HOW THE REBELLIOUS SUNDAY SCHOOL PUPIL CAME TO CHRIST:
Rev. Gordon Dane's testimony
I didn't want to hear the gospel and
so became disruptive in the class and tried to make a noise and stand
on the seat and do all I could to stop hearing the word of God.
I came to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour when I was
about twelve years of age in August 1971. I had been brought up in a
Methodist family and was sent to a Methodist Sunday School. There I
remember one Sunday School teacher in particular who told me that I
needed to be saved but at that time the Minister in the Methodist
Church in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh was very ecumenical and
modernistic in his preaching.
Although my father was not a Christian at this time, he did attend
Church every Sunday morning and he knew enough about the gospel to be
dissatisfied with the way things were going in the Methodist Church. He
started going along to Free Presbyterian meetings particularly those in
what was then Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church. There was a mission
conducted by Rev. John Douglas. My Father realised that he was a sinner
and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. From that he started
attending the Free Presbyterian Church. We were brought to the Sunday
School in that church a few times and then it came to be that we were
going to the Methodist Sunday School and then we were being brought to
the Free Presbyterian Sunday School. My mother at this time was deeply
opposed to the fact that my father had left the Methodist Church. But
my father eventually came to the point where he gave us the choice as
to whether we would go to the Methodist or the Free Presbyterian Sunday
School. My brother and I were not saved but we recognised that there
was a spirit of life and vitality about the Free Presbyterian Church
and so we chose to go there. At that time there was a real move of the
Spirit of God and souls were being saved regularly.
As time went on then we continued in the Sunday School but in 1971 I
had a Sunday School teacher by the name of Eric Lucy who had a
particular burden for me. He used to talk to me personally after the
class and give me gospel leaflets to read. I began to realise that I
was a sinner and needed to be saved. I also came under conviction of
sin in the services. As a result I completely rebelled. I didn't want
to hear the gospel and so became disruptive in the class and tried to
make a noise and stand on the seat and do all I could to stop hearing
the word of God. I also would not read anything I was given. But the
Spirit of God strove on with me and one night in my own bedroom I could
resist no longer and asked the Lord to take away my sin and be my
Saviour.
I was too shy to say that I had done anything but it was not long
before my Sunday school teacher recognised a change in me. It only took
a week or so before he asked "Gordon, have you asked the Lord to save
you?" I said that I had. The Bible says that "if any man be in Christ
he is a new creature, old things are passed away behold all things are
become new." A person who is truly saved is "Born Again" He leaves the
old way of sin and seeks to live as a Christian should.
I went through School where I was blessed with good Christian friends
and went to University in Birmingham and got a job as a trainee Housing
manager with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. When I was at
university I felt the prompting to go into the ministry but dismissed
it as home sickness. But when I got a job, it was not long before the
Spirit of God began to deal with me again. As I read the Bible, many
verses began to speak to me about the need for me to go into the Lord's
work. So I applied to the Presbytery of our church and was accepted for
training. I was placed by Presbytery in 1984 in the new Aughnacloy Free
Presbyterian church and after finishing College I was ordained as the
first ordained minister there. In 1991 I received the call to Coragarry
church (Co. Monaghan) and then later on to our Crossgar congregation.
The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful wife, Florence and three
children, Faith, James and Ruth all of whom know Christ as their
Saviour.
I would recommend my Saviour to you if you do not know Him. Only Christ can give you real joy and peace of conscience.
Gordon Dane