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Escape to Reality
by Joyce Johnson Funny, isn't it the way things turned out? "I am too young to be a Christian I need to enjoy myself, I will think about it, maybe when one foot is in the grave. In fact the Church is full of hypocrites and I don't want to become one." I have been a Christian for nearly forty years dispite my earlier criticisms about God and the Church. I am learning daily that I am not the one, who is keeping me in the straight and narrow, but God the Creator, who lives in me; He daily guides me in the paths of righteousness. My discovery came about seven years after I left my island in the sun. I was born in Kingston, Jamaica - West Indies in 1938. Jamaica a nation then, was very religious I don't know what it is like now; but I can remember our people were always singing songs of Zion, and a natural phenomenon was interpreting the Bible according to their own understanding. 'I grew up knowing some choruses and hymns, also fearing that God would send me to hell if I did this or that' I had no clue that rejecting what God had done for me would have kept me out of heaven. I did not know the full story of redemption God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for me (John 3:16-17). I failed to recognise that I was a sinner and totally messed up; I was on my way to hell if I did not accept the gift of salvation. You see, my life did not turn out as I had expected, emotionally, my hell was on earth; my husband had abondoned me with three children for another woman. I was bitter against God and man. I said, 'I hadn't done anything wrong, there wasn't a God, if there was a God He wouldn't have allowed my life to be like this way.' I hadn't asked God to guide my decisions, I was doing my own thing so I was reaping what I had sown; looking back I could see my double standard, 'Keep out of my business God, so why should God had intervened in my life?' My mind was made up to get back at my husband, I was filled with bitterness against the world, I was bent on getting even with everyone, his mother, his mistress and anyone dared crosses my path but God in His mercy rescued me, He diverted the path I was heading and my eyes was vaguely opened. My name is Joyce Johnson, I have been a christian since 1966. I accepted the Lord in a Billy Graham Crusade in Earls Court, London, UK. I love to write every and anything on paper, write letters to God also write my thoughts during my devotion. I have regularly submitted articles in my Church's ma Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |