I was speaking to someone recently who shared this story of hope with me:<\/p>\n
The story began by taking a loaf of bread and giving it to a young fella.\u00a0 He was living in a camping ground and he was homeless before that.<\/p>\n
From the loaf of bread he moved in to live with a mate and after that he started moving furniture and he realised the love of Christ had been shining through (our church helps\u00a0get furniture for strugglers).<\/p>\n
After a few months of helping and receiving, he decided it was about time he did something with his life.\u00a0 He told me that late one night he got down on his hands and knees and asked Jesus into his life.\u00a0 At that stage he was also suffering with HepC and at various times been in prison and asked to go on a program that the Government ran.\u00a0 Each time he was knocked back.\u00a0 His psychiatrist didn\u2019t think he was up to it yet.<\/p>\n
Once he became a Christian he went to them again and this time was accepted.\u00a0 Originally it was to be 12 months BUT it was only 6 months.\u00a0 His liver had begun to heal.\u00a0 He had 6 months where he fought.\u00a0 There were times when he wanted to give up and he was encouraged just to go another day. \u00a0Each time his mood improved.<\/p>\n
All this time he is going to church and getting involved in the Christian community and also helping to give out to people.\u00a0 He was no longer living on the streets but settled into a house with four walls and a roof, that were important to him.\u00a0 He actually joined Alcohol Anonymous and gave up the drink.\u00a0 He has been sober now for 2 \u00bd years.<\/p>\n
Now he is an active member in the congregation, reading during church and has even taken a service BUT the amazing thing is his liver has been healed.\u00a0 He was telling me one day that he had a death sentence of 2-3 years but now he feels as though he has a completely new life.<\/p>\n
I had the pleasure of baptising him at the beginning of the year.\u00a0 He told me afterwards that he said that he felt so clean – the slate had been wiped clean.\u00a0 At other times he has told me he felt Jesus scruffing him by the collar and dragging him up out of the gutter because that was where he\u2019d reached – rock bottom.<\/p>\n
At times he still struggles.\u00a0 BUT, he knows at the end of the day Jesus is there for him and he reaches out to him.\u00a0 He gets into the Word and we discuss at numerous times what he has been reading.\u00a0 His family has been amazed by his progress.\u00a0\u00a0 What they remember of a drunken, homeless man, sleeping in car bodies, is no longer there.<\/p>\n
How he began this life is another little story.\u00a0 He had a father who was a Christian and was killed in a motorbike accident on his way home from work.\u00a0 He still remembers his father used to work for the Army and he remembers that daunting service he went to as a 6 year old.\u00a0 His grandfather took him under his wing because his mother had remarried and the new husband didn\u2019t want the child.\u00a0 So the grandfather took him under his wing and he promptly died when the young fella was 12 and from then he just drifted in and out of trouble, in and out of jail, alcohol, drugs\u2026\u00a0 you name it.<\/p>\n
So he has come on an amazing journey.\u00a0 He told me a while back that once he had been cleared of the HepC, his liver was completely healed and he had been given a new life.\u00a0 The old life had gone.\u00a0 In Jesus we are given new lives.<\/p>\n
He has just finished a TAFE course and now hopes to start up his own little business.\u00a0 It won\u2019t make him millions but he said as long as he can get off the pension he won\u2019t be a burden to society.<\/p>\n
So just pray for this young man, that the Lord will continue to guide and direct him in his life that he now has.\u00a0\u00a0 Amen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was speaking to someone recently who shared this story of hope with me: The story began by taking a loaf of bread and giving it to a young fella.\u00a0 He was living in a camping ground and he was … Continue reading