Amen brother, Praise be to God our Father and Jesus Christ!...... i'm very grateful that He saved you by His Grace and mercy ,that the gun didn't fire on those attempts, and also that you didn't die on your bike that shameful night, and that God led you into repentance and surrender to Him. You have a powerful testimony brother VCO, thank you very much for sharing this with us brother VCO and all glory to be to God.
There is a little more to it, that I hesitate to tell, because some make fun of it.
Right after I surrendered to HIM, I fell on my face still weeping, and I had a vision or maybe it was a dream, but it seemed too vivid for a dream. I was kneeling at the cross looking up at Him, crying out: "Forgive me, Forgive me!" I knew that every sin that I ever committed, was like putting another one pound weight on Him, pulling down all the more on those nails to through his wrists. The Jews consider the wrists to be part of the hands, but I did not know that at that time; yet the nails were in His wrists. Through my tears of mourning over my utter sinfulness, I saw some blood fall from each wrist. It splashed on each of my forearms, and I could feel the warmth of the blood. I KNEW BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT THAT MEANT I WAS FORGIVEN. I laid there still sobbing, but not as hard as before, until I fell asleep. Sometime about an hour after I fell asleep on that floor, I got up and went to bed.
I knew He was going to do something with my life, but I did not know that I had to get into the Word to get the spiritual growth part rolling. About six months later, still TRUSTING WITHOUT A DOUBT that the Lord was going to do something with my life, I had my headset radio on at work, listening to my Country and Western Channel, and suddenly I could not STAND to hear one more "
somebody done somebody wrong song"; so I changed the Channel. It was a nasty divorce after only six months of marriage that drove me to the three attempts at suicide. Anyhow, I changed the channel and landed on the Christian Radio Station that I did not know existed, just as Dr. John MacArthur was starting a 72 night, verse by verse study of Revelation. I was HOOKED for life on good Bible Teaching.
Did HE ever use me? OH YES, BIG TIME. As I got grounded in the Word by the teachings of Dr. John MacArthur and Chuck Swindoll, and Dr. Ed Young on TV, and later Dr. Richard LEE, Dr. Adrian Rodgers, Dr. Ben Haden, Dr. Gil Rugh, Dr. Zola Levitt, and a couple others; I would occasionally try to witness to co-workers. Then one night after the latest rejection, a thought flashed through my head, "It is finished, move West." I could not shake the feeling that GOD wanted me to move WEST. Through a series of minor miracles with financing, and a job opening that was not supposed to be there, I ended up accepting a Job and we moved to Susanville, California, 90 miles NW of Reno. OH YES, God had brought me my soul mate, and we were introduced by a mutual friend, and were married about a five years when we moved to California, and we have been married over 35 years now.
What kind of miracle with financing, got us to Susanville, CA. The Night I told the guy on the phone that I would take the job and be there in two weeks, I knew we did not have the money to move. I put my 2 year old car up for sale in the paper and on the radio's Swap Shop, but 12 days later NOT ONE PERSON HAD INQUIRED ABOUT IT. My plan was to sell the car and lease a new one to drive to California from Nebraska. We had to LEAVE on Monday Morning, and I had NO OFFERS on the Car by Saturday night. That night a Neighbor was pounding on my door after midnight, to tell me that a drunk teenager was spinning kitties in the loose gravel besides my parked car and lost control and totaled my Nissan. I got more out of insurance than I had it advertised in the paper for. I paid off the car, leased a new one, drove to California, paid utility deposits, first and last month's rent, and had $90 left over for groceries, until my first paycheck came in. I THINK GOD SERIOUSLY WANTED ME IN CALIFORNIA.
Why Susanville? It was there at a men's Prayer breakfast, I was invited to get involved in the Match Two Prison Ministry, and I could not refuse. Two years later that thought came back, "It is finished, move West". YET AGAIN, through some minor miracles the door opened to move to Crescent City, where we attended Ft. Dick Bible Church about a mile from where Pelican Bay State Prison was being built. As soon as I heard they had hired a Protestant Chaplain, I Volunteered to help him. He showed me a letter where the Governor had refused to let him hire an Assistant Chaplain, telling him he had to learn to depend on Community Volunteers. I was the first Volunteer Chaplain to Minister in the Security Housing Unit (the Hole) that housed 1500 of the most violent inmates in the State of California. I worked as a Volunteer Chaplain there for 9 years and then moved back to Susanville, where I was a Volunteer Chaplain for 6 more years at High Desert State Prison, another super max prison, before retiring and moving close to grand-kids. Did I lead lots of them to the Lord? NO, but I learned to rejoice over the Few.