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Verna, I was very touched by your words. Thank you for opening yourself up like that and sharing.
...if God cares for even the tiny sparrow...how great is His love and how deep is His concern for His children...it is my honor...a priveledge..to tell all of the love of God! I love you...Verna..
Location: Went around the corner & now I'm lost!!!!
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I felt God pulling me when I was a teenager but like most teens, I just ignored it and didn't want to know I was sinning.. But at the same time demons were invading my dreams with nightmare and fear. As I grew up (in my 20s)I would have people tell me how I was a heathen and needed to go to church. I would laugh at them and tell them they were doing the same things I was doing so how could they be better than me... they couldn't answer. Then I had the church going folk who quote scripture and say how God was. I would say to myself " God can't be nothing like they said he was." So in my 30s, I began to search and study the word and found out they were wrong about the character of God and was taking scripture totally out of context. I studied three years for about six to seven hours a day and the Holy Spirit began to reveal more and more to me. I later began to hang out with those attending church and found out they knew less than ME! I was "too deep " for them so they really didn't know how to relate to me so I chose to follow the Lord on my own.
Location: Went around the corner & now I'm lost!!!!
1,544 posts, read 3,598,297 times
Reputation: 1243
Wow, now that's a testimony. Boy, I am glad you wrote this to give hope and faith to those in similiar situations. On behalf of all those who will read this, thank you Verna.
Wow, now that's a testimony. Boy, I am glad you wrote this to give hope and faith to those in similiar situations. On behalf of all those who will read this, thank you Verna.
...this is my prayer...God tells us to go "through" your storms...they are allowed to strengthen you...and teach you about His love...and grace...and mercy......I love you.
Thank you for sharing your testimony, Verna. I am glad that you found the love and healing of the Lord in your life. You are right, that you can what you have experienced and be a blessing to others who may be going through similar things.Take care and God bless you.
I will give a very short version. I was raised for a lot of my life in different foster homes..from ages 11-18....In the home where I was sexually abused and raped for the 4 years I was there, the people were very religious. One thing that did come out of that home was a knowledge of Jesus Christ, before that, I had no clue. Well, as years passed...I did not want anything to do with God really and especially 'christians' because of what I went through..
I was in so much pain from so much I had endured in my life and when I was out of foster care, I kinda had to fend for myself ( though I did get in contact with some of my family again right before getting out of foster care )..and then I met a friend and we ended up just partying, drinking, drugging...( mostly me ) and everything else I could do..this went on for years.....I was drinking, and sleeping around, everything you can think of....UNTIL one day, I began to slow down enough to get a job ..and I did...but still was doing my own thing...
I have always loved to read, so I started buying these Inyanla Vanzant books, and from there it was as if God used her to lead me to him.
One night I was getting ready to go to a party,..( before this I had NEVER thought about going to church, had no desire ...Did not really know I needed God, or anything...just lost and full of pain ) something told me not to go to the party, but to go to a particular church that I had heard of in town the next morning..all of a sudden, my heart was soft..and I was like, "Yeah, I need to go to church, maybe I will feel a bit better when I leave "..Not realizing this would be a life altering experience...So, I don't go to this party I had been planning to go to for months..and I follow the voice ( now I know it was God ) and go...and I was sobbing the entire time through the entire sermon..I mean sobbing loudly..the woman was preaching with such an anointing about "Jonah running from God"...lol!.....
By the end of her sermon she could not say, "Does anybody here want to recieve Jesus"..I literally RAN to that alter down that aisle...RAN like somebody was after me...In tears sobbing, hands lifted up...OMG, the joy that flooded my soul that day....I went back to church that night and the pastor was there and he called me out of the crowd and I will never forget what he said to me..."You were choosen before you were in your mothers womb, God choose you to be his, You also just escaped death...I do not know what was going to happen, but the enemy was planning to kill you, You have a call on your life that you can't run from , etc, etc"...I was in tears..tears..tears..........
From that day, my life began to change...God rescued me..I should have died more times than I can count, I should have HIV/AIDS or something, I could have ended up in prison eventually, or on HARD drugs..It is by the Grace of God I never ended up on hard drugs addicted..Though I have done my share of drugs and mostly alcohol...
I remember even when I was in the streets that there was something in me that was so much bigger than what I was doing, something inside of me was a BIG desitiny...I knew it, but it took God to rescue me....It was his plan all along..
And that is the short version......Awesome is our God...
...and you also know the precious, awesome love...mercy...and grace of God toward a lost, empty sinner!!!! Thank you so much for your testimony...God bless you...
...and you also know the precious, awesome love...mercy...and grace of God toward a lost, empty sinner!!!! Thank you so much for your testimony...God bless you...
YES MA'AM, I know it in more ways than one....... Awesome is our GOD!
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Dear sparrow...
