I had a "God Moment" tonight!

[Rhoni]

Originally Posted by chosenbyone

The following was an email I sent to Falla39 and Rhoni when I got home from church that I wanted to share with the rest of my AFF family.

Tonight was one of those "God moments" for me. Pastor Kilgore (Jr.) had called me on Friday and told me about what was going on at the church and had mentioned that Brother Warman from Auburn Hills, Michigan was going to be there today preaching both services (morning and evening...they have Sunday night services the first Sunday of the month).

I had committed to going tonight, but as the weekend progressed, I started feeling poorly. I had almost decided not to go, but I felt that I should go regardless, since Pastor Jim had taken the time to call. I got up from resting on the sofa about 45 minutes before the services started and I arrived right on time.

Once again, it seemed every song was sent directly from God to me. Then Brother Warman preached "Measured Faith" and used Romans 12:3 as his text. He mentioned that God new our beginning and our end and he had given each of as the "measure of faith" to endure any sickness, trial, problem, etc... He knew that we could handle anything as long as we stirred up the faith that he had given us.

Also, he mentioned that there were people that felt that they had missed out with God's calling, because of the years wasted by not being obedient. He stated that a thousand years was like a day to God and seventy years of our life would only but a second on God's clock. We had bought into the lie and became defeated and God was just waiting for us to snap out of it...again, God knew our beginning and our end.

He only preached about 25 minutes, but each minute I felt my faith growing and I knew that God had already given me the faith to overcome the circumstances in my life. I have been so worried about how I seemed to be worse off now than before I had gone back to work. I lost my insurance and my finances were being drained. Additionally, the stress from the last several months had started to affect my health.

My biggest obstacle to being in the perfect will of God has been me. I have always been someone who demonstrated the tenacity to fix whatever was going wrong in my life....sorting out every scenario in order to bring about a resolution. I grew increasingly frustrated that I couldn't resolve these issues this time. I had to stop trying to fix things and allow God to move the mountains in my life. He has been waiting for me to get out of the way and have the faith in him to do what he has willed for me.

I scheduled an appointment with an eligibility nurse tomorrow morning at the Harris County Hospital District to discuss social services. I had allowed the problems I only saw with my physical eyes to drive me to the point of desperation, With that said, when I made the appointment with HCHD Thursday afternoon, I didn't know that Thursday morning I had received an email that was sent to my aol account from an HR Director of a major sleep study company here in Houston.

She had seen my resume which I had posted on careerbuilder.com and she wanted me to come in Monday (tomorrow) afternoon at 2 to discuss a Practice (Operations) Manger position at her company. They have four sleep study clinics in the Houston area and from what I read about the position it was exactly what I loved to do. I didn't get the email until yesterday around eleven in the morning and my first thought was, "Oh, no! I can't believe my luck!" (how ironic that you had started a thread Rhonda on AFF about luck). But, I did email her back and apologized for the delay in replying to her email and explained to her that the aol account was one that I seldom used or checked (I know now that it was the Lord that had me to check it yesterday and not two weeks from now). I wrote that I would call her Monday morning in order to discuss me coming in to meet with her.

What I realized this evening was that God had already started to work on my behalf with the little bit of faith that I had tucked away in the corner of my being. He just used the message tonight so that little bit of faith that I had would increase, so that every mountain, specially my illness, was going to be removed. Praise the Lord!

Sorry, for the long email, but I just had to share this testimony with the two people who had the faith in God to believe in the miracles that have begun to be fully realized in my life. I have been so blessed.

Love and blessing to you both...

Bro Kenneth,

God gives us all a measure of faith but all the victories we have won just gives us more and more. God has been trying to tell you that he has a purpose for you and a ministry for you to fulfill. Whenever we are disobedient and stray from the path that God has planned for us it isn't about retracing our steps, but it is about stepping right back into the plan that God has designed.

Stop beating yourself up and trying to figure it out...just rest in his promise that ..."He who hath begun a good work in you will complete it."

Love & Blessings, Rhonda

[chosenbyone]

Originally Posted by Rhoni

Bro Kenneth,

God gives us all a measure of faith but all the victories we have won just gives us more and more. God has been trying to tell you that he has a purpose for you and a ministry for you to fulfill. Whenever we are disobedient and stray from the path that God has planned for us it isn't about retracing our steps, but it is about stepping right back into the plan that God has designed.

Stop beating yourself up and trying to figure it out...just rest in his promise that ..."He who hath begun a good work in you will complete it."

Love & Blessings, Rhonda

Rhoni,

Every answered prayer, every blessing realized made it that much more difficult for me to keep carrying around the guilt of my past. All the walls that I had built throughout the years to try and stop people from getting too close to me, because I didn't want to be hurt or hurt them ended up becoming the obstacles that prevented all that grief and pain from being released from my life.

God has kept me alive to show me so much that I missed the last 41 years. I hate to think that I could have passed from this life not ever knowing how much I really meant to my Heavenly Father. For that, I am so very thankful.

BTW, I weighed myself tonight and I have put on 21 pounds since you saw me last. I am beginning to look more and more Pentecostal everyday! lol

[Rhoni]

Originally Posted by chosenbyone

Rhoni,

Every answered prayer, every blessing realized made it that much more difficult for me to keep carrying around the guilt of my past. All the walls that I had built throughout the years to try and stop people from getting too close to me, because I didn't want to be hurt or hurt them ended up becoming the obstacles that prevented all that grief and pain from being released from my life.

God has kept me alive to show me so much that I missed the last 41 years. I hate to think that I could have passed from this life not ever knowing how much I really meant to my Heavenly Father. For that, I am so very thankful.

BTW, I weighed myself tonight and I have put on 21 pounds since you saw me last. I am beginning to look more and more Pentecostal everyday! lol

I'm glad you have put on weight for your sake but what you said about being Pentecostal cracked me up!
Have a Happy Day!

Love ya, Rhonda

[Falla39]

Originally Posted by chosenbyone

Rhoni,

Every answered prayer, every blessing realized made it that much more difficult for me to keep carrying around the guilt of my past. All the walls that I had built throughout the years to try and stop people from getting too close to me, because I didn't want to be hurt or hurt them ended up becoming the obstacles that prevented all that grief and pain from being released from my life.

God has kept me alive to show me so much that I missed the last 41 years. I hate to think that I could have passed from this life not ever knowing how much I really meant to my Heavenly Father. For that, I am so very thankful.
BTW, I weighed myself tonight and I have put on 21 pounds since you saw me last. I am beginning to look more and more Pentecostal everyday! lol

Bro. ChosenbyOne,

I believe your Heavenly Father is confirming that He was pleased at your
humble attitude and obedience when you felt the Spirit was leading you to
be rebaptized in Jesus Name last July. I am not saying that everyone who
misses God HAS to be rebaptized. But IF the Spirit leads you to do some-
thing and you are willing and follow through, I believe He will confirm and
honor your strong desire to please Him.
.
That 21 lbs sounds so great to me, Bro. Chosen, as we saw you so thin you
could scarcely hold your clothes up to be rebaptized. Maybe you should
post a before and after!!! LOL!!

Thank You, Wonderful Lord God for GREAT things You have done and will
continue to do, in Jesus Name!

Blessings,

Mom C

[chosenbyone]

I just have a few minutes before I have to head back out for my interview, so I'll respond to some post above when I return.

I wanted to relay how my court drama went today.

I guess all those Perry Mason reruns I was watching trying to get a crash course in courtroom procedures didn't help me one bit. I paced the floors last night and this morning, doing my best Perry Mason to impress the hearing officer.

Well, the other party didn't even show up this morning, and I almost leaped up and shouted, "So, does that mean I win?". All I heard was, "Sit down Mister Collins and remember this is a serious legal proceeding". So, note to self, SETTLE DOWN!

After a few more preliminaries I was sworn in and my part of the deposition started. OK, I was giving a slew of warnings/instructions and told that anything I said that violated the warnings could be a deciding factor in the decision. No, problem.

Then the hearing officer, aka Devil's Spawn, who obviously didn't like the male species began her line of questioning. She started reading off numbers like 3-A, paragraph so and so and was this an accurate statement? Oh, well, where was that exactly. "MR. COLLINS, DID YOU OR DID YOU NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVING TO YOU REGARDING THESE PROCEEDINGS THIS MORNING?" I said, "Of course, I have them right here"....waiving them around in the air. "SO, YOU ANSWERED AFFIRMATIVE THAT YOU RECEIVED #BLAHBLAHBLAH, DATED BLAH BLAH BLAH?" I TOLD HER, "YYEESS! OH, NOW I SEE THAT 3-A paragraph, did you want me to follow along with you as you read from these pages?"

"THAT WAS THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVING MR. COLLINS, DO YOU HAVE ANY MEDICAL ISSUES THAT PREVENT YOU FROM COMPREHENDING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE", she yelled. "Well, it depends on who you ask, your honor"....second failed attempt at humor.

My attorney leaned over and said the she is the wrong judge to try and butter up, Mr. Collins, please just follow along with the line of questions and answers with short answers. Oh, OK.

That was the hardest thing for me to do because she kept yelling at me STOP GIVING ME A NARRATIVE...JUST ANSWER MY QUESTIONS! (Perry Mason was allowed to use narratives to build his case, boy things have change). "Oh, yes, your honor that was what I was doing, but being from Texas what may appear to be a narrative to some but acutally I was trying to give you the short answer!"....note, third attempt at humor fell flat too.

That was when after the stern look from my attorney that there was no way that I was going to be able to connect with this woman, which has been a knack I had mastered years ago, I soon realized that she may not be a female at all, but some sort of mutant from the far reaches of our Solar System.

Though I felt like I totally blew my chances at winning the case, my attorney told me that during this type of hearing, the only evidence that can be admissible was the evidence given to the court at the date of the hearing. Since, the other party, which was a first for them to be a no show, didn't call to reschedule or bother to call at all, it didn't mean I won, but my chances increased from around 40% up to around 85%. Of course, they still had the option for a final appeal within 15 days of receipt of the verdict.

Now, I am off for my interview. Update will follow.