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tom bentleyTom Bentley - His personal story about how he was saved as a boy and then called into missionary service.  He now serves in the Lord's work in Malaysia.
Eric Crowe ~ Phoenix, Arizona Print E-mail

I was born into a Christian family that loved me and prayed for me. At times, I struggled with parents who made me listen as they read the Bible after dinner, while my friends were out playing. Now, I realize that being raised in that environment was a tremendous privilege. In that environment, I found out at a young age that I was a sinner and that I was going to hell.

 

As a boy, I became very interested in sports, especially hockey. My radio was always tuned to the Vancouver Canucks games and many nights I would listen until the end of the game. I found myself sitting in gospel meetings in my teens wondering what the score was.

 

Although there were many times in my early teens that I was concerned about getting saved, I always was able to get the thoughts out of my head. My parents were very concerned for me and they made every effort to take my younger brother and me to every special gospel meeting in Vancouver. One special gospel series lasted for 6 weeks and we traveled 30 miles into the city every night.

 

I graduated from high school and started attending University. Although I was more interested in school than the gospel, I still respected my parents and went to gospel meetings on Sunday evenings. Shortly after my first semester, I was upset to hear that a special series of gospel meetings was going to be held. I thought my parents were going to put pressure on me to attend. However, they respected my busy life and never put any pressure on me. One Friday night my unsaved friend asked me if I would come with him to the meetings. I reluctantly went and as I sat at the back of the auditorium something tweaked my interest and within a few days, I was attending nightly.

 

One night, the preacher talked about how he was convinced, when he got saved, that God was speaking to him for the last time. Suddenly, I thought of how many times God had spoken to me and I had rejected Him. I was convinced that night that if I passed by another opportunity, I would never get saved. I was determined that nothing was going to get in my way of salvation.

 

I put school on hold for the next week and sought after salvation. My engineering mind made me think there was something I had to figure out and do. However, after a miserable week, I gave up. As I sat on the floor beside my bed, I told God that I could not do anything and I would just have to go to hell. At that moment, I remembered the words of Colossians 2:14, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” I suddenly realized there was nothing I could do because the Lord Jesus had been nailed to the cross for my sin. There was nothing to work at or figure out, the work was already done. At that point, there was no struggling to believe. It was clear; I was lost and helpless, but Jesus died for me.

 

I thank God for speaking to my soul in those meetings. One year later, I found myself in a college dormitory where I witnessed first hand the power of sin. I am convinced that if I had not been saved, I would have succumbed to peer pressure and ended up in a life of sin. Thank God for the salvation of my soul and the salvation of my life!


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