Know Jesus, Know peace

Pendle Hill on a beautiful spring day

By the grace of God, (and by surprise!!) I've just enjoyed a wonderful week in my home county of Lancashire, visiting precious saints who are my eternal family, and meeting news one who are also my eternal family! We left this beautiful neck of the woods in 2013 when The Lord called us to sell up and cycle across Europe, then to Israel. We were away for a year, then 'settled' in Weymouth and have been there since, making a visit to Burnley once a year to visit fellowships and spend time with our beloved eternal family. 

We had an extra day and went to a great Prayer for Israel meeting at Shekinah Christian centre in Pendle, where we were able to join with our dear sisters interceeding for the Jewish people and the land of Israel. What a blessing! Afterwards we had a lovely drive around Pendle Hill, the sun was shining, and it was just stunning. Even though I had been raised in this area and knew it well, I was still taken aback with how beautiful it was. Mind you, the sun was shining, which helps!! It had rained most of the week!

We couldn't resist pulling over to take photos of these lovely lambs........

We were not the only ones, as a lone car also pulled over with the same idea. So tranquil and serene, we took pictures as man joined us with his camera.

"It's awesome isn't it?" said Mark to the man.
"Wow yeah" came the reply.
"Where are you from?" says Mark.
"London. Oh it's so peaceful here." Man says.
"You know you can have peace where ever you are? Would you like to know how?"

(Who would say no??)

Mark then went on to share with this man about the peace that comes from knowing Jesus, a peace that this world cannot give because it doesn't possess it. It's supernatural from God.....

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: 

not as the world gives, give I unto you. 

Let not your heart be trouble, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27

During the week, many wonderful things happened as we visited people who needed ministering to. We saw deliverance and healing, and new starts in relationships. We had the privilege of witnessing a lovely baptism of a young lady. At the service we (Mark and I) had an amazing encounter with a French woman who was passionate for Jesus and had an incredibly testimony. I heard only a very brief part, and I'm keen to see how The Lord will use it to bring hope to peoples lives when it has been written.

Many a testimony has encouraged me, and taught me the faithfulness of God in real lives today, not just in the Bible stories! Jesus Christ is alive and all of His promises are true. I praised God with the French sister as she told me how God had rescued her from an abusive life as a Nun in a Catholic Convent. She, now full of The Holy Spirit and the freedom that comes with being in the light of Jesus, is reaching out to others who are searching for a peace that this world cannot give. 

As I listened to this lady, I thought of a similar testimony I'd listened to years ago, also of an ex Catholic Nun, which I'd like to share a bit of. This account is not entertaining of light hearted, but is the reality of what many ladies have experienced when their desire to honour Jesus was preyed upon by the satanic religion of Rome. 

If you are a Roman Catholic and wish to know what the bible says about this religion's practices, please click here.

To listen to Charlotte tell this story herself go direct to this youtube video

First of all I always like to tell folk I’m not giving this testimony because I have any ill feeling in my heart toward the Roman Catholic people. I couldn’t be a Christian if I still had bitterness in my heart. God delivered me from all bitterness and strife and delivered me out of all of that one day and made himself real to me, and the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, when I give this testimony I’m giving it because after God saved me he delivered me out of the convent and out of bondage and darkness. 

The Lord laid the burden upon my heart to give this testimony that others might know what cloistered convents are. And so, as you listen carefully this afternoon, I trust I will not say one thing that will leave any feeling in your heart whatsoever that I don’t carry a burden for the Roman Catholic people. I don’t like the things they do, I don’t agree with the things that they teach, but I covet their soul for Jesus. I’m interested in their souls. I believe Jesus went to Calvary. He died that you and I might know Him. And their souls are just as precious as your soul and my soul. So I’m interested.

First of all, as we slip into this testimony, having been born in Roman Catholicism, not knowing anything else, not knowing the word of God because we didn’t have a Bible in our home, we had never heard anything about this wonderful plan of salvation. And so, naturally, I grew up in that Roman Catholic home as a child, knowing only the catechism, knowing only the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. And, because I loved the Lord, and because I wanted to do something for Him, I wanted to give Him my life. I didn’t know of any other way for a Roman Catholic girl to give her life to God other than entering a convent, and to going to the confessional box where, naturally, I’m under the influence of my father-confessor, the Roman Catholic priest, his influence over my life.

One day I made up my mind through his influence and one of my teachers in the parochial school that I wanted to be a little sister. At that time I thought of being a sister of the open order, but as I went on into this, up until the time I took my white veil,  sixteen and a half years of age, everything was beautiful. I really didn’t have any fear in my heart whatsoever. Everything that was taught to me was seemingly along the line that I had been taught in the church before I entered the convent. And so one day, after having been, uh, after making up my mind to enter a convent, I remember that particular day, two of the sisters came home with me from school. They were my teachers. And when we arrived at my father’s home that afternoon our Father-confessor was in the home likewise. 

I often say when I was a little girl children were seen and not heard. You didn’t talk when you was a child, at least in my family, in my home unless you were spoken to. And I remember I listened to them carry on a conversation, and then I moved over close enough to my father and I asked him if I could say something. And that was a bit out of the ordinary. And he permitted me to talk and I said, "Dad, I want to go into a convent."  And I will tell you that priest took it up quickly. He had already been influencing me. My father broke down and began to cry, not because he’s sad, but he’s very happy. My mother came over and took me in her arms and she, too, wept tears. She’s very happy. Those were not tears of sadness because to think her little girl was giving her life to the convent to pray for lost humanity. And naturally my family were very thrilled about it, and I was too.  But, anyway I didn’t go for a year after that and then the time come when I got myself ready and my mother prepared things for me. And so I entered the convent.

This is just the introduction to her story, so if you would like to read the rest, please click this link.