Personal Testimonies

The Blessings of Following a Living Christ
by Carlos

Following a living Jesus

I was raised believing in Jesus. I didn’t think much about Him first, until somebody told me the story of Jesus. It was Easter time so they figured it was a good time to tell me about Jesus death. A sweet young girl in the church told me how Jesus suffered, was despised, tortured and finally killed unjustly in a very painful way, on a cross. I was 7 years old at the time, very impressionable and that story stuck with me for life.

Since then I concluded that to be a good Christian and follower of Jesus I had to follow His sample. He gave us the greatest example of altruistic love, suffering and ultimately death.  The only problem in this story is that there was no victory at all. Yes, He suffered out of love for us – and died, that’s it! So for me, to suffer, be depressed, be sad, be condemned and accused was the way to go if I wanted to be a good follower of Jesus.

That religion led me to a life a great depression in my youth, a life of negativity and almost death. Hell on earth, while longing for true freedom, joy and life. ¹

Finally the real Jesus came to my rescue in my darkest hour and He sent me someone that led me to accept Jesus Christ into my heart. Suddenly it was like I was flooded with Light and Joy. Since that day I learned to share His life with others and that’s what I have been doing since then.

Why the first religion led me to depression, fear, sadness, condemnation and almost death, and the other one led me to life, joy, and a positive life of helping others? Well, in the first one I was worshipping a dead and defeated Jesus, and now I am worshipping a living and victorious Jesus.²

I’m worshipping a living God now that leads me to Life eternal. Jesus is alive, He resurrected 3 days later and never came back to the cross again. He overcame the world and everything that the world can do to destroy us.³ Jesus only went through that suffering and death because it was the only way to bring us to His level of Life. There is absolutely no virtue in suffering and dying. Jesus hated it and asked His Father to please pass that cup way from Him.⁴ He didn’t want it, but He did it anyway because it was the only way to bring us to eternal life.

Jesus wasn’t much for suffering and self-denial. His enemies even criticized Him for not fasting and not teaching His disciples to fast.⁵ He drunk and laughed with His friends when appropriated and again was criticized for that.⁶

We now worship a living God, a happy God, full of life. That’s the only God that exists, the One True God, anything else leads to death. 

1.      Prov.14:12, Prov.16:25 There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

2.    1Co 15:17-19  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

3.     Joh_16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

4.     Mat_26:39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

5.      Mat_9:14  Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? Mar_2:18  And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? Luk_5:33  And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?

6.      Mat 11:18-19  John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

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Freedom from Panic and Fear

By Sara

In today's busy life sometimes gets overwhelming for us to keep up with all our responsibilities and at the same time stay inspired and free from worries. Negativity is all around and is not always easy to keep positive and full of trust. No matter how strong our beliefs are, we all get hit with negative emotions that can be difficult or almost impossible for us to stop unless we are really aware and prepared to counterattack them immediately. The thing is that sometimes we are not even aware until is already gone too far. It all starts with a little negative feeling about ourselves, others or the world and we feel justified to feel this way, but the problem is that soon we will find ourselves inviting a lot of other negatives in the form of worry, fear, guilt, bitterness and the list goes on.

These more strong emotions can have terrible effects over our minds and once this happens we can be sure that our physical body will start giving us warnings. Fear for example, will materialize very soon in the form of physical sensations that make us believe that something really wrong is happening to us and that cause us to fear even more. The result is that we can actually feel physically sick and that of course causes us to become more fearful because we start believing that something is seriously wrong with us. It is a vicious cycle, one triggers the other.

That's why some people have panic attacks. We start fearing that something is really wrong with our physical body and once this fear pops in our mind the sensations will accompany it in our body and we panic. Once this happens we will fear it will come again and it will. That's how powerful our mind is.

I can tell you a story about me. After giving birth to my seventh child (Sara Melissa, now 20 years old) and at the same time going through big changes in my life I started feeling a little overwhelmed about things. At the same time I had lots of work with a new baby and all the other children to take care.

My worries kept on growing and soon I was worrying about many little things, then I started fearing this that and the other to happen and finally, after a very tiring day, I had one sleepless night. I start feeling lots of pressure on one side of my head and became even more fearful that maybe I had something very wrong happening to me.

I refuse the idea of going to the doctor because of fear of having some bad disease. I did not know what to do and I was hit with terrible fears about everything and specially, fear of dying. My children were all young and I was so worried about who would take care of them if I died. This was very real and I felt physically very sick. The worse was in the night when everybody was sleeping and I stayed awake listening to my negative thoughts and becoming more and more fearful.

Because of that I was so tense that all my body would start to shake like if I was freezing cold, I could not control my nerves and could barely speak. This happened one night and of course I did not sleep. Next night I went to bed thinking it would maybe happen again and it sure did.

Well, this happened three nights in a row and I was desperate. The fourth night after being in bed for three hours awake I knew I could not continue like this, I had to do something. I told myself that if I die, I die and that the children would be fine in case that would happen and God would take care of them. Amazingly as I made this decision in my mind I started to feel so much better. I got up silently, turn on a small lamp and lay on the floor with a cup of tea and a book of beautiful quotes on strength and power. .

As I began reading and meditating on those words a warm sensation started in my feet and came all over my body, soon I felt warm and went back to bed and slept like a baby. After that I started having long walks every morning, as before I was even afraid of going out of the house

 This experience really strengthen me in this area of my life and when I find myself in situations that would cause me to be fearful, I can handle them totally differently and fear never had the same grip on me.