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A TESTIMONY
At the age of ten I made
a personal decision for Jesus Christ, accepting Him as my Saviour who died for
my sins. At the age of eleven, I preached my first sermon in our family kitchen
and my text was "What think ye of Christ?", which I changed to "What know ye of
Christ?" and answered, "I know He is my Saviour."
But the text goes on to
ask, "WHOSE SON IS HE?", and in my high school years which followed, I had to
grapple with the question of Christ's deity. About that time I came across an
INSCRIPTION from a Christian tomb in the Catacombs in which four words circle
around a central cross in the form of the letter X and read 'LUX, DUX, LEX,
REX." They were descriptions in Latin, of Jesus Christ.
LUX - CHRIST AS LIGHT. In the next years of University study, Christ became the
LIGHT of Knowledge for me. From 1944-1968 I sat university exams almost every
year - about two hundred-degree finals for eight degrees, and in all this Christ
was the Light of all my seeing. Meanwhile, careers in preaching and teaching
opened up to me and in all this I knew His leading.
DUX - CHRIST AS LEADER. From a dairy farm, to a Government office, to a Baptist
pulpit, to a Lecturer's desk, to a Principal's chair. In all this, He has led me
thus far by His grace.
Then there has been LIVING. The teaching of Jesus is not only doctrine to answer
intellectual questions, but laws for living.
LEX -CHRIST AS LAW-GIVER. Quite early I discovered and tried to live by the
Sermon on the Mount - the second mile, the other cheek, concern for the
neighbour, and purity, peacemaking and abstinence. I spent at least one month
each year preaching to my congregation on CHRIST'S LAWS FOR SOCIETY - as they
affected capital and labour, apartheid, nuclear weapons, and every day life in
the world.
I became a student and teacher of COMPARATIVE RELIGION and had to face the
question of rivals of Jesus Christ in other religions. For reasons too numerous
to give, I concluded that Christ was Lord. If Buddha and Krishna are called
`lords', then Christ must be called "LORD OF LORDS." This was what the first
Christians decided in their own world full of other lords. For them, Christ was
a
REX - CHRIST THE KING. They called Him, "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." And
that is what He was for me.
CHRIST for me is LUX, DUX, LEX, REX - the Lord of my Light, my Leader, my
Lawgiver, and LORD OF ALL LORDS.
Let me commend to you the ancient prayer:
"O Thou who art the Light of the minds that know Thee,
The Life of the souls that love Thee
And the Strength of the wills that serve Thee,
Help us to know Thee that we may truly love Thee,
So to love Thee that we may fully serve Thee,
Whom to serve is perfect freedom."
See also:
“All my life I
hear him calling”
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