Do you feel like sharing what event(s) led you to the Lord?
In the past, I've asked many people to share their conversion stories with me because I always find them very comforting.
I find, more times than not, that a tragedy often leads many to our Savior, and that helps me so much during those "why would God allow this?" moments in my life.
They are always an inspiration to me, and I hope we can all receive a blessing from hearing each others' conversion stories.
God's many blessings to all,
~Lainie
__________________ Everyone wants a Savior, but not everyone seems to want a LORD.
If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
This thread is open to all Christians, not just Adventists.
I'd love to hear your stories!
__________________ Everyone wants a Savior, but not everyone seems to want a LORD.
If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Do you feel like sharing what event(s) led you to the Lord?
In the past, I've asked many people to share their conversion stories with me because I always find them very comforting.
I find, more times than not, that a tragedy often leads many to our Savior, and that helps me so much during those "why would God allow this?" moments in my life.
Tragedy often makes people take a step back and re-evaluate life and its meaning. "Why am I here?" "What is my purpose?" Things that were once so important don't seem to be so important anymore. Tragedy, for me, seemed to boil away some of the 'stuff' that just didn't matter in the larger scope of life.
They are always an inspiration to me, and I hope we can all receive a blessing from hearing each others' conversion stories.
God's many blessings to all,
~Lainie
I'll share, but I'll type it up first and then paste it in. God bless!
__________________ Freeindeed So if the Son makes you FREE, you will be FREE INDEED. Jn 8:36
So Christ has truly set us FREE. Now make sure that you stay FREE, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Gal 5:1
I think tragedy also makes us realize just how small we really are, and that we really aren't in control of everything that happens in our lives.
Refining hurts. It hurts a lot.
__________________ Everyone wants a Savior, but not everyone seems to want a LORD.
If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
First I want to thank TAO for creating this thread. I think our testimonies are one of the best witnessing gifts we have and make us realise we are ALL God's children.
My story is a multi-faceted one that is pretty long however I've never heard of anyone who could stop reading once they started.
I give Our Lord all the praise for that.
You may find it at my website:
First I want to thank TAO for creating this thread. I think our testimonies are one of the best witnessing gifts we have and make us realise we are ALL God's children.
My story is a multi-faceted one that is pretty long however I've never heard of anyone who could stop reading once they started.
I give Our Lord all the praise for that.
You may find it at my website:
Just click the link: My Story
I pray it will bless all who read it.
the link does not work
__________________ "If God leads you to walk a way that you know, it will not benefit you as much as if He would lead you to take the way that you do not know. This forces you to have hundreds and thousands of conversations with Him, resulting in a journey that is an everlasting memorial between you and Him."
I love your story Truthmagnet! The night I read it, I could not stop reading it and I had tears rolling down my cheeks.
Very powerful!
__________________ Everyone wants a Savior, but not everyone seems to want a LORD.
If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Christianmomof3 - sorry about that. it works now. thanks MVA. you are correct. no "dot com" however, your version doesn't work either. it shows up as "dot com". lol
just habit i guess. thanks for bringing it to my attention. it's fixed in original post but here it is again. www.angelfire.com/hero/scripturewisdom
remember to click the link "My Story" for my testimony.
Last edited by truthmagnet; 8th August 2007 at 08:55 PM.
Reason: correction
Yes, it does, and the more stubborn we are, the more it hurts. Our father loves us, and He will do whatever it takes to wake us up, to make us sit up and take notice. To realize that He's standing there, BEEN STANDING THERE, right behind us all along, just waiting for us to turn around and run into His arms.
As a child I went to church with my grandmother and she was of the Old Primitive Baptist faith. Now, you talk about some downhome, hellfire and brimstone preachin', and I had it. I have wonderful memories of attending church with her, and to this day I can hear her "shout to the Lord". She gave me my religious teachings and upbringing. My parents believed in God, but just didn't think it important to take us as a family and go to church. I attended off and on, even after I got older.
Eventually, I drifted away from going to church. I'd been moved north, and no offense meant to anyone, but none of the churches met my expectations that I had tried attending. I'd been to every Baptist church you can name, even tried Pentecostal, but none of them were like the church I was raised in. I wasn't used to a "plate" being passed for money during a church service. I wasn't used to preachers who had attended college to be a preacher, and who, for the most part read from their bibles. I could read a bible at home. I was used to FIREY sermons that raised the roof and had the walls bursting from emotion, and the praising of God. I was used to "dinner on the ground", not fellowship dinners in a basement. I wasn't used to so much doctrine coming from mortal men. People seemed to think that that was more important than GOD'S doctrine, and I finally just stopped going. But I NEVER forgot my upbringing, and I have always had faith and believed.
My "refining" as TrustAndObey put it, began on July 8, 1998 at approximately 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. That was when I received a phone call at work, that, I was lucky enough to be away from my desk and didn't get. I was working at a juvenile corrections institution at the time, and the Superintendent's secretary came to get me and tell me that he wanted to see me. Poor man, he'd only been on this particular job for about a week.
I came in, wondering what the heck I had done wrong...people just aren't called to the Sup's office to pass the time of day, if you catch my drift. I noticed that the Deputy of Indirect Services was there, and I looked at Sherry and mouthed, "what'd I do?" Her eyes had trouble meeting mine. Anyway, I was asked to take a seat, and I was just getting ready to say that whatever it was, I hadn't done it, when the Sup asked me if I knew anyone who lived in such and such Ohio, and I said, "yes, my parents do..."and my voice drifted off. I remember pleading with him not to tell me what he was about to tell me, but of course, he had to. He told me that both of my parents were dead. That's when I felt arms around me as I was heading to the floor. I'd fainted. I can't begin to tell you what it feels like to try and soak in the information that BOTH of your parents are gone. Just "poof" gone.
I was helped out to a vehicle, and was driven the five minutes home. No one could tell me how or why this had happened, just that the call had come from the local authorities up there. I found out when I got home, and got myself together enough to call the local police in my home town. "Homicide/suicide, ma'am". Those words still echo in my ears, and it's been 9 years.
For many reasons, that I won't go into here, my father was my life. You will never meet more of a "Daddy's Girl" in your life than I was and still am. I remember having great difficulty drawing my breath. I remember calling my doctor's office and telling the nurse what had just happened, that I was going to have to travel north, and could he give me something to help take the edge off, to help me get through the funerals, etc. and he did. Xanax is a powerful tranquilizer for those who've never had to take it. The pill looked like it was for a mouse, and it was ONE MILLIGRAM. It did help take the edge off, but at the time, I didn't think they were working all that well. I didn't realize how strong they were until I took one on the 1st anniversary of their deaths because I was having a very tough time dealing, and it knocked me out for almost 16 hours. The fact that I was functioning during their funerals, tells me just how bad off I was.
I started to turn back to God then. I was angry, at first, of course. The typical talks I had with Him at that time were filled with the, "WHY DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN"'s. But at least I was back to talking to him.
About 3 months after their deaths, I met my husband online. We fell deeply in love, and still are. This seemed like a dream come true. I was NOT looking for a trip or ticket out of Ohio, I'd lived here all of my life, but he was from NY, Long Island to be exact, and eventually I moved there with my kids to be with him. He offered to move to me, but he was a computer technician, and where I lived there just wasn't much work for him. He'd have had an almost 2 hour drive, ONE-WAY, to find decent work, so I went to NY. It was a wonderful experience. My kids loved it. I thought I had finally gotten my life back together. I had a husband who loved me dearly, his daughter and my children got along GREAT, we had money...something I was NOT used to having. Instead of doing the right things with this money, I was thinking only of myself and my family, and I splurged on things like a big house and a pool in the backyard. Never giving any thought to the thousands of homeless and needy people in the NYC/Long Island area alone. I was selfish. Just as I had started working my way back to Him, the devil stepped in with temptation and I was off and running in the other direction.
My "refining" was stepped up a notch on January 6, 2003. On that day, 6-8 plain clothed detectives entered my home with a search warrant. They arrested my husband for soliciting sex with a minor online. My world was shattered from that moment on. With his incarceration went my ability to provide for myself and my children. Everything we had went to attorneys. I'm trying to deal with all of that, and get my husband the psychiatric help he needed on top of it all.
He went to prison and I came back to OH, dead broke, and I do mean BROKE. I now live in public housing on $623 a month. As they say, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Again I was angry and yelling, "WHY, HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO ME?"
During this nightmare I met TrustAndObey on another forum site. When people say, "God works in mysterious ways", they couldn't be more accurate.
She and her husband were on their way back to our Father as well, and He used them to help me.
For awhile I had been thinking about trying to find a church home, but I just didn't have the energy to deal with the "stares, the glares, and the nasty comments" I was used to getting when people find out why my husband is incarcerated.
Trust and her husband took the time to send me a Leo Schreven seminar. God Bless that man. He hooked me in from the moment it started, and I watched each and every minute of it eating up what he was telling me like I hadn't eaten in a year. This man brought me back to God. He showed me that I COULD read the bible and understand it. Once that happened, and I got my new bible from Trust with the large print, there was no stopping me.
I've been through literal Hell on this earth, but I don't have bad memories anymore from any of it. What I do know is that when I realized what my Father was doing, I was in awe, and I still am at how much He loves me.
It's not His fault that I am so stubborn. He really, REALLY had to smack me down, and HARD to get my full attention.
I spend my time now, working within my church. I am a primary Sabbath School Teacher, a member of the Worship Team Committee, and recently became a church board member.
The rest of my time, what little I have left, I spend working on an activist site that is using it's own media capabilities to get the truth and facts out there about sex offenses and offenders, so that the public can learn how to REALLY keep themselves and their children safe, so that we can eventually put an end to the serious problem of child molestation within the child's own home (over 90% of children sexually abused, are molested by people they know, in their own homes...NOT strangers), and work towards developing a more humane attitude towards this particular offender...after all, they are God's children too. I also spend time moderating a forum for the loved ones of Sex Offenders on a prison support site.
We are so blessed to have a Father who loves us SO much. Thanks to TrustAndObey for this thread.
__________________ Luke 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord and not do the things which I say?
Last edited by SassySDA; 8th August 2007 at 09:32 PM.
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