Christian Trials

Christian Trials

Welcome to Christianity Oasis. This is our Christian Trials page from our Set Free Collection. We hope you enjoy this enlightening reading and it helps you on your own be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

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Christian Trials

by Larry Leeson

Set Free - Christian Trials

At the age of five in 1975, I was in a tragic gasoline explosion that doctors and surgeons said I would not survive. They said I would not live through the night, then they said three days, then they said it would just be a matter of time. After surviving the tragedy the doctors then said that I would not be able to talk, not be able to walk, not be able to use my right arm, that I could not be in direct sunlight, and that I wouldn't be able to do anything strenuous. Since that time, God has saved my soul, brought me through more than 40 major operations, allowed me to be a champion power lifter, and motor crosser, ordained me a minister of the Gospel as an evangelist and not only can I talk but I can shout, not only can I walk but I can run, and not only can I use my right arm but I can lift it towards the Heavens in Praise and Worship. I love the Lord Jesus Christ and though I still struggle and even often times question I believe in Him with all my heart. All Praise, Glory, & Honor be to God Almighty!!! My desire is to reach as many souls as possible through the experiences that God has brought me through and is still bringing me through.

But it was not as quick or as easy as the brief introduction I have given you. In between is what is known as the Christian Walk with many Christian trials. We will all stumble as we experience these Christian trials, for only the worm is free from the worry of stumble. We all fall down. Saints, are just the sinners that fall down ... And get up.

I am not here to tickle your ears and tell you how wonderful the life of a Christian is. I am here to tell the truth of my Christian walk, my Christian trials and how we are to be brought through fire as Peter said:

And just as the Prophet Zechariah prophesied:

During these fiery trials satan will send spirits to constantly attack and lure you. We may get caught up in the trap. We may even allow these imps to enter our mind, soul and heart and play out what they placed within us. We may fall down but we get up. We call out to our Father and beg for His grace in the name of Jesus. We are cleansed with the blood of Jesus and we carry on.

We fight the good fight of faith ... (1 Timothy 6:12), But then ... As Jesus said:

We fall down again ... We get up again. Saints, are just the sinners that fall down .... And get up. This is called spiritual warfare and like it or not ... You are right in the middle of it.

It is a battle for souls. Yours! But fear not these imps of the enemy, for we are also told by Jesus:

Maybe ... Just maybe you too are experiencing some similar Christian trials in your Christian walk and what I am sharing can be used as a candle in the times of darkness during these Christian trials.

Here is the rest of my Christian trials testimony ...

My first years of life here on earth were filled with devastation from the tragedy at age five, but the suffering I was yet to experience was a direct result of bad decisions made by me.

I was an alcoholic by the age of 8 and selling caffeine speed pills and marijuana by the age of ten. By the age of sixteen I was in such distress that suicide was often on my mind and attempted three times by this time. Then this girl was brought into my life while I was a Junior in High School. She was the daughter of missionary parents who had just came back to the U.S. from their missionary journeys in the Philippines. She invited me to go to Church with her and her family and I accepted the invitation and thus was being led back towards the right direction. This girl was very special and we kept going to Church and school together and thus a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship was born. I left the drugs behind, at least for a time. I was working a real job at the age of sixteen as a bag boy in a small grocery store but my criminal past kept haunting me. I resisted for years and was used of God as He did His work through me. I was invited to share my testimony at one of our youth group meetings. We went from the missionaries house across a large yard to a neighbor's house where I for the first time in this type of setting gave my testimony to a group of about fifteen people and after giving my testimony and answering the questions that followed, we went back to my girlfriends house where we held youth meetings on a regular basis every Monday evening. My girlfriend, her sister and little brother all went upstairs to talk and say our "good nights" when there was a voice calling up to us from downstairs. It was the voice of a young boy named Joey. He wanted to know if he could come up and talk with me and of course I said yes and I was very curious what was on his mind. What he said blew my mind. He said that he never really believed in God before but that after hearing the testimony of Jesus Christ in my life, that he now believed and wanted to be saved and didn't know how. He asked if I would lead Him to the Lord and I answered Him that God was already doing that but that "yes" I could help him through prayer. I asked him if he was ready to pray and meet the Lord and to acknowledge that he we was a sinner in need of being saved and to ask the Lord to come into his heart and save his soul and to give him strength to not turn back to his old ways of living that he may live his life for the Lord. Joey's answer was "yes" as we move closer to one another on our knees and we both went to the Lord in prayer and as we did Joey broke out in tears pleading with the Lord, confessing his sin, and verbally expressing his desire to be saved and come to know Jesus as Lord. He pleaded for help and his plea was answered unmistakably and very clearly "YES" and he was saved and thus another child of the king was born. It was one of the most incredible experiences I had ever been blessed to be a part of. It was truly amazing and breath taking.

Sometime later I was invited to give this same testimony to our Church of about 200 who were mostly all moved to tears and into awe as they heard first hand from the mouth of the one who had lived this testimony and the evidence was right in front of them. There was a pouring out of the spirit like I had never experienced before. The congregation was moved by the invisible hand of God. The way God was using me I had never dreamed of. Suicide was far from me. They asked me then to be the youth group leader and God moved us all to pull together as one and great things happened. Reflecting back I can still to this day scarcely believe what God done through our lives combined as one body yet individual spiritual growth was something we were not focusing on as we were being grown by God and he did the weeding, the watering, the cooling off, the chastising (ouch), the blessing, and the saving.

This went on for about three very full years. Then I must tell it, as it is the truth, satan entered into the picture and began sewing terrible thoughts and even deeper thoughts into the minds of one young boy that I should have seen. I walked with this young boy and talked with him he was a few years younger than I. He was about 14 and we were at my girlfriends house and got a phone call that I will never forget. My girlfriends mom and dad took the call then cam in and gave us the news. This young boy that had been a part of our group and that went to the same school as I did had hung himself and was found in hanging in his garage but still had some vital signs. Her mom and dad rushed to the hospital and asked me to stay there at the house with their children. We waited patiently for an answer to come. I made the statement that he was going to be fine and that he probably hadn't really tried to kill himself. Those words were so far from right. My girlfriends dad called and asked to talk to me. He gave me the news and asked me to break the news to the family and pray with them and for the family of this young life that had been so early in life abruptly and harshly taken.

The hurt was so deep that I could feel it in my bones. My words were also now hurting me and as I hung up the phone I had to face the group that I had assured he was going to be fine and break the news to them in the best way a sixteen year old boy led of God could. I had them all join with me on their knees in a tight circle on the living room floor. and as I reached my arms around them and they in turn reached their arms around as far as they could and we all leaned inward and I looked each one in the eyes and they knew already now what I was going to say and tears began to flow even before I said Scott is gone. The hurt was deep and like my heart was in a vice. My girlfriend was overflowing with pain and hurt as she and her sisters cried for hours; all of us together sharing this pain and hurt for hours. So many questions, so many why's? So much to be learned from this. But how would we continue to move forward as we had been. Well the reality was set in rather quickly ... we would not continue as we had. This changed things, this awoke in us new knowledge and understanding that we never thought of before.

Chastisement came soon thereafter. So many times we were all together and Scott with us and yet was in a terrible inward battle that none of us knew but was being shown by his behaviors while he was with us. Looking back I can remember how he pulled away from the forefront and began to talk more secluded with a couple of others and I remember that the behavior did strike my heart as odd and something that was out of order. I wish I would have took more heed to what God was showing me. That poor soul didn't have to walk alone. He had available to him the power from the Omnipotent God we serve and we as a group were plugged into it, but when satan infiltrated our group through doors that, some of which I myself had opened, that snake slithered among us and began to take hold on one of ours that we had not held on to tightly enough. We could have been praying for him, we could have asked what is troubling you. His odd behaviors continued on for many weeks before this happened. And I was right there.

Please teach me Lord I cry to be more sensitive to you and all around me. The group was never the same after that. We had to acknowledge it as it was all in God's hands and we were no more than wretched little children who could do nothing without God allowing it. And sometimes God just moves in a situation and all we his children and the spectators can do is move with His Spirit or shy away. I chose to move with His Spirit though terrified and uncertain what lay ahead. We became more involved in the church and we all bonded together tightly but some were now not coming and then there would be a new person who would stay for a while and then they would soon leave. Things were definitely now different.

My girlfriend's family were getting ready to move to Pennsylvania and her and I were engaged to be married but were yet to young to get married it seemed. She wanted to keep a long distance relationship and our song became "Somewhere out there". Our relationship did not last long being so far apart because of my rebellious nature began to drive me. Oh I am so sorry I allowed that to happen. I went back into drugs and guns and criminal activity. How could I do this? Why? I was almost eighteen and about to receive $73, 496.00 as soon as I turned eighteen. The fight that was next was incredible and caught me so off guard and unexpected.

Just months before I turned eighteen, my mother and father who were divorced became entangled in a bitter battle over the money I was about to receive upon turning eighteen. The dollar amount was $73,496.00. My dad had been the guardian of my account from the time I was five up until I was nearly eighteen and now my mom was wanting him removed as guardian because of expenditures that she felt were inappropriate. To my surprise a sheriff showed up at my school with an attorney for my dad to subpoena me to court to testify on my dad's behalf. Oh, I was so humiliated. I had always tried to keep family problems away from school as school was difficult enough as it was, but this was something that I couldn't hide from school as many of my friends and peers seen the sheriff cruiser and the man in a suit pull up at the school and enter the building and then I was promptly paged over the PA system to come to the office. They issued me the subpoena, which I had to sign for, and then they left. Then, just when I thought my day couldn't have gotten any worse, shortly after I arrived home from school another sheriff showed up at our residence and again it was for me. Another subpoena, this time for me testify on behalf of my mother. A court date had been set and both my mom & dad were expecting to take their side.

Upon arriving to court at the appointed time I suddenly had this idea of how I might avoid taking sides against one of my parents. I asked the bailiff to let the Judge know that I would like to talk to him, which he did. The judge came out of his chambers and inquired of me what I would like to talk to him about and I told him that it would be best if we could speak in his chambers to which both the attorneys insisted on being present in chambers with us. Upon entering the judges chambers I let him know the dilemma as I seen it. I explained to him that no amount of money was worth me choosing one of my parents sides over the other and that I had a suggestion that would prevent this. He asked what I had in mind and I explained my position which was that I felt that he could appoint someone else other than my mom or dad to be the guardian of my account for the remaining few months until I was eighteen. I asked him if he knew any city officials in Circleville that he could appoint as guardian who would be willing to accept the responsibility.

Both the attorneys began to argue this idea and became very irate, and that is when I used the opportunity to let them both know that I did not appreciate at all that either of them had tried to put me against either one of my parents over money or for any other reason for that matter. That it was I who had been burned literally to death and had to suffer these scars all my life and this money had been raised for my continued health care and that it should not be a tool used to put division between me and my parents. The attorneys then tried to find fault with me for what I had just said and the judge kicked them out of his chambers. He then told me that it was a good idea and that I could go ahead and return to the court room. He soon came out of his chambers and without a trial ever beginning he issued his decision, which is what we had discussed in chambers, slammed his gavel and dismissed court. My mom and dad were both in a little shock as this was not at all what they expected to happen.

I turned eighteen, received my money and another new journey began. Have you ever heard the saying that a fool and his money will soon part? Well, I can tell you from personal experience that it is very true. I went deeper into drug trafficking and criminal activity and also opened a sports bar with my grandfather. Grandfather never knew of my criminal side and I kept hid pretty well. Four years running the bar was all I could take. I knew if I didn't get out that I was going to wind up dead, or killing someone, or in prison. So I left the bar scene but was still very deep in sin and was now living with a new girlfriend in a house that I had purchased from her family's estate. She kept wanting to have a baby and I kept telling her that I wanted to wait until we were married. About three months later she let me know she was pregnant and that she had intentionally quit taking her birth control to become pregnant. She insisted we get married but I was hurt by what she had intentionally done even knowing that I wanted to wait. She suggested I move out for a couple weeks and that I would then see how much I loved her and would then be ready to marry her. It sounded sensible but that is far from what happened. She soon had someone else living in my house with her unbeknownst to me until very early in the morning hours when a friend of mine needed a ride to his friends house which I soon found out was right behind my house that my girlfriend was living in. It was about 4a.m. and out front of my house was a strange car and so I went to my house to check on my girlfriend and to make sure she was okay.

She was more than okay, she had another guy in the house with her and tried to get me to leave immediately but me being young and full of pride refused to leave and told her to go into the living room where the hide-away bed was laid out and tell him to leave. She went in there and talked for a while but he wasn't leaving. So I entered the room, set down at the foot of the bed by his feet, turned on my TV and just set there for a few moments before turning around towards him and asking him if he was crazy. He said "crazy, why?" I answered "well, you are in my house, with my girlfriend, who is pregnant with my child, you are in my bed, and now you are watching TV with me." He began apologizing and soon left. She was very angry with me because he left and so when I left to go back to the house behind my house to say goodbye to my friend, she called the police. The police came and when I seen a police car pull up I went over and knocked on the front door and an officer friend of mine stepped out and asked me what had happened. I answered him as I described above and then he said that's what she said but that she had added that I had pulled a gun and threatened her and the other guy. He had to arrest me and take me to jail because a gun was allegedly involved. I went to court the next morning and plead "not guilty" and spent the next three years preparing to go to trial over this criminal matter. I had no idea until the day we were to finally go to trial that I was facing ten years in prison for what any average person would get a slap on the wrist for and possibly a fine. The charge was aggravated menacing, two counts, five years for each count, which is typically a misdemeanor that one typically never has to go to court over but because my now ex-girlfriend had told of my criminal past and added quite a bit to it, I was facing a felony charge, two counts because they believed they could prove that the threat allegedly made was so severe that it warranted the penalty of prison. Living a sinful life one can never be certain just where they might find themselves nor in what circumstances. All thanks be to God, the truth did come out during the trial and I was found "not guilty" on both charges. Though I was not innocent by any stretch of the imagination.

My sinful life had caused much harm to many people, myself included. I had met the girl who would several years later become my wife while going through this very trying time in my life. My new girlfriend and I were engaged within a couple years and her and I both were living in sin. She had two sons that somehow reached right through my tough, thick, skin to my heart and my heart softened. Finally, I wanted to do something good for someone other than myself for the first time in a long time. Her oldest son was five and her youngest nine months old when we met. The oldest is now 20 and the youngest 15 and we are now married after many years of living a very sinful life together. We had gotten into cocaine and it really took us way down. God allowed me to go so far that I realized that unless I turned to Him that I was going to die as I was a slave to this poisonous drug. After being up all night one night from using the drug, I was at my wits end and knew I needed help if I was to ever be free from the hold satan had on me through this drug and so I got dressed and went to Church looking for God to set me free from this strong hold the devil had on me. I arrived at a little country Church in Massieville, Ohio where my great Aunt Mary goes to church and testified that satan had a strong hold on me and that I wanted that hold broken and so I asked if the elders of the Church along with the Pastor would lay hands on me and pray for this hold to be broken and God did just that. The strong hold was broken "Thank you Jesus!"

I went home and told my wife about it but she didn't yet want to quit using cocaine. Overtime, I gave in a couple of times and used along with her, but I repented of it and made up my mind that I didn't want the devil to get a strong hold on me again through the cocaine and so I don't use it nor do I have any desire to do so. God set me free from the bonds and free I wanted to stay. My wife too eventually reached the point where she wanted set free from it as well and we prayed together and I asked God to take the addiction away from her too and He did! Praise His Holy name. We began going to Church on a regular basis and a friend that I worked with was a Pastor and invited me to his Church. I went and was truly blessed. My wife and sons began attending there with me and we remained there for about three years. We were growing in the Lord and we soon found out that this Christian walk is far from being easy, but it is essential, and we have the Holy Spirit to count on to give us guidance and strength along the way. Our journey didn't end there and neither did the trials, failures, and victories. We are still on our Christian walk and glad that we are. Our physical bodies are in quite bad shape, partly from the drug abuse, partly from accidents, partly from getting older, and partly from just living through this life. I am thankful that these bodies are only temporary and that someday we will be given new glorified ones.

And now I am in the toughest fight of my spiritual life that I have ever been in thus far. I have come under fear that I have committed the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Mark 3:29). I am sure that I have not committed this sin but the adversary of my soul is trying to convince me that I have and that I am hopelessly lost. The devil is clever but He cannot defeat God and soon God will put him in a place prepared just for him and all those that do not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

How it came about that I began to believe I had committed this most dreadful sin was one Friday night back in October of 2005. I had gotten off work and went to pick up two of my nephews from roller skating because their mom was in not very good shape. I took them home to our house and got them settled in and then to bed. But I couldn't sleep. At 4: 00a.m. I walked out into the middle of our street, which is desolate at the time in the morning, and was looking up at the stars. I had been talking with an attorney just the day before as I was contemplating having myself put in prison for a past crime that is nearly ten years old. I've never killed anyone but I did commit some pretty bad crimes during my drug use. Anyway, as I stared up at the stars all I wanted to do was go to Heaven right then and there. Without even realizing it I was being the most selfish person I have ever known. I wasn't thinking about my wife, kids, any of my family or friends, I was only thinking about me. I actually tried to somehow just by will power to come out of this body so that I could go on to Heaven. Let me tell you what, IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT! No way, not at all, that is not the way. Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one can come unto the Father (God) except by Him (Jesus). Oh I definitely was being misled. That was not God that had me out there in the street at 4am trying to come out of my body. I confess that I messed up big time and I have repented of trying to do such things. The devil was telling me I had messed up, and that was true, the devil was telling me that I had failed, and that was true, then he said I had no hope, and that was a lie. God has shown me through the storms of my life that even when it appears as if all hope is gone, like the times I was literally dead, that even then there is hope, the proof is here I sit typing this testimony. I admit my faith wavered and and I was in unbelief but I confess that Jesus is Lord and that He saved me and that I am trusting in Him to get me through this trial as well. If you would my friend, whoever you are that is reading this right now, please stop and take a moment to say a prayer for me. Please also say a prayer for my family as this has had quite an impact on them as well. I want to be a beacon of light for the God to shine on the path that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

I would like to pray for you as well right now.

"Dear Heavenly Father, I ask in Jesus name that you would bless the one who is reading this testimony of you and that you would speak to their heart the words of love that come only from you. I ask that you would meet whatever specific need they have in their life right now and that as you answer this prayer in their life that they would recognize it as you and your hand working it out for them. I pray that you would be glorified in their lives through this time of intimacy with you and your awesomeness. In the precious name of Jesus I pray, Amen!"

Thank you friend for giving the time to the reading of this piece of the testimony of Jesus Christ in my life. I hope that in some way this will be of help and encouragement to you. This is just a tidbit of what God has brought me through.

God has also made me a preacher, husband, father, son, uncle, cousin, friend, successful employee at a Robotics Company, champion powerlifter, motorcrosser, billiards player, a soon to be graduate from Ohio University as I have only one more class to take (literature), mechanic, and most importantly of all, I know Jesus Christ as Lord!

"And the best is yet to come!!!!"

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