I thought it was normal to date whomever you wanted to. And when you got tired of him or I could not get him to do as I wanted, you just moved on to the next one. I was not brought up in a Christian family. I had no idea what it was like to be saved. Very lost for a long time.
I accepted Christ at FBNS in 1994. But I did not know exactly what I was doing. Moved to North Carolina and started going to church, but doing some serious back slipping. It was so slow I had no idea what I was doing. It took awful divorce for me to drop to my knees and repent. Again in 2008 I accepted Christ and mean it this time!
My life now is still hard because my divorce was different. He didn’t do anything wrong, I did. And that is hard to swallow. Everyone wants to blame him but it was me. I looked elsewhere instead of God. God keeps pulling me to minister to women. And to help them not make the same mistakes that I have made. I have a story to tell and I want to encourge women to treasure their husbands. Please do not take them for granted. The grass is not greener on the other side. I know, I am there!
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My life without Christ became a disaster. At the age of 13 I experienced an overwhelming power in church one Sunday to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. Prior to that I don’t remember too much. I was brought up in a Christian home. I never experienced any child abuse and never witnessed any drug or alcohol abuse in my family. I do remember feeling very fortunate in having good parents.
Then at the age of 28 I accepted Jesus Christ again because I wanted to be certain. I was married and had 2 children, and my husband and I both felt very strongly about being baptised for a 2nd time. The feeling was so much stronger than when I was 13. My husband became a deacon, and we were very active in the church. I sang in the choir, we were both Sunday School teachers, worked in Bible School, etc. My life later took a turn for the worse after I lost my father to cancer.I became angry with God for not healing him. I would go to church and would have to leave because I couldn’t quit crying. Finally I quit trying to go, and my husband didn’t go because I didn’t, so we ended up in a divorce that should of never taken place after being married 25 years.
Today I am still struggling to get back what I lost. I married an alcoholic who was very abusive, and who beat my self-esteem down very low. But that same alcoholic became saved 5 years before his death, and he showed me the true meaning of what it was like to be a true living Christian. People looked up to him, and they would say ” I want what he has.” I know without a doubt that if we don’t have Jesus Christ in our lives, and truly live our lives for him we can never truly be happy or have peace in our lives.
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I was a very selfish person. I didn’t care much about anyone else, and I certainly didn’t think I needed anyone else in this life. It was all about me! I went to church, but it was always a matter of what church could do for me. I wanted to participate in the activities, look good in the community, recieve acclaim for my vast knowledge of the bible. I spent most services doodling, flipping through magazines or scribbling notes to my friends. However, one Easter Sunday morning was different. I didn’t know what it was at the time that made me look up from my drawing, but now I know that the Holy Spirit was drawing me toward God.
I heard the preacher say that we could have eternal life, but only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. All of a sudden I realized that this wasn’t something I could do myself. I needed help. I needed a Savior. Right there in the pew I bowed my head and prayed along with the preacher. I told God that I knew I had done things that He hadn’t wanted me to do; that I had believed that I could live this life by myself. Now I knew that wasn’t true, and I wanted to give my life to Him, let Him have control and let Jesus live in me.
Immediately, I could physically feel a difference within myself. However, that difference is still being played out in my life today. Before this time, I hadn’t experienced many hardships, but since asking Christ into my life, I have experienced many: the death of my mother, two cross-country moves, and many other heart-breaking disappointments life has to offer. Through each of these trials I have experienced great peace, knowing that I have something much greater than myself and my own strength to lean on. I am a child of God, and I can do all things through Him.
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My story begins as a child who attended church and listened and one day got the message that God died for me and loved me. For some reason this was important to me, but I did not understand it much until a Sunday School teacher made it clear.
My teacher, Bill B. Brown, taught us that we need to accept Christ as our Savior and that if we didn’t we would not go to heaven. He did not try to scare us but lovingly taught us. Through his teaching and my conviction that I needed Christ, I accepted Jesus when I was 11 or 12 years old. But this was just the start of the journey.
As I got older I knew I was not doing what God wanted me to do. After I graduated from high school I drifted away from God and fell out of fellowship with Him. I was not happy and knew I needed God, but the world was very enticing. A friend of mine invited me to a small church, and I actually went. Through His fellowship and God’s grace I have found peace and happiness ever since.
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I grew up in Western Australia. My father had been in the first world war and had lost his faith because of the war. He became a Communist and an Atheist. My sister and I were consistently told that there was no God. But he was a kind and honest man and a good father, except there was no God in our family. So I became very rebellious as a teenager. I married, and the hippy days came. My children were brought up without boundaries and my life was extremely dysfunctional. Then after 34 years of marriage my husband met another woman and left me. Because I was so devastated, I ended up at the age of 55 at a church where I asked Jesus into my heart. As the song goes, “Floods of joy o’er my soul Like the sea billows roll, Since Jesus came into my heart!”
Since then my life has become so exciting. My daughter who lives in New York, my son and my sister, plus my daughter in law have all become Christians. God has answered so many prayers and done so many miracles since I met Him 8 years ago. My life is so full of peace and joy. I wish my father could have know Him, but I am just so eternally grateful that He drew me by His Holy Spirit into His Kingdom of Light where I can share in the inheritance of His beloved Son who has forgiven me. Amen!
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