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Author Topic: My Personal Testimony  (Read 5816 times)
Josprel
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« on: December 22, 2006, 02:53:15 PM »

                                                                            My Personal Testimony
                                                                                            by
                                                                                         Josprel
                         
                       
                        Although I was brought up in a Christian home, I  abandoned  the Lord at a very young age -   
                        thirteen-years-old.   My parents struggled to get me to attend  church, but nothing availed. 
                        Though I did not drift into deep sin,(I credit that to my parents teachings)  I did sin. God, 
                        however, does not color sin in shades of black, white or gray. To Him sin is sin, period. Upon
                        completing school at age seventeen, I enlisted in the Air Force.

                        Because of my young age, my parents had to sign for my enlistment. This they refused to do; 
                        however when I threatened to leave home and never return, my dad signed. If he hadn't, In
                         my rebellious state, I  probably would have left home.

                        I served several  years - two and on half of them overseas - in the Air Force, trained as an 
                        engineer-operator, who operated heavy construction equipment, such as  bull-dozers, 
                        road-graders, heavy cranes, heavy engineering vehicles, C2 crash-truck-cranes  (used to
                        lift and haul away crashed aircraft) and most of the  other types of heavy construction
                        equipment. At eighteen years of age I had attained the rank of engineering sergeant.

                        During my time in the Air Force, I attended chapel  service only once, for the funeral of a buddy
                        who committed suicide while on duty. His fiancé had written him a letter, saying she was
                        pregnant and was going to marry the man who had fathered her child. My buddy killed himself by
                        stealing a weapons carrier and - traveling at floorboard speed on the aircraft landing strips, with
                        the Military Police in hot persuit, before he intentionally rolled the vehicle over.

                        He died instantly; Yet even this didn't move me toward the Lord.

                        When my time finally came for discharge, I was offered additional promotion if I would agree to
                        re-enlist. But I had had enough of the military.  I refused.  I  arriving home at twenty-one years
                        of age, still unsaved.  At home, I took employment in my field as an operating-engineer. It was a 
                        very high-paying and well-regarded job in civilian life and I felt I had "the world by the tail." At   
                        night I went out with my buddies, though I did not drink heavily and carouse, as they did.
                        I was flush with money, drove a late-model Chrysler convertible, dated pretty girls, and partied or
                        traveled on weekends.

                        Then, one night about three A. M., I arrived home with a feeling of empty futility to my life. My
                        parents were asleep, as were my two brothers and two sisters. I entered the parlor, closed the 
                        door and fell to my knees. At that point in my life, I had grown dubious regarding the existence
                        of God; nonetheless, I never could honestly deny that the order I saw in the universe suggested
                        an infinite mind behind it all. There in the parlor, with tears flowing down my cheeks, I shook my 
                        fist toward heaven and issued a challenged.

                        "God, if you're really there, prove it to me!"
       
                        Immediately, what felt like a great wind rushed through the room. It seemed to come from the
                        top corner to my left and it knocked me to the floor, holding me there. When I  attempted to 
                        sit up,, it pushed me back down. Terrified,  trembling and in a cold sweat. I literally could feel a
                        presence pinning me to the floor. I pushed again it with both palms, pleading,  "Let me up! Let 
                        me up!"

                        Nevertheless, I was held there.

                        My youngest brother, who served the Lord, and who  now also is a minister, heard the thud
                        when I fell to  the floor. He rushed into the room to see what had happened. Noticing me
                        unable to sit up and seemingly pushing against empty air with both palms, he woke my  parents,
                        who came rushing into the room and began  praying for me.

                        Still  in a cold sweat, I exclaimed, "Mom, what's happening to me?"

                        I'll never forget her answer, "Joe, you mean to say you  have lived in a Christian family all these
                        years, and you don't know what happening to you?"

                        I knew!

                        My parents' prayers were being answered, but not in the  way they expected. Their first-born 
                        son  had foolishly challenged God to prove His existence and God did so in a terrifying manner.
                        Finally, the presence released me, and I staggered to my bed.

                        The next morning, I knelt before God by the side of my bed, and without speaking audibly, I
                        prayed that if He wanted to use me in his service, to have some one call me go to a service to
                        sing [Since I come from a  family of musicians, I loved to sing.  My brothers and I once sang as a
                        trio.  My Dad was a violinist, who also played most of the other  string instruments. Before coming
                        to the Lord, he  organized and conducted his own Italian orchastra.  After his salvation he turnied
                        the orchastra over to his assistant,  dedicated his own  music to God and played only for church
                         services and  Christian events.]   

                        That evening, I  received a phone call from a minister's son I had not seen since I had last
                        attended church.
                             
                        "Joe, I'm speaking at a mission and need someone to sing and lead the music. How about going
                          with me?" he asked.
                         
                        Flabbergasted, I agreed, hung up the phone and accused my  mother of asking him to call me. 
                        Then I realized she couldn't have done so; I had prayed silently in my room, alone                         
                         with the door closed; no one but God could have heard me.

                        Well, that did it for me!

                        Three months later, even though I was born again such a short time, my application to study for                         
                         the ministry under the G.I. Bill of Rights was accepted by the seminary of my   of my choice.  My 
                         parent's pastor had requested the school to  waive its requirement that a ministerial applicant
                         must be born  again at least two years before acceptance. His request was granted. I enrolled at
                         the seminary and eventually graduated.

                                 THE LORD HAS DONE WONDERFUL THINGS FOR ME; THEREFORE I AM GLAD!

                       
                                                                                                                 © Josprel
                                                                                                          josprel@yahoo.com

                                   Josprel welcomes comments from the readers of this personal testimony.
                       





             





 

             




« Last Edit: April 19, 2007, 02:29:42 AM by Josprel » Logged
mississippi_jesus_chic
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« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2007, 12:59:11 AM »

This is a great story.  It's so amazing to me to see the ways God reveals himself to us. 
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Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.     Joshua 1:9
Faithin1
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« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2007, 10:01:40 PM »

I can just hear the angels rejoicing.  What a wonderful testimony!  Thank you for sharing.
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Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 
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