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    Jesus Held Me
    Jesus Held Me
    Jesus Held Me
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Jesus Held Me

    By Woody Overton, Jr

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    About this ebook

    This is a mind blowing, true story of Woody Overton, a veteran homicide detective's real life near death experience and his harrowing journey into the depths of mental and physical hell that he and his family suffered through. Overton was diagnosed by the best medical professionals in the world, who all agreed upon one thing--that he would be an invalid and disabled for the rest of his life. Debilitating pain and suffering would take the place of his previous life and the best he could hope for was to be paralyzed. His law enforcement career, his role as a husband, father, friend and son would be forever changed and the person that he had been would cease to exist. That's if he lived at all. He had been diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia which is more commonly known as “the suicide disease” because the majority of the people who have the disease kill themselves. Those afflicted cannot live with the pain which is reported to be one of the worst pains known to man. What all of the best medical experts didn't expect was the fact that Woody Overton and his family had absolute faith in Jesus Christ who has the final say in all things! Jesus Held Me is a must read for anyone who is struggling with the human side of life or has ever wondered what happens at the moment when you die.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWoody Overton, Jr
    Release dateMay 29, 2014
    ISBN9781310165702
    Jesus Held Me
    Author

    Woody Overton, Jr

    Woody Overton was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1970. He was raised in the small town of Clinton, Louisiana by his parents, who are both attorneys and credits his mother with his love of books. Woody is married, with 4 children. He presently resides in Maurepas, Louisiana where he enjoys spending time with his family on their pontoon boat, shrimping, crabbing, hunting and all things Louisiana!Woody recently retired from his successful career in law enforcement where he was a detective, investigator and polygraphist. He is self employeed as a polygraphist, and security consultant.Woody is a freelance writer, e-book writer and editor of Prophecy of Honor.If you don't find Woody on the Louisiana bayou, you can find him reading or working on his latest piece.

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      Book preview

      Jesus Held Me - Woody Overton, Jr

      CHAPTER 1

      I have always believed in God. I was raised in the Catholic Church by my parents. More so, at the time, by my mother than my father. My father, I believe, went to mass on Sundays to appease my mother. From the beginning, I never doubted what I was being taught. I became an alter boy as soon as I could, following the path of my older brothers. I continued Catholicism until after I was confirmed at the age of 16. When a person completes the Sacrament of Confirmation they are considered an adult in the eyes of the Catholic Church. It is then their responsibility to continue their journey with the Catholic Church.

      From that point on I did not chose to follow the rights and rituals of the church except for the occasional Christmas or Easter Mass I attended with my parents or a funeral or wedding that I could not duck out of. Even at these masses I never took communion as I knew my heart was not in it.

      I was busy living the life I wanted to live and God was not a concern of mine. I was not an atheist. I still believed in God but he was not foremost in my mind as I lived those years according to my rules.

      In 1998, I was working as a correctional officer on a Sunday, on the night shift. I was working at a juvenile detention center and on Sunday nights preachers would come to the detention center to hold non denominational services for any juvenile offenders that wanted to attend.

      The juveniles were housed in one man cells with thick iron doors and concrete block walls. They had no interaction with the other juveniles and nothing in their cell other than a mattress, blanket, and a bible. The only time they were out of their cell was to go to or from chow or to shower or the occasional trip to the recreation yard. The juveniles wanted to get out of their cell for any reason that they could and Sunday service was always full.

      Let me make mention that these juveniles were incarcerated for serious crimes. Rape, robbery, murder etc. In fact, as my law enforcement career progressed to uniform patrol and then detective I arrested many of these juveniles as they became adults and continued their life of crime.

      On this Sunday, a black lady preacher came with some helpers for a service. I had never met her before. Correctional officers escorted the juveniles to the assembly area for the service. I went to the secure area at the front of the prison where the pastor and her helpers were waiting to be escorted through security. I was surprised that the pastor was a female. She appeared to be in her late forties or early fifties, had glasses, was very well dressed and carrying a bible. As I supervised their clearance through security I noticed she was staring at me very intently.

      She said to me, Brother may I speak to you for a minute?

      I answered Yes. and she waved me over away from the others.

      Without introduction she said, Brother, when I saw you God told me to tell you something.

      Now I am thinking, Okay, here we go –

      She continued and asked me Do you want to hear what God has to say?

      I said Yes, thinking to myself, this ought to be interesting.

      She then told me something that no one on this planet knew, when she finished describing the event she quieted and looked me straight in the eye.

      She then said, God has told me to tell you that what you went through is okay. That what happened to you was horrible but necessary.

      She continued to say, God has not forgotten you and you should not forget or give up on him.

      I was blown away. She knew the one thing that happened to me in my life that no one knew or would ever know about because I surely wasn’t going to speak of it. I intended to take the secret to my grave. In fact, the incident had happened over 16 years before and I had never told anyone. So here I was meeting this black lady preacher for the first time in my life and she spoke in detail of my deepest secret and that God had told her to tell me he had not forgotten. I was speechless. I didn’t know what the emotion was that I was feeling, but I knew it was overwhelming and I knew it came straight from God through the pastors mouth.

      She smiled her gentle smile and gave me a motherly hug and said, God bless you brother.

      CHAPTER 2

      I did not usually sit in on the Sunday services as I was a supervisor and once the juveniles were secured with the other correctional officers in the service I would leave and go do paperwork. All staff members carried radios and if there was any type of disturbance I would be contacted and would respond accordingly.

      Not this Sunday. After listening to what God had to say I was more than intrigued by this pastor. I would have not missed the service for anything.

      I went into the service and found out the pastor's name was Shirley Vicks. She was the pastor of the Church of God of Prophecy in Hammond, Louisiana. She began the service with singing songs and to say the least it was a eye opener for me. This was as different from a Catholic Mass as darkness is to light. Pastor Vicks led the service with several more songs that I had never heard before. People were raising their hands and singing. Some were swaying back and forth with their eyes closed. This went on until the music stopped and a quiet hush fell over the crowd.

      Pastor Vicks then began to preach and man could she lay the word down. I had never seen anything like it. She preached with conviction. Sometimes loud and sometimes soft but always with authority. She preached about God and Jesus and Satan. She often times would say open your bible to such and such chapter and verse and then quote the scripture that verified what she was preaching. I had never owned a bible and I had never been taught from one. In Catholic mass someone would get up and read a scripture and then the priest would give a sermon. Pastor Vicks service was powerful and moving.

      As the service went on I could feel the atmosphere in the room change and it gave me goose bumps. The juveniles and correctional officers were responding to the emotional feelings of the service and it rose to a crescendo to the point at which she asked for any sinners to come forth that wanted to know Jesus.

      To my surprise several juveniles and even two correctional officers went forward. She prayed openly with them and asked them to accept Jesus into their lives. People were crying as songs were continuously sung and multiple people went forward and openly accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.

      The service concluded and the juveniles were returned to their cells and I made a point to escort Pastor Vicks and her church members out of the facility.

      At the front door I asked Pastor Vicks if I could speak with her. She consented. I told her how I was moved beyond words and that I had never witnessed anything like her service and that I knew she was with God. She then invited me to attend her church the next Sunday morning and I agreed without hesitation.

      CHAPTER 3

      That Sunday came and I arrived at a small red brick church with just a few cars parked in a gravel parking lot. I entered the church into a foyer and then went through a set of swinging double doors and entered the sanctuary. I saw the room was not that large and contained maybe 5 wooden pews on each side. At the

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