Well, it's a privilege to be here and it's a privilege to
have a testimony to give of God's saving grace.
And you know, we we have heard tonight already very much has
been made of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I want to start off by saying one thing.
I stand here on the merits of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ and that alone the Bible says in first John chapter 1 and
verse 7. And there's a part of that verse
that says, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses
from all sin. And our desire tonight is not
that man would be glorified, but that the Lord would be
glorified. And you know, I'm saved over 50
years. And if I was to tell you what
the Lord has done for me, I can keep you here till next year
because the Lord has been so good to me and I want to give
him all the glory, honour and praise.
There's a recourse that says is when I think of the goodness of
Jesus and all that he's done for me, my very soul cries out
Hallelujah, praise God for saving me and I'm standing here
saved by the blood of the Lamb. And just to give you a wee
background about myself and how I grew up, well, I was born in
East Belfast and we were a typical E Belfast family.
We lived in A2 up two Down House and my daddy, well he would have
been a typical E Belfast man all these years ago.
He would have worked very, very hard during the week and then at
the weekend he would have gambled on the horses and he
would have drank terribly and at times you know he was such a
good husband and father. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday but come Saturday when the drink went in
our home would have been very sad at times the tears would
have been flowing and the furniture could have been broken
and my mummy maybe would have got hit now and again.
But, you know, the Lord kept our family together and that is
typical. It was typical of the East
Belfast sort of background in families.
But you know, the Lord kept us together.
And I can truly say that we prayed for my daddy once we get
saved, we prayed for him for over 30 years and the times he
really came to church. But, you know, it's a wonderful
thing to be able to share with you that two weeks before my dad
died that the Reverend David Mcilvain had the privilege of
leading my dad, that old drunkard, to the Lord.
So we became a converted drunkard.
And there's going to be a reunion day, you know, and we're
so thankful for the mercy of God.
Well, I grew up in the home. And my sister, she is three
years older than me. You call her airing.
And I've been praying for her for 50 years, more than 50 years
and she's not saved yet. But we just claim the promises
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Acts chapter 16,
verse 31, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved on thy house. So we're going to keep on
praying that she'll come to know the Lord.
And if you've been praying for somebody member, your family, a
friend, father, mother, husband, wife, child, keep praying.
Keep praying. We've been praying for over 50
years. And Iring was at our family
night a few weeks ago and our next family night is going to be
next week. And by God's mercy, I'm hoping
that she will respond to the invitation again to come along
to hear the glorious gospel. It's the power of God unto
salvation. That's all we can do as people
of God, get them under the sound of the gospel.
It is the power of God unto salvation.
It's God's way that the gospel would be preached on to them.
So Iring is 3 years older than me mum she was in the house too,
but only the one sister and mummy, well she was a
backslider. She had come to know the Lord at
about 17 years of age and then the call of the world attracted
her and she left her first love and she entered into.
Well, it was a heartbroken, a broken home at times with the
alcohol and all. But you know, the Lord
graciously restored her. And in my testimony tonight,
you're going to hear about how the Lord wondrously restored my
mother and to himself. But the first person I remember
getting saved in my family was my granny.
And my granny was invited to go along to the Martyrs Memorial
Free Presbyterian Church. And Doctor Paisley was preaching
and she sat somewhere in the balcony.
And as Doctor Paisley preached the gospel and told that she
needed the Lord to be her Saviour, she'll never make it to
heaven on her own good works. There was only one way, and the
Lord Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, And no
man can come on to the Father but by him.
And as she sat in that balcony, the Holy Spirit began to knock
on her heart's door. She realised that she was a
Sinner and she needed to get right with God.
And, you know, she left the balcony and she came down the
middle aisle of the church and the martyrs.
And I see it every week. It's just a lovely thought to
think my grandmother walked up that aisle into the inquiry
room. And you know, it wasn't the
inquiry room or the minister that saved her.
It was a person of the Son of God who loved her and gave
himself for her. And she met the Saviour and he
transformed her life and saved her soul.
And you know, after granny gets saved, well she began to pray
for her family and she put action to her prayers.
She would have invited me and my mummy along to church.
And I remember so many times when she said would you come to
church? They said no, no, no.
But you know, on this occasion when she asked us said yes.
So I would encourage you if you're giving that invitation to
your family and friends, keep on giving the invitation because
the next time could be the time whenever they say yes and it
could transform their lives and get them on the way to glory
through the blood of the Lamb. And I thank God that Granny
invited me and my mummy in particular.
We had a wee bit of an interest and we went along and how it
came about was it was a wee church hall in Red Car St, the
Bible Pattern Church she called it.
And Ernie Allen took it over years later to become part of
the Every Home Crusade where the printed tracks from all over the
world in that wee building in Red Car Street just facing
Houston St School. That's where I came to know the
Lord as my Saviour. That's where the Lord saved my
soul. So anyway, what had happened was
there was a headline in Belfast Telegraph and it went like this
from headhunters to Christ. What a headline and the message
was, or the group that was there and coming to that church, they
were from the Philippine Islands.
They'd come all the way from the Philippines to share what the
Lord had done for them and how the Lord had transformed their
lives from headhunters to Christ.
And I was 13 years of age and I was so curious.
I was wondering what they were going to say, what they were
going to look like. Didn't even know where the
Philippines were. But me and mum, we went along
with that invitation and we sat somewhere in the middle and the
place was jam packed. And whenever that we group got
up and they stood there with their feathers and their tribal
regalia, they stood with their shield and they stood with their
spear and they stood there before us and they told us about
being bound by darkness, being bound by the occult, how that
they were used to worship demon spirits.
To appease them, they would have sacrificed the blood of
chickens. And that we group of Filipinos,
seven were headhunters, one was from a cannibal tribe.
They told how the gospel came, that missionaries went into
their tribe and brought the message of the great Creator,
the Almighty God, who loved them and made a way for them to have
peace in their mind and peace with God.
They heard the gospel and it transformed their lives and they
were travelling the whole world telling people how what the Lord
had done for them. And I remember that group
standing there with all the markings of their tribal gear,
and the missionary put it like this.
And then the gospel came and the light began to shine in the
darkness, and the light of the world shone into their hearts.
And you could really feel the presence of the Lord, the light
of the gospel. What a powerful thing the gospel
is. Jesus died that we could be
saved. He took the punishment for our
sin. And those people believed it and
were transformed by it. And they stood forward.
The chief headhunter stood forward and he sang.
His name is higher than any other.
His name is Jesus, His name is Lord, His name is wonderful, His
name is Counsellor, His name is Prince of Peace, the mighty God
they had come to know the Lord God Almighty, and the Lord had
changed and made them new creations.
Well, as I sat in that meeting, I realised for the first time in
my life that I was a Sinner. I realised that even though
those people were full of darkness in the occult, my soul
was dark in sin and I needed the Saviour to their Saviour to be
my Saviour too. And if you're in this meeting
tonight, that's the same message for you.
You need the Saviour to be your Saviour personally.
And I bowed my head in that meeting and I simply prayed Lord
Jesus come into my heart, wash me from my sin and cleanse me
from mine iniquity. I just cried unto the Lord for
salvation. And the Bible says in Acts
chapter 2 and verse 21 And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And I can tell you tonight that that night, whenever I was 13
years of age, when I bowed my head and I called upon the name
of the Lord, it came to pass as the Scripture says it.
Sure, it is a rock. It will never fail.
And it didn't fail me that night when I called upon the name of
the Lord, the Lord save my soul. And I knew it immediately.
I knew that the burden of sin had been lifted and I was
reconciled to God. It was remarkable and you know
that we group, they sang another song 5 minutes after getting
saved that we group sang a song to the east and to the West, to
the north and to the South. You must go, I must go with the
gospel of Christ to the black and to the white, to the yellow
and to the brown. You must go.
I must go with the gospel of Christ.
I was only saved 2 minutes and I'm telling you, I was
challenged. I've never heard about
dedicating your life for service to the Lord. 2 minutes after
getting saved. I bowed my head and I said, Lord
Jesus, I'll go where you want me to go.
I'll do what you want me to do, and I'll say what you want me to
say. The Lord gave me two calls that
night, one to salvation and one to service. 2 minutes.
So young people, you know, you don't have to wait until you're
older to dedicate your life to the Lord.
I'm encouraging you. Whenever I was 13, I didn't wait
until the circumstances are knew more about God.
I simply made that prayer and I would encourage young people
tonight, make that prayer your prayer.
Give your life to the Lord and he can do more with it than you
could ever do with it. Just give it all into his hands.
I surrender all to Jesus. I surrender and you know, after
the service I didn't tell anybody in the meeting that I
got saved. And Mummy, I don't know whether
I mentioned this Mummy, the backslider was in the meeting
too. The two of us were in the
meeting. And so we're walking up Red Car
St after the service and I turned round and I said to my
granny, tonight I got saved. It's wonderful.
Her heart was overjoyed because her granddaughter had come to
know the Lord as her Saviour. Her prayer had been answered.
And you know the Lord does more abundantly, doesn't he?
Mummy was a backslider and she turned round and said tonight I
have returned to the Lord. So she was restored the same
night. 2 souls in one night, 2 calls in one night.
One to salvation, one to service, 2 souls.
God is able to do great and mighty things.
Let's be faithful. Keep giving the invitation out.
I'm so glad my granny persevered and just kept doing that.
And obviously the prayer closet plays a great and important
part. Well, you know, that was the
Tuesday night I get saved. And on the Saturday night, my
best friend, she came knocking my door.
Of course that happens, doesn't it?
And she said, are you going to the disco?
And I says, Oh no, I'm not going to the disco.
I get saved on Tuesday night. I'm going to church.
You see, I had a new appetite. I tasted and saw that the Lord
was good. I didn't want to do those things
anymore, but I'd done before. I had a new appetite and it was
for the things of God born again, the Spirit of God.
What does the Bible say in Second Corinthians chapter 5 and
17? Therefore, if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become you.
And you know, that's what repentance means.
That's what it means to be saved.
Repentance means turning away from your life of sin and
following the Lord. And that night I had experienced
that new birth experience. I was born again of the Spirit
of God. And you know, I went through my
school years and it can be challenging and trying,
especially in today's situation. All you can do is be faithful
and seek the Lord to help you to shine for him in the corner
where the Lord has put you. Just be faithful in the
workplace. Too many challenges.
But you know, he did grow up and he got married.
And I thought my husband was saved and he wasn't genuinely
saved. He didn't bear fruit.
It became apparent later there was no big, big sin in his life
that you could identify, but he wasn't genuinely saved.
But, you know, we weren't married six months and Morris,
we were both about 22 years of age at that time.
Morris began to get very weak in his legs and over a period of a
few weeks or whatever he became. So I'll that he was really in a
wheelchair very, very quickly. He took multiple sclerosis and
he took it very rampantly. So there you had 222 year olds.
And at that time I just found out I was pregnant and I was
going to have a wee baby. And I did have Laura.
And you know, those times were very, very difficult to go
through and sickness is very hard to deal with.
But I did know the presence and the help of the Lord whenever I
went in the hospital to have Laura was, she was born the 29th
of November. And whenever I went into
hospital, Morris had to go in too because he took sick and he
did need care. So we were in hospital and Laura
was a section. So it was coming up to Christmas
time and I'd just really got out of hospital after the section
and Morris was still in because he wasn't very well and that
Christmas was going to be very, very precious to us.
So Maurice was permitted to get out of hospital for two days,
Christmas Day and Boxing Day. And I remember I brought him to
our house and he couldn't get up the stairs because he couldn't
walk and he lay in the settee. Laura was in a carry cut beside
us on the floor and I lay on the floor and that was our
situation. And Maurice said to me, I want
to go and see the minister that visited me in hospital.
Thank God for hot faithful hospital visits.
My dad was reached with the gospel and now the Lord was
working through those visits by our ministers.
We're so grateful for that ministry.
It's precious. But the young lad said Morris
2223, by now I want to see that minister.
And of course, what did I say? I said no, you're not.
I said, well, you're only at a hospital for two days and I've
just had a section. How on earth are you going to
get into the car and but he insisted because the Holy Spirit
was working on his heart. Conviction was coming into his
soul. He realised that he needed to
prepare to meet God. The Bible says in Amos chapter 4
and verse 12, prepare to meet thy God.
The Holy Spirit was working in Morris's heart.
I didn't know much about it, but he knew that and the Lord was
dealing with him. There was an urgency in his soul
to get the matter of a soul salvation settled.
And I didn't even know what was going on.
And you know, I did lift him into the front of a Ford Fiesta,
6 feet 2 of him, by the way, he was like a stick.
He was thin. And I lifted him into the front
of the Ford Fiesta and we drove round to Sandown Rd Free
Presbyterian Church and the Reverend David Mcilvain had a
part to play as God's servant in my family again.
And he climbed under the wee Ford Fiesta and he led my
husband to the Lord. Isn't the Lord good?
Isn't the Lord merciful to save the Lords hand?
Isn't everything If we just look for him in every situation, we
can certainly see the light in, in the dark places and I'm so
grateful for that. And you know, that was a
precious Christmas we had together, Laura, me and Maurice,
because we never saw another Christmas.
By the 13th of October the following year, Maurice went to
be with the Lord and it was a very hard time.
Laura was 11 months old. She was born on the 29th of
November, so she wasn't even one year old.
And at that time I went home and I lived with Mummy and Daddy and
I went back to my own home place.
And you know, I remember there was a low point and whenever I
was in my bedroom, I looked around and I began to feel as
though I'd lost an awful lot. I cried on to the Lord and I
said Lord, I didn't ask the Lord why, but I did say, Lord, I've
lost so much. And I began to have a bit of a
pity party, as you do sometimes. It's so easy to look at the
situation and keep down, but the Lord doesn't want us to be down.
He wants us to lift her head and look unto him.
And you know at that time the Lord brought a wee verse to me
and it was, can't find it there, but it was, it was the Lord
reminded me that He had nowhere to lay his head.
And you know the Saviour left Heaven's glory, the King of
glory. He left everything for you and
me and need nowhere to lay his head.
And I looked around my bedroom and I saw my pillow and I saw my
blanket and I saw the roof over my head.
And I remembered I've got food in the in the kitchen and family
around me, and I began to have a thankful heart and give thanks
for what the Lord has given to me for all his benefits.
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits?
And the Bible says in Isaiah 61 and verse 3, the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness, that he may be
glorified. This is when we can glorify God.
Whenever there's that spirit of heaviness and it is real, it is
real. But whenever you begin to praise
the Lord, even when you don't feel like it, you know it brings
a victory and the burden lifted. As I began to praise the Lord
and have that thankful heart, I really did see how the Lord
lifted that. And I was able to go on.
I began to train as a nurse, and all of a sudden I took a desire
to learn to play the guitar as you do.
We all take notions, don't we? And I began to learn to play the
guitar. And then about the same time, I
got a tremendous burden for the Philippines.
And I asked, Lord, why is this a a great love for the
Philippines? Of course, I loved the group
that came and gave me the greatest message you could ever
hear. You know, I loved them and I was
grateful for you sending them all around halfway around the
world to come to Belfast. Thank you, Lord, for that.
But this burden was different. It was a tremendous burden for
the Filipinos. And I prayed and I prayed, I
says Lord. Do you want me to go to the
Philippines? What is your plan?
I'm willing to do remember the we the We chorus.
I'm willing to go where you want me to go and do what you want me
to do. I just rededicated my life and I
said, Lord and I prayed for three days and three nights
specifically over this. And then I left it with the
Lord. And that's the best thing you
can do. Just leave it with the Lord.
And you know, I didn't have long to wait after that.
Burden was on my heart. About six weeks later, I was in
front of the City Hall at the Youth Council, Young Peoples.
We were taking an open air meeting.
I was given my testimony and a man that I had met and told him
just how it got saved through the testimony of Filipinos came
through the crowd. And he walked up to me and he
said, Marian, there's a boat in Belfast harbour.
There's 19 Filipinos on that ship.
They're hungry for God and they want Bibles.
Well, that's what the burden was all about.
The Lord was opening a door. And you know, that gentleman
told me the name of the ship. He told me the Wharf where it
was docked. Because I'd never been in the
port of Belfast, I didn't know where to go.
And I phoned my best friend Sharon.
We had met each other when we were 13, met each other in
England. She lived in Glengormley.
The Lord had His hand upon everything, even our friendship.
And so I phoned Sharon and the two of us went down to the port
of Belfast with 19 Bibles for that Filipino crew, and we
thought this was a tremendous opportunity.
Well, when we arrived at the ship, there was a Filipino
walking on the deck, and you called him Freddy Barcelona.
And we looked at him and we shouted, hello, we believe
someone wants Bibles on this ship.
And he said, I want the Bibles. The very man that put the call
out for those Bibles was walking on the deck.
You couldn't plan it. This was the Lord's doing.
And you know, we were thrilled to give Bibles into the hands of
that servant of God. We were privileged to give
Tagalog Filipino literature, which we got from Mary Allen's
place. Remember the place where I got
saved? Ernie Allen printed Filipino
literature in the same spot where that group had reached me
with the gospel, and they were Filipinos.
You couldn't write the script. The very place where we stood
and that we group stood was printing Filipino language.
Years later. It's wonderful what the Lord is
doing even before our eyes. And you know, we have the
privilege of giving that literature into their hands,
into his hands. And we thought mission
accomplished. That's wonderful.
Wasn't that wonderful given 19 Bibles?
Thank you, Lord. Well, the next thing he said
nearly floored us. He says thank you very much for
this. I tell you what I will tell the
captain. I will tell the crew.
You, you too, will come back at 7 O clock tonight.
You will share the gospel with my crew and my crew will get
saved. You couldn't plan it.
We said yes. Sharon and I had never taken a
meeting together. Maybe we'd have some together at
a testimony meeting. And we said yes, because the
Lord had planted a love in our hearts for this people.
When we were 13, she met the same group, and then we met a
few years later. So I mean, it's just remarkable
how the Lord brought us together.
And so we went to the port later on at 7:00 and we shared lovely
gospel hymns. What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. He is Lord, He is Lord and
verses from the Bible. And you know we faithfully
shared the gospel that the church cannot save you.
There are 99% Roman Catholics, mostly in the Philippines, and
we were just faithful to share the the the word of God with
them as much as best we could. And with tears running down his
face, the captain said I would like to believe as on Jesus
Christ as my Saviour. And that launched a work in the
port of Belfast that lasted more than 25 years.
We didn't imagine the Lord was going to open such a door that
would lead us to reaching many Filipinos and other
nationalities with the Gospel. And you know, we would have been
on the ships night after night after night.
We got the literature from Mary Allen's place.
We met the crew during the day, casually giving out some gospel
tracts in their language. And if they were interested and
wanted a service on board, well then we were going back that
night to share the gospel with the crew.
And we would have stood on those ships and at times there would
have been opposition. I remember one time there was
other ladies present and they weren't there to share the
gospel. They had a different mission and
really they were prostitutes. They were trying to take the men
out of the meeting but the men were wanting to stay in the
meeting. And I remember 1 occasion that
one of those ladies stepped forward toe to toe with us and
looked into your face and we thought she was going to hit us
to be honest. But she looked into our faces
and she would say, sing Jesus loves me, Sing Jesus loves me.
She had been in a children's meeting, obviously our Christian
parents, grandparents. She had been maybe a faithful
Sunday school teacher. But what she heard as a child
never left her in her sin. She was standing there pleading
with us, saying Jesus loves me in that environment.
And we just stood there with tears running down our face and
we said we'll sing. Jesus loves, loves you.
And we really want you to know he really loves you and he can
transform your life. Only the Lord knows whether that
woman has got saved or not. We don't know, but we've signed
Jesus loves me too. The children's work isn't this,
it's that it's fast. It stays with them.
Those seeds, you know, maybe they're raking about in the
meetings and jumping about here, there and everywhere but the
word of God, the word of God, so on.
And they that sow in tears will reap with joy, isn't it?
It's a privilege to speak to children.
So, but there you had it. And you know, we would have been
not only on Filipino ships because when we went round the
harbour, there was many nationalities.
There could have been Russian, Romanian, Korean, Tuvoluvians,
Kiribati, German, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, you name the
nationality. We had the privilege of getting
that literature from Ernie Allen's place and putting it
into their hands. But more than that, we had the
opportunity of going on many of these ships, Indian included.
We were a multi nationality cruise as well.
Do you remember the WE course when it was 12/13 to the east
and to the West, to the north and to the South?
You must go, I must go with the gospel of Christ, to the black
and to the white, to the yellow and to the brown.
You must go. I must go with the gospel of
Christ. That was a call that was
fulfilled in my life. I didn't know when I was 13
saying yes, I'll do what you want me to do and I'll go where
you want me to go. I didn't realise the Lord was
going to open up those opportunities for all those
multinationalities. I've been satisfied with the
Filipinos, but you know, it's wonderful that the Lord even
give us that opportunity with all the glory to the Lord.
The Lord did it and He did it for His glory.
And you know, we went to other ports as well.
We were in Port Talbot and Wales.
We were in Red Car and Tees, Southampton, Liverpool, Dublin
Port and you know with the privilege of going to the port
of Dunkirk, France. And what had happened was we
Filipino called Noel, got saved in Belfast, and then he signed
off and joined another ship and we got a letter from him and it
said, please pray that somebody will come to my ship.
The crew on this ship, they're so sinful.
I can't stick the sin on this ship.
Will you pray that somebody will come and share the gospel with
my crew? So we prayed and we prayed every
single day that the Lord would send somebody to reach that
crew. And we prayed nearly to the end
of his contract because it lasts a year.
And, you know, near the end of that contract, we really felt
impressed that we should go. So Sharon and I went to Dunkirk,
France, to meet Noel and to share the gospel with that we
crew. And, you know, we sang a chorus
just to open up the meeting on board.
And it went. Mercy rewrote my life.
God's mercy rewrote my life. I should have fallen, my soul
cast out, but God's mercy rewrote my life.
And there was an old sea man called Veer, and he left to his
feet and he said, stop. I need God's mercy to rewrite my
life now. I need it now.
And before we could even share any messages from the Word of
God, fear was led to the Lord. The Lord had already prepared
his heart. You know, if the Lord puts
something on your heart, keep praying over it because the Holy
Spirit will do that work. And we believe it was the
prayerfulness and the burden of that dear brother and the Lord
Noel as well for the souls of those men that brought them
through. And many of that crew get saved
and they're going on with the Lord and fear himself is with
the Lord. He he he died a few few years
later and we got worried about that.
But you know, back in Belfast we were on a ship called the Anna
Lynheart and it was very much a mixed bag.
There were a rough crew and whenever we went in to have a
service on board the the mess room table was full of alcohol
and we were going into that environment 2 girls and you
wouldn't do it, you wouldn't plan for 2 girls to go into the
port of Belfast. It has to be the Lord Slayton
and there we were standing there in that environment and we just
shared faithfully the message of salvation.
And many of the crew responded. We did feel and feel led to to
have an altar call and and pressing those men that they
needed the Lord to be their Saviour, that they the Lord was
the only one to die on the cross for them and the unsaved need to
hear that message, the message of the gospel.
And you know we faithfully shared that.
And while some of the crew were praying to ask the Lord into
their hearts, other members of the crew who had rejected the
Lord were standing drinking vodka like this, so
disrespectful, while the others prayed.
Well, we went back the next night and the others had
departed. They didn't want anything to do
with God. And there was the brethren then
had believed upon the Lord, and they wanted to learn more about
God. And do you know what was on the
table? Coca-Cola, new creations, we
didn't tell them they shouldn't be drinking.
The Holy Spirit does this work, doesn't it?
When you taste and see that the Lord is good, the the world
loses it at its attraction. And so there we were.
And we had a blessed time encouraging those brothers in
the Lord. And you know that ship sailed
and about six weeks later a sister ship of that company came
to Belfast and you called it The Beatles Slain Heart.
And you know, the crew said to us, did you hear about the
Annalene Heart? We said yes, the Annalene Heart
was here. We had a, a lovely time with the
crew, very grateful for that. They said no, but did you hear
about them? And what had happened was
whenever the Annalene Heart sailed from Belfast, it sailed
to one more port and then it sailed on.
And whenever that ship sailed on that ship sank with no
survivors, the place where we shared the gospel was under the
sea. And we've seen pictures of the
Titanic under the sea. Annalene Heart was under the
sea. We didn't realise when we were
speaking to that crew that those men would perish in the sea a
few weeks later. We had no idea.
We were talking literally to dying men.
And you know, we have to consider we have to consider
that if this meeting house was the Annalene Heart tonight and
it was about to sink, where would your soul be in eternity?
Prepare to meet thy God. Are you ready?
We thank God we had the
privilege to tell that crew one more time.
Maybe the last message they ever heard was the one that we shared
about salvation. And you know, it breaks our
hearts. But you hear about the Reverend
John Harper on the Titanic high that whenever the men and women
were perishing around him when the Titanic sank and how that he
drifted from one person to the next and said believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved.
The desire of our hearts would be that the men who heard the
gospel on the Annalene heart when their Co crew were
perishing around them, that they were crying out to the men.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved.
There's only one way to heaven and Jesus is the way, the truth
and the life. No man can come to the Father
but by him. Men are perishing around us.
Nobody knows what a day may bring forth.
Again. We didn't realise when we were
sharing the gospel that that would be the last message many
of them would have heard. Well, nearly a year passed and
another sister ship of that company came to Belfast called
the Angelian Heart, and out of the Sea of Brown Faces we saw
one man, and it was Roman, and he was one of the men who lifted
the vodka glass and did that while the others were praying.
Remember, when it sailed from Belfast, it went to one more
port and then it sailed on. Roman signed off on that port
and went home. And I can tell you that whenever
the gospel was shared on the Angelian Heart, that Roman gave
his heart to the Lord, he got through.
He came to know the Lord as his Saviour.
The Lord saved his soul. And we have a photograph of him
in the Annalean heart and we have a photograph of him on the
other ship. And the two are such a contrast.
You can see the work of grace even in his face.
So we're very grateful for the, the, the opportunity we had to
share the gospel. And there is an urgency for
salvation, not thyself of tomorrow, for no man knows what
a day may bring forth. And you know, just to bring you
up to date, the last three years of my life has been the most
difficult. You would think if you're a
widowed at 23, that would be hard.
But you know, the last three years has been the greatest
burdens of all. I thought it was going to sink
myself, to be honest. And life can be very
overwhelming. And just to put it in context, I
never imagined that my own daughter Laura, remember, I
wrote only the one me girl. I never imagined that Laura
would lose her husband at 39 years of age, that my own one
daughter would be a widow so young with four children.
Christopher Stalford was well known in the province.
He was he was a public figure. And our mourning would have been
very, very public out in the open.
It was really a hard time for our family.
And I remember when Christopher died that Laura came to my home.
She lived with me for a year after Christopher went to be
with the Lord. And she lined up the children on
the settee and she sat on the coffee table.
And the day, the morning that Christopher died, she just said
to the children, your daddy has gone to be with the Lord.
The youngest was 5. And I remember Cameron looked at
our faces and he said these words.
I think we I think we should pray.
Isn't it wonderful that even in the times of greatest sorrow,
the Lord shows you the answer for your need.
In the darkest of sorrow, the only person we can turn to is
the Lord. And even that we child knew
where our hope was built based upon.
And you know, the Bible says in Psalm 61 and verse 2, when my
heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
And if you're feeling overwhelmed, and I've known what
that has been like, there's a course that says, because he
lives, I can face tomorrow. Sometimes you don't know if
you're going to be able to face the next moment.
Life can be that difficult. Life can be that heavy, the
burdens can be heavy, but you know when your heart is
overwhelmed within you, lead me to the rock that is higher than
I and I would exhort you believers, just shelter yourself
in his loving arms and his loving wings.
Doesn't it say in Psalm 91 and verse four that we can shelter
beneath his feathers and under his wings?
We can have that console, that console for for our very hearts.
The burdens are left to the Calvary.
I can only point you to the one that's helped me and brought me
through every situation. When I walk us through the fire,
Thy shalt not be burned. Remember the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness. You know, it's when you begin to
praise the Lord in the darkest times, in the darkest times that
he is glorified. And we can glorify the Lord in
our hard times. And I want to encourage you
tonight, if you're unsaved, prepare to meet the Lord.
You don't know what a day may bring forth for the backslider.
I thank God my mum was restored to Himself, and he loves you,
and he waits with open arms to receive you unto himself.
And one more thing, remember the the verse that I got whenever I
was 23 that the Lord had nowhere to lay his head on this
occasion, whenever the burdens were heavy.
Again, the Lord reminded me of the beloved disciple.
Where did John lay his head? He laid his head in the loving
arms of the loving Saviour, and he rested in the sovereignty of
God. And if you're struggling tonight
with questions and burdens, leave it with the Lord and thank
God for what you have and follow hard after him and do the will
of God. Sinner, this is your hour of
decision. What will you do with Jesus?
Will you come to him now? Backslider, come to Christ, be
restored, and he will replace the years that the locusts have
eaten. Thank you.