Christian Photographers Community

I'll have to go back a ways to when God first knocked and you'll understand later why. Please be aware this is a bit long so get  some coffee or something to dirnk now.

My bestfriend (a Christian) owns a communications company and asked if I could help him on a commercial job site. I agreed since I had spare time and the extra money always helps. While on the job the general contractor came poking around one day and found me in a part of the building working alone. We started a casual conversation that quickly led to religion. I could sense immediately where this was going ( he was looking for souls to save) He told me for some reason God had moved him to go the the job site and talk to someone that was in need. Not knowing who he just casualy conversed with eveyone at the site. When he came upon me I quickly halted our conversation by lying to him and told him I had a great relationship with God and did the church every sunday. I even had the name of a local church. I thougt to myself Whew! that was close. I was very serious about athiesm and I became very angry when people tried to push their religious Hoo Haa on me. I lied to Kevin that day because he was my frineds boss and thought I better not cause any ill will.

Time went on and months passed. My marriage and family life had always been for the most part stable but, definately not solid. My wife had met some new neighbors and became secretly involved in Christianity. My kids every now and then would mention God or Jesus and I would become inraged and tell them there was no such thing. I would demand they tell me where they were learning this from and my wife assured me it was from other kids at school. To save you from a lot of detail appearantly my marriage was in worse shape than I had thought. I was FAR from being even a nice husband I was emotionally and verbally abusive to my wife. It was basically a two way street we would both poke at each other but I was far better at poking than she was. Just to be clear it never became physical. I would have left before resorting to hitting a women. One day out of the blue I could sense something was very wrong. She became distant and always too busy to even talk to me. I finally forced her to talk to me and she basically told me she wanted a divorce and would like me to move out of the house. She said she had been considering this for quite a while but was afraid to tell me because she didn't know how I would react. She expected a fight and figured I would become enraged and out of control. Well, when she told me my heart broke... right then and there. I suddnely felt the weight of the world fall on top of me. I never thought it would come to this. We fought a lot but I always assumed it was part of our relationship. The moment she told me I started to cry and went upstairs to be alone. She came up after a while and we talked. She said she never expected this reaction from me. Anyway, I begged an promised and pleaded but she just told me that it wasn't in her heart anymore and she was leaving it up to God.  GOD!!! I thought how can you leave it up to someone or something that doesn't even exist? Great I'm competing with a Gremlin. Well there was no competing as the weeks went by it became painfully obvious that my marriage was over. I became so emotionally upset and completely broken. My time had run out. One day my wife had told me she was going to go to "Church" with our neighbor.She didn't go to church and this was in the middle of the week. I knew she had been talking with her divorced friends about advice and they all told her to quietly hire an attorney and serve me with divorce papers. So I figured she was going to the attorneys and not church. I had my 5 year old daughter with me at home that day. Thank God because my world came crashing down on me. I hit bottom. Something felt permanent when she left and the door closed. I broke down and cried so hard that day. I've never felt so alone and hurt. I have to say that had my daughter not been in the next room. I would have ended my life. I mean that with all sincerity. There was nowhere for me to turn. I was so afraid I was going to hurt myself I called my best friend. I got his voice mai. I called a psychologist that helped me with pain management, I got his voice mail. I called my mom...voice mail. The world around me literally went dark. I could ony see, hear and feel things about 2 feet around me. It was as if I was put into a dark box it was a VERY scary feeling. Anyway, remember Kevin? The Christian supervisor? So did I,  for some reason. Don't ask why but, his name just popped into my head. This is a guy I had spoken with very briefly on a job site. I didn't even know this guy. I managed to get his number and called him not even knowing  what I would say or why...voice mail. At this point I thought about locking mt daughter out of my room and posting a note so when my wife came home she would know what I had done. I was running out of options fast. The phone wrang and when I answered  it was Kevin. I asked if he rememebred me and he did. I told him I wasn't doing to good and explained my situation. He felt bad and said he had gone through a divorce but asked why I called him. I told him I had lied to him and in fact didn't have a relationship with God. I wanted to ask for Gods help and didn't know how. He explained to me that it wasn't just an ask and recieve policy and that I had to be serious and except a few things. I agreed and he said he'd meet me somewhere. He was 2 hours away. No I couldn't do it It had to be now. So right there over the phone I asked Jesus for forgiveness and for him to be my savior. We spoke for a few minutes after and we hung up. I didn't feel any better and figured it didn't work. I needed this to work so bad though.  I brokle down and fell to my knees and cried my heart out begging for forgiveness and REALLY meant it this time. I prayed that if it wasn't in his plan to have my family stay together then strike me down NOW. Take me now because I can't deal with the loss of my family. I begged from the bottom of my heart for him to speak to me and give me some sort of sigh that he was listening. I prayed for what seemed an eternity (it was really only 20 minutes I found out later) The sign came!!!  Yep it sure did. When my wife came home she came straight up to me and gave me a little cross and a pice of paper that said "You're never alone. God is always with you". She knew when she left I hated everything about religion. I asked her when she bought this and she said about 20 minutes ago.  WOW!! About 20 minutes ago I was beggin God to talk to me. Here he was not talking but actually screaming to me. I explained to her what I had just gone through and she answered by saying you're not going to believe this but I just left the church and set up an appointment for us to get counciling from the church. She didn't have any idea that I had just gone though what I did. She asked if I would go? DUH...can we go now. After that I have yet to be mean spirited or nasty to her in any way. We have since made up and she is again in love with me from the heart. Anyway needless to say I now attend church and my realtionship with my wife, family and God is growing everyday. I owe everything to my Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with me.  I am so sorry for the lengthy testimony but there is no short version that has the impact of what really happen that day.

Wow!  God is soooooo good, and sooooooo on time!  Praise God and hallelujah!

I'm praying for your continued growth!

In His Grip,
Kevin

Thank you, so much, for sharing.  As Kevin has said: God is so good and ALWAYS right on time.  What a powerful testimony. 

Praise God! Thank you Jesus. Thanks for sharing your testimony with  us.  God is so AWESOME he answers our prayers even before we ask.

Thank you for sharing your testimony.  It's pretty amazing the things that will happen when we only trust Him.  God loves each and every one of us. Amen!

Okay, I'm sitting here crying now.  I know you've seen "the" threads on dpc wanting proof of Christianity/God, etc.  Your testimony so shows that we can't prove God exists on a scientific level, because he is a personal God.

Thank you for sharing!

Oh, I wanna see your pictures. If you can share them.

I would love to share my pictures but I don't know how...Any one want to try this with me?

What Kevin said goes for me as well.  Oh thank You, Father, for saving our brother through You Son!

Oh, Nick, you have absolutely no idea how this testimony has blessed my heart.  Not sure I can type much as I'm crying so hard here but what a wonderful Heavenly Father we have.

I lost my dear husband a few years ago and life for me is so lonely and if I didn't have my Father, I just don't know what I'd do.

Thank you Nick.  Thank you.

When I stop crying, I will help you with some photo posting.

I just feel like singing these words. 

Nick, thank you for sharing from your heart with us.  God is such an all-knowing, all-compassionate Savior, isn't He?  I'm so glad you and your wife have entered a brand new relationship with each other, with Jesus at the center.  He will keep you on track---and how blessed your child(ren) are, to have Christian parents raising them.  God bless.

Nick    Thanks for sharing your testimony. 



God be with you and your family    Ruth

I just want to thank everyone personally for replying to my testimony. I have to admit it was a very powerful moment in my life. I truly despised all that was religious and hated people who believed in all the Hoo Haa. It's not that I believed in Satan, I just didin't give either of them the time of day or a single thought. I used to tease my best friend that L.Ron Hubbard and Jesus were in the running for the best selling fiction book ever published. He and I would ge into some pretty heated discussions over religion and it usaully ended with us not talking for a couple of weeks.

Ohh!!! I have to tell you something that happened that day. Gosh I almost forgot.  My best friend eventually called me back after I had left a message. He called me in the middle of my Crisis Prayer with Jesus (that's what I like to call my first prayer for forgiveness) Anyway he knew something was wrong by the sound of the message I had left. Well when he called I was crying and told him I'd call him back that I was very busy. He was concerned and pushed the subject and I simply told him I was in the middle of asking Jesus for forgiveness. His next words were and I quote " You just single handedly saved the rest of the world!!" I asked what he meant and he said thats simple because Hell just froze over. I used to tell him I would convert to Christianity when that little fantasy place called Hell froze over.

Anyway I just wanted to say thank you for the kind words and I am very happy to have been guided here by the Lord. Not sure what I'll do here but it must be special because from what I've read there are some very special people here.  Thanks again. God Bless

Nick

Nick ~ I, too, want to thank you for your testimony with tearful eyes.  God is so good and God is always right!  You got the nudge from God.  Jesus said...No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come. But if they do come, I will raise them to life on the last day.  John 6:44 CEV

And is life wonderful when we have Jesus in our hearts!

Your testimony has really touched my heart. Thanks so much for being willing to share with us.

Ruth Ann

A perfect example of God's grace outpoured on the one who has no-where to go and has no hope except in Christ.
If God doesn't bring us to our knees then we are lost forever.
What a mighty Saviour.
He stoops to conquer our hearts.
God bless you, and I pray that He will show you what to do next.
regards Chris.

Beautiful example of how God can work in our lives.  I've heard athiests boast about how they are too smart to believe in God and are strong enough to deal with life by themselves.  I have always felt sorry for them though, humans aren't meant to go through life on their own, separate little universes just bumping into each other but not connected.  God is the thread that connects people to each other, not just to the grace, help, and joy of Himself. 

Sara

That testimony touched me as well, so glad it healed a broken marriage, must be so nice to be loved, and God giving you a fresh start start in life, not only in your marriage but in a new relationship with Him through Christ. God put Kevin in place for the right moment when your heart was ready to ready to turn to God, imagine it Kevin haden't been there in that crisis?

Nick, I haven't read your testimony until this morning. God did not just open your eyes to see His glory, but He also used your weakness so you can gain strength to boldly share what you went through. Now that you are in the fold of The Good Shepherd, I pray that you keep following His voice. Stay with Him and lose the path no more.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."