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Post by JasonPensa on Sept 22, 2003 13:29:21 GMT -5
Have a testimony to share?? Share it!!
"I fell..... through fire and water...... until darkness took me. And I strayed out of thought and time....................... But it was not the end.............. I felt life in me again... I've been sent back, until my task is done." - Gandalf (The Two Towers)
That's how I feel. It took God a long time to get through to me. When we started going to the church I've been going to for the last 3 years (Harvest Bible Chapel), I finally found purpose in my life. I found a place where God is at work. God has a plan for me. JESUS is LIFE!! He is the reason I am here. It was at this church where I dedicated my life to the Lord and a passion--fire burned inside me to live for Jesus. I felt life in me. I feel as one sent back, until my task is done.
II Cor. 5:14-15 Heb 12:1-2
Godis4u! - Romans 8:28, 31
His Servant, Jason
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HopeDeen
Just Plugged into CHARGE
Elen sila lumenn omentilmo
Posts: 29
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Post by HopeDeen on Sept 22, 2003 19:23:51 GMT -5
wow! i didn't know there was another HBCer in the group! which harvest do you go to? i say again, wow! such honesty and openess! in sharing! i would share myself but.... that would take up too much i am very long winded. may God bless you for your openess, and may He continue to over flow in you with His love and grace.
Til He comes,
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Post by JasonPensa on Oct 14, 2003 0:26:36 GMT -5
I go to Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows Illinois. We currently have an attendence of about 6,000. www.harvestbible.orgHis Servant, Jason
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Post by AshleyAndersen on Dec 7, 2003 19:50:00 GMT -5
God has been so wonderful to me that I could never find the words to tell you. However I will try to explain how His goodness has filled my life. I asked Jesus into my heart when I was about 4, or so. My parents were saved before they met each other, so my younger sister and I have been raised in a strong Christian home all our lives. I started kindergarten as a homeschooler and God has led my family to continue homeschooling to this day. The thing that I appreciate the most about my upbringing is that I have always been in church activities, which have increased my knowledge of God. I have had a firm spiritual foundation laid in my life. I entered my junior high years with the awkwardness that I think every one goes through, but looking back I see how God taught me so much during that time in my life. Starting at the end of seventh grade my mom went through a very hard time. One day she woke up with a horrible pain down her leg. For the next several weeks she was only able to lie in bed or go for occasional walks. My sister and I suddenly felt as though we were on our own, but God was with us all the time even though it was so hard to see. My mom could not sit, which kept her from being able to ride in the car; she also experienced a lot of fatigue, so my sister and I were left with the housework and our own schoolwork. As the year progressed and Mom went from doctor to doctor, while I began to personally decline. I began to wonder why God was letting this happen to my mom, and my closest friends moved away. I felt so lonely, almost abandoned. My Dad was trying so hard to support my mom and hold things together, but as I was going through adolescence he didn’t understand me. It got to the point that I though about ending my life, but Jesus held on to me. Here I realized that all I could do was hold on to Him for dear life. He became my comforter, He met me where I was in my pain and He brought me out. During this time I learned what trusting Him was all about. When no one else can be with you or hold you in your time of need; He can, He will, and He wants to. Not only did I learn a lot, but the rest of my family grew as well. When my mom could do nothing but lay in bed, she read her Bible and talked to God. About three years after the pain started, with the help of the doctors God has sent our way, and by His miraculous power my mom has been healed. She still has a bad day every once in a blue moon and God strengthens her through those days. The past four years since then I have continued to grow with God. Every day He shows me something new, every day I must learn to trust Him more. God has used the experience I went through, to make me aware that there are other people in need. I want help other people see that Jesus is the only One worth living for, because God has called Himself the “Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.” ( 2 Corinthians 1:3 ) The amazing thing is that God is there whenever you need Him. He longs to meet you right where you are, just because He loves you.
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Post by JasonPensa on Dec 16, 2003 3:31:44 GMT -5
My testimony... ok here it goes. When I was 8 years old I made this sort of mental choice. Heaven... or hell?? Hmmmm, I wonder which is better? So I decided I'd pray the sinner's prayer... but why do it today? Why not do it on a Sunday? God would like that, now wouldn't He? (I simply point this out to show my immaturity and lack of sincerity of such a decision) But as time went on, I began to loath going to church, I thought the Bible was the most boring book in the world and so I NEVER read it... I mean come on, all the "thou shall and so on...", and prayer, *cough, cough* do you enjoy talking to the wall? Bleh! As the years went on, I grew farther and farther away from the faith that I once professed... I became more worldly and more worldly. One memory that stands out to me, is shaking my fist at God.... why?? Because He didn't do this or that for me... what a selfish person I was! The years went on, and we changed churches, to a very small church where everyone knew everyone else (the church we had been going to before was getting bigger and bigger). But this new church home was made up of mostly elderly people (at least it seemed to me at the time), and the same person sang every single week... I HATED it. It seemed to me church must be for old people and God was therefore irrelevant. I also thought the people all hypocrites, going to church every week... for what?? What GOOD was church anyway?? It did not seem to me that God was doing anything at this church. In fact, I can remember clearly waking up early every Sunday morning, and hoping (and praying!) that we would NOT go to church that day, I laid very still pretending to be asleep hoping my parents would sleep in. Eventually, after looking for a new church home all over, in frustration my family stopped going to church. I was much relieved, but still feared every Sunday, that my parents might wake up and decide to go to some church!!! It seems at this point that I may be past all hope... but thank God, He had a different end to this sad story.... so I'd like to fast forward a few more pages on the calendar to my freshmen year of highschool, where the rubber met the road. It is December of 2000 exactly one year after my grandfather passed away. By this time I also thought Christianity was just a bunch of rules and laws... dos and do nots. Stuff that kept you from having fun in life. However, my life apart from God was anything but fun, I hated school, I had no friends, and I knew my life wasn't going anywhere. There was a period of a few days I would do nothing but cry and I wanted so badly to kill myself, to die and get it all over with. Life was NOT worth living, at least mine wasn't. To be continued... Just kidding!!! So where was I?? Oh yes... I left myself at a point where the journal page of my life could have ended, where the author of my life (myself at this point) could have written "the end" and closed the book. But I didn't end my life, so I went on living for myself just waiting till the next "high" moment in my life, the next "exciting" thing where I could actually enjoy life a little. January of 2001 rolled around and my parents decided that we were going to try this new church. "Why?" I can remember asking my mom... she said it would be good to start going to church again, and that it wouldn't probably be so bad. So we went the last Sunday of January... to try out this church that met in a warehouse (what kind of wack'os do that?). But hey, I didn't have to dress up, and the worship music was contemporary... I mean they even had guitars and drums! Eventually, the Holy Spirit started working through the pastor's clear teaching of God's Word to get to my heart. The pastor did a series on holiness. The Holy Spirit started convicting me, I squirmed in my seat, and in fact it was extremely UNCOMFORTABLE!!!! But you know... the people at this church seemed to have something real, they had a real faith!! God was really working at this church! It kept me coming back for more. One Sunday in June of 2001, the main focus of the pastor's sermon was the message of Salvation, it was so clear!!!! I had grown up with stuff about Jesus this, and Jesus that... but he laid out the steps of salvation so clearly... I was dumb-founded! I believe it was June 21, 2001. I bought the CD of the message, and listened to it over and over... and over... and over... and well, you get the idea. I decided this time with my heart and my head to put my faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. To make a long story short... it has been 2 years since then (duh!). I have grown immensely (spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally) at my church (that same warehouse church). I have volunteered in ministries at my church, gone to some awesome camps, gotten involved in speech and debate and gotten a right growing relationship with the Creator of the Universe. God is now really working in my life, I'm learning so much! School is interesting. Most of my speeches are on issues God has been teaching me in my life. I've read the whole Bible through and made myself a student of God's Word. More importantly, my life has meaning!!! I gave my life to Jesus Christ and I haven't been the same since! I am on FIRE for God!! "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13) "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." (II Corinthians 5:14-15) "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)
Godis4u! - Romans 8:28, 31
His Servant, Jason
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HeatherZupancic
CHARG(E)ing up
Exploration is not a choice, really; it's an imperative.
Posts: 75
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Post by HeatherZupancic on Dec 16, 2003 13:56:10 GMT -5
Ok...Here's my testimony: I made the choice to become a Christian when I was nine but It wasn't until a recent mission trip that I totally turned my life over to God. Before that mission trip my life was a life of going along with the crowd and reading and hearing God's word but not really putting it into action. To put it simply...my spiritual life a "dud". Recently, I went on a mission trip to the colonias of Mexico. There God changed my heart. The week I spent there changed my life forever. I still have a lot to work on but now I know that God will help me make the changes in my life.
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Post by wowposter on Sept 17, 2008 5:11:47 GMT -5
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Post by wowposter on Sept 17, 2008 23:39:47 GMT -5
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Post by wowposter on Oct 30, 2008 5:32:20 GMT -5
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