Hell Is Real
About thirty years ago, my son became a Christian. Shortly after, I did, too. I have a message for people who are waiting until they are ready to give themselves to God.
I was brought up in a fire and brimstone church. I was afraid of God. To me He was a big monster who was going to send me to Hell no matter what I did. I use to think if I could make a list of “Do’s and Don’t’s”, I could win my way to Heaven. Oh, then I would hit my brother, and I had to get saved again.
The preacher was a good man, I know, but it was my childish understanding that made me afraid. I went to the altar when I was 12, but I did this only because my friends did it. I even got baptized, but I did not know the meaning of what I was doing. I participated in an old fashioned 'foot washing”. I learned how to shout. We children had a 'rock altar' and every Sunday night, we took a stone, put it on the pile. I had no idea what this was for, but I knew I wanted to get back to the church before that “Holy Spirit' (ghost) came. I hated going to church. Every time the preacher said, 'Someone here needs to come to this altar.' I remembered the terrible things I did that day; like talking back to my mother. My sister and I would run to the altar and get saved again.
I found out very early just how easy it is to live for the devil when you do not have God inside of you. The flesh is always in a battle with the Spirit, as most people know. But, when you do not have the power of the Spirit to fight this battle, you can get yourself in deep quicksand. There is pleasure in sin for awhile. The devil shows you a beautiful picture of the world and what it has to offer.
The Holy Spirit can show you that you WILL go to Hell if you don't give your life and soul to Jesus. There are people who have no problem knowing there is a Heaven, but they don't believe there is a Hell. There is a hell and a fire that will never stop burning. Can you imagine in your mind how horrible that can be? Everyone has been burned in some way; a finger on the stove, a hand on the iron, but there is no measuring the kind of pain you would experience if you go to Hell.
One day when my son was about 14 yrs. old, he came in from school and went straight to the restroom. When he returned, he said, 'Mama, do you remember when you told me how to be saved? Well, it has happened.' I wasn't living right, so I felt very awkward. A few nights later, I was in a place I shouldn't have been. The Spirit came to me and plainly said, 'If you die tonight, you WILL go to Hell.' I got home as soon as I could get there. I got on my knees and I begged God to forgive me. Now, I know what salvation is all about. God gave me His grace and mercy.
I still do things that are not acceptable, but God does not take me out of His Book of Life. He does not have a big pencil adding and erasing my name everyday.
Even though, I had been in church all my life, I was not saved. Mama tried to teach us what was right, but I just couldn't get it. When you feel the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart, please do not suppress it. I could have waited and if I had died that night, yes, I would have gone to Hell.
I was raising my son alone, but when God found me, He took over our life. We stayed in the Word, prayed earnestly, and asked forgiveness when we did wrong. God loves me and I know it way down deep in my heart.
I felt that there may be someone who needs to hear my testimony.
Don’t Ever Give Up
The Lord has laid it on my heart to give my testimony; not to make someone feel sorry for me, but to give hope that there is light at the end of a dark tunnel.
As a young child I grew up in a non-Christian home. My father and mother didn’t teach me about the Lord. They were both alcoholics and drug users. My mother and father divorced when I was two. I never did see my father. He still to this day doesn’t keep in contact with me. My mother re-married the second time to a guy who physically abused her, my sister and me. She divorced him after a couple of years. She re-married this man who had two children that he was raising on his own. I was sexually abused at the age of 5-6 years old. My mother divorced him after 5 years of marriage. Then she was a single mom for a little while trying to raise my older sister and me. During this time we went through the partying and drugs with my mother coming in all hours of the night. She re-married for the 4th time to a man that was a good father except for the fact he was a bad alcoholic. He adopted my sister and me. I was 9 years old and my sister was 15 years old. He was a descent father when he wasn’t drinking. The hardest part of that marriage was seeing my parents fight all the time because of the alcoholism. My mother became suicidal during their nine years of marriage. Seeing that and dealing with alcohol at such a young age was very difficult.
I met this much older man when I was sixteen and he was (I thought) the man of my dreams. He promised me all these wonderful things. So I thought I was ready to leave the house at sixteen. I did leave the house when I was sixteen, dropped out of school because I got pregnant and couldn’t stay. My father was real upset over the situation but my mother accepted it. We got married and had our firstborn child. He wasn’t the prince charming he made himself out to be. He was very controlling, mentally abusive, and physical at times. I was young and naive. I really didn’t know what a marriage; family etc… was supposed to be like. I felt like I needed to stay with him and not divorce him because I didn’t want to end up like my mother. We stayed together for a couple of years and he was running around on me after our second son was born.
I woke up and smelled the coffee one day and said this is not the way I want my life to be like. During that time I found a friend that took me to his church, Deland Church of God. This might have been the second time I have been into a church. He asked me if I had been saved. I said, “NO”. I told him I was too scared to go up front. Well, the second time he asked me, “Do you want to be saved”? I said YES tell me what to do. I will never forget the feeling I had when I went up to that pastor and told him I wanted to be saved. We prayed together, my knees and whole body went numb. I fell to the ground. It felt like a brick had been lifted off of my shoulders. I was 17 years old.
I was doing well for a little while then I started backsliding. I moved up here to Georgia to be with my family after the breakup. I got a great job and a nice apartment but there was one thing missing in my life. I let JESUS out of my life. You can tell when you have a hole in your heart that needs to be filled up. You will never be at peace without giving the Lord your life.
I’m truly blessed now. I met a wonderful Christian husband that adopted my three boys and his family took them in like they were theirs from the beginning. They love me and my children. I was always told I would never meet anyone who would accept me and my three children. The Lord provided. There is a lot more to my testimony I just didn’t want it to be a book. One thing that really upsets me is that my adopted father never keeps contact with my sister and me after they got divorced. I blamed myself for it for a while. I just found out he died last year of liver cancer on my birthday. I never did get to ask him about his salvation and to tell him I turned out to be a descent young lady with my head on my shoulders for the most part. I had to lay down a lot of burdens at the cross. I kind of felt guilty for doing it because He (LORD) has given us so much. Parents kiss your kids every night and tell them you love them, pray with them. Kids are a blessing from the Lord. I could go on and on but I wasn’t writing a book. My testimony is just a short version of what I went through and raised above it all. I rededicated my life to Christ about seven years ago and have been walking with Him since.
“I know that there is one father that will never leave you and abandon you his name is “JESUS CHRIST.”
