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. The Anglican church believes in praying with the saints which is asking for intercession and praying with the saints, which is what I believed in.
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 are sinning is because King Saul consulted a witch and asked her to contact the dead to know the future. That is NOT what Catholic’s 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.
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 I watch 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 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.
Another year just went by for me. My birthday was recently and I can’t say that I look forward to getting older, but the people in my life who make the day special, make it better. More than once, I have heard different pastors say ask God for something on your birthday, so today I told God I wanted to be able to hear Him better and hear his voice. I rarely hear the still small voice of God, but when I have, it’s unmistakable. Once you hear that voice you will never forget it. I haven’t heard it with my ears but within my spirit. Some people have heard God’s voice out loud, usually in a situation that immediately needs their attention, like if they are in danger.
One year on my birthday, I asked God to let me see what He looks like. I was working in the late 1989 and one of my co-workers gave me a photo someone in her church had given to her. A nun had taken a photo from an airplane window when it was storming. The photo showed dark clouds, lightening, and Jesus in the clouds and I was so happy to get it.
I asked God to see Michael the Archangel on my birthday in March of 1987. One morning December after taking a shower I was about to walk up the stairs to get ready for work and so I turned the light on and looked up. All of the sudden all I could see was light, then I looked down then up again then everything looked normal. All day long I wondered why I saw that light, and I couldn’t figure it out. It reminded me of Jacob seeing a heavenly staircase and angels going up and down on it with the Lord at the top of the stairs. Not long after seeing that light, I started to feel the peace that only comes from God. It was like God had a bucket filled with liquid peace that he poured on the top of my head, and it would wash over my body. I was twenty-two years old then and I still didn’t have a driver’s license because driving made me very anxious. Long story short, because God gave me His peace during the next four months, I was able to finally get my driver’s license in March of 1988.
When your birthday rolls around try asking God for something that will glorify him and help you in your spiritual life. I am hopeful I will hear God’s voice better this year.
I have dealt with physical pain since I was a teenager. I started getting terrible pain in my stomach when I was fifteen years old. I did not know what was causing it. I had a test done at the hospital that consisted of drinking a white, chalky, terrible tasting liquid and getting an x-ray of my stomach. The doctor didn’t find anything wrong with me. Years later, I heard about irritable bowel syndrome, known as IBS, which is what I have.
Years later in my forties, I developed excruciating pain in my thumbs, near my wrist from work. For years the doctors told me I had tendonitis but never did an x-ray. After dealing with that pain for 4 years, I was adamant about getting an x-ray. and it showed arthritis. Then my shoulder started hurting and I had a good doctor then, and she ordered an x-ray. I had arthritis in my shoulder.
I fell down the stairs in 2021 and as a result of that I ended up with a sprained right ankle and a terrible case of sciatica on the left side of my lower back, hip, and leg. It was the worst pain I think I ever had. I had to walk on my sprained ankle because I couldn’t use crutches because I couldn’t put weight on my left leg. I was miserable.
I tried everything; physical therapy, chiropractor, and drugs, but nothing took the pain away completely. I did a lot of praying for healing, but I still deal with pain. I am not mad about it now. After the first five months of having really bad sciatica I did get mad at God and yelled at him when the pain was bad. Then I asked to be forgiven because I felt bad. There I was yelling at God, and I don’t even deserve Jesus.
Now I know better than to get mad at God and yell at Him. I take comfort in the fact Jesus understands our pain. When He was whipped and beaten and nailed to the cross it was very painful for Him. He has experienced extreme pain, and He understands how we feel.
Jesus went through everything we have gone through in our lives. Some people have experience worse things than others. He was homeless for three years. He experienced pain, hunger, depression, stress, anxiety just like everybody else. There is a medical condition that is extremely rare, that people go through when they are under extreme fear or stress where their body sweats blood called, hematidrosis. Jesus sweat blood the night before He was crucified because he was so anxious and felt so much stress.
I fell down after I missed the last step when I was walking down the stairs without the light on and I didn’t have my glasses on saturday night when it was starting to get dark. I ended up landing on my hands and knees. A first my right foot hurt, so I wore my compression wrap on it, and that helped a lot. I have a big bruise on my knee, but it doesn’t hurt to walk. My Sacroiliac (S1) joint which is the joint that connects the back to the pelvis bone hurts a lot. I have bilateral arthritis in it anyway and most times it does not bother me. I experience sciatica pain on the left side of my lower body most of the time. But right now, the lowest part of my back hurts the worst and it is chronic pain.
When I am in pain, I think God is punishing me for my sins. Then I wonder if He even loves me at all. Back in 2022 when my sciatica pain was at its worst I yelled at God and called Him a liar and rejected the love God had shown me when I was in my early twenties. I think I said to God “you don’t love me.” Then I repented after that, but it’s like God put a block in my mind so now I can barely remember that love now.
Another thing happened a month or two later in 2022. I decided to pray a prayer of protection over this home. I looked up prayers for protection over a home online, and I found a bunch of them, and I prayed them out loud. As soon as I was done praying one of the prayers, I felt the presence of Jesus. His presence was so strong and I felt so peaceful, I couldn’t have worried if I tried. That feeling stayed all afternoon and most of the night. It was so wonderful. I thought, “this has got to be what heaven feels like.”
I know what it says in the bible about God loving us. I know Jesus would have gone through the torture he endured and the crucifixion just for me, but there are times I doubt. I have had depression and anxiety for years and the physical pain just makes it worse. I take medications for anxiety and depression, but the antidepressant I take makes me feel emotionally numb most of the time and I rarely cry now. The last time I really cried was when I was mad at God and yelled at him and called him a liar.
Jesus gave me a gift when He let me feel his presence of peace so strong. I can remember that presence, and I need to cling to it. When He was being whipped, beaten, and crucified, His pain was a lot worse than what I am going through. But He understands our pain and I take comfort in that.
I watched a video about the Shroud of Turin. It is authentic according to scientists and it is from the year 1 A.D. and the kind of cloth that was made during that time period. It was considered expensive back then and it is a single piece of woven material.
In the video they showed a cap of thorns, not a crown. The cap of thorns was more similar to what a crown looked like back then. It wasn’t just like a ring put on top of the head, the crowns of old covered the entire scalp of a king’s head.
I had a dream about Jesus when in my late teens or early twenties and in my dream, I saw Jesus standing in a place with hewn rock walls with a narrow opening to walk through. He was standing in the opening, and I heard him moan then blood started running down his head until it covered his entire face and soaked his clothing. The room in my dream reminded me of an underground prison and it also reminded me of when he sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane the night he was arrested. For all I know Jesus sweat blood while he was in prison too.
Jesus was whipped from head to toe on both sides of his body. When He was whipped it tore his flesh right off his body, because the whip had sharp objects attached to the end it. He suffered immensely for us. He sacrificed himself willingly.
This should make us all pause and take stock of our own lives.
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.
The rapture theory was thought up by Charles Darby in the 1800s in England. Darby took an obscure verse from Paul and blew it up into something it isn’t. No other apostles mention it and only Paul does. The gospels and the rest of the bible don’t mention it. It is not mentioned in the book of Daniel or the book of Revelation. The theory of the rapture was not taught for almost 2000 years. The early church didn’t believe in it. The Catholic didn’t teach it and neither did the Lutheran Church. I feel sorry for all the people believing in this lie because they will be let down and then what will happen to their faith? Jesus will come back, but it will be to judge the people of earth, not to come and rescue people secretly in the middle of the night.
Jesus said people would go through trials and tribulations and that is happening now to more than just Christians. It is happening everywhere and all you have to do is turn on the news to see it. There is so much hate in this world, and I have experienced my own anger when I see all the injustice in the world. I have asked God to take my anger away and he does and then I hear about another injustice and then I get angry all over again. It’s just going to continue to get worse until Jesus comes back to judge the earth.
God let me know how much he loves me one night when I was nineteen or twenty. I was sleeping and a had strange dream and when I woke up in the middle of the night, I didn’t want to open my eyes, because I thought I was dead. I felt so loved and so peaceful. It was almost like God was giving me hug and making me feel the love he had for me. There is nothing like that love! That is the presence of God. God’s very being is love.
I was hearing the still, small voice of God’s Holy Spirit speaking to me saying “open your eyes.” I didn’t want to but when finally did, I was in my bedroom and alive and well. The voice wasn’t audible, it was more of an inner knowing voice that I was hearing in my spirit. It wasn’t my conscious because it seemed like the voice was male. It’s hard to describe the voice, but once you hear it you know it.
I didn’t want to move because I didn’t want the feeling of unconditional love to go away. It is hard to describe God’s love for us. In fact, I can’t because it’s indescribable. You need to experience it for yourself to be able to understand it. One thing I can say is no one loves you that much in this world. Not your mom, dad, brother, sister, friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, or child. No One. If you would take the love of a mother for her child and multiply it by a million, it still wouldn’t compare.
God loves us so much. There is nothing he wouldn’t do to let us know that. Jesus loves us so much that he died for each and every one of us. In the beginning when God created man and woman and when they were tempted by the serpent, they gave into that temptation. They committed the first sin because they chose not to listen to God. That separated them from the close relationship they had with God. To get that relationship back with God, God sent Jesus to earth to show people how much He loves them. Jesus showed them the way to get close to Him again so they wouldn’t be separated anymore.
Jesus died a brutal death and shed his blood, for no reason other than the fact that He loves us. He sacrificed himself willingly. He did nothing to deserve death. He only helped people while on earth by healing and doing miracles and taught the way to God the Father. After Jesus died and was dead for three days, He came back to life like He had foretold, and many people saw Him and ate with Him. After he died, he spent forty days on earth then He ascended into the sky and He’s alive in heaven today and will return some day in the same way and at the same place He left to judge the earth.
You can know Jesus as a close friend, someone closer than brother. You can experience His love and peace. All you have to do is ask him to come into your life and forgive you for all the wrongs you have done throughout your life and tell him you are sorry for them. No matter what you have done, God won’t reject you.
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.
MKR Prodigal Daughter-Christian Perspectives from a Prodigal 