Drug addiction… took ahold of my life in a way that I couldn’t help myself.
My name is Orlando. I’m from Connecticut, and I’ve been in the church for about 10 years. But I back slid. And when I made the choice, the bad choice of leaving the church, my life was a mess. Drug addiction, crack cocaine, took ahold of my life in a way that I couldn’t help myself, I did anything to get the drug, I stole, I robbed, I spent money out of my account. In all of that, I lost my marriage. My addiction was so bad I remember getting to a car crash at two o’clock in the morning. And when I crashed, the first thing that I grabbed was my crack cocaine and my pipe. Someone came to my aid and I told that person go ahead, I’m all right. And when that person left, the first thing that I did, I grabbed my crack pipe and I smoked, because that’s how crack cocaine had a grip on my life. But I thank God for His grace, God’s grace came in, changed my life, changed my talk, changed my behavior. And now I’m here in front of you speaking what God has done in my life.
What God is doing in my life. God has changed my life, changed my heart, changed my mind. Now I have the mind of Christ. Now I have His attitude. Now I have His joy, now I have His peace. And God is teaching me how to love Him with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, and all my strength. But the second greatest commandment is to love my neighbor as myself. And those are the things that I want to do. It’s easy to serve, it’s easy to work, but the most important thing that I want to develop in my life is learn how to love God and love people and people out there need to embrace the love of God and I want to be that vessel to give them the love of God.
Wow, it’s so amazing. God’s gonna do impossible things that is beyond my dreams. And I believe that God has called me to be a pastor and I want to be a pastor, I want to love people, I want to lead God’s people, I want to help the community. And so I believe that’s why God has called me to be a pastor and to lead men and to lead families into new ways of the Lord. The scripture that I stand on is Mark 12, verse 30 and 31 “Love the Lord God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, and the second greatest commandment is love your neighbor as yourself” and that is what I want to do. I want to love people and share the Gospel. God bless.
