Testimony time! :D

Well, let's take a break from all the anti-christ threads here, and share the best kinds of sermons: How one was led to Christ.

Go ahead and share!

Revelation 12:11
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony , and they did not love their lives to the death.
NKJV

My Testimony's LONG ( because it's pretty detailed), so if you're not in the story mood, don't even bother reading!

OK, so now that everyone knows that, here we go:

Ryu's Testimony

Hello!

My names Claudia, but online my names "Ryupower", or just 'Ryu'.

And no, I'm not a Capcom fan !( IMA DRAGON! RAWR!!) >_<*
Well,- I was, sorta, I liked the games (No effect on my name!) but that was the old me. The new me's a Christian who's really picky what she puts in her system.

In fact, let me share my testimony with you when I'm just getting there.

I was Born in Germany, and I was "baptised" (or sprinkled) Catholic. Yes, Catholic, my grandma was stricktly Catholic ( I think she was saved though, I don't know because
I never payed attention to it...now I wish I did.),
but she didn't mind going to other Churches, as long as she was called ' a catholic.

Anyways, so that's why I was baptised as a Catholic. So according to tradition I went to Chuch with my family, I was a CEO ( Christmas Easter Only ),
and my 'parents' only went there because my grandma made them, and they didn't want to defend her.

So, according to tradition I also went to Communion with my friend ( whom I haven't seen in ages, I pray that she'll get saved ) at the age of, I think it was 8.
There I learned the 'Our Father' and the 'Hail Marry' and some other prayers ( I forgot those prayers within the later years ).
However, I never understood the concept of ' Jesus dying for my sins on the cross', I just didn't. I mean, so Jesus died on the cross for me, took my sins
away...huh?! How'd that work? So every time I sin I add to His suffering, and how can blood cover sins anyways?! He had a certain period of time on the cross,
does every sin make it longer?

It just didn't make sense to me. During my period in 'Communion' ( which I didn't even understand the concept of ) I also started to develop a false dogma :
" Good people go to Heaven, bad-really bad people go to Hell, and okay people get...reincarnated..."

: rolleyes:

So here we go...
after time passed, I got into shows like DBZ ( the devil's trap) , and started doing online searches under those keywords,
than I stumbled upon a site, I think it was called " The Underground ", yes, I remember " The Underground Dragon" was it's name. I think it still exists today.
This site wrote about a energy called " ki ", your so-called ' life force ' ( Devil...) this 'energy' could be manipulated, you can do all sorts of stuff with it...
'heal'. create so-called ' energy balls ', do attacks, and all sort of " INTERESTING" things that were invisible to the average person.

So here's the beginning of my trip downwards. I was 10 years then ( after finding out that my 'father' really wasn't my father, he was my step father.
Yeah, I 'm a product of adultery. I now live with my real dad, and I'm afraid the man I lived with back than's in hell now.
I think of him every now and than, hoping, almost praying, that he repanted at the end. He was an atheist. :'( )


These things continued to interest me, after a while I came to study all sorts of Demonic stuff ( I didn't know though), things like Energy manipulation ( ki, chi, psi, psy; qui, WHATEVER
on wants to call it.) like telekinesis, telepathy, empathy ; Paganism, in other words witchcraft and 'majik/ magick' ( Generally written like that to seperate it from the 'tricks and illusions magic'), including tarot cards; and of coarse,
New age things like Astrology, pendulums, metaphysics, seeing auras and anything having to do with the 'spiritual' realm.
I was severely hungry for spiritual stuff as you can see, the devil obviously liked to feed me with rat poison...


The only things I didn't do were: Paganistic rituals ( like sacrifices and that kind of trash ), Ouiji ( sp?) boards, and I tried but never made Astral Projection/OBE
( an angel was taking care of me! Seriously!).



I also had lust issues, but even now I rarely talk about this, I was addicted to hentai and crap like that ( including yaoi ). I'm talkin' 10-13 here...
sshhhhh, don't tell anyone! ( well this is my testimony, so I may as well admit it! >.<;;; )

MOST OF ALL THOUGH, I had major pride issues, I was rebellious yet shy, I don't know the word for it, I never tried to fit in, I'd rather be myself and not talk with anyone, then be mainstream
and 'weak' like the other girls and fit in, I REALLY don't know how to explain it, I wanted to be part of them, and fit in, it almost led me to suicide! ( I was playing with the
idea of suiciding, but I was too worried about my family missing me, and too worried about them finding my Hentai in Yaoi. Yeah, you heard me,
that was one of my reasons not to suicide! XD)- I thought I'd get reincarnated into a ducky or something...what a bundle of lies, huh? I just wanted to escape.
Escape from this world, this world filled with cruelty violance, and people, people who wouldn't care for me ( my family loved me SOOO much though, it's society
that agrivated me...and school in general).
Anyways, so you get the point had demon of rejection AND a demon of Pride, how does that work? ;;


I was a member of Hipforums since I was 10, I think. Must look at my stats some time. Yup, there are still some threads and replies left from those times...
I also got annoyed by the Christians there. Anyone that didn't believe in the supernatural was a 'Christian'. Ha! You hear me! We know now that THAT is
certainly NOT the case! And I also thought they were narrow minded and intolerant. But Atheists! ( and I think some Agnostics too) .
I actually remember directly accusing an Atheist of being a Christian ( OH! that must kick poor Libertine and ImFuzzyNutz in the face! Sorry guys! XD ),
actually that threads still up, here, I'll post it :

http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38170

(seconed post)

In other words, I JUDGED Christians without knowing a thing about their beliefs ( besides the 'Jesus dying on the cross' thing I never understood).
I studied EVERYTHING Hinduism, Budhism, Paganism, Satanism, Greek and Egyptian mythology,
EVERYTHING!-except Christianity and Judaism ( Islam too, but only because it's not as mainstream, now I do though).
I was given an assignment from my American school while I was in Germany, - write an essay/report about Martin Luther, my mom bought me his biography,
AND we went to his castle, still I didn't care, he was related to Christianity and therefore uninteresting, the Bible was not 'cool enough' ( unlike those pagan books.:rolleyes) nor interesting for me ( eventhough I never read it.
I cheated and copied off of other's paper in 'religion' class, because I didn't care ), I didn't care, and just rejected the assignment altogether.

So, there ya' go, an example of a person who had issues ( and still does because she's Christian. And we Christians KNOW we've got issues. ;P)
and was a HUGE (.) mess, couldn't have enough demons huh?

Now here comes the turning point,
January 2005. I was 14 and going on 15.
I just came out of cold wintery Germany, and landed in hot, sunny Florida.
Here, after a few days after arrival ( I think it was only 2 XD ) A 'lady' came in as a housekeeper, name's Kristine. And you know what? Guessed right. She was a spirit-filled Christian led by faith!
She already made it official the first day, after I noticed that she supported Gerorge W.Bush, and I didn't.
Now for me, only Christians supported ( President !! ) 'Bush'. I watched Fahrenhite (sp!) 9/11 some time before that.

She ministered to me. After a few days, I asked her in the car ( she drove me to school)
" So I have a question, if Christ died on the cross, how can that cover my sins? ", she goes:
" Here's the deal, only spotless, pure blood without blemish can cover sinful blood, and we all have sinned, the Jews used to sacrifice sheep to pay for their sins."
" But didn't Jesus sin too? My Religion teacher once said ' nobody is sinnless. Even Jesus sinned' ( No he probably didn't BTW! It was certainly just a false quote that Satan, using
my lack of attention, twisted to meet his needs I say.)
She goes " What? NO HE DIDN'T! He never sinned!! Jesus was sinless!"

Now a door knocked open. To my shock it was answered, that question, the answer I had once searched for!
Now I finally understood! Only sinless blood, which no other person but Jesus had, was shed for my sinful blood because no other blood COULD wash away sin.
No pure blood = Hell, because sin seperates us from G-d she says...

I was open, there goes my whole view of life, I was skeptic of my 'beliefs' now. Could what the Bible says be true? Could this actually be the only way to truth?
must I give up all the things I learned, all my views, for this? Will I go to Hell if I don't believe?! I know I've sinned! There's no excuse about that...

Some days later ( maybe two? XD), she told me about miracles and healings and Holy Ghost stuff, and how she disagreed with a bunch catholic dogma (In other words, she crashed down everything I knew about Christianity.Or atleast what I completely THOUGHT it was. Sorry if this offends any catholics here. .. there are some of you guys are saved. I know that.). Now this REALLY interested me,
so she's telling me that people actually get PHYSICLY healed of deformities and stuff...in Churches? The Bible is PROPHETIC? End days? Prophecies still happen today??
Huh?! Interesting, maybe I should check this out...(The New Ager in me went 'Ooohhhh...Supernatural!' G-d hit the spot. )And now I was completely open and almost saved in my head. Before this I didn't even understand the whole ' Holy Ghost' concept, who WAS this
Guy they always talked about in Churches and what was His use? -Now I did, so He was the part of G-d doing all the work...while the others ' just sit around ' (oy, ^^;, sorry Jesus and Father! I still repant of that!) in heaven

The next few weeks I questioned her, as in asking her a bunch of questions I practicly could already answer myself if I'd try,
I did this, to test her, to see if she can really back up her beliefs, or if there are a bunch of holes in her logic. Surprisingly, she could back them all up,
no holes, no weaknesses...she's had an answer for all , she knew EXACTLY what she believed, no doubt about that.
I also met her daughter who was about my age, and became buddies with her. She was open to my music and liked it, which softened me, ( Kristine only listened to Christian music, I
guess her Christian radio softened me too since I was getting a slap of The Annointing).
Kristine also gave me that non-toxic body lotion from a Christian company that didn't do animal testing, this , since I'm a vegetarian, softened me even more.

After two weeks I was invited to come with them to Busch Gardens, Tampa, an amusement Park and a zoo at the same time ( in alliance with Sea World, meaning they probably
treat their animals well aswell). But there was a catch: They wanted to go to a Church ( called 'the River' ) that Saturday, since Kristine don't forsake G-d for anything. They went
there before going to Busch Gardens. To be honest, I was excited, and I told my parents: " Well, going to an American Church couldn't hurt, so why not? "
My parents were happy about that, back then, that was. Today's a different story. As you can see, I was so open now and basicly already saved in my mind,just didn't want
to admit it.
So I went, I went to Tampa, there I met Kristine's father, who now already 'checked out', her HUGE cats, her father's dogs, and so on. That evening we also watched
" The Passion of the Christ", I was kinda excited. And I sorta liked it, but then she asked me afterwards: " What do you think of the movie?
Do you now believe that Jesus died on the cross for you? Do you want to accept him as your LORD and SAVIOUR, ask him to come into your heart?"
" Uhhh... I need to go to bed, to tired to decide now, can't think..."
I did, I did already for a couple of days, - I just didn't want to admit it.

" OK, than go to bed now."
" Maybe we can talk about this tommorrow...."


Indead tommorrow came.
We went to Church, or shall I say rock concert?

When pastor Rowdney Howard Brown (sp?) was preaching up there, I was a bit bored, I wanted more music,
Besides, the Holy Spirit didn't abide in me, yet. When we came towards the end of the sermon, pastor asked if
there were any people in here that want to ask Christ into their heart? 4-6 came up, in a row. He goes, " anyone else?",
Kristine and her daughter, I could tell, were thinking about me. I didn't go, I didn't want the two to find out that
'they' ( more precisely, Christ. ;P) had won. My pride was hinderring me.

Now he told the sinners ready to get born-again up there what they were supposed to pray, he said it on the microphone.

Now here it came, my last hour as a what I later found out to be a New-Ager had come...


- I submitted.

I bowed down my head and said the sinner's prayer that pastor dictated. I looked up to the other people who had this minute
just become Christian. And seeing them in the line, I wondered: Where's the wine and that tarter? Or whatever you call that cookie.
THERE WAS NONE! X.x;
I was expecting to see them get the wine and the tarter, because that's what people do when they line up in Church...(lol)


When I came out of the Church, for the first time in my life, I walked out as a Christian. A born-again, on-fire Christian with
Jesus in her heart. And my two friends? Well, they noticed that I prayed. X.x
Kayla said: " You're my sister now!"
I was embarressed that they knew, but hey, now I didn't have to admit it anymore.

We then went in the car, and left for Busch Gardens. ^o^ ,V,,


~THE END~( finally)


Your turn Christians!
















​

 

whats wrong with being a catholic?

 

Nothing really, that's why I said sorry, it's just the extra stuff that's not in the Bible that we disagree with. That's all.

 

I see. You know, i dont really have a story. I do, but i still doubt. Im like, why is aura reading bad for you, christians can have an aura. I dont see the harm. But also im not sure about how much has been edited from the bible and all, and some things just dont make sense to me. On some days i really do feel God, i really do believe, but ive never felt the need to be really saved. Ive sort of accepted who Jesus is, and in one way i love Him, but its not like i really feel what He did. Its complicated. But i do feel like a christian, i do believe in God, i do believe Jesus is His Son.

 

i didn't realize you've only been a christian for a short time, since after january this year. you seem like the kind of person who, once she gets into a subject, works very hard to study as much on it as she possibly can, because you've learned a lot on protestant christianity in a small period.

 

ryu, its pretty much like i said in other threads, you seemm confused, the type to fall head first into any cult mentality
& its odvios your filling a void in your life, instead of confronting the causes of that void (except by just labeling thos causes the devil..lol what a joke)

mertie, i really respect your beleifs because i feel you have really examined your beleifs instead of just allowing yourself to be simpky brainwashed into believing them.

ryu, i think you were closer to the truth then you thought when you were keeping an open mind about the nature of spirit

 

Everyone that ever lived and that will live has a void and there is only one way to fill that void and He goes by the name of Jesus.

 

Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived in a nice neighborhood.
He had a nice family, nice friends and a nice little church.
He was taught of God, Jesus, the Bible from age 0.
He attended the finest private Christian schools around.
He was trained in Biblical studies: history, customs, Hebrew, Greek, philosophy and lots and lots of commentary by authorities on the subject.
He graduated w/honors and won the trophies and certificates to prove it.
He went on to study philosophy, minor in psychology.
He became a teacher of Christian philosophy.
He continued to study more and more philosophy, more history, more mythology.
Finally, he decided to step and investigate the "other side" (atheism) from their own literature and not from the filter of Christian apologists.
He challenged himself and eventually came to the realization he was agnostic.
After two more years of further study, he embraced the skepticism of the lack of evidence of the supernatural and became an atheist.
Today he is freer and happier than he's ever been and wants to loose the chains of other slaves of religion.

His name is not Libertine, but his username is.

 

I absolutely agree with you that we shouldn't catagorize Catholics as unchristian. I know many Catholics that take their salvation very seriously.

However, I wouldn't necessarily agree that Catholics have the oldest, and therefore, truest church. Please don't forget about our Messianic brothers and sisters who were in hiding during the persecution before Constantine legalized Christianity and used it for the purpose of declaring a war to futher his objectives. This is the RC church's true beginning, and they've felt the need to apologize for this transgression and abuse of power years later...

Testimony Time? I dunno. I'm long-winded anyway, as I'm sure ya'll have realized, but I'll do my best to make it short.

In my birth, I was the product of a tryst that should never have happened. My mother was a low-ranking officer on a Naval ship, and my father was second in command. She was given a quiet dismissal when it became apparent because of the tightness of her uniform.

She went home to her parents, who had bought a house in anticipation of the event, regardless of the fact that money was tight. And things went well for the next 3 years.

My mother smoked reefer on the regular, but obviously got into other things too. She smoked some greens (PCP) one night, and pretty well lost it. They put her in the hospital, where she tried to escape to get home, and ended up jumping out of a window on the fifth floor. She barely lived.

But in this, her cousin, who had difficulty getting pregnant, found this to be the perfect opportunity. My grandparents worked too much to care for me, so they allowed the cousin to take care of me for a while. At which time, they went to the court and adopted me under the claim that my mother was unfit.

The next sixteen years were filled with abuse of every type. It's not something I like to talk about, so we'll leave it at that. And when I tried to get help when I was twelve, they threatened to "give me away like Mommy did". I was petrified.

I tried again at sixteen. They brought me to a shrink, who medicated me to the point of idiocy till I escaped at 19. But I was already all fucked up. I couldn't cope with life. I involved myself in witchcraft and hard drugs... to the point where I couldn't stand to be sober. And at that point, no one could stand me. And my boyfriend who I'd been seeing since I was 15 sent me home at almost 21.

But I couldn't stand it at my mother's cousin's house. She was always looking through my things, and making sure I had taken my "medicine". I had been drinking one July 4th, and she started with me. I beat the tar out of her. And I was arrested... Basically sent out of state. I came home to my real mother and grandmother. I didn't stop there though.

I learned more about myself than I had ever known before... My mother and I were one and the same, even though we had been apart for years. But I still couldn't stop drowning myself in drugs... I felt like my sanity was slipping away.

Eventually, I went to stay with my grandma, and saw what my uncles had turned into. A couple of dope fiends, willing to steal anything she had to feed their fix. I was scared. How can they do this??? Am I gonna be this way???

I couldn't stop though. And I hated the idea of Christianity. Hated it. Screw that. How could G-d let this shit happen to me? I was just a kid! It had to be bullshit.

But for some reason, Grandma convinced me to go to church one night. I wanted to make her happy, she had been so plagued by dealing with her sons B.S., I was willing to do anything to cheer her up.

I was still a spiritual person as a Wiccan. I figured, hey, I'm in church, they're praying, I'll focus my energies as well. And the preacher said something so simple, he asked Jesus to go and be with His people, to lighten their burden (many in the church were sick). That pastor moved me, with such emotion he spoke in worry about his parishoners. I was touched, I had never seen a Christian pastor who really cared.

In my mind, I knew that there was a Jesus, but I didn't accept Him to be my savior. But I said in my mind, yes, Jesus, go and be with your people, lighten their burdens.... And a littler voice whispered in desparation... And if you are really who you claim to be, lighten mine as well.

My heart might as well have exploded... I pretty much felt an invisible hand grab me from behind and throw me to the front of the church, where I landed face first on the altar, sobbing. I give up, I cried. I couldn't take it anymore... I accepted my defeat.

But in this moment, a lightness filled me that I can't describe. A tingling. A highness not found in a drug. Comfort... Just what I needed. I sighed with relief. Wounds that had been open for years finally stopped bleeding and began the process of healing.

But that is just the beginning of the story of my process to becoming a whole person... But it is the Holy Ghost's intervention that has made it all possible.

 

That's quite a stat sheet. But like most theologians and pastors, I think you were missing one key aspect--the holy spirit. What do you learn at college or seminary the same recycled stuff your teacher has learned and their teacher has learn and so on. But when you ask the Holy Spirit for the truth you get it straight from the source. So when someone asks for truth it does not matter how much schooling or "trophies" one has but only anyone (no matter their degree) who is trully seeking the truth. Remember God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

 

Me, i always knew there was a God, i just never knew who, or what...I did have a basic idea last spring [2004], and thats when i went on sort of a "cyber-spiritaul quest"...Right off the bat, i dismissed Christianity [cause i though i knew so much about it, so i just dismissed it kinda like "no, i know what thats all about, and thats not what i believe" sort of thing ], any ways, i continued to read a bit obout Islam, and frankly, at that point in time, it made zero sense to me, i dindt understand any concept within it...

The next thing i found was Krishna/ISKCON..."yeah, there we go" i thought...many manifestaations, trancesndental God, and well frankly, i was probobly influenced a bit by George Harrisons music, but again, as with most things, although some apealed to me, so much of it i just couldnt accept...so more seaching

wgile this was going on, i developed a belief of religious and God unity, and when i found Baha'i, i thought i found the ticket, but i never did accept the Bahal'luah[ sp?] as a Manifestation of God, nor could i accept Moses, Mohammad, or Buddah as "true" Manifesations, only prophets because the simple fact remained, none of thoe people ever claimed to be God...so i worshiped Krishna, and Jesus as God...

anyways, i probobly came to this conlusion some time around when school started. i felt great, a new school year, and faith to get me through. i prayed to both Krishna and Jesus, chanted Hare Kreishna mantras, and creatd mantra's for Jesus...i even read the "Bahavaghad Gita as it is"

anyways, while praying, i noticed i was only praying to Jesus [or just p[raying to Krishna less and less until he was gone from my heart]...this really took no real concious effort, i have no logicall way to explain WHY or anyhting, it just was

but even now though, as i consider myself a christain, im not sure about some things, the Pauline texts for example, and the extent to which the OT is to be taken literally...im still learning and my faith is growing and changing often...




my testimony is sorta lame if you ook at them as interesting stories, but its true none the less...i havent been "saved" in the modern prodestant meaning, heck i havent even attended a church session either...one of these day, one of these days

 

Since this is a "testimony" thread, I won't tie it up with debate. However, I would love to debate these issues with you JDFU.

 

* thumps head against table*

OK, so who here actually stayed on topic? ( Burbot, Hippielongstkng, myrtje ...)

Testimonies guys! ( BTW Libertine, I always wondered what got you off of Christianity, thanks now that I know)

And I never said catholics aren't Christian. So what brought you guys to that idea?
Of coarse they are, and some are actually saved. I think my grandma was saved.

ANYWAYS, let's go 'back' to sharing testimonies!

 

Nice.

As you see, G-d has his ways when it comes to leading people to him.

Have you said the sinner's prayer yet? If you did and really mean what you say, you'll be what the 'protestant' meaning is for saved.


( and BTW: I'm not a protestant guys! ^^; )

 

How dare you say that it's really long after seeing the half-a-page I had?
Your's was very well sized, thank you.

Wow, you were a mess! But Jesus cleared you out! He's good.

Your seconed to last paragraph reminded me of something I once heard.
I never tried cocaine, but I heard that the feeling you get is similar to that
that you get when you receive an infillment ( sp? ) of the Holy Spirit.
And it wasn't a joke, he was saying that seriously while 'preaching'. ( it wasn't a church, more like a assembly concerning the end days)

After thinking about that, I realized, maybe we were created to experience it, and people do cocaine because they get that feeling they never really experianced, in order to fill that void. Since Satan always wants a counterfeit (sp?) of the real deal.

 

You were raised Christian huh?
Well, there's your testimony!
That works too. ^^

Yeah, we've all got auras, it's actually scientifically proven. BUT having an aura, and reading it are to totally different things.
So what speeks against it? Here's the deal:

In order to see and read auras one must be able to open his/her 'third' eye, ''located'' (ahem) on your forehead right above the space between the two eyebrows.
After doing this, one will be able to see auras, seeing them colored comes with practice.
Your third eye's a chakra and it's demonic! ( like you didn't know that. ^^; )

That's why.

 

I gess you could call it a testimony

http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115414&page=1

I dont think it very faith uplifting more of a record of my spirtual journey.

 

No, i wasnt raised a christian. My mom was raised a catholic, and so was my father. My father turned away from the church when he was 18, is now an atheist (i think), doesnt believe in ghosts (i think), says things like people who believe in the devil are crazy, and God is insane. My mother still has some catholic believes, but you couldnt say she's religious. I went to church when i was younger, just because she wanted me to at least grew up with some kind of faith. She believes there is something more, something higher, but she doesnt know what. I grew up believing christians were completely mad, but ive always believed there;s something more.

Why the feck is it demonic? Then why do we have them? If its your own aura and tells how you feel and all, whats wrong with it? How is all this paranormal stuff bad? Why do i have this paranormal gift just to do nothing with it? I didnt ask for seeing ghosts, yet as a child, i certainly did. Its not like i ever decided to practice it and then learn how to see them, i just did when i was little. Why does God create this gift, and why do all little kids have them, if theyre just there to be evil? I dont see why chakra's would be demonic when we all have 7.

 

one of my christain friends claimed that he could see, what i guess you could consider aura's, with the help of the Holy Spirit...

i think he said it was like, oh, wait, i can't remember...anywho, it was like somethign the person gave off, but he could see it or somethign or other...

anywho