Our Amazing God!

There are so many great Testimonies to our God!

I wanted to share the ones I hear about with you, so I created this page.

If you have a Testimony to share, email it to me at:  tiggerkat101@gmail.com

and let me know if you would like it posted on this page!


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Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

Just heard this story on Shine FM 95.1

This Christian couple were going on vacation and before getting on the plane 
the man prayed to God that he be given the opportunity to be 
the Hands and Feet of God.

How did God respond?

The couple had to sit in the last 2 seats on the plane
all the way in the back.

The man grumbled and was not happy at all.

Half way through the flight however,
the woman seated next to the man and his wife
fell unconscious in a diabetic coma.

How blessed was she that the man was a paramedic
and his wife a nurse?

They were able to take care of that woman and get her blood sugar
under control.   She regained consciousness.

Then the man had an overwhelming urge to pray for her.

He asked her, "May I pray for you?"

and she said she would like that very much.

And he prayed.

And several people seated around them prayed with him.

It was not the seats the couple wanted to be on for their trip
but it was definitely the seats they needed to be on for their trip!

*****

God is With You

This story is told by Tracey Tiernan
of 95.1 Shine FM

• 

Do you ever wish you had a sign from God? You feel a little silly asking for it ‘cause, sure, He’s been faithful and true, and He doesn’t have to prove Himself to you, yet there He goes again, showing off, showing gracious love. 

My little sign from God, and it has been for decades, has been a red cardinal. Many, many years ago it became something that God showed me at a time when I needed to be aware and reminded of His presence. Surely, He’s there, but that cardinal sure meant something to me. Now, it’s become something for my husband and I to look for. 

We were sitting in the car, in the driveway, having this conversation, feeling heavy hearted. You know those conversations that happen and you don't want to get out of the car? We were just talking about stuff and feeling kind of burdened by some things going on and really wanted to seek God together because we both felt a little weary and a little discouraged. As we were sitting there, the coolest thing happened. 

We looked up and there was a cardinal on the fence in front of us. And then there’s another. And then there’s another.

We were surrounded by red cardinals.

There had to have been at least a dozen!

We sat in the car for 10 minutes, watching this going on, thinking, “What in the world is God wanting to communicate to us right now?" In this moment, He was reminding us of His presence. 

*****

God Is Good

A lady I know is a devout, practicing Christian as is her entire family----except her brother.   As he became an adult he got in with the wrong crowd, alcohol, drugs, petty crimes---you know how the story goes.

After several years of this lifestyle, he decided to come back to Jesus.   He cleaned up and remained sober (and is still so to this day, 6 years later)   He became employed, engaged and is very happy.  

But his past life caught up with him.  Two years ago he was summoned to court for one of the crimes he committed earlier in his life.  He wasn't unwilling to pay restitution and accept responsibilities for his previous actions but he was scared. He could be sent to prison.  The judge assigned to him was known as one of those “hanging” judges---the kind that gives out the harshest punishments.  

On the day of court, this young man arrived early with his father and sat in the back waiting for his turn.  He prayed and his father prayed.  They prayed for grace and a miracle.

Two cases before his, the defendant, a woman, was called to the judge.   Her name was---Grace.

Then the case before his was called to the judge.   Another lady----and her name was---“Miracle”!!   

The young man and his father knew God was with them and all would be ok, even if he had to go to prison. He knew God was with him. 

Then the young man was called to stand before the judge.   There was a back and forth with review of the charges and possible sentences.  Then the judge studied the young man and said, “In light of the remarkable changes you have made in your life and the clean life you have lived for the past 4 years, I order you to pay restitution and court fines—no jail time.”

God is Good 

*****

Speaking in Tongues

My friend Robin's church was planning a missions trip to Central America, I don't recall which country.   Robin thought about it often, played it over in her mind but would say to herself, no way, that is not for me.  Others would ask her to join and she would say, sorry, not for me!  

A few days before the group was to leave, someone fell ill and could not go.  The group's leader asked Robin again, and said he wouldn't take no for an answer.  She tried---she really, really tried. But for every excuse she gave, he had a remedy.   Finally Robin gave up, realizing this was where God wanted her to go.

The first night at the mission site the church group gathered for prayer and worship.  The pastor of the hosting church spoke at length in Spanish---Robin could not  understand a single word.  While the pastor continued, Robin prayed to God:  "Since you have brought me to this place to do Your work, and I gladly submit to be Your servant, I ask you to grant me this one thing.  Give me the gift of tongues.  Let me be able to understand what this pastor says and let me be able to speak to him in his native tongue."

As she finished the prayer, the host pastor began making rounds to personally greet everyone and he was approaching Robin.  She began to get nervous, hoping God would grant her this blessing of tongues.......the pastor reached her, put out his hand to shake hers and said in perfect English, with an American accent "Welcome, I am Pastor Michael, and what is your name?" 

Robin thought she would faint!   For a split second thought she was understanding Spanish!   Then she realized that in a way, God did answer her prayer---she was able to understand the pastor and was able to speak to him so that he could understand her---it just wasn't in Spanish, but in his native tongue:  English.

God has such a wonderful sense of humor, doesn't he??  

*****

Oh Happy Day!

A friend of mine is a nurse who at one time worked at a Hospice House.  She was making her rounds when the nursing assistant came out of a patient’s room very frustrated.  The patient, an elderly lady was refusing to allow the assistant to bathe her and was being rude and nasty to the assistant. 

My friend assured the assistant she would handle it.  She walked into the room and with her biggest, cheeriest smile and voice she said “Come on Ms. X, we are getting a bath!”  And without waiting for a response she ushered the lady into the tub. 

Now Ms. X’s daughter was there and she knew her mom could be difficult, so she watched this wondering how this nurse was going to accomplish the impossible.  But the nurse just began bathing her and singing cheerfully, “Oh Happy Day” by ***** Hawkins.

About 2 or 3 minutes into this bath and song, Ms. X began to sing along with the nurse. The patient’s face brightened as she joined in.  Together patient and nurse sang “Oh Happy Day, When Jesus Washed My Sins Away” over and over until the bath was complete.

As the nurse was helping the patient to get dressed and back to bed the daughter spoke to her, wide eyed.  “I can’t believe you got her to do that!” 

“You mean bathe?”  The nurse asked.

“No, sing!  My mother NEVER sings!”  the daughter answered.

“Well she sings very nicely!”  The nurse said cheerfully.

And the daughter remained flabbergasted---“No! You don’t understand….It’s not just that----you have to understand---my mother is Jewish!”

*****

How a school teacher became my pastor:

The abdominal pains grew worse and worse.  He weighed less than 100 lbs, he was so skeletal thin that he looked like a holocaust victim.  The doctors could find nothing wrong with him.  They gave him prescription after prescription but nothing helped. 

One day, while lying on the sofa, overwhelmed by his constant and severe pain, he prayed emphatically to God to remove this pain, “Please! Make it stop!”  He was raised in the church and his faith was strong and like many of us when we feel desperate, he made a bargain with God---stop this pain right now and I will become a lay minister at my church.

His eyes were closed as he prayed these words and the pain instantly vanished. But so did everything else it seemed.  He could hear nothing, the world went silent.  He could no longer feel the couch beneath him.  His arms no longer had any weight, in fact, they felt as if they were floating.   He was afraid to open his eyes; he truly believed he must be dead.  Time stopped.  He did not know if this experience lasted 5 seconds or 5 minutes.

Then like a hammer falling on a nail, everything came back, sound, sense of weight, the feel of the couch---and pain---excruciating pain.   (Well, I only asked God to stop the pain “now” and not for good, he would later laugh)

Later he was taken to the emergency room.  He needed surgery to remove large sections of his intestines, but this hospital was not able provide this kind of surgery.  So he was rushed via ambulance to a university hospital.  Here he was told that he was too under weight for surgery.  As he stayed at this hospital, gaining weight for surgery, he improved.  The univeristy doctors determined he has Crohn’s disease and were able to treat him medically rather than with surgery. 

The medication worked, he improved and although he will be on medicine for the rest of his life---he does have his life back---and he kept his promise to God and became a lay minister.  Years later, after retiring from teaching, he then became the pastor of my church.  

*****
This testimony I read in an interview with Alec Rayme from the new movie "Left Behind"  It is just a portion but it shows how God sometimes answers our prayers through others.

"---Rayme said he didn’t truly dive into the Christian faith, though, until five years ago when a friend called him out of concern.   “I had a friend call me that I hadn’t talked to in years and he was like, ‘I’ve just been thinking about you. You’ve been on my mind because I’m worried about you, you know? Where are you in your life now?,’” he explained. “I was like, ‘Man that’s crazy. You just called me. I’m literally like screaming out to God. I don’t know what else to do I’m in the lowest I’ve ever been. Blackest, darkest, most despair feeling.’---”

You can read the full article HERE


*****

Another great testimony by Ravi Zacharias regarding his ministry and his healing.   Ravi tells us how he has suffered with severe back pain for over 25 years.  The pain became so severe and debilitating that he couldn't bend over to tie his shoes!   It was difficult, with this pain, to endure the long flights as he traveled the world to spread God's word and to do day to day things.

One morning, the day before he had to take a long flight to Singapore, he received a call from a dear friend. "Ravi!  Ravi!  I must see you!" this friend exclaimed.  Ravi said he was very busy preparing to leave for Singapore.  But the friend continued to insist that he must see him this very day, so Ravi agreed to meet him for breakfast.

As Ravi sat with his friend at breakfast, his friend began, "Every morning, before I get out of bed, I lay there for 30 minutes, in silence,  asking God to speak to me.  Every day. and yesterday, God spoke to me!  He told me I had to see you, Ravi and tell you 2 things."

Now of course, Ravi is intrigued.  His friend share's God's word with him.  "God told me to tell you that he will bless your ministry in a way he has not before.  That your ministry will spread further and reach more people and see success beyond anything you have had in the past."

Ravi is flattered, but wondered why this couldn't be told to him on the phone?  His friend continued, "God told me to tell you '3-4-5' and that you would know what that means.  What does it mean Ravi?"

Ravi is speechless, jaw open, he cannot believe what his friend has just told him.  Ravi said, "3,4,5?  Those are the vertebrae that cause me so much pain,  numbers 3,4, and 5."  His friend is amazed.  They stand up and the friend puts his hands on Ravi's back and prays for healing.  

Two days later, Ravi suddenly realized his back no longer hurts.  You can hear this story from Ravi Zacharias himself in this pod cast:  http://rzim.vo.llnwd.net/o43/MP3/LMPT/LMP20130803.mp3  it starts at:  2:15

*****

I don't know if you are a fan of American Football,
but here is a little known story about Ray Lewis and Jacoby Jones of the Baltimore Ravens.

Ray Lewis is a Christian athlete. It was the 2013 Superbowl 
and Ray was on the side lines when he felt God tell him 
to rub his hands on Jacoby Jones.

So Ray called Jacoby over and did so.

And immediately after Jacoby caught the kick return and ran 
a record scoring 108 yards for a touchdown!!

I don't believe God favors one team over the other, but I think 
He was blessing Ray Lewis that day as it was Ray's 
very last game in the NFL and what a great way to end 
his professional career!

*****

Ravi Zacharias: Hien Pham

Throughout history the Old and New Testaments have shown themselves to be reliable and true; they rise up to outlive their pallbearers, if you will. The following story probably stirs my own confidence in the power of God's Word and His sovereignty more than any other. Let me share part of it with you today.

 I was ministering in Vietnam in 1971, and one of my interpreters was Hien Pham, an energetic young Christian. He had worked as a translator with the American forces, and was of immense help both to them and to missionaries such as myself. Hien and I traveled the length of the country and became very close friends before I returned home. We did not know if our paths would ever cross again. Seventeen years later, I received a telephone call. "Brother Ravi?" the man asked. Immediately I recognized Hien's voice, and he soon told me his story. 

Shortly after Vietnam fell, Hien was imprisoned on accusations of helping the Americans. His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against democratic ideals and the Christian faith. He was restricted to communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese, and the daily deluge of Marx and Engels began to take its toll. "Maybe," he thought, "I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me." So Hien determined that when he awakened the next day, he would not pray anymore or think of his faith.

 The next morning, he was assigned the most hated of all chores----cleaning the prison latrines. As he cleaned out a tin can overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what seemed to be English printed on one piece of paper. He hurriedly grabbed it, washed it, and after his roommates had retired that night, he retrieved the paper and read the words, "Romans, Chapter 8." Trembling, he began to read, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him….for I am convinced that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Hien wept. He knew His Bible, and knew that there was not a more relevant passage for one on the verge of surrender. He cried out to God, asking forgiveness, for this was to have been the first day that he would not pray. Evidently God had other plans. What his tormentors were using for toilet paper—the Scriptures—could not be more treasured to Hien.

 After finding the Scripture, Hien asked the commander if he could clean the latrines regularly.  Each day Hien picked up a portion of Scripture, cleaned it off, and added it to his collection of nightly reading.

 The day came when, through an equally providential set of circumstances, Hien was released from prison. He promptly began to make plans to leave the country and to construct a boat for the escape of him and fifty-three others. All was going according to plan until days before their departure. Four Vietcong knocked on Hien's door and said they had heard of his escape. He denied it and they left. Hien felt relieved, but at the same time disappointed with himself, for he had told a lie.   He made a promise to God—fervently hoping that God would not take him up on it—that if the Vietcong returned, he would tell them the truth. He was thoroughly shaken when only a few hours before they were to set sail, the four men returned. When questioned again, Hien confessed the truth. To Hien's astonishment, the men leaned forward and in hushed tones, asked if they could go with him!

 In an utterly incredible escape plan, all fifty-eight of them found themselves on the high seas, suddenly engulfed by a violent storm. Hien cried out to God, "Did you bring us here to die?" He said to me, "Brother Ravi, if it were not for the sailing ability of those four Vietcong, we would not have made it." They arrived safely in Thailand, and years later Hien arrived on American soil where today he is a businessman.

*****

Advancing The Gospel Through Persecution

Have you heard the story of the Christian Minister, Saeed,  being imprisoned in Iran?  Here is his story as told by his wife, Naghmeh:

Shortly after they met, Naghmeh and Saeed were ministering in Iran when they were taken at gunpoint, detained, and interrogated multiple times. As the situation worsened, the guard told Naghmeh that she could go home if she said she was a Muslim. However, if she claimed to be a Christian, she would be sentenced to prison, tortured, and killed.  “For a few seconds, I was tempted,” she recalled. 

Then she heard the Lord say, “Don’t deny me, and I will protect you.”   

God gave Naghmeh the grace and strength she needed in that moment to maintain her faith. The guard grew angrier and accused her of being brainwashed. Then he took Saeed out to the courtyard as Naghmeh watched through a window.   “I was praying. Knowing Saeed – that he came from a radical background like the guard – I knew he was sharing Christ with him.”

Finally, the two came back inside. The guard took their file, tore it up, and told them to go. As they were leaving, he whispered, “Can I have a Bible?”

“God had us in that interrogation room for that particular man,” Naghmeh said. “If we had denied our faith, he never would have come to know Jesus.”

Remembering God’s faithfulness that day has helped Naghmeh during Saeed’s current imprisonment. “When I stand up for my faith, He uses it.”

Naghmeh and Saeed exemplify surrender to Christ. From the time they came to salvation, God placed a desire in each of their hearts to proclaim the Gospel to the nation of Iran. Even their wedding in Tehran became an evangelical outreach with 600 people, including many Muslims, who received The Jesus Film and Bibles as wedding favors.

Confident of their calling, Naghmeh draws her strength from God.  “I’ve asked God, ‘Why now?’ and He said, ‘For such a time as this.’”

And in a situation meant for evil, God is reaching millions of people with the message of His Son, including 30 of Saeed’s fellow prisoners who have accepted Christ. In fact, the longer Saeed has stayed in prison, the more people have had the chance to hear the Gospel.   

“There are people God wants to reach – even through this,” she said.

September 26 marked one year since Pastor Saeed was imprisoned. Through beatings, torture, and pressure to deny his faith, he continues to be a witness for Christ.   Naghmeh asks for prayers for her husband’s continued strength, his health, and his release. She also asks for prayers that God would use their lives to bring Muslims to Christ, pointing to Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

“That’s where our heart is,” she said. “Pray that we would go into the darkness and share Christ.”

*****

A story of God Bringing Others into Our Lives so we may be a Blessing unto Them:

(as told by a close friend of the family)

It was the late 1970's and many were suffering in hard economic times.  I was a young man headed out of our small town of Centreville (Maryland) to hang with some friends.   I pulled into our local quick shop for some snacks when a small car pulls in for gas.  It is LOADED with so many belongings, strapped on top and on the back of this little car that I was sure the tires would pop!   There were five people in that car, what looked to be a family.  The license plates said "Kansas".  

The father got out of the car to pump gas and I asked him what had brought him out this way.  He said he had lost his job, his home and he was seeking a place to live and work and had been driving all over, but so far he had found nothing.  I felt bad for him as I shook his hand, slapped his shoulder and said "Well, good luck to you, sir!"  and off I went to be with my buddies.

That night, I awoke suddenly from my sleep like a bucket of cold water had hit my face.  Here I am, a man from a family that is well connected, I know many people who can offer jobs, houses, etc.  I could've helped that man, easily, with a couple of phone calls!  I blew it!!  So I prayed.  "Father in Heaven.  I have failed.  You brought that family into my life today and I missed it.  I am sorry.  If there is anyway you can bring them back into my life, I promise I will do all I can to find that family a job and home, amen."

The next morning I woke and went to work.   I work in Washington D.C., about an hour away from home.  As I was driving in the city, on the street opposite me, going in the opposite direction---was that car!!  That same car from Kansas, still piled high with belongings on the top and trunk.  It was them!  And they were stopping at a traffic light.  I pulled to the curb, ran across the street to their car.  They were waiting for the light to change.  I pounded on the driver's window, "Roll down the window!  Roll down the window!!"  The guy looked a bit frightened and timidly rolled it down. 

"Remember me?!" I shouted.  "You met me yesterday at the little quick shop that you pumped gas at!  I can help you!  Pull over into that lot!"

So I gave the family my card.  Wrote a bunch of phone numbers on the back for potential employers and home rentals and told them to call those numbers and tell them I referred them.   They did and were able to find a job and a home.   

So I learned that God not only give us opportunity to serve others---he gives us second chances to serve others if we blow it the first time!