Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Example (07/25/13)
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TITLE: Pros and Cons of my Life | Previous Challenge Entry
By Colin Swann
07/29/13 -
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I always felt loved and cared for as a child and grew up with Dad partnering me in my hobbies and swanking off about me being the cock of the school at fighting and being centre forward for the school senior football team and that I had actually turned down a trial for our town's team!
I looked up to my elder brother in most things; he was particular about his dress and fastidious about cleaning his teeth. I took on the teeth cleaning but not his dress sense as I could not stand new clothes and was a member of the patch gang. To be a member you had to have a patch on the seat of your trousers. One time I tried my fighting prowess on my big brother and he 'tanned my hide', and I probably deserved it.
Being a bad example at school caused me to receive every form of punishment that was administered in our rough school: the cane, wraps on the knuckles with stiff rulers, slaps across the face, slippers across the backside and even a kick on my leg – all by teachers! I learnt late in life the importance of education, became a mature student, and eventually became qualified in a few different areas. It is never too late!
Mam suffered as a lass; she lost her mam when young and was then put into service as a maiden doing long hard chores. Her arms became strong like a man's but she was as gentle as a dove in demeanour. My big brother died when he was in his older teens and mam grieved as I have never seen anyone grieve. She had a kind heart and was a trophy of meekness, kindness and humility.
Losing my brother brought about, through various happenings and contacts, my conversion to the Lord Jesus, and the change that wrought in me caused my mam and dad to come to Christ too. Someone, who knew me from the past, asked an acquaintance how I was getting on; he also enquired if I was still swearing like a miner. I had stopped swearing after conversion.
Jesus made a big impact on me, changed the direction of my life, and started to alter my perception of things. For a few years I seeped myself, hour upon hour, in the Bible. So much so that when the Bible was read in church, I could quietly mouth it word for word to myself from memory.
The Lord called me to preach and I qualified in Methodist theology and became a minister in the Wesleyan Reform Church. Eventually, my wife and I decided that both our consciences were against the infant baptism that I was expected to conduct and because of my refusal I was asked to stand down from my office, which I did. However, all the churches that I preached at still called on me to minister in their places of worship on a personal level.
Later, God gave me a prophetic edge to my life and I was appointed to the office of prophet elder in our new church by the laying on of hands by the covering apostle and my fellow elders. People testify that God has used me to speak prophetically into their lives, sometimes when I have not even been aware of it.
Now, in the last chapter of my life I have to thank God: for the way he has led me, for the privilege of growing up in a loving family, for meeting the nicest lady on earth who I eventually married, for our lovely children he has allowed us to share with him, for wonderful friends that we have met in our travels and most of all for meeting Jesus and being able to walk with him all these years and how he's been the perfect example to follow all my born again days.
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Excellent testimony. Thank you.
God bless~