the eye as he confessed his sin and
sought forgiveness. The other was a Pharisee. He was religious,
good living, respectable and moral. He was very proud of all he
was and all he had done and proceeded to boast of it all before
God. He had no sense of sin and was fully assured he would be
OK in the sight of God.
I
was brought up to go to Sunday School and church every Sunday
but in our church in the Borders we didn’t hear a lot about
Jesus – the need for forgiveness and salvation was rarely
mentioned. It was assumed that if you believed in God –
went to church and generally were good living that that was all
that was necessary and you would be fine with God. If you had
asked me at the age of 15 if I expected to go to heaven m when
I died I would have answered “most certainly”.
Meanwhile
my elder brother had gone to university and through the Christian
Union had met people who believed in Jesus and who seemed to have
a real relationship with Him. Challenged by this David gave His
life to the Lord and at the first opportunity gathered our family
round the fire to tell us he had become a Christian. At first
we didn’t understand since we thought we were all Christians
already so just presumed he had joined a society. Something however
made me begin to watch his life. I reckoned that if what he said
was true there would be some evident changes. There were. He now
prayed and read his Bible every day. And perhaps more shockingly
he talked to people we met about Jesus.
That
same week that he shared with us what had happened to him a group
of Bible students from Glasgow came to hold a mission in our town.
My brother took me to the meetings each night. For a week I heard
about how Jesus came to die on the cross for my sins and that
I needed to repent and put my trust in Jesus. I didn’t seriously
understand but on the last night they asked anyone who wanted
a free book to stay behind and have a chat. I stayed and one of
the team members led me through the steps of putting my trust
in Jesus. I would have to say that I didn’t truly know what
I was doing but did have a desire at that point to have Jesus
in my life. Having prayed a prayer of commitment two things happened
next. He showed me a Bible and told me I could always trust it’s
words and I had to read a bit of it every day. He gave me a book
of Daily Bible Reading Notes on John’s Gospel to help. He
then took me out into the street and made me tell the first person
that came along the road what had happened to me. Fortunately
it was one of the team members who understood the gibberish, which
came out of my mouth.
My
story is a simple one of a Pharisee who needed to find a saviour.
All of this was now 46 years ago – Jesus is still the most
important person in my life.
