I thought that I would share my experiences with anyone who visits my pages. It's amazing how I notice God's messages now that I have let Him into my life. I have always believed in Him, but I never learned or knew what it was about to have a relationship with Him. I do my best to, but we learn everyday and I hope to keep learning. I trust in God's word and will do my best to live by it. God talks to us all the time...it's up to us whether we choose to listen.
 

On Sunday, February 13, 2000, I had an amazing experience. That night, before I went to sleep, I turned the radio on and it was set to a local station.  I hadn't listened to the radio in a while and thought I would like some noise in the room.  Then I decided to read my bible where I left off the night before.  I don't normally allow a distraction while I am reading and I sort of questioned myself "why would I listen to the radio during my time with God?", but for some reason left it on anyway.

I started reading and became shocked!  I realized I practically quoted a section from that page to someone earlier that day who had questions about something he had read in that same place. He had always been told if it is written in the Bible then you should just accept it and while he believed that was true, he found it difficult without understanding it. I was trying to help him see it in a way that he could understand and apply to his life, but I had never read that page in the Bible before.  I realized the Lord had given me that information to help my friend.  I was suddenly filled with so many amazing emotions and then flashes of my life started appearing in my mind.  These were hard, traumatic times when I felt so alone, but strong with a sense of "it will be ok" at the same time.  I never understood why I was able to handle the situations so calmly and strongly, but that night I knew.  God had always been with me, helping me, crying along with me.  I started crying and from there I knew my life was changed.

I decided to share my experience with my friend and got up to write him an e-mail.  As I had this experience I kept asking "why did this happen, how did this happen?!"  As I began to type the e-mail, the woman over the radio announced the next song to play, "Only God Knows Why". She was announcing a brand new song that night that I had never heard before (on a secular station) and I knew God was in all of this. I knew that God had spoken through me to help another understand His words and He was telling me that His work was at hand here. I've heard stories from others how God had worked through them to help another, but I could never know what it was like until I experienced it myself. Up until recently, I didn't even own a Bible let alone know the contents, but it's never too late to open your heart and let Him in. I will never forget that night. It made me realize the times through my life He'd always been there right beside me. He knew I needed Him and helped me make it through. After all this time, never knowing the contents of the Bible, never getting to know Him or even had the experience of a service at church, He loved me and helped me. God's love is something you could never be able to explain until you experience it for yourself.

I now attend a Nazarene Church regularly and look forward to every Sunday!  "For it is God who works in us to will and act according to His good purpose"  That is the verse I think of when I think of that night a few years ago :)