More wonderful, than common to me:
I was arrested for drugs in high school in my freshman year. My parcents were in their worst marital trial & nearly split up, and greatly because of a little blonde haired hellion (me).. So, it was decided that I needed to see the consequences, of what that kind of life would be. So I was rushed off to the mountains, where I tasted what hell on earth could be, at a very young age. Fights, Knives put to my throat, and even an attack on my life while I slept.. when I got out, was when I really fell in love with the woods and nature. I didn’t want to be around anyone or anybody except for an old friend, Jeff Nance who fished with me. I fished every day for the better part of a year. But even though that experience in reform school was terrible. That terrible experience did make me ready, for a change.
Quite a story. I remember hearing about Jesus in a home Bible study. I was told by the Bible study leader that nobody laughed at God in his house!! And I couldn’t wait to get out of there. So it was another miracle how I wound up at a preacher’s house instead of my own. ( Arey Rash, I bet you remember this. )
But I remember getting on my knees & praying, at the preacher’s house, after he told me about how Jesus love me so much, that he died on the cross to pay for my sins. And that he loved me so much that He rose from the dead, so that someday I could live forever with h
Him after this life, in heaven. I cried buckets. I cried more than I knew I could cry. My life forever changed. It was amazing. Everything was different & yet nothing was different. Everything was the same & yet nothing would ever be the same. So anyway, I met Christ at 14 yrs old; Fresh out of reform school.
I wish I could say after that I was always a good guy and and that I never did wrong again. Far from it. Most of my life was filled with stumbles, trip ups and fall Downs. Yet that one event of giving my life to Christ, was the most defining experience of everything in my whole life. And that most important and transforming of experiences started when I knelt down on my knees and humbly cried out to God, in prayer.
I am thankful to say that every day for the last 10 years, I start every day on my knees in prayer, asking for God’s help. And end every day the same way, on my knees in prayer, thanking God for the help He gave me that day. And. thankfully, I don’t stumble and fall as much as I used to, In terms of living for The Lord. As a matter of fact, I am strong in the faith and in love, service and devotion to Jesus. But it took a whole lot to get here.
But whatever it took it was worth it. By God’s lovingkindness, I have truly tasted a little bit of the eternal life, that I will have after this temporary one. I have read where the bush burned and was not consumed for Moses… this was a miracle. But for me, the burning bush is a bigger miracle that happens every day. Because I now see that same Divinely burning bush, but now it burns inside my heart every day. And while I am set on fire, I am not not consumed. My friend Aurice Johnson Chapman once said to me, God is very real to you Tim.
And she was certainly right. I have a peace in my heart today, that no man could put there and that no man can ever take away. The story of my life is a common one: a broken life saved by The Grace of God.
God does that a lot. He will do that for anyone that honestly seeks Him. He will do that for you. So it might be common for God to do that which no man can do.. But it feels more wonderful than common, to me!!!