What Has God Meant To Us?

What has your Lord done for you? What does the Roundtable mean to you, or what have you learned from the Holy Spirit through other men? Share a paragraph or two of your own and and send it to  roundtableministries@gmail.com or e-mail or call 360-779-3837 for a short interview!

John Denend

After years of this lifestyle and time with a motorcycle gang, I came to Puget Sound as an alcoholic, drug addicted biker with a bad attitude. Finally, after 18 years of that life and a second round of in-patient treatment for cocaine and alcohol addiction I began to wonder if there was a better life to be found.

My brother was involved in a church at that time, regularly attempting to get me to join him on Sunday mornings all to no avail until a trumpet player I enjoyed came to town in an evangelist’s band. I was willing to attend a Christian concert in order to hear the trumpeter. At the concert I heard that Jesus Christ had paid the price and taken the penalty for all of the wrong decisions I had made. I had heard all this before but never really listened and applied it to myself. I wasn’t sure about all the details of Christianity but I found myself running to the altar to seek forgiveness. Some guy stepped out into the aisle in front of me and I never found out whether he intended to go the altar or not, but that’s where he ended up because I pushed him all the way to the front since he was in my way. 

For the next year I rode the fence and struggled with wanting to hold onto my life apart from God and wanting at the same time to follow Him. It was difficult to consider losing all my “friends” and starting over. I was singing in the choir on Sunday and injecting cocaine and smoking marijuana during the week. 

About this time the Lord brought Becky, who soon after became my wife, into the picture! Becky committed her life to Jesus shortly after meeting me. Three months after we were married, she confronted me about my life and gave me an ultimatum, her or my addictions. I chose Becky and sought God’s help and hers to leave the drugs and alcohol behind.

I have now been clean and sober for 21 years! Praise God! Within the first year of our marriage, I went from bachelor to father to grandfather. Becky’s daughter had gotten married shortly after us and had her first child.   I now know I was never the “luckiest man in the world.”

God was watching over my life whether I always wanted him to or not.  2 Corinthians 5:17 – If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Psalm 40:1-3 – I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.