TESTIMONY MONDAY – CATHERINE BROWN, CANADA


Each Monday, for a number of weeks, someone from around the world will be sharing the story of how they heard the gospel and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Our first contributor to the series is Catherine Brown from Canada.

Hello friends! Thanks for taking the time to read this blog! When Ruth asked me to contribute, my mind immediately started going down memory’s lane. I was born and brought up in a little town in northeast New Brunswick, Canada. I have many happy memories of childhood days, playing on the beach of the Chaleur Bay with my brother, baking cakes and cookies, growing vegetables in a little plot and continually losing myself in a good book. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada, and my family always spoke both French and English. The church we attended when I was growing up was French speaking. I later studied in Halifax, Nova Scotia and now live in Northern Ireland with my husband and four boys. Those happy childhood memories are re-lived over and over as I enjoy sharing those hobbies with my boys.

But the best memory is the night I got saved. And as a parent, the best thing I could hear from my boys is them telling me they have got saved.

Everyone likes a good story, especially when it involves a miraculous change to one’s life. I’ve heard and read many testimony stories over the years, telling how people from various walks of life came to find the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour. My story is very simple. And yet, what happened to me is every bit as miraculous as what happens to every sinner who gets saved. 

I was only 11 years of age, sitting in a regular Sunday night gospel meeting. I had had no thought of getting saved that particular night. Oh, I had always intended on getting saved, sometime. I couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t know I needed to be saved.

Friend, it’s not about how good or bad you are. None of us are born ready for heaven. None of us will make it to heaven unless we accept the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. 

Anyway, it was Sunday, 19th March 1995, and the speaker was telling his own story and how he had got saved years before on this date. His text was John 3:36:

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.

Except he was reading it in French, but it means the same thing. It doesn’t matter what language you speak or where you come from, the Gospel is God’s Good News for you.

Right there in that meeting, sitting next to my Mom, it suddenly struck me. I knew I wasn’t one of those who believed on the Son, I wasn’t saved. That left me in the group of those who didn’t believe, those who would not see or experience the life of heaven, but would end up experiencing the wrath of God in hell.

My mind was in turmoil, trying to figure this out. I knew I needed to be saved and the sooner the better, but could it be as simple as just believing? At the end of the meeting, everyone got up to leave, but I stayed in my seat. My Mom looked over and asked me what was wrong. She thought I was sick!

I just whispered, “I want to be saved!” She opened up my Bible and we read some verses together. Finally she turned to John 3:16:

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.

She asked me, “What does this verse say happens to those who believe?” I answered, “It says they won’t perish but have everlasting life.” And it just dawned on me, that’s it! It was for me, I’m in that verse, I’m the whosoever!! And I knew I was saved. I was now one of those who believed on the Son.

Friend, you’re maybe wondering where the miracle is in this. Don’t you see it? The Lord Jesus became my Saviour. Not just the Saviour of the world, but mine personally! And He wants to be your Saviour too. He wants you to see life, everlasting life, and He wants you to be sure of it. ‘Hath’ means you have it!

Being saved is about what the Lord Jesus has done for us on the cross. He is God’s perfect Son, who willingly came to earth, was born of Mary in that outside place in Bethlehem so long ago. He grew up in Nazareth, a perfect example of what man should be. He was the only one who could take the punishment for other people’s sins, because He had no sin of His own. Won’t you trust Him today and let Him take your sins away?

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