Testimony Monday – Marjorie Boyd, Scotland

Each Monday, for a number of weeks, someone from around the world shares the story of how they heard the gospel and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. This week’s contributor is Marjorie Boyd, who was born and lived most of her life in Scotland. She is currently residing in Northern Ireland.

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I had not the great privilege of a Christian home or saved parents: Oh yes, we were brought up to attend Sunday School and Church, where, sad to say, we never once heard the Gospel Message preached. As was customary, I left school and then pleased myself. While I was at Secondary School, around the early age of 12, I was greatly honoured with a sweet, Christian lady as a teacher. How thankful I am for her Christ-like manner before me then. She left indelible prints on at least one scholar. She made me want to be good, my young mind thinking that’s what made a Christian. I was sadly mistaken; I have since discovered that it is not being good that makes one a Christian, but being a Christian helps to make one a lot better than they previously were. I experienced like the Apostle Paul, “when I would do good, evil is present with me.”

A SPORTSWOMAN

I had always a great love for sport of any kind and took, above all, a keen interest in football. It started off with kicking a ‘tanner ball’ around at the back of the houses, then becoming fairly good at that and getting on to a pitch with a full-sized football. Before I knew where I was, only into my teens, a man came to my mother’s door and asked if I could go to Shotts for a trial game with the local Ladies’ Football Team. I duly signed for the ‘Shotts Ladies’ Football Club, Limited’, and there I was, just a ‘shaver’ being acclaimed as quite somebody! A wise man said, and said truly, “Pride is an abomination to the flesh.” I did enjoy the actual football of those days, but oh! the associations! Just a young girl, by far younger than my associates, but ‘flung in’ at the deepest depth of worldliness.

Years were spent linked with this company, always still with that desire in my heart that I really wanted to be ‘good’, although accomplishing little or nothing. I eventually turned to religion and religious affairs, without any success, only going down further. At the age of 17, fully steeped in the ways of an ungodly world, now an ardent football fan, travelling anywhere to watch my particular team play. I joined the ‘Orange Order’, still without satisfaction to my soul. Trying another such ‘Order’, I was initiated into the ‘Eastern Star’, then the ‘Order of the White Shrine’, and so it went on; seldom in the house, late hours, drinking, gambling, dancing, picture halls. Sin, Sin, SIN. Praise God, He said, “Thus far – NO further!” The prodigal spent his all, came to an end of himself and then…

I often try to figure out, in the light of my own sins, how Paul could claim to be the ‘chief of sinners’. He must have sunk to a terrible depth! I came face to face with the sad realisation of my sin and guilt, being choked with it and dragged down surely. But oh! the grace and love our God has for those who turn a wearied heart to Him, a sin-sick soul looking Heavenward. There was no maybe with God, nothing apart from a straightforward “Come unto Me and I will give you rest.” How I needed that REST!

A WORKMATE

A faithful Christian workmate pleaded many times with me to accompany her to a Gospel meeting and to please her I went along one evening. I quite enjoyed it and was not a little impressed, but made a definite decision not to return to any such gatherings. However, on being coaxed again and with a desire deep down to go, I went, this time to a Gospel Hall, and there, my first time inside such a Hall, I heard for the second time within a few days the precious truths of the Gospel, how God in His great love for such a one as I, one who had reached so low, had made it possible for me to get on to speaking terms with Him, a gracious, loving Heavenly Father, through the shed blood of His only well-beloved Son, Jesus.

I was then bordering 20, still young, but with many dreadful sins behind me, but that great love of God came in that night and dawned on my soul: He changed me from a sinner to a saint, turned me off the broad road with so many enjoyable pleasures which are only for a season, to that straight and narrow way which will one day lead me into the very presence of the Christ who died for my sins. What an insight the writer had when he wrote:

Preserved by Jesus when

My feet made haste to hell.

And there should I have gone,

But He did all things well.

His love was great, His mercy free,

Which from the pit delivered me!

John Kent

Surely my lot was that ‘pit’, surely my just portion was that ‘hell’, but just as sure, the ‘love’ and ‘mercy’ freely lavished on me has fitted me for a place with Him for all eternity, and that a timeless eternity.

Dear reader, very soon God will call me to that land where no calendar hangs, no clock ticks, no waters ebb or flow and no sun rises or sets. It is not only a land without time, but a land without sin! Have you such a prospect? Have you such a Saviour? While God will never force you to trust His Son for your eternal salvation, He will hold you responsible should you reject His offer of mercy when He says, “Come unto Me.” The choice is yours, be wise and trust Christ.

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