Testimony of Leslie Land (from Mack Tomlinson Author of In Light of Eternity)

[ Leslie Land (1903-1986) one of the closest friends of Martyn Lloyd-Jones in England. Both of them pastored in England at the same time, and while Lloyd-Jones became known world-wide, Land was virtually unknown all his life outside his own small circle of influence. But they shared an intimate friendship and fellowship between them. – Mack T. ]

In 1949, Leslie Land, speaking on why everyone is not a Christian believer, expressed his testimony about becoming a Christian. Speaking of the church he attended, he said–

“I could ‘hear and hear’ gospel sermons, perhaps preached with the very heart-blood and passion of a consecrated preacher, but I still could gaily persist in withholding my heart, the yielding of which would have involved a radical revolution in my pitiable self-centered existence.

But the time came–I cannot tell you the day or the hour–I cannot relate a crisis or give an exciting testimony–the time came when Jesus ‘came alive’ and real to me. I heard the gospel message, really heard it, listened to it with my whole being, and gave my God-aroused imagination to it. I felt–I still do feel my heart beat a little faster whenever I hear or preach the gospel of the redeeming love of God in Jesus Christ. ‘All within me leaps to greet Thee’ . . . I looked and looked, and now I saw Calvary as the place where my sin and my self-centered life were crucified and put away forever . . . I shall never forget the sight! And I shall go on telling, in different ways and in different expressions, this saving, dynamic, explosive love of God in Jesus Christ, in the hope and the simple faith that every time I tell it, backed up by the prayers of a praying people, someone here or there, by the impact of God’s Spirit, will be stirred out of their ease and complacency in sin.

What was it, you say, that held me back so long? Oh, it was self-centeredness, so entombed in my ego-centered outlook and sin, fooling around in the basement of life.“

– Leslie Land
A Prayer of Leslie Land for Personal Renewal and Usefulness

“We thank you, Lord, for saving us. We thank you for warning us and telling us what to expect. Now come to our hearts afresh. May we be found among those who love your appearing and are ever on our Father’s business. Send us out with a holy desire to live more for the things that matter, and to expend less thought and energy on the things that are rapidly passing away.

“So shed abroad your love in our hearts, that we might be able to breathe this prayer, and dare to say, ‘Even so, come Lord Jesus, come and cleanse us; come and sanctify us; come and make us whole, that we might be ready for you to come. For Jesus’ sake’.”

HT: http://jeremybstrang.com