Joe has come to realize in spite of his past that included heavy drug usage and broken relationships God did love him and life is great because God is so good, loving and forgiving.
Asking God the wrong thing
At the age of 17, I asked Jesus to come into my heart. However, for the next 23 years, I continued to tell God what I wanted Him to do while all that time He was waiting for me to ask Him what He wanted me to do. Oh, all the wasted years - the broken dreams, hearts, and shattered lives. The family and children whom I loved so much ... GONE. How many times I had begged God to take away my drug addiction. How many times I had begged for the return of my children. How many times I had flirted with the thought of suicide.
More than just an affair!
Then one day, in an act of total desperation, I fell down on the floor of my lonely home and began to plead with God with all the strength I had left. "Lord, what do You want from me? What do You want me to do? I really don't want to die, but I can't live like this anymore! Please help me! Please tell me what You would have me to do - I'll do anything!" Well, it was just that simple. God wanted me, not just my problems. And so, now we have a personal, loving relationship instead of just an affair! Now I know that He is much more than just some Jennie in a bottle that you let out to grant a wish, and then put back on a shelf. He's God! And the more I seek to know His will for me, the more I learn to serve and please Him. The more I serve and please Him, the more I learn to worship Him. And the more I worship Him, the more and more He blesses me, day after day, time and again; with much more than I would have ever dared to ask for!
Setting the prisoners free
The terrible oppression of over 20 years of acute drug addiction and alcoholism ... completely gone! Now I'm laughing and enjoying life again. I now have a purpose in life to tell others about God's love for us. One day, as I was painting the outside of the church where I was employed, I was thinking that people would be slow to accept me because of my terrible past. I then very distinctly heard a voice say to me, "You will be a powerful witness!" I almost fell off the ladder! And so now I go to the local jail ... as a minister. I spent much of my life trapped by invisible bars so now I spend my time encouraging others to give themselves wholly over to Jesus.
Call out to God - submit to His will
Many of the inmates know me. Many were once some of my closest friends, back when I was "Joey the Junkie" or Joey "Jones". (I was mockingly called Joey "Jones" as I would do just about anything for another dose. To "Jones" is to have an undesirable craving fro an addiction.) They are amazed at the complete turn around - the difference that the presence of God has made in my life, and what God is doing in and through me. Many of them tell me how proud they are of me. But I am quick to tell them it was certainly nothing that I did; I could never do anything right. All I did was call on God, and submit my will to Him, and He did (and still does) the rest.
God has so many good things waiting for us
I tell them that God will be just as sure to do the same for them - if only they will freely allow Him to do so. However, they have to be willing to give it all up - a life of misery, total failure, and slow but sure death ... for a life of joy, countless blessings, and eternal life with God as our Father. I have seen three prisoners in one month come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. God is awesome! I am proof that there really is hope; a sure way to break that last needle, once and for all. We really can become a child of God and life in Jesus Christ is so much better!
Blocking out love
Listen, maybe someone, somewhere, at sometime will read this, who is standing in the same shoes I use to walk in. My father died at the age of 32, with cirrhosis of the liver from a life of acute alcoholism. I was 10 years old. Then my mother, who had been a pharmaceutical drug addict most of her life, died less than two years later when she was aged 33 and I was 12. I was so confused. I felt unloved, unwanted, and so alone ... believing the lies of satan who wants us to believe we are unloved and there is no hope.
Pride and believing the things whispered to me
In reality, I did have family who loved me and tried to help me. Even more, I now know that God wanted to help me too, but I wouldn't let anyone close to me. I felt that anyone I loved had died! I became very rebellious against family and God. So I started doing drugs other than pot (marijuana), which I had already been smoking since I was 10 years old. At 15, I began to fire "T" (THC), and then it was coke, and then crank, and it ended up being anything that would numb my senses. (Crank and meth are names for methanphetamines.) At the age of 17, I had been court ordered to a Christian drug rehabilitation center for one year. It was here I had asked Jesus to save me, and I even stayed on another year, as a staff member. I thank God for the people who taught me to love God's word, but I had never totally surrendered my life to Christ. I held on to my rebel pride (proud of what, I may never understand), and that old liar (the devil) began to whisper once again, "You're a rebel and an outcast; live hard and die fast."
Life was difficult and complicated
The choices I made drew me away from God. I believed the deception that I would be just like my parents, and die by the age of 32 or 33. When I was still alive at 35, I realized I had outlived them and I decided that I might live awhile longer after all. Sadly, I had already destroyed my life by then. I had never been legally married but I had three children by two different women who had lived with me. I had been divorced two times. (There used to be a common law marriage where I live that does not exist anymore). One of the women shot and killed a man when two of our children were young. She was in prison, and after raising the two children by myself for three and a half years, the state took them from me though I loved all my children with all my heart and they loved me. My oldest daughter was mad at me that her half brother and sister were taken away and she stopped visiting me. There was nothing left to live for... or, so I thought.
It was not too late for forgiveness and healing
Eventually, all the wrong choices and the long hard roads led me right back to Jesus. I felt like I had walked around the world, on burning sand and frozen seas until I came back to my reason for living. That was Jesus and He was ready to heal and forgive, so it wasn't too late for me after all.
I feel sad for the friends I knew
Several of my past friends are now dead and others are in prison for murder. One of my friends died from an overdose of crystal meth while others have committed suicide. I think of how sweet my life could have been if I had simply trusted God from the beginning.
Life is great because God is so good, loving and forgiving. People, please don't ever walk away from God. Believe me, His way is so much better. If you have walked away from God, please come back, right now - today! Lives spent separated from God invite destruction, ruin, and death. Living your life with Him and for Him makes life more and more abundant as each new day unfolds. May God bless you more and more, as you seek to please Him.
Thank You, God for loving me!
"For God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it" (John 3:17).
Seek Him with all your heart …
Joe
If you think I can help you please feel free to email me at changinglives74@yahoo.com.au and address your email to "Joe".
