What's your testimony?

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arewethereyet

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Hello everyone!
Some of you know me and I was wondering how many of you out there have a testimony to share?
I would love to hear it!
I would like to share mine.
Here goes!!!

My life has been full of many challenges. My faith has been tested over and over again. I grew up the middle child of four children. My father left my mother and my sibings when we were all young to start his life with another woman. I have some fond memories of my childhood but, unfortunately, I have many more bad ones.
The environment I grew up in was a sick one.
And I felt trapped with no way to escape.
We were taught to tell noone and my depression began.
I remember going to church some as a child but never feeling a connection there.
My teen years came and I found a church in a neighboring town. I went there on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings and loved it.
I felt I belonged there and felt loved.
But my adult years came and I started down the path of many destructive addictions.
This lasted for years…more than a decade.
My depression continued.
Finally I got clean and sober and began to heal.
I found a relationship with God that I never knew.
This would be the foundation for the biggest battle of my life which was yet to come.
I met a wonderful man, married and had a son.
Years passed and life was beautiful.
God was good!!!
Then just as it seemed it couldn’t get any better, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
I lost my faith big time!!!
But the good Lord was patient with me and when I finally gave my illness to Him…I had that beautiful peace back in my life.
I am a firm believer in the saying…

“That which does not break us, only makes us stronger.”

The good Lord has given me the gift of compassion and I feel I am able to use it to bring glory to Him through my volunteering with the elderly and the severely disabled.

Now what’s your testimony?
What has God done in your life?
I would love to hear it!!!

Love,
Karen
 
Hi Karen! Thanks for sharing. Here’s mine:

I was born at 28 weeks cause the placenta burst and I was drowning. I wasn’t named until I was 3 months old cause no one thought I would make it. Its amazing I was born at all because my biological mother had planned to abort me, her mother(being a strong faith based Baptist) talked her out of it.

I was sent home to a vert abusive father and victimized shattered mother. Once my maternal grandparents found out, they adopted me. I was five by then and was blind in my left eye due to a detached retina. I had the surgery and have very thick glasses, ha.

I was raised Baptist and was happy with it, until I turned 13 and began being abused by the youth pastor. I got away at 15, but was greatly damaged and angry with God by then. I started dating and ran straight for the wrong guys…the only guys I thought I deserved…men like my biological father. I was in a very abusive relationship for two years which I finally ended senior year. I went through my freshman year of college numb and full of fake happiness. Sophmore year I broke down, unable to hold my hurt inside anymore. Especially since I had long since turned from God.

January of 2006 I spent a week in the hospital. The only ones who visited me were people from the church I had gone to for a few weeks. I was five hours from home, no family. But many strangers and friends who tried to bring me the love of God. Even my agnostoc boyfriend quoted me scripture.

I flunked a year of college and spent all that time cowering inmy room, terrifired to be alone yet more terrified of people. I wanted badly to die.

March of 06 I began dating an old high school friend(he’s a member here also) who was Catholic. We got into some discussions and inbetween my depression and bad days, I studied Catholicism like crazy. I drank it up. I cried at every mass. Especially at Communion. Still, every time I witness this sacrament I feel an ache and so very thristy. Like its something I’ve needed my whole life and just can’t grasp yet.

Now, I’ve been kicked out of college but haven’t given up. I’m taking online classes and working part time. Every time I go to mass I feel better and better, like I heal a little each time. I have long since let go of my stupid grudge against God for my past and have learned to let my strength show and use my past to help others and not hurt myself.

God continually gives me blessings and He has never left my side, even when I felt so alone. He has always been there loving me. I am anxiously awaiting and working towards the day when I get to be with Him fully in communion. I will never be able to thank him enough for all he has done for me in life, but I will do my very best to love him as much as I can.
 
homewardbound said:
Hi Karen! Thanks for sharing. Here’s mine:

I was born at 28 weeks cause the placenta burst and I was drowning. I wasn’t named until I was 3 months old cause no one thought I would make it. Its amazing I was born at all because my biological mother had planned to abort me, her mother(being a strong faith based Baptist) talked her out of it.

I was sent home to a vert abusive father and victimized shattered mother. Once my maternal grandparents found out, they adopted me. I was five by then and was blind in my left eye due to a detached retina. I had the surgery and have very thick glasses, ha.

I was raised Baptist and was happy with it, until I turned 13 and began being abused by the youth pastor. I got away at 15, but was greatly damaged and angry with God by then. I started dating and ran straight for the wrong guys…the only guys I thought I deserved…men like my biological father. I was in a very abusive relationship for two years which I finally ended senior year. I went through my freshman year of college numb and full of fake happiness. Sophmore year I broke down, unable to hold my hurt inside anymore. Especially since I had long since turned from God.

January of 2006 I spent a week in the hospital. The only ones who visited me were people from the church I had gone to for a few weeks. I was five hours from home, no family. But many strangers and friends who tried to bring me the love of God. Even my agnostoc boyfriend quoted me scripture.

I flunked a year of college and spent all that time cowering inmy room, terrifired to be alone yet more terrified of people. I wanted badly to die.

March of 06 I began dating an old high school friend(he’s a member here also) who was Catholic. We got into some discussions and inbetween my depression and bad days, I studied Catholicism like crazy. I drank it up. I cried at every mass. Especially at Communion. Still, every time I witness this sacrament I feel an ache and so very thristy. Like its something I’ve needed my whole life and just can’t grasp yet.

Now, I’ve been kicked out of college but haven’t given up. I’m taking online classes and working part time. Every time I go to mass I feel better and better, like I heal a little each time. I have long since let go of my stupid grudge against God for my past and have learned to let my strength show and use my past to help others and not hurt myself.

God continually gives me blessings and He has never left my side, even when I felt so alone. He has always been there loving me. I am anxiously awaiting and working towards the day when I get to be with Him fully in communion. I will never be able to thank him enough for all he has done for me in life, but I will do my very best to love him as much as I can.
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WOW!!!
What an inspiration you are!
Thanks so much for sharing.
You have such an awesome testimony.
I was worried noone was going to reply.
I thought there have got to be people out there who have testimonies.
I am so glad you shared yours with me.
You really did inspire me.
I was abused as a child, as you know, and have had depression for most of my life.
I have even been suicidal off and on.
Today I am stronger because of my faith.
And I do cry at mass sometimes my self.
Communion, certain hymns, so many things can send me off.
I hope we can talk much more in the future.
God bless you and please pm me anytime!!!
Love,
Karen
 
WOW!! I was almost in tears reading those. Here’s mine:

I’m 23 now…

I was brought up in a Christian home my whole life. I was made to go to church. My parents are both Nazarene and wanted me to be also. I really wasn’t given an option. The second I moved out of my parent’s house I stopped going to church. I think it was because I was forced to go all the time I kinda felt like I didn’t want to be a part of that anymore.

When I turned 16 I started dating the wrong guy and thats when I started down the wrong path. I started doing things I knew I shouldn’t be doing. Of course my parents forbid me from seeing him, but like a lot of you know, if you tell a kid to stop doing something it makes you want to do it more. I would sneak around to see him. We would skip school to spend time together.

When I turned 18 and moved out I went nuts. I was partying all the time and doing stuff that I knew was wrong. This went on for a few years. I later met my ex. I moved in with him and we lived together for 1 1/2 years. He cheated on me and did a lot of awful stuff on the internet so I left. I hit rock bottom. I was told I had depression and on a scale from 1-10 I was a 9. I felt like I had no hope left in me. I pretty much gave up. I had no money and was pretty much eating what ever was on sale at the grocery store. I was hopeless.

I decided I needed to do something and I prayed (this was about 6 months after that break-up) probably the first time in years…I pretty much told God that I needed help and I needed it very badly.

I started looking around at different religions and some how (now I know it was God giving me that shove) I kept coming back to the Catholic religion. I needed God to shove me or I don’t know where I would be right now. Honestly, I think I would probably be drinking & living a pretty bad life. I started going to Mass. The second I dipped my fingers in that holy water I knew. I felt this, I don’t even know how to explain the feeling I got. It was amazing. I can only describe it as I felt like I was hollow and this great breeze came flowing threw me. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up just thinking about it. I started going and am still going threw RCIA and attending Mass every Sunday and on Saturdays. I go to my RCIA classes every Thursday and feel like my week isn’t complete with out my class and attending Mass.
 
Wow - thank’s for sharing, folks. I’ve got tears in my eyes after reading these. All I can say is that I am so proud of you guys, and I’m so happy to have people like you in the Church!🙂
 
Wow - thank’s for sharing, folks. I’ve got tears in my eyes after reading these. All I can say is that I am so proud of you guys, and I’m so happy to have people like you in the Church!🙂
 
Hi,

I would like to offer you my own personal testimony so you can see where I’m comin’ from and WHY I returned to Catholicism.

I am a cradle Catholic and a “revert” to the faith after being gone for about 34 years. I had left the Church at about age 17 because I was on drugs and then “got saved” at a Campus Life Bible study that was run by a very cool minister. I had always gone to church but never really taken it seriously or read the Bible, even though it was in the house and other members of my family read it. The lack was not in the church (I see that now) but within me. I began to read the Bible for the first time in my life…(the epistle of St. James) and it really hit home. I have always believed in God, but I saw that that was not enough. I did alright for a couple of years, got married and we moved here to Florida, where I stayed out of establishment churches because I figured they were all messed up and did my thing as a “Jesus freak”, witnessing on the streets and handing out Christian underground papers and tracts, and “witnessing” to anyone who would listen.

Eventually I and my little family joined a Baptist church because the preacher convinced me that we believed the same things and he liked my no fear witnessing. That was fine until I admitted that I figured that the gifts of the Holy Spirit did not end with the death of the last apostle. That ended my path to being a Baptist minister so we joined a local Assembly of God where we stayed for many years in spite of some really unscriptural and uncharitable things they did. I became a deacon there, but finally we left after they pulled some really lame stuff and blew me off when I pointed out that what they were doing was unscriptural. My letter telling them why we were leaving was 10 pages long.

I intended to find another church, but we never did and so we remained out of any church for many years.

About 7 years ago I hit a real crisis and decided to turn back to the Lord. I found that Jesus meant every word of the parable of the prodigal son. I began to read the Bible again and got a New American Bible which is about like the NIV except this one has all the books (which I liked even though at the time I was still a Protestant). This particular edition was fairly big, with a bright green paperback cover that said “The Catholic Bible” in big orange letters. I went diddy-bopping into a meeting one day with that in hand and wasn’t in there a hot minute when some guy jumped my case.

“Are you Catholic?’ he asked me. “Well…yeah”, says I, (since technically I was). “You Catholics worship Mary.” “Say what?” I responded. “You Catholics worship Mary. You pray to her.” “Look, I know I been outta the church for a long time, and we do pray to her but we DON”T worship her and no Catholic that knows his ear from his elbow would ever even SAY such a crazy thing. We worship God alone. End of story, Dude.”

He persisted so severely that I finally told him that I’d get some books, check it out and get back to him with what I found out, and that if he was right then I would never enter a Catholic Church ever again.

I found a great book by a priest named Father Oscar Lukefahr of Catholic Home Study Service (The Catholic Home Study Service ) and read it carefully and prayerfully. I was happy to find that not only were the Catholics right and that they do not worship anyone but Almighty God, but that their doctrines about Mary are soundly based upon the Bible and that the early Christians believed the very same things. Even the three pillars of the Reformation ( Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli) believed the same things about Mary that Catholics do today. In the end I went back to church and met another Catholic guy, who like myself was returning to the faith as well. We studied and talked and found ourselves having to dig up real answers for people we knew who didn’t like the Catholic Church.

I continued to study Catholic teaching and discovered that a great deal of what I had been taught about the Bible and Christianity was wrong. I found that non-Catholics ignore and “read around” Bible passages that support Catholic teaching and that they completely ignore the history of Christianity prior to the 1500s. Now I know what I believe and why and I will never change, though I promise every non-Catholic that I dialog with that if they can prove that the Catholics are wrong that I’ll be in their church with them every Sunday from now on. No one even comes close…

(Cont’d)
 
keri6789 said:
WOW!! I was almost in tears reading those. Here’s mine:

I’m 23 now…

I was brought up in a Christian home my whole life. I was made to go to church. My parents are both Nazarene and wanted me to be also. I really wasn’t given an option. The second I moved out of my parent’s house I stopped going to church. I think it was because I was forced to go all the time I kinda felt like I didn’t want to be a part of that anymore.

When I turned 16 I started dating the wrong guy and thats when I started down the wrong path. I started doing things I knew I shouldn’t be doing. Of course my parents forbid me from seeing him, but like a lot of you know, if you tell a kid to stop doing something it makes you want to do it more. I would sneak around to see him. We would skip school to spend time together.

When I turned 18 and moved out I went nuts. I was partying all the time and doing stuff that I knew was wrong. This went on for a few years. I later met my ex. I moved in with him and we lived together for 1 1/2 years. He cheated on me and did a lot of awful stuff on the internet so I left. I hit rock bottom. I was told I had depression and on a scale from 1-10 I was a 9. I felt like I had no hope left in me. I pretty much gave up. I had no money and was pretty much eating what ever was on sale at the grocery store. I was hopeless.

I decided I needed to do something and I prayed (this was about 6 months after that break-up) probably the first time in years…I pretty much told God that I needed help and I needed it very badly.

I started looking around at different religions and some how (now I know it was God giving me that shove) I kept coming back to the Catholic religion. I needed God to shove me or I don’t know where I would be right now. Honestly, I think I would probably be drinking & living a pretty bad life. I started going to Mass. The second I dipped my fingers in that holy water I knew. I felt this, I don’t even know how to explain the feeling I got. It was amazing. I can only describe it as I felt like I was hollow and this great breeze came flowing threw me. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up just thinking about it. I started going and am still going threw RCIA and attending Mass every Sunday and on Saturdays. I go to my RCIA classes every Thursday and feel like my week isn’t complete with out my class and attending Mass.
Click to expand...
Wow!!!
What a beautiful testimony!
Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
I can see we have both had addictions in our lives.
You are a wonderful example of how God can really take a life and turn it around.
You have really inspired me to keep the faith.
And I do love mass myself.
The church I went to as a small child seemed more or less like a place to gather socially.
That’s how it struck me, anyways.
Mass is so sacred and holy.
I don’t hear hardly any candy wrappers rustling or people talking or laughing or just not paying attention at all.
I remember these things happening every week at the church I grew up in.
It is a honor and privilege to practice my “freedom of religion” and I love being part of a faith who wants to be on their best behavior for Him.
Thanks again for sharing!!!
Love,
Karen
 
Now I participate at Mass as often as I can, pray the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet almost every day, abstain from meat on most Fridays (just out of devotion to God), and of course read and study my Bible, as well as other Catholic writings. I am Catholic because I know and believe with all my heart and soul that the Catholic Church IS the New Testament church and I believe that the Eucharist is everything that the church teaches it is, the same as the early church did…all the way back to the last supper and the 6th chapter of the Gospel of St. John. I believe it’s really the body and blood of our risen Lord because St. Paul said that if you take communion while living in sin that you become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and that wouldn’t be possible if His body and blood weren’t really present in the form of bread and wine…just like the last supper. It is the most powerful miracle in all of Christianity, and I love it.

My Christian life is stronger than ever before, my prayer life is powerful, and I have great answers to my prayers like never before. I have always been a soul winner and that has not changed at all. God has used me to win some people that I sure couldn’t have won on my own. Some were very anti-Catholic and now are very MUCH Catholic and very happy and forthright about their faith. It’s really very humbling…I feel like a raggedy (unworthy) Styrofoam cup at a feast, filled with the very finest wine.

So… God Love ya, That’s it. I’m nothing special. There are thousands of people like me who are returning to the faith each week and many more who are finding their way into it as well. It’s been here for over 2,000 years…it won’t die off or go away, and the very gates of hell have not prevailed (and will not prevail) against it. Jesus promised and He has kept that promise in spite of the human failings of individual members of His one true church.

This is the real thing. The fullness of truth, and the most beautiful Christianity you can possibly imagine. Nothing outside the Catholic Church even comes close. I cry tears of humble joy during the consecration at Mass because I am so wrapped up in worship of my risen Lord and Savior. I don’t care who notices or what they might think. I’m more concerned with making sure that Jesus hears me when I say, “My Lord and my God.”

Someone asked me recently, “How did you realize the RCC was the true church?” My answer is what follows:

Study man study. I challenged everything I heard about the Catholic faith and all that turned out to be rubbish. I went looking into Catholic teaching to see if what I was hearing was true and found it all to be untrue and not only that but I found that there is more than ample reason to follow the Catholic faith than any of the other churches.

I didn’t go out to prove or disprove anything, I just went in search of the facts and the facts led me to realize that the Catholic faith is the original, New Testament, “full Gospel” church that Christ founded. Every other church has a man as it’s founder, no matter what they may claim, and every single one of them has at least one doctrinal divergence from what the New Testament teaches as well as what the early church believed and practiced.

I feel that I was misled and deceived by well intentioned people with Bibles.

I was one of the most no fear “witnesses” you could ever encounter. I was never rude, but I ain’t scared of the devil himself nor any of his minions.

Now I apply all those “witnessing” skills and the other gifts that God has blessed me with to share my Catholic faith with anyone who will listen, and to counter the propaganda of anti-Catholics who seek to deceive my Catholic brothers and sisters into leaving the faith for their “Christianity Lite”.

If you’ve debated or discussed with me for any length of time around here you already know that I won’t insult you, but I’ll rip rhetoric and propaganda apart without mercy.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.
 
mommyof4 said:
Wow - thank’s for sharing, folks. I’ve got tears in my eyes after reading these. All I can say is that I am so proud of you guys, and I’m so happy to have people like you in the Church!🙂
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You are a sweetheart and THANK YOU for posting and beiing in the Church yourself!!
God bless…
Karen
 
Church_Militant said:
Now I participate at Mass as often as I can, pray the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet almost every day, abstain from meat on most Fridays (just out of devotion to God), and of course read and study my Bible, as well as other Catholic writings. I am Catholic because I know and believe with all my heart and soul that the Catholic Church IS the New Testament church and I believe that the Eucharist is everything that the church teaches it is, the same as the early church did…all the way back to the last supper and the 6th chapter of the Gospel of St. John. I believe it’s really the body and blood of our risen Lord because St. Paul said that if you take communion while living in sin that you become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and that wouldn’t be possible if His body and blood weren’t really present in the form of bread and wine…just like the last supper. It is the most powerful miracle in all of Christianity, and I love it.

My Christian life is stronger than ever before, my prayer life is powerful, and I have great answers to my prayers like never before. I have always been a soul winner and that has not changed at all. God has used me to win some people that I sure couldn’t have won on my own. Some were very anti-Catholic and now are very MUCH Catholic and very happy and forthright about their faith. It’s really very humbling…I feel like a raggedy (unworthy) Styrofoam cup at a feast, filled with the very finest wine.

So… God Love ya, That’s it. I’m nothing special. There are thousands of people like me who are returning to the faith each week and many more who are finding their way into it as well. It’s been here for over 2,000 years…it won’t die off or go away, and the very gates of hell have not prevailed (and will not prevail) against it. Jesus promised and He has kept that promise in spite of the human failings of individual members of His one true church.

This is the real thing. The fullness of truth, and the most beautiful Christianity you can possibly imagine. Nothing outside the Catholic Church even comes close. I cry tears of humble joy during the consecration at Mass because I am so wrapped up in worship of my risen Lord and Savior. I don’t care who notices or what they might think. I’m more concerned with making sure that Jesus hears me when I say, “My Lord and my God.”

Someone asked me recently, “How did you realize the RCC was the true church?” My answer is what follows:

Study man study. I challenged everything I heard about the Catholic faith and all that turned out to be rubbish. I went looking into Catholic teaching to see if what I was hearing was true and found it all to be untrue and not only that but I found that there is more than ample reason to follow the Catholic faith than any of the other churches.

I didn’t go out to prove or disprove anything, I just went in search of the facts and the facts led me to realize that the Catholic faith is the original, New Testament, “full Gospel” church that Christ founded. Every other church has a man as it’s founder, no matter what they may claim, and every single one of them has at least one doctrinal divergence from what the New Testament teaches as well as what the early church believed and practiced.

I feel that I was misled and deceived by well intentioned people with Bibles.

I was one of the most no fear “witnesses” you could ever encounter. I was never rude, but I ain’t scared of the devil himself nor any of his minions.

Now I apply all those “witnessing” skills and the other gifts that God has blessed me with to share my Catholic faith with anyone who will listen, and to counter the propaganda of anti-Catholics who seek to deceive my Catholic brothers and sisters into leaving the faith for their “Christianity Lite”.

If you’ve debated or discussed with me for any length of time around here you already know that I won’t insult you, but I’ll rip rhetoric and propaganda apart without mercy.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.
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Wow!!!
Another inspiring testimony!
Thank you so much for sharing it.
God bless you, friend…
Karen
 
I had been thinking of starting a thread like this for a while because I believe everyone has a story and it would be interesting to here them. Here is mine.

I’m a cradle Catholic and grew up going to church every Sunday whether I wanted to or not. In high school, I really started to get into going to Mass and learning about our church.

When I went away to college, I continued going to church, but wasn’t all that into it. Then it happened. At the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I became a Type I Diabetic and in the process almost died. Now you would think that this would have brought me closer to the church, but it had the exact opposite effect. I couldn’t understand why this happened to me. I stopped going to church, was reckless, and was not very God oriented.

This went on for a few years. At a low point in my life when I was on a Co-op assignment in a small town that did not have much of a nightlife or young group, I broke up with my gf and was probably depressed, I realized that there has to be something more.

I started to investigate different churches, many of my co-workers were baptist, so I went to church with them. And I felt it was missing something.

When I went back to my college town, I went to the Catholic Church there and it was the most beautiful site that my eyes had ever seen. I knew that I belonged. I got really involved in the church and activities and really loved everything that I did with the church. It was at this church that I met my future wife and I know in my heart that the Catholic Church is where I belong.

Everyone has a cross to carry, and when it gets too heavy, Jesus is there to help us. When I believed that I had to carry the cross by myself, is when I fell away from the Church. Letting Jesus carry my cross, is when I came back. I really believe that without the wake-up call that God gave me, I would still be just a luke-warm Catholic.

You always hear that if God is so great, why does He let people struggle with disease or other problems. He could easily fix our problems, but would we appreciate all of the Gifts that He has given us. I believe that because God gave us Free Will that He wants us to accept Him with that Free Will and not out of a sense of gratitude or obligation.
 
Nechasin said:
I had been thinking of starting a thread like this for a while because I believe everyone has a story and it would be interesting to here them. Here is mine.

I’m a cradle Catholic and grew up going to church every Sunday whether I wanted to or not. In high school, I really started to get into going to Mass and learning about our church.

When I went away to college, I continued going to church, but wasn’t all that into it. Then it happened. At the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I became a Type I Diabetic and in the process almost died. Now you would think that this would have brought me closer to the church, but it had the exact opposite effect. I couldn’t understand why this happened to me. I stopped going to church, was reckless, and was not very God oriented.

This went on for a few years. At a low point in my life when I was on a Co-op assignment in a small town that did not have much of a nightlife or young group, I broke up with my gf and was probably depressed, I realized that there has to be something more.

I started to investigate different churches, many of my co-workers were baptist, so I went to church with them. And I felt it was missing something.

When I went back to my college town, I went to the Catholic Church there and it was the most beautiful site that my eyes had ever seen. I knew that I belonged. I got really involved in the church and activities and really loved everything that I did with the church. It was at this church that I met my future wife and I know in my heart that the Catholic Church is where I belong.

Everyone has a cross to carry, and when it gets too heavy, Jesus is there to help us. When I believed that I had to carry the cross by myself, is when I fell away from the Church. Letting Jesus carry my cross, is when I came back. I really believe that without the wake-up call that God gave me, I would still be just a luke-warm Catholic.

You always hear that if God is so great, why does He let people struggle with disease or other problems. He could easily fix our problems, but would we appreciate all of the Gifts that He has given us. I believe that because God gave us Free Will that He wants us to accept Him with that Free Will and not out of a sense of gratitude or obligation.
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Thank you so much!
Your testimony is wonderful.
I felt, too, that I was in and out of church and until I came to Him through desire and not because I should, that He could really do great things in my life.
And being sick has its blessings, for sure.
I am needy for Him and I spent years being so independent and strong.
What’s that verse…something like
“I will praise God for my weaknesses because when I am weak than I am strong in Him.”
I think it is in 2nd Corinthians.
Where Paul had that thorn in his side.
It’s like my life has definitely changed in big ways since I got sick.
But would I need God as much if I didn’t have a cross to bear?
Then again, Heaven will be nice.
It will be nice to be strong once again.
And not suffer anymore.
Take care, friend!
God bless…
Karen
 
arewethereyet said:
Hello everyone!
Some of you know me and I was wondering how many of you out there have a testimony to share?
I would love to hear it!
I would like to share mine.
Here goes!!!

My life has been full of many challenges. My faith has been tested over and over again. I grew up the middle child of four children. My father left my mother and my sibings when we were all young to start his life with another woman. I have some fond memories of my childhood but, unfortunately, I have many more bad ones.
The environment I grew up in was a sick one.
And I felt trapped with no way to escape.
We were taught to tell noone and my depression began.
I remember going to church some as a child but never feeling a connection there.
My teen years came and I found a church in a neighboring town. I went there on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings and loved it.
I felt I belonged there and felt loved.
But my adult years came and I started down the path of many destructive addictions.
This lasted for years…more than a decade.
My depression continued.
Finally I got clean and sober and began to heal.
I found a relationship with God that I never knew.
This would be the foundation for the biggest battle of my life which was yet to come.
I met a wonderful man, married and had a son.
Years passed and life was beautiful.
God was good!!!
Then just as it seemed it couldn’t get any better, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
I lost my faith big time!!!
But the good Lord was patient with me and when I finally gave my illness to Him…I had that beautiful peace back in my life.
I am a firm believer in the saying…

“That which does not break us, only makes us stronger.”

The good Lord has given me the gift of compassion and I feel I am able to use it to bring glory to Him through my volunteering with the elderly and the severely disabled.

Now what’s your testimony?
What has God done in your life?
I would love to hear it!!!

Love,
Karen
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contramundum7:
I hadn’t been planning on going to this forum… but maybe i was meant to. The stories i read (testimonies) were interesting… & hit home. Here’s mine: I was raised Catholic but all my family & I did was go 2 Mass on Sunday - the rest of the week, no one talked about God… Even so, my childhood wasn’t 2 bad. In fact, it was as good as it gets in this world. My adolescence was a different story. Suffice it to say i had emotional problems that were pretty severe, mostly because my mother & I never got along; while that wasn’t a problem in childhood, it was as a teen: I read a psychology book (u know, those kind that blame the mother 4 eveyrthing), copped an attitude & started defying her. That was the mistake that led to all the others. 2 compound matters, when i was 15, i got hurt by a guy. I felt i had nowhere 2 turn 4 help but God. When i did that - tho I wasn’t in a Church - I got filled with the Holy Spirit. I fell in love with Jesus, read the New T. all the way through twice. 4 two yrs, i was happy & healthy… Its still mysterious as 2 what all went wrong after that - i guess a combination of things… My mother not liking me finally began to wear on me & i ran away from home. I ran into satanists! (long story) i escaped their influence (no, didn’t even dabble in that - ran like h—). i became a drifter… went to school here & there, had no direction. I drifted away from Jesus, coming back only now & then when i would attend some Protestant service or another…(sometimes went 2 Mass). But i didn’t feel i was good enough 2b really close 2 God/Jesus like i had been… i was filled w/guilt… shame…self-hatred, remorse… I also was the victim of the once-saved-always-saved doctrine someone had “shared” with me when i 1st left home… Needless to say, my life went downhill. I committed this sin & that (why not, if i was “saved” anyway… though i could never truly believe God loved me… i believed conflicting things…). Things got worse… I often felt like ending it all. Then things got better 4 several yrs, only to lead eventually 2 me losing “everything” all over again… When my life hit rock bottom, i found a rosary. By this time, i didn’t believe in such things… didn’t want to pray it… had no hope. But (…no idea why), i DID pray the rosary. It changed everything… not all 4 the better, either. Spiritually, i got better, but otherwise… I hit a seemingly worse rock bottom… Circumstances got down-right scary; I c it as being “thrown into Purgatory”… & I’m still there… though its different than it was at first… & now i have gained weapons to use (Blessed Sacrament, etc.) against the devil (who, needless 2 say, didn’t appreciate me praying the rosary). Anyway… whatever is God’s will (…well, i TRY to go by that…). This testimony is incomplete, but i guess i have run out of space… It would take a whole book’s-worth of writing to tell the whole story… i may have a headache for going down Memory Lane… but its good 2 do so… As someone once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”… Thanks for all the testimonies. Its so nice 2 know I am not alone in my sufferings… (and joys… ).
 
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contramundum7:
Its so nice 2 know I am not alone in my sufferings… (and joys… ).
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You are not alone at all by a long shot. I grew up a rebelous teen with alot of freedom. Even though I was a cradle Catholic, my family stopped practicing after my first communion when I was around 8. As a early teen I used to smoke alot of pot, was a skatepunk that rode halfpipes all day long. In 9th grade I skipped 45 days of school to build a halfpipe in my friends backyard. I quit school and got a GED. I started to work and pay rent by the time I was 16. By the time I was 17 , I was in the 9 to 5 groove and was enjoying the money I was making in the autobody trade. I met a very special girl then. She was a good practicing Byzantine Catholic. Her family tried very hard to keep us separated, but we were in love. When we were both 19 , she was planning on going to college and I in the Marine Corp, but I needed some college first for my m.o.s. Thats when she got pregnant. Her father would have killed her then, so she left home and came with me. I promised to always take care of her and the baby. We had a civil marriage and 3 other children. I had other opportunities to be in the military , including an invitation to 20th S.F. group when I was around 26, via a Mstr Sgt friend of mine. By the time I was 32 , I owned a house and 30 acres in the mountains. My wife was a sahm and working on her degree. Then the second gulf war broke out. I approached the same friend about enlisting in the N.G., but I didn’t want to be fulltime like the S.F. was. So I got a slot on an airborne lrs team in the MDANG. Ranger training was going to be tough for a guy my age , but I was in the best shape of my life. I actually told my wife that it would take an act of God for me to fail at this. Well before I shipped, that is exactly what happened. I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I thought I had pulled a muscle at drill, but it was cancer eating up my lympth nodes. They found it in the emergancy room. I went there instead of a scheduled appointment at an occupational therapist. God intervened that day for me and saved my life. I was given a medical separation from the guard. I was in bad shape and almost died from the chemo. Actually one night I came so close to death , the Lord had to wake me up. I heard a voice say “get up” while I was dieing. It took everything I had to get out of it. Over the next few months I recovered and went into remission. I was mad at God for allowing this to happen to me. But He was determined for me to keep my promise to my wife and for me to stay out of the military. He wasn’t going to let me die either way. Even though, I became depressed and became suicidal. The stress of the monthly tests was getting to me. I knew it was a matter of time before I was going to fall out of remission. So I planned out my suicide on the eve of Easter 2005. As I went to go get a pistol, my mind started to reel. I felt the same way I did when I almost died from the chemo. Terrible images flashed through my head like a movie and it was accelerating. I screamed out “God help me , I don’t want to know the truth”. It just came out of me. Thats when everything stopped cold. I felt this immense love surround me. God had purged me and all I felt was His love. I can’t discribe how awesome Gods love is. The days following I went to meetings with a few different Priest’s looking for answers. I got some, but was guided to get confirmed and have my marriage blessed by the Church. I’m now a member of a small rural parish in WV. I can now see how merciful God has been to me, despite my bad decisions. He has given me many chances at life and a chance for eternal life. I still struggle to do His will, but I know a slice of His infinite mercy and love. That keeps me going, even through some trying times. Well thats my story and I’m sticking to it. Tim
 
I worked with 30 or so blokes who for the 19 years we worked together told me I was a joke, they told me “love is dead” they would do any thing to put me down. Some would fight me at work make a joke out of me, I was never in line for promotion even though I had better schooling. I saw this novener and the promises so Iprayedthem for our family and again for these people I worked with,The novener is from the Peita book you say it for 365 days per year and it takes about four hours per day to say.

But I saw that there were 24 promises by Jesus and I wanted them all for my family, brothers and sisters and cousins. I finished it once and then I thought if I do this again I could say it for the blokes I work with. So I said it again 365 days and four hours per day. In the end when a lot of us left the firm the blokes called me to meeting which I went to. It turned out to be a prayer meeting and I wondered why I should be called there.
I looked around and all of a sudden I saw some 13 of the blokes there. They came up to me latter and told me that they never understood me, but if any person attacked me now they would be told to leave me alone, that I was all right. They had become christians.
6 months latter I went to the hospital to see my uncle and there were two of the men soon to die of canser. One said to me “Don’t worry Oli I know where I’m going” Another said something similar and they went to our maker.
19 years of persecution isn’t bad if that is the end product, I believe.
The power of prayer.

God bless
littleone
 
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