At the Beach

“We’ve got your back,” was written on the back of his upper garment.

Both of us were sitting in a coffee shop not far from each other, he eating his meal and I was drinking my coffee.

When he finished his meal I asked the man about the meaning of “We’ve got your back”. I wanted to make sure that I was on the right track.

I cannot remember his exact words, but he said something like, “Someone looking out for you like Jesus.”

That was my first meeting with that gentleman, and what a surprise it was to hear his answer.

And this is what I remember from the conversation that followed. For some time he was standing, but eventually he sat down.

I must have asked him if he knew the Lord Jesus Christ. He told me that he believed that there is a creator God and that he did not believe in evolution.

I told him that God is holy and that we are sinners. That’s why the Lord Jesus Christ died for us. We need the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to stand before God.

When I asked if he goes to church at all his answer was that he was born a Catholic.

The rest of our conversation centered  around the work he is doing and that the rich become richer and the poorer become poorer.

Unfortunately I did not finish our conversation telling him that the Lord Jesus Christ is not only watching out for me, but that he is also my heavenly Father and that I am his child.

“Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that if will never begin,” says Grace Hanson.

Many, or I should rather say that most people live, but have never really started to live. And most people don’t even know about it.

You probably ask now, “How do you know that and how can you make such a statement.

The reason why I know that is, that I have experienced that myself.

Until I was almost nineteen years of age I thought I was living, but it was not really living.

I was not lacking money, because I had a good job; in fact I was so to speak climbing up the ladder in my job. I used to stay with my mother at that time and I was well looked after and my hobby was at that time building my own radios. I had a great time doing that.

THAILAND: Missionaries at work.

Picture / Alan Collingwood

But at the end of 1958 I started really to live. I became a Christian by being born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. What is the new birth? The new birth is the door to salvation and to heaven. I passed from darkness to light, I had a second birthday and began a new life. The Bible became alive for me, I read books about missionaries, went to Bible school, applied to a Missionary Society, and went to Thailand to work there as a missionary.

You begin to live really when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into your life. When that happens you don’t need to be afraid any more that your life will end, because you have eternal life and that means that you live forever.

ROSES: Watch out, roses have a prickly stem.

“YOU ARE MY REFUGE IN THE DAY OF DISASTER.” – Jeremiah 17:17