Oddly, it took me years as a Christian to get over jealousy about such testimonies. I was one of those 'good' kids, never doing anything illegal, immoral or indecent. Of course I spent 5 1/2 years of that being a goody-goody in a Hindu monestary. So I was just as sinful (if not worse) when I came to Christ. Still, glad you are out of it. See you in Heaven.
My life story!
- Thread starter MAJ52653
- Start date
trulyblezzed
Member
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2006
- Messages
- 544
I know it's long, but I read the monk's story and was very inspired. I cried at his story; it's amazing how God changes people!
As I look in the mirror these days, I cannot recognize the eyes that are staring back for that they are filled with joy and hope. These eyes were filled with sadness, depression and confusion just a few short years ago.
I come from a wealthy family; my grandfather was the founder of the Sealy mattress so growing up was interesting to say the least. I write this not to brag, but to tell you my background because it comes into my testimony later on.
My parents got divorced when I was three years old. My father is Catholic and my mother is Jewish so when I celebrated Christmas with my Christmas tree, I couldn't understand why we had a menorah as well.
At the age of seven, my mom packed all our things and moved us from New Jersey to South Florida with only a 20 minute notice to say goodbye to my father. Although she didn't care for him anymore, I still did and I remember crying hysterically at the thought of never seeing my father again.
sooooo....fast forward about 8 years and I found myself in 9th grade in high school. I got mixed up in the wrong crowd and soon found myself in a downward spiral. I had no positive reinforcement in my life. It was just my mother and I living in an apartment and she was always working. When she wasn't working, she was sleeping. Literally. My mom sleeps about 16-18 hours a day now that she doesn't work anymore. So anyway, back to my story. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was hanging out with people twice my age. I starting drinking and that led to marijuana which led to acid which led to ecstacy which led to coke and coke led to heroine and the other numerous drugs that I have put into my young 23 old year body. I found the life I was living to be exciting so I soon started dealing drugs when I was in 10th grade. We would go to raves in south florida, which are basically all night parties and as I would deal drugs to people, i had no remorse as they would be carried out on a stretcher at the end of the night from an overdose. I don't know why I found this life so much fun.
On Halloween night of 2000 I took a mixture of "uppers" and "downers" and found myself "speedballing", which is when your heart doesn't know whether to speed up or slow down. As I laid on the floor of my friends apartment, I evaluated myself and realized this is not the life I want to live anymore.
Not knowing where to go or who to go to, I found myself with another crowd of friends and replaced my drug addiction with alcoholism at the at of 19. For an entire summer, I literally got wasted every night and although I had some fun crazy memories, I look back and say to myself "what were you thinking?!?!"
I lived with the spirit of fear REALLY bad. I lived alone and the devil would play with my mind. I would constantly think someone was trying to murder me. I would sleep with a butcher knife. The minute I got home, I would check the whole apartment with the knife and the spirit of fear had possesed me so bad that if I checked the closet and saw that nobody was hiding in there, the minute I closed the door, I automatically thought someone was in there!!! There were some nights that I was so scared to go home that I slept in my car (like that's any safer?!?!) The devil had me wrapped around his ugly finger!
I've made soooo many mistakes in the past. When I look back at my life, I feel so dirty with sin, but Jesus' promise of salvation through repentence and accepting Him as my savior is the light at the end of the tunnel.
THE TABLES TURN. So I met this guy at my former job and before I knew it, we were dating. It seemed like the prior 1000000 relationships that I had, but come to find out, this one was different. A year into our relationship, he started going to a non-denominational Christian church. I was opposed to the whole idea of going to service with him because I thought I was living the "good life" by going to clubs every weekend and partying like any 20 year old worldly person wants to do. Also, at that time, I was still confused with my beliefs. But, after about 3 months of him begging, I finally gave in. I went to his church and it was total CULTURE SHOCK!mg: It's a Spanish church; I don't even speak Spanish!!! At the time, there were about 1500 members and I felt totally out of my realm. Although they translated to me, I still felt funny. But you know what? I stayed going there week after week. At first, I admit, it was to make my boyfriend happy, but before I knew it, it was to make me happy! So then, i got into a "cell group", which is kinda like a Bible study/youth group and a few months later, they offered to take me to an encounter, which is this beautiful event that the church has and it's also the first step to being a leader in our church.
Well, filled with the joy of God and very excited about my upcoming retreat, I called my mom (who moved back to jersey and left my in Florida to fend for myself a few months earlier) and told her the rundown about me going to church and being happy and going to my encounter and wanting to become a leader and her response was definitely not what I expected!!! Not only did she get mad at me for following Jesus, but she threatened to disown me if I continued in God's path!!! I was like "what?!?!? you want me to continue being an alcoholic instead of doing something positive in my life?!?!?" I was very confused and this was the first big test of faith that God gave me. It was as if God was standing in front of me saying "Who's it going to be? Me or your mom?" So, with my mustard seed of faith, I nicely told my mom that I was choosing God over her and I went to my encounter. In one short weekend, God changed my thoughts, my heart, my life.
I never thought I would be a follower of Jesus. I talked so bad about Him. I doubted Him. I didn't have that intimacy with Him. I was not a good daughter to Him. but now I look at my life and never even thought I would be anywhere NEAR this position! Throughout high school I averaged a .7 GPA and now I'm in college for nuclear medicine! oh, and remember that guy who brought me to church? Well, we're happily married!!! And remember how my mom disowned me and cut me off from the family wealth? Well now I am blessed with an awesome job that pays me well and my mom and I are talking again! and guess what! She's actually opening her heart to Jesus when I preach to her!!! I DECLARE IT WITH MY POWERFUL TONGUE THAT MY FAMILY WILL BE SAVED!!! And remember that Spanish church that I started out with? Well I'm still attending and now I just got promoted to one of the big leaders!!! I'm not saying that to brag, I'm just showing how good God is- I NEVER thought I would be in this position! And remember the addict I used to be? Now I preach at rehabs and have my own Bible study and share my testimony with all girls who are going through the same things I went through!!!
I praise God for EVERY SINGLE THING I went through. The drugs, the alcohol, the sex, the abortion, the near death experiences, the arrest, everything! Because if I hadn't gone through those things, I couldn't relate to the people I'm trying to help for Jesus!!!!!! WOW PRAISE GOD!
So if your out there thinking "Lord, why am I going through such a tough tribulation", God is molding you! And remember there's never a testimony without a trial!!!!! Let's take the streets by storm! Let's have this country be saved one soul at a time!!! Make a goal to speak to ONE PERSON a day about Jesus!!! Forget about your shyness, your studder, your embarassment!!! Jesus did it for us, let's do it for Him!!!! LET'S ALL BE SOUL SAVING SALVATION STATIONS FOR JESUS!!!
YAYYYYY IF YOU MADE IT TO THE END OF MY TESTIMONY, THAN YOU DESERVE A TWINKIE BECAUSE THAT WAS A LOT OF READING! MAY GOD USE YOU IN MORE WAYS THAN HE HAS USED ME AND MAY YOU RECEIVE EVERYTHING THAT HE HAS FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!! :star: :rainbow:
As I look in the mirror these days, I cannot recognize the eyes that are staring back for that they are filled with joy and hope. These eyes were filled with sadness, depression and confusion just a few short years ago.
I come from a wealthy family; my grandfather was the founder of the Sealy mattress so growing up was interesting to say the least. I write this not to brag, but to tell you my background because it comes into my testimony later on.
My parents got divorced when I was three years old. My father is Catholic and my mother is Jewish so when I celebrated Christmas with my Christmas tree, I couldn't understand why we had a menorah as well.
At the age of seven, my mom packed all our things and moved us from New Jersey to South Florida with only a 20 minute notice to say goodbye to my father. Although she didn't care for him anymore, I still did and I remember crying hysterically at the thought of never seeing my father again. sooooo....fast forward about 8 years and I found myself in 9th grade in high school. I got mixed up in the wrong crowd and soon found myself in a downward spiral. I had no positive reinforcement in my life. It was just my mother and I living in an apartment and she was always working. When she wasn't working, she was sleeping. Literally. My mom sleeps about 16-18 hours a day now that she doesn't work anymore. So anyway, back to my story. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was hanging out with people twice my age. I starting drinking and that led to marijuana which led to acid which led to ecstacy which led to coke and coke led to heroine and the other numerous drugs that I have put into my young 23 old year body. I found the life I was living to be exciting so I soon started dealing drugs when I was in 10th grade. We would go to raves in south florida, which are basically all night parties and as I would deal drugs to people, i had no remorse as they would be carried out on a stretcher at the end of the night from an overdose. I don't know why I found this life so much fun.
On Halloween night of 2000 I took a mixture of "uppers" and "downers" and found myself "speedballing", which is when your heart doesn't know whether to speed up or slow down. As I laid on the floor of my friends apartment, I evaluated myself and realized this is not the life I want to live anymore.
Not knowing where to go or who to go to, I found myself with another crowd of friends and replaced my drug addiction with alcoholism at the at of 19. For an entire summer, I literally got wasted every night and although I had some fun crazy memories, I look back and say to myself "what were you thinking?!?!"
I lived with the spirit of fear REALLY bad. I lived alone and the devil would play with my mind. I would constantly think someone was trying to murder me. I would sleep with a butcher knife. The minute I got home, I would check the whole apartment with the knife and the spirit of fear had possesed me so bad that if I checked the closet and saw that nobody was hiding in there, the minute I closed the door, I automatically thought someone was in there!!! There were some nights that I was so scared to go home that I slept in my car (like that's any safer?!?!) The devil had me wrapped around his ugly finger!
I've made soooo many mistakes in the past. When I look back at my life, I feel so dirty with sin, but Jesus' promise of salvation through repentence and accepting Him as my savior is the light at the end of the tunnel.
THE TABLES TURN. So I met this guy at my former job and before I knew it, we were dating. It seemed like the prior 1000000 relationships that I had, but come to find out, this one was different. A year into our relationship, he started going to a non-denominational Christian church. I was opposed to the whole idea of going to service with him because I thought I was living the "good life" by going to clubs every weekend and partying like any 20 year old worldly person wants to do. Also, at that time, I was still confused with my beliefs. But, after about 3 months of him begging, I finally gave in. I went to his church and it was total CULTURE SHOCK!
mg: It's a Spanish church; I don't even speak Spanish!!! At the time, there were about 1500 members and I felt totally out of my realm. Although they translated to me, I still felt funny. But you know what? I stayed going there week after week. At first, I admit, it was to make my boyfriend happy, but before I knew it, it was to make me happy! So then, i got into a "cell group", which is kinda like a Bible study/youth group and a few months later, they offered to take me to an encounter, which is this beautiful event that the church has and it's also the first step to being a leader in our church. Well, filled with the joy of God and very excited about my upcoming retreat, I called my mom (who moved back to jersey and left my in Florida to fend for myself a few months earlier) and told her the rundown about me going to church and being happy and going to my encounter and wanting to become a leader and her response was definitely not what I expected!!! Not only did she get mad at me for following Jesus, but she threatened to disown me if I continued in God's path!!! I was like "what?!?!? you want me to continue being an alcoholic instead of doing something positive in my life?!?!?" I was very confused and this was the first big test of faith that God gave me. It was as if God was standing in front of me saying "Who's it going to be? Me or your mom?" So, with my mustard seed of faith, I nicely told my mom that I was choosing God over her and I went to my encounter. In one short weekend, God changed my thoughts, my heart, my life.
I never thought I would be a follower of Jesus. I talked so bad about Him. I doubted Him. I didn't have that intimacy with Him. I was not a good daughter to Him. but now I look at my life and never even thought I would be anywhere NEAR this position! Throughout high school I averaged a .7 GPA and now I'm in college for nuclear medicine! oh, and remember that guy who brought me to church? Well, we're happily married!!! And remember how my mom disowned me and cut me off from the family wealth? Well now I am blessed with an awesome job that pays me well and my mom and I are talking again! and guess what! She's actually opening her heart to Jesus when I preach to her!!! I DECLARE IT WITH MY POWERFUL TONGUE THAT MY FAMILY WILL BE SAVED!!! And remember that Spanish church that I started out with? Well I'm still attending and now I just got promoted to one of the big leaders!!! I'm not saying that to brag, I'm just showing how good God is- I NEVER thought I would be in this position! And remember the addict I used to be? Now I preach at rehabs and have my own Bible study and share my testimony with all girls who are going through the same things I went through!!!
I praise God for EVERY SINGLE THING I went through. The drugs, the alcohol, the sex, the abortion, the near death experiences, the arrest, everything! Because if I hadn't gone through those things, I couldn't relate to the people I'm trying to help for Jesus!!!!!! WOW PRAISE GOD!
So if your out there thinking "Lord, why am I going through such a tough tribulation", God is molding you! And remember there's never a testimony without a trial!!!!! Let's take the streets by storm! Let's have this country be saved one soul at a time!!! Make a goal to speak to ONE PERSON a day about Jesus!!! Forget about your shyness, your studder, your embarassment!!! Jesus did it for us, let's do it for Him!!!! LET'S ALL BE SOUL SAVING SALVATION STATIONS FOR JESUS!!!
YAYYYYY IF YOU MADE IT TO THE END OF MY TESTIMONY, THAN YOU DESERVE A TWINKIE BECAUSE THAT WAS A LOT OF READING! MAY GOD USE YOU IN MORE WAYS THAN HE HAS USED ME AND MAY YOU RECEIVE EVERYTHING THAT HE HAS FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!! :star: :rainbow:
yes i had a similar life ,lots of huge mistakes ,a rollarcoaster
There were thimes i know i should have been killed
Yet i always came out the other side because Jesus was watching over me
I thank my King every day now for the blessings i have ,amazing to think i went through what i did because that was my path to Christ
Praise our mighty King and give Thanks
God blessxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There were thimes i know i should have been killed
Yet i always came out the other side because Jesus was watching over me
I thank my King every day now for the blessings i have ,amazing to think i went through what i did because that was my path to Christ
Praise our mighty King and give Thanks
God blessxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
WingedGrace
Formerly Adiaglow
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2004
- Messages
- 234
Amazing story! I love how God works and those tribulations do pay off.
Now, where's my Twinkie?
Now, where's my Twinkie?
trulyblezzed
Member
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2006
- Messages
- 544
Twinkie Redemption
Ok I will give all of you a twinkie when I see you in heaven! LOL awww thanks so much for reading my testimony guys... God is so good! I hope you all have a wonderful CHRISTMAS, not holiday! :icon_cheesygrin:LOL I don't understand why it's politically incorrect if you say Merry Christmas! Don't these people understand that if it weren't for Jesus, there would be no Christmas!!! AHHHHHHH such vanity! anyways, I will continue to post new testimonies as they roll in! amen! God is too good!!!! :messenger
Ok I will give all of you a twinkie when I see you in heaven! LOL awww thanks so much for reading my testimony guys... God is so good! I hope you all have a wonderful CHRISTMAS, not holiday! :icon_cheesygrin:LOL I don't understand why it's politically incorrect if you say Merry Christmas! Don't these people understand that if it weren't for Jesus, there would be no Christmas!!! AHHHHHHH such vanity! anyways, I will continue to post new testimonies as they roll in! amen! God is too good!!!! :messenger
