Northside Baptist Church

Archive for November, 2009

NBC Blog

Soul winning went very well, we had 4 saved. A-men.

Don’t forget to encourage your guests to attend Sunday, November 29 Family Day Sunday.

Today’s blog will be the life of Cathy!  Please read and thank God we have been changed.

Cathy’s Testimony

Hi, my name is Kathy and I would like to share with you my testimony.  I hope it will help someone you know gain victory over their enemy. As a young girl, I rebelled against all my authorities.  Like most young girls, my rebellion eventually led me into immorality.  I’m sad to say, I was only 14.  I never realized that my innocence would be lost for life.  With no dad in my life, I soon found out that this type of behavior could get me the attention I so desperately desired.  With a little makeup and my sister’s ID, I found that I could get more attention from older men at night clubs.  I was pretty, and they didn’t seem to care about my age.  I soon became fascinated with the night life.  But I wasn’t having fun yet!

Like all sin, the more I fed that appetite the stronger it got.  My entire teenage years were consumed with this lifestyle.  At 17 years of age, I began bartending.  I slept every day and partied every night.  Soon thereafter, I was introduced to using drugs;  this became everything to me.  I did not care about myself, much less anyone else.  I was just a party girl looking for my next good time.  But I wasn’t having fun yet!  I knew nothing about God and lived like there was no tomorrow.  I lost over ten years of tomorrows before I found out I was running out of them!

That is when the inevitable happened.  I became pregnant.  I quickly enrolled in a secular treatment program, but quit soon thereafter.  I sobered up for my pregnancy.  But after my child was born, I soon relapsed.  In desperation, I pulled out the Bible I had received while in that treatment program.  I began reading it.  But I closed it in frustration.  I didn’t understand anything.  I burst into tears over my feelings of hopelessness.  My life had become a nightmare.  I could not escape.  I feared I would never be a good mom.  No, I wasn’t having fun yet!

Just then, the doorbell rang.  With tear-stained cheeks, I answered the door and was greeted by two men from a church in the town where I live.  They handed me a brochure that showed me how to go to heaven, and invited me to attend their church.  I was shocked and knew without a doubt, I had been visited by men with a message from God.  That Sunday, I attended church for the first time in my life.  The next week, I accepted Christ as my Saviour.

When I got saved, I knew there was an immediate difference in my life!  My God-sized hole was filled with peace and a joy that I had never experienced before.  But no, I wasn’t having fun yet!  I desperately needed help to change my life.  This way of living was all I had ever known.  I did not know how to change.  Searching for help, I told my pastor and his wife the truth about my lifestyle, and begged them for any help that they could find.  I wanted to be set free from this captivity!

As they searched for answers to my problem, they came to know about the ministry of Reformers Unanimous.  In 2004, I attended my first RU meeting.  This program introduced me to the only Truth that makes free.  That Truth is Jesus Christ.  Since that time, God has set me free from my addictive behavior and has given me a life that is worth living!  Was it fun yet?  You bet!

After two years of developing my personal relationship with God, I began to work in the Ladies Residential Treatment Program in Rockford, Illinois.  I am finally a good mother to my daughter.  Though the glamour of my former lifestyle had long since faded, it had not released me from its grip.  The devil had made me work all my life in order to try to have fun.  Now, no matter how tough my adversity, I enjoy every day of my life.

Cathy

Preacher