of the

Salvation Army

Pro Causa Optima (for the right reason)

You are here: Home | Personnel | Dorothy Neil | Testimony 05/09/2003

Have you ever seen the film Home Alone? It's about a young boy who accidentally gets left behind when the rest of his family go on holiday - He adapts to the situation he finds himself in, successfully fending for himself (including fighting off some burglars single handedly until his family return home to be reunited with him!)

A friend of mine gave me a book a few months ago entitled "Left Behind - A Story of the Last Days of Earth". This is the first in a series of books that tell the fictional story of a number of people before, during and after Christ takes all His people from Earth, to be with Him. You can see the similarities between this book and the film I mentioned above, the big difference between them is the film is a humorous look at a child taking care of himself and his home until his parents return for him, the book is far more thought provoking and from a personal point of view has made me think very deeply and truthfully about by faith and my beliefs.

Is my faith true and strong? Do I really put Christ first, myself last and others in between? Am I just going through the motions of being a Christian? These are just some of the questions I found I was asking myself and if I'm truthful about it, I wasn't convinced that if Christ came then and took all His people to be with Him, that I would have been included – I feared I may have been left behind! This certainly gave me a lot to think about!

Over the last year I have to be honest and say there have been several times when I could see few positives to anything that was happening in life. That in itself was half the problem, it was all "I couldn't….". i.e. At the times I most needed God, I had forgotten all about Him and tried to get by on my own. It was during one of the times when I felt at my lowest that I started reading the "Left Behind" book - I had previously put off reading it as I was looking for a lighter read! Thank goodness God kept telling me to pick it up and try reading it, it made me realise I needed to reprioritise a lot of things and to pray at the difficult times not just when everything was going well.

I have enhanced my Christian experience through re-evaluating where I am in my Christian life and taking steps to ensure I would not be left behind if Christ came today! Please take the time to do as I have done, and look inside yourself and change if you have to, to ensure you too would not be left behind. 

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
The New International Version - Anglicised, (London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.) 1984.

Web Site Link

If you want more information about about the Left Behind series of books, check out the following web site: www.leftbehind.com

Copyright © 2009 - 2010

Bellshill Salvation Army Band

All Rights Reserved