I Used to Be a Dumpster Diver But Jesus Set Me Free!

Download or read book I Used to Be a Dumpster Diver But Jesus Set Me Free! written by Scott Robert Arnold and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-11-28 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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, Shali 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 of Tucson Arizona for two years and was a drunk and a drug addict. I got saved in 1996 but backslide 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 mentor named Danny Morales. 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 fiancee 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 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 fiancee 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 Spirit's leading. I worked the 12 steps of recovery and searched out God in the Bible for hours each day. I worked in a rehabilitation center for seriously mentally ill and drug and alcohol addicted clients called New Directions. I worked the graveyard shift at first to break into the field and then was promoted to the day shift as the Lead Behavioral Health Technician over a period of seven years and spent a 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 Shali. First I had to stop blaming and pointing the finger at Shali 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 was a children's pastor at the time named Brother Danny Morales 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 as we learned to call him at Victory Outreach Church here in Tucson, Arizona helped me realize God had always intended for me to marry Shali 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. The book is full of drama and intrigue, doctors and patients, teachers and children, therapists and clients. Most of all the book is about the Word of God and what God will accomplish through His Word when we are bold enough in using it."