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Member Testimonies
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 Member TestimoniesWhen I was 22 years of age some 30+ years ago, I was diagnosed with a rare form of bipolar disorder. I spent many times in mental agony trying to figure out why God wanted me to undergo such misery. From 1995 to 2014, I attempted my life 19 times. However, God made it plain that He did not intend for me to die by suicide. He repeatedly saved me from my own hand. Around the first of 2014 after overdosing on full strength aspirin, I found myself in agonizing, almost unbearable pain in my head on the second and third nights following the overdose. Needless to say, I did not sleep much the second night. However, after wrestling with the pain and agony on the third night, I began to praise the mighty name of God first in a whisper. As time went on, I began to raise my voice uttering praises unto God. When I reached half way up the articulation, Teresa was awakened and came to my bedside. She first thought I was out of my head as she could see the agonizing pain in my face. I assured and re-assured her I was in my right mind. Then I resumed steadily raising my voice until I was shouting praises to God to the top of my lungs. This went on for about 15 to 20 minutes. God heard my fervent praise that night. As Teresa witnessed, He suddenly filled my room with his sweet, sweet presence. The indescribable peace of God was so overwhelming that though the pain still anguished my head, I could only concentrate on this overpowering peace. This went on for approximately half an hour. Then God’s presence began to fade, the pain must have slowly lost its sway as I had a most restful sleep that night. I now understand why God had me go through such a long, horrendous encroaching throughout my adult years. It was to bring me close to His bosom. I now have a homebound ministry in my church, and 3 years ago, God gave me and Teresa separate visions that someday I would facilitate middle Tennessee’s only faith based support group for people who suffer from depression. In Christ’s love, Jim Byler |
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Christmas 2015 message from your captain Dear Team, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas Season and a happy and meaningful 2016. Though Jesus wasn’t actually born on December 25th, (we really don't know his true date of birth), we celebrate this day in recognition of his birth and life. I wanted to tell you a little about my experience. I considered myself an atheist until I was nearing the age of 40, having grown up in a broken home and being afflicted with polio at the age of 2, in the epidemic in England in 1940. My father abandoned my mother and his three children, and we never saw him again. I was 8 years old when we last heard of him, but that was the date of a letter to my mother that I found later in my childhood. I was so unhappy as a crippled and abandoned child that I came to disbelieve that there could be a God. As a young adult, I picked up a Bible one day and started to read. When I came to the part where scripture says people lived 900 years or more, I thought, “how ridiculous” and put the Bible down again, not to pick it up again for many years. Some time in 1978 there were excerpts in the newspaper entitled, “The Shroud of Turin". Looking back, I think it rather strange that excerpts from a book such as this would be published in the local newspaper. The book was by Ian Wilson, and there were 4 excerpts printed over 4 days. Having read these, and becoming curious, I purchased the book. By the time I had finished reading the book, I was converted to Christ. Then I turned to the Bible. It was the prophecies of the Bible that convinced me that Jesus was truly the Son of God and the promised Messiah. The following is one of those precious prophecies, which I want to share with you in this holy season. It is from the Book of Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. “But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” This prophecy predicts Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, hundreds of years before he was born of Mary, and showing that He was preexisting with God in Heaven before he was born of a virgin. Now it matters not to me whether the Shroud of Turin is the genuine shroud of the crucified Jesus. I am a true believer. It took two years from my conversion to start attending church and I was baptized by immersion in 1980. May our dear Lord be with us all, always. Shirley. |
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knightrider62 19-May-16, 09:57 |
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knightrider62 |
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knightrider62 May God bless you richly, Jim tennesseehiker |
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tower919 05-Mar-17, 21:17 |
I grew up in an Episcopal Church and sang in the boys' choir - first as a probationer and then as a chorister - from about 2nd grade through 6th grade. The Christmas Eve midnight services were especially memorable because the boys' choir was in the church's balcony and we could look down on a packed house in the pews. While I have believed in God for as long as I can remember, I only recently came to believe that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, and, like Shirley, it was the Old Testament prophecies that were the final proof I needed. Back in the fall of 2010 I was at a pretty low point in my life and I went to Barnes & Noble to buy a chess book to cheer me up. The store had recently moved the chess section to another part of the store, and, after a clerk told me where it was, I passed the religious section. A book at eye level caught my eye because it had on its cover the symbol for the king in chess. I stopped to look at the book and, realizing it was a Bible, decided to buy it since I didn't have one. The Bible sat on my bedside nightstand untouched, like a museum piece, for about a month. I guess I figured just having the Bible nearby meant I was close to God. But one night, I picked it up and started reading it from the beginning the way one normally would read a book. But I couldn't make it through Genesis - the language seemed odd (it was the King James Version of the Bible) and my mind wandered too much as I was reading so I put it back down. But a night or two later, I picked it up again, looked through it and realized there was an entirely separate section (in terms of format) labeled "The New Testament." I found the New Testament to be very easy to read (even in the King James) and, after finishing it, decided to investigate the evidence for the divinity of Jesus Christ (I'm a natural skeptic - even more so about something as serious as God and eternity.) I joined a local church's "Starting Point" class (and attended services at the church,) read the Old Testament in a different translation of the Bible, and did research on the Internet for the evidence of Christ's divinity. I think I had to intellectually believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God before I could believe in my heart. A series of Old Testament prophecies was the clincher, though I was coming around to believing before that. I since was baptized by full immersion and continue to enjoy reading the Holy Bible though I should do it more often as I never regret the time I spend in God's Word. I pray nightly and God has answered countless prayers, especially when my mother was going through health challenges and when she sold her home. But the way God led me to Jesus Christ reminds me of these verses from the Old Testament: "And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." (1 Kings 19:9-12) It's easy, imo, for new Christians to think God communicates by the proverbial thunderclap and fire and brimstone. But my experience is He most often communicates in a "still small voice." PS Sorry this is kind of long. I'm a writer by profession, and, once I start, it's hard to stop. |
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PS. I, too, am an author. Send me your email address via private message, and I will share my poem that was published along with my other works. I would also be honored to read your works. Jim tennesseehiker |
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tower919 05-Mar-17, 23:35 |
Looking forward to receiving your poem and any other works you'd like to send, and you're right about why this club is unique. There really is no better way to spend time in these forums than discussing and sharing God's Word. |
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I also had an alcoholic Dad who was incredibly abusive to my mother. Put guns to her head; beat her in front of me. When I was 7 he put me and my mother out into an apartment so that he could have an affair. He did not abuse me physically but there was emotional abuse. God is truly a Father to the fatherless in fact I never refer to my Dad as Father at all. I refer to him as Dad. He has since passed away. I would like to share mine with you. God has been very kind to me and merciful for I have not received the Justice that I am due, because of his grace. And his grace is sufficient. I debated with myself whether or not to share this testimony of sorts. I do not want it to be misconstrued nor misunderstood. I am least here among you and would rather enter into the kingdom as the least than to reign on earth or in hell as first. I claim not to be learned or special. I come to you in weakness and trembling and with only the knowledge of Christ and him crucified then raised to life on the third day. My favorite verse is when John the Baptist said… he whose sandals I am unworthy to stoop down and untie. I wanted to get all that out first before I write. I have always known God but I have not always been a Christian. (However you only really know God when you are a Christian) When I was three years old I had a vision while in the car with my Mother. I stood up on the passenger seat and said to my mother. I looked down from the heavens and picked you to be my mommy, because you were lonely. Even tho I was three I remember it like it was yesterday. Now I am not claiming that is true or not. However I know God placed that thought on my heart to tell my mother at that time. I also told her that God loves you mommy. My mother wept. Fast-forward 20 years, I spoke to God and said… God there are so many religions in this world and they all think that they are right. Yet all of them have done horrendous things in the name of God. What is the truth? Please teach me your truth. God lead me to Jesus. Then one day I remembered my request. Since God had granted it. I prayed. Thank you God for leading me to Jesus for I was lost and you lead me. Immediately after I thanked God, I opened my Bible to read. I would open it to a random page while I was on break at work. The first words I read were Jesus saying… “Everyone who truly learns from the Father comes to me.” I was in awe! I mean completely in Awe! I then thanked God again. There is much more and I have kept this short, as I have said God has been very kind to me literally. He comes to us all in different ways according to his glory. In different ways as fingerprints are different. No one fingerprint of God is better than another, just different, tailor made for the individual whom He chooses to reveal himself to. It is our personal relationship with Jesus that is of importance. Our walk, Luke 9:23 23 Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. John 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. So... "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Develop a personal relationship with him, cultivate it, hold it close and hold it dear. Be careful not to cast your pearls. It is a personal experience meant for you and you alone. No relationship can exist without communication or with the absence of communication. Jesus spent more time communing and communicating with God (while alone) in one month. than I have all of my life. Need I wonder why I can not do the things he did, even tho he said I could and would? Talk to him, tell him everything! What you think, how you feel, but know you are here to serve him, not the other way around. Well all err as humans and I may have erred in posting this. I know that I know nothing and yet while I was still a sinner God sent his son for me. |
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tower919 14-Apr-17, 10:01 |
I too believe that people are led to God in unique ways and that every person's faith journey is unique. God knows us better than anyone, even better than ourselves, and just as every human being is unique, so, I think, are the ways God chooses to reveal Himself to us and to lead his flock to a deeper and stronger relationship with Jesus Christ. |
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My Lord saves About a year later i gave my life to the Lord. Our church youth would meet other christians in our district every week so we all knew each other well, I got Married have two sons , For training i used to cycle about 400 miles a month one night when i was going to work on my bike, a drunk driver hit me from behind i never saw antthing and the only things i know about it w=is from the Police. There was a taxi behind him who radioed in what happened and got the police fire and ambulance there, The drver that hit me never stoped other taxis heard what happened and followed him home, I went in the front window of the car through the car and out the back window, FROM WHERE MY BIKE WAS TO WHERE MY BODY WAS FOUND was more than half a mile , I was in a coma for two weeks lost part of my memory had 22 boken bones and two fracktures to my skull, I left hospital 3 months latter using a frame and sticks told i would never walk properly again, ( the Drs did not know that all my friends were praying for me) After 3 months i went back to work on light duties, about 3 monthes latter i stopped using my sticks, it took 2 years before the works Dr said i could go back to old job, Our Lord is great he listens to us and anrwers our prayer I work for another 15 years then got early retirment, My accident was in 1980 PRAISE the Lord im still walkig without sticks, OUR LORD is good |
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How the Lord Showed His Grace to Me A few years previous I had nearly become a statistic. A suicide statistic. There are many of these in America today. Google search “percentage of deaths by suicide in USA, and you'll find this; “Suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. It is also the second leading cause for those 15 to 34. From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among American ages 35 to 64 increased nearly 30 percent.” I was 21 years old at the time of my attempt. In the prime of my life I thought I could not endure another day. I was existing only. I existed for pleasure and for only what I thought would bring me happiness. Ultimately, I came to know only despair. Dark and unending despair. Granted, not everyone who abuses illegal drugs attempts suicide. I was one who did. One day I found a police squad car had left a 12 gauge shot gun inside. Working as a lot attendant at a car lot which serviced these police cars gave me access to this shot gun. My chance to escape this despair which defined my life was within my grasp. Pointing the barrel of the gun under my chin I proceeded to pull the trigger. A small percentage of those who attempt suicide this way do survive. You may Google search this as I did. That's why I know. The doctors who were trying to save my life called my wife. She made sure they also called my mother because she needed to know I was dying. They couldn't stop the bleeding. When they were able to get Mother on the phone they told her I had only two hours of life left. I have seen x-ray images of my head. 40 years later anyone can see for themselves the shrapnel from the shot gun slugs that blew the top of my head off. There is a bald spot there now. Another bald spot has appeared due to nature. My wife has a pet name for it. Back at the hospital they finally stopped the bleeding and put me in the intensive care unit. They inserted a trachea tube into my wide pipe so I could breath freely. Also, there were many wires inserted through my jaw which had been terribly mangled. Thankfully, I still have my right eye and I can do many tasks – even drive. The surgeons fashioned another nose for me from my own skin and bone, but of course I can not smell. And though I have lost the forward one-third of my tongue I still can taste and speak. A few weeks later I regained consciousness. When I awoke I did not know how I came to be in a hospital. I was not in any pain, thankfully. But I figured out quickly enough I was not at all the same physically as I had been before. Through the one eye I could survey that for the time being I had to have help to walk on those occasions that orderlies asked me to do so. I was shocked and saddened by what I seen in the mirror. My face, too, had been mangled! Before I had fancied myself to have features similar to Paul McCartney. Now it appeared as if a large board had been used to flatten the front of my face. There were no cheeks or nose. When I looked inside my mouth I could discern only a couple of teeth. There was a big plastic piece of white pipe coming from my throat, and besides all of this and the wires with cork pieces on the ends which ran through my jaw I could see I had lost an eye. Surprisingly, I manage to gain weight in the ensuing years through my gastrointestinal tube through which I fed myself. Also, surprisingly, I no longer felt the deep depression which had over shadowed me for the last several months. For this I was grateful. I was not prepared for learning to live without the good and normal appearance which I had taken for granted. I was not prepared to face life looking like a “freak” Though I had all of my cognitive abilities and understood (to a narrow degree) that I was very fortunate to still be alive, I became angry at the turn which my life had taken. In denial I couldn't bring myself to admit it was my poor choices which led to this place I now found myself. My mother, however, knew where to turn and where to seek hope. He's the only hope which mankind has. I did not know this but He had a plan for me. She prayed that for “my souls' sake” for God to have mercy on me. When she visited a few days later she said I communicated through our hands touching that I knew she was there. I do not recall that, but the Lord assured her then that her prayers would be answered. That was enough for her. Not having this assurance myself I continued to seek avenues to abuse alcohol and drugs. When the hospital staff was certain I wan no longer suicidal I was allowed to go to my home on the weekends. There I managed to consume beer using my stomach tube. And through my wind pipe I smoked dope. How insane! A couple of years later Mother visited me at the hospital. She had been praying for me and she hoped to speak to me about the Lord and of His love for me. I did not throw her out of my room, but I did tell her to shut her mouth. She continued to pray. In the days that followed, in between the bone and skin graft operations which I endured, I continued living as riotously as my limited abilities allowed. Then one day I meet an evangelist. Incredibly, my meeting this man of God challenged me and awakened something which I thought had all but died. Purposely, I engaged this man in conversation and found that he was challenging me to evaluate the Gospel of Jesus and God's revelation to men as set forth in the Scriptures. Thinking I could debate with this man and his assertions I picked up a Bible and began to read. The more I read and the more he and I compared notes on what we were reading, the more the truth which is Christ came through to me as it never had! God is ready to meet each man or woman who truly desires to meet with Him honestly and truthfully. In short order I began attending a church and soon after I met the Lord at the Cross. My life changed in a way I had only before dreamed that it could. The Truth of Jesus came alive in my heart. God invaded my spirit and for the first time ever I knew that I was loved and that my life mattered. All fear was erased and replaced with a confident assurance of His own Righteousness. A journey of discovering all the wonders which God's grace provides began and has continued through to today. Gradually, all the lies of the enemy of Christ has been dealt with. Today my wife and I share this hope through the ministry of 4-Given Ministries. Let us share with you the hope which only the Lord Jesus offers. The testimony above was relayed to my by inhis_service. |
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crushingpower 28-Oct-17, 09:03 |
My Journey From Darkness Into His Amazing Light He met her with the baptism of the Holy Spirit which she described as burning the sin from her body. For the next week I witnessed a calmness and serenity about her and she had shown me scriptures now and again that left me examining my life and all my wrongdoings that were buried deep within me. It was not long before my well being was disturbed to such a degree that I found myself slowly but surely resisting less and less against the Holy Spirit. My wife had been praying for my salvation and how I was feeling the effect of those prayers. Then one day I drove past a church in my bus and a sign with writing on it 'God cannot change your past but he can forgive it' That was it, I knew He was truly calling me to repent of my sin of unbelief in Him as the Son of God who came to save us who truly repent. I was so aware of the wrath of God upon all who reject Him who loves us. I reached the terminus in the dark at 5:30pm in a secluded area and turned off all the lights on the bus and knelt and prayed. I asked God to reveal Himself to me and forgive me a sinful man I had obeyed the command to repent for the kingdom of God is near. The Spirit of God entered my heart and I felt for the first time pure and forgiven. Some time later I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in power during a prayer meeting. The Holy Spirit descending upon my head and reinforcing my inner man equipping me with the abiilty to preach and teach God's Word in power, something I was always somewhat timed at before. He gave me insight into His word, the Lord has been good to me. Then as the years passed we endured much mental anguish over a period of time from carnal men that lead the churches in our area behaving shamefully at times causing us to withdraw from public meetings with other Christians and now we are a church at home 14 years later before our family altar waiting for our blessed Lord to return. Strong in the Word and Prayer. Why he saved a worm like me I will never understand fully, but by grace I have been saved and by faith I walk in His Light and by His Spirit I shall be changed from mortal to immortal. Amen |
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re: Testimony of ichthus |
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re: Testimony of ichthus Thank you for sharing. Your, in Him Frank (inhis_service) |
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He keeps on giving and giving . . . By faith and trust in our God to continue to meet our needs for food and shelter, and without presumption on our part, we “cashed” the check. Part of the “extra” income we had available to us we knew we had to utilize as “seed” towards various ministries which have greatly enriched or otherwise added to our spiritual lives and understanding of God's kingdom and for benefit of those actively working in that Kingdom. We have been so blessed with unexpected increase here or reduced expenses there at the end of our budgeting for December, naturally had to “sow more seeds” into other ministries due to the increase we have found. In this giving we are truly discovering anew the truth of how much more blessed it is to give than to receive! All this is meant as a testimony to God's faithfulness as well as a preamble to a message which follows. God bless each and every one who knows the truth of God's love, and I pray for those still unsure of it, keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. The Gifts of Magi In the Christian account of Christmas, the sacrificial birth of Christ into the world among us brings about some of the loudest knocking ever known to human hearts. The gift of a Son into hands that would harm him presents a most sacrificial gift and a striking invitation to sacrifice everything to have it. As C.S. Lewis writes: “The Christian way is different: harder and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you—No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent, as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'”(2) To a groaning world that may not in the least suspect it is groaning for a savior, Christ comes as he came to Mary herself, wanting to stretch us physically, emotionally, and socially, taking away everything: the dark corners of our souls, even all we might have thought good or godly of ourselves—our good names, our good futures, our innocence. Mary certainly had reasons to say “No” to the devastating invitation that came to her by way of terrifying angel. For a young peasant girl, she was facing an assuring future: a husband to wed, a home to create, a good reputation. Saying “Yes” to God and to the words of the angel Gabriel was to put all of this on the line, everything she had and might have once clung to. Could you do the equivalent? Could you release security, love, reputation, or even your youth from your own determined grasp? Mary’s risk was no less difficult than the most sacrificial act you could imagine of your own life. Saying “Yes” to the Christ child and to the knocking of his love will surely bring down the houses we have built, even the rooms that house the things we hold onto most fiercely. Yet this is precisely the invitation the story of Christ leaves before us like a gift for this new year: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”(3) He comes with the annunciation of great sacrifice and pregnant impossibilities, and he curiously assures us not to be afraid. Yet where meek and foolish souls give everything to receive him, they still find themselves the wisest. Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. (1) O. Henry, 100 Selected Stories (London: Wordsworth, 1995), 5. (2) C.S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian (New York: Macmillan, 1984), 179. (3) Isaiah 9:6. |
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God Heard My Plea for Help |
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tennesseehiker 04-Jun-18, 01:24 |
Deleted by tennesseehiker on 04-Jun-18, 01:26.
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