The Way to Victory
As a young incumbent of a well-known evangelical community I attended my first revival conference at Abergele in 1951. My immediate reactions were noncommittal, but I could not help being impressed by the sense of life manifested by speakers and guests. As a “traditional” evangelical I had gone to the conference in a spirit of self-sufficiency, which as the week went on began to be revealed as an area of deep need, especially in the spheres of self-centeredness, independence, and pride. I saw my want in the personal testimonies of fellw ministers that unveiled my own heart. From college days smoking had taken hold of me as a means of reaching men. I then saw how futile it was, and before the conference ended I burned matches and tobacco in an Abergele copse and threw my pipe far over the trees. That and other things marked a major change in my life and ministry.
The following Sunday I dispensed with sermons and told the congregation what Jesus had done for me, and how that week I had learned the power of His blood as a present virtue to meet my needs when I continually repent of my sin and come in true humiliation to Him. After the evening service one of my leading churchmen said to me “I always knew I had a pastor; I now know I have a brother.”
The effect was greatly felt in my home relationships, for I now saw that if Christ is not dealing with us here, there can be little victory elsewhere. In this sphere I found I mush be open about myself to my wife and children, and be willing to take the blame in a sinner’s place. The Lord has taught us through the years that as we have repented toward each other we have found a unity and a life we had not known before.
That conference and those that followed have made my ministry, with all its failing, what it has been and given a love within the family that I would not at one time thought possible. Along with others I cannot thank God enough for teaching me the great truth that the way of victory is the way of brokenness by seeing Jesus and His blood.
By Arthur Bennett