How We Got Our Start
This is my story....
I grew up in a rough family... drinking, fighting, womanizing & partying were not only common, but encouraged. This is what was expected & we lived it out daily. If this is what you see everyday, it's what becomes normal & anything other than this lifestyle becomes weird to you. I never went to church as a child so, obviously, I didn't have a relationship with Christ.
Now, I will say that I knew that there was a "Creator", because if there was a creation then there must be a creator. I just didn't know who He was... I didn't know if He was buddah, allah, superman or Jesus Christ. Anyway, I was in & out of jail for drinking & fighting all throughout my 20's. I began using meth & cocaine as well. At 24 i got a young lady pregnant & my daughter was born. Although I wasn't the father I should have been, somehow I won the custody battle & I began to raise her as a single father.
But even that didn't change me.
Two years later I met my wife & we got married. Now, I had a wife & 2 kids (she had a son) to take care of but I continued to be a severe alcoholic. Eventually my wife & I also had a son together. A few years later, at the age of 33, I was a construction foreman... I met a man that was different because no matter how much I cussed him, or God, he always just smiled at me & said
"I'm praying for you".
And that just made me even more angry.
After several months of him "praying for me", & me cussing at him for it, one Sunday morning I got up out of bed hungover & tired, & told my wife & kids to get dressed so that we could go to church... After they got over the shock of me saying these words, we went... & I kinda liked it.
Three weeks later I was at church again, I don't know what happened but I was singing... I was crying... I was praying... And I messed around & met Jesus! I didn't exactly know how or why this was happening but I KNEW that God was real, I now knew that Jesus was the way to heaven & I knew that His Holy Spirit had filled me!
I knew that He had a plan & a purpose for my life.
I just couldn't understand how God could look at a man that had been so full of anger, bitterness, rage. A man that had drank like a fish, was addicted to pornography & drugs. A man that had zero knowledge of the bible. A man that barely had enough sense to get out of the rain.
But God didn't care who I was because He knew He wasn't gonna leave me that way.
He knows exactly what He is gonna do with ALL of us, IF we will simply surrender to Him. I am happy to say that HE has set me free from all them addictions. I have now been serving Christ for 13 years. I still feel unqualified & still stand in awe of Christ.
I am still blown away by God's grace & mercy daily. He has blessed me with a wonderful life.
My best days are NOT behind me, They are still to come, I can't wait to see what God will do next!
I am living proof that God can change anybody and He is willing to use all of us that are willing to be used. I still wonder why I've been blessed so much sometimes, but i realize it's simply because of how loving, forgiving & merciful that HE is.
"'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves,
IT IS A GIFT OF GOD, not by works, so that no one can boast."' (Ephesians 2:8)
Listen, if He saved me , He will save anyone.
I'm not special....I'm a no body trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody.
I grew up in a rough family... drinking, fighting, womanizing & partying were not only common, but encouraged. This is what was expected & we lived it out daily. If this is what you see everyday, it's what becomes normal & anything other than this lifestyle becomes weird to you. I never went to church as a child so, obviously, I didn't have a relationship with Christ.
Now, I will say that I knew that there was a "Creator", because if there was a creation then there must be a creator. I just didn't know who He was... I didn't know if He was buddah, allah, superman or Jesus Christ. Anyway, I was in & out of jail for drinking & fighting all throughout my 20's. I began using meth & cocaine as well. At 24 i got a young lady pregnant & my daughter was born. Although I wasn't the father I should have been, somehow I won the custody battle & I began to raise her as a single father.
But even that didn't change me.
Two years later I met my wife & we got married. Now, I had a wife & 2 kids (she had a son) to take care of but I continued to be a severe alcoholic. Eventually my wife & I also had a son together. A few years later, at the age of 33, I was a construction foreman... I met a man that was different because no matter how much I cussed him, or God, he always just smiled at me & said
"I'm praying for you".
And that just made me even more angry.
After several months of him "praying for me", & me cussing at him for it, one Sunday morning I got up out of bed hungover & tired, & told my wife & kids to get dressed so that we could go to church... After they got over the shock of me saying these words, we went... & I kinda liked it.
Three weeks later I was at church again, I don't know what happened but I was singing... I was crying... I was praying... And I messed around & met Jesus! I didn't exactly know how or why this was happening but I KNEW that God was real, I now knew that Jesus was the way to heaven & I knew that His Holy Spirit had filled me!
I knew that He had a plan & a purpose for my life.
I just couldn't understand how God could look at a man that had been so full of anger, bitterness, rage. A man that had drank like a fish, was addicted to pornography & drugs. A man that had zero knowledge of the bible. A man that barely had enough sense to get out of the rain.
But God didn't care who I was because He knew He wasn't gonna leave me that way.
He knows exactly what He is gonna do with ALL of us, IF we will simply surrender to Him. I am happy to say that HE has set me free from all them addictions. I have now been serving Christ for 13 years. I still feel unqualified & still stand in awe of Christ.
I am still blown away by God's grace & mercy daily. He has blessed me with a wonderful life.
My best days are NOT behind me, They are still to come, I can't wait to see what God will do next!
I am living proof that God can change anybody and He is willing to use all of us that are willing to be used. I still wonder why I've been blessed so much sometimes, but i realize it's simply because of how loving, forgiving & merciful that HE is.
"'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves,
IT IS A GIFT OF GOD, not by works, so that no one can boast."' (Ephesians 2:8)
Listen, if He saved me , He will save anyone.
I'm not special....I'm a no body trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody.
