Happy 30th birthday to Rev Bob Akroyd, Moderator-Designate, who became a Christian 30 years ago today!
Bob, who hails from New Jersey, studied in Edinburgh for his PhD in the 1990s. It was here while listening to sermon tapes that he was converted.
He said: “I came to faith by listening to a cassette tape of Rev Douglas MacMillan preaching from Matthew 2.2. The main point of the sermon was not how much do you know about Jesus but rather what have you done with what you know. The priests and teachers knew a lot about the Messiah but they remained in Jerusalem. The wise men from the east by contrast knew very little but what they knew they acted upon – they went to Bethlehem and they worshipped the King. The text that day was, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Matt 2:2
“Since then I have found myself drawn repeatedly to the words of Paul in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
“The love of Jesus saved me and the love of Jesus continues to sustain and nurture me – through the good times and through the hardest of times. Jesus is a faithful and powerful saviour. If you do not yet know him, place your faith in him – he will never let you go and he will never let you down.”