It was on 1st July, we baptized Kotesh, and welcomed him into our church membership. We praise God for His goodness in saving Kotesh. He came to the gospel meetings that took place before we inaugurated the church building. The following is his testimony.
Kotesh was born in a nominal Christian family. Right from the beginning, Kotesh was not interested in religion at all. His life centered around his friends, entertainment, and alcohol. He would work hard throughout the day, but would spend it all on alcohol. One day he came home drunk. It was late at night and upon his arrival, he saw that the television was on. It was a Christian video playing at the time and he saw some pictures of Jesus Christ being crucified on the cross. Later on, he began to experience immense remorse within his soul. There was a deep frustration within himself. He began to pray within himself,
“Lord! If you died and shed your blood for me, then why am I ruining my life?”
He hated the kind of life he was living, and he desperately wanted to get out of it.
Around the same time, one of his closest friends suddenly died. Startled by this tragic incident, he began to ask himself some deep questions about the brevity, purpose, and meaning of life. It was during that time, we were inaugurating our church building. We did this by conducting a series of gospel meetings for three days. Various speakers preached the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. His sister, who was converted about a year ago, had become one of our church members. She encouraged him to attend the church. He attended all the meetings, heard the gospel, and yet kept coming to church.
Even though many people attended the meetings, we didn’t see any tangible evidence of God’s converting power for many months. How we praise God as we discovered God’s glorious work that He performed by His Spirit in the life of this young man. Through his baptism, we welcomed him into our membership.
As I ponder the way in which God has rescued him from eternal destruction, I cannot stop praising Him for His eternal plan of salvation, and for His unending love towards the elect. Why would God choose an aimless young man who was addicted to alcohol in a remote town in India? What reason could there have been to lavish His love upon him? Why would He chase him down through these various incidents in his life in order to bring him to repentance and spiritual enlightenment? Is it not for His love, His glory, and the display of His unmerited grace? How appropriate it is that we remind ourselves of the words of the apostle Paul when he says,
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”
Rom 11:33
Please continue to pray for him that he may grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that he would be a bold witness to many.
In Christ,
Sandeep K.
