So I created this thread to share a bit of testimony on an event in my life that would have broken the very essence of living hope if it weren't for the written word.
Perhaps the verse will give you some kind of hope as well. Maybe strength to continue believing. Perhaps you're going through hard times, or maybe the people around you just don't understand what your life has put you through..
But anyway ... enjoy.
As a freshman in high school I thought that reputation was a driving force in what separated people in the real world. I had to be popular no matter the cost, yet at the same time I needed everyone the want me around. Well, My mom being the single mother of two kids watched me walking down a path that led me through gangs, drugs, and a lifestyle of fighting that nobody in my family had ever experienced so she had no advice in protecting from the harm flying my way. Not a single day passed by that I didn't find myself fighting off some kid wanting a piece of the action or even just someone thinking they'd test the freshman for a laugh..and so... I'd fight. Well, my mom heard from a friend of the family that a nearby academy would straighten behavioral problems in male teenagers, the only thing they asked was no contact with the kids during their term at the academy and faith that their system would work. So, thinking the academy preferable to what I was experiencing in public school she sent me with high hopes and a heavy heart. I showed up in brand new clothes and an ego so tremendous Ali couldn't even bring me down. But what the Academy failed to mention was the severity of the treatment provided in their program.
Links
http://www.heal-online.org/bethelsuits.htm
http://www.nospank.net/n-n49r.htm
The Academy put on a front as the parents left and with no allowed contact there was no way for the kids to get in contact with their parents to explain what was going on as the Academy Sergeants beat and tortured us like animals, claiming we were criminals that deserved only to be punished. Well in our barracks there was a kid who'd earned the nickname Shock because he'd tried running away and succeeded while after climbing Bethel's electric fence eight or nine times. I slept on the bunk below him and I could always hear him whispering things in his sleep but never understood the importance of his muttering. So one day I asked him what he was saying while he slept and he told me one of the things that will stick with me through the rest of my life.
He said through all the pain he'd experienced in this place, he'd found protection these people couldn't possibly break from him. He told me to take my bible, memorize a chapter out of it and when everything got tough and people doubted me or tried to drag me down I was to speak in belief the words I'd memorized and things wouldn't seem so harsh. Now, both of us being Christians and raised in the southern bible belt we both had no problems understanding the power of the written word. But here I share with you the chapter he'd given to me....through god I found my shield.
Quote
The Psalms
27
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. 3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. 4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. 5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. 6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. 9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. 11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. 12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. 13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
For those of us that have been to Bethel...
It was our battlecry.
The staff would hear us shouting "The Lord is my light and my salvation! Whom shall I fear?!"
The amazing part, is that through everything... our Lord never gave up on us. My mom withdrew me from bethel a month later, from there I fixed my problems staying always dependent on Christ. I think maybe I was sent to bethel for a higher purpose.