Lavender

Hi MorningGlory.  Thanks for your encouragement.

Hi The-Patriot 2016.  Thank you for your reply on Bible versions and your support for a New Christian forum.

Hi kwikphilly.  Thank you for your very helpful advice.  Yes the scent of Lavender is lovely.

Hi.  Could we please have a forum for New Christians?  I've read through the forum headings and there is one for Seekers but not one for New Christians.  I have questions that would seem simple to many other members but I would like answers for these being a New Christian.  For instance I asked a question in the General discussion forum about what Bible version.  This question has been there for over 1 day and has had 11 views and 0 replies.  I have searched for this answer on the internet and have read answers but these have been from one person writing an article not from many people. 

I would definitely appreciate a forum for New Christians for my questions to help me learn and grow as a Christian.  Hopefully other people will benefit from it too.

ChristianAngel27, thank you sister.

I'm a New Christian and bought my first Bible a couple of months ago.  The sales lady didn't give me much guidance and I ended up buying the NIV version.  I've read a few posts on this forum that have made me wonder if I have bought the wrong version.  I had thought about the KJV but thought the older language would possibly interfere with my understanding.  I'm happy to buy another version if it is more accurate.  What Bible translation do you recommend and why and/ or should I buy a study Bible and if so what version?

Thank you for your help.

Thank you Prayerful Flower.  It's nice to have a Brother in Christ (hope I said that right (New Christian)). 

7Dove77.  Thank you for your comments.  I was worried about how some people would react to my testimonial. 

Thanks for the advice Widor1.

Thank you Eha for your helpful and kind words.

Wow that was powerful.  Thanks for sharing.

I feel I have nobody that I know personally that I can tell this testimony to.  It feels good to be able to share it to get it off my chest.  My Mum, Dad and Sister don't know that I'm a New Christian.  This testimony talks about some stuff on the spirit side of things (nothing too scary) but out of respect for others I have mentioned this now in case some people may not want to read about it.

I'm a New Christian.  My Dad is an atheist and has bad words to say about any religion or religious person.  My Mum is agnostic.  My older Sister is spiritual and has been for at least 10 years.  She has been to spiritual churches and groups.  She wants to be able to open up her third eye and when people have died to be able to connect with them and do automatic writing to pass on a message to their loved ones.  My husband grew up as a Jehovah's Witness but left when he was a teenager.  He is an agnostic/skeptic.

Our house was not a Christian house but I went to a small country school.  In the early 1980s the local Anglican Church had a Wednesday after school religions group to teach about God and the Bible.  I'm not sure how we managed to go, Mum must have decided that we could.  I was about 6 or 7 at the time and I do remember enjoying the stories, being in the church and being part of the Christmas pageant (if that is the right word).  I don't remember doing this for more than a year and we never went to an actual Church service.

One time as a young kid I knelt beside my bed and I was saying a prayer to God.  My Mum walked in and told me off because Dad might see me.  That was the end of me doing that. 

A few times in my childhood/ tween age years I ended up being part of a séance.  I was not the person who set it up.  I followed along.

In my teenage years and in my 20s I would read the psychic section of woman's magazines.  I would then try things they suggested to become more psychic.  I realized that I didn't have any abilities.  I also read a numerology book and worked out all my numbers.  I had one taped psychic reading done by a woman in another town.

When "Touched by an Angel" TV show screened in whatever years, I watched every show I could and loved it.  I always cried near the end when they said how God loves you.

I had a Reiki treatment for the first and last time in 2011.

In 2011 I started to see the repeating numbers of 111 and 1111.  In 2012 I had a personal tarot reading done with a psychic (my last one). 

In 2013 I started having various health problem.  I started praying to God before I went to bed every night.

I kept seeing the repeating numbers and decided to find out what it might mean on the internet.  I found a website about Angel Numbers.  I then started to see different repeating numbers which I kept looking up.  I told my sister about this.  My sister has some Angel card oracle decks and she often asked a question to get guidance.  I got her to do this for me sometimes too.  I kept seeing the Angel Numbers and decided to look up Doreen Virtue's website about angels.  For those of you who don't know she is a Clairvoyant and a Christian Scientist and loves God and Jesus.  She said that Angels were God's messengers and that we can talk to the angels but that we should pray to God.  I started following her website and the daily card readings that she did.  I then bought a couple of her oracle card decks for myself. 

In about November 2015 I started to listen to Doreen's weekly Angel Therapy radio show.  For some callers she said that they had a strong connection to Jesus.  I thought nothing of this.  In early December the daily angel card was Archangel Raphael with Jesus the Divine Healer.  I stared at Jesus for some time and felt like he got me/understood me (which is a weird thing to say because I have no psychic abilities at all).  Nearly a couple of weeks later I was reading a review about Doreen's Mary Queen of Angels oracle cards and someone had said that they used them to do a reading for a woman and they felt she had a very strong connection with Jesus and the guy doing the reading had never felt such strong love before that he could feel from Jesus.  I thought that was nice for her and I didn't know that Jesus was so full of love.  The next morning I started doing a daily angel card reading and I started thinking about Jesus and I started crying.  I went and got a different deck that out of 44 cards had one card 'true' and another card 'definitely yes'.  I had been using them for about 1 month or 2 and felt like I didn't have much skill at doing it or knew what card to draw out.  I asked for protection from Archangel Michael before I did the reading.  I then asked if I had a strong connection with Jesus and I got the card saying 'definitely yes'.  That resulted in more crying from me.  From this point I started going on the internet and reading information for New Christians. 

A couple of days before Christmas I had a vivid dream that I was back at high school which I had finished over 22 years ago.  I was on the stage at the end of year school prize giving where I was hidden in amongst the other school students so the parent spectators couldn't see me.  I was then told I had to sing "I don't know how to love him"  without any warning.  I got handed the microphone and started singing.  I remembered everything from the dream.  I did actually have to learn that song when I was at high school and sing it with the school but never by myself (I'm not a singer).  Although I remembered most of the words in the first half of the song I had no idea what the song was called or what it was about (or if I was told a long time ago at school, I couldn't remember now).  So when I woke up I googled it.  I found the song lyrics and clicked onto the link to see it was from "Jesus Christ Superstar" and a song that was being sung about Jesus.  I saw down the bottom of the page was some video box playing some group of 4 guys sitting around, it was on mute.  I went further up the page to read the lyrics and then next minute the video box starts playing out loud the song "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.  I had read on some Christian websites that the rainbow is a symbol from God so I wondered if this was a sign?  A few weeks later I did the exact same internet search to see if on the Jesus Christ Superstar song that the Over the Rainbow song would automatically link to it again but it didn't.

After doing more reading about the steps to being a Christian I did these at home but I didn't have anyone to tell that Jesus is Lord.  In mid January I went to a Christian retail shop and told the shop keeper that I had no one I could talk to about being a new Christian and I confessed to her that Jesus is Lord.  I bought my first bible with her help.  On my way driving home as I was going up our long driveway I happened to see that I had 444 kilometers left to drive with my petrol and on my cars kilometers driven the last 3 numbers also said 444 at the exact time.  In Angel numbers that means that "There are angels-they're everywhere around you.  You are completely loved, supported and guided by many Heavenly beings and you have nothing to fear."

A couple of weeks ago I told my husband that I am now a Christian and he took it fine.  I have not told my family yet.

I have been learning more as a new Christian as I basically knew nothing.  I have learned that it is wrong to see psychics, have reiki done etc.  I won't be doing any of that anymore.  I'm no longer viewing Doreen's website and Facebook page or doing oracle card readings.  I want to do the right thing so what else do I need to do that I may not have realized?  I'm still seeing angel numbers.  I can't seem to avoid seeing repeating numbers.  I'm not sure what to do about that other than I have prayed to God that they stop unless they are from God.   Sorry about the long post.  If you have any helpful advice for me as a new Christian I would be grateful.