|
Author
|
Topic: My praise to God for deliverance and salvation!
|
Wendy F.
Community Member
Member # 513
|
posted
Jim,
I'm glad you posted your story. I found it very moving and powerful. It has made me stop, think and re-evaluate my life.
God Bless You
Wendy
--------------------
Wendy F.
>')))>><
Posts: 11 | From: Minnesota | Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged | 
|
|
melody
Community Member
Member # 1132
|
posted
What a poerful testimony, Jim.
Truly the Lord is working in your life. He has a plan for you, and he will indeed great and mighty works through you. He will supply you with good things that you never knew, existed.
Yes, he is a living God!.
Melody
Posts: 20 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
|
|
Jim
New Member
Member # 1121
|
posted
Here is at least a little bit of my praise to God for my deliverance and salvation. It is only through Him that I have a better life today, and I am very very grateful. I am also very sure that this little box I am writing in could not possibly contain all the words I need to write and to explain fully how much I love God.
First, let me say, at one time in my life not long ago, I must tell you that I was deep in sin. A miserable man, using drugs and alcohol to try to crush the torment stirring within. Years before, I had heard the words of Christ, and for whatever reason, I went the other way.
One day not long ago, on a road trip across the state of Tennessee I had stopped at a rest area to stetch my legs, and get something to drink. As I was just about to leave the facilities, I overheard two older women discussing the town of Clayton, Georgia and pointing to a map on the wall. It caught my attention because that was where I was going, or at least sort of nearby.
I stopped for a moment and asked these ladies if I could help them out. I am glad that I did, because boy oh boy, were they going to the wrong place! When they pointed to the map, they showed me where they thought they should go, but they were pointing to Clayton COUNTY Georgia, and that was the city of Atlanta! The city of Clayton, Georgia where they wanted to go was over a hundred miles from Atlanta, and being late in the day, it would have not been good to find that out later on.
They seemed to be nice ladies, and I really felt like helping them out. I spent probably fifteen or twenty minutes showing them the map of the western part of North Carolina and the certain roads they could take to get right to Clayton, Georgia from where we were in Tennessee.
When I was done, and their map had little pencil marks encircling proper intersections and state highway numbers, I turned to leave. As I was getting ready to go, one of the ladies exclaimed how I had truly been a light to their path. She wanted to say thank you, and then in the course of events she asked me if I was a Christian. I looked at the ground in shame, because it had been lots of years since I had been in church, I said a half-hearted "yes", and then told them I hadn't been to church for many years.
Then they told me who they were. They said they were two Christian missionaries headed to a church in Clayton, Georgia were there was some work of the Lord that they were to do when they got there. They told me that God had used me that day to guide them on the right path down the road. Then, we parted and they told me they would be praying for me.
I got back into my pickup truck and started to drive eastbound toward North Carolina on Interstate 40. There was a joy in my heart that I had not felt for many many years. I felt the joy of the Lord. I had been a servant, I had helped some folks, and then to top it all off, these folks were God's people on their way to do God's work. God did indeed use me at that very moment and in return, he shined his light into my heart and made me to see that there was a much better path than the one I had chosen to take for my life.
It was in my truck, as I was rolling down Interstate 40 across the beautiful state of Tennessee that I took the time to pray to God. I prayed that he would forgive me of my sins, and that he would live in my heart again. I had quite a conversation with the Lord as I drove down the freeway. I remembered a verse in the Bible that said "restore unto me the joy of my salvation". I prayed that way to God, too. I felt his joy and I wanted more of it.
It wasn't very long and their came another rest area along the Interstate. There was something I now needed to do, and I drove right in and did what I needed. I went in to the first stall in the bathroom and I flushed the dope I had in my pocket right down the camode. On my way out of that place, I took the drug paraphenalia out of my pockets and I threw it all into a dumpster. From that day I have been freed and delivered from that evil habit and I got to tell you folks, I am really glad!!
Along with the drugs came guns and dangerously violent things. It wasn't long after I was saved that God showed me that I didn't need an AK-47, nor did I need 4,000+ rounds of ammo anymore. I didn't need double-bladed knives of all kinds, and a whole list of military surplus gear. I borrowed a little push-cart my mom had gotten at a garage sale for ten dollars and went to a gun show with all these things. I made about three trips back and forth from my truck to the show pulling the little cart. The folks at the front gate had a good snicker or two, but I didn't care, I even joked right along with them. It must have been quite a sight for a man to be bringing in the amount of stuff I was in a little rickety ten-dollar push-cart! Well, I sold every last bit of angry stuff to licensed gun dealers who were working tables at the show. All this stuff had put $1,400 in my pocket. I was really glad, because I had been driving home across Tennessee because I had lost my job, and a year later, I still haven't gotten another one like it.
I believe Christ is a peaceful man. Because I now have a peace that I have never had and he lives in my heart for sure! There are warriors in the world, but I am not one of them. I owned weapons like that because I was afraid. I was always just afraid. Add to that the paranoia these drugs were making me feel, wow. When God saved me, in the course of these events, I learned a scripture: "no weapon formed against me shall prosper". I didn't need to fear anymore.
Also, God solved one of my biggest justifications and delemas of returning to church. I needed a church that would love a guy with a pony tail down to his waist, who didn't own a bunch of fancy clothes, who's best pair of pants at the time were probably heavily worn Wal-Mart brand blue jeans, and God came through for me. He sent me to an old mountain church up in the hills of North Carolina, where I could start to get grounded and rooted in his word again. I started to go to church every Sunday, and I really liked going to the Sunday school class, because it was one of the kind that let's people share as they learn.
Now, God has blessed me with a job as an office temp. Go figure! I collected unemployment money for as long as I could, and I tried very hard to get back into my vocation, but every door closed, and every avenue came up short from my old contacts. When my unemployment benefits ran out, I just had to look for work wherever I could find work.
I prayed for God to help me find a job, and as I was looking for work, a lot of the places I looked had it written somewhere on the application that they did drug screening and such prior to employment. That didn't scare me anymore because I was free from the drugs. However, from one pretty respectable place that I had put in an application at, I heard they took a hair sample for their drug test. Through that, I realized that the three-foot pony tail of hair had to go. Inside of the hair molecules somewhere on my scalp to the ends of my hair, there was evidencce that I had once lived in a shameful way. Somewhere along the way in a Bible study, it was read about the vow of the Nazarite. I can't remember where it was just this second, but I'm sure it was in the old testament. One of the ways for a man to show that he was consecrated to God was to cut off his hair. And that is just what I did. My hair is now neat and trimmed above my ears. God cleaned me right up, and showed me why he needed to do it...I think that's pretty cool.
I want to tell you that God loved me just the way I was. Long hair, addicted to drugs and alcohol, sometimes I didn't even shave for days at a time. I needed God in my life so bad!!! I am so glad that the Savior I love is not a respecter of persons!
I want you all to know what worked on me so that you can share the same thing with the folks around you. It was the light of God's Spirit that eminated out of those two ladies at that rest area. It was the love of God that I saw on their faces. It was the joy of the Lord that we shared, and they shared with me without restraint, it was their WITNESS that brought me to Christ. It was God who saved me, and no man, and I am sitting here, living, breathing proof that God does indeed live. My Savior and the principles that he gave us to live by in his Holy Word are true, and just, and a worthy road map to walk. It is because those two ladies were walking the right road that I could see the difference in my life, and through it all, I was saved by the grace of God and through faith in my blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I would encouarge any man or woman who has a burden for lost souls, to just make sure you are walking the right path at all times in your life, because you just never know when God will use that very thing to show his glory through you to a person in need of his grace. I am convinced that your witness and your faithfulness to the things of God are what God will use the most to draw the lost to himself. Think up all the fancy one-liners to give folks you want...shove this at them, or that at them...but man...just live it front of them, and they can not in any way deny!!!!! Got a hurting teen you are wanting to bring to Christ? Live it, and they will come. Know somebody who is lost? Live it, and they will repent. You can give people tracts, you can try to give them bibles, you can do all kinds of things to get their attention, but when you live it, they will come. When the chips are down, and you cling to God when they think you will give up and you don't, that's what makes a difference. When temptations of gossip and backbiting and all forms of stuff like that are presented to you as temptations, acknowlegde that junk for what it is, live it, and people will be drawn to Christ. People are watching!! And I just got to say, that the folks who are the most non-compromising Christians are the folks people will turn to when they are standing on the brink.
A whole new life is ahead of me. Sin and the wages of sin poured out to me a burden of pain that I could not bear. I lost my wife, my family, and all my property through a lifestyle of sin and shame. Today as I write, I can't wait for March 31st to get here, because I'm going to enroll in a community college and get a degree. What a difference!! Everyday that I walk, all my needs are met. And let me tell you this:
The week before last I was absolutely out of money, man, I mean I was almost broke. I don't have a bank account on earth, but I guess I do in heaven. I was going to rush home so that I could get to the mailbox and get my payroll check from the office temp place, then rush down and cash my check. As I was walking out to my truck, I looked on the ground, and there was a five dollar bill. There was no way to return it to the place where it had fallen because I was in an empty parking lot. How would I know where to take it? So, I praised God, and thanked God for leaving money in my path. I thought about the scripture that says "I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." I knew what God wanted me to do...he wanted me to just relax, and drive back home at a comfortable speed. I could have raced right back home, broke the speed limit and all that stuff, but God was showing me a better way.
When I got home, I checked the mail, and guess what? No check after all. For some reason, this week's payroll check was a day late. But my loving Lord and Savior, for all I know, had an angel drop five bucks in my path, just so I could get to work the next day. My truck's fuel gauge was on the lowest part of "E" in a big way, and I could not have gone to work without that five bucks. I believe in the same way, he will meet my needs for as long as I live on this earth in this here body.
One day, I'm not gonna be in this body anymore, and if you ask me how do I know I'm going to heaven,....oh, I wish you would. Because I could tell you at one time, I was definitely going to hell real quick with the life I was once living. I'd like to show anybody who wants to ask me, some scriptures that promise me an eternal home with my Lord and Savior, Holy Spirit and Father. Oh, praise the name of God!!!!!! In His father's house are many mansions, and he's went up there to heaven ahead of me, and has a place all prepared.
"Father, help us all to praise you, and to testify in your name. Draw people to you as we live in your righteousness and the witness of your Spirit in us shows through with spiritual fruit. Amen"
This is what the world needs to see in the lives of the believers:
Galations 5:22-23 "(v22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (v23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
Jim ![[Lighthouse]](graemlins/lighthouse.gif)
Posts: 5 | From: Michigan | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
|
|
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
