"PART OF THE PLAN" Never Ending Story Cont. ..."Testimony!"

AMAZING GRACE...How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like Me!
I once was Lost, but now I'm found....
....Was Blind, But now I see!

Now I'm well aware that this well known Hymn is very familiar to most people today in the modern world especially amongst the Christian community...

But the power and freedom that these familiar verses bring to someone like myself, when I first discovered the full impact of those realities being realized in my very dysfunctional confused world...

Cannot be properly communicated to someone that has never experienced it firsthand, up close and personal in their own lives...

But once someone truly experiences what it means to truly be lost...And then be found...they will never forget it and must absolutely find someway to communicate to those around them what it means to finally be free at last.

The Truth is that I absolutely at this point in my telling of my ongoing story have to tell you what happened to me in the spring of 1981...Later on I realized the significance of the fact that the greatest experience of my life happened right around Easter...

...Mind you now, that as far as all things Christian and Spiritual were concerned, I was dumb as a box of rocks!  But in retrospect, I can look back and see all kinds of awesome truths about how God works...

And how all of our life is like an ongoing perpetual, virtual classroom, With the creator of the universes presiding as our professor...Lovingly, and persistantly wanting all of lifes experiences to be our object lessons of his existence and watchcare over us.

God reveals Himself to us constantly every moment of everyday in so many ways, that when you finally get it...

You truly realize that you really were blind...But now you can see!

....Now, picking up where we left off, let us see if we can get on with the rest of the story!

......I'm totally aware of the fact that every great story teller, that wants to keep his readers totally captivated and interested enough to continue on reading, there has to be certain elements included in the recipe...

Every great story has lots of SEX, Violence, Money, Travel, Intrigue, Mystery, Suspense, Drama, etc, etc,

You get the picture, and I can guarantee you that the period of time of two years, between Gary Knight's  Death and that faithful morning on April 12, 1981 is chocker block full of action...

And as exciting and dramatic as all of those experiences are, I have to tell you now  about the greatest thing that has ever happened to me ever.

I will come back to those couple of years and fill in the blanks because those experiences are true and actual history and they were action packed exciting times,
But unbeknownst to me at the time, those experiences were jam packed with life lessons and truths that my blind eyes couldn't see nor my young an inexperienced mind was ill equipped to comprehend.

Revelation 12:11 -
"And they overcame him by the Blood of The Lamb and by the word of their TESTIMONY!"

Reasonable people can have debates and discussions about life and Spiritual matters and can agree to disagree, have difference of opinions and be okay with that...

...But the one thing that nobody can challenge is your very own personal experiences and one of the most powerful weapons in our arsenal is our testimony.

We overcome our adversary the devil by the Blood of Jesus, and the words of our Testimony!
 So I want to share with you the words of my Testimony!


...Hedonism was the wide and broad road that leads to destruction that I pursued from the day that I walked out of that Church where I attended Gary's funeral until the day I walked into a church in Louisianna several years later begging God to save me from the miserable Hell of the never ending party that I had been trying to find my way out of for some time now.

My life had become like the Eagles Song "HOTEL CALIFORNIA"...
   "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave!"

How I survived that period of time in my life can only be described as miraculous...Truly it was the "Tender Mercies" and the "Grace of God" that saved me from Prison,

... I was a 3 time loser by the age of 19 and spent not 1 day of  States Prison Time without turning into a snitch!...{Thank You!, Judge Meyer Warshowski}

...Multiple Bad Drug Deal Encounters and situations where guns and physical violence should of taken me out but didn't!  Being a mid-level Drug Dealer although financially lucrative was not all that it is cracked up to be...


...Drug Overdoses where I had Graduated from being a Pothead and an occasional Phsychadelic trip taker to an IV Drug user (Cocaine Junkie) almost killed me more times than I can count.  I took many a ride to the local Emergency rooms in either an ambulance or driven by my fellow fools because I had caused myself so many cardiac emergencies by shooting up enough Coke to kill an Elephant as well as ingesting massive amounts of alcohol and other intoxicating substances...We called it partying!

...Fights, Bar Room brawls and drunken driving that many times wound up in car wrecks, resulting in physical injuries requiring medical treatment and life saving interventions.

These are just a few of the near fatal events that I was aware of...I know that there were many other times that danger lurked close by that only an act of God or the interventions of my Guardian Angel kept me out of the eternal fires of hell.

...God willing...I will share the details of those stories at a later date but I will introduce you to a few characters and  some events that opened my eyes and caused me to take that...
... "LEAP OF FAITH"  THAT FOREVER CHANGED MY LIFE AND THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND ME!

...My life had spiraled way out of control, I was a Drug Addicted Drug Dealer Alcoholic that had just recently finally gotten off paper. That is, I had completed the terms of my probation and was free make my own decisions about employment, travel, and a variety of other circumstances that most people take for granted.

...I had a beautiful family, a young attractive wife, and my beautiful baby Girl, Aimee Beth...We had managed to upgraded to a much larger house that I purchased through my Drug dealer Real Estate Agent Bob Ryder. The Neighborhood wasn't the greatest, but it was a pretty good location for my Drug dealing business near the corner of Gull Rd. and North St.

...It was in the Early 80's during the Carter Administration and the Economy was in a total Recession with high unemployment and double digit inflation...
I was unemployed, you couldn't even hardly buy a job in the northern or midwestern states of the country...

...I was strung out and miserable, and even though I didn't realize it at the time...God had unleashed the hounds of heaven on me and kept confronting me with how much He was actively involved in my life, and how great my need was for Him.

...Through all of the insanity and chaos in my life, I began to realize how blessed I truly was.  I Had my Beautiful Little family and God had a few people in my  life that  were constant   reminders of how much He loved me and wanted me to surrender my life over to His control and watchcare over me and mine.

...Scott Underwood was a good friend of ours and his Mother Elaine and Father Kenny Sr.  Had become Christians.  Scotts Mom Elaine was constantly witnessing to us and she was a total Pentecostal type Believer, that believed in prayer and the miraculous power of God.  I know that she was praying for our salvation and deliverance. ...Because she was always getting a few digs in here and there, Speaking the word over us whenever we were standing still long enough ...!

Now Scott's another one of those characters that I don't believe I had yet introduced to you,... But He's one of those close teenage year buddies, one of those close inner circle guys like you see in that movie like the "Lords Of Flatbush", or  "Saturday Night Fever" Now Scott Wasn't The Fonz Guy but he was definitely one of those goodlookin smooth operators, He Easily could have been the Actor, Lou Diamond Phillips Twin Brother, a real Ladies Man and a Tough Rockem Sockem SOB guy that you were glad that he was there to watch your back when it was time to rumble...
....And Trust me We had lots of those moments!   We were one of those crews that were the either the life of the party or the beginning of the riot... We we were all about either making love...Or going to war! Many times it was both...In the same night!
...  You get the picture...

Scott came from a huge family, His  older brother Pahoo (Kenneth Jr.), Younger Brother Kelly, and Three other sisters...Scott's main Squeeze was a beautiful little country girl from Climax Mi. Tammy Wedig...

...The reason for sharing all the names mentioned is that most of them have a role in some way or another of future events and at the least they were characters that were very much a part of that time in our lives as well as the fact that each one of them have been created by God for a specific purpose, a mission in life...And not only that, but God loves each one of them very much and every person in our lives past present and future are part of the bigger picture and purposes of Gods plan for humanity!

...Isnt that an awesome thing to grasp???

...Every single individual on this planet has a purpose and mission designed by God to play a part...A significant and important part of the history of  humanity et al...

Wow!

WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THAT CONCEPT...AND REALIZE THE REALITY AND TRUTH WRAPPED UP IN THE FACT...AND SUDDENLY ALL YOUR POOR SELF ESTEEM ISSUES, FEELINGS OF UNIMPORTANCE AND INSIGNIFICANCE ARE DESTROYED.

WE DO MATTER!  AND THE THINGS THAT WE SAY AND DO, THE PEOPLE WE COME INTO CONTACT WITH,

... EVERYONE OF THEM!

...ARE PART OF THE PLAN...GOD'S PLAN!

GOOD PLACE AND GOOD THOUGHT TO END THIS PART OF THE STORY ON...IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AS GOD'S PLAN COMES TOGETHER...

STAY TUNED FOR THE REST OF THE  NEVER ENDING STORY!

peace

Brother Michael