How God Saved Me

The Summer of 1949 is recorded as one of the hottest ever. At the time, it recorded the hottest average temperatures for 30 years and it brought one of the worst droughts ever experienced in the UK. Apparently, it was during this sweltering heat when even the evening temperatures were around 24 degrees that I was born on the 1st of July in the North West town of Warrington. Although I remember nothing of this day, mum would later tell me how awful it was to be expecting a baby in that heat! 

I had a happy childhood and some of my earliest memories were being taken to a Gospel Hall in an area of Warrington called Bewsey. This was where my parents met with other likeminded Christians and where around the age of 4 years old, I began to attend Sunday School. Attending this ‘church’ became second nature to me as the lives of my family (I had two sisters as well) revolved around the meetings they held there and the people who went. 

I used to love the large Sunday School at 2pm each Sunday afternoon and the special ‘Childrens Meetings’ held each year, very often with a man who we all knew as Uncle Arthur from Sunny Southport! He brought the Bible stories to life. 

The Bible stories enthralled me and by the time I was about 10 years old I probably knew most of them as well as my Sunday School teacher. There was also a Gospel Meeting held every Sunday evening at 6.30pm when a different preacher every week would come and tell the congregation about the Lord Jesus Christ and how He died upon a Cross for our sins. 

Looking back, I suppose I gradually became aware that my parents were Christians; and although I didn’t properly understand what that meant, I knew it meant a lot to them. But as I continued listening to the Gospel and going to ‘church’ regularly, I sort of felt part of everything, and yet these preachers would tell us that we needed to be saved from our sin individually and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. 

It was when I was 11 years old that things changed. I suppose in my mind, although I had been told that I was a sinner in the sight of God, at the age of 11, I hadn’t really had time to do anything really bad. But I did know that my sin (however small) would keep me out of heaven. I needed to have my sins forgiven. I realised that just because my Mum, Dad and elder sister were Christians, that didn’t make me one, I needed to do something about it personally. So, I did. 

Now at the age of 11, I wasn’t really experienced at praying although I ‘said my prayers’ each evening before I went to bed, but I remember lying in my bed one Sunday evening after we had got home from a Gospel Meeting and I knew I had to make a decision myself about trusting the Lord Jesus as my saviour and all I could do was pray the words of a chorus we used to sing in Sunday School. It went like this – 

Into my heart, into my heart 

Come into my heart Lord Jesus 

Come in today, Come in to stay 

Come into my heart Lord Jesus 

Jesus said in John ch 6v37 “ ….him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”. My prayer was answered. He became my Saviour and Lord. I had Eternal Life. 

I can’t tell you the date I made that decision and prayed that prayer but it was in 1960 and sixty years later I live in the good of it and can honestly say that although I have let my Saviour down many times, He has never let me down. 

In 1961 I was baptised by immersion and joined the company of Christians that met at Hope Hall in Warrington. Over and over again through the years, God has proved Himself to be the one who said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”. 

But I give testimony not only to the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ but to His keeping power through many challenging experiences of life. I married my wife Brenda in 1975 and we lost our first child in 1976. I cannot describe the pain that brought us. 

We moved from Warrington to Northampton in 1985 and in 1986 I had a brain haemorrhage. I was in Northampton General for 10 days as I couldn’t be moved and had paralysis of the face and eye. When things had stabilised, I was moved to Oxford. I remember the Doctor told me they would need to operate the following day and advised me of the potential problems that could occur; one of them being death. I was taken to the operating theatre next day to be told the haemorrhage had healed and there was no need to operate. The Doctors couldn’t understand how this had happened. There had been special prayer meetings for me at my local church since my admission to hospital and many other Christians were praying too. I believe God answered the prayers offered on my behalf and preserved my life. Several heart attacks and an eventual bypass are among other circumstances of life in which I proved the keeping power of God. I commend Him to you. 

As you read my testimony today, I wonder where you stand before God? The Bible says in Romans 3v23 “For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God”. Your sin will keep you out of heaven eternally if you fail to come to Him for salvation. Salvation that is available to you today because “God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3v16. 

In these uncertain times, will you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ now.

Brian Barton