Pastor Cliff Harden's Testimony:
One Sunday morning, in 1949, while seated on the front pew of the First Baptist Church of Eunice, NM, I, as a 6-year-old boy, realized that if I were to die at that moment I would not be able to live with Jesus in Heaven. I did not want that. I knew, from Bro. Calhoun's message that day, and from what my parents had taught me, that I needed to receive Jesus into my heart. So I stepped forward that morning and took my Pastor's hand and told him I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart. I confessed that I was a sinner (as I understood as a child) and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart and save me. AND HE DID! The next week I followed my Lord in “Believers Baptism.”
When I was 14 years old, I knew that God was calling me into the ministry. I surrendered my life to Him to serve Him in whatever capacity and wherever He chose. My sophomore year in high school (1959), the Lord placed me in His service as the Music Director for the Lea County Associational Youth Rally. The next year (1960) He led me to the First Baptist Church of Monument, New Mexico as their Music and Youth Director. During the past fifty-nine years, I have served our LORD in His Ministry by teaching, preaching, and singing the Gospel message…and will continue to “press on” in His service until He calls me home.
CONCLUSION: I Wish To Conclude With A Few Verses Of Scripture That Have Come To Mean A Lot To Me.
(Psalms 30:1-5)
30 I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me.
3 O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol;
You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.
4 Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name.
5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
(Phil 1:6)
6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus
(Phil 3:13-14)
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
