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Childhood

Incarcerated Man Pleads To God For Help, And God Showed Up

by Christel Berns July 20, 2023

written by Christel Berns

An incarcerated man pleaded with the God he knew in childhood for help and deliverance. Then God powerfully showed up!

Abandoned & Abused In His Childhood

Three months after Michael was born, his birth mom abandoned him. Then a family acquaintance adopted him. His adoptive mom was a Christian and so she became the first person to introduce him to God.

700 Club Interactive. (Screenshot). (2023). Overcoming abuse and trauma, Retrieved July 18, 2023 from: https://youtu.be/hOeVUxJzeu4

At six years old, Michael’s adoptive mom had a boyfriend. He became friends with him until the man’s actions stole his childhood innocence. The man sexually assaulted him without his mother’s knowledge. And then he threatened him to hide it, or else he would kill him.

Despite his threats, Michael told his mom about what happened, but she didn’t believe him. Until one day, the man tried to assault him again, and finally, his mother made the man leave.

Addiction To Drugs

Michael’s first sexual encounter was with a man, and it made him feel dirty. At nine years old, he started drinking alcohol and hanging around older men. He then smoked marijuana at ten years old. He knew Jesus then, but the pain overwhelmed him.

Soon after, Michael turned to cocaine to cope with his pain. He was happy because he was also making money from it. But things worsened when he lost his adoptive mother at 16 years old. Michael dropped out of school and went deeper into doing and selling drugs.

Incarcerated

For many years, Michael was addicted to drugs. Eventually he was incarcerated at 28 years old. And inside jail, he began to return to the faith he encountered as a child. He read the Bible and started praying again. God had gotten his attention in his darkest moment.

However, Michael also got angry at God for everything that had happened in his life. But a moment of clarity from God opened his eyes.

God spoke to him, saying, “there’s something still in you, if you trust me.”

“If You don’t help me and deliver me, I’m gonna die,” Michael told God.

Watch how God powerfully turned things around for his good.

"God I can't leave until you fix me" - Overcoming abuse and trauma

Watch this video on YouTube

Reference | 700 Club Interactive

Header Image: 700 Club Interactive. (Screenshot). (2023). Overcoming abuse and trauma, Retrieved July 18, 2023 from: https://youtu.be/hOeVUxJzeu4

July 20, 2023 0 comments

Articles Faith Spotlight

The Beauty Of Raising Children

by Lauren Koch August 21, 2022

written by Lauren Koch

Raising children is one of the greatest gifts God gives us. It teaches love, patience, purpose, grit, and peace.

Refined through the eyes of love

Becoming a parent lends us new eyes to view how the father sees us. Holding your new baby, or watching your child learn how to run, sing, and enjoy the life around them teaches us of God’s great love. As I held my son for the first time, I couldn’t help but praise God for his wonderful gift. Suddenly, my entire perspective and purpose transformed while looking into the eyes of my baby.

The love God fills us with as parents is an incredible teacher as we are raising children. Matthew 18 tells us that unless we become like children, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Staying childlike requires deep trust and faith in our good Father. It means sacrificing our will and desires for what the Father is doing. As we parent our babies, we too are being held and refined by God.

Raising children motivates

Having children transformed my interest in the world. It helped me take my eyes off myself, and onto what God was doing in my life, family, and through my child. Knowing that each human is brought into the earth with divine purpose, I was motivated to live my life for God to my very fullest. Not only did I have a baby to raise, but a life after God to model for them. Many people express fear in becoming a parent for all they feel it will take from them. I’ve received far more in my first few months as a mom than I’ve given. I believe staying fixed on Jesus has made this true.

“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:15-16)

August 21, 2022 0 comments

Faith Spotlight

Making Small Traditions With Your Children

by Lauren Koch August 7, 2022

written by Lauren Koch

When I was in middle school, I started taking piano lessons. I wasn’t the best at practicing and didn’t keep up with the hobby for long, but I remember how supportive my dad was of me learning. During this time, he bought a collection of Beethoven songs and would play them when we were in the car together. It became our special, small tradition together. I’d get to ride in the front seat and we would blast Symphony No. 5 on our way home or to the grocery store.

Create small traditions out of what your family enjoys most

I loved listening to music with my dad. As a parent, he found a way relate that to my current interest and built a small tradition around it. Sometimes when we hear the word tradition, we think of expensive annual trips or extravagant gifts or experiences. Truly, for our kids, some of the most memorable traditions are those shared around the dinner table or in the mundane car rides we take every week.

Traditions grow with us, becoming sacred

I believe all of the glory in this life is sacred. From this belief, I live with joy in even the blandest of events because I know the human experience on this earth matters to Jesus. He cares about how our hearts approach all of it. Small traditions don’t always last forever. Eventually, we tired of listening to the same song over and over. Our children will outgrow wanting to participate in the traditions, but when they are adults, and hear the song we always sung together, they will remember just how special those memories were.

Making small traditions with our children starts with partnering with their joy. What makes your child come alive? How can you participate in that with them today?

“Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.
⁴Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
⁵Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
    when they contend with their opponents in court.” (Psalm 127:3-5)

August 7, 2022 0 comments

Articles

Beth Moore Reveals How She Overcame Childhood Trauma

by Rhoda Gayle March 2, 2020

written by Rhoda Gayle

Living Proof ministries’ Beth Moore reveals how she overcame childhood sexual trauma on national television.

Beth Moore

Wanda Elizabeth Green Moore, popularly known as Beth Moore, is the founder of the Living Proof Ministries, a Christian organization for women in Houston, Texas. She is also an evangelist, author, and Bible teacher. Beth has been married for over 40 years to Keith Moore. They have two grown-up daughters, Amanda and Melissa.

“I had the great blessing of being raised in the Church,” said Beth, “three times a week in those days, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night — minimum — we were always there. However, my family was very, very broken. It’s just that sort of the combination of the good and the bad and the ugly that can all take place under one roof.”

Past ordeal

Beth was well-known for her bold and radical Christian beliefs, but the faith she has today was made strong through the ordeal. During her childhood, she was abused in her home by someone very dear to her.

“I also fell victim to a childhood sexual abuse within my own home,” she reveals. “I don’t identify publicly who it was, but I will simply say that when anyone that should be in a protective role around you becomes not the protector, but the perpetrator, I cannot tell you how that will mess with you.”

Overcoming childhood abuse

The Wisconsin native sat with Fox Nation to reveal how she overcame the abuse through scriptures.

“I would memorize scripture,” Beth recalled. “I put those truths on index cards… And I would take those things with me everywhere I went. And I would walk around the grocery store… I was just saying those scriptures over and over.”

Identity in Christ

Beth Moore ultimately found her true identity in Christ. A childhood pain has become a powerful testimony that molded has molded her into the woman she is today. Today, Beth is an advocate for sexual abuse victims and survivors.

“I’d make statements of ‘This is who God says you are,’ and ‘This is what you have to believe.’ And I don’t care how you feel — this is the truth. And it was that process right there.”

Reference: Fox News

March 2, 2020 0 comments