Last night He asked me to post a testimony. I argued a bit with Him because I didn't really want to. Still, I posted a testimony. This morning He gets me up and tells me that was not what He had in mind. He wanted me to post my testimony, that is a brief history of what He has done in my life - which is way too long - but He wants a brief testimony.
So I got it wrong - which is pretty much how is works. I try to do things and do them right, but I get them wrong the He comes along and has me redo things. That might be the testimony if extremely brief, but that is not how He showed me - so sorry about the length.
My typical middle class American (Ozzie and Harriet type) parents took me to conservative Baptist churches when I was a kid. The only thing like a testimony came when I was about 10 and while the pastor was making an alter call I felt a strange peaceful felling come over me and went forward. I got baptized. By 14 they were taking me and I was ditching the Sunday school classes. By 16 they stopped trying to take me. I was dependable at everything else those. I never ditched school, got average grades, worked jobs, went to the local state college, got my 4 year degree in 4 years, used my Business degree to become a retail manager, got married when I was 30, had two kids and had never looked for the Lord Jesus Christ or never really thought about Him. I had my family, my wife, my kids, and my house with a pool. I had the life I wanted, but God was not in it. And that was going to change because I got it wrong.
At 40 my wife who was raise Catholic but like me had left that all behind, gotten a degree, had become a Pharmacist, got married to me, had kids, house, and me but did not have God either suddenly decided to take the family to church - and strangely she decided to take the family to Protestant churches. Weirdly, during an altar call I suddenly felt a hand in my back pushing me forward. I said inside "No, I did that when I was 10" and didn't go forward. I think I got it wrong. Later my wife want us to join one of those churches, which made me laugh. It was one thing to go on Sunday but quite another to think I was a Christian and be involved. We both stopped going, and I had gotten it wrong.
At 42 my wife wanted a divorce. It wasn't because either of us wanted another person, but that the stress in life was getting to us. She like to spend and we had $30,000 in credit card debt. I liked to work, a lot, but stressed over her spending. She could make a lot as a Pharmacist but didn't want to work much or change her spending habits. I guess it really came down to life as we knew it and the stress and such because of it. She wanted out - I didn't, but what could I do. I decided to take a special trip on her birthday in order to save the marriage. Then God started coming into my life. I got this really strange feeling with goose bumps going up my arm, and then both cars instantly stopped working. I figured it had to be God and tried talking to Him out loud in front of my house asking 'God' if He was trying to tell me something. I didn't hear anything, so I told Him that I had asked and if He couldn't speak to me it wasn't my fault. Then both the cars were working again and I don't know why they hadn't worked or why they did again. So I took the trip.
It was a great day and excellent trip. At the end of the day, as the sun was going down, I asked her to reconsider her request for a divorce. She agreed the day was excellent, but "No" she wasn't going to reconsider. Silly me, I think I cried most of the way home. I took off my wedding ring and essentially the marriage was over, on her birthday. That must have been why He had broken the two cars mysteriously. I had gotten it wrong, again.
About two months later, God really showed up in my life. I still was not looking for Him. I was sleeping downstairs and woke when the sun started to come into the room. I sat up and then: A voice seemed to come over my right shoulder saying, "Read Your Bible". It felt like someone had hit me on the side of the head with 2 by 4. I was shaking. I checked my arms and legs to make sure I was ok. Looking up I saw a vision of my Bible behind me time clock. Looking over to my time clock I saw my Bible indeed behind my time clock. How it got there I have no idea. It should have been bury in some box in the closest. I told myself 'That was God... I need to go tell someone' - Then another thought came to me saying 'You need to go back to sleep'. That was weird. I was not asleep when it happen, I considered, and I was certainly not sleepy now. I need to go tell someone. And again another thought came to me saying, 'What a nightmare, you need to go back to sleep' Hey, I was not asleep when I heard that voice... what was with this double minded thing. That had never happened in my life before. Still, I considered what happened and what was happening some more. It was early, The family was asleep. I decided to start reading the Bible.
It took me nine months of reading the Bible a bit each day to finish it. Strange spiritual things had started happening in my life; things like dreams, vision, weird feelings, and things like premonitions. This was weird. I decide if I was now a Christian I should start going to church and went to the last one where my wife wanted us to join. Yet this time it wasn't the family. Just me. My wife still wanted the divorce. She got a lawyer, so I got a lawyer. I asked God to see what He could do, and the papers filed in court just disappeared and for a time nobody thought to check on them. Still, my lawyer told me I needed to move out and so I did. I could still get it wrong.
That is the very beginning of my testimony. That was 20 years ago, since then the testimony really got going. :0
So I got it wrong - which is pretty much how is works. I try to do things and do them right, but I get them wrong the He comes along and has me redo things. That might be the testimony if extremely brief, but that is not how He showed me - so sorry about the length.
My typical middle class American (Ozzie and Harriet type) parents took me to conservative Baptist churches when I was a kid. The only thing like a testimony came when I was about 10 and while the pastor was making an alter call I felt a strange peaceful felling come over me and went forward. I got baptized. By 14 they were taking me and I was ditching the Sunday school classes. By 16 they stopped trying to take me. I was dependable at everything else those. I never ditched school, got average grades, worked jobs, went to the local state college, got my 4 year degree in 4 years, used my Business degree to become a retail manager, got married when I was 30, had two kids and had never looked for the Lord Jesus Christ or never really thought about Him. I had my family, my wife, my kids, and my house with a pool. I had the life I wanted, but God was not in it. And that was going to change because I got it wrong.
At 40 my wife who was raise Catholic but like me had left that all behind, gotten a degree, had become a Pharmacist, got married to me, had kids, house, and me but did not have God either suddenly decided to take the family to church - and strangely she decided to take the family to Protestant churches. Weirdly, during an altar call I suddenly felt a hand in my back pushing me forward. I said inside "No, I did that when I was 10" and didn't go forward. I think I got it wrong. Later my wife want us to join one of those churches, which made me laugh. It was one thing to go on Sunday but quite another to think I was a Christian and be involved. We both stopped going, and I had gotten it wrong.
At 42 my wife wanted a divorce. It wasn't because either of us wanted another person, but that the stress in life was getting to us. She like to spend and we had $30,000 in credit card debt. I liked to work, a lot, but stressed over her spending. She could make a lot as a Pharmacist but didn't want to work much or change her spending habits. I guess it really came down to life as we knew it and the stress and such because of it. She wanted out - I didn't, but what could I do. I decided to take a special trip on her birthday in order to save the marriage. Then God started coming into my life. I got this really strange feeling with goose bumps going up my arm, and then both cars instantly stopped working. I figured it had to be God and tried talking to Him out loud in front of my house asking 'God' if He was trying to tell me something. I didn't hear anything, so I told Him that I had asked and if He couldn't speak to me it wasn't my fault. Then both the cars were working again and I don't know why they hadn't worked or why they did again. So I took the trip.
It was a great day and excellent trip. At the end of the day, as the sun was going down, I asked her to reconsider her request for a divorce. She agreed the day was excellent, but "No" she wasn't going to reconsider. Silly me, I think I cried most of the way home. I took off my wedding ring and essentially the marriage was over, on her birthday. That must have been why He had broken the two cars mysteriously. I had gotten it wrong, again.
About two months later, God really showed up in my life. I still was not looking for Him. I was sleeping downstairs and woke when the sun started to come into the room. I sat up and then: A voice seemed to come over my right shoulder saying, "Read Your Bible". It felt like someone had hit me on the side of the head with 2 by 4. I was shaking. I checked my arms and legs to make sure I was ok. Looking up I saw a vision of my Bible behind me time clock. Looking over to my time clock I saw my Bible indeed behind my time clock. How it got there I have no idea. It should have been bury in some box in the closest. I told myself 'That was God... I need to go tell someone' - Then another thought came to me saying 'You need to go back to sleep'. That was weird. I was not asleep when it happen, I considered, and I was certainly not sleepy now. I need to go tell someone. And again another thought came to me saying, 'What a nightmare, you need to go back to sleep' Hey, I was not asleep when I heard that voice... what was with this double minded thing. That had never happened in my life before. Still, I considered what happened and what was happening some more. It was early, The family was asleep. I decided to start reading the Bible.
It took me nine months of reading the Bible a bit each day to finish it. Strange spiritual things had started happening in my life; things like dreams, vision, weird feelings, and things like premonitions. This was weird. I decide if I was now a Christian I should start going to church and went to the last one where my wife wanted us to join. Yet this time it wasn't the family. Just me. My wife still wanted the divorce. She got a lawyer, so I got a lawyer. I asked God to see what He could do, and the papers filed in court just disappeared and for a time nobody thought to check on them. Still, my lawyer told me I needed to move out and so I did. I could still get it wrong.
That is the very beginning of my testimony. That was 20 years ago, since then the testimony really got going. :0
