Broken Links

Michael R. Wiley

Description

Alcohol, drugs, sex before marriage, divorce, lies, and feelings of condemnation: all these are ingenious attacks on Christians by Satan. He is the master of stealing, killing, and destroying. If you suffer from falling victim to Satan’s traps, take heart! Michael R. Wiley is a normal person just like you, and he too has been fallen prey to many of these traps set by Satan. Through Michael’s life, the author of this book, he shows you how to change your life by changing your mind-set on where you turn for answers. Michael willingly invites you on a journey with him to explore some of the hard roads he walked and the life mistakes that he made and how he dealt with them. He then gives you food for thought to try and help direct lost souls to God. Michael was once the epitome of a lost soul who shares his trials, tragedies, and eventual ultimate victories due to his faith in God. God’s awesome mercy and grace led him to wondrous, life-transforming truth, and he reveals his thoughts and feelings every step of the way.

Now it’s your turn to join God’s family or recommit your life back to him by

gaining control over your fleshly passions;
recognizing damaging mind frames and turning to God to allow him to stop them from influencing your life;
take up arms with the word of God, allow him to protect you from the devil’s evil plans; and
ultimately refuse to live another day incarcerated by Satan’s evil schemes. Keep a watchful eye on your weary links while traveling the earthly paths engineered by Satan!

 

 

Sujets

• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 31 juillet 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781477153536
• Langue: English

Extrait

BROKEN LINKS
MICHAEL R. WILEY

Copyright © 2012 by Michael R. Wiley.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2012913874
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-4771-5352-9
 
Softcover
978-1-4771-5351-2
 
eBook
978-1-4771-5353-6
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
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.
 
*Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, the N.I.V. (New International Version) Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
 
*Streaming Faith Daily Devotional, Streamingfaith.com/index.php/prayer/devotionals/keep-fighting/-Pastor Marquis Boone – June 12, 2012.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 07/14/2023
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
571689
CONTENTS
Chapter 1:That One Broken Link
Chapter 2:The Unsung Heroes
Chapter 3:Here We Go
Chapter 4:Ready or Not
Chapter 5:Here I Come
Chapter 6:The Saga Continues
Chapter 7:The Tests
Chapter 8:The Last Straw
Chapter 9:Another test . . .
Chapter 9:Another Test
Chapter 10:My Life’s Reevaluation
DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate “BROKEN LINKS” to my mother Brenda Wiley and my father who has gone on to glory, Michael Wiley. Mom, Pop, I know your personality is so much like mine that you have had you fill of life’s pain and struggles. I watched you guys intently, patterning myself after you. After all the smoke has cleared from the continuing tribulations of life, I know that you guys are experiencing the victories that come from the rebirth of my life in the name of GOD!
 
I love you guys, and I will forever be grateful and thankful for everything you’ve done in my life!
CHAPTER 1
That One Broken Link
B EFORE WE JUMP in this book, let’s take the time to briefly dissect the word chain . What is a chain? A chain is simply a series of things depending on each other as if linked together. That is the definition directly from Webster’s Dictionary . When we think about a link in a chain, we typically think about the ones on bikes, necklaces, chain saws, swings, cars, or basically any entity that depends on a chain to successfully complete whatever depends on its chain to function properly. Or it can be anything that depends on strong links to ensure the functionality of the chain, which is responsible for successfully operating its moving parts. So needless to say, it is a pretty important component. Well, what happens when one single link in the chain is weak and eventually breaks? Now we’re talking about the whole entity, the entire bike, necklace, chain saw, swing, car, or even a machine in an assembly line, now non-operable, not being able to serve its intended purpose.
For the sake of importance and clarity, let’s take for example one of the machines in an assembly line used to make a car. I’m sure you’ve seen commercials or even documentaries on the manufacturing of cars where a huge robotic machine picks up parts with its moveable components and precisely places the part it carries in the exact spot it needs to be for the next machine to complete its job. When a single link in the chain of one of the moving components breaks, all of a sudden, we are talking about a possible catastrophic event, total capitulation. Can you imagine the chain reaction of cataclysmic havoc that can be caused all over the demise of one single weak link in the entire chain? It is mind blowing how all functionality and the successful completion of its job is now in jeopardy. In most instances, these machines probably cost multimillions of dollars. The single link in the chain may cost ten dollars to replace but maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars to humanly repair. How many links do you think it takes to complete the entire chain of one of those big robotic machines? Unless you’re in that industry, you probably wouldn’t know the answer to that question. I sure don’t know for certain, but the amount of links could likely be in the tens of thousands. You do the math.
I did my own survey and counted the individual links on my mountain bike. I counted 142 individual links in the entire chain. Like I said, mind blowing! Regardless, in any given situation on any of these entities, if one single link breaks (Houston, we have a problem!), then we’ve got a catastrophic event. Don’t even bother looking for the person in charge of regular scheduled maintenance, safety and efficiency checks. Just listen for the loud screech in the parking lot! Good luck finding anyone willing to take responsibility for that mess.
Sorry, folks, sometimes my mind begins to wander when I get carried away by the depth of a thought. Anyhow, back to this chain. Regardless of how badly damaged the chain actually is, I have to get off the bike and walk it home. You can’t ride a bike without the chain. Or you have to take the car back to a repair shop for costly repairs to replace the engine that blew out because the timing chain or belt broke, stopping the functionality of the oil pump. Oh, and how about this, you have to be taken to the hospital because the chain on the chain saw you were using snaps and the chain kicks back almost severing your hand. The links in a chain of an entity may be small and seem insignificant, but it is a very vital part of any given item that requires one. Often times the small and often disregarded individual links in the chain are the most important parts because they themselves are joined together to form the almighty chain. The links of a chain have the most crucial job of staying connected with each other. When each individual link is well cared for and successfully completes its job, the chain is given all the credit for working as it should. The links are never mentioned unless investigating the actual cause of the problem. Once the root of the problem is found, you’re only as strong or as successful as your weakest link, as the old saying goes. Think about the depth of that for a moment.
There are several parts of any given machine. Each individual part of a machine depends heavily on the next so that the final goal is obtained, just like on a football team. Hence, most people will understand that a quarterback will very rarely complete a pass if his center doesn’t successfully get the ball to him first when it is hiked. Furthermore, if his guard and tackles don’t do their jobs and provide adequate protection for the quarterback, the quarterback is left picking grass out of his helmet. So in essence, every part of a machine or even a team and his position can be viewed as a link.
Similarly, this is how we can look at our lives. We can take an in-depth look at all of our different parts and their functions, our personal characteristics, and the upbringing we had and see what functions our different links play in our lives when we put them together. What we see in the mirror every morning is all of our links put together forming our life’s chain. This all starts back on the day we were born. All the things our parents taught us, everything we learned in the streets, regardless of our mentor, those teachings, and those links will forever play a vital role in making us what we are. Day to day, we subconsciously depend heavily on these small links, making us who we know ourselves to be. That is why it is so vitally important that we run regular scheduled and consistent maintenance checks of our personal characteristics or links. We need to make sure we keep a vigil watch on our links, ensuring no link is weaker than the next or that one link may be about to break and needs replacing. Or even in a lot of cases, like in my life, without hardly any regular maintenance checks at all, after two or three links have been broken, it becomes almost impossible to backtrack and figure out where exactly was the root of the problem among all of our faulty links. Which link was defective? Suddenly, life becomes filled with downward spirals of broken link after link; soon, like me, you’ll be saying screw it. I will just worry about the few working links I have left. I will fix the problem later. Sarcastically speaking, I will just set this broken bike in the corner of the garage and ride my skateboard. Guess what, that bike ain’t going anywhere. Our broken bike/faulty links will still be there. There is no such thing as pushing them to the side. The world has a way of making us deal with our problems at one time or another; they don’t fix themselves. So when you’re ready to fix that old bike, it will still be there sitting right in the corner of the garage, dusty with spiderwebs and cobwebs. We haven’t gotten rid of it; we just set it to the side.
Being led by the Lord who wants to provide us with the structure and discipline we need to keep that cognitive, vigil watch on our personal life links ensures us that we will be aware of our surroundings, what we are doing, and who we are doing it with. With faith, God will make sure that as we grow older, our suit of armor distributed by him will make sure our machine is properly operating the way he intended it to run. When our machine is operating under God’s poli