I grew up always going to “church” and learning about the Bible. My parents were both Christians who believed that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, just like the Bible says. We were taught that the Bible was God’s word and I always did believe that, but I had no interest in it personally and I did my best to avoid it.

Looking back God was definitely watching over me, as there were many times that if things had changed slightly, I would not be here. Many of these times were vehicle related and once stands out and actually scared me at the time. I was on my motorcycle, riding with a friend, passing everything in sight. At one point I was passing on a blind hill at roughly 3 times the speed limit and i knew if I met something, I would be dead. Right after, I remember thanking God for keeping me safe, but an hour later I had forgotten all about God again.

To make a long story short, when I was 18 I became interested in the woman that is now my wife and she was a “Christian” which simply means a follower of Christ (Jesus), the same as my parents were. Any time I thought of her, it forced me to think about the things that I knew the Bible said.

On August 24, 2016 I was faced with a verse from the Bible that says:

Romans 3:23 (KJV)
[23] For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

And then in a few chapters:

Romans 6:23 (KJV)
[23] For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I knew that I had done some bad things but I never thought that they were against God. After reading those verses I realized that my “sins” were against God since he was the one who said not to do them, and I also realized that based on the Bible I deserved to be punished by God for what I had done. Then it hit me that when Jesus died on the Cross, he was punished for my sin. And if he was punished then I didn’t have to be.

John 3:16
[16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I’m a simple guy, I live a simple life but based on the Bible I know that when this life is done I’ll be in Heaven, that’s what eternal life means. My brains aren’t going to get me there, my money isn’t getting me there, the pope isn’t going to get me there and my parents can’t do anything for me either. Jesus died for my sins and that is all the Bible says that I need. I believe it. The Bible says “whoever believes” so that tells me that anyone can go to Heaven and that’s why I’m sharing this. I know where I’m going and you can know too.

“The wages for my sin is death, but Jesus died for me”
August 24, 2016

The Following Audio is taken from a Gospel Meeting on 2024-08-04

My story begins in Summerside, PEI, Canada, where I was born on April 10, 1990. My family home is in Milo, PEI, where I was raised well by Christian parents along with two brothers and one sister. My parents were a dedicated part of the assembly of Christians that met regularly in the Springfield Gospel Hall. As a child, we learned many verses by heart and they have stayed with us until now.

Romans 5:6 KJV
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 3:23 KJV
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

I was a hyper child and very sneaky at times, proving that I was naturally a sinner, but that I constantly committed sin as well. Many times I got in trouble at home and at school for my bad and disruptive behavior. Sometimes I felt disconnected from others in different areas of life, and this produced a resentment towards people at times. Because of the biblical teaching at home and at the Gospel Hall, I knew I could be saved from my sin, and wanted that for myself from time to time.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 KJV
[1] Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth …

At least twice during my childhood years I “tried to get saved.” The time I remember most was on April 1, 2003, when I thought I had believed and was saved. Following that time, I tried to live the Christian life, by reading the Bible(about 5 chapters a day for approximately a year) and praying to God.

I soon grew tired of that and eventually stopped.

Preserved in Jesus when
My feet made haste to hell;
And there should I have gone,
But thou dost all things well;
Thy love was great, thy mercy free,
Which from the pit delivered me.

“Indulgent God, how kind” Verse 3 – John Kent

The teenage years were filled with many changes in my belief and in my actions. I met a few friends and started getting around with them, and becoming like them. I decided that maybe there was no God, so there’s no need to worry about the Bible. I got into watching a lot of movies, staying up late at night to pursue that kind of entertainment. After I got my first car, I sped all over West Prince for three weeks until my driving habits caught up to me and I crashed into a power pole. God miraculously preserved me and I walked away from the crash with a sore thumb.

But since I still lived at home, I respectfully went to the meetings with my family, never once that I remember pushing back against it. After I graduated from high school, I started working with Trevor Burden in construction. There was one experience I will never forget, a morning in the late fall of 2009, when we were on our way to work in Victoria West. There was a voice spoke in my head, saying, “Timmy, you are a sinner and you deserve to be in Hell.”

Needless to say, that turned my little world upside down, and from that point on I knew I needed salvation more than anything else. In the following year, I faithfully attended three series of special meetings in Rosebank, Freetown, and Springfield.

One preacher that stands out is Peter Ramsay, who during the meetings in Rosebank brought me a coffee to work on a cold winter morning, and spoke kindly to me.

In November of 2010, I spent many evenings asking God to show me how to be saved. I was starting to lose hope, until one night, 8:30 pm on November 28 to be exact, as the believers sang a hymn, they came to the words, “Trust Him with all thine heart,” I did just that, and immediately had peace in my soul.

Gospel Hymn Book 141: Out of Christ

Out of Christ, without a Saviour,
O! can it, can it be
Like a ship without a rudder,
On a wild and stormy sea!

(Chorus)
O! to be without a Saviour;
With no hope or refuge nigh;
Can it be, O blessed Saviour
One without Thee dares to die!

Out of Christ, without a Saviour,
Lonely and dark the way;
With no light, no hope in Jesus,
Making bright the cheerless day.

Out of Christ, without a Saviour,
No help nor refuge nigh;
How can you, O careless sinner,
Dare to live, or dare to die?

Out of Christ, without a Saviour,
Dark will the voyage be;
Clouds will gather, storms surround you,
O! to Christ for refuge flee!

Out of Christ, without a Saviour,
Trust Him with all thine heart,
Ere the door of mercy closes,
And you hear His word, “Depart.”

At first I wasn’t sure if it was real, but I had a new joy in my heart that was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Over the next couple days, I was assured by God’s word that it was really what I had been longing for all along.

Romans 10:9 NASB
[9] that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Since that time, I have obeyed the Lord Jesus in being baptized and joining the local assembly fellowship, and serving Him in my own weak and faltering way.

I have disappointed my Saviour many times, but He has never disappointed me.

I was saved when I was 6 years old, in the summer of 2002 when Murray McCandless and Robert McIlwaine were having tent meetings in Unionvale. I don’t remember much about the meetings at all, or much surrounding that time, but I remember for a span of several days (maybe a couple weeks?), in the night just before bed, I would get really scared and troubled.

The thought of going into my room alone for the night terrified me, and I was so scared that the Lord would come and I would be left behind. Each night it would be the same thing- I would be just about to go to bed and I would tell my parents that I was scared that the Lord would come and I couldn’t get to sleep.

I’m not sure how many nights this went on for, but finally, when both myself and my parents were at our whit’s end with all this, Mom told me that there was nothing that any of us could do, it is only the Lord who can save. She told me I would have to ask the Lord to save me, and then she shut the door. I remember being so terrified in that moment after she shut the door, feeling so hopeless and scared.

I thought on the words and finally cried out and asked the Lord to save me, thinking of the verse:

Romans 10:13 KJV
[13] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

(I had no clue where that verse was found until a good many years later haha) In that moment I realized in my simple mind that I was without strength and it was only the Lord that could save me. I fell right to sleep after that, and when I woke up the next morning I can still remember the brightness of the room and remembering first thing that I was now saved!

In the months and years following that, I struggled with so many doubts, that left me unsettled and scared of the Lord’s coming at times, being unsure if I believed right, or if I was too young and simple in my thinking. I’ll tell you, if I wasn’t saved that first night, I got “saved” (assurance of salvation 😉) about a dozen or more times since! Every time, after exhausting myself with doubts, tears and questions, I would finally end up at the same conclusion: all that I have to count on to get to heaven is the God’s word and the Finished work that the Lord Jesus did to pay for my salvation.

1 John 5:12-13 NKJV
[12] He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
[13] These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

I grew up in a Christian home where the Bible was read and we were prayed for every day. The Bible and God’s assembly were top priority in our home whether us as kids liked it or not. We went to every assembly meeting in the little gospel hall in Springfield West and gospel meetings within ~30 min drive.

I will make a point to mention that all of this ‘church’ going and scriptural activities, as beneficial as it is, did nothing to make us right with God or more fit for Heaven. From a young age I understood clearly that I was a sinner and that I could not go to Heaven in my sins. Around those years the second coming of the Lord Jesus to take the Christians home to heaven, otherwise termed the ‘rapture,’ was preached about frequently.

When I was 7 years old I began to be very concerned about the rapture happening and me being left behind to die in my sins. I knew that my opportunity to be saved would be over once the rapture happened. Many nights I lay awake for hours worrying that the rapture would happen and often I would go upstairs and listen at Mom and Dad’s door to hear their breathing. The devil would then give me a false sense of security so that I could go back to bed and get some rest but little did I realize that the Lord could have come as soon as I got back in bed.

This went on for several months that I recall and occasionally my parents, usually Mom, would sit up with me and read verses to me and share their testimony as well. Different times Mom would share stories to explain the principle of Jesus as my substitute paying for my sins and other aspects of salvation as well. Some nights I would cry myself to sleep for fear of going to Hell.

Sunday, Dec 1, 1996, at the age of 8, we went to meeting as usual and at Sunday school I got the weekly ‘Messages of God’s Love’ children’s paper. I didn’t read it in the afternoon or on the way home like I usually did but instead started to read it while sitting in gospel meeting that evening. Mom and Dad told me to put it away and listen to the preaching but I don’t remember what was preached about.

That night after getting in bed I took it out and began reading it again. It told a story of a boy who’s mother was baking with squares of unsweetened chocolate/cocoa and the boy saw them and wanted so badly to have some. He didn’t know how they would be bitter instead of sweet. When his mother was out of the kitchen for a moment he took a few squares and went to his favourite spot out in the yard and proceeded to eat one. He didn’t get very far into one when he realized it was not sweet and delicious as he had anticipated. He then proceeded to hide the remains so his mother would not find out he had stolen them.

Later on his mother asked him about the missing squares and he lied and said he hadn’t taken them but a little while later she found them. At this point in the paper it started talking about sin and how God knows all our sins and Numbers 32:23 was quoted:

Numbers 32:23 KJV
[23] … be sure your sin will find you out.

Right then and there I realized that God knows all my sins and that because of my sin I would just have to go to Hell, and that that’s all I deserved. God had brought me to a point of despair and I knew that he would be righteous to send me to Hell and that on my own I had no hope.

The MOST WONDERFUL realization came with the next verse that was quoted:

1 John 1:7 KJV
[7] … the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

I simply realized that that’s why Jesus died on Calvary, was to cleanse me from my sins so I would not have go to Hell. I am so thankful for that day I can look back to and for God’s word he has given me to assure me that I am saved, because I know that relying on my own abilities and good deeds I would have failed and lost my salvation, I have failed him many times.

Praise God, His promises are eternal and he says in John 10:27-29:

John 10:27-29 KJV
[27] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
[28] And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
[29] My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

What peace there is in knowing Christ as my Saviour, Heaven as my home!

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home 😊. We went to church twice every Sunday, prayer meeting Wednesday nights, had prayer circle every morning, and nightly devotions. As such, I never questioned the reality of God. I just didn’t realize I needed to be saved. My salvation story is pretty simple really…

We always had “Sunday afternoon rest time” in our rooms when we were young. I remember just sitting on my bed, looking out the window at the robins going by and thinking about what they talked about in Sunday school that day. I remember realizing for the first time that I was on my way to Hell, but also that the price had already been paid for my sins, and all I had to do was accept it. So I did 😊.

I prayed, thanking Jesus for dying on the cross for me, and asking him to forgive me for my sins (the church I grew up in, although it is supposed to be “non-denominational,” is pretty much Baptist, so the sinner’s prayer is commonly taught). I remember feeling such a sense of relief and excitement, and went upstairs to tell my parents 😊. I have no clue how old I was, or what day I was saved, I’ve asked my parents, but they didn’t keep track of it either.

When I first met Marcus, and everyone in the assembly seemed to have such clear, detailed salvation stories, that used to bother me and make me have doubts! Then one night, Scott McLeod talked about salvation being like an elevator. All you have to do is get in, and trust God to take care of the rest! And that gave me assurance that the details don’t matter to God.

It’s nothing that “I” do, or have done, but has everything to do with what He has done. He paid my dept at Calvary, I know I’m “in the elevator,” and trusting God to take care of the rest 😊.

When I was 8 my mom was saved and after that we always went to Sunday school and gospel meetings. My dad died when I was 4 but thankfully he was saved We had no car but we only lived two houses from the hall. I tried to get saved for many years. I was scared of the Lords coming which was preached often in those days. Many nights I would go to mom’s room and see if she was there and go back to my bed relieved that He hadn’t come yet. Another thing I feared was that the Lord would stop striving with me. As I got older, about 13, many of my second cousins also went to gospel meeting so because of pride we didn’t want to appear concerned.

I spent many hours reading, trying to believe but in my heart there was no repentance, I felt I was better than my friends who drank or smoked…

On November 11, 1973 mom and I (I was 15 ) went to Avonport conference with Lionel and Mackie Cress. That night Mr. Bingham and Arnold Gratton spoke. I don’t remember what was said but I knew I was going to hell. I told Mr. Bingham on the way out that I wanted to be saved. Mr. Gratton spoke to me, It was so dark. He read many verses, then he read John 3:36.

John 3:36 KJV
[36] He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

I thought “I’m in the second part of that verse and I don’t know how to believe” It seemed that the wrath of God was hanging over my head. Then it dawned on me that’s why Christ died so I wouldn’t have to be in hell, I told Mr. Gratton and we got on our knees and He prayed. I felt such relief and rest. I remember getting up the next morning being so thrilled that I was finally saved.

A few months later two older preachers were having meetings in Clementsvale and they came up to visit one day when mom wasn’t home. They asked if I was saved and I told them trembling ( as I was very scared of most preachers) how I got saved. They said that’s not how you get saved.

So for many months I was very confused, and searching the bible. One night I told the Lord I need this settled tonight. I read for a long time then in Isaiah 53:6 the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The Lord gave me assurance that I was saved and He has been my Heavenly Father for many years now. It’s thrilling just to tell it again, How good is the God we adore!