It isn’t only the Catholic church that prays to saints. The Greek Orthodox church, Coptic Chistian church in Egypt, the Syrian Christian Church, Armenian church and the Ethiopian church pray to the saints. All those churches believe that saints in heaven can pray for them. which is asking for saints to pray for them and praying with them
Martin Luther had prayed to the saints but then changed his mind. John Calvin who started the Calvinism movement was against praying to saints. He believed in predestination which I do NOT believe in. I don’t believe God predestines some people to go to heaven and some people to go to hell. If that is the case, how to you explain free will. God wants all His children to go to heaven, and He gives all of us that chance.
Some modern mainstream Evangelical protestant churches talk about how the Catholic Church is leading people astray. And they say that praying to the dead is a sin. The reason why they think Catholics and other denominations are sinning is because King Saul consulted a witch and asked her to contact the dead to know the future. And that is NOT what Catholic’s or any other denominations that aren’t protestant who ask saints to pray for them are doing.
America attacking Iran with Israel is something a lot of people in America are not happy about, including myself. I think it’s reckless. Are America and Israel going to destroy Iran like Israel has destroyed Gaza?
Trump lied when he said no new wars, prices would come down, and he would bring people together when he was campaigning for president. None of those things happened. He refuses to help Ukraine, and I am not sure why. Trump decided to attack Iran, and I still don’t know why. First, he said Iran would have a nuclear weapon in two weeks, then he said it was for regime change, and then he said it was because he wanted to bring peace to the Middle East. I really don’t think he understands what he is doing.
From what I have heard, the US military and government is trying to make things bad in order to have Jesus come back in the ” rapture.” They are trying to bring on Armageddon. And that is exactly what Evangelical extremists want. They want the rapture to happen. They think Jesus is going to come back three times not twice. They think he will come back and take all Christian’s up to heaven for three and a half years and let all other the people (including a lot of Christian’s) suffer. I used to believe that while I was an evangelical. While growing up catholic, being a practicing Catholic in my twenties and later on in life, the priests didn’t talk about it. And Lutheran church doesn’t talk about the rapture either. Jesus does not come to earth three times, only twice. First at birth, and then at the final judgement, but not in-between. That rapture wasn’t even thought up until the late 1800s by a woman in a protestant Christian cult in Scotland who had been in an insane asylum once. Charles Darby took the idea from her and was made famous from because of it.
I know Iran has done a lot of bad things over the years, I am well aware of that. I just don’t want this war to turn into World War 3 or some never-ending war. It has had a ripple effect on neighboring countries of Iran and Iran is bombing them now and that is not good.
I just wish all the bombing would stop. People could die from hunger and thirst if this war doesn’t end. 100 million people who live near Iran are fed from the food that comes through the Strait of Hormuz. Israel bombed a desalination plant in Iran. Desalination is the process which turns salt in sea or ocean water into drinking water by taking the salt out of the water. And now trump is threatening to bomb more of those plants. The tankers that carry oil and natural gas are not getting through the strait of Hormuz. The strait of Hormuz supplies oil and natural gas to countries in Asia, and the people that live there are already starting to suffer.
Americans will suffer too. India is the world’s largest producer of generic drugs and India’s natural gas, and oil come from the strait of Hormuz. Which means that a fuel shortage would affect the electricity that is used to make generic drugs, which will affect Americans if there are generic drug shortages.
One night I prayed and asked God for protection, then I laid down for a little while. I heard the following bible verse in my spirit: “Jesus is my strength and my shield.” After I heard that I immediately got up and went to my computer to look up the verse. The verse is Psalm 28:7, and it said, “The Lord is my strength and my shield.” The only thing that was different was God’s title. But Jesus was God on earth, He is God incarnate and He is God resurrected from the dead.
What other god sacrificed himself for people because he wants to be with them in heaven? What other god changed the world so much? What other god is continually healing and providing? What other god is constantly is creating? What other god loves you and only wants the best for you? What god gives you peace? What god calls you, his child? What other god rose from the dead after being dead for three days? I have studied a lot of different religions, and I can’t ever remember reading about any other god but God of the Christians. Not Hinduism, not Buddhism, not Islam, not Greek mythology not Egyptian mythology, or native American spirituality. None but Christianity.
I get anxiety attacks driving because I hit a steel power pole head on in December of 2010 while driving home after work one night. It was 10:30 pm when the roads were icy and the road hadn’t been salted yet and it was freezing rain. It was scary losing control of my car. As soon as I saw I was headed for the power pole I said to God, “I guess I am ready.” I was sure I was going to die, but God wasn’t through with yet. But from then on, I didn’t think I was a very good driver because of the accident.
My car was totaled, and I was bleeding on my cheek a little bit, but other than being shook up I was fine. I took a taxi home, and I saw cars in the ditch on the highway. My car was a total loss since the air bags had deployed, and I am sure the front end of the car was in bad shape too.
Then I couldn’t drive for six months much because I sprained my right ankle when falling down the stairs in October of 2021 I ended up with a terrible case of sciatica on the left side of my lower back, hip, and leg. I had to walk on my sprained ankle because i couldn’t put weight on my other leg. I felt like I needed to practice driving after I started driving again, so went out with a friend a couple of times.
My car was totaled, and I was bleeding on my cheek a little bit, but other than being shook up I was fine. I took a taxi home, and I saw cars in the ditch on the highway. My car was a total loss since the air bags had deployed, and I am sure the front end of the car was in bad shape too.
Ever since I had anxiety as a teen, the car accident, the pandemic, and falling down the stairs and hurting myself I have hated driving because of the anxiety I feel. I have asked God to take my anxiety away again like He did in 1987, but it hasn’t happened yet. I still pray for it though.
God healed me of anxiety when I was 22 years old. I didn’t drive before that because of anxiety attacks. Then one morning in December of 1987, when I was getting ready for work something happened. I was standing at the foot of the stairs after taking a shower, and I looked up and all I saw was white light. I looked down and then looked up again and then I could see the stairs again. It happened in a split second. After that happened, I started feeling God’s peace that would start at the top of my head and wash over my body until it went down to my toes. Like God was pouring out His Holy Spirit over me.
My seasonal job had ended, and I could not collect unemployment because the man I talked to on the phone denied my claim. When I explained to him, I didn’t drive and had to depend on rides because there wasn’t any public transportation where I lived. He told me to get my driver’s license. I was really scared and didn’t know what I was going to do so I prayed. God answered that prayer in a big way, I got my driver’s license 3 months later.
While watching a pastor talk about fear and being afraid, he said something that really comforted me. He said Jesus is our big brother and we are all his little sisters and brothers, and when we are afraid, we should ask him to help us. What the pastor said has got to be one of the best things I have heard about getting over anxiety and being afraid. Jesus said we are his brothers and sisters, but I never thought of him as a big brother. I lost my only big brother to suicide when I was 21 years old and I have wondered what he would be like if he was still alive. I have Jesus as a big brother now, and I have the best big brother a sister could ever ask for.
When I was a little kid, my family went to the catholic church every Saturday night. We always sat in the front of the church three rows back on the left side. That was our spot. I didn’t like sitting up front because I was very shy. I must have been about four years old when the priest got mad in church. I never forgot it either, still to this day I can see the look of rage on his face. Some kid was making noise in church, and the priest came down and was standing in front of us, and suddenly yelled, “Children are to be seen and not heard!” It scared to me to death, and I was afraid of him after that happened. Thank God my parents didn’t make a big deal about my first communion.
Maybe the reason why I ignored God throughout my younger years had something to do with that priest. I had no concept of God, and I am not sure why. I never prayed or talked to God. My mom told me when I was in first or second grade, I was asked to say grace before a meal I started out with “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America” then everyone laughed.
Learning to pray has been a process for me. I remember being in catechism with the nuns during church summer school for a week we had to memorize the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary and the Glory Be prayers. I didn’t know what I was saying, I was just repeating the words without any meaning behind them. They never explained why we had to pray or what they meant. we just had to memorize the prayers. I really wish someone would have explained what the prayers meant.
One good thing about summer school with the nuns was I learned about heaven. I think that is the only thing I learned. One of my classmates asked one of the nicer nuns if she could see Elvis in heaven and the nun said, yes and you can see anyone in heaven. I thought heaven sounded nice. As a teenager I started reading books about near-death experiences. In high school I remember reading Raymond Moody’s Life After Life book, and I found it fascinating. One book called My Glimpse of Eternity written by Betty Maltz who was clinically dead for 30 minutes was a good one. In the book she described heaven like the book of Revelation describes heaven.
There is life after death, and we all make the choice if we are going to heaven or hell. If you accept Jesus as your savior, ask to be forgiven and repent, you are on your way to heaven. Like God told Moses and the Israelites, “I put before you a choice between life and death, between a blessing and a curse, chose life.” And Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
MKR Prodigal Daughter-Christian Perspectives from a Prodigal 