I never told anyone this story. I felt the desire to share my story with you.
Throughout my upbringing, my family and I went to Sunday mass every week. My stories and values were etched in my cells by my family, friends, and the educational system. Being so young and naive, I didn’t have the awareness to think otherwise.
As a teenager, I taught catechism for a few years.
I was standing in front of a third-grader classroom, with my youngest sister sitting in the front row. I remember looking across the room at the cross hanging on the wall. It had the I.N.R.I etched on the bottom of the cross; initials for the Latin title that Pontius Pilate had written over the head of Jesus Christ on the cross (John 19:19). “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
I found myself transported to another place/time, and in the middle of this “space,” Jesus appeared to me. Yes. Jesus. Jeshua. He told me, “what you are teaching the youngsters is not the truth. It has been distorted. Go seek the truth, for you will know in time”.
Wait!!!!! What are you talking about? Come baaaaack!!!!
I swore minutes passed by, but when I returned and looked at my sister’s smiling face with her hands folded on top of the desk, no one was the wiser. Time stood still. I don’t recall what passage or topic we were discussing that day. All that I recalled was meeting him left a huge impact on me. That was the last year I taught Sunday school and the beginning of my soul searching.
During the next few years, I was busy searching for something I didn’t know how to find. I joined a bible class. I attended various Christian denominations, temples, and major world religions. I spoke to many people about their faith, religion, and God.
When I started this journey of finding meaning in what I heard, I thought it would be easy. I thought I had it all figured out, but I didn’t.
Again and again, I found myself wrestling with the same thought, “how do I tell someone what I heard.” Was it Jesus or a fragment of my imagination?
The seed was planted. He was my reminder. I knew I wasn’t meant to be “lost” for long…eventually, I was meant to find myself, discover my true nature, and discover love at my core.
Life has a sneaky way of allowing “time” to pass by. After 30 years, I hit the reset button and started a new relationship with myself and the inevitable discomfort of unlearning old bad habits. I also began a different relationship with the wise and loving being known as Jesus Christ.
Today, love has been at the forefront of my experiences. Love requires vulnerability. It continues to be a heart-opening experience that constantly shifts how I see the world and myself.
I was searching FOR when all along, the answer was within me. He was simply the catalyst for me.
Great piece
Thank you Otto.
So, do you believe that Jesus is the Promised Messiah, God the Son, manifest in the flesh and who lived a perfect sinless life and his shed blood paid for our sins so we could live again?
Hello Olivia, in my opinion, I believe Jesus, to include us all, are children of God. I don’t believe Jesus expected to have anyone of us worship him as the saviour, but rather see him as a brother/sister to us all. I hope you continue to visit me. Take care, Bernice
Hello Bernice,
Then, Who is your Savior?
Do you believe you need a Savior?
Do you believe you are a sinner?
———-
Just to set the record straight, so none of your readers assume incorrectly about where I stand on Faith in Christ.
My confession is this:
I was born a sinner. Born by sinful parents, born into a sin-filled world. I was corrupted with
an inherited fallen human nature. I was doomed to suffer eternal damnation. I have sinned,
(broken the laws of Life God gave) and was born with a
a fallen corrupted nature – lost.
In my youth God sent me to a church, he told me about his Son, Jesus, who died for me. Jesus’ death on the cross at
Golgotha, is where He shed his blood. This blood was not like the blood of animals,
in the Old Covenant. But Christ’s shed blood actually paid the price of all human sin and
there is no more need for sacrifices.
Without that Blood of Christ, the Son of God, shed, I would be lost from the Father forever. God has made a covenant in
the Blood of the Eternal Son, Jesus Christ. I have put my Faith and trust in that which Christ did there.
He redeemed me, meaning, he saved me from that destruction that loomed ahead – the consequence of my sin nature.
I am my beloved and He is mine, Jesus Christ– His Banner over me is Love.
But God so loved the world, that he Gave his Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall NOT perish but
have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Why would I not praise and worship Christ, the Lamb of God? Who takes away sin forever? He also delivered me
from evil spirits, and from nicotine. Oh! Why would I not lift my voice to give him Glory, worshiping the Lord of Life, Jesus
Christ?
——
thank you for allowing me to post my own confession of Faith.
I appreciated your sharing this.
What a beautiful post-and experience. You were loved so much, that Jesus reached out to you. How inspiring for me-go well and beautifully on your spiritual journey.
This is a beautiful story. I’m so glad u shared it. I really enjoyed reading this and getting to know you.
Wow! Loved your story. 💖 What an experience to have had so young (teen) that started you on your journey. How fortunate for you. 🤗 Some don’t realize they’re on a journey until their later years. Thanks for sharing it with us.
This is a message from Mark Lanesbury from the blog healingyourheartfromwithin.com.au
It is a very profound meeting Bernice, to be touched and ‘know’ you have indeed been touched. It leaves a mark that will never disappear, in your heart, in your mind, and most of all, in your path. And in the beginning, it completely trashes your foundation, everything you had believed up to that point has to be reassessed, removed, raised, or just forgotten about because nothing fits after such an encounter. You think you know, you even live in that way of your belief…but when it comes tumbling down it is slowly reformed to something much more solid, something that will truly stand any further testing because that ‘touch’ is like nothing else that this world can do. And the feeling it creates is also beyond this world.
I have only recently been ‘touched’ by God, and He really let me know what I had to see. It literally put the fear of God into my heart as He took ‘life’ away and it was the most horrible thing I have ever touched in my life. And in that same moment, He said to me…’I am the life’…as He went past me, with Spirit beside me so that I realized my mistake of always praising Spirit in my posts but never mentioning God at all…not even a hint of His name. And then everything came back, I started to breathe again (I had collapsed onto the floor from a bad inflammation from my emphysema and almost completely stopped breathing), and was left in a state that could never be confused in any way to what had actually happened. You ‘know’ and it will never be construed to be anything else ever.
Thank you for sharing a very heartfelt ‘touch’ ❤ 🙏🏽 🦋
There were a few events leading up to each of these posts that I wrote:
As Above So Below!
To Live…First Allow Yourself!
A Perspective Of Life!
Hope!
Life!
He Took It All!
I’m most certainly not asking you to read these unless you are interested, you have your journey. I am only reinforcing your journey, that He will touch a heart with great love, even if mine was based on such a fear, it gave me an immense appreciation of just what ‘life’ we all really have down here. A hard toil it may be, but beneath it all is a love so profound to leave us speechless it is that incredible how it is woven through all that we do.
Anyway, again, thank you so much for sharing 😀 ❤ 🙏🏽 🦋
Hearing ‘this is not the truth’- may not necessarily mean go elsewhere and search other ways, although it could include that. It could also mean – search for me yourself- more intimately. Religion is mans method of executing faith. That may not be truth. Catholicism may not be biblically accurate, which is what you were doing when teaching catechism. Hmm- something to think about. 🙂