GUEST MIRACLES
The only way there will be anything on this page is if you send me YOUR miracles. I can hardly wait to hear your witness. Please see the email link on the home page or use this one.
I just had to start this page off with this email that I just got. I am so glad that this website can do this for people. Apologies for leaving out names, but the website manager prefers no names.
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Running Wild
I wonder what would have happened if I had been raised in the church. As it turned out, I was a sometimes Catholic. Sometimes I went - more often - not.
I went to two Parochial schools and failed both. I was self-centered and felt the world should revolve around me.
I was born almost a year before the wedding and I grew up gaining and losing seven step dads. A kid really needs a dad and there was no authority figure in my life. I traveled so much I felt at home on the trains that plied the West coast and knew most rail schedules by the age of 12. I got to be an accomplished shoplifter by the age of 8. I didn’t need to steal and can’t tell you to this day why I did. I started smoking grapevine by the age of 12, and stole a car at the age of 14. I was going to drive south, but drove instead into a man’s garage and pushed his car into his back yard, so I went to jail! From that time on I was on probation continuously.
The foster home was five miles beyond the electric lines in the logging country of Washington State. I learned to cut trees over eight feet through. I carried all the water from the spring to the house. I learned to plow using logging horses. Believe it or not, I seemed to like it. I believe now that this was the beginning lessons in discipline.
I went to church there, but I never listed to what the pastor talked about. He seemed to be talking above the kid’s heads. I really couldn’t reach the concept of a personal God.
I was paroled home at the age of 16. One year later I joined the army. I was a demolition man in the Korean War.
I went to a Billy Graham meeting in 1952, in South Carolina, and went forward to accept Christ. I think I really wanted the Lord then, but there were things I didn’t want to give up. I didn’t want to appear different from my friends. Within six months I was back in my former habits. I just wouldn’t listen to God. And God was a gentleman, as always; he didn’t force me.
After the army, I went to another church in Southern California and was rebaptized. I only thought I was serious, so I started playing church, but God knew.
Nothing went right so I went into the Air Force, still running away from myself. I was sent to the Far East and tried to drink it dry, but failed. I was transferred back into the U.S. and fund a beautiful girl and married. Lo and behold, her father was a Pentecostal preacher. Then the change started. I didn’t know that Christ was closing in on me while I was still playing church.
After the Air Force, I had one job after another: salesman, aircraft worker, deputy sheriff, truck driver . . .
One day, working as a life insurance agent in Seattle, my financial world started coming unglued. We had been attending a church close to our home, so I went to see the pastor. I poured out my problems for about 30 minutes. He listened and then, with tears in his eyes, he said, “God sure must love you.”
He explained that sometimes God let our little house of cards get knocked down to show us that He is the One to turn to. So, there with Pastor Jim and God, I gave my life to Christ. In prayer I asked Jesus to save me.
Oh, I lost the job that I had, but God had a better idea. Soon after that, at home, my wife, Joy, and I received the Baptism o the Holy Spirit and a new prayer language.
I realize now that in all those prior years of running wild I was looking for something real. When I stopped playing and came to Christ and let Him share my life, I found that something I had been looking for. You know, I don’t feel unwanted anymore.
Christ is all I need. Praise the Lord.
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MIRACLE #1 (of many...still waiting for yours).
Last weekend we had a retreat weekend at our church. One of my brothers who I met at the last retreat was now on the team putting on the retreat for the "new guys." He has been organizing bible studies at work, and his fellow workers have been blessed by the time that they spend with each other and the Lord. He just wrote to me and told me that they asked him to lead the bible study that the team is putting together at the beginning of each meeting, as they prepare to put on the next retreat weekend. He was so honored to be asked by his brothers in Christ that he was very deeply touched. Thank you Lord for my brother and all the wonderful work You are doing in his life and the lives he touches with his dedication to our You!
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MIRACLE #2 (from a brother in Christ who I was blessed to
meet at a men's retreat at church a year ago).
I remember the night like it was yesterday. It was late one
Saturday
night, in the late fall of 2002 when I attended a Catholic retreat at my
Parish Church. Up to that weekend, I had led a basically faithless life.
Although by most appearances, I had it made... A rewarding and growing career, a
healthy family and a wife that adored me (in spite of myself). In spite of all
this, I always knew something was missing. This emptiness manifested itself in
drink, selfishness and other behaviors which nearly cost me my family. During
this retreat, I had a life (eternal life) changing experience. I recall the
retreat, and the messages I was receiving from those wonderful brothers who
conducted the
retreat, growing in my heart and spirit throughout that first Saturday. On that
Saturday evening, there was a reconciliation service and I recall with joy, my
brother in Christ (who runs this web site) leading us in song as we each awaited
our reconciliation time. Can you imaging going to confession, and saying,
"Forgive me father for I have sinned, it has been, er, um.... er, um......ummmm
25 years, or was it 30, or... since my last confession"? I remember saying
that, and then I remember my mouth opening and then decades of remorse, sin and
sorrow came forth in tears. It was the most powerful 10 minutes in my 44 years
on Gods Earth. The father was so patient, loving and thoughtful with me as this
crushing weight of sin was lifted and I left knowing I was forgiven, but not yet
saved.
After confession, I strolled over to the hall where I saw my brother in Christ
sitting with some guys and he was sharing the word of God. I sat down and he
asked us if we wanted to be saved. I remember thinking, I am in this far, and
fresh from reconciliation, I was ready for step 2.
Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if
any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with
him, and he with me." Well, I opened the door with his help and received
Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.
Romans 10:9 "because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 10:10 "For man believes with his heart and so is
justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved."
Thank you for leading me through the process of confessing with my lips that
Jesus Christ is lord and savior. From where I came from, to where I am
spiritually is a miracle. My journey has thus far been brief, and I have much
to learn. This retreat and the Christian men I met that night live in my
heart.
Vivat Jesus! Your brother and friend in Christ, always!
(Thanks brother for that absolutely beautiful testimony. God bless you and keep you, always, as I know He will!)
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MIRACLE #3 (from a brother in Christ who I met at our last retreat for men. He got turned on to Jesus and what He can do for you when you allow Him into your life and your heart).
It has been a little rough going but I have really made some progress. I am learning how to open up to Christ and I feel that I am making good headway. I was invited to help out with the women's retreat group serving lunch for them on Saturday etc. It was a lot of fun. It gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I truly enjoy going to church and am listening to some real good inspirational tapes . (Thanks bro' for sharing this beautiful story. You are a great inspiration to me and others! Keep working for the Lord!)
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MIRACLE #4
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