Testimony of Christ – My heart

[seekingtruth]

Just one more. A few years back I lost my only contract at work. Having been working many hours for a long period I had saved up some money so having some time for a change we went to Disney World. Meanwhile my father (who lived 1 1/2 hours away) took ill so being in Florida we would visit each other. My father was unsaved and never wanted us “preaching” at him. But as we spent this time together he would ask questions. Then came our family Christmas get together with my sisters. My Dad anounces to the family that he has turned his life over to God, he told my unbelieving sisters that he was no longer afraid to die. In the weeks that followed up to his death he bore the fruit of salvation. then went to be with the Lord. Surely God would have found another way but as it was, my lose of work (what satan meant for evil) allowed for me to help my father to find salvation (God meant for good).

May God be glorified.

[Proclaimer]

Amen seekingtruth.

Nothing good is impossible for God and we know that light overcomes darkness.

Darkness only hope is that light isn't present.

John 9:5
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Amen.

[Debra]

Quote (Cubes @ Dec. 05 2006,19:09)

I thought to share this when it happened, then talked myself out of it because it seems so coincidental and insignificant… but I am still personally impressed so have decided to share it to the glory of God. In my desire to make nutritious school lunches for my first grader, I thought to add humus, a middle eastern food to the list of menus. I haven't had it for at least a decade and have never made it. I decided it was time to try it again. I would purchase the premade kind at a local wholesale superstore, until I could get the ingredients together to make it from scratch. As I stood at the refrigerator section of the store reading labels and deciding which type of humus to get, I looked and there just happened to be a middle eastern man standing next to me… just the right person, I thought. If any one knows humus in this entire store, he must. So of course, I asked his opinion as to whether he'd ever tried that particular brand, if he liked it, etc… he ended up directing me to another local supermarket that carries “very good humus.” He suggested I start the child with the “original” flavor before advancing or experimenting with other types of flavors, which made sense. My husband and I thought how remarkable it was that in all the time we've lived in the area, we hadn't noticed a non-jewish middle easterner prior to that moment in time, and how fortunate to have had him there then to assist us. It was already late so we headed straight home, not bothering to go to the other supermarket for the humus. The following day, I decided to find a humus recipe in my favorite (vegetarian) cookbook where I knew there was a recipe. I'll study the recipe and if not too complicated, or the ingredients hard to find, cook it from scratch. I still planned on getting some pre-made humus but I suppose I wanted to know if I could make it also. I hadn't used the book for a couple of years because I no longer need it for my favorite/common recipes by virtue of practice. My husband was sitting at our all purpose table intently working on his art illustration … my daughter was occupied elsewhere with play… I laid the book on the table and was getting a plain sheet of paper with which to write down the ingredients before heading to the grocery store… In the meantime, I was running my mouth, telling with my husband about my latest discussion of interest on HN as he sketched… the whole thing was within five minutes, and we were never out of each other's view as it was all happening in one living space. I got to the table and found the book wide opened to HUMUS. It startled me, as it was unexpected. I knew that I hadn't done it: Not one of us could have opened the book that fast WITHOUT FIRST searching thru' the index. It would also seem reasonable if HUMUS was a recipe I use, or used before, perhaps I might have left a bookmark there, or from frequent use, the book should fall open that way. If so, I should not have been impressed. I was sure my husband had not done it –even if he were to have the inclination to touch a cookbook (which he hasn't to my knowledge in all the years I'd known him!). Just the same, I asked him and he said he hadn't, which didn't surprise me. My daughter couldn't have, she's never heard of humus before (poor thing), and wasn't even in the same room. Of the three of us present, only I could reasonably have done it, and from my best judgment, I hadn't! I told my husband as much (he was at the table anyway with the book). He said, “I know.” It was one of those wierd moments. We are not superstitious at all but have had some interesting experiences that are more easily appreciated and categorized. This past Saturday morning, we couldn't help marveling, and wondering, “what's going on?” If it's a mere coincidence, it's a very strange one by virtue of the fact that HUMUS is just not a common thing at our house in anyway shape of form. And that led us to remember a similar thing that had happened one night, about 7 or 8 years ago, when our conversations on Africa led me to mention the word “SULTAN.” It was such a remote word from our experiences, vocabulary and conversations even with other people that, it took a while to recall it. We then looked it up in a dictionary. This was on a Saturday night. On Sunday morning we went to church and lo and behold, the pastor's sermon somehow involved a Sultan! Now imagine not having heard the word used by anyone in 10 or more years, mention it today in passing, and then hear it in a sermon the next day… We looked at each other in that way that we could only understand, knowing how unusual the whole thing related to our experiences and I sort of felt a keen sense of awareness that we are not as remote and disconnected as it might seem: there are principalities and powers in the air and if so, then surely, our God is intimately acquainted with us and keeps a watch over us all. But why Sultan or humus of all things! Well, in all things, we give thanks to God through Christ Jesus. I know some of you must have these unexplained “coincidences” happen to you too, and hope you'll share it.

Hi everyone, I have a pre-saved story, but I believe God had his hand on me.
About 20 or so years ago I decided to take a road trip to visit my mother in Queensland with my daughters. My car was a 1970 Hillman Hunter, not the best car to take so far, but it was what I had and I was younger and had a passion for adventure, so off we went.with only 4 hours to our destination, the engine blew up, the nearest town was a place called Gundawindi, there was only one mechanic, who happened to be familiar with Hillman's, and was quite confindent it would only take a week.It was late at night by the time the car was towed to the town, too late for the pub accomadation, the mechanic and his wife gave us a bed for the night in their home, and fed us breakfast. The next day we hired a car and drove the rest of the way to Surfers Paradise, where my mother lived. 3 weeks later, I was picking up my fixed car, my patients and money had run out, so I was really going through alot of stuff. We picked up the car, were on the road for a very short time when a tropical storm hit and suddenly the road dissapeared, the kids were frightened so was I, my passion for adventure was gone I wanted to get home. We were flagged down by another car, we wern't travelling very fast as you can imagine, so I stopped, the girls were crying, they didn't want me to stop because surrounding the car were 6 very drunk men who upon seeing I was a women started to make remarks that were worrying, there was no road ahead just the tops of fences either side so I just kept going straight, the rain was hard and fast then the wipers stopped I couldn't see, at this point I started to ask for God's help, not one of my pagen gods, but the God I always thought of as not approachable, the force behind it all so to speak. Suddenly, up ahead 2 lights came on, tail lights of another car I assumed, I knew I had to follow this car. The lights guided me, I knew I had to trust, so just kept going, the girls had fallen asleep so my nerves were settled, I wanted to thank the person in the car when we reached visable road again but the lights had dissapeared.
I know God had His hand on me, and I believe it was because of the prayers of my Grandmother, and her claim on me for the Kingdom.
When I became a believer I claimed all my loved ones for the Kingdom, and continue to claim them.
Praise God.

[Cubes]

Wow, you guys!  And better still, let's praise the Lord for he is good!

Amen!

About 2-3 years ago, I happened to be reading from the minor prophets.  Had just finished Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah and was reading through Daniel, appreciating the greatness of God all over again and wondering how we could ever come to know such closeness with God as Daniel had.  
 
We received an official letter in the mail inviting us to a very important meeting at a local high school.  They didn't say what the meeting was about but all were encouraged to attend.  It was opened to only people that lived in certain zones of the area.  We happened to be one of them.  We were asked to bring official proofs of identification and residency at the address.  Furthermore, signs were plastered all over the place, which was unusual, thus the talk of my neighborhood.  
I hate to say it but I am not much for town hall “meetings” and such, but this time, we felt compelled to attend.  

Meanwhile, a few days earlier, we'd been driving home from a cell group fellowship and our discussion that night led me to ask if anyone knew why the flag of Israel uses the star of David as an emblem?  I knew that Jews were made to wear a yellow star during the days of the holocaust but wanted to know whether the symbol was also biblical as I had not found it?  

Now there we were at the high school signing in.  To every one's amazement but especially to my husband and I, a lady showed up actually having one of those yellow stars sewn to her blazer (jacket)!  I'd never seen a yellow star in real life before or since.  She wanted to sit in on the meeting and was being denied to the point of having security forcefully restrain her.  She came in protest of the meeting.  There was at least one reporter there and a congresswoman.  We still had no clue what it was about…  the place was packed.  

It turns out that the main speaker was Jewish herself, she said.  The topic?  a certain segment of the Jewish orthodoxy was over-populating and therefore depleting their share of resources, not to mention every one else's and changing the landscape in so doing… in desperation those orthodox Jews, she said, were making all sorts of attempts to buy out surrounding properties by offering more money than actual properties are worth.  There were others there to back up her story.  Bottom line, we were being called upon to join a certain membership, to stand as one in order to resist selling our properties to Jews and or going along with anything that might improve their living conditions… etc.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing in that day and age.

I must say that they caught us at a rather bad time!  How could one read Esther and Daniel and be part of something like that?  the voice of the LORD could not have been clearer and I was so thankful for those living words… that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.  It was powerful to me…  

That served as our last attendance, with no membership.  And till today, I still can't get over that yellow star either! In spite of my mind wanting to reason it away (like oh, nothing to it, we see yellow stars everyday right after we mention them), I just know what I know and the facts say that it was most unusual!

[Debra]

I'm always amazed at how God shows and teaches us by our experiances.
When I think about the times that were potentially dangerous (physically and mentally) situations, and see God's hand on me, before I knew Him or believed, I just think wow, your love is truley amazing as is your grace. Amen and Amen
He has shown me that He is my comforter during extreamly difficult times, He is always there in my suffering, and I know He gathers my tears, and weeps with me.
Another time, once again before I believed, my youngest daughter,15 at the time, left home to pursue a life of freedom from rules and people telling her what to do. She left under terrible circumstances, that I won't go into because I don't have her permission yet, but to cut it short, it was 3 months of not knowing if she was dead or alive, I took to the streets with photo's and helped by a Christian outreach distributed them and looked for her. I didn't know at the time that the guys helping me were Christians, I just thought, what hearts they had to want to help me.
When it seemed all hope in finding her was gone, I turned to God. I was standing on my belcony one evening, and my hands suddenly flew into the air and I looked up and started to sob like never in my life before and I said ” God, she's yours anyway take her and look after her.” I was out there for along time, there was a peace inside of me that didn't make sense, I felt that I shouldn't be feeling ok under these circumstances, but the stress that was slowley killing me had gone.
Not long, maybe just days later I had a phone call from my daughter her story was a wow too, she believes she was being held by an angle as she lay in a hospital emergency room after being admitted for an overdose, she had been clubbing and her drink was spiked with something and somehow, she dosn't remember how, she got to the hospital and a lady sat with her holding her hand, when she woke up the hospital staff had no recollection of anyone being with her on arrival or during her overnight stay. I guess they just assumed she was drug effected and she thought she must have been imagining this woman.
My daughter gave her life to the Lord when she was 19, there were a few years of rebellious behaviour before she came to the decision to follow Jesus, she puts it like this ” I couldn't get away from Him, He just kept interfering with my good times”, Praise God He was so persistant in both our lives.

[Cubes]

While at the park this weekend, a pit bull dog for no apparent reason or provocation viciously began attacking my 6 year old daughter while she was on a set of swings, with every intent of killing her. The dog did not growl or bark or show any signs of aggression beforehand….in fact for all intents and purposes, it seemed quite friendly and uninterested in us.

My daughter was on a swing and not even in contact with the dog.  I tried shielding her initially but this was not sufficient as the dog unrelentingly bit her in spite of my efforts.  Escape was not possible at first (too far to go) although the Lord came through and she eventually could escape and be secured in our vehicle as I fought this pit bull and tried (often failing) to blindfold the animal with her jacket …also wrap it in the jacket…in order to buy her time to reach the car.  With my child finally out of the way (and me hoping she was safely secured in the car with no open windows, doors locked from within… by now she was half naked, having lost her pants/trousers and one shoe… bleeding from multiple bites of varying degrees and sizes… ).  

With her out of sight (but not out of the dog's mind I felt certain for it knew she was weaker), the dog turned its full attention towards taking me out.  The safety of my daughter motivated me above all to stand my ground although I felt I was at the losing end in terms of my own strength, but for Christ!  The dog was furiously attempting to drag me down like some kind of wildlife, also twirling me around like a rag doll, in a clockwise manner so that besides my growing tired and breathless, I was dizzy and becoming disoriented….  I caught on to this predatory tactic (thank God for our minds!) and I believe God used this to give me reasoning advantage; I had to do all I could to resist the twirl as well as fight this mad dog.

To anyone looking on at a distance, it would have seemed like a normal interaction between some one playing with his/her dog… unless they got close enough and from the look of things, help was not going to come that way, or from my husband who had no reason to be concerned about us since we'd spoken with him shortly before this ordeal assuring him of our safety and whereabouts….   in fact God seemed to tarry and I didn't know how he was going to deliver us… but I called on him anyway knowing of no other help!  Dusk was falling at the park along with the temperature.  Would my daughter know to remain in the car no matter what?!  

My winter jacket fairly protected me from the hard pressures and cuts of the infamous pitbull bites (in fact given the ordeal, I came away with barely any injuries worth speaking of; not so simple with my little one, though still all in all, so much better than it could have been and best of all she lives and should fully recover)!  

My jacket for all its protection, also constricted me, limiting my range of motion…and I was unsuccessful in trying to get it off which was probably a good thing in retrospect; the dog also knew somehow to keep me from getting to anything that might help me!  Wow!  I at one point got a hold of my daughter's discarded shoe, gave it to it hoping he'd be pleased with a nice toy but no, it wanted humans and nothing less!

It was just by the pure mercies of God that I happened to have my cell phone on me, with reception…. and a good 30 minutes or so into this I could have enough control to dial 911 while the dog was again blindfolded over its face and in a bear hug…

It seemed like forever before the police came…that in itself turned out to be an added blessing because the first officer on the scene later told my daughter that he also was a student of her current teacher years ago!  And this officer's wife, it turned out, was a nurse among the wonderful medical team that treated us at the ED!  He'd called her and asked her to check in on us!  We couldn't have been in better hands.  Is God good, or what?  

I most certainly called on the Father in the name of Jesus, and reminded myself that the name of YHWH is a strong tower, in which the righteous run to and are saved.  I also remembered our discussions on HN as relates to who God is and who his Christ is…(those who know their God shall do great exploits!  Daniel).  I went with my deepest conviction and prayed accordingly in the manner that I post concerning our one YHWH and his anointed one.  

In the midst of it, I felt confident in knowing that the Father, he is God and Christ is his son in whose name the Father leads us into triumph.  Our lives were in eminent danger, as simple as that, if the God of heaven and earth would not have saved us we were done for, and for my daughter's sake most of all in that helpless state, I wanted us to be saved.    
I also remembered my discussions on war with David!  I have no doubt that with an adequate weapon, I'd have not hesitated to take the dog out as much as depended on me.  (I am sure David does not oppose this though I could be wrong, and if you ever read this Dave, you could set me straight, but in such a struggle to the death, I saw and see no difference between beast and man… in fact, it's even more heinous with humans lacking the milk of compassion towards their own flesh (Is 50 or 51… YHWH's chosen fast).  Thus, the response IMO was the same… there was no reason to surrender as long as one could hold out and hold on or overcome.

With my bear hands, I couldn't do this psychologically:  the thought of failing OR also watching this dog die slowly at my hands was psychologically disturbing to me, although as time went on I am sure I would have gotten over this and hoped to succeed were I to overcome this fear!  I didn't at any time feel it would have been OFFENSIVE TO GOD or morally wrong to kill it.  In fact I it would have been the right thing to do if unavoidable.  

I knew that unless deliverance came, it would be our lives or its life.  As long as I had the will and it had the will, we both had the right to fight for survival!  And me much more so for my daughter's sake.  If we could have escaped we would have at the start or at any point but it wouldn't let us, so what does one do with man or beast in such a situation??  Fight, I say, and may the Almighty God give you all victory.  Blessed is he/she who comes in the name of YHWH!  
Unless one has specifically related instructions to the specific situation to the contrary, which I don't believe the circumstances surrounding Jesus crucifixion is intended to be, given his specific ordeal…. as I've said in my posts.

I hope that people can discern that there is no hatred here (People hate worse in seemingly normal situations); but in doing what is best or the greater good as far as depends on us in the fear of God and with respect to all life!  But at the same time, not thinking that you have been called to surrender to any enemy.  We are called to be crucified with Christ and to surrender to God's call upon our lives in Christ.  What was happening in the park this weekend did not fall into that category were it with beast or human being. The outcome was to be determined by the Lord, however, and he did not abandon us!
 
The dog was almost shot at the scene but it was captured instead.  A rep from our local humane society called us to offer their sympathies and said they would take care of the dog.  I didn't ask questions.    

My daughter received stitiches to her worst bite, has dozens of bites but she should recover fully.  Kids are amazing … she's already showing signs of recovery, even though I know it would take sometime for her to get over the experience.  Please pray for us that she not have nightmares or abnormal fears, or any residual effects in health in Jesus name.

I know you love the Lord God and his Chr
ist and have your struggles too, wrestling with whatever types of beasts are out there, but our God prevails so be encouraged in his strength and faithfulness.  

Let us endeavor to pray for one another as we are told.

Be blessed.

[seekingtruth]

Amazing, glad you and your daughter are ok.

Wm

[NickHassan]

Amen cubes

[Debra]

I will pray for a full recovery for both you and your daughter cubes.
Praise God He was with you during your battle.
What a terrifying ordeal, I feel for you.
God bless.

[Cubes]

Yes indeed!  Thanks be to our God who reigns over all things and life.
And thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers on our behalf.

Halleluiah!!!

[942767]

Hi Cubes:

I see you as one brave woman taking on that dog, but of course, you had to do it in order to protect your daughter and then yourself.  I am glad that both of you are ok.

God Bless

[Cubes]

Quote (942767 @ Dec. 20 2006,07:41)

Hi Cubes: I see you as one brave woman taking on that dog, but of course, you had to do it in order to protect your daughter and then yourself.  I am glad that both of you are ok. God Bless

Thank you, 9.  

Psa 124:1   [[A Song of degrees of David.]] If [it had not been] the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;  
2   If [it had not been] the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:  
3   Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:  
4   Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:  
5   Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.  
6   Blessed [be] the LORD, who hath not given us [as] a prey to their teeth.  
7   Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.  
8   Our help [is] in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

[NickHassan]

Hi cubes,
You are an overcomer.
Rom 16
“20And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen”

[Author]

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