Living proof of a modern-day miracle

Often people want proof that Jesus is alive and well. Many people think that the miracles stopped some 2000 years ago. Not so, I know of a modern day miracle that occurred just three decades or so ago. There was a young man who had reached the point in his life whereby he had fallen so low that he had pretty much decided that his best option was suicide. He was completely alone. His family had long ago given up on him, and he did not have one person that he could call a friend, not one!. He had been in trouble for as long as anyone could remember. The only people that wanted him were the police for questioning. He had been on drugs and alcohol from the time he was just a boy. He was street-hardened and mean. He had wandered all over the country and lived in some of the worst places imaginable in the toughest neighborhoods in some of the toughest cities. He had seen the worst that life on the streets has to offer. His hard life had taken a toll. He was a physical and mental wreck. He was homeless and penniless. The young man was an atheist or agnostic at best, often stating, that if there was a God, He had to be mean and he wanted no part of Him. He was rotten by any measure of society’s standards.

The young man had tried on occasion to get some sort of job and straighten up. He always failed miserably and ended up right back in the gutter. He decided to try one more time to achieve some sort of normalcy in his life. He decided if he did not make it this time, that he would just go ahead and take his own life and get it over with. He hitch-hiked into a major city and arrived without one penny to his name.
He took a menial job cleaning bricks for $15 cash per day working alongside winos, misfit street people and other tortured souls. His pay was enough to pay for a tiny un-air-conditioned room in a boarding house attic where he lived among many other boarders, most of whom were wards of the state that belonged in an institution.

He was an avid reader and often read two or three entire books in a night. One day while at the library, he was looking through the best seller list, and he noticed for the thousandth time that the Bible was number one on the best seller list. He decided, what the heck, I’ll read it and see for myself. He read the New Testament, and then he read the Old Testament, and then the New again. As a result he found and accepted Christ as his Savior. He went to church and publicly affirmed his faith in Christ and was Baptized.

His life began to change for the better immediately. He met a wonderful girl, and got married. He began to find better jobs, and as time went on, he and his wife had two wonderful children. He was happy for the first time he could remember. His career took off like a meteor and his financial well-being became established. Eventually he went into business for himself and built several multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up. Partially because of his counseling against his own former life, but mainly because of his bringing them up in church both of his children evaded the terrible life he had lived in his youth, and became happy well-adjusted Christians. Both graduated from college and have wonderful careers of their own. The young man went from being lonely, miserable, and on the verge of suicide to complete happiness, all because of Jesus. If you had known this young man before he became a Christian, and could see him now, you would agree that miracles still occur today.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that miracles still occur, because
that young man was me. I witnessed the miracle of Jesus coming into my
life. It completely changed my life forever. There is no other explanation. I tried on my own to change, but failed miserably. I only succeeded when Jesus came into my life.

It is very hard for me to give my testimony. I am ashamed of what I did in the early part of my life, and to be honest, I hate to even think about it, much less share it with others. It is a part of my life that I just as soon would like to forget and sincerely wish had never happened.
This past Sunday in church our pastor asked every member who had been saved by the blood of Christ to offer their testimony to at least one other person in the hopes that others might possibly benefit from it and accept Christ themselves. I have done so, and ask you to do the same.
If Christ truly has come into your life, it had to make a big difference. Tell someone today what a difference it has made. Jesus has instructed us to offer our testimony to others. It is the least we can do to repay Him for taking the punishment for our sins on the cross.

Paul had persecuted Christians greatly even to their death. Jesus came into his life one day and he changed overnight and went on to become one of the greatest Christians ever. Below is what Jesus told him to do when he became a Christian. He was instructed to offer his testimony to others and so should we. My testimony might not be worth two cents to some folks, but yours might mean the difference in their spending eternity in darkness or paradise. Do it today – time is running out!

____________________________

Acts 26:18
But rise and stand on your feet;
for I have appeared to you for this
purpose, to make you a minister
and a witness both of the things
which you have seen and of the
things which I will yet reveal to
you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.