There are some things you just can’t understand in this life and death is one of them. Particularly the death of someone who just seems too young. Such was the case when my brother lost his wife, leaving him without support in his role as pastor and leaving their daughter without a mother. It just didn’t seem right but life continues on, despite our feelings about it. But, God in His goodness and sovereignty, led my brother some time later to a woman who had also lost her spouse to cancer. Our family was thrilled when they joined their lives and started their new life together.
Michele has become a dear friend to me over the past few years. Early on she shared her amazing testimony with me. As we sat talking last week, I had the idea of asking her to share it here on the blog for you, my readers. Michele’s testimony is a bit unique in that God plucked her right out of her family and her really “great life” (according to worldly standards). She never hit rock bottom or cried out for God to save her, as she didn’t even feel she needed saved…until God opened her eyes, using His Word. It’s an amazing testimony and I know there is much she couldn’t include because of not wanting to make it too long.
There is a really profound statement that Michele makes in her testimony below and I really don’t want anyone to miss it. It’s really the heart of what the true Christian life is about and stands in complete opposition to what we are hearing in the majority of sermons, songs, books, and entertainment labeled as “Christian”.
Here is what she says: I used to think that “freedom” was doing whatever I wanted in life. But that actually was very ensnaring! True “liberty” is to be joyfully submitted to the only One who truly loves me and died for me so that I could be “set free”to fear/respect Him and enjoy Him forever!
I don’t know about you, but I can still get caught up in the trap of seeking my own desires and what I want to do. And it DOES ensnare, doesn’t it? It always ensnares. Oh, to understand that true liberty comes from doing God’s Will. His glory and our good–is it not truly amazing that these two things are always perfectly compatible?
I hope Michele’s story encourages your heart, particularly as you contemplate those loved ones in your life who are lost. I also hope it’s a reminder of two other truths: 1) The efficacy of prayer and 2) what a new life looks like in the one who professes to love Christ. Here’s Michele’s testimony–
Last weekend, my wonderful sister-in-law Leslie, asked me if I would be willing to share “my testimony” with her blog readers, of how God graciously saved me. I was a little surprised, but immediately I thought: how kind of God to offer me another opportunity to boast about what His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has done in my life, starting from June 28th, 1988 (the day “He called me out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9) until today.
As Christians we often use the word: “testimony”, so I looked up the meaning of that word once again: “to give a truthful and solemn declaration of a fact that occurred and was personally witnessed.” I pray that the following “testimony” will be pleasing to the LORD JESUS and an encouragement to any who read it.
Ephesians 2:1-3 describes perfectly the state of my heart and life BEFORE Christ: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-among whom we all once lived, in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Even though from birth God had blessed me with loving and caring parents, unfortunately they themselves did not know their Creator and Savior (and still do not), and therefore they could not teach me from a young age that I was born a sinner like all mankind (after the disobedience of Adam and Eve), and that there was nothing that I could do to appease the just wrath of a Holy God against my sin. I was a slave to sin as His Word says. All my education, travel, manners, and nice outward appearance and being a “good person” could not change the fact that I was separated from God my Creator and could do nothing to please Him. By default, I lived my life to only please myself, which also pleased Satan, the prince of darkness.
And honestly, I was not “looking” for God nor did I have any desire to live for Him. At age 23, I was very content (so I thought) with my life. Unlike those that grow up in a Christian home and the church and come to know the Lord, or those that “hit rock bottom” from a life of drugs, alcohol, abuse, or neglect—I, on the other hand, felt “on top of my world!”
I was born in Nassau, Bahamas in 1964 (I’m 60 now), and spent the first 18 years of my life growing up there and enjoying the sun, sea, and sand. I then continued my British education (my father is English and my mother is Spanish), with two years in Oxford and then three years at a Hotel/Tourism Management University in Madrid, Spain. I also spent a few months in France to practice my French. I had a great life, often had romantic relationships (that never lasted too long because of selfishness), and enjoyed a fair amount of the party life, without going too overboard. I was in control of my life and was just starting my hotel career in London, England and had plans to work my way up the corporate ladder and to continue to travel the world as much as possible, and perhaps one day settle down and have a family.
Ephesians 2:4-9 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the GREAT LOVE with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by GRACE you have been saved-and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the IMMEASURABLE riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the GIFT of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (caps mine).
Thankfully, God my Creator, had a much better “plan” for my life than my very self-oriented one. Through the prayers of other believers (mainly my recently saved brother), God began working in my heart and causing me to be dissatisfied with all the worldly things that I used to enjoy and to question the “meaning of life”. In His kindness He chose me and drew me to His Son through the obedience of three of His daughters in London who courageously reached out to me to invite me to lunch, and then subsequently to their church service that evening, June 28th, 1988.
I had an extremely limited knowledge of the Bible and did not own one nor had ever read it. But that night, God used the preaching of His Word, the only Truth, to pierce my darkened heart and to cause me to completely repent of my own personal sins against a Holy and Just God and to, by faith alone, by His grace alone, be reconciled to Him through the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, that satisfied God’s wrath against my sin and by His resurrection three days later to conquer death and grant me Eternal Life in Christ!
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
“Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!!”
The two Scripture verses that God used that night to open my understanding to know my separation from Him and my only way of reconciliation to Him were:
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
John 14:5-6 “Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
As Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to Himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
It was so true! I was now for the first time ever, RECONCILED TO GOD and I had complete peace with God. How freeing that was! I no longer had the need to search out the meaning of life. I had found it in Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord!
My heart was radically changed by God’s Holy Spirit within, as He caused me to be “born again” (spiritually). I now was alive to God (and dead to sin) and by His grace could love Him most and love others sincerely and unselfishly (for the first time) with His love in my heart and I had a strong desire to love and know His Word and to obey it by the daily help of His Holy Spirit. I wanted to learn from other more mature Christians around me and to grow in Christ-likeness.
The Joy of the Lord filled my heart to overflowing! I used to think that “freedom” was doing whatever I wanted in life. But that actually was very ensnaring! True “liberty” is to be joyfully submitted to the only One who truly loves me and died for me so that I could be “set free”to fear/respect Him and enjoy Him forever!
Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
But, I quickly learned that there is a “cost” to following Jesus in this evil world. Unfortunately, most people in my previous life were NOT happy that God had saved me and was changing my whole life to “no longer be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
My parents were very upset that I was no longer pursuing my hotel career, as I quickly gave in my notice at work, to go and live with the only true Christians that I knew in London, as knowing Jesus was now my main focus, not making money and living “my” dream. I gave up my old music, my immoral social life, and some old friends. It was very hard and hurtful at times but I knew now that only Christ is my portion and truest Treasure and He enabled me to let go of everything and everyone that I had set before Him on the throne of my heart. As the apostle Paul said so well:
Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
My journey in following Christ led me back to Spain for a few years where I continued to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord in an evangelical church in Pamplona, which is where I truly thought that I would stay for the rest of my life.
But in God’s Providence He guided me to the U.S.A in 1991 as a biblical counselor in a Christian Recovery Farm in New Hampshire and then to Florida, where He brought a wonderful husband into my life at the age of 31.
We were married for twenty years, during which time we were blessed with a boy and girl (Sean and Julia). God used marriage and motherhood as tools to cleanse my heart of selfishness and to continue to learn to live for His Name’s sake and not my own, as well as to be content in Him alone and whatever He allows in my temporal earthly life.
In 2015 my husband Steve was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and in July 2016 His Creator took him Home. I was left alone with an 18 year old and 16 year old, but God has promised to “never leave us nor forsake us.” In retrospect, I can see how many ways that He provided His comfort, and care and practical provisions for our little family. He especially cares for His widows.
Just over three years later He again guided me in meeting my 2nd wonderful husband: Dean Good (Leslie’s brother), through mutual friends. Never in a million years would I have thought that God would have me become a pastor’s wife and move to Ohio! And be so blessed again! Not only did God gift me a godly and very pleasant husband, but also a very lovely new daughter (Katherine) and now her sweet husband, Steven, and very soon He will allow me to be a Nana to their baby girl. And also God has abundantly blessed me through Dean’s extended family in PA who have all been so kind to me and my children.
He continues to sanctify me through His word and has blessed me with a wonderful local church body and a fruitful ministry with my husband and pastor.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
I do not know what the future holds (some joys and some more trials), but I am confident of this: “that He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil 1:6
“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
I can truly mean this from the bottom of my heart because of the joy of God’s saving grace in my life! All glory and honor and praise goes to Him alone!
As I sat down to write out this testimony, tears once again filled my eyes as I paused to reflect on God’s kindness in giving me to His Son and granting me Eternal Life in Him!
John 17:3 “And this is eternal life. That they know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
As an ambassador for Christ: “I implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God!” 2 Corinthians 5:20
Portugal to spend time with her family
Find other testimonies of Changed Lives here. God is at work and I know these stories will encourage your heart!