From Darkness Unto His Light

HOW HE LOVES ME

2 Chronicles 7:14 14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

My name is Rita Ramsingh. I live at Irois Forest Chatham (Trinidad & Tobago). I was born in the district of Mayaro and lived with my parents, brothers and sisters. I got married in 1969 and came to live with my husband and his family. My husband used to drink and smoke. We had our first baby. Life was going on fine at first until he started coming home drunk almost every day. Life was a great big challenge for me. Pretty soon I also started drinking and smoking. I was smoking more than 40 cigarettes per day. I became really addicted to cigarette. I was hooked on it. I would smoke and drink a cup of black coffee whenever I was worried. I will be worried whenever I thought about my husband coming home drunk. I smoked cigarettes for 31 years.

On the thirteenth of May, 2000, my husband passed away. After his death, I started going to church. The first day I went to church, they were having the communion service. While the pastor was preaching I felt the presence of Jesus. He was so real to me. Right there, at that very moment, I started crying. Right then, I decided that I want to follow Him. Just in a few minutes, I fell in love with a Man I never knew or saw in my entire life. After the service I told the pastor that I wanted to get baptized. That Sabbath, it was raining cats and dogs. There was lots of water all around the church so I told the pastor that there is no reason why I cannot get baptized. He asked me if I was serious. I told him that I could never have been more serious. He then told me that he will have to come to my home so he can teach me what baptism really is and what it is all about.

I continued attending church but I still smoked my cigarettes. The pastor came home and visited me a few times. I was ready to get baptized but the pastor didn’t know that I still smoked my cigarettes. Here I was, still smoking and the date of my baptism was set; September 30, 2000. At this time, all my children were already baptized members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They got baptized while their father was still alive. But, he never knew they were baptized because we were Hindus. Although we were Hindus, we never did any thing the typical Hindus did. For example we never went to the temple to pray like Hindus are supposed to.

Well this is my testimony. Jesus is alive and is a loving and a caring God. He loves his children no matter the situation. He knows you and He sees you wherever you are. So I was going to church and I had two weeks to prepare for my baptism. My twelve children kept on telling me that I have to stop smoking, because I am going to church and I am going to be baptized soon. On the 27th September, I made up my mind and decided not to smoke again. I did not smoke for that entire day and I went to bed as usual.

The next morning, I could not wake up from my bed. I had pains all over my body. I had a terrible headache and I was feeling very weak and sick. I felt like I was going to die. My children prayed for me but I told them they have to go and get me a pack of cigarettes. When I got it, I finished the entire packet before 10 o’clock that morning; which was the 28th of September. I felt good. There were no more cigarettes left in the pack and I did not want to send my children back to the shop for more. I was very embarrassed so I decided to go to the Lord in prayer. I said, “Lord Jesus you know I love you and I want to give my life to you. I have heard you said ‘come to me as you are’, so Lord I am coming to you as I am; cigarettes and all. You see Lord, I tried to stop on my own but I cannot do it alone. I need your help.” My Jesus really listens to his children no matter what the problem is. Since that day until this present day, I have never touched cigarettes or drank coffee. I was baptized on 30th September, 2000, which was the appointed day. I now belong to the family of God and I am very happy that the Lord has led me to many great places. I have experienced his love and mercy towards me in so many ways.

You want to know more?
Contact: chathamritz@yahoo.com

From Darkness Unto His Light

Hello! my dear blog readers,

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.(Psalm 105:1)

Beginning tomorrow, I will post on my blog a series of short testimonies under the tittle "From Darkness Unto His Light". These testimonies are real life experiences from a person dear to my heart. They show us that even though we do not know God, He still works in our lives. He is still at the door knocking and hopping that we will open. He has great plans for you and me; He has great things in store for us. All we need to do is to let Him in and we will see His glory enfold in our lives.

I Hope that as you read, you will realize that God love you and He still works in our lives today.

At the end of every post they will be an email address. If you have questions and want to know more, write to that email.

Remember to pass what you read to others.

God bless you all.

Visit To The Dentist

I don’t know about most people, but I don’t like going to the dentist. I don’t have any problem with the Dentists themselves; it is just the procedure. The first thing you see as you enter the room is a funny looking chair. This chair can turn you almost in any direction so that you could be at the mercy of the dentist. To that chair, all kind of gadgets are attached. 
It makes you think for a while that you are an alien lab. Things become worst when you have the bright light coming down as you slowly open your mouth. It must look like the light at the end of the tunnel – you know the one the people see when they are almost dying.
The most tormenting thing is just the idea of staying there with your mouth open, sometimes for hours, and having someone play with everything in there? The sounds of those instruments against your teeth and the occasional blood you see while rinsing your mouth is just scary. To make things worse, they do all of that with just a little mirror. Have you ever tried to tie a bow tie or a tie in front of a mirror? You get confused which side is right and which is left. What if that happens and the dentist instead of going to the right he goes to the left? 
After all the trauma of those instruments knocking against your teeth and having your mouth open for such a long time, you think everything is done and finally you can go home to never return to that chair or dentist. But no, that’s the beginning of many other visits you will have to make. Nothing really ever gets done with dentists.
Going to the dentist, made me think a little more about my relationship with God. On our first visit to the dentist, we experience suffering and pain and regrets for eating too many sweets and cookies etc... The dentist will take His time, using tiny instruments which cause excruciating pain at times. Putting that into a spiritual perspective; it’s hard for us to stay long hours or even a few minutes in prayer or to open up and let the Lord see everything that we have been trying to hide from him. Often, we don’t let Him finish the work He started and we try finishing it on our own. Not knowing better, we ruin it more and then, eventually we go back to him with an even worse condition than we had before and ask Him to fix it. 
To be able to have good and clean teeth, we have to constantly go back to the dentist. It is the same way with God; in order for us to be clean we have to constantly go to Him for a checkup.
So, when was your last checkup?

Never Give Up

Perseverance

When all the world is looming dark

And things seems not so clear,
When shadow seem to hover 'round
Lord may I persevere.
When it seems everything's been tried
And there is no way to go,
Just let me keep remembering
Sometimes the journey is slow.
I may just need to stop and rest
Along the path I trod,
A time to try to understand and have my talk with God.
As I gain new strength to carry on
Without a doubt or fear,
Somehow I know things will be alright
And so, I persevere.

Friendship

Friendship, what does this word mean to you?
It is said that “no man is an island”. There is a saying in French that goes like this: “Dis-moi qui sont tes amis, je te dirai qui tu es " meaning “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are”.
My question is: Who are your friends, how do they impact your life?

Here are some quotations on friendship.

A friend is someone you can do nothing with, and enjoy it. (Anonymous)

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you need is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. (Oprah Winfrey)

Friends are relatives you make for yourself (Hustanche Deschamps)

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Prov 18:24)

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship (William Blake)

When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. (Edger Watson Howe)

Jesus as the Product

As a business student I have learned and experimented selling a product. I have come to learn that there are three (3) important things to remember and take into consideration when it comes to selling products.

· You need to know your product
· You need to believe in your product
· You need to have tried your product

When all of the above are accomplished or fulfilled, then you are ready to sell your product to others. You can advertise your product with confidence and you’ll be ready to answer any question that will come to you from the customer.
I believe that this business concept can be applied to the sharing of the gospel. It can be referred to “selling” of Jesus. The questions to ask are: do you know Jesus? Do believe in Him? Have you tried Him?

God Uses what You Have

God uses what you have to fill a need which you never could have filled.
God uses where you are to take you where you never could have gone
God uses what you can do to accomplish what you never could have done
God uses who you are to let you become who you never could have been

In the Bible you find many stories of people that God used in incredible ways. For instance the widow with the jar of oil; God used the little oil that she had to pay her debts and was able to live with her children with the rest of the money she got from selling the oil.
Joseph is a good example of how God can use you where you are, and take you where you never could have gone. Joseph went from a slave to the second most powerful person in the nation of Egypt
Another example is the eight year old child who became one of the greatest revolutionary kings in the history of Israel. Josiah brought the nation of Israel back to God in his early age.
If God could use all these people why can't He use you? Just let Him and you will see the wonders He is going to accomplish in your life and the lives of those around you!!! God never call the qualified, He qualifies the called! Sometimes it may seem to you that you cannot do it or you do not have what it takes; But if you can just surrender your will to God, He can work wonders that you cannot even imagine!

What is love to you?

Dictionary.com defines love as “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person, or a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.”

When I think about it and reflect on it I discover that love is much more than just a feeling
Love is a decision and commitment. Feelings do change and sometimes the people we say we love sometimes do things that make us not want to love them.
When that happens, the feelings are gone, so what do we do?
Do we stop loving them or do we do our best to make thing s work out?
Everyone says I love you, even the devil says it. What is important is what we do for the people we say we love. How much are we willing to give or sacrifice? How long are we willing to sit at the door steps waiting for them to open the door so we could talk things out?
That’s what love is all about. If Christ was willing to let go of all the glory of heaven to come and go through what he went through, I would say that love transcends all feelings. Love is more than just having our heart race as we see the person we love, or having the palms of our hands sweat, or not being able to say a word at the site of the person we claim to love.
Love is more than all of that
Love is a decision we take and we commit ourselves to do whatever it takes.

What is love to you?
Please post your comment

Each One Can Make a Difference

The semester has come to an end.
Those that I know, my classmate, my friends are going to be leaving soon.
It’s time to open a new chapter, time to start a new journey, things seem a little unpredictable out there.
As one of my professors will put it “the golden cage” is open, It is time to fly or for others to learn how to fly.
As sure as the world out there is uncertain, I know for a fact that He will make a way.
Now it’s time To Dream, To Dare, and To Do.
It’s time to dream big, to dare with courage, and to do by giving it your best.
Remember there is one person that you count on to give you the courage, the strength to go on.
You can count on Him to come to your help at any time; all you have to do is to call on Him.
It is said “the distance between your problem and its solution, is the distance between your knees and the floor.”
So my dear friends, I wish you all the very best and God blessing as you try in your own way to make a difference and to make this world a better place, a better place not only for you, but for the entire human race.
May God be with you.

I AM THE NAIL

Among many others, they picked me.
I did not want to have any part in the crucifixion.

I did not want to be the one to pierce His hands.

Those loving hands that were helping and healing people;

I tried desperately to hide among the other nails so that I won’t be picked.

Suddenly, a bright light came shinning through.

I was blinded for a moment.

When my eyes adjusted themselves to the light, to my shocking surprise,

I saw myself on His hands.

Oh no I cried to myself, I was chosen.

Suddenly, out of nowhere came rushing a huge hammer down right at me.

It hit me right on the head and before I knew it, I went right through His delicate hand.

I was sad and devastated to be the one to do that,

But He looked at me and whispered with a gentle voice as that of a mother reassuring her child, and said, "it was meant to happen. I had to die in order for them to live".

All I could think of at that moment was "I nailed the Savior to the cross."

I am the nail.

By Crissy Ramroop & Tresor Mulumba