VIEW FULL VERSION: Link
Title: My Testimony
Category: happy
Blog Entry:   Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,   Here is my testimony for all those who seek it. I write to give glory to him who deserves that and more. My loving God, My rock and my fortress....   I have been a Christian for three and a half years. I was raised a Catholic but I departed from God and fell into the pleasures of the world. I began smoking cigarettes and drinking at first, then it just got worst and worst. I started smoking marijuana and stealing untill I was locked up for 8 months in B.C.Y.C. From there I never really learned my lesson, I grew up in the projects so that mentality always stayed with me. I was bitter and angry towards the world because of the things that had happen in my life. The bitterness turned latter into rage because I held everything inside and I began to fight with people all the time. I drowned all my sorrows and depression into alcohol and became an alcoholic. From there I was in a mental hospital because of my uncontrolable anger and sadly it seemed as if I was just destined for death. I drank so much that I never had a clear head. Anyway, one day my mother invited me to church to hear my cousin preach so I went with her and his sermon was life changing. He talked about how he use to be a coke addict and a homosexual and how God transformed him into someone else and it made me want to change too. Just seeing everyone in the congregation with thier hands praising and singing to God touched my soul. You could just tell from the expressions of thier face that they were truly at peace. Reflecting on everything that my life was, I just fell down in complete brokeness and prayed to God asking him for forgiveness and asking him," How do I feel what those people are feeling?" I remember praying and asking him for peace because my life was so full of hostility. Then later my cousin said that," if you want God to restore you, if you want him to transform you, you need to search for 100% purity." He said that," 98% of purity is not sufficient because you are not going to take a glass of water and put 2% of gasoline in it and drink it." He said that, "we must be completely pure then we would be able to make a change in our lives." So I decided that that's what I was going to do because I knew none of the things I was doing truely fulfilled me. Not the beer, Nor the parties, Nor the women, Nor the weed, or anything was going to fill the empty void I had inside. I had to realized that there was a void and a great need for something more than I was living for. That void was Jesus. I needed God in my life because that was the only thing that would truely fulfill me. So I took a leap of faith and decided to quit everything. I was doing good but I had a fall 2 weeks later when my brother came back asking if I wanted to go play pool at the bar with him. It's funny how the devil works how he twists everything in order to trap you. I remember he offered me a beer and said," Ah come on it's only 1 beer look at Jesus he drank wine it's not a sin if you only drink 1 beer." 1 beer turned to 2 which turned to 11 beers and some shots. Hey what did he expect I was an alcoholic, I had no self control. When  I went home that afternoon I felt so horrible, I was crying because I had failed God and I took the ciggaretts I had bought and broke them up and threw out all the beer I had. I prayed to God asking him for help and I promised him that from that day on I would give all of it up. I told him that I couldn't do it without him and then he gave me the strentgh to overcome it. I have been sober and clean for 3 and a half years. As for the anger problem, God slowly took that away from me by adding knowledge from the scripture to my mind and heart. I guess the text that most greatly influenced my anger problem was Luke 6:27-36, that speaks about love for your enemies, Also another text, that I'm not exactly sure where it's at right now, that affected me says,"Vengence is mine says the Lord." Which speaks about forgiving and letting God take control of the situation. I always raped on the street corners with my supposed homies when I was drunk or high but when I converted I started singing about the scriptures and my experiences in life and how I overcome the things I went through with faith, god's wisdom, god's grace, patience, understanding, and humbleness through his word the Holy Bible.  Have faith my brothers if God can change my life he can surely change yours. God is real and his miracles are real. Don't be troubled because of the bad things that happened for those trials are to test and strengthen you. Remember we should live to become closer and closer to God and never conform ourselves to the world's standards but to live by God's standards. When he touches he changes forever. Have faith carry your cross and let him touch you and bring you to a place you never knew existed. I hope this testimony can be a motivation for your faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.   God bless you,                         Gaby