Julia told her mother about the horrible things her new stepfather had done to her—and how much it had hurt.
Her stepfather denied everything. And it seemed to Julia that her mother, the person she had trusted the most, wasn’t going to do anything to protect her from further abuse. The solid ground beneath Julia had turned into quicksand overnight.
A door had been shut within her, blocking out all light and comfort and hope. All that remained was darkness. By the time she was 10 years old, her youth had already vanished away.
But through your love and compassion for the lost and hurting, God would make a way for her through the darkness and into the light …
Born to Hurt
As an adult, Julia’s life was one of constantly looking over her shoulder, always running away from the dark shadows of her past.
For one, she had never met her biological father, leaving unanswered questions and a giant hole in her heart. Then her new stepfather emotionally and sexually abused her repeatedly. He had not wanted her; he had wanted only what he could get from her.
Later, when Julia married, life was no different; even though they had two children together, he cheated on her, and eventually they got divorced. He had not wanted her either.
All of these fears of hurt and failure, the wounds that never healed, the dead bones that kept piling up in the closet of her memory—Julia lugged around all of it as though they were a prisoner’s chains.
She believed in God—at least, the misshapen god she had pieced together over the years of searching through different religions. But she was tired of that god too, the god of humanity’s own making; she was tired of being in the dark.
“Why is it so easy to be bad and so hard to be good?” It was the question she most wanted to get an answer to when she was a child. No one could ever tell her. But she never gave up wondering. After her children had grown, Julia still didn’t have an answer.
One day, in the middle of work, she suddenly cried out, pleading for answers. She just wanted to know the truth—about her life, about her purpose, about this sick and broken world.
No one heard her cries—but God.
Just the (Amazing) Facts
First, it was the flyer for a seminar on the book of Revelation. Then it was the Bible worker who knocked on her door and offered to start Bible studies with her; then it was the DVDs that he gave her.
After several months, Julia had learned more about God than she imagined would be possible. In answering her prayer, God had lovingly kept His promise: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).
But her new spiritual journey was just the beginning. She knew there was much more to learn, and she needed guidance. The Bible worker who had been studying with her had moved to another area, and Julia did not know where to turn.
Then help came in the form of a DVD called The Final Events of Bible Prophecy. At first, Julia assumed she had merely stumbled across the title while at a camp meeting. But as she watched it, as she discovered Amazing Facts’ Bible-based message, she realized that it had been none other than the tender guidance of Providence that led her to discover these truths.
She began devouring even more Amazing Facts resources—Cosmic Conflict, Revelation: The Bride, The Beast & Babylon, and others. She found the Amazing Facts website and watched over and over again the sermons and programs available online. She graduated from the Amazing Facts Bible School.
Now a baptized Sabbath-keeper, she loves watching Sabbath School Study Hour. And in Pastor Doug, she found the teacher for whom she had been yearning. Through his explanations, his illustrations, and his plain setting forth of Bible facts, Julia was able to understand even the most complex of Bible subjects and find hope.
Perhaps most miraculous of all, the dead bones of anguish that she had been clinging to—the fear that had so motivated her—began to fall from her grasp, replaced by the wisdom from above, by an assurance of salvation, by an absolute trust in the everlasting truth of God’s Word.
Thank you for your precious gifts, for your help in opening the shut door of Julia’s heart, and for being a light on her journey toward eternity.