Sandy Boyce
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
I had a lot on my mind. I had turned 13 the month before and celebrated my birthday by standing before a doctor who told me I was going to need two major surgeries to correct my “S” shaped spine, that I would live in plaster casts for nearly a year, and that there was no guarantee that the surgeries would be successful. Then he listed for me all the terrible things that could go wrong. My mother immediately jumped in to agree to the procedures, but the doctor stopped her, looked me in the eye and said, “This has to be her decision.” I remember feeling the cold marble floor on my feet and how it seemed to rise up and numb me. Thoughts raced through my head: Two surgeries and a year of my life spent in the hospital. With a heavy heart, I agreed to the surgery and thought this birthday must be the worst ever!
Within weeks, my mom had coffee with a neighbor and came home “saved”. Then she got on my nerves. I had no idea what she was talking about. We weren’t a church family. My dad served in the Navy and was often gone for six months at a time. My mother sent my sister and I to whatever Sunday School was within walking distance, because she didn’t drive and she didn’t attend church.
While I worried about my upcoming surgeries, mom could only focus on Jesus. There was a Wednesday evening worship service at a nearby Baptist church and mom began pestering me to attend with her. It was the last thing I wanted to do! However, I came up with a brilliant plan to put an end to all the Jesus talk forever. I told her I would go if she agreed to stop preaching about Jesus to me. She agreed! I had won. I knew I could sit through one more hour of “Jesus” talk.
The church was packed, and we squeezed our way into one of the back rows. The pastor preached and I let my mind wander. I was surprised when it wandered back to what the minister was saying: how God loved us, how He wanted to be in our lives, how sin separated us from Him, and how Jesus came to save us. He talked about how “this was God’s most precious gift to us and that all the money in the world couldn’t buy it, but a nickel would be too much to pay for it”. Sixty years later and I still remember those very words!
He concluded by saying that the Lord was calling someone to accept His gift of salvation and invited that person to come forward for prayer. I glanced down that long, long aisle; I looked around the crowded church and thought it was certainly going to be a long walk for someone and I was glad it had nothing to do with me.
The doctor pulled a chair next to my bed and asked me whether I believed in God. My first thought was, ‘I’m dying.’
The minister prayed, the people prayed, and I was nearly halfway down the aisle before I realized it! I don’t remember getting out of my seat, but I do remember the panic when I realized that I was heading down the aisle. How could this be happening? Could I somehow make it all go away? My heart was pounding when I arrived in front of the minister. He asked me to kneel. He placed his hands on my head and began to pray. I prayed, too, that this would just be OVER, and that I could get out of there. He read John 3:16 and He asked me if I would accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I said yes because I figured it was the only way to end the nightmare. I didn’t embrace his message; I wasn’t looking for salvation; I just wanted it all to be over.
And it was. At that very moment, my life changed forever. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus loved me! I felt His love fill my heart, surround me, change me. I don’t remember the ride home. I remember going to bed when I got home, and my heart was completely filled with joy and awe. I remember praising God and thanking Him. I remember asking Him to use me, that I was His forever.
Two months later, I was admitted to the hospital. The day before the surgery, I was taken to the x-ray room where the doctor placed a “pin” in my back between the two curves. Before I could leap off the table, the doctor told me to stay still. I would not sit, stand, or walk for nearly a year.
I awoke the day after the surgery and was surprised that I wasn’t in any pain. I was excited because my parents were going to be allowed to visit me on the following day, and I had not seen them since I had been admitted. As I was thinking about all that had happened, the doctor who ran the hospital came in. He asked me how I was doing, and I said, “great!” Then he pulled up a chair next to my bed and asked me if I believed in God. (Doctors don’t ask patients that!) And my first thought was, “I’m dying!” I told him that I did believe in God. “You won’t need the second surgery,” he said. “What? Why?” I replied. He told me that the second curve was gone. I had dozens of x-rays, including the one the day before the surgery where the pin marked the place between the curves, and yet the morning of the surgery it no longer existed. He told me that it was impossible. There was no other explanation than it was a miracle! It was amazing news! I would not need further surgery!
However, while my 13-year-old self was extremely grateful to God for touching me and healing the one curve, I did wonder why He didn’t heal both. I absolutely believed He could; so why did He leave one? Why was I still going to spend a year in the hospital, clad in plaster? Why would I have to learn to walk all over again? Why would I miss my 8th grade graduation? The answer was simple: it turned out to be one of the best years of my life!
God taught me a lot that year, I learned to appreciate and notice His everyday blessings. It was the beginning of my life-long journey of faith. A journey that sometimes took me to highest mountain tops of joy and sometimes to the deepest valleys of despair. I have been both the daughter who stayed and worked for the Father and the daughter who fled and squandered the treasures of the Father, and when I returned, was embraced by a loving Father who greeted me with, “Welcome home, my daughter!”
Why do I love Jesus? The answer is simple, because He first loved me and continues to love me, just as He loves each of His children.
It was normal around the people I ran with in my neighborhood. It was accepted. Matter of fact, it was worshipped. You know, hurt people hurt people.
I didn't see the consequences of my actions spiritually or in my environment until years later. As a result, I’ve been through many Cognitive Behavior Therapy programs in the State of Delaware. I've been in juvenile justice. I've been in Gander Hill prison. I've been in the CREST Program for convicted drug abusers.
By this time I was I was no longer selling drugs. I had been consuming prescription opioids for a long time, buying them on the street, and then going to the methadone clinic. I did methadone for about three years and Suboxone and Xanax. Always took other drugs with it. So I weighed about 145 pounds and woke up one day in Christiana Hospital.
My brother, Jeremy, by then had had a long stint in Narcotics Anonymous and ironically showed me the road to recovery. He was sitting at the end of my bed. I had such an overwhelming feeling of shame that I couldn't even look him in the eye when he was talking to me. He said, “The doctor was in here. You died twice. They brought you back to life.” I had seizures from benzodiazepine withdrawal.
Waking up in the hospital was not strange to me. It wasn't odd, it was normal. I lost my girlfriend, Ashley, and my dad in active addiction. I woke up next to people who were dead next to me. My mom's best friend's daughter, who I was dating, died. It felt like God reached down and grabbed for me, but missed. I was ready to go, you know, but He had other plans for me.
As soon as I got out of the hospital I got high again. My parole officer, Officer Denunzio, an Angel dressed in the probation and parole uniform, arrested me and he took me to Gander Hill prison. I’d been there many times. Back then the prisons didn't put you on medication or treat your drug problems with another drug. You went to the infirmary and you withdrew there.
I came out of the cell and a guy I knew from the street who was noticeably high shouted, “Hey, Zach Bibb.” Right then I did something different. I made a decision to turn my life around. By the grace of God I survived. It took every bit of it to get me to surrender when I was 29 years and 10 months old.
More Faith Stories
There are people who sometimes have a stomachache and think it's cancer, they think it is a terminal illness. Sometimes people think there is no solution, but it is only a stomach discomfort. It's something bad that you ate that upset your stomach. It is that people that are losing their faith. They get concerned about so many things. They wake up and see the car with a flat tire, and it is a bad day.
There are more important things we need to learn. We need to seek the Lord, because time is short, time goes by quickly. I've got three children: my first daughter is 25 years old. My son is 21 and my other daughter is 16. I mean, time goes by fast.
This means this is an opportunity for you to devote your heart to Jesus Christ, so that He can save you, so that He can be your guide, so that He can be your path, so that He can be everything in your life. Listen to this message, share it with your family. If you do not have a family do not think you are alone. God is with you wherever you are. God will be with you come what may.
Now, what happened with COVID two years ago was unbelievable. God put us to the test. Many people died, and that's something that's coming ahead. There will be more illnesses, there will be more regulations. But if we keep our faith in God, if we continue to trust in God, He will give us the peace we need, the peace the world needs.
Sometimes in the community, there are a lot of people who are watching their backs. For their own protection they hire bodyguards that watch over them night and day because they feel insecure. But we have God to protect us. Day after day, God protects us. God takes care of us. God gives us strength.
I strongly encourage you, I dare you to seek the Lord. This Why I Love Jesus ministry goes across the globe spreading the word of God, telling the world Jesus Christ is real, He is not dead.
There have been many stories in this world which were looking forward to changing history, but we have this story of faith that we believe, come what may, the Lord will be with us.
So if you have relatives, share this experience with them: brothers, sisters, parents. If your family has never been in contact with Jesus, now is the time for you to tell them to embrace Him, to embrace God. Tell them about the story in the Bible that says there is a man in hell, being burned there, and he would like to have a chance of getting out of there. But unfortunately, he has already lost the opportunity. In other words, there is no way he could leave hell.
And you who are there watching this testimony, this word of the Lord, this is the opportunity that you get. Maybe we don't wake up tomorrow; we don't know what will happen tomorrow.
This is the moment for you to say, "Lord, forgive me. I have failed a lot; I've failed in several things, but I want You to be my Savior, I want You to be my shield, I want You to be my strength, I want You to be everything in my life."
Make your decision. Sometimes in day-to-day life, we make decisions, many of them, but this is the most important decision you should make in your life. That is to devote your life to Jesus Christ, commend your life to Jesus Christ, so that He can be everything in your life. May He be your peace, your strength.
At times, people have enough money in the bank and think with that they will change the world, think that will be their protection. But money is only an ordinary piece of paper. In the end, the paper will run out, the money will run out, but treasures we did will remain when we're in heaven.
So let's make this an invitation. Let's hope this message will reach someone in need of it. So you who are out there, this message is meant for you.
My stepfather was an alcoholic, and we had a difficult life. But God changed us. When I began going to this church in 2000, God changed me. God changes you, and God wants to do great things with your life.
So, I mean, maybe you are also having a hard time with an alcoholic father, an alcoholic mother. Let me tell you, I had bad thoughts in my head about finishing him, killing him, destroying him, so that it all would end. But when I got to the feet of Jesus, when I started going to church, God made changes in me. God makes changes in you. God changes your mind.
When God entered into my life, and I looked at my stepfather again, I saw him in a different way. I held a grudge inside my heart, but nevertheless, God was working on me. God worked on me and gave me peace. I was smart enough not to commit a crime. God showed me the way I should live.
In addition to being at peace with God, He gives you intelligence. God gives you wisdom to be on the side of right every day in our lives.
So, this is an invitation, whether you're a woman, or man, or youth. Young people sometimes make decisions which scar their lives forever. To put it another way, if you are young, make your decision to accept Jesus: don't wait until tomorrow and say, "No, I'd better wait before accepting Jesus Christ, before accepting God in my heart. I've still got a long way to go. I want to live my life, and I want to do things. When I'm older, I'll see whether I change." But we don't know what happens tomorrow, so you should make up your mind today.
I've had some friends who made their decisions too late. I had a friend who said he was going to drink his life away. He was going to drink, that's what he was going to do. He was going to do drugs, to live a totally careless life. He thought he was being cleverer than God. But he wasn't, nobody is smarter than God. At the end of his life he was going to seek God's forgiveness.
Had God been given the opportunity, He would have forgiven him, He would have indeed. But my friend didn't take the trouble to get to that point. He was doing his drugs, drinking and whatnot. Then he grabbed a gun and shot himself in the head.
I mean, we don't know what was the last moment in his life, whether he asked forgiveness or not. We only had the word he killed himself by putting a bullet in his head. Odds are he didn't have the opportunity of begging God's forgiveness, and he lost his life. Or better expressed, do not let the enemy fool you. The enemy hampers your life.
That means to move on and accept Jesus Christ. He is going to give the answers. He is going to give you the peace you need. That's my testimony, and I know this is on behalf of God, so people would turn to Him.
People get lost, people haven't wanted to recognize their faults. God has a plan for your life. That means if He gave you this plan, accept it, accept it. We have free will, people make their own decisions. God has already chosen some individuals. God has predestined people. Whether you are predestined or exercising your free will, make your decision and follow Jesus Christ.
Your life will change, He is going to transform it, and He is going to help you in every way, be it economic, social, psychological, whatever you need, God is going to help you.
Thank you for your time, thank you for this opportunity that God gave me to share my faith. I come from Houston, Texas, but I've been working here in Delaware, and this is an opportunity God has granted me to share good news and continue to spread good news. We're the ambassadors of the word of God. So thank you for this opportunity, and let's move forward with this testimony which is for the benefit of society.
Zachary Bib
I had to be broken for the light to get in. God had started working in my life. He had taken the desire to use drugs away from me long before I asked Him to, so that He could work on me with a lot of other things.
Dorothy
My son died at age 28 following a long illness. I was angry, very depressed, and in pain. But at his funeral a sense of calmness came over me.
Bill McQuiston
In May of 1982 Carolyn and I went on a Lutheran Marriage Encounter Weekend. Here was where God opened my eyes and heart to his role in my marriage and life. That weekend changed my relationship with Christ.
Susan Cebrat
God has given me my dream of serving as a choir director. I see lives change as we are singing. Singing correctly is sometimes less important than letting the Spirit come to us as we practice.
Mary Kearns
I remember an incident when the Lord rescued me from a person who intended to do me harm. God’s protection was a miracle in my life!
Barb Lambert
I wasn’t raised in a church; so I knew nothing about Jesus or God. I did go to Vacation Bible School in the summers and heard and loved the song, “This Little Light of Mine.”