Thursday 14 May 2015

A very special verse

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. - 1 John 5:13

It was Tuesday 12 February 1974. I found myself in a basement classroom of the Widener College library in a Bible study. I didn’t know it yet, but everything was about to change.

I had more or less grown up in church. The first church I remember well was a Methodist church near the intersection of Jordan Lane and Bob Wallace in Huntsville, Alabama. I remember going to a summer Bible club in the mid-60s. I never really lost interest but by the time I was 18 I had more or less kept God on the fringes. When I broke my neck in the summer of 1973 I did have many weeks to lay in bed and think about things.

But when I went off to university in the autumn I sort of forgot about it. They was away from home and free to live as I felt I wanted. It didn’t take long for me to see the emptiness of that kind of life.

So on that February morning a few months later I saw a paper on the ground and picked it up to bin it. It announced a Bible study held in the library on Tuesday nights and having nothing to do I went.

The faculty member leading the study was talking about love and we were studying 1 John. I was intrigued, but soon my eyes fell across 1 John 5.13 and the words ‘that you might know.’ I had thought about eternal life, and even prayed a prayer, but I didn’t know about my eternal fate. That not knowing troubled me so I asked Christ to forgive my sins and give me eternal life. And, to make a long story short – now I know. I know based on what God says that my eternity is secure because of what Christ has done for me.

So thank God for this very special verse that gives me the ability to know that no matter what else happens my eternity is safe and sorted.

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