I Used to be A Dumpster Diver but Jesus Set Me Free

Introduction

Jesus began writing this book through me day-by-day, moment by moment, as these events developed and unfolded in my own life.  This is a true story about my own love of Jesus and what God did in my life and the lives of the people that I love, especially my wife, Sandra and my little girl, Victoria Elizabeth, and her brother, David Abraham.  It is also a story of redemption about a man who used to be a dumpster diver, but Jesus set him free.  That’s me.

I lived outside in the streets and desert for two years and was a drunk and a drug addict.  I got saved in 1996 but backslid all the way into the gutter, and that’s where Jesus rescued me from, the gutter.   I worked my way up out of the streets in 2005 by building a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and working the twelve steps of recovery out of the Life Recovery Bible with a Christian sponsor.  I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but in the end Jesus won out in my heart and healed my life.

I was separated from my fiancée for one year, and we have a daughter together, and my wife already had a son named David Abraham.  We had sex out of wedlock, resulting in our daughter’s birth, and my story shows the sin of fornication and the complications in our lives as a direct result of that event and how to get right with God by searching Jesus out through the steps outlined in the Life Recovery Bible.

Our precious daughter was also born without a heart valve, and the story is about the drama and operations as a result of her special condition.  As God healed her heart through surgery, he also healed my stony heart.  I learned what real love is all about, and by replacing my own agenda and selfish desires with what’s best for my family, I learned the joy of living for others.  This is all written in the book.  I had run from most major responsibilities in my life, but God had given me a fiancée and children that I could not leave behind.  Jesus Christ truly gave me people that I loved more than myself.  I show through the story how God’s love won out in all my decisions with the Bible as my guide and the Holy Sprit’s leading.

I did the steps of recovery and searched out God in the Bible for hours each day.  I work in a rehabilitation center for seriously mentally ill and drug- and alcohol-addicted clients.  I work the graveyard shift and spend lot of time learning how to help others recover.  This is a story of that search for God’s perfect will in my life and how Jesus restored me to my family, and I eventually married the woman of my dreams, my wife.  First, I had to stop blaming and pointing the finger at Sandra for all my own sins and then humble myself to the point of extending the same love to others that Jesus has given me.  I had to get the log out of my own eye first before I could help anyone else with the speck in his or her eye.

My best friend and mentor is a children pastor named Brother Danny, and I wrote about how his influence and the time that he spent with me changed my life forever.  Jesus sent him into my life with a purpose when I needed him the most.  Brother Danny helped me realize God had always intended for me to marry Sandra and that God is a God of love and order.

This book is dedicated to that journey that I am still on, seeking to be in God’s perfect plan for my new life and helping others find the path to eternal life with Jesus Christ.

Please note that all prophecies are in italics as are the fulfillment of those prophecies.  Prophecies are predictions made by God.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God fulfilled over three hundred Bible prophecies about the Messiah God sent to save the world.  To properly read the book and enjoy God’s truth just look for the italics, which line up perfectly to match the prophecy with the fulfillment.  This book is full of scripture quotes.  The book is about Jesus Christ, the Messiah.  Our story of the love of God and his grace and mercy in our lives is mixed in, and plays out second to the real story of the Gospel.  I hope and pray that you enjoy this book.  May God Bless everyone!  Amen!

Chapter 1

She sat alone again on the park bench wearing a blue tee shirt.  The back of her shirt was still soaking wet from sleeping outside last night.  The woman looked as depressed as she was wet.  Her head hung low and hair was unkempt.  It was monsoon season in Tucson, Arizona, and the park was on the edge of an arroyo.  An arroyo is like a river basin except without the water.  When it rains real hard, the waters all drain into the arroyo.  Then it is like a river.

The last couple of weeks, it had been raining a lot, and the woman must have gotten wet again last night.  She was somewhere in her fifties, Tim had guessed, when he first met her the other day.  The Holy-Spirit-inspired encounter had happened as he was riding his bicycle along the bicycle path that ran parallel with the arroyo.  The bench that she sat on was made of concrete and was about twenty feet away from the bicycle path.  It was early morning, and the woman looked as if she had just woken up and was out of place sitting on that bench. She really should have been inside a home somewhere dry, safe, and secure.

Tim had been riding his bicycle and praying, praying for God’s will to come into his life and how he could best serve Jesus.  That’s when he had seen her and stopped just to say hello at first.  Tim remembered always to say hello and introduce himself when he approached people these days.  Approaching the disadvantaged and homeless people alone required humility and compassion.  He didn’t want to startle them or upset them in any way.  Besides, they might not want to talk to him at all, he thought, as he was still getting used to witnessing that Jesus is the Messiah to people by himself.  After the crucifixion of Jesus, God raised him back to life again on the third day.  Jesus the Messiah then appeared alive to the disciples.  Tim’s desire was to share that Good News. The Bible says,

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16–20 (NIV)

Tim still doubted that he was worthy of God actually working through him, but he had decided to live for Jesus, and God was putting this urge in his heart to reach out to people in the name of Jesus.  For you see, it was not long ago that Tim himself had been a homeless, drug-addicted, alcoholic, dumpster diver, but Jesus had set him free!

Tim knew that God had delivered him from his old life of constantly sinning to witness of God’s salvation available to everyone from the penalty of our sins and the promise of eternal life in heaven through confession of sins, repentance from our sins, and developing a personal relationship with God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ was born of a virgin to be our Lord and Savior.

Jesus Christ fulfilled Bible prophecy.  Prophesies are divinely inspired predictions foretelling the future made by God through his divinely appointed prophets.  Over three hundred Bible prophecies were predicted in the Old Testament about the coming of a Messiah and Jesus Christ fulfilled each one of them in his life and they are recorded and confirmed in the New Testament.  The prophet Hosea prophesied that the Messiah would defeat death in the Old Testament.  The Bible says,

I will ransom them from the power of the grave;

I will redeem them from death.

O Death, I will be your plagues!

O Grave, I will be your destruction!
Pity is hidden from My eyes.”

Hosea 13:14 (NKJV)

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, fulfilled this prophecy in the New Testament of the Bible by rising from the dead.  The Bible says,

I tell you this, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God. Something that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never ruins. But look! I tell you this secret: We will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed. It will take only a second—as quickly as an eye blinks—when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound, and those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we will all be changed. This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed. And this body that dies must clothe itself with something that can never die. So this body that can be destroyed will clothe itself with that which can never be destroyed, and this body that dies will clothe itself with that which can never die. When this happens, this Scripture will be made true: “Death is destroyed forever in victory.” — Isaiah 25:8

“Death, where is your victory?
Death, where is your pain?” — Hosea 13:14

Death’s power to hurt is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But we thank God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So my dear brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.

1 Corinthians 15:50–58 (NCV)

As Tim had approached the woman that first day, he had said hello after getting off of his bicycle and then immediately told her that he was not a bicycle police officer.  Tim looked a lot like one on his bicycle and wore a similar kind of outfit that the police wore when riding their bicycles, with black bicycle shorts and a white, full-sleeve shirt.  The woman had looked at Tim with contempt as he approached her that day.  Most of the time, the last thing a homeless person desired was contact with the police.  Tim knew from all his experience as a homeless person that that was the case.  Tim reached down deep and while praying for strength, under his breath he spoke.

“Hello.  My name is Tim, and I am not a bicycle policeman.  Really, I’m not.  I just wanted to stop and say hello and see if you were all right.”  Tim felt shy and anxious, but he knew it was God directing him now.  From here on out, Tim was praying that God was speaking through him, and he began to let the Holy Spirit lead him. “I just want to see if you are okay.  Are you all right?”  Tim kept his distance at first so that the woman would not feel intimidated in any way.  Tim still respected that even though she was obviously homeless, the bench was, at that moment, her personal space.

She hesitated awhile, looking at Tim, who so much looked like a bicycle policeman, and with a very low voice that made her sound sleepy, she spoke. “I’m okay, I guess.”  Her voice was very soft and meek, and she kept her eyes on the ground or on the bench top when she answered Tim.

“Are you hungry? Have you eaten anything today?”  Tim inquired to learn more about her condition.

In the New Testament, Jesus taught his life-saving truth in stories that are called parables.  Tim loved stories and so he loved the parables that Jesus taught.  The spiritual fruit in Tim’s life that this parable teaches about was his desire to love others while spreading the Good News of the Gospel.  The Bible says,

Once again Jesus began teaching by the lakeshore. A very large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat in the boat while all the people remained on the shore. He taught them by telling many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”  Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant. He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables for everything I say to outsiders, so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled:

‘When they see what I do,

they will learn nothing.

When they hear what I say,

they will not understand.

Otherwise, they will turn to me

and be forgiven.’”

Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Mark 4:1-20 (NLT)

The woman answered Tim’s question about eating.  “Yes, I had some bread this morning, with jelly on it too.”  This time the woman smiled a little as she spoke while still looking down at the ground.  There was an empty bread bag on the bench top and some old jelly containers next to the bag.

“Wow, that sounds good.”  Tim was trying to break the ice and find out about the woman’s needs.  He could remember when he had lived outside and had gone for days without eating.  “What kind of jelly was it?”

“Grape jelly that I had saved from a fast food restaurant.  I went there yesterday, and I saved it for this morning.  I do that sometimes when I go there.  I just remember to get extra jelly and sugar to eat.”  The woman spoke slowly, like she was in a trance.

“Well, are you still hungry?  Because if you are, I can go get you something more to eat at the store.”  Tim remembered that he had to be coaxed to eat and take care of himself when he was so addicted to drugs and alcohol and living outside in the streets.

“No, I am all right; I had about seven pieces of bread already and a lot of sugar and jelly on them.  I don’t eat a lot anymore anyway.  I don’t remember the last time I ate a big sit-down meal.  I just eat what I can find, and when I get money, I just eat a hamburger or something.  But thanks for asking.”  The sorrow in her face was beginning to go away and was replaced with lighter expressions.  She looked up from the ground and glanced at Tim, and he could see that she had very deep circles under her bloodshot blue eyes.  She was extremely tired looking.  At that moment, Tim felt and had compassion rise up in his heart for her, and he remembered when he looked as desperate and tired as she did.

“I was just checking, and I don’t want to be nosey or anything, but I just thought that you might need some help.  I ride on this bicycle path often, and I have noticed that you sit on this bench in the morning.” Tim was taking off his helmet to look less intimidating and be friendlier while smiling and keeping eye contact with the woman.

“Gee, that’s nice.  Not too many people take the time to see if I am all right or not.  Most times they just try to ignore me or even ask me to leave if they are going to use a bench to eat their lunch or have a picnic on.  I don’t bother anyone, and most times I just keep to myself, but that is nice of you to ask.” The woman’s body language was starting to relax, and she didn’t look as tense as when Tim had first approached her.  Tim was just glad that God had prepared the way and that the woman was being receptive to his questions.  He was just practicing what the Apostle Paul was saying in the New Testament about comforting others.  The Apostle Paul wrote half of the New Testament.  The Apostle Paul was one of the greatest persecutors of the early church until he had a life changing experience when he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus.  After meeting the risen Lord, Paul became one of the greatest spreaders of the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, called the Good News.  The Apostle Paul writes in the Bible,

PAUL, AN apostle (a special messenger) of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy [our] brother, to the church (assembly) of God which is at Corinth, and to all the saints (the people of God) throughout Achaia (most of Greece): Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) to you and [heart] peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement), Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God. For just as Christ’s [own] sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us. But if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and [for your] salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer and undergo. And our hope for you [our joyful and confident expectation of good for you] is ever unwavering (assured and unshaken); for we know that just as you share and are partners in [our] sufferings and calamities, you also share and are partners in [our] comfort (consolation and encouragement).

2 Corinthians 1:1-7 (AMP)

Tim was feeling more confident. “My name is Tim. What’s your name?”

“Janet.  My name is Janet,” she mumbled slowly through a growing smile.  Janet looked to be in her late fifties with gray hair that was almost white.  She had on black pants and a blue tee shirt that displayed the name of a famous baseball team.  Her clothes were wet and dirty.  Her face was wrinkled and well weathered from living outside.  She looked lonely and very tired but fairly healthy despite her homelessness.

Wow, Tim thought, this is not so hard after all when you pray for God to prepare a person’s heart to receive the message before you witness to someone in need of Jesus the Savior.  Tim decided before he asked her any more questions that he should tell her something about himself.  So he did.  “Nice to meet you, Janet.  You know, I just wanted to stop to see if you were all right and tell you that I used to live outside in all these drainage ditches and tunnels that run underneath the city, you know, the drainage tunnels, Janet.  I used illegal drugs and drank a lot of alcohol every day because I just didn’t know how to stop.  I lived outside for almost two years off and on, and I’m lucky I’m still alive because I used to be a dumpster diver, but Jesus set me free!  I hope that you don’t mind me asking, but are you homeless right now?”

Janet looked around herself to see if anyone else was listening and then let out a heavy, labored sigh before speaking.  “I used to be married, but my husband beat me when he was drunk, and the last time we fought, he put me in the hospital with broken ribs, so I left him.  Then I lost my apartment when I could not find a job because I had no work experience.  I had always been a stay-at-home mom.  My kids all moved away years ago, and I have no one to turn to.  I started living outside a couple of years ago when I was not staying in a shelter.  I don’t like the shelters, though, because they try to tell you what to do.”  Janet unfolded her arms and lifted them off the bench top where they had been resting and stretched them wide and away from her sides.  She exclaimed, “Now this is where I live.” That confirmed what Tim had thought all along, and he knew that God wanted him to reach out to her.

“I am sorry to hear that all those terrible things happened to you.  I had my share of trouble also before I became homeless, and I used to wonder if I would ever find a way out of that mess.  But now I have found a whole new way, a better life.  I gave my life to Jesus Christ and prayed that he would change me, and he did.  I am sober and delivered from my drug addiction and alcoholism.  I work in a ninety-day rehabilitation center, and God uses me to help people to stop using drugs and alcohol.  The place is called Safe Directions.”  In the Bible, Jesus cast out and removed evil spirits from people who were possessed and tormented like Tim once was before he was saved.  Jesus walked everywhere and ministered to those in need.  He had a group of followers that were called disciples to help him do great miracles.  Jesus taught them all he knew about serving God.  Jesus still works his miracles through us today!  We are his new disciples.  The Bible says,

Jesus and his disciples went to the town of Capernaum. Then on the next Sabbath he went into the Jewish meeting place and started teaching. Everyone was amazed at his teaching. He taught with authority, and not like the teachers of the Law of Moses. Suddenly a man with an evil spirit in him entered the meeting place and yelled, “Jesus from Nazareth, what do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are! You are God’s Holy One.”

Jesus told the evil spirit, “Be quiet and come out of the man!” The spirit shook him. Then it gave a loud shout and left.

Everyone was completely surprised and kept saying to each other, “What is this? It must be some new kind of powerful teaching! Even the evil spirits obey him.” News about Jesus quickly spread all over Galilee.

Mark 1:21–28 (CEV)

Janet was still listening, so Tim asked her another question while he had her attention.

“The rehabilitation center has open beds right now.  Do you think that you would like to come and try it?  They let you stay there for ninety days, and you get new clothes and help with doctors, and they feed you a lot.  There is a lot of group therapy with counselors that are trained to help people like us to get better.”  Tim stopped and prayed under his breath.   Dear Lord, please let Janet get the help she needs.

Janet looked down and answered, “Well, thanks, but no; I’m okay.  I think I’ll just stay here.  I’m not ready yet, but thanks for asking.  Besides, I don’t really drink that much anymore, and when I do, it is only a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine.  I used to smoke marijuana once in a while, but I hardly do that anymore either.”  Tim had to really focus on her voice to hear her response because Janet was speaking so low, and she had turned her eyes back to the top of the bench and away from his.

“Are you really sure you don’t want to try it?  Federal and state health insurance providers pay for the stay at the rehabilitation center, and you won’t get wet when it rains anymore.  You will be safe at night, and they feed you real good.  You don’t have to work unless you want to, and everyone tries to help you out a lot.”  In the Bible, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah was a great man of God.  He had a wife and a family.  God called Isaiah to be a prophet and he spoke boldly for God and God used him to confront his people of their sins.  The Bible says,

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:

to break the chains of injustice,

get rid of exploitation in the workplace,

free the oppressed,

cancel debts.

What I’m interested in seeing you do is:

sharing your food with the hungry,

inviting the homeless poor into your homes,

putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,

being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on,

and your lives will turn around at once.

Your righteousness will pave your way.

The God of glory will secure your passage.

Then when you pray, God will answer.

You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you get rid of unfair practices,

quit blaming victims;

quit gossiping about other people’s sins,

if you are generous with the hungry

and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,

your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go.

I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—

firm muscles, strong bones.

You’ll be like a well-watered garden,

a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,

rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,

restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,

make the community livable again.

Isaiah 58:6–11 (MSG)

Janet answered Tim’s question.  “No, no.  I’m fine right here for now, but thanks again. Maybe later,” Janet half whispered.  Right then, Tim remembered how he used to say the same thing when approached by someone with help that he would not take when he used to be homeless and addicted to substances.  That was before Tim had taken a leap of faith toward his new life in Jesus Christ and did the first step in the Life Recovery Bible, which says, “We admitted that we were powerless over our dependencies—that our life had become unmanageable.”

“Well, I hope you will change your mind someday soon, Janet.  I just wanted to see if you needed some help today.  Maybe tomorrow I will see you again.” And as he began to leave, the Holy Spirit led him to pray for her.

“Janet, is it okay if I pray with you?”

“Okay, I guess,” Janet said and shrugged her shoulders indifferently.

Tim took a deep breath and prayed. “In the name of Jesus, I pray.  I praise your holy name Jesus.  You are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and I worship you my God.  Please forgive me, Father God, for my sins today, and thank you for this day, Jesus.  I just pray that you watch over Janet, Father, and please help her stay safe out here in the streets, and, Father, I know that nothing is impossible with you.  Please help Janet get shelter and a place to stay today.  Most important, God, please let Janet come to know you in a complete and full way as her Lord and Savior.  Thank you, Jesus.  Amen.”  Jesus taught in the Bible about prayer.  Jesus loves us all and wants us all to come to him in prayer and expect that when we are praying in alignment with his will for our lives that he will answer in his time.  The Bible says,

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:7–12 (NKJV)

Tim finished praying and then looked at Janet again and said, “Thanks for letting me pray with you, Janet, and may God bless you this day.  I know Jesus can help you because I used to be a dumpster diver, but Jesus set me free!”  Tim’s face was lit up with a big smile, and he earnestly believed he was helping Janet just by sharing his story of deliverance from addiction and homelessness with her.

“I know God can help people because my sister believes in Jesus.  She stopped drinking way too much alcohol and goes to church, and all her children accepted God into their lives, but I am not ready yet. Thanks anyway, but I am all right out here for now.” Janet spoke with pain in her voice, like she was haunted by some demon from her past that would not let go of her.  Still, Tim was persistent to witness to her about the saving grace of Jesus.

“Please, Janet, I am only trying to help you see the light and learn who Jesus is and how to have a whole new life here on this earth and receive eternal life with God in heaven.”  Jesus wants us all to be saved.  That’s why he came to earth and lived among us.  That’s how much he loves us.

The Bible says Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12, NLT).

Tim smiled his best smile while speaking to her and prayed in the Spirit that she would be set free of her demons.  In the name of Jesus I pray that you, God, would break the chains that are holding Janet captive and let her be free of her demons.  Amen.

“No, thank you.  I am not ready yet to go to church or any kind of rehabilitation center.  I am happy if it works for you, but it’s not for me right now.  I am fine right here.” Janet looked away again, and Tim was sure he had done his best to plant the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Janet’s heart and mind at the moment.  The Holy Spirit was leading Tim to move on and pray that Janet would receive the message in God’s time, and Tim knew he had done all he could do for the time being.  The Bible says, “So you should look for the Lord before it is too late; you should call to him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6, NCV).

With that, Tim got on his bicycle and thought about Janet and then also that there were no coincidences in God’s kingdom.  Just when he was praying to serve God, the opportunity had come up around the next turn in the bicycle path, and as Tim rode on he continued to pray in earnest that Janet would get saved, that she would invite Jesus into her heart and in the meantime stay alive and safe for today.  As he rode away praying, Tim raised his hands to heaven and praised God for what Jesus had done in his own life and how God was working in him and through him wherever he went.  The Bible says Jesus told the people who had faith in him, “If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32, CEV).

Chapter 2

The following day, Tim had decided to ride his bicycle again and at the same time learn more Bible quotes.  So he set out on the bicycle path once more.  He began to really seek God out and pray that he would be used of Jesus that day.  So as he continued, he prayed a prayer that went like this: “Heavenly Father, I praise you, Jesus, for being my one and only God and Savior.  Please forgive me for the way I have been putting other things like money and cars in front of my relationship with you and my family.  I know that if you really want me to have any more of these things, then you will add them to me.  I pray that you would point out anything I have made into an idol.  So I just hope and pray that I am in your perfect will today.  Please sanctify me by your truth; your word is truth.  Create in me a pure heart, oh God.  Breathe new life into my old, dry bones.  I pray that you will use me today and that I will get the chance to witness to someone.  Watch over my ex-fiancée, Sandra, her son, David Abraham, and our little girl, Victoria, today, please.  Heal Victoria’s little heart, and thank you for the healing that she has already received.  In the name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.”

Tim shifted into another gear as the path he was on narrowed and turned from pavement into dirt.  It was this section that made reading the Bible quotes that he now had in his hand so hard to read because if he took his eyes off of the path for one second or more, he could easily end up on the ground or in the guard rail that was in between him and the drainage canal that they called an arroyo in this town.  So he had to wait and be patient, which, for Tim, was not easy at all.  Tim was learning to be more patient in the Lord.  What he had thought was good patience before when he lived for the world had turned out not to really be godly patience.  Jesus was using life’s lessons to lift him to new levels of Christ like patience.

Tim was practicing the second step in the Life Recovery Bible, which stated, “We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Tim was applying this step in his own life and at Safe Directions.  Jesus is the one and only higher power.  The Bible says, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians 2:9-10, NLT).

Safe Directions was a ninety-day rehabilitation center for addicts and alcoholics who were mostly homeless and sometimes designated seriously mentally ill.  Tim was determined to take the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world and to the clients of Safe Directions while sharing the steps in his Life Recovery Bible it took for him to recover from his addictions, sins and the insanity of his former life.  The Bible says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30, NIV).

Tim’s eyes were fixed straight ahead as he steered his bicycle down that narrow path, and that was exactly how he felt about most things that he did—that he needed to stay focused on the Lord and eliminate looking to the left or to the right.  Trying to keep his eyes on the prize of eternal reward and life with Jesus Christ was everything to Tim.  It had to be that way for him or the ways of his old life might find a way back in.  On that note, Tim had decided that he would rather be dead than go back to his old life.  The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding” (Job 28:28, NLT).

You see, it was not long ago that he used to live in one of these drainage ditches and all over this town, mainly outside in the streets and in the desert.  Because, as Tim would say, he used to be a dumpster diver, but Jesus had set him free.  It wasn’t so long ago that he was living a totally different life and could never have dreamed what Jesus could have done for him.  He was a drug addict and an alcoholic who could not go without it.  About Tim’s old behavior, the Bible says, “Do not be deceived:  God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.  The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7–8, NIV).

Yes, that was then, and this is now, he liked to say, now that he was free of the old ways and was a new creation in Christ.  Tim knew that temptation was still a constant threat and not to take it likely.  Like it says in the Bible, “The temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NLT).  Resisting temptation was much easier with the power of the Holy Spirit to rely on now.  The Bible says, “Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires” (James 1:14, NLT). Even Jesus was tempted in the desert but he overcame those temptations.  The Bible says,

Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the devil.  For forty days and forty nights he ate nothing and became very hungry.  Then the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, change these stones into loaves of bread.”  But Jesus told him, “No!  The scriptures say, ‘People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God.’”

Matthew 4:1–4 (NLT)

Tim looked at the Bible passage in his hand while pedaling his bicycle and read it.  Glancing up from the index card often to watch the road and stay balanced.  The Apostle Paul wrote in the Bible about the great wisdom and mysteries of God,

“Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the worlds eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you.  Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.  And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful.  God chose things despised by the world; things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important, so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (NLT)

Yes, Tim thought to himself, that is true.  God does use the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.  He looked back at his own life and how he had lived for himself and his own desires, falling in all of his trespasses until he was transformed by seeking Jesus.  It had been a long and hard road out of the old life and into the new one, but it was all worth it now.  The dumpster diving and homelessness were a distant memory and seemed to have happened to someone else, in another person’s life, or in a bad dream Tim once had.

The wind was in his face now, and the bicycle ride was exhilarating, to say the least.  “Thank you, Jesus.  I praise your name, Jesus.  Thank you, my Lord and Savior.”  Tim shouted out loud as he rode on into the wind, forging ahead.  Tim could recall days that were not as pleasant as this one.  The long haul out of the gutter had been taxing, but Jesus had made the way, and now the relationship that Tim had developed with God was more important than anything else that he had.  It meant the world to him that he could pray and then actually see God move in his life.  There was nothing else like it.  No high, no human relationship, or possession could replace the way God moved in his life.  Oh, and the job was such a gift, the one at Safe Directions that Tim worked at.  There he could work on his relationship with Jesus Christ while staying sober and helping others to do the same, telling everyone about Jesus and his mighty power to heal and save lives. The Bible says, “You must warn them so they may live.   If you don’t speak out to warn the wicked to stop their evil ways, they will die in their sin.  But I will hold you responsible for their death” (Ezekiel 3:18, NCV).

Lots of people were still struggling, and he had decided to use his gifts from God and new resolve to stay sober to teach others to do the same.  He felt the best way to do this was to lead by example, reading his Life Recovery Bible and telling the clients what Jesus was doing for him.  Jesus was doing what no one else could, the impossible.  Tim’s rebirth was real, and he was growing in the Lord one day and one step at a time by the resurrecting power of Jesus.  The Apostle Paul said in the Bible, “My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God’s wonderful kindness and love” (Acts 20:24, NLT).

The program at his job included the twelve steps of recovery, and he had been familiar with these steps.  The main point of these steps was to get people to accept a higher power into their lives.  Tim was led to take it to the next level right from the beginning and make Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lord and Savior of his life, the one and only higher power.  The Bible says, “Jesus is the only One who can save people.  No one else in the world is able to save us” (Acts 4:12, NCV).  So Tim had a Bible called the Life Recovery Bible that outlined the twelve steps but applied the truth of God’s words to each and every one of the individual steps.

Tim praised Jesus wholeheartedly that God had answered his prayers when he first got into a halfway house for a Christian mentor to come into his life that the program calls a sponsor.  Tim’s sponsor, Bob, turned out to be a true blessing in Tim’s life.  Bob believed in Jesus also and helped Tim get right with God.  But the God of heaven’s armies knew that a recovering man like Tim would need two mentors, or sponsors, as they are called, so he sent him another, even more spiritual man named Brother Manny!  It was through a miracle of events that only God could have arranged that these two Christian and caring men of God came into Tim’s life.  The Bible says, “Without wise leadership, a nation falls; with many counselors, there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14, NLT).

Tim was reflecting on God’s wisdom as he pedaled the bicycle even harder now and took out another Bible passage that he had written down on a three-by-five index card that had scripture that the Apostle Paul wrote: “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28, NLT).

Yes, he thought to himself, this is true.  Since he had been called to change and answered that call to change, he had begun to pray more and more each day that God would come into his life and develop him into a new person.  And now he could see that Jesus had heard those prayers to repent and put certain men into his life that knew how to help him do just that.  God is an amazingly awesome God, Tim thought, and a wave of gratitude swept over him, and he began to praise Jesus for all he had done in his life.

“Thank you, Jesus, that I am not a dumpster diver anymore and that I am free of all my obsessions to drink and do drugs and do all the things I used to do to stay in my addictions.  Thank you for my new life and my job to help others see how to get a new way of life and all you have done in me and through me.  Amen!”  Tim shouted.

God is great, and his ways are the only ways to a real and satisfying life, flashed through Tim’s mind, the way thoughts did lately.  Sometimes he was surprised by the thoughts, but he knew the Holy Spirit and all the time that he was spending in God’s Word in the Bible inspired them.  Right then, Tim started praying again the way the Holy Spirit had been leading him to learn to pray from the heart.

“In the name of Jesus, I pray.  I praise you Jesus for your love and guidance in my life.  Please use me today, Lord, that I would do your will and not mine.  That I will be completely available to you and see what it is you want me to see, hear what it is you want me to hear, and listen to your voice and then do what it says. Amen.” In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus said he would give all his followers the Holy Spirit.

He spoke to them again and said, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Then he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven.  If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven.”

John 20:21–22 (NLT)

Tim had become aware that Jesus wanted to work through him now that he had reached a new level in his walk with God.  No longer did Tim desire the things of his past, including the all night parties, or drugs and alcohol that once had consumed his mind and thoughts.  Tim had prayed for Jesus to remove these obsessions and wholeheartedly began to believe that the God of the universe could and would do anything to help those who seek him with all their heart.  And so it had been done for him over a period of time; all of them had been removed.  Tim had been working overtime to mature in his faith and could relate to what it says in the Bible: “Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right” (Hebrews 6:14, NLT).

Now Tim had realized God wanted him to do well and not to go back into the world and waste his newly won freedom on the pursuits of this world.  The Apostle Paul wrote in the Bible, “Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  And as Christ’s soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in the affairs of this life, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in his army” (2 Timothy 2:3–4, NLT).

Tim understood that there had been a heavy price paid by God for people like Tim to win their freedom from the bondage of sin and death, specifically that God’s only Son, named Jesus Christ, has come to save us by living a sinless life on this earth.  That Jesus was obedient and willing to die on the cross so that we could be restored to God and have salvation through his name.  Three days after Jesus was crucified on a cross as payment for our sins, God raised him from the dead and back to life.  Jesus then revealed himself in victory over sin and death to his followers.  He then ascended into heaven in front of his disciples and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father in all his glory and majesty.  Jesus overcame sin and defeated death.  Everyone and anyone, regardless of their past sins, can have a new life and eternal salvation by repenting of their sins and accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.

Jesus did many miracles while he was on earth, including the most important one being the resurrection from the dead.  Jesus is alive and sitting at the right hand of the Father God, ruling with all authority in heaven and on earth.  We who believe have nothing to fear.  Jesus is coming back soon for us.  Like it says in the Bible,

And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Israel and in Jerusalem.  They put him to death by crucifying him, but God raised him to life three days later.  Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen beforehand to be his witnesses.  We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.  And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is ordained of God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead.  He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.

Acts 10:39–43 (NLT)

Tim was beginning to realize that all Scripture points to the coming of a Messiah and that the Messiah is Jesus Christ.  He had been reading the Bible relentlessly and talking to his pastor long enough about the psalms to realize that even the book of Psalms that were written way before Jesus was ever born told of his saving work on the cross.  Yes, even of his crucifixion.  King David was a mighty king of Israel and a prophet that God used to speak through.  King David prophesied in a psalm he wrote that the Messiah would be stripped before the stares of men.  Psalms are songs, hymns and prayers that are recorded in the book of Psalms.   The Bible says about Jesus fulfilling prophecy, “My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs: an evil gang closes in on me.  They have pierced my hands and feet.  I can count every bone in my body. My enemies stare at me and gloat. They divide my clothes among themselves and throw dice for my garments” (Psalm 22:16–18, NLT).

Jesus fulfilled this prophecy and others when he was crucified and a large crowd watched which is recorded in the book of Luke in the New Testament.  The Bible says,

“When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.” Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

(Luke 23:33-35, NLT).

Anyone who will call on Jesus for forgiveness of sin will be forgiven and have a new life in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!  Tim was experiencing that power in his own life.  Like the Bible says in the New Testament,

But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead.  He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again.  So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:20–21 (NLT)

Tim shouted the scripture he was reading from the index card out loud and continued riding along the bicycle path, seeking to do God’s will that day.  The Bible says, “Yes I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13, NLT).  Doing God’s will had become Tim’s new desire, or calling, so to speak.  Tim knew that he had finally found out what Jesus had made him for, namely living a righteous life and helping others find the way out of their addictions and sins and seeking restoration to God.  The Bible says, “Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love.  Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12, NLT).

To be a servant of the Lord and leading others to the pathway of righteousness had become Tim’s passion and mission in life. Tim had done the third step in the Life Recovery Bible when he had turned his whole life over to Jesus Christ.

The third step says, “We made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God.”

Tim pulled another prayer out of his shirt pocket.  He had been memorizing this prayer of salvation since his birthday.  That was on a hot summer day, and he had been praying for more godly wisdom and direction when on this bicycle path he stopped to take a drink of water and stretch his legs.  There on a bench he noticed a piece of paper that was under a rock and looking around to see if someone else had left it there, saw that he was alone.  Tim went over and picked up the rock and read the paper, and much to his surprise, it was a pamphlet by a minister with a similar story to Tim’s.  In the story, the minister explained how he had once been a notorious sinner and an alcoholic, living in bars and doing all the wrong things, being angry and violent to those he loved.  But because of Jesus coming into his life, he had now not had a drink in many years and also had become a minister of the Word of God and had his own ministry and had written several books on how to get right with and then serve God.  At first Tim just read the pamphlet and shrugged it off as just another thing left by someone else that he or she had forgotten or didn’t throw away.  Then it hit him like a bolt of lightening.

What had he just been praying for earlier on his ride that day?  Wasn’t it for more biblical wisdom and direction to do God’s will?  Yes, it was, and then he realized the message had been placed there just for him!  Tim had shouted out loud and then began jumping up and down with the pamphlet in his right hand.  A true gift from God, the kind that is worth more than money can buy, he determined at that moment.  The prayer that he had in his hand now a month later that was on the back of that pamphlet had become the best birthday present that he could have hoped for from God.  God says nothing can make you as happy as wisdom can.  The wisdom of God, who made everything, including us, can be found in his words all contained in the sixty-six books of the Bible.  The Bible says,

Happy is the person who finds wisdom and gains understanding.  For the profit of wisdom is better than silver, and her wages are better than gold.  Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.  She offers you life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left.  She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying.

Proverbs 3:13–17 (NLT)

It was this prayer that Tim was memorizing now that leads others to the pathway of a new life in Jesus.  Tim began reciting the prayer out loud from memory and steering the bicycle down that very same path while checking the note to make sure he was getting the prayer the right way.  You are invited to pray it with God.  Please change your life forever with eternal glory in the loving hands of Christ Jesus!

“Dear God, I confess that I am a sinner.  Please forgive all my sins, the ones I can remember and the ones I can’t remember.  Thank you, Jesus, that you lived a sinless life and took the punishment for my sins.  I receive you as my Savior and the free gift of eternal life that you give me.  I want to live for you, to serve you, and to honor you.  I receive your Holy Spirit and will follow you!  Amen!”  Tim shouted the last sentence of the prayer as if he were receiving Jesus for the first time in his life and then thanked God for his Son and the work Jesus had done on the cross at Calvary.  Then Tim put the prayer away and began to pray again that God would give him more courage and strength in a Christian way to be used that day.  So he kept pedaling along that bicycle path, looking for the person that he believed God was going to put in his path that day that he could talk to about God and try to help and witness to.

Tim had brought some canned food and bread and some money along on this ride because he knew there were homeless people that lived in these arroyos next to the bicycle path.  Tim was hoping to see Janet again and try to convince her to get out of the streets and into the detoxification center that he knew about.  Only God knew what would happen, but Tim had faith that if he could have a new life in Christ, then so could anyone.  It was now Tim’s burning desire the way he used to want to run to a drink or a drug and do wrong that now he wanted to do good by telling anyone who would listen about what Jesus had done for him and what Jesus could do for him or her if he or she received Jesus Christ into his or her life and began a new way of living.  Jesus had removed Tim’s stony heart of sin.  Just like the stone had been rolled away from in front of the tomb that Jesus was buried in after his crucifixion.  The Bible says,

The day after the Sabbath day, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought some sweet-smelling spices to put on Jesus’ body. Very early on that day, the first day of the week, soon after sunrise, the women were on their way to the tomb. They said to each other, “Who will roll away for us the stone that covers the entrance of the tomb?”

Then the women looked and saw that the stone had already been rolled away, even though it was very large. The women entered the tomb and saw a young man wearing a white robe and sitting on the right side, and they were afraid.

But the man said, “Don’t be afraid. You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, who has been crucified. He has risen from the dead; he is not here. Look, here is the place they laid him. Now go and tell his followers and Peter, ‘Jesus is going into Galilee ahead of you, and you will see him there as he told you before.’”

Mark 16:1–7 (NCV)