[drew]

well here goes mine. its very "on and off". first of all im "the son of a preacher man". my dad is a presbyterian minister. so ive grown up going to church and sunday school and all that. but my parents never told me i had to do all the "extra" stuff like youth group, vbs, etc. they didnt push me into all that. i remember asking Jesus into my heart a few times up to the age of 12. when i would do something really bad and sit in my room and cry. but i guess i was just caught up in the moment and the next day i would forget that i had asked Jesus into my heart and just kept living the same old way. i guess i wasnt seeing any improvement in my life so i thought God wasn't there. it finally stuck with me when i went to Rockbridge (a Young Life camp in Virginia) thats when i asked him into my heart and actually did something about it. at the begining of 7th grade i was having quiet times, writing in my journal, praying all the time probably more than i do now. it was awesome. but then something happened and i just stopped. the rest of that year i had a terrible attitude, and i did so many things that i regreted, it was a crazy year! by the end of that year i had been playing guitar for a while so i joined my youth praise team at church and so i started going to youth group for the first time (because my parents hadn't made me). it was one of the best things that ever happened to me i think. i met so many amazing people who were also christians especially a certain someone who goes to my church (shes also on cgr- Katey-)and just being around them helped me get back on track. i had and amazing summer this past summer and i started to write lyrics and began to read my bible again. and just this past week i finally won one of my battles with sin! i was being very rude to my parents and i got sent to my room and i could just feel the battle going on inside me, whether i should go apoligize or be stubborn. i chose to apoligize and it felt so good! if you knew me better you would be amazed because that is the hardest thing in the world for me, to apoligize. but in general i think its actually harder to be a christian when you are brought up in a christian home (and your dad's a preacher no less!) and you learn all the facts and all the pressure is on you to be a perfect little christian boy, its so tough! you may think im weird but i think it would have been easier to have been saved after not knowing anything about God and just have a life changing experience. well that was really long but it could go on longer. email me if you want more haha. thanks for reading!

[smitty2622]

Ok a little history, I was born in 1964, yea I’m old? My parents were both Christian. Some of my earliest memories have to do with church. Although different than most of yours. I remember being kicked out of Sunday school. I had a mouth that wouldn’t quit! My mom had to quit work because nobody would baby-sit me, I can’t blame any of them. Ok I was a brat with a capital B, move on to kindergarten, yea I was expelled! Not suspended but expelled from kindergarten. My mom said when she came to get me I was on the principles desk eating his candy and still screaming profanities at him. First grade expelled! They don’t like kids to throw wooden blocks at teachers just because the kid didn’t like what the teacher said. I would have been a great adhd poster child if they had known more about it at the time. My mom refused to put her child on drugs! Anyway started second grade with lots of problems, cant read, wont write, lots of violence. I would have failed second grade, so my parents took me out of public school and put me in a private Baptist school. The first week I got some girl to take her clothes off under the slide, ahh no more recess for Greg. After a while I got recess back within one week some 6Th grade kid told me I was a bastard! Not too smart, I stood on the picnic table so I could reach him, and beat him up. No more recess for Greg again! We had a church service on Wednesdays every week, anyway at one of these they preached about Jesus and how he would erase your sins! I was all over that, they said anyone who wants to stay and be saved after service should just stay in their seat and someone would help them. I prayed with the man as he prayed to have Jesus live in my heart and wash my sins. After the service I sat there waiting, and my teacher made me go back to class even after me telling her I wanted to be saved! I can’t blame her she probably thought I was going to make fun of everyone who had stayed, not a bad conclusion considering my behavior. Anyway it didn’t matter I had already prayed then immediately confessed to my teacher! I was saved at that very moment! Things changed for awhile, I learned to read from the K/J version of the Bible, I paid attention in class no more fights ect. Anyway my parents couldn’t afford privet school anymore so back to public school I went, back in trouble for me. By the time I was 10 I started smoking, tobacco, and marijuana, valiums came shortly after, alcohol was right after that. Fast forward, Jr. high, got into all kinds of drugs, got friends involved with me, more fighting ect. High school, more drugs easier to get. Get stoned every day before school, at break and lunch. Start ditching go home get stoned, girl friends, sex, everyday. Girl leaves, more drugs, heavy metal guitar, new motto live fast die young. Finish high school to everyone amazement ½ year early. Go to collage can we say party. Drop out after one year; get married, and a job. Married a young party animal much like myself. After a few years worry about wife get her to church so she can hear the message I herd as a small boy. She is saved! I keep going. Some time about 1989-90? God decided he had had enough with me. I had over dosed twice and wasn’t getting the message! Anyway God got me a job in Iowa where I had to have drug tests! Cleaned me up and got me back into church where I should have been the whole time. The good news, no more drugs, and I get to play guitar for God in his house. My wife and I have adopted 5 children bought our own house, and we are raising our children in Gods church. That’s the condensed version sorry it’s so long. I’m glad I can now say I LOVE THE LORD AND I’M GOING TO HOME WITH HIM SOMEDAY!!

[footstone]

Howzit brothers and sisters. I just wanted to share with you folks a little of the glory of the kingdom of God. Once, after being saved by God from sure death, I was allowed to become a temporary member/observer of His choir. It started softly as a faint harmony in the background as I was singing praise and gradually got louder until almost deafeningly loud, with a multitude of voices, voicings, harmonies and counter melodies. I heard every type of instrument imaginable in clear, pure tones. I remember hearing an awesome sax solo, violins and horn type sounds. There were percussion instruments and, yes even harps and strings. I think I heard guitars too, but I'm not that sure anymore. The angels filled my head with their music for about 1/2 hour, while driving home on my mortorcycle, letting me sing with them until I couldn't keep up. It was a miraculous thing. There's more to the testimony, but I don't want to dwell on the gift.

The details are not important. What is important is what we do with the gifts the Lord gives us and how we use them to increase His Kingdom. May you always be working toward increasing His Kingdom. Keep His glory forever in your sight.

[Andy the Geek]

Nutshell for ease of reading:

Born into a non-church home. Dad was verbally abusive and violent, but only spanked me.

Mom and Dad divorce and re-marry. Mom ends up divorcing again, and finally stops after 7 times or so. She kept marrying alcoholics.

My dad almost killed us one night after he went on a drinking binge. I've been close to death many times...examples:

Dad pulls gun on us
Dog attacks me
I drink gasoline
I swallow a quarter (.25¢)
Vehicle stalls on train track with train coming
Etc.

I went to church on occasion with the "little old lady" down the street - she was Pentecostal...I saw scary things at that church.

I change schools 12 times by the 9th grade.

Never asked Jesus to come into my life. But I knew what was right.

At 14, I start to smoke marijuana. I already smoke cigarettes, and drank alcohol.

Age 15, I smoke some marijuana that is laced with cocaine. I end up crying out to God that I didn't want to die. Still didn't call on him to come into my life.

I begin suffering from panic/anxiety attacks 24/7 for 6 months. I was on anti-depressants, and had thoughts of suicide.

One day I got down on my knees ... on the livingroom floor ... while the man on the telly was giving the plan of salvation from scripture, I gave my heart to Christ that moment.

He's been walking with me ever since.

I have since answered God's call into the ministry and began working with teens and children.

There's more to it ... but I will spare you all.

Blessings,
Andy

[thief]

dont spare us.

did jesus spare us???

well continue this is awsome.

[thief]

this is to post on how u came to know christ

well i will look foward to read some of yalls (frogee, spudd

[Valentine]

I agree. It is totally awesome to see how God can reach into a bad situation and find us. It helps to remind us that no one is beyond His reach. Finish please.

[supergirl16]

hi, it was pretty simply I grew up in a christian home went to church and stuff when I was 5 years old my mom asked me if I would like jesus in my heart i said yes and it's been awesome it's by far the best thing I've ever done nothing even comes close to the decision I made that day

[Olivia Poet]

with me, it was when i was four.. i grew up-i mean im growing up- in a christian family and so God has been there and ive always went to church w/ my pare nts but it wasnt until i was thirteen i really decided to make God MY God and not just my parents God.
so its been awesome.
sometimes, especially through recent trials, ive learned to trust him. i guess Jesus is taking me "deeper"!

[da_OKUM?]

I have to say that my testimony is similar to the previous ones. I have AWESOME parents who teach me just about everything I need to know (the rest I learn from here! J/K!), but at five, it wasn't really all that real to me. I didn't start to realize the importance until I was about 11.

[Olivia Poet]

dont spare us.

[Maggs4God]

This is kind of hard for me to say. You see, I don't like to tell my story in front of large groups of people. It hurts a lot to see how much I hurt myself and God, but I feel like God's telling me I need to put this down.

I was raised in a Sunday-Christian environment. We'd said grace before meal and went to church on mandatory days. I was taught "Before I Lay me Down to Sleep" and my "God Bless" every night. But, there was nothing there. When I was nine, I asked God into my heart, but about a year and half later I went back to my Sunday Christian, let's-just-go-through-the-motions kind of life. That changed when we moved to North Carolina. It was a much larger area than the rural community I'd lived in for the past four years. I just left God completely. I denied His existence completely. I began to drink and to smoke ( I was 13). I tried to kill myself a couple of times. Lucky for me, God didn't leave me, at all. After a year we moved to Virginia. One early day in August, I joined the confirmation class at my local United Methodist Church (I was still an athesist, but God just made me do it ). As time went on, I began to believe, a little. Then I started getting involved in our District Council on YOuth Minsitries and this past summer, I rededicated my life to Christ and I now feel that God is calling me into full time minsitry.


That's my story. It's so inadequate, it doesn't begin to tell what our Glorious Father has done for me. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

[Fuzz]

This is incredible!!! DON'T STOP!!!!-Adam

[kwikemartownr]

Please go on Andy ...

You've intrigued us all with your awesome testimony!

- s -

[Andy the Geek]

OK...sorry. I will write more and post soon!

Blessings,
Andy