O.K brothers and sisters I have a fun little question here, a way of getting to know each other a little better.

My mind thinks too much, I thought of this, this morning.

Approximately speaking where were you in life and what were you doing 20 years ago? Were you a Christian or a non Christian? What was happening in your life then?

I will start-

Hmmmm 20 years ago (1990) , that would of made me 22 years old.

I meet the Lord in early January 1990 after a death of a friend on his motorbike.
About early February 1990 I meet my ex wife at a church lunch for youth. I was a country bloke; she was working in a Christian camp about 15 minutes away from where I lived. I was working at that time for a small metal fabrication shop as I had not long ago finished my 1st apprenticeship as a welder / fabricator.

In late March I proposed to my ex wife (Ohh boy, I would die with shock if my daughter did this. So so young of age. My ex would have been 18 years old)
I still remember asking her father, the shock on his face, LOL. I feel for him

By this time (May 1990) I think I was living in my ex parents backyard in a caravan (I think you call them trailers). I was travelling to work, attending a large church nearby.

Very young and wet behind the ears!!!! Within 2 years I would be married (June 1991) and the following year my first child would be born.

Back then I did not have to think about house mortgage payments, crying babies, long term work prospects / employment etc etc.

Oh how things change when the first baby comes along, but in a good way, LOL

I was new in the Lord and on fire. Reading everything I could get my hands on.

Love ybiC / Paul

OK Paul, I will join in. I was 24 years old and was married, with a one year old. We lived in Sunnyvale, CA and his father was in the Navy. I was going to cooking school and,we were Catholic at the time. This was a year after the quake of 89 so....that was the beginning of my awakening to God's call, I learned a very healthy fear of God when it comes to natural disasters, at that age.

Email: mariacallison@hotmail.com

I was 30 years old in Calif working in the advertising industry in Sherman Oaks. It was a really fun job! Also, had an 11 year old and was a Girl Scout coleader at that time and life was pretty good! Was also a single mother about to give birth to No. 2 daughter in a week!
I was on fire for our Lord having recommitted my life to Him about 9 months prior and was practially lit up by the Holy Spirit at that time.

This was a wonderful time in my life when I was able to have a very godly lifestyle and home life. I had my TV disconnected, spent a lot of time at the library and hiking around So. Cal with the girl scouts!

I will add that 5/26/90 my daughter was born and I remember singing that song Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens to her on her first morning after she was born!!

This daughter has been such a joy for me (as all 3 have been) and having her was a real turning point in my walk with our Lord!

Hi Paul - good thread.

I'm a bit older than all of you. 20 years ago I was almost 39. (Still 58 for a few more days) I remember that time because I fell in love with the Lord then.

Twenty years ago, my daughter, Rebecca, was going to kindergarten and I walked her to and from school everyday accompanied by corgi #1 - Copper.

On the way home from school in the morning, I was often struck by the beauty of nature. So, I began singing praise songs to the Lord. And one of the songs I always sang was "Morning Has Broken" - just like you sang to your daughter, Melissa.

Neighbors probably thought I was talking to myself, but nevertheless every morning that is what I did on my 6 block walk home from school. I imagined myself singing to Him as he was seated on His throne, and believe I did get a glimpse of it one day on my walk -or else was just imagining very hard.

During the same year, I found myself to be extremely happy for no particular reason. Driving in the car once, I was so filled with happiness that I asked myself why I was so happy. I mean life was good, but the elation I was feeling was over the top.

I thought to myself, it's as if you have just fallen in love. And then I knew - I was in love - with Christ - Bubbling over in love with Him.

Email: cidp@aol.com

Peggy and all , I am starting to see a pattern here!! 20 years ago all four of us were responding strongly to our Lord's call!

Peggy, That song by Cat Stevens is actually an old English hymn! Can't wait for my new voice!

Speaking of singing, I have had visions of hearing creation singing 2 x. I have never seen the thrown or Jesus though!

Never thought about getting a new voice, Melissa, but I guess that goes along with the new body

Email: cidp@aol.com

Peggy, I hope so! I need one.

20 years ago is hard to remember what I was doing. We had just moved back to the states from Guam with the Air Force. We got saved on Guam back in 1980.

We were raising our two boys in Illinois. We were active in our church and watching for the Lord to return.

Email: weaman@mac.com

oh man!!! I will have to add more to the later but my divorce was final in May 1990.. it was a sad lonely day..my attorny was even late to court and I was alone and on the verge of tears...wow had not thought about that in a long time....

It's also the same month that God started moving in my life and working to set me free from a lot of junk....I started attending the church i attend now.... but still had tons of cleaning up to do...I was still very much in the world.... going out dancing all night long...being at wild places I had no business being at and getting up on sunday and going to church...... ok this sounds bad...but my husband was unfaithful and yes I was a christian..spirit filled and prayed and believed that he would change.... but after years of it and being so lonely...years of him leaving and coming back and not ever giving up the women....we were seperated for the last time and I started dating someone who at the time was amazing.... and we wanted to get married but my divorce needed to be final...and my ex husband was doing his usual not wanting to sign the papers....so on the day of my divorce God spoke to me (he had already been dealing with me...I was waaaaaaaaaaaay backsliden) and He told me he wanted me to be single...and that night my boyfriend broke up with me..we were really close so this was shoking to everyone.... He told me that he felt he was holding me back and needed to let me go!! but he was also afraid he was making a big mistake and he would want me back and someone else would have me...boy was he so right...Jesus had me after that...our breakup was hard for me but that night was not out of anger or anything...we left still loving each other...but it was God and I knew it.....and then another friend of mine who was backsliden too...we actually had met in a club....was attending my church that I attend now,....he had gotten his life back on track while I was on a vacation ...and the whole time I was on a vacation God was calling me back.....

The chruch my friend was attending was a chruch god had called me to a few years before...but my husband would not go with me and di dnot really want me to atend so I never went...so in May 1990...my friend took me.... we walked in the back of the santuary and as soon as I walked in (praise and worship was going) the presence of God hit me..and i started weeping..... and we walked all the way to the front to sit down and I cried the whole entire time..... every time I would go I would cry.... one day some one gave me a hug and asked if my husband had died!!! LOL...

That time in my life was the beginning of major major deep major healing and deliverance for me.......It took me a while to let go of the world...i sstill wanted to go out and party...it was me escaping the world and lots of hurt.....but eventually God cleaned me up and took care of the hurt that was keeping me in the sin...
you can not really judge someone as to why they are in sin....unless you know their heart and why they are doing what they do....my problem was I had so much hurt and rejection in my life that even though I was taking it to God and He was filling me up I still needed healing ..and that took years pretty much.... and what happened to me is that I was taking the good things of God and it was being put in my heart but the bad things were still there.... and if you push it down into your heart it will eventually come out in the form of sin.... and it will continue until you get diliverance...which is what I had to eventually go though....I kept getting myself in trouble so much that it hurt lots of people.... and I hit rock bottom .. and became determine that I was going to be free.....and it did not hurt that we were having a major revival at church where sooooo many people were touched and set free...including me....thank you Jesus....

ok so i said it all now instead of later....God is soooo Good to me...

Oh and back to my story of dating someone.... well it took me a little while in that area of life...but i finally got to the point (when I hit rock bottom) to make a decision to never egage in sex outside of marriage again.....and with the grace of god He has kept me...and it had to be God because that is not easy....oh and just so it does not sound bad I was never wild like that..but i have had a couple of relationships that were not of God.....and my heart is to be clean and to have a marriage the way God intends it to be....

20 years ago was major for me...

Let's see. 20 years ago would be May of 1990. I would have been 25 at that time. If I remember correctly I had already dropped out of College by '88. I had no grants, no savings, and costs were just getting too expensive out of pocket to continue. I had only a retail job at the time. In 1990 I was working at B.Dalton Booksellers in Whittier, CA. That way I could subsidize my reading habit. LOL. I was still driving my Honda Nighthawk 650 motorcycle. Here is a picture of it when it was new back in 1984.



I really loved that bike too. Sadly it gave up it's oil in August of 1994. Literally...all over the street. I had cracked the casing in a spill on the freeway a few months earlier. I had case savers but the gravel on the freeway slid me into the sidewalk under the overpass. Fortunately I wasn't hurt, only going about 25 MPH at the time as the transition had been cut down to a single lane with concrete abutments all around. One of my friends was following behind me so he stopped until I could get back up and get my bike off to the side. I was still able to drive it for some time. But one day while sitting in traffic waiting for the light to change, the oil released onto the street, and I knew right then and there that my bike was no more. Did not have the money to replace the entire engine, which at that point was as much as I bought the entire bike for originally.

That is funny Susan. I was raised Catholic and found my biological parents when I was 29 years old.............finally. My adoptive parents asked me not to look for them but......you know me.....I was determined and wow, what a blessing. My biological father is Jewish and his father was Russian. Because he was the first born he felt like he should be able to just study the Torah all day and not work a traditional job, he was academic but, would not have made a good Rabbi.....lets say that. That is what triggered my interest in Judaism and, finally finding Messianic Judaism two years ago.

If I told my parents now, that I was not a Catholic they would have a stroke. So............I just don't say anything. I never felt like I could mesh to that religion anyway.....I finally found peace with Messianic Judaism.

Email: mariacallison@hotmail.com

And yes Susan....being single will bring the most peace in your life, not stress free but, peace and you know you are doing the will of God!!!!!!

Email: mariacallison@hotmail.com

Very interesting story......and explains everything....thank you for sharing that with me..

JS - Okay, just so you know, I scanned your letter. Hard on my right eye lately on the computer as it has a tiny stye that just won't go away.

Diane C if you are reading this, do you have a remedy? Have tried hot compresses.

Anyway, what I want to say, Joyful Susan, is I see you have a big heart, and are not afraid to love.

I have a sister who has lived a life very similar to your past life. And, you know, it's a slippery slope and gets easier and easier to sin. God loves you, you belong to Him. Seems like he pursued you and wooed you back into the fold. His sheep hear His voice. There is no condemnation in Christ.

Email: cidp@aol.com

JSue, I was a lot like you and just left out a whole bunch of details!! At 30 years of age I did a complete about face and have been on that road since. Although when I got married a couple years later we were polar opposites in the Lord and that has been rough!

20 years ago I was 41 and three years from retirement from the Air Force. At that point I had had been a Christian for about 14 years. It was also about 14 years since my first rapture dream. I had been married 9 years (next year will be our 30th).

I feel like i have taken Pauls thread over...and I forgot about the project I was working on and left a mirror outside that I was about to either stain or paint..

Email: DiChapman1@aol.com

Website: www.mannapages.com/moderndaymanna

Email: cidp@aol.com

Peggy, My daughter is an eye doctor and she said to put a warm tea bag on your eye.

Thank you Sarah, will try that immediately. Sounds like it will be very soothing.

Email: cidp@aol.com

Peggy, I do not know what I am, I am half and half. My biological mother is French. My fathers last name is Kusinitz, that is what I do know. What I will say is.....that I have never felt such a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit as I had in a worship service of Messianic Jews. I am not an emotional person but, once entering the synagogue and listening to the music they play before the service starts, I want to cry. Seeing the Torahs, studying the bible from that perspective brings on a whole new light. It made the most sense to me, studying the bible from a Messianic perspective.

My biological father had some issues and I do not keep in touch with him anymore, it was a blessing to see him that one summer I just happened to live in Boston and, both of my parents were in Rhode Island at that time. Now, I live in Sarasota near my biological mother, not because I want to be away from my other family, I just do not like Atlanta and could not afford to live there on my own anymore.

But..................remember the Messianics were the first followers of Jesus before the church started and, God is really giving an outpouring to them now in these end times.

Email: mariacallison@hotmail.com

oh shoot I feel dumb..you have a stye? I thought you said your font was too little.....so so sorry....

My husband and I would be attending his 10 yr class reunion. We both graduated high school in '80 from different schools. I remember the Lord speaking to me my Junior year in High School. He told me that I would find who I was going to marry at a specific college. I did.

We attended a wonderful church. The one we were married in Dec, '83. We worked with the children. (4 yr old Sunday School, Preschool Choir, and Children's Church). We saw many children come to our Lord. There is no feeling like the one where a child accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior!!

We are suppose to attend his 30th anniversary this year but his class mates have never grown up. Still living in the past. My husband and I were never partying people. We don't fit in. THANK YOU LORD!!!

Maria, I responded to you, but then the message disappeared.

Can't exactly remember what I said, but this year I have been convicted about celebrating so-called "Christian" holidays that have pagan roots. Felt like I was erecting an asherah pole in my house when I put up the Christmas tree .

Would love to celebrate the Feasts of the Lord.

There are no Messianic Jews close to my area of town, or I would visit a synagogue.

Email: cidp@aol.com

And i thought all my sisters were going to say
"I was working as a super model back then in Paris, Milan, New York"

Hey, Knight Michael, great bike. My first road bike was very similar. Yamaha XJ 750 82 model

ybiC / Paul

ps and a disclaimer...everythign i went through is under the blood ..I am not longer that person any more..adn I am set free....and healed from deep wounds that had me bound...I kind of can not believe I have been so open lately...whats wrong with me!! I have lost my mind....no I am kidding...if you only really knew me...I am shy!!! no I am friendly and have lots of friends and can carry on conversations but they are not about me and my past....

Susan dear Sis,

No you have not lost your mind, LOL

You are washed in his blood, past is the past.
But now you are free, free in the Lords love.
And this allows us to talk openly about our past with no shame etc.

No more chains remember, you are free.

And by what you have shared, you are helping another one hurting out there.

Never be ashamed to talk whats in your heart.

ybiC Paul

Susan,

Every road we travel in life no matter how hard, or long can be used to help others.

Every hard road has an end in Christ. And it is people like you sharing, that is helping another to know the end of their long hard road ends around the next bend ahead.

Jesus uses everything learnt in life to bring glory and hope.

Peggy & those who felt bad about putting up a Christmas Tree......years ago, 1965, Christmas time, in Pirmasens, Germany, I read a story, info story on Martin Luther....it told of him walking thru the country side late one nite.....and seeing the stars twinkling thru the branches of some fir trees.....and he brought one, a fir tree into the church and affixed some candles to the branches, to repeat what he had seen with the stars. I can't speak for you, but I NEVER let anyone get onto my case about having a Christmas Tree in my home after reading that story a loooonnng time ago.

And, Peggy, do you know what a asherah pole REALLY is ? I won't post the answer on RITA, its associated with pagan rituals of fertility rites. S'nuff said on that.

As for where was I 20 years ago, I was 46, living in Antioch, California, wife Judith and 5 girls, 4 & 5 are twins. I'll try not to add anymore than that, It was NOT a good time, and I was some time recovering from it ! Sometimes I still wish certain actions I did not take, that I had taken them. I still have to keep that under the blood of the Lamb. We are past all of that now, Thank God !!

I was lead to the Lord too young to remember by my mom, maybe in 1946 or 47. But there has been alot of water under the bridge since then, some quiet, some very rough.

Praising The Lord with all of you,

Dewey

Close MK, but this is the model here

My fist big bore roadie!!!. Before that I had a Yamaha RZ250 (as in Australia you could only ride a 250cc bike for the first 12 months)

Yamaha XJ750


Yamaha RZ250


After the XJ750 I had this

Suzuki GS1000


Then I had to sell all my bikes to fund the deposit on my first home

12 years later I was able to buy another roadie
So I brought a Honda

Honda VFR750


Then the sports bike bug bit me and I traded the honda for one of these

Suzuki GSXR750


Then the Suzuki got traded for my first V-twin Sports

Suzuki SV1000S


Then the Suzuki got traded for what I ride today

Ducati 1100cc Hypermotard


Yeah Yeah I know, I am one of those nutters that you see on the tight windy roads!!!

Let me start by saying I have only been saved for going on 4 years so please don't be offended by my post.

Let's see 20 years ago I was 18 single and pregnant with my oldest son. When he was 3 weeks old I meet my now husband and we have been married for 16 years and have 4 kids including my oldest which my husband adopted when he was 4 years old.

Email: bjaksc@hotmail.com

Brenda, that is wonderful that you found a great husband and great father! And now you've found your Savior!

Let's see. I was 22. Hey Paul, we are the same age! I had been married several years and was a Christian. Not very interesting stuff.