Share my Testimonial and encourage others to do the same.

Have you every felt lost? Have you ever felt like something was missing in your life?
I have always believed in Jesus, but in my childhood, I would never spend any time praying or reading scripture, I use to spend most of my day watching TV or playing video games which was laziness in every aspect including spiritually. I was addicted to sexual pleasures of the flesh for years. All of these things left me feeling empty with no fulfillment, like there was a void in my life. The ways of wrong were in my daily activity. I was spiritually blind and did not see the errors of my ways. I was disrespectful to my parents. In my speech filth and profanity. I did not have the Lord in my life. When I was nineteen, a serious revelation in my Commitment to God occurred, I examined my life and I started to realize just how much the Lord was calling me. That events of hardship in my life were times when I should have called out to Jesus Christ. I realized that I wanted a stronger relationship with my God, I at first was crushed emotionally thinking it was to late to develop a deep relationship with God. I viewed my self as such a wretched sinner, that I deserved hell. I condemned my self. I knew that in everyway I was guilty I wondered would God forgive me. I hated the actions I committed in my past . My spirit was crushed and burdened, godly sorrows flooded my heart, pain consumed my soul, and I felt in every way hopeless. The thought of not honor Jesus Christ’ sacrifice on the cross hurt, but then it hit me, God’s mercy is everlasting and he wants us to come back to him. For it is only through our Lord Jesus Christ that we may have our relationship with God.
I cried out to the Lord Jesus Christ, I said that I forgave everyone that ever that wronged me and asked him to forgive me , and asking him for a heart of flesh, to remove any stony areas in my heart, to give me a heart of purity, and soon after things changed. A deep love for God soon developed, through much scriptures getting to know God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I started to change for the better.
I developed hatred of sin in my daily life and I did want to go back to any of those habits that were spiritually unhealthy. I am in no way perfect but through much sincere prayer and through Christ which strengthens me, I sin much less and stay away from things of the flesh, and am spiritually minded. I have by the mercy of the loving Lord Jesus Christ have become alive in spirit and have received the Holy Ghost. The Lord has brought meaning into my life. Thanks to Jesus Christ my nature is one of peace and I have become more caring and respecting of others around me. Jesus Christ changed me in such a magnificent way. I want to help others know wonderful truth, I am forever humbled that God’s grace came upon me. Jesus Christ guides me in the ways of truth and has strengthen my spirit. “I once was lost but now I‘m found, was blind but now I see“. Our Lord Jesus Christ wants to come into our life and help us, but we must open the door of our hearts and call upon him asking him to be apart of our lives and help us. It is the realization of how truly hopeless we are without Jesus Christ , that allows us to truly reach out fully to him.
THANK God our heavenly Father for our savior and Lord Jesus Christ….

Revelation 3:20: Behold, I stand at the door, and knocking…
Psalm 37: 18
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of broken heart; and saveth such as be of contrite (crushed) spirit
2 Corinthians 7: For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of ….
Ezekiel 36: 26:
A new heart also will I give you, and new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh…
2 Corinthians 4: 6:
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. .
Philippians 4:13:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,

that where there is hatred, I may bring love;

that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;

that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;

that where there is error, I may bring truth;

that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;

that where there is despair, I may bring hope;

that where there are shadows, I may bring light;

that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;

to understand, than to be understood;

to love, than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.

I became a Christian when I was nine or ten. I grew up in an areligious family, but friends of the family invited us to church. My parents declined, but when they heard about VBS (Vacation Bible School), they thought that it would offer us some constructive activities over part of the summer. So, my sister and I were sent to VBS. I was going through some really tough stuff at that age, including racial discrimination in school. I’m not going into any detail here, but if you want to know more, just ask. Anyways, when I heard about Jesus Christ, I was sure there had to be this Jesus Christ, who had let me experience all that I had endured, not for no reason at all, but to one day help others in a similar predicament.

Would anyone be willing to share their testimony with me here?

I don’t really have much of one (at least not an exciting one). I was raised with a strong belief in God and have always had God in my life. I do not recall a time when I’ve ever questioned my belief in God but what I have questioned, at times, is whether it is necessary to go to mass each week and on all days of obligation. I have also at times, question why things I prayed so hard for didn’t happen. Once, I prayed for a love in Scotland to come back into my life. I was so depressed and prayed so hard. I couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t answer my prayer because I wanted something so right… to be true and faithful to one man forever. Then, I met Mark and it all made sense. God knew that I was met to be with Mark and he brought Mark to me. If the previous relationship had never have happened I wouldn’t have been able to meet Mark. Mark and I do feel this is a miracle.

I found my beliefs strengthening while I attended Uni far from home and I attended mass quite frequently during that time. Now, as an adult I live alone, work full-time, travel a lot (to be with my husband or he travels to me), and admit that I do not make it out to mass as much as I should. I am determined to change this when Mark and I are together permanently in August. After all, attending mass is refreshing, relaxing, and spiritual. We’ll enjoy going to give thanks, pray, and learn.

We have decided that we want to raise our children with the Catholic Church as part of their lives. We’ve always felt that a little religion is a good thing. It’s when people resort to extremism that it can become a problem. We’ll raise our children to have a strong belief in God and to have the good values we were raised with. That said, my testimonial will be a more interesting read in the future :-)

I grew up within the church but on the edge as my family rarely attended more than a few times a year. I can’t identify any time when I’d say that I wasn’t a Christian but my level of commitment grew over time. Pretty much I was baptized as an infant, never attended Sunday school but I was sent to a week of vacation Bible school each summer as well as confirmation class when I came to age. After that I read through the entire Bible when I was in high school. When I started college things speed up as it was the first time in my life that I attended church weekly and I became involved in an on campus Christian group, which increased my passion for God and led me to enroll in seminary upon graduation.

Its awesome to see so many people have adopted this goal. I hope they take the time to share, and then invite someone else (or a few people) to do the same!!

I really don’t have that much of an exciting testimonial to share. I never have had alcohol, I don’t have sex, and I have never completely avoided God, however, there have been some rocky times. I’m not saying I’m perfect, I know I have screwed up. I don’t spend enough time with God, but I admit to that. I was raised in a Christian home and went to church for the majority of my life. I became a Christian when I was four years old at VBS. The man talking asked everyone who wasn’t a Christian to say this prayer, so I did. I understood that I had Jesus in my heart and that he lived in me.
Then we moved when I was in first grade. I didn’t really go to church that much because it was hard to find one that everyone in my family liked. I wasn’t really involved a whole lot because I didn’t really know anybody. I was too young for youth groups and I don’t even remember anything about Sunday school. I didn’t like most of the churches because no one from my school went there.
Then he summer before eighth grade my family moved into town. Since I was changing schools, my dad thought it would be a good idea to go to a church with people from my new school so I could meet them before I started in August. I really enjoyed the Youth Group. There were about 30 people in it, and my youth minister was amazing. I was very active in youth group. I went to Disciple Now, Bible Study, Mission Trips, Wednesday Nights, and Sunday school. Then in freshman year, I joined the choir. My Youth Minister helped me to really understand what it meant to be a Christian. Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. That was something I didn’t understand as a little kid. I was taught to think of him as a friend, not just a person in the sky.
Then, about a year ago, my Youth Minister left our church. The church was very traditional, and they didn’t like the new ideas he brought to the church. They didn’t like the ideas of going on trips and camps unless they were mission trips. My Youth Minister decided that he took the church as far as he could and it was time for someone else to take over. Then, the entire youth group started falling apart. The new Youth Minister is a good guy, but I don’t feel like I can talk to him. I feel like he will judge me if I tell him how I really feel. I also feel like I don’t get anything out of his talks. It seems like it is the same thing every week. Also, two of our interns who I really liked left about six months after our Youth Minister did. It just felt like everything was changing and I didn’t like it.
I talked to one of my friends who went to a different church, and he told me to come. I came one Wednesday Night and met the Youth Minister. He reminded me a lot like my former Youth Minister. Also everyone at that church is welcoming. I felt like I belonged again. The Youth Minister there takes an interest in my life. We get coffee, and he lets me just vent. That is important to me, because I usually just keep everything inside me. I feel like he listens and does so without judging. He is honest with us, so we can be honest with him. I went on a trip with that church over the summer, and it was amazing. We went down to Panama City Beach and had some of the most incredible times of worship I have ever experienced.
I went back to my other church one Wednesday night about a week ago. It felt weird being there. There were about 20 people, and compared to the 40+ people at the other church, it felt small. Which is weird since my church is about twice the size of the church that I just started going to. I am usually anti-change, but I feel this is a good change. I would like to try and be a member of both youth groups, go to one on Sunday night, and one on Wednesday. I don’t know though. It will just depend. We have two new people at my old church, and we also have people playing guitar on Wednesday night again. Hopefully it will get better. If not, I have another one to fall back on.

When I left God behind in my life was roughly the time my best friend died. I had recently been going through a lot of struggle with early symptoms of Bipolar disorder, and had a lot of “why me” questions God didnt seem to be answering.

The ‘last straw’ for me was when my best friend died. He was only 21, and one of the gentlest, selfless people I had ever known. At the funeral I felt so detatched from the service. I remember thinking of how many people deserved to die, and how much he deserved to live.

I began looking at other options, wicca, druidism, all the old world religions had such an appeal to me, looking inside myself and some godesses for the answers.

Toward the end of year 12 my life fell apart. My mental illness had reached a critical point, I lost alot of friends, and was hospitalised for several months. When I got out I had no desire to live life anymore, I began hanging out with all the people my mother had warned me about, taking drugs, drinking, doing anything i could to escape my head.

Then one summer I spent time at a cafe run by a Christian Youth Group. They let me get up and sing, which I loved, so I hung round, mostly so I could jump up on stage every time anyone put down their guitar.

They talked to me about religion, not much, but enough. I felt pretty detatched from the conversation, I just loved having fun.

On new years eve, I spent the night at the cafe, dancing and having fun. At midnight we watched the fireworks and literally were dancing on the street. At around 12.30 I went to my friends house for a party. Everyone was drunk, stoned, out of it, and compared with the fun I had been having, boring as hell!!

I went home that night and opened my bible. I opened it right to “Jonah” and read the whole chapter.

There is a section in the Chapter where Jonah flees to the desert to escape the plans God has for him, and God creates a Giant plant to cover him from the heat of the sun. The next day God takes the plant away, and Jonah gets royally pissed, wondering why God would do that, and shouts at him.

Goad says to Jonah “What right do you have do be upset? You didnt care for the plant, feed it, water it, and yet you are angry?”

I realised then that my life was Jonahs plant. I was upset that my life sucked, I was upset at God for my Mental illness, for being stuck in hospital durin my exams, for not having a job, yet instead of trying to make a change, I spent my day with people who didnt care about life, collected a pension and wasted days and weeks “hanging around”.

I picked my life back up, dedicated it to God, and in 3 years have a steady job, own my own home, have an amazing fiancee who is the love of my life and have never stopped watering my plant!!

I find that, no matter what religion people are, there is a point where you experience it in a tangible way. The point where you stop just going to church and truely start knowing God, the point where a miracle is worked in your own life, the point where you know your God and have no doubt they know you.

I am fascinated by how people come to find their God, and would love for people to share their stories.

I am a Christian, but my overwhelming religious curiosity knows no denomination or faith. Everyone is welcome to share.