How God Saved Me

I was greatly privileged to have been born in Ulster where Gospel preaching was very common and where I learned from my earliest days that I needed to be saved if I was ever to enter Heaven. I cannot begin to estimate the worth of a mother who taught her children the Word of God from their youngest years and made sure they attended Sunday school.

Travel arrangements were such that when I went to college at 15 I had to move and live with my godly grandmother. Along with others in her household I attended the local Baptist church meetings. In my teenage years it   was quite common that Gospel campaigns were held regularly and after each meeting an appeal would be made for anyone to come forward and trust Christ.

On a particular evening I responded to the appeal and went forward. The preacher read suitable Scriptures with me and asked if I wanted to trust Christ as my Saviour. I said yes, he told me to pray and ask the Lord Jesus into my heart. He then spoke some words of assurance to me and asked me to sign a decision card. Not good practice!

I  was soon baptised and accepted into the fellowship of the Baptist church. In due course I was teaching a Sunday school class and was preaching the Gospel. When I started work I enjoyed telling others about the Lord Jesus and was spoken of as a ‘Holy Joe’ which did not bother me.

I married a Salvation army girl in 1959 and shortly after that I was made redundant. I applied for work in England and was employed in Lancashire by English Electric. The company provided me with a flat and I moved my wife to live Accrington.

Worldly friends and pleasure were increasingly filling our lives and spiritual interests were pushed aside, over this period our two children were born. Thoughts about Eternity were never far from my mind and I often felt that I was not saved at all. 

In 1966 we went home to Ireland on holiday and unknown to me, my mother had primed the preacher who was having a local campaign, that we were coming. He arrived at my parents home one day and insisted that I attended the meetings. I came under deep conviction concerning Salvation and after reading and searching Scripture I locked myself in my bedroom on a particular afternoon and wept and searched but all seemed hopeless. On the verge of giving up I saw clearly that Christ died for me and I simply said ‘Thank you’ Lord and the load of sin just seemed to lift and I had peace. My wife got saved a few days before me.

On returning home to England we sought out the local assembly and both of us were baptised and received into fellowship.

Ken Magennis