Blanche’s Testimony

I believed in God from my early childhood and I knew that He had answered my prayers for help. However, it was not until I was 23 that I truly came to know Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.

My husband and I were invited to this church (Halford House) and at first found it strange coming to church in a house (the premises do not ‘look’ like a traditional church)! We’d both previously been part of the Church of England but we were looking for something more than nominal Christianity … What impressed us at Halford House was the people – we felt they lived Christianity in a way we had not seen before and we were drawn to come back.

One Sunday evening a few weeks later, the leader of the church was preaching about receiving Jesus into our lives. He said “I can describe a room to you, the colour, the furniture and the furnishings … but you cannot experience that room unless you go into it”. I realised that I hadn’t experienced ‘that room’. As we were travelling home with two others from Halford House, they were discussing their Christmas presents. One had been given some make-up but said she couldn’t wear it. My question was “why not, is it a sin?” Her reply was that she felt that the Lord didn’t want her to wear it. This annoyed me and when I got home and was washing up at my kitchen sink, I prayed “God, what’s wrong with make-up?” Somehow, deep down in my heart there was a small voice that said “Could you give this up for Me?” It was not the response I had expected, but I felt that it was God answering me.

At the time, I was working in Mayfair for a Cinema Company and it was quite a challenge to go to work without my usual make-up. My boss was away, which helped … but someone in the office asked me if I was “giving my face a rest?” By Wednesday, my boss came back and his first words were “My Dear, you look dreadful – you can’t work in my office looking like that!” He was half joking but it hurt all the same. I fled to the ladies’ toilet and shed a few tears, but somehow I had a joy inside. I dried my eyes, returned to the office and tried to explain to my boss what had happened … to which he said that it was just a phase and I would get over it. By Thursday I really thought it must have just been a figure of my imagination. I told my husband that I was going to forget the whole thing and start putting make-up on again the next day. However, on the Friday morning when I went to the mirror to put it on, I just could not do it. Something had changed in me and I knew it didn’t matter to me any more – what mattered so much more was following Jesus and that he had truly come into my life.

During that week a small phrase from the Bible had been running through my mind: Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16v24). It was the first time in my life that I can remember denying myself anything! There is nothing wrong as such with putting on makeup, but this was the way God chose to show Himself to me and challenge me about putting Him first in my life.

That evening, my husband and I went to a meeting at Halford House and when I told the leader what had happened, he explained that I’d been “born again” (John 3v3). When my husband was asked if he also wanted Jesus in his life, he said that he did … even though he hadn’t given up his make-up! The leader explained the he only had to ask God to forgive his sins and to come into his life and He would. He didn’t feel he wanted to do that there and then but would go home and consider it. Once home, we knelt together and he did exactly that: He was a changed man from that day onwards.