Chapter 1 5th Entry

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 5th Entry

During my final year at school, sport was still far more important to me than what the classroom attempted to offer. In fact on occasion I would choose not to attend class and bunk school. Obviously with this attitude my academic results for our midyear exams were appalling. With an overall average of 28% and with only two pass marks, the likelihood of me passing that year was in doubt. In fact my family and friends had written me off with no possibility of passing my final school year. I had also been lured by my mother and in her kindness she had promised me a car on passing matric (Final school year). In her mind the Escort (motor vehicle) was safe. My dad then asked me a question, “Will you pass, Tyrone? As everyone is saying you are going to fail”. I casually answered him, “Obviously, dad!” He turned and gazed at me and simply said, “Then I believe you.” That is not the retort I had expected and it stopped me in my tracks. From that day, I knew I had to pass! I did not want to be proven a liar. The irony of it all, was I have already shown you that I am a liar and I did lie to get myself out of sticky situations, why then did I use “my word” to fuel my motivation, all I can say is that sin is a great deceiver and it will not rest until the father of lies, the Devil is cast into the lake of fire, only then will restoration on the earth from this evil be conquered, for a time at least, One thousand years to be precise. Sure souls are being saved as the Lord Jesus has conquered the devil but sin still continues to tugs at all, with Satan its ring leader. Pride was now my ally and I was going to use him to my advantage, do not think because we achieve certain goals in life that God will accepts us, He will only ever receive us in and through His Son. If I find myself looking for justification before God by the good I supposedly do outside the finished work of Calvary, then I am in danger of hell fire! The bible teaches this very plainly! Salvation can and will only ever be found in Jesus Christ and in no other!

“Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:40)

Let us make sure then that we call on the Lord Jesus so that we may be saved, do not assume that because you search the Scriptures as the chosen of God (seed of Abraham according to the flesh) and live by the law that you will find redemption, or because as far back as you can remember you have had a form of religion and proved it by going to church and you followed some sacraments. Maybe you think philosophy will give you a key to heaven, you will be wrong! Hell will be your destination and not eternal life; this is not simply my opinion, it is what we are taught through scripture.

“Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man can come unto God the Father but by me.””

Because I had made a simple statement like, “Obviously dad” I was not going to be proved wrong, I had a perfect opportunity to now make all the gainsayers eat their words. I knew I had to pass! I called on those who could all help me; I even called on Juks (John), a good friend of mine and today is also a brother in Christ, how gracious God has been to me throughout life, even some of my friends who I grew up with had been called and now confess Jesus as Lord. He was studying Civil Engineering and I needed his help in Maths and Science. I kept putting his help off; it was the usual story when it came to studies as I left my preparation to the night before both my science and maths exams. He could not believe how little I actually knew. Nevertheless I passed both exams. Others were there to help me get through my additional exams. I ended up passing my final exams, and passing my final year. I had achieved my objective and nonchalantly looked over at my dad and in front of the some of the doubters said, “I told you so!” It was no longer Mr Liar, but now Mr Proud and both traits sin before God.

During that year I would often miss school to roam or ride the streets on my Kawasaki KDX 175, but never missed rugby practice. One day when absent from school, my coach, a little worried, felt the need to phone my mother. The conversation went something like this; “hi there, why is Tyrone not at school?” my mother’s reply was, “I don’t know”. He then surprisingly said, “I don’t mind that he is absent, but please ensure that he makes rugby practice this afternoon”. My mother found that hard to believe and which mother wouldn’t. That’s how it was for me that year, as long as I made rugby practice, then all was well with my rugby coach and I would get away with countless infractions.

After many eliminating Transvaal rugby week trials and with only one more game to go before final selections, a couple of us from Greenside High were among the remaining number. The day before the game, I was on my motorbike on the way to school and weaving through peak hour traffic when a car changed lanes in front of me without warning. My right ankle ended up wedged between that car and my bike. Somehow, by the grace of God I managed to keep the bike upright. If I had fallen, the chance of me finishing up under a car wheel was probable. Another close encounter! The result of this accident left me watching the trails from the sideline. I had mixed feeling; I was sad that I could not prove to the dubious selects that I deserved to be there on the one hand but on the other I can clearly remember being relieved, as I would now be able to enjoy my well deserved holiday instead of the possibility of playing in the Craven schoolboys’ week, two weeks of rugby that selected the South African squad. The fact that I might have missed out on a good time in Plettenberg bay mattered more to me just then than the potential of achieving heights in the sports field that had driven me all my life. Sins clutches were now even more evident in my life than ever before, the shift had happened, “party, party and party” was now more important to me than ever before. School life had now run its course and I was still amazingly breathing.

However, what I did forget to mention was another life threatening encounter when I was just 5 years old. I was told this story by my mother; I cannot remember any of it but will endeavour to relay the account as she passed it on to me. My mother and I was visiting auntie Petah, a friend of hers that lived in Bryanston, they had a pool in their garden with a fence around it, they were inside and I had somehow got into the garden with the pool in sight. I was out of danger as the pool was fenced, or so they thought! I managed to somehow build a ladder with the garden furniture and scale the fence. Whether the armbands were carried by me into the pool area or whether they were lying alongside the pool, I cannot say, but what I can say is I understood what they were used for. However, I thought that by putting them on my legs I would be able to walk on water, well obviously the obvious happen, I stepped off the edge and onto the water and over I turned with no one in sight, I flipped upside down with my feet the only breech to the water. Petah felt an impulse to look out the window and saw my bobbing feet, I am told she somehow vaulted the fence and came to my rescue. Again and again accounts of God’s grace looking out for me prior to salvation. Once again another near death experience and yet I type on a keyboard some forty years later. I trust you will by now begin to get the idea that my God is ever gracious and that is why I love Him. Time after time and I haven’t even started to give an account of my saved life as a Christian, yes the mind does boggle and will boggle even more as I further unpack my journey through life.