Alan Bowen’s testimony

Q:

Alan you have been a member of the church at Ogmore-by-Sea now for 12 years. You serve as a Deacon, attend 2 services each Sunday and regularly attend mid-week bible study and prayer meeting. Is it due to this that you gain favour with God?

Alan:

To answer that question I need to go back 13 years. In many ways my life was in a mess and I had no real concern for Church or Christianity but as I look back now I do know that I was searching for the meaning of life.

Q:

So what was it that caused you to come to church?

Alan:

It all began one day when I was about my business and was approached by a person who gave me a leaflet that referred to a particular bible passage. Reading the passage affected me in a way that I had never experienced before.

Q:

That must have been a remarkable passage. What did it say and exactly how did it affect you?

Alan:

The passage was Matthew chapter 7 and verses 1-5:

“Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Jesus speaks about the hypocrite who can only find fault in others but never in himself. I suddenly realised that I was the hypocrite that He spoke of. I could so easily see all of the wrong in others but never in myself. The words of Jesus penetrated my very being! I could not get the words out of my mind.

Q:

So what did you do about it?

Alan:

Soon after this a Christian that I knew gave me a book about the life of a great Welsh Preacher; Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones. The way that he taught about the person of Jesus was so very clear. He seemed to have a real relationship with Jesus Christ that I found to be most compelling.

He spoke of Jesus being God’s Son who loved me, died for me and rose from the dead in order that people just like me can be saved.

This caused me to want to read the bible where I read about the “good news” of Jesus Christ. As I read the bible it was so real to me that it was as if somebody was writing personal letters to me. As I read on and responded to what I had read I began to be more and more at peace with God, myself and others.

The bible teaches that we have all sinned and by this have offended God. But if we come to Him truly sorry for our sin and hypocrisy then He is faithful and just and forgives all who come to Him in such away.

One particular day Id did just that, the bible word for it is repentance. I repented and was saved.

Q:

So now you are a Christian. How does that affect your life?

Alan:

I was recently asked this question; my answer to them was simply “I am now COMPLETE!” What I meant by that is: I am still the same Alan; I just simply love God through Jesus Christ. Life has its ups and downs but I know that I can rely on Him not to make me healthy and wealthy but to be able to live honestly before Him and amongst family and friends also.