This Blog was started for me to celebrate my life walking with Jesus. He continualy blesses and teaches me in ways that i really feel the need to share. So this blog is about him and for him.
I'll tell you a breif story on how i came to become a christian. Of course looking back through my life, i can name several instances where he was calling me. But i either fobbed it off as something else, or i chose to ignore him.
When i was very young my mother joined a Spiritualist church and became a self proclaimed witch. She had always been psychic and this became her outlet.Even though parents tend to say,"We'll let our kids make up their own minds",Children watch and ask questions and it just stands to reason that children follow what their parents believe about religious matters. So of course i just accepted mums way of life as truth. Every house we lived in was "haunted" with something. Be it a person or animal. And i did see things.Most of them things a child should never be exposed to. The only thing we were taught about God is that Jesus only came to earth to prove that there was life after death. And that "born again" christians are just here to sway us from the truth.
I was a ratbag of a kid. Not "naughty" as such. I was just kinda mixed up and looking for trouble. I wasn't afraid of anything and i had a big mouth that got me into all sorts of situations. I was one of those kids who used to smoke behind the bike shed and abuse the student prefects at school.I only went to school to eat my lunch and eventualy got expelled..you know the kind.
When i was 19, i moved into a youth hostel in Budaberg QLD [that's another story!]. There was a guy who lived there, Danny [19],and he was a church going,bible bashing speed addict. Most people would have seen him as a hypocrite, as just another reason to reject God.But i didn't.I picked on him about it and stirred him up like people do,but i didn't push him away and judge him. He was an anxious person who raved about Gods love when he wasn't high,and raved about how much we need God when he was high. But i saw something in Danny,something i hadn't seen before. Even though he was seriously struggling with life,when he spoke about God,he looked differant.calm,happy,peaceful..something that made me squint my eyes while i looked at him,thinking "what is that thing??" whenever he spoke about God.
One of the workers at the hostel,Eva, was a church going christian too [she had "that thing" too!]. At night, her and Danny would sit up and talk & read their bibles together into the small hours. At first i would lay in bed listening. Then i'd lean inside my bedroom doorway listening. Then i went and sat with them and pretended to read another book. Then i started asking questions. How do they know God is real? How come men wrote the bible but it's "God's word"? Why did Jesus come here just to die? Why will there be a judement day? All those sorts of questions.
The answers made sense and i spent time dwelling on them.
I moved on,got married and had kids. My husband was raised in a Seveth Day Adventist church and his parents were very strict when it came to religion. They scared me off with all that,"If you listen to that you'll go to hell" and "if you don't do this you'll go to hell", all the time.It was very suppressing and confusing. [ I'm sure SDA members aren't all like that :o) ]
We moved to the Byron Bay [NSW] area, and walking down the street one day, in amoungst all the new age clothing and incense shops, there was a little christian book shop with literature all over the front window. I went inside and snooped around, and that was the turning point to the rest of my life!
The owner of the shop, Bill, invited me to attend their local CLC church [Christian Life Centre]and i went. It was an experience like no other. Everyone was really freindly and treated us like old freinds. They all sang and danced like no-one else was in the room, the band members played trendy music and everyone...everyone, had "that thing". I didn't know what it was, but i knew i wanted it. I didn't really know anything about this place, but i knew i was home and it almost felt like a relief. A breath of fresh air. I got baptised and gave my life to God.
My mother was not pleased about this [amoung other things] at all and told my husband over the phone to tell me that i no longer had a mother. She didn't speak to me for 8 months.
I started to learn about what God is really about and what he has done for us. How we seporated from him,and how we can be with him again.
Mum eventualy started talking to me again and she too started asking questions about my new found faith and life. Cancer took mum a few short years later. The night she died, she left a piece of paper on her bedside table.On it was a prayer asking God to save her, And i believe he did,and i will see her again :o)
In the meantime,My marriage eventualy broke down as my husband decided he didn't want to be part of a family anymore. So my daughters and i moved to Murwillumbah NSW and started a journey of our own.Even though i now knew the truth about God, i didn't really have much of a personal relationship with him, and i started slipping backwards with my life. I fell into depression & I was starting to let myself down and my daughters too. God never left me, not for one minute. He was just waiting for me to lean on him.
Then a "knight in shining Mitsubishi" came into my life and rescued us. John is a wonderful man, and the beginning of many blessings that i will speak of, that lead me to where i am today. We married and together we have a son and with my daughters,we live in central NSW .
We found a little CLC church of only about 50 people. We commited to be part of that church and since then,my own faith has flourished wonderfully. Every day God teaches me something new. About me and about him. And here i'll explain how :o)