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>> Psalms 50:15 says, "Call on me when you are in trouble, and
I will rescue you, and you will give me glory." Matthew 11:28,
"Are you tired? Are you worn out? Burned out in religion.
Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life." James
5:15, "The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the
Lord will restore him to health." God will rescue,
recover and restore.
>> BARB RUDOSKI: Hi, I'm Barb Rudoski and I'm so glad you're
watching the FAITH ALIVE SHOW today. Today, we have a special
episode. An episode about real people with real problems who
cried out to God and God answered. This episode you'll
learn how people got the victory over situations and they shouted
out loud to Him. So sit back, listen, and let God touch your
life like He touched these lives.
♪ [Segment Music] ♪
>> COREY ANSON: Hi, I'm Corey Anson. This is my wife Sherrie
and we're here to tell our story of God's goodness to us through
difficult times. Twenty years ago, when we're pregnant with
twins, we ended up having an early delivery, 21 weeks. Our
first daughter who we named Hope was born. She was just under one
pound. And then six weeks later, at 27 weeks our second daughter
who we named Jocelyn was born and she was just under
two pounds.
>>SHERRIE: When I went in to premature labor with our first
daughter, the doctors told us that she would not live. That
her lungs were not developed and that she would not be able to
survive outside of the womb. They told us that they wanted to
wait until the labor stopped and then deliver one twin, complete
the surgery and hopes of delaying the birth of our second
twin. During those 15 and 1/2 hours I remember being really
just emotionless and when the delivery did take place, the
amazing thing that happened was as the doctor lifted my daughter
up and said it's a girl, this wave of joy and love just washed
over me for a moment. It was something that I looked back on
as being a gift from God. He knew that my baby would not live
but there was this moment that I can look back on where that joy
and love came over me. Even though I know that I wouldn't
have my daughter with me. She lived for 15 minutes which was
amazing. We watched her wrinkle her eyebrows and opened and
closed her mouth and when the nurse took her from me, her
spirit left.
>>COREY: This brought us closer together in our relationship as
we're experiencing the same difficulty, the same emotional
turmoil and it has really made us rely on each other and not
only on each other but together we rely on God to give us the
strength, to comfort us, and to just to keep us going. The
medical staff were prepared for us when we came in for the
delivery of Hope. There was a surgeon that was called in and
when Hope was delivered, the surgeon who performed the little
operation and the hopes of that was to allow Jocelyn to remain
within the womb and to keep her in there as long as they could.
>>SHERRIE: Jocelyn was born 6 weeks later and she was rush in
ICU. She was put on an open bed and she was hooked up to
respirator as well as other machines and she remained that
way until day nine. And on day nine, she came off of the
respirator and her oxygen levels were considered normal. This was
a miracle for such a small premature baby.
>>COREY: We spent a lot of days at the hospital. Sherrie would
spend in just about all of her day at the hospital and when I
was done work then I would come there for the evening. We spent
lots of time there and the nurses were quite comfortable
with having us around. And they were actually quite confident in
the things that we were doing there. And eventually they
showed us how to revive Jocelyn. This was about one month into
her stay in ICU. Jocelyn with her heart rate would drop and
eventually minutes later she would just stop breathing. And
they should us how to rub her back and stimulate her so that
that would reactivate her brain to kickstart her heart and get
her to breathe again. That was, that was a lot of stress. When
we would leave at the end of the night, we would leave not
knowing what we would be returning to the next morning.
>>SHERRIE: I remember being at home and having a nurse come to
do a follow visit with me. And I remember questioning her in my
deep despair for my daughter in the hospital. Firstly, wondering
what kind of emotional trouble she might have being separated
from her twin. And secondly, what her chances of survival
were. And this nurse told me first of all to always be
truthful with her and share the experience with her as she grew
older. And then she also told me that I should pray that Jocelyn
would be developed in the Isolette as she would have been
in the womb. Another nurse at the hospital told us that we
could record our voices and whatever we wanted to put on a
tape and that they would place it in her Isolette with the
small speaker and they would play it for her repeatedly when
we weren't there. So we created a tape and we prayed that exact
prayer, we asked God to create her in that Isolette just as He
would have in the womb.
>>COREY: I remember coming up to visit at the hospital and as I
come out of the elevator on the floor. She, Sherrie standing out
overlooking over the lobby. She was quite distressed. She had
been crying quite hard and I knew that something was wrong.
She then told me that the doctors just told her that
Jocelyn had taken a turn for the worst and that you can expect
that she could die at any moment now. I pleaded with God to
please don't take her.
>>SHERRIE: I had been called in to talk to the doctors. And as I
stood beside the Isolette, beside my daughter. The doctors
had told me that they didn't know what was going on with her
body but it was rejecting the feeding and that she could die.
And I remember standing there and feeling like I just wanted
to run. But as soon as they were finished, I couldn't bear to
stand beside her. I ran out into the hallway and that's where
Corey found me. And I, too, was pleading with God, saying to Him
in that hospital hallway, "Please don't take her, but if
You do I'm still gonna love You and serve You. Our prayer line
was started. The next morning, we went in to see the doctors
and they said that all threatening signs had
disappeared and they couldn't explain it. We could explain
that. We knew God had heard the prayers of all those people
praying for our daughter.
>>COREY: After a hundred and two visits to the hospital and
Jocelyn being five pounds, three ounces now. We were able to
bring her home, what joy I had.
>>SHERRIE: Today, our daughter is actually
studying to work in the medical field. And, you
know, I just think about when I was standing beside that
Isolette, if only I would have known at that point that, you
know, one day she's gonna study to work in medical field. And we
went on to have another daughter and this has impacted every
member of our family as we looked back on all of things
that God was in, all of the times that He was right beside
us and guiding us and protecting us. We're just so thankful for
all that His done for us.
♪ [Segment Music] ♪
>>RILEY: Hi, I'm Riley. I grew up in a Christian home and I was
saved at the age of three years old when my parents led me to
the Lord. It was good. It was awesome to grow up and have that
opportunity and I grew up in a great church, in FAITH ALIVE
FAMILY CHURCH and I learned so much about God. Well, as time
went on, in my teen years my dad bought me my own Bible. It's an
NLT version and I started to read it for the first time on my
own and not just being told to in school or being made to by my
parents. But I started to look into it and I read a passage in
Luke chapter 7 that hit me quite powerfully. It was a story where
this woman comes in and she's crying and she wept and bowed
down at Jesus' feet and her tears would wash His feet and
her hair would dry them. The people around who I would
classify as religious folk. They were offended at what she was
doing but Jesus applauded her. He was touched and He said, "You
didn't give me any oil for my head or any water for my feet.
But this woman has washed my feet with her tears and dried
with her hair." He said something very profound that hit
me like a ton of bricks. He said to those who have been forgiven
a lot, they will love a lot. And for those who have been forgiven
a little will only love a little. When I read that like, I
was a little nervous for myself because I didn't feel like I did
a lot wrong. I was, I guess you could say self-righteous.
Because I had such a good life, I didn't think I had a lot to be
forgiven. I don't think I understood what this salvation
really meant. And so I start to get impacted by what the Word of
God was saying and I started to dig deeper. And as time went on
and as I would seek God, He started to expose things. And it
says in the Bible the Word of God is like a mirror. And as I
would look into this mirror God would be exposing things that
are in my life. So where I thought that there were certain
sin that were so bad that people will get save from. I didn't
realize that there were things in my own life that were far
worse than some sins that people would classify as really bad.
And so God started to expose the pride in my life of
self-righteousness. And there's a lot of kids I grew up with who
didn't continue to serve God as they got older. There's probably
a bunch of reasons why, but I think one of the deepest reasons
is that it's easy to fall into this self-righteous trap of
thinking that you're all right and not recognizing your need
for a savior. And so God was exposing my, the darkness in my
heart and I didn't like it and I didn't wanna see the same. And
for the first time in my life, I really start to understand what
Jesus saved me from and it changed my life. I was given a
new understanding. And where I had some love for God before, He
started to pour His love into me because I realized that He saved
me from something far worse than any sin that I could think of.
It was the sin of pride. It was deep and it was polluting every
part of my life. And so, when God, it's like He burst through
the door. He broke down the walls of my pride and brought
salvation to me and He saved me. And although I did accept Jesus
into my heart when I was three. I'm not sure if I understood the
significance. And as I got older, He, God has revealed
Himself to me more and more. And to be honest with you, it's like
I got saved a number of times and it's like God still is
saving me today. And I'm so thankful for what He did for me
and I have so much love for Him because I realized how much He
loves me by walking through my pride and giving me His hand to
pull me up higher and to pull me out of that mess. And so I'm
very thankful that I'm saved and that I have a life inside of Him
in His love and it's just, it's life changing.
♪ [Segment Music] ♪
>>DEREK: Hi, my name is Derek.
>>MELISSA: And mine is Melissa. >>DEREK: And this is our
salvation testimony. So I grew up in Christian home and
unfortunately I never had a personal relationship with God.
So when I finished high school I pretty much strayed away and
that led to a life of a lot of poor decisions. But through a
series of events God had a bigger plan for us and I ended
up meeting Melissa at a bar of all places.
>>MELISSA: Yeah, so we met and, you know, kind of quickly feel
in love. And unfortunately, at that time we were not living for
God and making all of the wrong decisions. So what started
really nicely turned into a lot of fighting, mistrust,
unfaithfulness, drugs, alcohol, pretty much nothing good. And
very quickly at seven weeks we found out that we were pregnant.
And I really believed that's where God decided to enter,
re-entering our lives, to tell you it's really with, sort of
straighten our path with following God and ever since
then everything has just gotten better every day.
>>DEREK: Our lives have drastically changed from where
we were to where we are now. We all owe that to God, for Him
having a much bigger plan for us in mind than what we had for
ourselves. And now we have a godly home filled with love. We
have a beautiful daughter, a great church family, and we owe
it all to Him.
>>MELISSA: Yeah, we really wouldn't be here without him.
Everything in our life that we have it's good. It's because of
Him and trusting Him. We wouldn't have gotten to where we
are just on our own which is what we were trying to do. I
think when people try to do life without God, you'll find out
really quickly that you just gonna keep, you know, failing in
different ways but you're always gonna get to the same results.
Which is that you need God in order to have a good life and
live a purpose that He designed for us. He is the best designer
and, you know, He put us together and now we're happy and
life's good.
>>DEREK: So we just, we owe it all to Him. We praise Him. We
basically our lives are for His glory and for His honor.
♪ [Segment Music] ♪
>>RENE: Hi, my name's Rene and this is my salvation testimony.
I was saved at a very young age, about the age of five when my
mom invited me to ask Jesus into my heart. Being so young there
wasn't really a big night to day experience and I had a very good
upbringing. I lived in a Christian family, in a Christian
home. Through my teen years, God wasn't really something that
excited me a lot, though I knew it was right to serve Him. I
kind of made my mind up that I was gonna serve God just
sometime down the road. Maybe when I settle down with the wife
and kids, you know, we would do the church thing. It was shortly
after high school, I moved from a small town into the big city
of Saskatoon. And I moved in with my cousin and his
roommates. Now, my intension moving to the big city was to,
you know, to have fun and to go and live the life and maybe to
party, that kind of stuff. But what amazed me was that my
cousin who was about 21, 22 years old and his roommates
roughly the same age. They were all going to church three times
a week. So I was really blown away by that, a little annoyed
by that, because of course I came to have fun. But at the
same time my interest was piqued. So I had to come and
check out this church that would interest twenty somethings to go
three times a week. So I came here to FAITH ALIVE FAMILY
CHURCH and I was 18 years old. When I came in, I think it was
the very first time that I was in a group of people that wanted
to be a church. You know the church as I grew up in, people
were very friendly. They were nice but you could tell a lot of
it was, you know, kind of a facade, kind of plasticky, fake
smiles, and that kind of thing. But when I came to FAITH ALIVE,
the people were genuine and you could feel the love of God on
them. So it was very interesting to me. And when the service
continued on, I felt for the very first time in my life, I
felt the presence of God. And you know, though I knew Jesus
was in my heart and, you know, I had an abiding presence of God.
There was something different about the atmosphere. It seemed
to be charged with life, probably the best way that I can
describe it. And it wasn't long after that that I found out
about the Holy Spirit. That I could be filled with the Holy
Spirit. So that's began my journey into adulthood. I had
recommitted myself to Jesus and before long I was filled with
the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and my life began to
transform. I became a different person. I became a bold person
rather than a very shy person. And I just had, I had a lot more
life than I'd ever had before. And though, you know, my
Christianity has had, you know, it's ups and downs. I would say
today that I've got more of a love for God than I ever have
and my relationship with Him is growing stronger and stronger.
That maybe a little different for a lot of people who make an
initial commitment to God and then, you know, seemed to waffle
day by day. I find myself getting closer to God and
feeling more of His presence and more of His power. And it really
is a joy to serve Jesus and I couldn't imagine life
without Him.
>>BARB: Have you ever been weigh down? Feel like life is just too
hard. Feel like the burden of the world is being carried on
your shoulders. You know Jesus want to come and He wants to
help you. He wants to lift that burden off and bring joy and
peace in life. Repeat this prayer after me. Dear Jesus,
come into my life. Remove this burden that I'm carrying and
replace it with peace, joy, and love. In Jesus name. Amen.
>> I wanna stay here. I come alive here. I wanna stay here.
Where earth becomes like heaven in this moment. I wanna stay
here. I come alive here. I wanna stay here. Where earth becomes
like heaven in this moment. I wanna stay. I wanna stay. Let me
stay here, Lord. I wanna stay with You for all my days where
Your presence carries me. We're all free to see. I wanna stay
here. I come alive here. I wanna stay here. Where earth becomes
like heaven in this moment. Lord, I'm singing. I wanna stay
here with You, Lord. I come alive here. I can feel it now. I
wanna stay here. Where earth becomes like heaven in this
moment. This moment. Captivated by Your presence. Pull me
closer. I surrender my whole, Lord, to be right where You are.
Captivated by Your presence. Pull me closer. I surrender my
whole, Lord, to be right where You are. I wanna stay here. I
come alive here. I wanna stay here. Where earth becomes like
heaven in this moment. This moment. Captivated by Your
presence. Pull me closer. I surrender my whole, Lord, to be
right where You are. How captivating. May Your presence
draw me in. Your presence draws me in. Here I am, how all the
way You are. How all the way You are, we worship for You.
>>BARB: Wasn't that powerful? God took impossible situations
and He made them possible. God is interested in doing that for
you, too. Would you let Him? Let's pray. Father, I thank You
that You are God of the impossible. Lord, I thank You
that You can take terrible situations and turn them and
make them possible situations. So right now, we release Your
power to come in to every home, every person listening today and
surround them and change their situation. Amen. If you would
like to watch more episodes or this episode again. You can
check us out online at faithalive.tv See you next week.
Closed Captioned by MGD: The Miracle Channel Association
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