One Stray Sheep

By Everlee Rising

This book is the true story of the author’s life written in her own words. It expresses her battle with depression inexorably intolerable when connected to the fact that her soul was lost. Through this book, you will come to understand or be reminded that God does not let go of His children. He will chase you, little sheep, and bring you back to the fold. Your sin is never deeper than His reach.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973675822

Everlee Rising

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, she wrote down her incredible journey of descent into sin and despair and the unfailing power of God’s hand to lift her up and put her back under His grace.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 Everlee Rising.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

All Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-7583-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-7582-2 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/11/2019

I

want to dedicate this book to my son. I wrote this for you squirrel. I hope God speaks to your heart when you are old enough to read it. I also want to thank my aunt for always praying for me and believing in me.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Love Story

My History

Small Town

The Good Years

Walking In The Dark

Salvation

Walking In The Wilderness

A New Life, Same Old Me

I Was Lost, Now I Am Found

After The Light Dawns

Former Me, Forever Gone

The Beginning, The Middle, And The End

INTRODUCTION

I will start with His words and not mine. John 8:12 reads:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

I was saved as a kid and then spent most of my life straying. As a result, my soul yearned in sadness for God’s presence. On top of that, my straying opened the door to the devil. He was able to enter my mind with no barrier and attack me. I was helpless to this attack and he almost destroyed me. Guess what? I am still here and not only did God save me from complete destruction but He is now using me for his glory. Why? When you are saved, you become a sheep in God’s flock. If you stray outside of the flock and become lost, He does not stand by and watch you go. He follows you hoping to lead you back. I used to think of my life as one long drama filled with pain and disappointment. Now I realize that my life is a love story. I have walked through this life in rebellion and came out on the other side a survivor. I owe this to God. He has loved me all along. He watched me turn away from him and run and I now know this grieved Him. He followed me with a patience I cannot comprehend because He loves me. He loved me before I was born. Because of His love for me, He followed me. He followed me through my sin as I walked along the crevice of Hell blindfolded. By His grace, I felt his presence and turned back. The moment I did, He forgave me and restored me. Now I walk with God every day and His love resides in my heart. My existence has gone from lonely and painful to full of joy and peace. I want you to read this love story in hopes that you too will understand what God’s love means for your future. The devil attacks those who stray after salvation and he uses many different weapons to destroy their lives. He will use words, lies, distractions, temptations and persuasion. Only when we return to our walk with God can we harness the power we have over the devil. And only then can we experience true victory in our lives. I want to share this with you so that you may know that it is never too late to turn back. Your sin is never too grave. His grace is sufficient. Do you believe you have been too bad for too long and now you don’t deserve mercy or maybe now you fear turning to God? A repentant heart need not fear and God’s arm is long enough to reach anyone. His mercy runs deeper than you can dig. And you would be right about not deserving His mercy. God’s mercy is a gift. It cannot be earned. Romans 3:10-12 says:

As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

The Bible then goes on to explain that Jesus died for our sins bringing salvation and righteousness to those who believe. Even while we were still sinners, Jesus died to save us.

Romans 5:5 says:

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Remember that even though you have been saved, you will never be perfect here on Earth. We are to walk with God obeying his commands and loving others. If you stray, it doesn’t mean that God stops loving you. God’s love is unconditional and never ends. We are the ones who own ever changing hearts. We are the ones who turn from God and not the other way around. If we repent with a contrite heart, He is quick to forgive. Then we can return to the flock and walk in the light of His guidance.

38446.png

LOVE STORY

38480.png

LOVE STORY

G od has been chasing me my whole life. I have been running from Him my whole life, until now. I finally figured it out. I turned to God and now I have unspeakable peace and joy. My insides are calm, my heart is glad, and my cup literally overflows. This comes from a woman who spent most of her adult life broken, depressed and apathetic. I have wandered through this life desperate to know why my life seemingly held no meaning or purpose. The pain I lived with on a daily basis can only be explained by saying that I lived in my own personal prison of madness. I have been depressed most of my life. It never made logical sense to me. I had a great childhood and I had some wonderful people in my life growing up. I spent years meditating on it and trying to figure it out. Was I sexually abused and if so, would that experience color my spirit forever? The fact is, I am not sure if I was or not. I have a memory of something that happened to me when I was around seven years old that has floated in and out of my mind my whole adult life. A neighbor told me to get into his truck one day. I can remember the exact conversation we had. I can also remember the make and color of his truck. I remember getting into the truck and then nothing and I remember getting out. That is it. Part of my sadness in life has always been that I didn’t understand its source. Why did I always feel so full of pain? Was it because my parents divorced? Was it because I had a chemical imbalance? Was I just crazy? Well, the factors involved in my life experience