So you believed that Jesus
took the lady in charge of firing and hiring people at the store you worked at
because she was probably going to fire you because she saw that something
was wrong. And since Jesus was responsible for causing your problems,
He felt responsible for the possibility that you were going to lose your job
over Him, so He took the lady so you would not be fired. Sounds
logical, but not probable.
Sometime between 1972 and 1973
I received a phone call from a high school
friend. She had gone to New York to live for awhile and was now back home. She
said she had ‘found Jesus’ while she was away. I thought this was very
interesting because Jesus had ‘found me’.
She said that the Catholic Church had misled us about some teachings. I
told her I already knew that. She invited me to attend an evangelical church
she was attending and I accepted. After all I had been through up to this
point, I thought it would be interesting to go to a different church to see
what others believed. In high school we were taught what other religions
believe, such as Muslims, Jews, Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism, etc. And we were taught these religions did not have Jesus as their focus, therefore they were false religions. But they
never taught us what the Protestants believe. And we were forbidden to attend
any other church services besides the Catholic Church. And since both my
parents were raised Catholic, and both their parents were Catholic, and nearly
all of our relatives were Catholic, I grew up knowing only the Catholic
religion, with little outside influences from other sources. The Catholic Church
was our families’ life. I was protected by Catholicism by isolation from other beliefs. I was like a horse with blinders attached to each side of the eyes so that all I could see was what was right in front of me, which was Catholicism. I saw nothing to the left of me and nothing to the right of me. I saw only what was presented to me, which was Catholicism. I lived in a cocoon. I was incubated and forbidden to make connections with other religions. But I was an adult now with a different view of
religion. I needed to know what the other side believed. I believe I was twenty
years old when I walked into an evangelical church for the first time. I crossed that forbidden line.
The people at this church seemed
to have experiences similar to mine. I found that to be very interesting. Here,
I found out that Jesus had helped others with various struggles in their lives.
Before I began to have these experiences with Jesus, He was just someone I
heard about. I did not know Him personally until He made Himself known to me.
These people seemed to know Jesus personally also, and I found that to be
awesome. Now we all knew Jesus.
I eventually made a circle of
friends at this church and they taught me some things I had never heard before.
They taught me a lot about Biblical Prophecy and gave me Christian books and
literature to read. One day one of my friends informed me that someday there
will be a person called the Antichrist who will deceive the world. I had never
heard the word Antichrist before, so I asked her what that meant. I asked her,
“What is an Antichrist?” She told me that the Antichrist is a person. So I
asked her, “What kind of person?” She
told me that the Antichrist is a male, that he is a leader, who comes from
Europe, is associated with the Catholic Church, and claims to be God. I told her, “I know somebody just like that”.
She laughed. She also told me that he has a sidekick who coaxes him into doing
some very dangerous things.
I attended this church for quite
some time and even began to date one of my friends from there. His name was
Kurt and he loved the Lord Jesus and had so much joy and love in his life. He
played the guitar in a Christian Rock band. I loved Kurt and he told me that he
loved me. He asked me if I thought I would enjoy being married to him. I took
that as a proposal. But no sooner had the words left his lips when Jesus came
into my presence and said in a very demanding and authoritative voice, “Don’t
you marry Kurt!” He even used Kurt’s name. Kurt, of course, saw nothing and heard
nothing, and I told him nothing. But I saw Jesus, and I heard Him loud and
clear, and I knew I had to obey Him. It tore me apart to let Kurt go, but I had
to obey Jesus. This marked the third time I saw Jesus.
I had to wean off my relationship
with Kurt and he eventually married someone else. He moved out of state and eventually
went on and became a minister. I knew I had to obey Jesus. After all, He is the King, even though His
Kingdom is not yet set up on this earth. Someday it will be and He will no
longer feel that He is the ‘King of Nothing’.
King of Nothing
Seals and Crofts - 1974
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