I was baptized... about a month after I was born. First Communion... jeez, can’t remember what year it was. Confirmation as a Roman Catholic... age 13.
Is there anything more along those lines I need to do?
Pray for me all you want. Reading these just makes me more alienated.
Hey, we want the best for you, we are not here to damn you. We urge and warn you that you need to get off the devil’s wind and onto God’s if you don’t want to end up in spiritual utter destruction.
If you'd be interested, I'd be happy to give you any or all of these books (easy to do if you have a Kindle) I've found helpful:
My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life
(Read the forward by Anne Rice to this book!)
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
Heaven is Real But So is Hell: An Eyewitness Account of What is to Come by Vassula Ryden.
I found each of these books helpful and would be happy to share them with you. Also, I haven't read this one yet, but it is likely the most transformational of them all:
It's Vassula Ryden's conversation with God and His mission for her.
I also was baptized, did my First Communion, Confirmation, was raised in a devout household by parent with conscience, weekly and more attending services, and believed in God intellectually, but i had no spiritual life. I "said my prayers" but God was very external. Church is the family coming together but the church of the Bible preached Jesus, not advertizing themselves or substituting rote professions and rituals for relationship.
But years after, when i realized how empty i was, and that my sins separated me from God and that i needed to really repent, and did so sincerely and tearfully, and came to trust in Christ to saved me on His expense and merit, did i really have heart and life changes that extended beyond what i could change by God's grace, so that even nature was new to this rural young man.
Was i perfect, and would never fall away to some degree, or no longer seek greater holiness, no, but a fundamental and radical change took place, resulting in my wanted to serve King Jesus, whom i see working daily as we seek Him.
Read some of the Bible, like the gospel of Luke (the physician) Think about your sins of omission and commission, and be honest and with God, and decide you want Christ over your way, giving Him your sins and life, trusting and asking Him to save you who will never leave those who follow Him.
You can watch some well done video testimonies of souls who found Christ here if you want. and keep in touch.
I was also raised Catholic and never felt accepted by the God I was raised to believe in in Catholicism.
It wasn’t until I hit rock bottom that I finally started talking to God. Nothing fancy, just talking, like I would with a friend.
In a moment of despair, I turned my life over to God. I told Him that if He could straighten out this mess of a life of mine, He could have it. I’d do anything He wanted, even become a missionary and go to Africa, (the most desperate thing I could think of), because I’d rather be happy doing what He wanted me to do than to keep on going the way I was.
He took me up on it.
God doesn’t want you to perform. It’s not a matter of being *good enough* because nobody can. He wants a relationship with you. He doesn’t need you to do anything for Him. He’s God.
But He wants your heart. You don’t need to be perfect and you never will be and He knows that and He’s OK with that.
It hasn’t always been easy. God never promised us the health, wealth, and prosperity that some who call themselves Christian claim, but He does promise us eternal life with Him and to be with us and lead and strengthen us.
I don’t know that I will ever be able to eat most food again, but what He has done in me through this affliction, was worth the cost.