Truth to Stir the Soul

By Mark Storey

My life - prior to securing my faith - had no concept of God. I would have been at the front of the queue to mock at anything in context. I was born into a family that outworked a traditional religious stance, for most people – myself included – this creates an aspect of the identity we hold. My point being, I thought I was a Christian through cultural and institutionally determined aspects of my past! When you have reached to God from a sincere heart, a new day is to start and your perspective of life prior to that moment in time will be changed completely. Jesus’ name and nature came through His relationship with His Father and not through his compliance to the tradition that many would strive to force upon Him. Securing who we are as individuals is fundamental and our true foundation in life. We can only but try and bring love to the young.

As a schoolboy concentration was a real issue for me, had there been a lesson in daydreaming I would have been an A-star pupil. After leaving school, for the first three years I was a butcher and then into textiles; this becoming my industry for the next fourteen years. In May 1998 I was made redundant and had no idea what lay ahead. My partner and I had started a family and though we knew it was going to be difficult I would go back to school at thirty-three years old. When I went to our local college for the first time, a gentleman in admissions asked how he could help me. I told him that I wanted to do English and computing. “Today, we start our communication skills workshop in English and computing,” he said. After I had told the subsequent teacher of my poor schooling efforts, she asked if I could write a short account of something so that she could assess where I was at with my literacy, I wrote a short account of the most special night of my life, the night I found my faith. A short while after reading this - with tears in her eyes - she said something that I found startling in the extreme, “I don’t know what you are going to go on and do, but you are a natural writer!” I remember thinking about that statement for some considerable time. It was a profound and challenging statement indeed.

I did not understand it at the time as my lot did not reflect that I would make progress in life to become the person I am today, experiencing the issues in LIFE that have come my way. Life took me away from being a Weaver of Cloth to become a Weaver of Words and People! My life, my relationship with my wife, my children and eventually all that would become part of my world was to change!

Through the earnest desires of a simple heart, I was awaked to the fact that God is real. Jesus opened a door and invited me in; He turned my world upside down and the right way up. Today, and until the Father of all calls time on our present understanding of life, Jesus continues to beckon to those who do not yet know Him, is this your time of opportunity and favour? If you don’t know Him, then you certainly can, no matter what your life story holds!

We are all very different, unique in the sense that inside nobody feels just as we do. I love God and delight in His Word; He set a broken and hopeless young man with suicidal thoughts on a new path. New life came, new hope, a new education, new skills and perspective on life experiences to mould into a new facet of my life; I am a writer!

I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading, these words are from the heart and for the heart; mine was lost and would have had nothing except scorn to offer at the thought of God. The veil was taken away and Jesus brought a new spirit and LIFE!

The one thing I have come to appreciate as the years pass is that we all have something to give. Every person’s situation is unique in context; we all have different strengths and weaknesses, abilities, skills, dreams and desires. I hope my words of encouragement are a blessing to you and those you LOVE.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Storey
• Release date: Sep 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005287191

Book preview

TRUTH

To

Stir

The

SOUL

Mark Storey

Published by

Mark Storey

@2021 Bradford, UK

No part of this book may be reproduced or modified in any form, including photocopying, and recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

Introduction

As I look back, perspective brings an even greater appreciation of the love and mercy offered to us all. The opportunity to reach to, Jesus, is the most precious gift that mankind has been given. You cannot make this happen and, there is no way to fabricate truth. I simply sought God during incredible pain and was shown absolute grace and healing. Peace is a beautiful presence but, when you do not have any, the company you keep is fuelled by your fears and their tears! I was thirty-one years old at that time and LIFE had taken hold of me by the scruff of the neck and was giving me a good lesson in pain, loss, lack and hopelessness.

I come from a family of four children, two girls and two boys – myself being the second eldest. My younger sister and I often locked horns and heads and did not have much to agree about. The foolishness and ignorance of younger years had woven itself into adulthood and needed some intervention to prevent a lifelong issue of confrontation; Jesus came in! She found her faith six months prior to me.

At first my barrage of indifference, mockery and abuse was significant; she did not mind or change! In fact, if anything, my protestations strengthened her even more. She grew as a person and as a sister; her love toward me and the difficulties that Dawn (my pregnant wife) and myself faced was both proactive and very provocative!

On the 19th of December 1995, my life was to completely change. In 1986, a textile mill accident had started the periodical nightmare of pain in my spine that was to consume the next nine years. On this darkest of nights, the painkillers and bourbon had run their day; and light was about to explode into my LIFE! I simply looked into the bottom of an empty glass, the darkness of my living room and my broken LIFE. I had no idea that within two days my spine would be completely healed, and the first steps of a new LIFE had been taken.

Prior to the night that changed my LIFE, the thought of speaking openly about a relationship with, Jesus, would have been profoundly ludicrous to me. All I ever saw in context to religion was indifference, confrontation and war – a seemingly darkening narrative without any appreciation of the celebration of our LIFE. Like most people - even those born into a traditional appreciation of the Christian FAITH - I really had no idea about what the New Testament Bible actually said, I had never read it or had any intension to do so! All I can say is that I started to read it after my healing, and I am thoroughly glad that I did, and still do!

You can only find His TRUTH for yourself but, it will influence every person in your world. LOVE is simply irresistible and unbreakable! And yet - as individuals - we have choices, and we can choose. I did not know anything about God / Faith, then!

In May 1998, I had been struggling with a dermatological issue which was causing me some real discomfort at work; whilst off with the complication, I was made redundant. It was a time of real challenge in various ways as we had lost two babies to miscarriage one after the other; our first daughter was approaching her second birthday and all our lives were about to change!

I had no idea about what the future had in store and visited the local Adult Careers Service. Having listened to my situation, the Careers Adviser encouraged me to visit student services at our local city college; I live in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the UK; my home city since birth.

I had been given a computer that sat gathering dust as I had never used one. The Careers Adviser had encouraged me context to my ability to communicate well and suggested English classes. When I arrived at the college I was met by a jolly chap with a lively beard! He asked me how he could help me. I said that I was interested in English and Computer training; the college’s English and Computer summer class was to start that very day; and so, it began!

I had been a challenge to my teachers at school as a young teen and, I spent as much time on the tennis court playing football as I did in class, this resulting in very little context to qualifications! In 1998, I started the first of five years back in education to secure my first Degree in Counselling and Psychology; the teacher who did my first assessment in May of that year brought back my half of a page of A4 to me and said, You are a natural writer! I can only but imagine what she thought of the look I gave her! I was taken aback but, engaged, encouraged and empowered!

It is my time to share and encourage now; I have a flair for the poetic word and prose. I hope you enjoy my work and that it both enlightens and strengthens your context to what can be the trappings of tradition. The TRUTH is Jesus, He fought through His death and resurrection to bring you LIFE in all its fullness!

He takes great delight in bringing revelation, relationship and salvation to the seeking heart. In Him, we are all so unique!

Acknowledgment

To my lovely, better half!

Without you I would never have come find my faith; when you brought love into my life, you also brought the need for so much more.

As well you know, the pain that consumed our early years was such a significant challenge and yet, together we overcame the barriers that strove to stop our relationship before it had chance to start.

Thank you for so much for your unconditional love. You have remained so strong in so many struggles and I thank God for you, for our children and our newly growing family.

You are without any question the grace of God to my life.

XXX

JESUS

Verse Titles

Saved

Beckoned, To Animate

The Law Fulfilled

Informed and Unanimous

Revelation, the Secret Riches

Through, The Cross

A Beautiful Thing

Passover, the Past Over

Risen

No More Stones

Amidst the Tears

Industry and Endeavour

Do We Know?

Look to the Wind

Gentleness and Respect

Standing, fast Together

Testing Times

The Fulfilment

It Overshadows All

Clouded and shrouded

The Necessary Stand

Weak and Wavering

A State to Correspond

The Wonder of the Cross

Discourage Never

The Curtain and the veil

Forever

Author of Salvation

His Readiness to Meet

Creation Frustration

Beyond, the Kiss

Whatever the Flood!

Persistent Resistance

Sin / SON

The Stubborn Refusal

Of Absolute Grace

They May Never Understand

Author of Salvation

To Hear His Voice

Without God….What?

Absolute Acknowledgement

Unquestionable!

As The Tears Washed Over

Unprepared

The Eternal Truth

Truth & Peace

Can You Hear the Sound?

Through, To Victory

Unquenchable

Though Never Lonely

Deeply Ingrained

The Stake of Victory

Delighting the Very Heart

The Spiritual Touch

Discourage, Never

& The Son stood

Don’t Let It Pass

The Riches, Shallow or Deep

Doubt

The Reason, To Hope

Golgotha

The Passage Of, Change

I Am, Sustained

Taken to Define

The Orchard Of, Life

The Ability

The Apple Of, His Eye

Undoubted Certainty

As The Angels

Whatever Your Treasure

Not Just, a Word

Simply, To Love Each Other

Child, Of My Child

Someone Else’s Sin

Come, the Hour

The Mountains Past

The Traditional Tussle

Creating, The Edge

Only Through Faith

Daughters & Sons

Poverty and the Veil

Amidst the Tears

Sufficient To Sustain

For All Are Free

Make It Count

In The Cloud

The Illumination of Truth

Paradise Today

What You Have Done

Never To Depart

Raised Expectations

Just, a Glance

Whatever

Power and Affliction

More Than, A Dream

Principles Within, the Mind

Prayers and Gifts

Together, The Temple