From the October-December 2007 Issue
Never lose sight of the greatness of God
Paulo and Cristina Nunes
Three testimonies from Portugal
By God’s grace I was born in a Christian home. At seven years of age, while attending Sunday School I had the desire to give my heart to Jesus, not being sure what that really meant. I know that only later on I began to understand the scope of the new life in Jesus, and to appreciate the joy of salvation.
I recall I was concerned to do good, in order not to be punished by God. Maybe because of that I thought I was a better person than my friends who did not go to church. Nevertheless, in spite of my efforts, I understood that it was easier to me to do wrong, even if I did not want to, than good. It was through this ‘fight’ that God in his grace worked in my life, granted me repentance and showed me my wretched condition. I can’t point out the day of my salvation; I understand it was a process worked in me by the same Saviour and Lord who transformed the life of Paul on the way to Damascus.
About eighteen months ago I began attending the church, finding again the pleasure of Christian fellowship and joy in hearing the preaching of God’s Word. (Before that I had been out of the country for two years.) God willing, I will be baptised soon . For some reason throughout the years I found many excuses to postpone this, but I have learned the best thing is to obey the commands of the Lord. He is my Lord and Saviour and I have to submit my life to His Word.
Change of priorities
I was not born in a Christian home, but I had the opportunity to attend Sunday School. My mother was a Christian but not my father, which caused many tensions in our family. I had some very good examples within my family, mainly my sister, who is six years older than me, and my uncles. Through them I began going to the Bible camps.
I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour at a Bible camp when I was six years old. I don’t recall much from that day, but I am aware that it was from the age of twelve that I started to have a better understanding of God’s Word and His salvation. At that time I had the desire to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
Early on I got involved in different church activities, youth and prayer meetings, singing and so on. Things were going well up to the end of my teens. Then a very complicated time began in my life. I had in me the desire to try the life of the world. My priorities changed. I thought I could find more happiness and joy in other ways and with other people. Even so I never stopped attending church. I might have known that only there was the true way. As I read a few weeks ago, today I know that in this world there is no real happiness, unless we live by God’s grace keeping his commands – not always easy. It’s a fight every day.
After many difficult times, many blessings, the most beautiful thing I have seen is God’s faithfulness. He has always been with me. He is there all the time. He does not change and fulfils his promises (Jeremiah 29:13).
‘God is the strength of my heart, And my heritage forever.’
Writing about my testimony as a Christian is a very hard task because it’s all about expressing a profoundly intimate and mysterious relationship, in which we are transformed and supported in a wonderful way.
In my life, one can identify two periods – before knowing God, and after knowing God. I was born in a non-Christian, extremely unstructured family. I went through some tough moments during childhood, which made me become an adult too soon. I always felt there was a God and that probably it was He who gave me strength and protected me. But the little contact I had with Catholicism, through my grandmother, didn’t give that many clues about who that God was that I felt was present in my life.
I quickly grew into adulthood and as I entered college. God sent someone to sit at my table, who would give me the ‘push’ I needed in order to know God in a more intimate way. This colleague and sister in Christ was in my course for only half a year and then her life took a different path, and I understood that her mission there was simply to show me the way and the truth.
So God started working in my heart, showing me what’s right, revealing His love, and in the hours of suffering it was He who would give me strength and knowledge to overcome fear, trauma and other feelings that tend to destroy us. I understood that the lower moments I went through were part of God’s great plan for preparing my heart to know Him and I know it was all meant to edify me. In this sometimes painful process, I learned to trust Him, the value of hope and gratitude, realising I wasn’t worthy of salvation. God has taught me to trust, to wait, to accept a ‘no’ and to leave anxiety behind.
Now, with a little more maturity, I know I have a long path in search of knowledge, but God makes a difference in my life because, whether in joyous times or sad ones, He is with me and gives me a more peaceful perspective on life. I’ve had great blessings and some pain, but God’s love has really transformed my heart, giving me safety and inner peace.
One of the biggest challenges in my life is to deal with the fact that my family doesn’t know God and I have the responsibility to be a good testimony. May God grant me wisdom to make a difference in the midst of those who are lost, as I myself was at one time.