Why I believe - Part 3

Having been brought up in the countryside and living on a farm I have experienced the wonder of nature and seen the miracle of many calves and lambs being born. As a child, the wonder of seeing a lamb take its first breath and within seconds shaking its head and after a few minutes standing on its feet and suckling, I had no trouble believing in a creator God. Walking around the farm seeing some of the trees, many of them hundreds of years old, reinforced that feeling.

My parents always took me to church and Sunday School and being a good listener, I learned much about the Christian faith. When I was 10 years of age I remember for the first time being aware of the actual reality of a living God. We were at a service at the Mustard Seed in Callington. A friend of mine, Andrew Rich from Altarnun, who was 11 at the time, spoke during the service of how he had given his life to Jesus. While he was speaking there was a compulsion within me to give my life to Jesus. I remember it was like God speaking to me in my mind, like a magnet attracting metal, I was being bought closer to God. After the service I told my Mum what had happened. She wasn’t sure what to make of it and said, “wait until you are older”. Years later, Mum experienced the same compulsion and during a time of crisis in her life she gave her life to Jesus and has never been the same since. Her unwavering faith has been an inspiration to many even now that she is in her nineties.

Since that time in the Mustard Seed more than forty years ago I have been privileged to sense the presence of God many times. There have been many times in my life when prayers haven’t been answered and life has taken a disappointing turn. Times when I could have doubted the existence of God. How can I, when so many times he has made me aware of his presence. There is no way I can explain that away.

If you have never been aware of God, I encourage you to say a prayer to him asking him to let you know that he is real. Let me assure you He loves to answer that prayer.

Poldark Series 4

One of the most prominent characters of this series is Ossie Whitworth, the evil Reverend! He uses a death bed confession to bring down Pascoe’s bank. This is part of a plan with George Warleggan to destroy Ross Poldark. He is a sexual predator and almost completely destroys his wife Morwenna by raping her. He has an affair with her sister Rowella, which is discovered by Rowella’s husband Arthur. He confronts Ossie in the woods, they fight, and Ossie gets caught in the stirrup of his saddle and is dragged to his death by his horse. A fitting end to a hideous character!

Down through the ages many terrible things have been done in the name of God and Christianity. It is surprising that the church has survived and indeed is flourishing worldwide. I am thankful that Jesus Christ is able to transform people and give them a new life and new hope.

Ross becomes an M.P. to make a difference to the ordinary working folk. Most of the time he does a good job, although he is frustrated by the amount of time it takes for change to happen, greed being the major obstacle to a fairer society. Monk Adderley M.P. is a great distraction to Ross. Monk is attracted to Demelza, Ross’s wife, who has no idea how to handle his advances. In the end Ross and Monk challenge each other to a duel at dawn. Ross is injured and Monk is killed. Having broken the law there is a real danger our hero will be stripped of his role and thrown into prison, but somehow once again he gets away with it.

What distracts you and me from our main purpose in life?

Poor old Elizabeth! George, who really loves her, has always been jealous of Ross’s affection for her. The fact that they had a brief affair and Valentine’s paternity has always been in question pushes her to get pregnant again. She thinks that if she has a similar eight-month pregnancy it will put George’s suspicions to rest once and for all! The potion that she takes hastens the birth but has dire consequences and she dies as a result of the poison.

Oh. If only she had done things differently. Now everyone is upset at her death.

In life we all have “if only” thoughts. Thank God that Jesus died to forgive us and free us from all of our regrets and mistakes.

Why I Believe - Part 2 - a miracle?

One of the five people in the car accident was a young sixteen year old called Sharon. From that point on she became my girl friend. I soon learned that she wasn’t well. Since she was twelve she had suffered from a rare liver disease. She had spent several weeks in hospital and was eventually taken to the Royal Free Hospital in London where she was under the top liver specialist in the world. The Doctors were able to stop the disease from getting worse but were not able to make her well. This meant she would suffer regular pain, be on a fat free diet, not be able to do any sporting activities and very often her skin would look yellow (jaundice).

I remember thinking, ‘is she wearing yellow makeup’? No, it was the effects of the liver disease. Sharon had some bad experiences of Christianity and wasn’t interested in church or God. I was getting more interested in Christianity and wanted to find out more. One night we both went to a service at Golberdon Methodist Church. During his talk the speaker said, “I thank God for the amazing work that doctors do but sometimes the doctors say, “I can’t do any more for you. Jesus can help you when no one else can”.

Sharon thought, well, let’s give Jesus a try. The speaker prayed for her but nothing seemed to happen, but over the next eighteen months the pain got less and less and she started to look better - no jaundice. It was at that point she was asked to go back to London for more tests. I went with her. When we were in the waiting room everyone else looked really ill but Sharon looked so well. When the test results came back to her G.P. he said he could not explain it, but the test showed that she no longer had the disease and that he did not need to see her any more.

That was over thirty years ago. Sharon has never had any problems with her liver since. We thank God often for this amazing blessing.