My Story

There are some things that come along that are highly prized and stand out way beyond everything else. One of those events occurred over 9 years ago to me in the middle of August 2002.

For you to understand their value, I need to go back before those times and give you a brief view of a couple of things that related directly to those events.

When I was 8 my mother died. In my 20’s I began to realize what I had lost. She was a wonderful person. She was well loved by those around her.

I became very angry with God over her death. I would see families with grandmothers’ with them, and my heart would warm. Then I would realize that would never happen to me. I became bitter and hostile towards God, and as time went on I became even angrier and more bitter.

In my mid-40’s I asked God to save me in spite of myself because everything I’d tried to make myself happy with just wasn’t working.

In the summer of 2002, through a series of things that were happening at that time, I began to ask, “Where’s Jesus in all this?”. At the same time, I was watching as Lee Venden, Pastor of the Village Church always put Jesus in all his sermons.

One Friday evening I stopped by to see him and tell him how much I appreciated his Christ centered sermons. I shared with him some of my thoughts, and he shared with me some things relating to the subject of Jesus.

The next morning when I went to church, unlike any other Sabbath at the church, as I was walking down the hall in the City Church, I realized, “Now, I’m a part of these people here.” I hadn’t experienced that before at the church, even though no one there had made me feel that way there.

During the middle of that next week, an amazing thing happened to me that had never happened before to me. I was working on the outside of the church, and I realized that I hadn’t become angry over anything like I would have normally done by that time in the week. I was happy inside. That was absolutely awesome.

I began to think about that, and began to realize that Jesus had taken satan out of my life.

There was a lot of internal damage inside that needed healing, and that healing began to show up three years later in the late summer of 2005 when I began to be happy every day. This was foreign to my thinking.

So today, because Jesus set me free from satan’s power, I now have peace of mind, and joy and happiness I didn’t have for many years.

It doesn’t mean I never get angry, but it hardly every happens anymore, and it has such little effect on my life.

So, what I’m thankful for is being free in Jesus, free to be happy, to not be a slave of things that were destroying, not only me, but my relationship with those around me, especially my wife, and my children, my most highly prized human relationships.

And I can truly say that I’m thankful for the life I now have, something that my negative attitude would not have allowed me to have in the past.

Jesus is very capable of changing our lives if we will let Him. I know this by experience, and every day of my life with Him, I’m happy that He has freed me from satans power, and His promise is that He will never leave me nor forsake me. That’s His guarantee to me that I will never be taken over by satan ever again.

It’s just wonderful to be free today.