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Ten years ago I didn't have a place to call my own let alone have a car. You see when I was about sixteen I told God that I didn't want anything to do with him (if he was even there). I had been brought up in the Roman Catholic religion and went to Catholic school, and even went to Catholic camp two different summers. Now all I knew about God was what the Nuns and Brothers told me and how they behaved. I don't find fault with them today, but all I knew from them was physical and mental abuse, and so I thought that was the way God was. After all, they represented him-right?
Wrong. I know that now, but I had to walk my own path and I grew up in the sixties and we thought that drugs, love and rock and roll etc. was the answer. I remember the day I told God I didn't want anything to do with him, and funny thing now that I look back at it, that's when my troubles began. I didn't plan on it but I have Alcoholism in my family history, and from the first time I got drunk I had a craving for alcohol, and I knew that drinking was for me. Then came the drugs, and I did them all-you name it and I did it, at least the class of drug anyway. One thing led to another and a failed marriage and I lost my house and my possessions several times and was arrested at least 12 times, all related to drugs and/or drinking.
Luckily, I only spent 2 days in jail and I have no felony convictions. However, I did wind up on a park bench in Miami picking up cigarette butts to smoke with no place to go and no money, and not smelling to good either. Yet I still didn't want to hear about God, in fact, if you started to talk to me about the Bible or God I would get mad at you and say something not very nice to you. So I stayed on this merry-go-round with getting on and off drugs for ten years, and I knew I was just going around and around and I was not happy at all, yet I continued to use drugs (alcohol is a drug BTW) till I couldn't even get into a detox unit anymore.
So I went out to this place here in Florida called Faith Farm, and I thought I would just play the game because I really didn't want to live on the streets. I thought, go to church, I can do that as long as I can get "three hots and a cot". But something funny happened to me there, I began to listen, and I remembered when I was about five and didn't know anything and therefore I had no preconceived ideas. So I tried to be like that, to listen with an open mind, and one thing led to another and I found myself in the preacher's office one day, and I told him that I didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God in my heart but I was willing to believe it in my head. He said, that's where you start and then I said a prayer, I can't for the life of me quote it to you but it was "the sinners prayer" so to speak. I repeated after him whatever he said and when I got done I looked up and looked around and said to the preacher, something just happened, I feel different.
Now it took a while for it to sink in, but that afternoon I had a vision of two men taking me by the arms and laying me down on a cross and then raising it up with me on it. Now I had not read the Bible where Paul talks about that in Romans, so I didn't know what that was about, at all, at the time, but I do now. I could go on about the outward signs of what happened to me, but suffice it to say that all the rage and resentment that I had was removed. I found myself talking to little children when I HATED them before. I really thought they had different singers at the church the next Sunday, as it (really) sounded like there were Angels singing in that Church that day (I think they were, I know they had a party in Heaven when I got saved!). I was at best an agnostic, but I would say closer to an atheist, and I can tell you without a doubt that there is a God, and he had a son born on this earth and his name was Jesus, and He has set me free.
I am not rich nor do I care to be as far as money is concerned, but I got to realize a childhood dream and go out west and lay in the Salt Lake and pan for gold in California and see the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest etc., and I couldn't get out the front door when I was in bondage with those chemicals. I have been saved eight years now, and I have been "drug free" for eight years (strange Huh?). Also, I have been off nicotine for five years now. I will discuss anything with you, EXCEPT that Jesus is the Son of God, and is in fact God himself. He set me free, not by my good deeds, for if that was so, I would be in eternal pain for my actions, but that's the beauty of it because it is a free gift to anyone who will just ask for it. I am motivated by Grace, not by Law (which I can't keep anyway). God loves you too, I know this in my heart and I hope that if you are searching that maybe, just maybe you will believe me, for I have never been so convinced of anything in my life that Jesus is the answer to all of my problems-and yours too.
My main site is located here, I have more information and it is a Christian theme site with all kinds of free stuff, including Christian web animations, JavaScripts, Java applets, screen savers, 3d maze games, and web page backgrounds plus a lot more. Stop by for a visit anytime at the real WhyteHouse, and hey I admit it, this President did inhale!
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