I give God glory for my salvation! I was a sinner. I would pray upon my bed at night, "Lord, I am sinning and I cannot stop! Please help me!" I was adicted to pornography. I was a theif. I was full of self pity. I was in a seriously deterioating marriage. I swore like a trooper. I was a real mess! One day I was driving down the road (I was a trucker) when an audible voice spoke to me in the cab of my truck telling me to "Turn aside." I did not believe the voice and thought I was hearing things. I was about to miss the exit to a truck stop there and the voice more commandingly told me yet again to "Turn aside." I was alone in the cab. I pulled into the truck stop with no where to park. I had no money and wondered why I obeyed the voice. When I determined to leave the lot and get under way again, a truck pulled out from a stall right next to a little truck stop bible chapel there. I knew I had best park there! I did so, and on my way by the door of the chapel the voice once again spoke audibly and told me to "Turn aside". I was in front of the chapel steps and in I went. I found an older gent dozing in his chair as he was alone and quiet. He heard my entrance and asked me what I would like. I said I had been praying for the Lord to deliver me from my sins and inability to stop sinning. I confessed my sins to him and he prayed with me. I was in there two hrs all alone with God's servant. The second he said amen to his prayer, the door opened to another soul who was also a truckstop ministry representative! I went home to church the following Sunday and ended up in a bible based church and got filled with the Holy Spirit that night and delivered from every one of the things I was in bondage to. The Lord gave me the gift of tongues and a giving heart for my larcenous one. He took blasphemy out of me permanently. My life has been radically and totaly changed since March 17, 1996 when the Lord met me in the way! You say to provide at least one scripture with my testimony. I am full of the word. I was given Jer 31:17-20. I could see my own name written therein when I read, so I quote them the way the Lord gave them to me! "And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord,that thy children shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard LARRY bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is LARRY my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." Thanks for receiving my testimony. There is much more! My God is the God of much more! Larry D

http://cf.blueletterbible.org/search/trans...aside&t=KJV

thank you, Larry, for all that you posted!

I know there is hope for me to be delivered of my sin.. I will not be able to testify that it was as sudden as yours, but I will testify!
His path is beautiful.... and I am walking to follow...
because yes! Your God, and my God is the God of much more!!! and HE IS FAITHFUL!!!

Love in His Beautiful Name!
Cheryl

P.S. ... I only had to look up ONE of the words you used ..

These scriptures were the ones God led me to many years before. The pastor preached about Moses seeing the burning bush and turning aside to investigate. He could have walked on by and not met God. There was more to it than that. But the work of God in his life began by his turning aside..the bush was burning and not consumed. He placed me on his holy ground and he caused his Spirit to burn within me and I was not consumed in His presence....but the opposite..I was sent out to help set His people free. Only know one cares. Instead they say, Exo 2:14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. Therefore I spend my time in the wilderness. It is where you must go when you slay an Egyptian. For pharoah seeks to kill you. Because you cannot get spiritual results with fleshly means. And so I go. A work of flesh most days with elements of the spirit flaking off me like dandruff in the noon day sun.

I am guessing the word was "larcenous." I guess I stifle my own ideas with big words. They do not get deposited in another heart because of the lack of understanding. But I am driven to excess in this for a reason. I have a need to interact with my own ideas of intellect. To wrest individualism. To ponder and reflect. To mull over. To simmer and stew. To be invasive but not evasive. To procure a settling. To turn a wizzened phrase. Elemental in the meaning but grandiose in the application. I espouse eloquent phraseology because it masters the unction that BS baffles brains. Excuse my fractured phrases and gambolled wit. I am only having fun..never mind..I had quite a speel here but my Explorer crashed and wiped it off...you missed a grand exercise in vagary and vicariousness....My dictionary has no dust upon it. Neither does my bible. Thanks for your reply...appreciated....

Dear Larry,

I thought you might find it interesting to know, that my husband is the chaplain at a truckstop chapel. This is the ministry the Lord led us to. We have been there for 4 years. Maybe you should stop in sometime and share in fellowship with us.



In His Love,
Suzanne

Hey Larry, A similar thing happened to my uncle who rode with The Hell's Angels for most of his life. After 40 years, he was riding alone on his hog, when God told him he was going to turn his life around and minister to bikers. He started a huge Christian Bikers Club in California, and now he's preaching to the crowd that other ministers could never reach.

That is interesting...sorry we have spun our wheels together so much. I guess I need to understand.

I bet that is a powerful testimony!

FWIW, we have learned alot about your industry....we are not truckers, so this was a whole new world to us. My goodness, America would come to a screeching halt without you guys!!!! We truly do see such a mission field out there, as there are so many who are lonely and without hope and hurting! Not to mention cloaked in a cloud of secrecy, because they are nomads who can drift in and out of towns without being known.

My husband counsels during services, a whole lot with regard to porn and sexual issues....it is dangerous territory in the industry for you guys. That is WHY, it is so important for men to be "in the Word" daily, so as not to get caught by the enemy. The implanted word is most definitely a shield against these things!


God bless!

In His Love,
Suzanne

It's cool suzanne..I was thinking about that this morning after refreshing myself on Larry's testimony as l've heard it before. I was thinking about what an encouragement it would be to those folks that sit there in that isolate ministry?..But it must be more vibrant than l thought...

I am sorry Larry. I did not want this topic to get off track.

Moved my post to another place.

In His Love,
Suzanne

Don't go....your not off-track. Do you guys hold services at truck stops near interstates? Wow. you've got my attention now. My cousin in Alaska has a truck-driving school and when he comes to visit, his students recognise him in any state on the West Coast.

Dear sharon,

I thought Larry's testimony should stand alone and didn't want to intrude on that.

I moved to the "What Do You Say" section.


I'll answer your post there.

God bless.

In His Love,
Suzanne

Larry,
Thanks so much for sharing...that's a beautiful testimony. I do love it when the Lord meets people in un-anticipated places. I'm glad He showered you with His mercy.

God bless you,
Kim

btw Larry...hehehe...I drove a big-rig once! (er, um...in a McDonald's parking lot that is, lol!)

I tried to convince the guy to let me surf on top...but he spoiled my fun ...hehehe.

(Back in my wild-child days...I used to manage a Mc'd's and was there for truck un-loads)

God bless you,
Kim

Well Suzzanne ( I feel I can call you that now!) I want to take a moment and say a few things. Hopefully positive things. I will turn down the level on high vocabulary and just ramble as I feel led to do....

First off, as a sorta kinda trucker...inject here...I no longer run the big roads although I did for many years....I know what you face and I know the calling to the subset of society that is basically a world of it's own. ( and therefore apart and somehow ignored by mainstream) I have sundry thoughts on all this.,..BTW...please do not feel this in anyway places the thread on another trail...it is all welcome on my part...even that other post you made would have done well here...I applaud you and your husband for answering the call to ministry to the nomads of the road. It is a high calling in Christ and the mission field to evangelize these men and women is a real necessity. The ministry that reached me (I do not recall the exact name of it now) operates in certain Canadian Truckstops and the one that I was led to is at a Fifth Wheel in Milton Ontario. They have a few others scattered around the country. I know they are being used. From there I was led to a church that (and this is going to annoy somebody) was hosting a team (one couple) who were visiting from the then active Toronto Blessing. For all the talk about the misguided movement that it became, it was vibrant and ALIVE then! I was ever changed as they laid hands on me. The testimony I shared in the OP was only the overview of the rest. I had a powerful experience with God the Holy Spirit that night of march 17th 1996 and it BEGAN in that truck stop chapel!

From there the Lord brought me back here supernaturally within three months time and told me "Your personal comfort is not my immeadiate ultimate will for you, but that you should grow where you are planted." I know this is my home spiritually and physically...as I had left it ten years earlier and in so doing brought much trouble upon mysellf.

I wanted to serve in a newly established truck stop ministry here where I live right after I was remarried. That remarriage is another testimony BTW and I can say God allowed it and blessed it and even made it happen...so I am not into bashing the grace of God through divorce. It depends on variables to do with the heart of a man or woman...

Anywhay, I wrote the head office a formal letter and it was never acknowledged. But they did begin to send me written requests for financial backing. I would have done that but I was already off work and was giving to another truckstop ministry in Manitoba. I was a litte miffed that they never followed up with me and I was really on fire at the time. I have cooled since...because maturation takes the puppyhood faith after a while.

I may have to edit more in. I just wanted to ask what the ministry name is and if it is national or local etc. I do have a heart for these people and I know what it is like to live in the cab of a truck for days and weeks and all that. It was my home away from home for two decades. I read my bible and prayed and went to church and listened to ministry tapes for 3 1/2 years after my touch from God. And in reference to those who refute women in ministry..Joyce Meyers was used by God to bring about a great inner healing. Her ministry is very effectual in inner healing. I bawled a lot as the Lord emptied me of my stuff. I recollect it to this day and could weep even now at the memory of that life and time of intervention. I was blessed. I had men coming to me by divine appointment to be touhed and prayed for and helped financially also. Many times. I just followed what the Lord was doing through me like a blind little lamb and it was very potent.

I know the trials of the road and what it is like to be in a truck stop in Yakima WA or New Jersey. Hookers in the lot and loneliness in the heart. Strip joints and porno shops in many places. I believe and trust that God is using you Suzzanne and your man in a special and dignified and powerful way. I do not subscribe to some initiatives quite the way you do but we are able to bring relief to many. And there are a lot of ungodly souls that need touching and a lot of Godly souls that need encouraging. Love ya there in all that. I feel I hear that inner voice wanting to affirm a thing with you. That your (what I call dogmatic) approach is valued to these people who need to have an "either/or" kind of message. Either come to the Lord and be healed and changed or be left in a lurch in the days of this life and be outside the fold in the last day. The black and white ministering of heaven and hell concepts is needed to rouse the heart to new heights of agreement...for head and heart need to come together in a finality of faith and confession and it is well to apply a defibulator to get the heart active in it...From there they can see hope and possibility. Opening up to the light of this day and believing for good things to come to them.


LarryD

Thank you for your kind reply Larry. Yes, we are a bit different in our approach, I'm sure. But, there have been many who have heard the message preached in the chapel, who began as offended, and by the end of the service, were turned and repented of certain ways and at peace in their hearts, by yielding to the truth of the gospel message. I'm sure all are different in how they receive. My husband is the type that salvation came thru a very straight forward, black and white message about his condition. There are many rough-edged people who just need to hear a very straight-forward message. That is what was needed.


There are a few things you mentioned above, that I normally would comment on, but at this stage, I think I'll just be quiet. (You probably know which issues I"m referring to.)


The ministry is called Truckstop Ministries.


In His Love,
Suzanne

They are topics that have captivated many. And divided many. Held captive by division in a place where there is supposed to be addition and multiplication. I have long wondered how that is.