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TESTIMONY SERIES 2

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Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008 | By Kaye | In

Foreword:

I sent out an invite to people and asked them if they could share their real life experiences and testimonies about how God touched their lives. I will run this TESTIMONY SERIES for awhile and I hope it serves as a light to your path, dear reader. I am grateful to those who responded, for obliging to my humble request especially for taking the time and effort to do this- to all of you let me say "thank you" and may the Lord God continue to strengthen you, bless you and keep you- til we meet at Jesus feet, fellow warriors. Enjoy the breaking of the bread by my guest bloggers, as they share how God touched their lives. Amen !



My Personal Testimony

By featured guest blogger Emma Chapman



At a young age I believe things of the Lord stirred within my heart. I often remember when I was only eight, crying to christian friend, Susanna, telling her I didn't want to go to hell. I'm glad the Lord has shown me wrong from right at a young age. I may have been far away from salvation, but He had started speaking to me since then.

It wasn't until I was 12 I wanted to do the things of God. It all started in early 2005. That Easter I went with the Ruegg family to one of their friends church in Gisborne. They talked about Jesus dying on the Cross of Calvary. It seemed so much to all the people that went. One day when we were there I asked one of my best friends Susanna what It was all about.

I was jealous of what the Christians had - a joyful life with a saviour that loved them. I often cried after those meetings in jealousy. My friend Susanna and my new friend Sarah wondered why I was sad after the meetings, but I never told them, but inside I longed to tell them what I felt.
On May the 14th I gave my heart to the Lord. That day I went with my dad and some worldly friends to watch some car race. It was an okay day, but I couldn't wait to stay at Susanna's that night. That night Susanna and I talked about things of the Lord. I felt like praying for forgiveness from the Lord, so Susanna went out so I could pray alone. I don't remember praying, all I could remember was feeling so happy afterwards praying. Oh what joy filled my heart! Susanna was very happy to hear the news of me giving my heart to the Lord and I felt like talking about the Lord to her older sister Christine about the Lord. But I don't think I even talked to her, for I was way to happy to speak.


On the first of January 2006, I could hardly listen to the sermon Brother Albert Ruegg preached, because I couldn't wait to become a new person after church. After the meeting, Brother Albert talked to me about baptism in our church hall library. I was so excited, I just couldn't wait to get down to the Wairoa River. I must say this was one of the most amazing moments of my life! It was so wonderful, I find it hard to tell you how I felt.

I had a warm happy feeling inside. Soon I was going to be the daughter, of the One I most loved. My excitement rose as everyone gathered on the shore for my baptism. First Brother Albert prayed. Once we were in the water, I could hardly believe the moment was here, the one that would change my life forever. Going under the water was so extraordinary, all I could feel was the love of Jesus that was washing my sins away. When I surfaced, the joy in my heart was unspeakable. It was a wonderful feeling being saved from all I had done by the Blood of the Lord Jesus. After we prayed, I remembered seeing my new brothers and sisters to welcome me. This was only the start of a year full of blessings, but many more hardships to face, but now I look back and the all the valleys were worth it, to get to the Mountain.
Around the 24th of January in 2006, some of our church went to the ADANAC camp in Melbourne, Australia. We all had a lovely time, and the Holy Spirit was in the meetings. The main preachers were Brother Howard Searle and Brother Brad Burgess. I must say I had a wonderful time, and had become closer to my friends. Those meetings were ones I'll never forget.
School that year wasn't what I'd call a good year. The people weren't very nice, and of course, they'd find something to tease me about, like normal. Also school was often very tempting, which I normally found hard. It often seemed I'd be tempted by one thing, then over come it, and get tempted by other things all over again. Now I look back on those times and I must say I was going on a fairest wheel ride- At the bottom one day, at the top another, and down again the next. I'm sure my other christian friends got sick and tried of sorting me out all the time.


And I'm sure I got sick of being sorted out too, but now I see it was all for good, and I'd honestly thank them dearly. Sometimes the temptations were so much for me to handle, I'd cry till I'd felt very guilty for ever being tempted in the first place or think of ending my life. I'm so thankful that the good Lord forgave me every time I did something wrong. It was only the pure love of Him that kept me, and I'm so thankful He has given me power to stay against the devil. I'm so blessed to know His Power never changes, and no matter how many times I stumble, I'll always have Him to call on.

Even though the year was full of trials for me, I know every thing I have faced has been worth it, because of Jesus loving and caring for me all the way. I know if He wouldn't have found me when I needed Him most, I'm sure I'd be long gone. Around the time of the end of the year in the holidays, I started to make everything right with the Lord. I wanted Him to take control completely over my life, not me just stepping in and out all the time. I decided It was time to get serious, because I knew eternal life was what I needed, and being filled with the Holy Spirit was the only way I'd receive it. I spent a lot of my time praying and seeking Him at my swing or at the place that I call 'over the farm'. After a lot of seeking, I had a lovely walk over the farm with my old white Bible which I'd had since I was eight.

I was a bit down, so I went over with my Bible to the logs to read and pray. After seeking, praying and crying, I felt joy sweep over me. I knew it was the sweet Holy Spirit. It was joy unspeakable, all I could do was sing and shout praises to Him. The one I lived for was now in my heart- my Father, my Saviour, Friend and Creator inside of me! As I was running around praising Him, a woman came walking up the hill with her dog, and said hello.

I'm sure she thought I was crazy, but for once I wasn't ashamed, I had Jesus in my heart, that’s all that mattered to me and still does today. Now I can say the Valley's were worth everyone to get to the Mountain. Even every now and then, I go into valleys, but not for long. I'm so thankful for the Lord's love and mercy towards me, and I gladly live for Him, and one day I'll thank Him face to face. To anyone that reads this, I hope my story has blessed you. I do pray I'll meet you in glory one day soon, God bless you all dearly in the Name of Jesus Christ.


Emma R. Chapman

TESTIMONY SERIES

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Posted on Friday, May 23, 2008 | By Kaye | In

Foreword:
I sent out an invite to people and asked them if they could share their real life experiences and testimonies about how God touched their lives. I will run this TESTIMONY SERIES for awhile and I hope it serves as a light to your path, dear reader.
I am grateful to those who responded, for obliging to my humble request especially for taking the time and effort to do this- to all of you let me say "thank you" and may the Lord God continue to strengthen you, bless you and keep you- til we meet at Jesus feet, fellow warriors.


Enjoy the breaking of the bread by my guest bloggers, as they share how God touched their lives. Amen !


A LIVING TESTIMONY
by featured guest blogger TIM HICKS


I have been asked to write an inspirational story on what God has done in my life. While trying to come up with a specific example, I got to thinking; yes, God has saved my life on several occasions; what better way to demonstrate God’s love, then to write about one of those experiences. There was the time when these gang members drove by my car and fired 5 or six rounds at me. They missed. There’s that time when my work supplies arrived early and I was able to get done 30 minutes sooner than usual. No big deal, right? Well, later that day, I found out that 20 minutes after I was at a specific store, a pipe bomb exploded.

There was also that time when I almost drowned in the Boise River. I was floating the river in May, not a smart thing to do, and got tangled in a deadfall. As I sank under the water, a sense of calm came over me. I knew that I was not alone. God kept me calm and allowed me to get untangled from the deadfall. These are only a few of the instances where God has shown His love and compassion and saved me for some other unknown purpose. The question remains: how many other instances are there that I don’t know about?

As I mentioned, writing on any one of those experiences would be well worthwhile. However, as much as they stand out, I feel that we need to focus on the day-to-day aspects of God’s love. We all know that God loves us and protects us. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this. We all recall the times when God has helped us get out of a sticky situation and have praised His name for it. However, do you feel that this is the only time God is with us? Do you think that He just sits back and waits for trouble and than jumps in to save the day? Unfortunately, I think that many of us have this “Superhero” image of God.

I imagine that many of us, myself included, like to put God in a box and label it: “in case of emergency, pray.” In the past years, I have tried to get away from this image and have included God in my everyday life. You see, I like to talk with Him about all sorts of things. I talk to Him about the articles I need to write; fixing the dishwasher; wiring a new outlet, just about anything. Guess what, He listens and talks back to me. Before you write me off as a nut, let me explain. Have you ever had a problem that you just can’t seem to find the solution to, and all of a sudden the solution pops into your head? That’s God speaking to you. Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with this brilliant new idea? That’s God speaking to you. Have you ever felt that little mental nudge, that’s God.

We need to start treating Him more as a friend and less as a Superhero. He wants to be involved in our daily lives. He wants to help us make the right decisions. He wants to help us be happy and safe. Why don’t we allow Him to do this? Is it because we don’t want to take the time to fall on our knees and pray? Is it because we feel that He is too busy to be able to be there?

Many may think that God doesn’t want to “sweat the small stuff,” but He does. He wants to be there for us, we just need to let Him. Talk to Him as you would your best friend. Ask for His advice on things; He’ll answer you. You don’t need to be formal; you don’t even need to say it aloud. You just need to do it. Let’s all get into the habit of talking to God, not just on Sundays and before meals. Let’s begin to integrate Him into our lives. Let’s turn God from a Superhero and into a friend.

Tim Hicks
CHECK OUT TIM's SITE >> http://mrmomsunite.blogspot.com/






" THANK YOU "

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Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 | By Kaye | In

My cup runneth over, blog- reader, according to my stats, the average number of subscribers for PURE FAITH is 7 in a day - and that means a lot to me. I want to say
' THANK YOU '
for dropping by and for those who took the time and effort to comment- indeed I am grateful. I feel blessed and all the more inspired to share God's love towards us.

You might've noticed by now, that I do not really post on a daily basis, the reason being- I only write when I feel the leading of God to do so...and then I write something. But I am humbled by your response and it is an indication to me that there are people who do thirst and hunger for God...they just need to be pointed to the right direction- to JESUS.

I pray that your journey to knowing Christ becomes stronger every single day, and in the near future, evolves into a beautiful love story between the Bridegroom and the Bride. A relationship between the Creator and His creation, amen.

God bless you all !

By the way, to anyone interested, here's a link to the PF Springwidget:
http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/22156


Kaye

Be Still My Soul...

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Posted on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | By Kaye | In


Oftentimes we try to escape the silence. We fill our days with things to do, we fill our heads with knowledge, we avoid to keep still. We like to keep busy and be on the go all the time, we do all sorts of things to avoid it. I guess, we try to escape all the questions in our head...questions that we know require an answer.
But all our life, we keep running away from it even though way down deep inside of you- you know that a time will come where you have to face your Creator and give an account for the way you lived your life. Although you try to deny this fact, there is just no way getting around it and some people spend the rest of their lives just doing that. But we have to stop and ask ourselves these questions- where are we running off to ? at the end of the day, where are we heading for ? why ? why are we running away ?

Why are you running away?

Friend, I used to ask myself these questions, I used to run away from everything. From the brockeness of my life, from the despair and helplessness that surrounded me, from all my problems and from surrendering myself to the Lord. It took God awhile to get ahold of me, I tell you...
I guess, we are just afraid of facing our fears, afraid of the truth that we will find deep in our hearts and we don't want to confront it. We fear to look in the mirror and not recognize who we are...or perhaps not like who we've become. Afraid of the hidden hurt and sadness that you try to cover up day by day but lie down with every single night.

But we do get tired, don't we? we get tired of carrying all the weight on our shoulders, tired of fitting in, tired of having to put on a show for everybody. We get tired of pretending everything is alright when we know it isn't.
BUT...
there is somebody out there who knows what you're going through, friend and no matter how this modern world try to erase Him from people's minds... I believe that you do know there is a God. And He is the ONLY one who could quench that thirst in your heart, He is the ONLY one who could satisfy the hunger that the world cannot satisfy, who could give the peace and rest that you so long for.

Believe me, friend, I know how it feels, I've been through it too, see ? if I share with you my life story, you would think it came from a dramatic novel but hey- it's true and Jesus saved my life. That is the reason why I try to do as much as I can to tell people about Him, because God is real.
This cynical world, thinks that they are good enough, smart enough, and rich enough to ever acknowledge God nor need God in their lives - is just sad. Too proud to admit to our own mistakes, too proud to change...too proud to repent, and it's just heartbreaking to see that we deny ourselves from the source of healing, mercy, grace, strenght, salvation and above all- unconditional love because we are too arrogant and proud !
But God, the Creator Himself, came down from all His glory, clothed Himself in dust and died for YOU and me. He is the perfect example of humility, He even washed the disciples feet...
He loves us that much.

He can heal you from all your hurt, from all your suffering. Have faith and have courage. Jesus Christ can make you whole again. Question is will you let Him ?

Will you let Him carry your load ?
Will you let Him heal your brockeness?
Will you let Him change you from the inside, out ?
Will you let God save your soul from death ?
will you let Him be Messiah to you?
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5: 8

Five Minutes

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Posted on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | By Kaye | In

Friend, I want to borrow five minutes of your time today- just five minutes,if you could spare it.
I want you to find a quiet place where you could keep still and just breathe out the day's care and go to the altar of your heart and meet with Jesus.
He is there, waiting for you.
Breathe out all the hidden pain, breathe out all the heaviness that weigh you down. It's alright, do not fear.
Jesus Christ is real, despite all the cynicsm, amidst all the cynicsm, there is TRUTH.
Seek Jesus, He's been waiting for you for a long time...it's alright,
You can stop running.
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