MY CONVERSION AND CALL (81)

by Robert Plant (England)    

By its nature this must be a personal paper so, at the outset, we beg the reader’s forgiveness in the frequent use of the personal pronoun.

I was born during the early sixties in the village of Rochford just outside Southend-on-Sea in Essex. I have one sister, Anita, who is eighteen years my senior. My parents, although professing to be "Christian," knew nothing of salvation and hence the only occasions that would find me in a church building of any sort was for wedding and funerals. By the time I was old enough to remember anything of family life my sister had left home, and at the age of four my parents and I moved to Harrogate. There I soon made friends with a lad who lived opposite us and every weekend we would be found playing some form of sport: cricket, football, rugby, golf. The only time he was not available was on a Sunday morning when he attended the local Church of England Sunday School. I was invited to go and even encouraged by my parents, but five days of school was enough for me without going on Sunday as well, so I never did go; but the fact that he went has always stayed with me as being something rather unusual.

As I grew up my interest in cricket really took off and as a very young teenager I was selected to play for the Harrogate under sixteens’ and under eighteens' teams at the same time. As well as the cricket I also became interested in a country and western singer who had died a few months before I was born. He became my idol, I longed to be able to sing like him, but the Lord gave me a hopeless flat voice! During the next four or five years I amassed some eighty LPs and over 120 cassette tapes of this particular person. I also wrote all over the world to other fans as well as the singer’s widow in America. My parents also had season tickets to watch Leeds Rugby League Club who used to play every other Sunday at home; so needless to say I thought nothing of spending a Sunday afternoon among the ungodly crowd of the terraces. Truly Satan had filled my heart and mind with anything and everything to keep me from Christ. However the Lord had His purpose.

During this period I met Wesley Downs at school who was in the same year as myself, he had ‘accidentally’ been lowered a grade and put into my class. Everybody in the class knew that there was something different about Wesley but we were never really able to find out just what it was until his birthday, when we asked him what his parents had given him as a present. Without any hesitation he replied "a New Schofield Reference Bible." Sad to say in the mid seventies I had no real idea what a Bible was, never mind a Schofield Reference Bible! We discovered that Wesley was a Christian. Well, in fact, he wasn’t! He was brought up in a godly home, attended all the meetings in the local assembly, even told me how to be saved, but he wasn’t himself! How like so many young people today, having the most blessed privileges of being brought up in a Christian home and knowing the Gospel and the claims of Christ upon their never dying souls, yet not saved and still on the road to hell. It is good to relate that Wesley did get saved a year or so later and this renewed his desire to tell me the Gospel. It came to such a point that to keep him quiet I said "Alright I believe it all, everything in the Bible except the bit at the beginning about Adam and Eve. It has been categorically proved that we came from monkeys!" I really thought that would have him stumped, but his reply was direct and simple, "Prove it, where’s the evidence, how do you know, were you there when it happened?" I had never thought of any of those things for I was only repeating what I had heard so often in the media. After four years of testimony we were coming up to the ‘O’ Level exams. We both knew that we would be going our separate ways once these were completed so Wesley asked his father, "What can I do about Robert, he just doesn’t seem interested in salvation." His father’s reply was very wise, "If you want to see God open a door you must first shut a door and pray earnestly about the matter." That was what Wesley and his family did. Whilst they were praying God was working.

Alongside my bed there was a pile of books from Radio Bible Class. Wesley had passed them on every month and I just added them to the pile unopened. One month before the exams in May 1981 I had a night where I just was not able to sleep. I tossed and turned until a brilliant idea came into my mind. "Read one of the booklets Wesley has given you, that will surely get you off to sleep." I picked up the first book "Heaven our eternal home." It spoke of Heaven and what it was like, what was there and what was not there. I read all thirty-two pages straight off and never even felt sleepy. At the end of reading it I knew two things; Heaven was real and my sin would keep me out of it. I picked up the next title "Heaven and how to get there." Just what a poor lost anxious hell bound soul required. It explained from the book of Romans three vital things "Man’s Ruin," 3.23; "God’s Remedy," 5.8; "Man’s Responsibility," 10.9. Having read this right through I knew the way of salvation and God spoke to my soul once again. This time under deep conviction I got out of bed and down on to my knees and prayed properly for the first time in my life. What a night that was when God in mercy looked upon me in all my lost ruined condition, showed me His Son upon Golgotha’s tree and saved my soul. That little patch of carpet in my parents back bedroom is the most precious place on earth to me.

Well now I was saved, what next? I had never been taught anything about separation, had never been to a meeting, but realised that the cricket and its various practise nights plus weekend games and the kind of life that went with it were not in keeping with the life of a Christian, so I gave it up. Shortly after I was saved I went to the Rugby League match as usual on the Sunday afternoon. I immediately knew that this was not a place where Christians ought to be. I made up my mind before the Lord that from now on the Sunday (although it wasn’t until later that I learned it was the Lord’s day) was for God alone. At a later date I also sorted out my record collection having heard ministry on worldliness that covered music and especially country and western music! Wesley’s father Mr. Stephen Downs took me under his wing and in fact I was almost adopted into the ‘Downs’ family for the ensuing years, being able to see what a Christ honouring home should be like where Christ and the Scriptures were everything. I was taught something of the beauty and preciousness of Christ to the believer, how to study the Bible and the great truths of the local assembly. In November of the same year I decided to ask for baptism having been convicted about this matter for a good period of time. I made up my mind to speak to the elders at the Gospel Hall in Harrogate on a Monday night after a ministry meeting with the late Jack Hunter. That night Mr. Hunter stood up and said "I am aware that I have indicated that I would be speaking from Nehemiah during the week but all day I have been exercised to talk on the subject of believers' baptism!" I could have fallen through the floor. He had seven points none of which I can remember although I tried very hard thinking the elders would ask what they all were when I met with them. Needless to say I was able to relate my salvation to them and the seven points were not even raised. I was baptised later that month and for the first time my parents were in the Gospel Hall. In January of 1982 I was received into fellowship at the assembly in Harrogate.

The first time that I ever felt that God may be speaking to me about His service was about five years after being saved and this took place at a ministry meeting in Leeds being taken by our late brother Bill Craig. He spoke on Matt.24 but took the passage out of its context to speak on the Lord’s return to the air and what were we doing in the light of it to reach the lost. Later the same year whilst attending the New Year conference meetings in Harley Street, Scotland, I heard Ian Rees of Botswana speaking on a verse from the Proverbs, "My son give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my ways." How that short message spoke to my soul. Many other events occurred in subsequent years far too numerous to mention. In November 1988 whilst living in South Wales, I was attending a series of meetings being taken by Albert Leckie in Nantgarw. On the Thursday morning I was contacted at work and told that Mr. Leckie had been called home. That night I told the Lord that I could never be what Mr. Leckie had been but I would do whatever He desired of my life.

In 1990 another homecall spoke possibly even more forcibly and vividly to me. I had spent some time working in Scotland and had good fellowship with the saints at the Mayfield assembly. Hence I got to know Robert McPheat and he greatly helped and encouraged me in the things of the Lord. Perhaps, Wesley’s father apart, he had the greatest influence upon my life. What a man of God he was. In July of that year he was called home. I remember telephoning one of the elders in Mayfield to confirm that the news was true, he said to me, "God calls His servants home but He raises up others to carry on His work." I determined then that if that was what the Lord wanted me to do I would do it.

During 1992 and 1993 the company for whom I worked, as a safety manager was desirous to send me on various courses in order to gain further qualifications. I had put them off as long as I felt I could and it seemed during this time every conference or ministry meeting that I attended was on the same subject, i.e. going out and working for the Lord. My daily Bible readings continuously seemed to support this exercise. I just could not get away from the call of God. Also at this time the number of meetings that I was being asked to take far outweighed the number of holidays that I was permitted to have. Something had to go.

I had also been praying for a year about a particular young lady in Lancashire called Karen. I had met her on several occasions and judged that she was a good spiritual girl with a deep love for the Lord, His Word and work. The Lord very graciously brought us together and we were married in April 1994.

The year prior to our marriage I had met with my elder brethren on a number of occasions both collectively and individually to put my exercise before them. After much prayer, in September 1993, the assembly at Harrogate gave me the right hand of fellowship and commended me to the Lord’s service. We acknowledge our own nothingness and worthlessness before Christ, continually marvelling that the Lord ever saved us let alone called us. He alone is faithful and has never let us down in any way despite our often lack of faith. We look back and say with the Psalmist "The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad."