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Testimonies

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by standingfirminChrist, Feb 20, 2006.

  1. standingfirminChrist

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    I just read an awesome testimony in another thread posted by ShannonL. I would love to hear other testimonies of God's miraculous love in saving you.

    And Shannon, can you post that testimony in here as well?

    Let's share our love for the Lord!
     
  2. standingfirminChrist

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    My Testimony
    by Rev. Ronald W. Robey

    I was born on Wednesday September 9th, 1959 in Tagiuria, Libya, Africa to American parents.
    My Dad was stationed at the Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli, Libya. On Christmas day of 1960 my father drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying out a new scuba diving outfit that his
    buddies in his barracks had bought him for Christmas that year. By January 1960, mother brought me, my twin sister, and my three brothers to the United States. We lived for a period of time at my aunts and uncles in Oakton Virginia. In 1962, we moved to Manassas Park Virginia. We lived in Manassas Park for three years and then moved to another suburb of Manassas. By 1968, we
    were back in Manassas Park in a different house. We remained in that house until 1977 during that period of time I was somewhat of a misfit around the home. On my ninth birthday, my oldest brother who was 17 gave me a bowl of hash to smoke, and also introduced me to cigarettes. Through the next several years I tried several different drugs but found no pleasure in them. From hash, to marijuana, to speed, to kilo weed, acid and later cocaine.

    Although I tried those many drugs I never felt that I was actually addicted to them because I could pass them up for weeks without accepting them. It was more of a social thing for me, but that's what most people who are addicted to these drugs say.

    From the age of nine when I was first introduced to these drugs I would disappear from home for two and three days at a time without telling mother where I was. This went on until the age of 13.

    At the age of 13 I moved to Pennsylvania with some Mennonite friends of mine. There I was made to go to church every Sunday which was an odd experience, seeing as it was a Mennonite community. I had been raised in the Assemblies of God movement. It was unusual to see the man sitting on one side of the church and women on the other during services. Also, they had foot washings, which I had never seen before in the assemblies. The Mennonites seemed to be stricter than the Pentecostal’s. I stayed with the Mennonite family for almost a year before returning to Manassas Park Virginia. And then it was back to the same old thing, I’d stay home one or two days a week, and be gone the rest of the time. Even though I was not home as much as I should have been, I still knew that I should be in church and stayed in church.

    At the age of 14, I made a homemade bomb and placed it in a water drainage pipe in Manassas Park. The bomb went off, and Fire Company #9 was called to extinguish a huge fire. When the bomb went off, I was standing in the middle of a 50 foot wide road. The bomb was so powerful, it blew an 85 lb. manhole cover in the air about 4 feet and shot fire clean across the road and up an embankment. I ran in a friend’s house before the fire department got there.

    After the fire was extinguished, the Fire Marshall and Chief of Police began knocking on doors to see if anyone had seen what happened. My friend answered the door, and before the police could finish asking the question, my friend told the police I did it. The Fire Marshall took me down in the drain pipe and told me he wanted me to see the damage I had done. With a little geologist pick, he tapped the concrete wall and it crumbled.


    Just 2 feet from the wall was a gas line. I was told by the Fire Marshall that that line supplied gas to around 5,000 homes in Manassas Park and if the fire company had not extinguished the flame when they did, it could have blown up over half of that park; killing nearly 3,500 people in the fire, including my self. I was then taken to the police station and my mother was called. I had a court date, and received 6 months probation.

    At the age of 16 a circus came to town. I saw the African elephant and several lions and knew immediately that I had to join. Upon talking to the manager of the circus, I learned that in order to join the circus I would have to get my mother's permission giving them custody of me since I was a minor. I immediately went home and told mother my plans to join the circus. Mother was adamant about the fact that I was not leaving home. I was rebellious. I climbed up on the roof of our home and told mother I was not coming down until after she signed the papers giving me permission to leave. After several hours mother came out of the house and told me I could leave. She said she would rather see me gone than to see me fall off the roof and break my neck. At that age I did not realize how much I hurt mother in my rebellion.

    At the age of 17, I was told by an eye doctor that I would be totally blind in ten years time due to Retinitis Pigmentosa and retinal deterioration. Since then, my I have gone blind in my left eye and my right eye has lost all but a 4.5° peripheral field.

    I traveled with the circus for four years as an assistant animal trainer. During my first year in the circus I met and fell in love with one of the high wire walkers. Judy was also a contortionist. Her family was from South America.

    In October of 1977 my son was born in Jacksonville Florida. Three days later, his mother was killed in a car accident when she was broadsided by a drunk driver. One the measly pay of $75 a week I could not take care of my child. And so, I gave him over to his grandparents and aunts that were with the circus. They left the circus that week for Judy's funeral, and I never saw them again. I've heard stories from other circus members who say that my son Juan is walking the high wire like his aunts and mother did.

    Upon leaving the circus in 1979, I was arrested in Manassas Virginia and charged with grand larceny, a crime which I did not commit. I was convicted and sent to prison with a five-year sentence.

    Prison was the best thing that could've happened to me here on this earth. For it was in that prison that I realized that I was lost and in need of a Savior. A born-again Jewish chaplain, Charles Steinberg, and a Pentecostal Evangelist, J. Robert Wyatt, would come to the jailhouse twice a week and share from the Word of God with those who were interested. For the first couple weeks, I was bitter. I would just sit in my cell not wanting to hear a thing. After a while, I decided I could not do anything else so I may as well participate in the Bible study. As I would dig in the Word the Spirit would convict me more and more. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ there in that dirty jail cell. With Brother Steinberg's help, I got into a correspondent's Bible study outside the jail. Three weeks later, I was sent to the prison to serve the rest of my sentence.


    Upon my release from prison, I continued in the Word of God and study. I went to live with my Pastor and stayed with him and his family for three and a half years. During that period, I attended minister’s meetings in Berkley Springs, West Virginia and Grantsville, Maryland twice a month.

    I have been preaching the gospel since my release from prison. God is so good.

    I served as an assistant pastor in Manassas, Virginia for two years before moving to Greensboro, North Carolina where I opened a fellowship called MorningStar Fellowship. I pastured in North Carolina for 6 years until I had to step down due to health problems that put me in the wheelchair. Doctors at that time told me I would spend the rest of my life in that chair. What was happening was this… When I would stand up, my blood pressure would drop and I would pass out within 8 – 10 seconds. Doctors tried several different medicines to bring my BP up, but to no avail. After four months of being in the chair, trying to stand only to fall to the floor and have to be picked up again, I told the Lord that I did not want to be in that chair any more. I told Him that I could not stand on my own and was depending on Him to keep me up. I stood that day and have not been back in that chair but a couple times since then; and that was because I was needing rest and other chairs were taken. I still have problems with my health to this date, but God has brought me out of the chair. I can walk into the doctor’s office today and the blood pressure will be ‘astronomically low’, as one nurse put it. On the average, it is around 97/61. When they scratch their heads and say, ‘I don’t know how you are standing’, I tell them, ‘I know!’ I am able to witness God’s hand upon my life!.

    In December of 2005, God brought a very special woman into my life and on June 11th, 2005, we were married in a little church on a hill in New Market, Virginia.

    All praise goes to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
     
  3. Brice

    Brice New Member

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    Great testimony SFIC. There was another thread a while back with some testimonies, I will see if I can find them and provide a link. We should keep this one going, but this way the ladies who posted theirs already will not have to do so again. God bless and thanks for the testimony, God is great.
     
  4. Brice

    Brice New Member

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  5. standingfirminChrist

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  6. Brice

    Brice New Member

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    You are very welcome.
     
  7. Linda64

    Linda64 New Member

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    Testimony of Linda
    E. Robey


    I was born and raised in a reform Jewish home in Cleveland, Ohio. We lived in a Roman Catholic neighborhood, where the Jewish community was called “Christ Killers”. So, for many years, I believed that Roman Catholicism was the standard for Christianity-the Virgin Mary was a nun, and Jesus Christ was a Roman Catholic priest. As a matter of fact, the Jewish people commonly used the name of Jesus Christ as a swear word. It would be years later I would learn that all Gentiles were not “Christians”.

    In 1974, I lived in Loveland, CO, across the road from a lady who had been praying for a Christian neighbor-her name is Mrs. Miller. She had no idea that she would be living across the road from a “Jewish” neighbor!! We shared rides into town to shop, etc. On one of those trips, she asked me what church I went to-well, that was a difficult question for me to answer, since I didn’t go to any church-nor did I go to synagogue either. I had been a non-practicing Jew for many years before I met Mrs. Miller. Like I mentioned, Roman Catholicism was the standard of Christianity for me-and I believed that all Gentiles were Christians. Years before Mrs. Miller met me, the Lord had been preparing her for me-I really believe this. She had always wondered why the Jewish people had rejected their Messiah-so she studied Judaism for two years-and knew more about Judaism than I did!!!!!!!!!!! She never threw Bible verses at me-she just simply shared the love of God with a lost Jewish soul. I was always at her house asking her questions. One day, I asked her this question: “If all Gentiles aren’t Christians, why do they go to church?” Her answer: “They are simply warming the pews!!!!!” That answer aroused my curiosity about what a real Christian was. I found out that Jesus was born in a kosher home and that made Him pretty much Jewish-since he was descended from the tribe of Judah-not the Vatican or the Roman Catholic Church!!!! The Jews were looking for a king and a deliverer to save them from the Romans-they were not looking for a Savior to save them from their sins.

    The entire town of Loveland, CO was praying for me-I did not have a chance to flee from the saving grace of God. Mrs. Miller would take me to Christian Women’s Club luncheons and to church almost every Sunday-as my husband would allow her to do so. Then, on March 1, 1974, during a church service at the 1st United Presbyterian Church in Loveland, CO, I gave my life and my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. I confessed and repented of my sins, and accepted His forgiveness, and became His child----Hallelujah!

    “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not” 1 John 3:1 KJV

    “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37 KJV

    Now that I have known the Messiah for 26 years, I am beginning to see legalistic Judaizers in the Messianic Jewish movement. The error of Galationism is creeping back-subtlety, but nonetheless, it is showing its ugly head. In order not to lose their Jewish identity-and become assimilated into the “Gentile” church, Messianic Jews are separating themselves into Messianic congregations-who worship on the Shabbat (Sabbath) and consider Sunday worship something pagan!!! Also, when the Gentiles attend Messianic worship services, they are being told that they need to keep the Shabbat and the Law of Moses in order to keep their salvation. There is nothing which I dislike more than that of a Gentile trying to become “Jewish” The Gentiles are being put back under the Law!!!!!!!!!!!! In order to understand why this is happening, here is a brief explanation:

    The first century church was made up mostly of Jews. After the apostles and disciples died, and the Gentiles came into the church, they brought with them some pagan practices-and eventually-at the time of Constantine-the “Jewish” church became paganized and unrecognizable to the Jewish people. So to speak, Jesus the Jewish Messiah became a Gentile to the Jewish people-and Christianity was the religion of the Gentiles. Now, when a Jewish person becomes born again, he/she desires to retain their “Jewish” identity and not become assimilated into the “Gentile” church. Many Jewish people, especially the ones coming from an Orthodox or Conservative Jewish background, are regarded as “dead” to their families when they become born again.. The families actually have a “funeral” and “bury” their family member/s. These people are NOT Jewish anymore because they have become one of “them”-meaning a Gentile/Christian. They are considered “meshumad”-which means “apostate” in Hebrew. This did not happen to me personally-because I came out of a Reform Jewish background, but I have seen it happen to many of my Jewish brethren. My family just thought that I had “caught” some kind of a “disease” and that I would get over it sooner or later. Well, what I caught is the “disease” of everlasting life in our Messiah-Praise God!!!

    It saddens me to see this legalism creeping in-I love my Jewish brothers and sisters in the Lord-and I also love my Gentile brothers and sisters in the Lord. The Gentile believers do NOT need to become “Jewish” to keep their salvation-and the Jewish believers do not have to keep the Law to stay saved either. Sunday worship is NOT pagan-our Lord rose on Sunday, which is the first day of the week. The Shabbat did not change to Sunday-it is still on the seventh day. Yeshua is my Shabbat-my Rest-I rest in Him alone. For He alone is the fulfillment of the Law.
     
  8. NaasPreacher (C4K)

    NaasPreacher (C4K) Well-Known Member

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    Roger, a miserable sinner saved in 1974 by the grace of God, and serving still by that same grace.
     
  9. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    Up until that Sunday morning in 1947, all those sermon I'd heard, revivals I'd attended, meant very little to a young kid. Then, suddenly, the Holy Spirit began to apply to me those sermons on hell, sin, the cross, resurrection and salvation.

    To be suddenly brought face to face with your sin and its consequences frightened the 9-year-old boy who now understood his sinfulness and its consequences, and the need for a Savior. Looking back, I see that the Holy Spirit performed His marvelous regenerating, illuminating, convicting and saving work almost at the same time.

    My pastor quizzed me thoroughly when I arrived at the front. No Roman Road, no sinner's prayer. "Do you understand that you are a sinner, without hope? Are you sorry for your sins, do you confess Christ as your Savior and Lord?" "Yeeeessss," I blubbered through tears.

    Ah, Lord, how great Thou art, how merciful Thou art, that the Creator of the Universe would extend mercy to a 9-year-old boy.


    Tom B
     
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