My Mom’s Testimony

Since I am sick, someone mentioned guest posts which reminded me I have a post just sitting waiting for me to publish. It’s from my own Mom. This is her testimony. I hope you enjoy it 🙂 I pray I am well tomorrow!

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So here I sit at my computer, trying desperately to recall what I’d ‘written’ whilst lying sleepless at 3 a.m. this morning.  Why is it those wonderfully written, smooth-flowing, coherent thoughts fly out the proverbial window upon rising?  Please be patient while I try to get my sleep-deprived brain kicked into gear.

I fully intended for the subject of my first post to be something else, but I’m feeling driven to write this first.  My husband & I love to ride his HD Road King.  Riding on the bike behind him gives me a LOT of time to view the passing scenery and to be truly alone with my thoughts.

Starting about two and ½ years ago, my thoughts seemed to always be overtaken with lines from that old hymn “He Lives”.  Of course, you know how that goes; usually only a selective few lines from a song get stuck in your head…..over & over & over & ….  Yep, that was the case here:  “He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today.  He walks with me & talks with me, along life’s narrow way.  He lives, he lives, salvation to impart.  You ask me how I know he lives; he lives within my heart”.  And for those of you for whom I’ve just stuck these words into your brain center repeatedly, here are the lyrics to the entire song:  http://www.greatchristianhymns.com/he-lives.html.

Now the funny thing is that at this point in my life, though I’d been baptized back when I was a little girl and had been ‘reborn’ again (or so I thought at the times), I had not really asked Christ into my heart.  Not really.  And I certainly had not been walking with Him.

So where was this song coming from?  And why did it repeat over & over again throughout every bike ride?  I mentioned this strange phenomenon (at least, it was in my little world) to my sister, who had been walking with the Lord for many years.  Her response: “That’s the Holy Spirit talking to you”, and then she laughed a little.

Apparently, there’d been some sort of conspiracy, whether known to each other or not, whereby my sister and my daughter had been praying for me all these years!  Who knew?!  I certainly didn’t.  But God had been listening.  And now he was almost shouting at me to get my attention.  It was working.

Now to back up a bit to tell you how He’d been working on me.  I’m so thankful for His love and that of my daughter and my sister!  Like all of us sinners, I certainly didn’t deserve His love, mercy, protection, grace and forgiveness.  But to have two of the most precious women in my life care enough about me to pray for me unceasingly?  Whew!  Anyway, on with the story.

Back in 2000, I was living in northwest Washington with no family within an –hour drive.  I wanted to move closer to family.  All of my family but my dear sister lived in Oregon so I thought Oregon would be the place to move.  A decent paying job just was not to be found in the area in which I wanted to live.

In the meantime, I visited my sister in Las Vegas.  While I found the ‘countryside’ beyond ugly (I’m a Pacific Northwest gal & love trees, lakes & ocean), I so enjoyed being around my sweet-dispositioned sister and the jobs were plentiful & well-paying.

So instead I made the move to Las Vegas in 2001.  In the beginning for several months, my sister & I spent most every Saturday morning meeting for coffee and grocery shopping.  Of course, as sisters and women do, we discussed every topic possible, including, now & then, the Bible, which, at the time, I was finding very hard to believe as being the Truth.  In fact, I referred to it as a book of myths.  I’m a fairly pragmatic person and I wanted proof!  Proof that God exists, proof that Jesus was God’s Son, proof that the stories in the Bible were true.

 

My sister never tried to cram anything down my throat, which would have pushed me away.  She seems to know me better than I know myself.  I know I must have grieved her terribly with my sentiments and doubts, but she would patiently discuss whatever I was doubting and then we’d move onto the next subject.  She gave me the room to breathe that I needed.

I have a long-time friend who has been a pastor for many years.  We keep in touch via email on occasion.  Once I mentioned to him that I just really wanted substantive proof that God exists.  He says, “I have a dvd for you.  I’m going to send it to you”.  True to his word, a few days later, I received “How Great is Our God” by Louis Giglio.  Wow!  I plugged this in while my husband & I painted our living room.  I found myself sitting down to watch it at several points.  This dvd just really put things into perspective for me.  How could I have ever thought that this world of ours was just happenstance?

All this time, I thought that I would never attend church because I didn’t want to give up my Sunday mornings.  I enjoyed sleeping in or going for a ride, but certainly not spending the entire morning in a church.

Then one day I inexplicably decided to attend church with my sister.  While I didn’t feel drawn to attend that church, I did feel drawn to attend a church.  So we tried another one closer to my home.  That very morning, the pastor’s wife announced a women’s conference being hosted at the church in two weeks’ time.  I wanted to check it out so asked my sister to attend with me.

This women’s conference knocked my socks off!  Not only were the women of this church so nice, they were funny, down-to-earth, real!  This was an eye-opener for me, in and of itself.  Then the women began giving their testimonies.  One of the women told such a testimony of actually being driven by Satan to perform such a horrendous act of violence upon herself and then of how, upon being called upon in a panic, God ripped her out of the hands of Hell, not once but twice!  I listened with chills and goose bumps running up & down my body.  This same woman had even more substantial testimonies of physical healing.  Her story spoke to me like none other.  Here was the proof I’d been seeking.  And I’d found a home in this church.

When I informed my daughter of my decision to accept Christ back into my life, in a way that I’d never truly allowed, and that I’d found a church, I think she was so happy for me that she could have burst.

 

Almost immediately, I received in the mail from her a dozen Christian music cd’s.  When I heard Third Day’s “Cry Out to Jesus” and “Tunnel” they brought me to tears.  Then to learn that my daughter thought of me whenever she’d listened to these songs prior to this was heart-wrenching.  To know & feel how loved I am by God and family, but by her especially, was unbelievable.  Only through God’s love could she and I have the relationship we now enjoy.

God truly does work in mysterious ways and can use so many tools to lead you to Him.  He can heal all things.  He can right wrongs.  He is patient, thankfully.  He forgives all.  He is so merciful and gracious.

And I am so thankful to be able to walk with Him.  I know I walk like a toddler, wobbling & weaving, but He just keeps hold of my hand & gives me guidance.  Remember the old commercial “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down”?  If you do, you’re more likely to be nearer my age, but if you don’t recall it, that’s okay, too.  You get the gist.