Personal Narrative: Jesus

This past week I met a guy name Jesus Castellanos at work. I've been working there for the last year never really sat down and had a conversation with him until last week. I learn that he's a pastor. He also invited me to attend church this past Sunday, which I did and it was great. This experience made me nervous at first bet I'm glad I talk to him he's such a nice man. All he talked about was his family and god.

Since I was born, I have lived in a religious household, gone through catholic education, and have been bred by the morals, attitude, and rules of a Roman Catholic lifestyle. This was not my choice, but how I was raised. These ways have shaped who I have become, and who I will grow to be. Although my catholic experience has been bad at times, it has formed who I am as a person and has been a guideline for the life I would like to live.

HI so for some reson I felt the need to share my testimony with you today and I hope that it is because you could grow and help someone with it and if you have the want to share it with someone you have my my permishion to do so.

To say my faith life has been completely revamped in the last year would be an understatement. I had views and ideas about faith that seem somewhat vile to me know with the experiences I’ve had. From just lectures to the retreats my spiritual side has gone from that of a holiday catholic to a Campus Ministry Student. From little things to big ethic topics I’ve changed in a multitude of ways, my Spiritual Autobiography looks like looks like someone else wrote it compared to any year before it. I think faith is one of the most important aspects of our life and it took me until last year to realize it.

I grew up going to Church with family and friends until I was around the age of 8 when my parents just stopped going as much and eventually it came to a halt. I honestly don’t believe that I really knew anything about God besides that I believed in him because my parents did. As I grew older and got involved in heavy drinking to a point of no self-control and doing things I would regret when sober I began to hate myself with a deep passion. I didn’t know why I would do the things I did and continue to make the same mistakes even after I felt the gut wrenching feeling the following day. It was when I was older that I found out about a friend of the family molesting me as a child and everything just made more sense as to why I was so overly sexual and

I became a Christian in 1982 while in high school. I had never attended church prior to Easter 1982. I found something interesting in the whole of the service and decided to read a Bible. The Bible made some sense to me. I had a few questions about some of the stuff that had happened and was given Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. Well that answered most of my questions. I was also given Mere Christianity which answered more questions. I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit and asked G-d to come into my life and forgive me of my sins.

He is being tested in his spiritual belief as he continues down the road with the devil, and is shown the people whom he believed were holy were actually spiraling in hypocrisy. (Pg.9) "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream. On Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain." Although, he manages to pull back from the evil omen he no longer has faith again in anyone or anything. He lives in paranoia for the rest of his life not trusting a single soul because he has come to believe everyone is associated with the

Writing this Professional Project required some deep soul searching while deepening my spirituality to train the veterans of Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Church to become Disciples of Christ. Completing the nine training sessions will be beneficial for the congregation. A selection of a Steering Committee from the various boards within the church will assist me with the effectiveness of the Professional Project. Teaching the veterans about The Fruit of the Spirit will strengthen my spiritual walk with Christ as well. Each branch of the military has military core values and a comparison will be made with each Fruit of the Spirit during the training process. Presentations and workshops on The Fruit of the Spirit will undergird

NYPD Standard Operational Procedure when anyone is transferred: The next day they must report in civilian attire to Health Services Division to take a Drug Screening Test. I was fuming about this involuntary transfer to Internal Affairs in the elevator when it reached the eight floor. Not familiar with Health Services Division, preoccupied by still really being pissed off, I followed a small group into a meeting room with about twenty seats. As I sat down I suddenly noticed these guys didn’t really look like cops. When one of these weird individuals said to me “I ain’t crazy, no matter what they say, I wanna be a cop and I wanna a gun.” I was momentarily confused.

In late August 2015, I spoke with Corey over the phone about what needs to be done in order to facilitate a non-profit line of literature for the group. Calling him from my cellphone, I said to him halfway our phone call, “Corey, let it be assured that this idea of mine is a ‘kill two birds with one stone’ proposition, which has the potential to solve our group financing and publicity handicaps.” Then he responded to me by saying, “I honestly do think it is an interesting proposition and would like very much like to see what can be done to get Fire of the Spirit in a position where we can actually do just that. I want you to know that I really do value the hard work and determination which you bring to FOS. I really want to do whatever we can to make this new venture for Fire of the Spirit a reality but it is going to be a lot of work and I will need your help to make it possible.”

The turmoil of life brought me down many hard paths from which I never fully recovered, until I met Jesus Christ. I could see that I was ending up in the wrong place, and I did not know how to get out of it. I had not been faithful to what was in my heart. I knew I was missing something. I knew I was missing Christ.

Christ has always been apart of my life. The only issue was I didn’t quite understand what it meant to trust him completely as my lord and savior. As long as i can remember my parents had me going to church at ccv and i attended many church camps . When i started to get older i got involved in club sports which took up lot of my time where i couldn't fit church in my life anymore. When i started 9th grade i had a friend named Makensie and she kept bugging me yo go to church again however i didn't want to because i was scared to go back. After awhile of her begging me i went and realized what i was missing and attended church camp that year. I loved it but i still didn't understand what it meant to give my life to him. As time went on i still continued to go to church every weekend.

Religion has a very strong influence on what people eat. For example, islamics are not allowed to eat pork. At all. All meats that Muslims eat must be blessed by Halal. In the religion Seventh Day Adventist it is prohibited to eat any meat with hooves, such as cow, goat, pig etc. However chicken and greens are allowed.

“The other important skill is empowering people by way of letting the biblical narratives ask their own questions of our social context…the discussion was wonderful, and people started to get this idea of dwelling in scripture before plunging into a meeting, in order to hear God.”. (A. Roxburgh/F. Romanuk,176)

Religious/Spiritual Identity(R): On any given day my own religious/spiritual identity hovers somewhere between atheist and agnostic. However, I was baptized and raised Catholic for the first eight years of my life and I went to church and Sunday school weekly. I made my first confession and communion through this church. When I was a little bit older my Mom decided to start taking us to a Presbyterian church. We went to this church less frequently than we used to go to the Catholic one, but my sister and I still attended a children’s bible study on Wednesday nights and went to services on Sundays with our mom. In addition to these religions, I am also fairly aware of how the Southern Baptist churches operate. In other words, I am familiar with