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My Testimony 1949 – 2004
It was a very special time for me to getting to
know my roots. I met my aunts and uncles on both sides for the first time
since I was only three years old. My father had nine siblings
and there are fifteen cousins from one family with whom I am in
contact the most and many more in the other families. My mother had
four siblings and I have many cousins from this family. I have begun to
understand my parents since meeting my family in Holland. Learning about their
background and the way they were raised really gave me insight the way my
parents responded to others and how the nine of us were raised. The
families on both sides of my parents were all hard working and honest
people in vocations such as farmers, nurses, marketers, contractors, and
teachers. They are fun loving and wonderful people.
My father was a Catholic and my mother of no religion
though she had attended a protestant Sunday school. Her father
was an atheist and mother possibly a Methodist. When my parents married my
mother became Catholic which was the requirement of Roman
Catholic Church. Mother never embraced the religion, she
attended church but her heart was not in it. Some of the families in
Holland have long stopped practicing the Catholic faith.
Shortly after I was born my parents had me baptized
into the Roman Catholic Church. Baptism according to the Catholic Church
means that one is cleansed from original sin and that you become a member of
this Church. At the age of seven I received Sacrament of Holy Communion and
then at the age of ten I received the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Attending mass is law, as it is also another sacrament for the
atonement for sins and it is a mortal sin if you miss mass
without a valid reason.
I zealously practiced Catholicism for many years and
then I met my future husband and we were married that church in
1968. Our children were baptized Catholic, our daughter in 1968 and our
son in 1971 shortly after they were born. In my adult years I
belonged to the Legion of Mary, Catholic Women’s League and taught Catechism.
I studied the history of the church, the lives of the
saints and believed in the miraculous appearances of Mary the mother of God and
the mystic stories of the saints. In those years I always felt God's love
for me was on the condition and that I would work to be a
better never but found that be good enough or holy enough. I went to
confession regularly and eagerly practiced the indulgences to pay for
my sins and received communion often to be sanctified. I prayed to the Jesus,
Mary and the saints for the needs of others and myself. I prayed and made
indulgences for the souls of the dead who may be in purgatory so that God would
have mercy on them and bring them into heaven. I never had the assurance
that I would go to heaven and could possibly spend time in purgatory. My
husband occasionally attended church with our children and I until I left the
church in 1979.
In the year of 1979 I met the Lord Jesus in a
most wonderful way and I was changed forever. God opened the eyes of
my heart to His Word (the Bible) and the truth. I was overcome with
sorrow of my sins. I felt God's overwhelming love for me just as I was. I
finally understood why He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die such a brutal death
on the Cross for me and to be forsaken by His Father for a moment in
time. No matter how hard I would have worked at being good enough or how
many indulgences I paid I would never I come up to the standards of a
just and pure God. God made a way for me and had sent Jesus to pay the
penalty of my sins once and for all by His death on the cross.
The way to God is not through a church,
Mary, the rosary, poverty, tithing, penance or indulgences, confessional, last
rites anointing of oil, holy water, incense, rituals, baptism, the mass or any
of the sacraments. I have more information regarding these if you want the
websites.
The way to God is by believing on Jesus
Christ the Son of God and what He had done on the cross. Act 16:30 And leading them outside, he said, Sirs, what must I do to be
saved? Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall
be saved, .... Please go to this website for more information on what does it mean to be saved.
http://www.pro-gospel.org/main/Newsletters/2003-Volume12/Vol12no1.pdf
God now sees me, a sinful human being, as without sin
through the blood that was shed by Jesus Christ. I am clothed in Jesus'
righteousness, not of my own doing.
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit.
It took me three years to have the courage to leave
the Roman Catholic church. I was into the Word of God everyday and I
could not put it down. The Lord fed my hungry soul on His precious
Word. In 1982 I was baptized by immersion in a beautiful lake in the
Rockies where I lived at the time. This baptism is symbolizing the complete
renewal and change in the believer’s life and testifying to the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the “Way of Salvation”. It also identified
me as a follower of Jesus Christ and not of the Roman Pope or a church.
There is only one way to God. Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.
Today I am compelled out of love
for God and not out of fear and guilt to serve Him and to live as His word
teaches us. It is only by the free gift of grace that I am able to
live this life in Him. God has sent a
comforter, His Holy Spirit to guide and direct me. Jesus tells us
in his Word,
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so
that He may be with you forever, Joh
14:26 But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom
the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.
Presently I go to a Baptist church and attend a small
group bible study. I find it very important belong to a bible believing
church so I would be supported by other believers and
be a support for others. I love to study and meditate on the Word of God, the
bible, which we are commanded to do, and spend time in prayer. I purpose
to live a Godly life in my roles of wife, mother, grandmother, friend
and volunteer. I am a volunteer for the Hospice Society.
If you have any comments or questions please contact me
at yoka_ca@yahoo.ca
Heb 10:16 17 This is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will
put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
