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---
layout: default
title: Testimonies
---
<div class="container">
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<h3>Testimonies</h3>
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<div class="col-8">
<h3>How I Became a Follower of Jesus Christ</h3>
<br>
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<div class="container">
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<a href="testimonies.html">'K'</a><br>
<a href="testimony1.html">Cilla</a><br>
<a href="testimony2.html">Charlotte Willa Morrison</a><br>
<a href="testimony3.html">Dan, also known as Toesy</a><br>
<a href="testimony4.html">God's child</a><br>
<a href="testimony5.html">Kayte</a><br>
<a href="testimony6.html">Sarah</a><br>
<a href="testimony7.html">Jake</a><br>
<a href="testimony8.html">Tom</a><br>
<a href="testimony9.html">Follower</a><br>
<a href="testimony10.html">James, who trusted in Christ whilst in prison</a><br>
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<div class="col-8">
<p>It seems that I had everything that anyone could ever want. I am married to a wonderful woman, have three very special children, live in a comfortable neighborhood, own my own business. I was successful by most anyone’s yardstick. I was in complete control of my life.</p>
<p>On the outside everything looked good, but on the inside there was pain, even torture, living with me every day. My business was failing, in part because I was simply tired of it, and in part because I used it as an escape from life. I would cover up the day in/day out issues and hope that they would go away, because I just didn’t care. My marriage and family were falling apart, for the very same reasons. I would use work as an excuse to evade my responsibilities at home. Lying to customers, covering up, and hiding became a way of life. Lying to my family was so easy, and regular, that I stopped even realizing I was doing it. It became the norm.</p>
<p>I developed several addictions and habits that I couldn’t break, no matter what I tried. Rather than seeking help, I tried to hide all of my problems from everyone, and became a master at it. I became an alcoholic. True to form, I hid this addiction also. It became easy to ignore my family, because I was drunk. If I wasn’t, I could excuse myself off to work and once again ignore them. I didn’t do this because I didn’t love them. I couldn’t explain why I always needed something more, rather than being satisfied with what I had. Deception became such a part of my life, a game if you will, that it began to rule me. The "game" became my only enjoyment in life. My wife actually prayed for her father to be strong enough to take her out of our marriage.</p>
<p>I didn’t know it then, but I was sinking lower and lower, losing control of my thoughts and actions. While I was able to, I thought, keep up appearances on the outside, on the inside, I was truly wicked. There was no thought that was beyond thinking. There is not a sin that I didn’t commit in my heart. I had no moral compass. I was accountable to no one. I thought I could get away with anything.</p>
<p>One day, I listened to Garner Ted Armstrong, by accident, after a KC Royals baseball game. He spoke about the Bible in ways that I never heard at church or anywhere else. He had a real passion about the Bible, and God, and Jesus. Soon I started listening on purpose rather than by accident and was hooked. Everything that he said seemed to answer the problems that I was having, everything showed me that I was a sinner in need of a savior. Late one night, using my intellect, I gave my life to God. I confessed my sins and told God that I would do his will. I then proceeded to try to be a "good person". I thought that I was saved. Maybe I was.</p>
<p>The problem with my intellectual salvation is that there was no true, tangible repentance. Sure I read the Bible, I went to Church, I professed to be a Christian, even claiming to love Jesus Christ. But I didn’t, couldn’t, obey. It became easy to justify "my mistakes" by claiming to be only human. After all, we all sin don’t we? It never occurred to me that there could be a force hiding the Truth from me, hiding the fact that I have a choice to sin or not. I was deceived.</p>
<p>While I was being deceived, I wasn’t forgotten. God continued to work on me, and work in me, in ways that I couldn’t see. He protected me and He loved me. My actions, sins, were getting progressively worse and worse. Then I began to experience the first of my revelations, God’s grace.</p>
<p>I have tried to think of some thing, some action or thought that I did which brought me to God. There is none. It was God and God alone. Through His grace I was brought to a point of decision. Using intellect again, I prayed to God, and fell into His trap. I prayed that "I know I can give it all to You." God stopped me, right there, and shook me. I had written, spoken and thought, "I can give it all to You". God asked, "if you can, why won’t you?"</p>
<p>I don’t know how long I pondered His question. He was going to wait for all eternity if He needed to for the answer.</p>
<p>John 14.23-24 says "Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.’"</p>
<p>I realized that He had brought me to the only true choice in my life. I had to answer. He wouldn’t do it for me. He would accept my answer, whatever it was. As the tears rolled down my face and pooled on the floor, I chose Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. This time it wasn’t an intellectual decision, it was a spiritual decision, complete, total, and for all of eternity.</p>
<p>Then, for an instant, only the briefest amount of time, I felt the most unbelievable pain, and guilt, even torture. This feeling was so quick, I only remember the memory of it, not the actual experience. Still, I felt the enormous, indescribable, awesome power of God, hating the sin and wickedness that was in my life. That experience was gone as quickly as it came. I know now what it means to "fear God", and I do. His power is beyond my imagination, and He demonstrated that to me.</p>
<p>But then came God’s peace. Once again, indescribable, so good and so great, absolutely beyond comprehension. I felt myself moving closer and closer to God. I felt Him with my mind and spirit, but physically too. I cried out that I wanted to be with Him, to touch Him, to stay with Him, but He said "Not now." I slumped back into my chair, back into earthly reality. I was exhausted, covered in tears and sweat.</p>
<p>I knew instantly that my savior, Jesus Christ, had taken over my life. My eyes were opened wide, and I could see, clearly, the complete and total wickedness of my past. The Spirit had taken over and convicted me of all my sins. They were laid out in front of me, for all to see, and that’s where they remain. I have nothing to hide. Deception is no longer part of my life. Satan, the great deceiver, has been revealed, and he has lost control. While I can remember the actions of my old life, God has forgiven me. Isaiah 43.25 says, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins".</p>
<p>Sanctification began immediately for me. My old life was clear. Galatians 5.19-21 says: "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." It’s as if God knew my thoughts and my actions when He told Paul to write these words. This clearly represents the old me.</p>
<p>But God didn’t stop there. When He gave me new life, He also gave me His Holy Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no law. Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires".</p>
<p>On October 18th, 1999, my sinful passions and desires died. They are not a part of my life, at all. I still sin, but it is different now. When I fall into the trap of "my flesh", the Spirit is there. He shows me the sin, and convicts me. The Spirit brings me to my knees so that I can confess to God. The Spirit even guides me before I sin, to keep me from it.</p>
<p>Quite frequently I feel God, grabbing me and pulling me closer and closer, and the funniest thing happens. I cry. I cry like a baby. I feel Him so strongly, so powerfully, He shakes my body and fills me with visions, thoughts and feelings that I can’t explain. Each time this happens I get pulled closer to Him. I feel His love, and His peace. When the tears well up and then begin to flow, it is because He is working in my new life. He is changing me, molding me, into the likeness of His Son. God is teaching me His ways, showing me how to be a disciple and how to make disciples.</p>
<p>The Spirit has given me a thirst for God’s Word that seems unquenchable. I can’t stop reading His Word. I can’t stop praying to Him, sometimes for hours, sometimes all night long, asking for advice, praising Him and thanking Him. I am caring for people now, loving them, expecting nothing in return. I am driven to be like Christ. What happened to all the sin in my life? I don’t have time for it anymore.</p>
<p>There is nothing like the complete and passionate peace that God has given to me. Indeed the battle is over, "it is finished". Looking back the choice should have been easier. It should have been made sooner. I was a blind fool. I was taken by the great deceiver. But now I have made the right choice.</p>
<p>I choose Christ.</p>
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