Of the sixteen children my parents had, two became priests and I became a nun. From our childhood, we were taught that the Roman Catholic Church was the true church, and in order for us to one day have eternal life in heaven, we had to be good and do good. My mother's great wish was that she have at least one daughter who would be a nun. I was the chosen one. I attended the parish high school; and immediately after graduating in 1960, I entered the convent of the “School Sisters of St. Francis” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Life in the convent was harsh and strict. We had learned about church saints and church doctrine, but not the scriptures. I received my first Bible, after being in the Convent for ten years. It was not placed in my hands by the Roman Catholic Church but by a group of Charismatics.
The Sharing of my Brother
My younger brother met the Lord through Campus Crusade. He had dropped out of engineering school and was attending the Moody Bible Institute. He came to visit me often and shared his newfound faith. Through Ephesians 2: 8-9 he tried to convince me that salvation is a gift from God that can only be obtained by believing in Jesus Christ alone and that our good works do not save us, as is clearly written in the Bible. “For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not by works, so that no one can boast.
(Titus 3: 5) He saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but by his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and by the renewal in the Holy Spirit. It was very obvious that my brother had the assurance of the eternal vine that I so desperately wanted, but I did not believe that my church had deceived me in such an important truth.
The Convent and the False Religion
For five years and happiness for myself. I tried Yoga, transcendental meditation, Silva's mind control, tongues, and prophesying. This seemed to satisfy me for a while, but in the end, it leaves the spirit confused. After fifteen years in the convent, and still not finding peace with God for what I had longed for, I seriously began to question my life as a religious. I entered the convent believing that I could be "good" enough. However, I found that in the convent the nuns sin like the women of the world.
Changes of Habits
In 1975 I wrote to the Pope and received his permission to be released from my vows. When I left the convent, I felt as if I had failed myself, my family and my church. Instead of going home, I went to the East to live with a friend who was an ex-nun. The two of us decided to get even with all those years we had been locked up and try everything the world had to offer. It didn't take long for me to realize that the world couldn't offer me anything either.
A Direct Prayer
One afternoon when I returned to the apartment, I found my friend in big trouble. She had been drinking and smoking marijuana and was in despair. It seemed like he wanted to end his life. I felt scared, the more I tried to calm her, the more anger and violence she expressed. Finally, in desperation, I grabbed her, and began to pray. I believe that this was the first time in my life that I prayed directly to God, without praying to the Blessed Mother and the saints. By doing this, God heard my prayer and she immediately calmed down.
Wonderful Grace
That night we decided to find the truth about God. We kneel down and sincerely ask God for help and forgiveness. We asked him to straighten out our confusion that we had in our life. As Isaiah says, we made our lives a filthy rag. We were not familiar with the term "saved" and "born again", but from that moment I began to experience for the first time in my life His peace "that passes understanding." After that time there was a change in my heart and in my life. The Word of God came to be a light on my path, where before there had been confusion. The verses of the Bible took on new meaning. (Ephesians 1: 7) "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of my grace." (Romans 5: 8-10) “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. For much more, being already justified in my blood, through him we will be saved from wrath. Because if, being enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life ”.
Since my conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ, God has blessed me in many ways. I attended a Bible school in England where I received profound doctrinal teachings. They gave me a trip to Jerusalem (the holy city) where I had the joy of walking where my Lord came centuries ago and where I received a better perspective on the Scriptures. I have been a counselor with a family agency, I am married (to a widower), and I am not only a wife, but a mother of five and a grandmother of ten.
Every day, in good or difficult circumstances, like Isaiah, I can say, “I will rejoice greatly in Jehovah, my soul will rejoice in my God; because he clothed me with the garments of salvation, he surrounded me with a robe of justice, as a bridegroom he adorned me, and as a bride adorned with his jewels ”. (Isaiah 61:10).
Perhaps you, too, have come to the conclusion that a religious life cannot bring about salvation. If you want to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, believe in Him and in His death, burial and resurrection that paid for your sins in full and receive the salvation that He offers freely by grace through faith. But we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding to know him who is true; and we are in the true one, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols". Amen.
Recognize that eternal life is in Christ and only in Him; setting our eyes and praying to others is idolatry. Obey God's warnings in Scripture. (Colossians 2: 8-10) “See that no one deceives you by means of philosophies and empty subtleties, according to the traditions of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
God is all holy. His holiness is the determining factor in all his essential characteristics. This is the reason why we need to be reconciled before the all holy God on the terms that He prescribes. Turn to God in faith for the salvation that He alone gives, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, based on the death of Christ and his resurrection and believe only in Him "to the praise of the glory of his grace." (Ephesians 1: 6) Understanding the gospel motivates us to proclaim it in reverent gratitude "Not to us, O Jehovah, not to us, But to your name give glory, Because of your mercy, because of your truth." (Psalm 115: 1) Believe only in Him and you will be sure, being accepted in Christ Jesus so that you can contemplate His Glory, knowing that that Glory will be for all eternity. So if anyone is in Christ, new creature is; old things passed away; behold, they are all made new ”. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
[Source: https://bereanbeacon.org/es/mi-conversion-en-la-gracia-de-dios/]
No comments:
Post a Comment