LIVING NOW TO HELP OTHERS OUT OF THEIR WILDERNESS
(By: Stephen Winter)
For 20 years, I was in the wilderness - not knowing or listening to what God wanted me to do. I was a backslider - cold to God in many ways.
The thing is, I never saw it coming. We have to be careful not to let the cares of this life allow us to fall away like spoken of in Mt 13:22.
During this time, I was married, divorced and remarried. My last wife left me and our three children for another man, and became an alcoholic. During this time I started to pray. I prayed like I never have before. I prayed that she would come back to me and our children; that she would wake up and see how the devil was blinding her. By the grace and help of God, I stood by her.
She eventually did come back. Her life was a mess. She apologized - she asked the Lord to forgive her and she came back to Him ... just in time before she passed away on Dec 25, 2009 due to complications from being an alcoholic. The thing is, she could have ended up in hell, but I listened to God in spite of my intense pain and she was given a second chance -- a chance to make it right with God!
Life is not "Hollywood" perfect. We go through storms and many of these we bring on ourselves. Yet God is so merciful to those who have a deep-seated desire - no matter how small the deeply buried flame inside them may seem at times - to be pleasing to Him in accordance with Truth. (Truth as is defined by the New Testament Bible: All other "truth" is smoke and mirrors - demonically deceptive).
After this tragedy, I was in mourning. I started to wonder what this life was all about and slowly came to the realization of how much I had wasted so much of it.
During this same time - oddly enough - my best friend, (who I met while at bible school years ago), was going through his own turmoil. During the last five years or so, I have been growing in the Lord and renewing my spiritual life. I needed to ask myself: What this life is all about; why am I here; what is my purpose?
God answered all those questions! I am overwhelmed with it. All I want to do NOW is what God wants me to do! Night and day I think about it. Being a faithful servant to Him in whatever He is asking me to do to help further His kingdom unconditional love and hope and peace and purpose in the lives of others is what He has now birthed into my being.
Last year, my best friend and I reconnected and had many conversations about life -- God and His love for us. We read a book and saw some videos of people passing out tracts. This motivated us and we felt God wanted us to do it. This was something so very simple, but it totally changed our lives!
We started passing out tracts and thought: "Lord - if this is all You want us to do, we will do it!"
We were thankful to be used by God again! Finally - we found something we could do that would impact the lives of others for ETERNITY to the glory of God! Realizing that a tract is not inferior and as a matter of fact Billy Graham himself endorses using tracts ... we went full steam ahead.
Obeying God in the "little things" (Luke 16:10) -- He wants to see that we will be faithful.
Our faithfulness in the small thing God asked me to do moved God to work in several different areas of our lives, and He is now opening bigger doors to reach out and help others to connect and grow in Him.
As of mid-2015 we have been so blessed to have passed out over 48,000 gospel tracts in one year!
I started to think it would be great to give these people something more after the tract and we started: You Found God Ministries and website. The website is an online ministry for people to learn more about Christ. We printed our website on the tracts that we handed out: http://www.youfoundgod.com/
We have also been blessed to publish five books (geared toward the unsaved) thus far, and are giving away the first half for free. I have recently been offered to help set up an outreach program at my church! God is so amazing, and will do great things in our lives if we just listen and follow Him.
I can't express how blessed I am to be laying up ETERNAL treasures in heaven for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What "treasures" would that be? Lost souls He came to die for. Lost souls He came to rescue from eternal destruction. Lost souls who will be joyously useful to their Creator for all ETERNITY, instead of letting their God-given purpose on the Judgment Day sadly and painfully be removed from them. Lost souls wondering around in their own wilderness in this life - wondering WHY they are on this planet ... their not realizing that Jesus Christ and His Kingdom purposes for their lives (like it was MINE) is not only their way OUT of their wildness, but to now find meaning and purpose in their life like God has so gracious given ME. Thank you so much Lord!
Dear Reader - are you at peace with God? If not, you can be. Do you know what awaits you when you die? You can have the assurance from God that heaven will be your home, if you would like to be certain. You can even have that assurance RIGHT NOW! Either Jesus Christ died for your sins, or He didn't (He did!). Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day and tell Him that you didn't need the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to have your sins forgiven and get in right-standing with God? We plead with you...please don't make such a tragic mistake.
To get to know God, to be at peace with God, to have your sins forgiven, to make certain heaven will be your home for eternity, to make certain that you are in right-standing with God right now ... please click here to help you understand the importance of being reconciled to God. What you do about being reconciled to God will determine where you will spend eternity, precious one. Your decision to be reconciled to God is the most important decision you'll ever make in this life, because in Christ, it is impossible to put a value on the worth of your soul in light of eternity.
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RRemember: All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)