Praise God thread & testimonies

[Lovelybird]

Hi, I know many of you experienced goodness of God and His power, how about share your story or praise here? or something you learned from Lord Jesus that benefit you much in life? so those who don't know God can know there is a real God. Please feel free to share

 

I didn't think my mother can be interested in reading Bible (sorry ma:D), but one day I prayed "God, I worry about my mother, how can she understand your words? she was never interested in spiritual things before, only love to watch dramas in TV, but anything is possible for you, God, please make her love your words and understand them". Then surprisingly, almost shocked me, MY MOTHER, from this week began to read Bible ! and she even prayed ! I know I ever said they began to believe there is a real God, but now they seems get it more.

 

I will come back with more, or maybe some others' stories, first I have to ask their permissions

[ed-205]

OK, Lovelybird. I'll stick my neck out here, but only because you asked so nicely!

First, let me tell you that I am an extremely analytical person. There is a logical, rational purpose behind just about everything I do or say, and a reasonable explanation for everything that happens. Think of Spock with a Boolean sense of humor.

Even so, I could fill several pages here to answer your question, but to keep it short, I'll just relate how it all began for me.

 

Long story short, my life went straight to crap. At the age of 16, I lived in an upscale middle class family, and had bright plans for my future. By the time I was 30, the reality was that I was a minimum wage earning unskilled laborer living in a dingy apartment with a cheating wife, a screaming baby, and up to my eyeballs in bad debt. My family had gone bankrupt and lost everything. I never got the college education I was promised, and it seemed that every day brought more problems into my life. Even the church I had attended every Sunday since I was a child turned it's back on me. I used to carry a rope in the trunk of my old car, figuring I'd just pick a quiet spot in the woods and hang myself one day. I don't know why I never did.

 

I cursed God for letting this happen to me. I had been faithful. I prayed. I gave as much as I could to the church, my time, my talent, my treasure, and this was my reward - a life of misery. I believed that *if* there was a God, he certainly didn't give a RA about me, why should I bother believing in him anymore.

I decided that I was going to prove to myself for once and for all that it was all a grand fairy tale. That there was no loving creator God outside of the imagination of dullards and morons, and Jesus was a joke.

 

I sat down with a Bible and a study guide for the book of Luke, with the idea that after applying some rational analysis, surely the lies would unfold before me and the irrationality of faith would become as plain as day. I would see it for the myth that it surely must have been. Lies only work as long as people believe in them, the TRUTH is absolute, and remains so whether anyone believes in it or not!

I worked on it for three days, focusing on the book of Luke, looking for inconsistencies, contradictions, and anything that simply made no logical sense. I even kept notes.

 

Then, it happened...

Like a wind passing through me, my mind was suddenly filled with a clarity of thought that I had never experienced before or since, and I became acutely aware of the vast knowledge and wisdom that was behind it all. I saw things I had never seen, knew things I could not know, and remembered things I had never experienced, and as quickly as they were revealed to me, I felt them slipping away from me. It was as if God himself had whispered a single word in my ear, and even that my tiny human brain could not contain. In the middle of it all, I made a promise to myself...

 

"If you can't remember anything else, remember this... Never doubt again, because it's all true!"

 

The whole experience lasted maybe a minute or two, but during that time I understood *everything*, and had all the answers to all the questions I could ever think to ask. When it was over, my head was spinning and I was both laughing and weeping, because I realized how foolish I was to think that I had the mental faculties to challenge the creator of the very Universe! And yet, as tiny and insignificant as I am in the grand scheme of things, he touched *me*.

Even now, 20 years later, it still sends chills through me to remember it.

Some years afterward, my Father had an identical experience after a NDE, and he had the same reaction to it.

 

Some people will say I experienced a Psychotic Episode...

No. I know what happened to me, and it was real. There is no history of mental illness in my family, and I have never experienced anything like it since.

 

Some people will assume I was on drugs...

Sorry. Coffee, tobacco, and an occasional glass of wine are about as deep into the chemical culture as I've ever been.

 

And, of course, some people will say I just made the whole thing up...

Fair enough. Why don't you try it for yourself? Remember, I said this was how it all began for me.

[Geishawhelk]

ed, I am delighted for you, truly.

What a glorious and sobering experience that must have been.

To be still basking in the afterglow, so much time later, is truly a testimony to what a Life-Changing experience it was for you.

 

*thumbs-up* friend!

[quankanne]

ed, your story reminds me of something Jon Anderson sang, from his Christmas album YEARS ago:

 

Oh! how it hits you

It's so amazing how it hits you

Letting go, how it hits you

It's so amazing when it hits you

 

and it's true: That power of Love brings everything so clearly into focus, and you have a *smacks forehead* moment.

 

being raised in a strong faith household, I never doubted God's love, and looking back, I can see how my journey has taken me from a simple, childlike trust in God to one that's been filled with evidence of that love despite challenges I've faced. God has been good to me, all my life, period.

 

I think probably the most telling episode was when my mother died – I'm the youngest of six, the baby girl of the family, and Mama and I were incredibly close friends. I mean if she wasn't calling me once or twice a day to chat about different things, I was calling *her* for gossip! And of everything in my life, I've loved her best.

 

she died of renal failure, a slow death thanks to diabetes, but she never wavered in her faith in her God, and the most beautiful gift she gave me in the end was to embrace her death without fear. And I was truly happy for her because she stayed strong in her faith despite the pain-filled ending.

 

still, the one person who could make a bad day sunny just by the sound of her voice was gone. I remember being at the funeral home, praying over her body as she lay in the casket, and staring at the crucifix above her. And thinking, "No one will love me like that again in my lifetime." I have a husband, I come from a great big family, but we don't have children, so whatever my mother gave me ends with me, you know? That kind of unconditional love was no longer mine.

 

I'm kneeling there staring at the crucified Christ, upset about losing my mom, and utterly ... sad ... about this insight of no more of her kind of love, when I'm enveloped in this presence, like a huge comfortable bear hug, and Jesus telling me that he will always love me like that.

 

as strong as I like to think I am spiritually, I've never encountered his presence that way, and I think he did that because I was in such great need right then.

[ThumbingMyWay]

As a young child, I did the standard sunday school up till about 10th grade. My family was never a go to church every sunday family. But Mom put us in the classes. I did the first communion thing and made it all the way to age 15 or so. But I decided I didnt want to continue and I never was confirmed in the Catholic Church. All the years I spent in sunday school and up to age 15, I never really "got it". So being a teen ager and my mind thinking I knew best, I left and Mom didnt force me to go anymore.

 

From age 15 thru my 20's I can say I didnt believe. I thought that we are just here on earth and the universe just was here and no God had anything to do with it. We died and that was it.

 

Then I had kids and my wife wanted to join a church. I did and I struggled the first few years, but the more I went, the more I really learned, but still had doubt. But as time went on, I got this feeling that maybe there was something more, something bigger beyond my human capacity to understand.

 

Then in my mid 30's my wife had an affair. It broke me down to my lowest point I have every felt.

 

I inventoried every thing in my life. Every thought, every decision. It was quite amazing.

 

Then I read a book called "A Purpose Driven Life". And that single handedly changed the attitude of my heart in respect to who I was and why I was here on this earth. But still, dealing with the betrayal, I was still in pain. But this book opened something up in me that I cant explain.

 

Then, about 1 year into post affair life. I was having a rough day, like every day back then. I would go for walks during work down the nature trail and just think. On one day, I was really bad. And I remember readng somewhere that I could simply call out to God and he will answer me. I had done this before and didnt feel anything.

 

But this time was different. I was litterly crying out to him, yelling for him to help me. Screaming for him to come into me and take this pain away. And just like that, I felt a inner presence, a calmness come over me, as if something took my breath away. And a weight was lifted off of me. I was crying and smiling and laughing. It was something I have never felt.

 

And that is the day I truely let Jesus into my heart. And I can honestly say he councils me everyday.

 

Call it my conscience, the holy spirit, my inner counselor. What ever it is, I like it. And I will never let it go.

 

My life has still had its ups and downs since then, but he has never left me.

 

It took an act of me completely being open and letting go of my human thoughts to let His Grace come into me. I became obedient to Him, I let go of my pride. And it works.

 

 

You see, it took the act of betrayal. Just as Jesus was betrayed, the pain he felt. I felt too, we all feel it at some point. The difference between me and other humans who still harbor pride is, I let mine pride go, and that was the seed to let Him in.

 

Those who nuture the seeds of the Kingdon of God, will receive the fruits of the Kingdom of God. Simple as that!

[Lovelybird]

Thanks for sharing, here are some amazing and powerful and beautiful testimonies

 

ed-205, that is pretty amazing. I cannot help smiling when I read the part you wanted to find fault with Bible, in my mind, I thought "oh oh, Lord must did somthing to bring you closer".

 

quanne, I am glad you had experienced Lord's hug, that must be very warm-hearting

 

and I understand, ThumbingMyWay, the daily counsel and comfort, HE never leave us. When I knew I can talk to HIM each day, and HE would talk back to me, I feel great joy in my heart. Sometimes the conversation between Lord and I are pretty humorous, after talking with Him, I can feel burdens lift up from me and disappeared. But sometimes Lord would straightly tell me what I shouldn't do, but HE never condemns and quickly forgive.

 

You are so right about "let pride go", only when pride go, God's spirit can dwell in us and work on us

 

When a person is born again, he/she has God's spirit in them, they already have goodness, forgiveness, patience, kindness, holiness, and all good qualities of God in them, what we do is to renew our mind daily, transform our thinking of this world into God's thinking. This is really good news. Thinking of this world cause bondages in people's lives, many people are deprived by those wrong thinkings.

[Lovelybird]

bentnotbroken, you had been through tough things, I am glad you hear God's voice, and find strength in Him.

 

A while ago, I had a slipping moment, at that moment I forgot all about God and His promises, hope seemed to me a fake thing. All I saw was negativeness, to the degree I lost all hope, and blamed God, after blaming Him, then I cried nonstop, after I was tired, I began to blame Him again, then that triggered more tears, felt like no reason to continue to live. Suddenly like several seconds an image of Lord crucified on the cross came alive in my mind, then the ideas came to me, it was like a revelation who Lord is, He showed Himself is all giving, then I heard in my heart, He said to me "follow me and learn from me". I also saw my own selfishness, but I felt great comfort in knowing that I can learn from Him, and He loves me and being with me.

 

And there were several critical times Lord clearly spoke to my heart, basically confirm me His love and my value in Him, at that time I was devasted by a man because I let him to define my value. Then I remember this verse in Bible "the person who fear of Lord has strong confidence", God gives me that. Lord one time showed me a verse in Bible John 10:10, He said "go to read John 10;10". Something like this amaze me, He can directly speak to our situations, only God knows our heart and speak perfect advices if we seek HIM , the Bible says "in all things acknowledge HIM, your road will be flat (something like this, not exactly the way it is in Bible, I need to find out later)"

 

Sometimes when I was afraid to speak right things, I was afraid others may attack me for that, then Lord said "Is it a right thing to say?" "yes", "will it please God even people don't like it?" "yes" "then do the right thing"

but sometimes Holy Spirit would not be pleased by some wrong things I said or did, I would quickly ask for forgiveness. HE is a uplifter, not a condemner