I want to share with you a personal experience of
God`s word and its truth. I will speak from Joel 2:25:
“Then I will make up to you for the yearsThat the swarming locust has eaten,The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust,My great army which I sent among you” (NASB)
I spent many years on the road with my old club. I
had a beautiful family and a great wife. I was blessed with a nice home and a
large income. I had it all. In spite of this I was a man seeking something that
would fill a huge hole in my soul. Now, I didn`t have the wisdom to comprehend
this at the time—I am speaking from hindsight.
Because of this wonder lust that moved me, pushed
me, and caused me to constantly seek things to fill the hole, I ended up
finding a strength that would lead to my greatest downfall—EGO.
I was a natural born leader. I`m a second degree
black belt, I was head instructor of a large Karate school, I have owned
several successful businesses, and yet I was not happy. I would run home from
work, jump on the bike, and head out to the club house or off with the boys. I
spent two sometimes three weekends a month for 14 years traveling around the
country. I eventually became a regional officer of my club, and was afforded
many benefits because of that power. Also, I had girlfriends all over the
place. I was living the life of a hellion and I loved it. My ego grew bigger
and bigger. I enjoyed the fear that I put into the hearts of other men. I
reveled in the circles of power I was a part of within the club, and I loved
the acts of violence and intimidation that I was involved in, or ordered to
perform. This would all lead to a huge and jaw dropping surprise from God when
I finally called on his name.
I won`t go into the details in this post, but let`s
just say I lost everything: my home, my wife, my business, my world—and the
respect of my children.
In May of 2012—last year almost to the day (the
20th), I found myself at the Alter in a little church…on my
knees…sobbing…seeking Jesus for real—for once. I found him. One week later God
surgically removed me from my old life in a way I could have never guessed, he
actually answered my prayer that I had forgotten I had said that day one week
earlier. You see, at the Alter that day, I asked God to remove from my life
anything that stood in the way of my usefulness to him…and boy he did.
One year later…almost to the day…I reflect back on
those weeks and months after I was saved—and they were hard—but they were
BLESSED! God took what I would have perceived, through my worldly eyes, as a
great tragedy and made it a tremendous victory in my life. I ride with a
Motorcycle Ministry today. My kids love, respect, and trust me, and even my
ex-wife and I get along very well. God truly did what he promised in Joel
2:25—he restored what the locusts had eaten, and the lost years. Praise the
mighty name of Jesus!!
Photo Credit: dhi.ucdavis.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment