Marianne Gutierrez: Health Practitioner: My Christian Faith

My Christian Faith · 30 October 2005

I believe that a faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ is accepting that Jesus is the Son of God and He died for me and that I need His forgiveness and am forgiven. And I am forgiven, totally, whether I do wrong today or tomorrow, it is forgiven. For this reason, I repented (from a greek word meaning to change direction).

And the Will of God in my life is to put every area of my life in His Care.

Why did Jesus die for you?
Because God wanted to offer me, a route back to Heaven. When Adam and Eve stole from the Tree of Knowledge, the sin they commited deserved a punishment and when they were sent out of the Garden of Eden their punishment was death. We see death as a normal occurance in nature. In the Garden of Eden it didn’t exist. God didn’t want the natural death to be the end of mankind that He loved, so He sent His Son to die in my place, in mankind’s place.

What does that mean, putting every area of your life into God’s Care?
It means that nothing is more important in my life than knowing that God is in control of it. If I am poor, I know that God is there. If I am rich, I know that God is there and if my richness goes, I know that God is there. I continually ask God to protect me and my children and husband and friends and family. And He does.

What is the difference between someone who calls themselves a Christian and someone who calls themselves a Born-again Christian?
I am not fond of the phrase Born-again Christian although that is what I am and I prefer to call myself a Christian. But there is a difference.
Before I became ‘born-again’ I thought I was a Christian believing in God and His Son Jesus Christ and being very obedient to the rules of the Catholic Church I was going to. I knew very little about the bible, and the church and convent school I attended didn’t teach from the bible very much but taught us from its own precepts and prayer book. I was not being myself, but trying to be a ‘good little girl’ that would make God and my parents proud.
Why did I change and become Born-again?
I think that most people who have become ‘Born-again’ would say it was triggered by a personal sadness or tragedy or a eureka moment. In other words something outside the normal remite of their routine happened to change the way they perceived life. For me, my husband left me. It totally devastated me, totally knocked the breath out of me, totally shocked me. I never thought that would happen to me and worse than that it was against everything I believed in. He leaving me, forced me to face the biggest crises known to the Catholic Church and me, divorce. Even my catholic priest turned me away and couldn’t help me. The very church I had been so obedient to was letting me and my children down.

My sister at around the same time had been discovering Born-again christianity and had got me interested but I couldn’t really see the differences and was happy to remain catholic. I had attended a christian conference held by Colin Urquhart and he began putting seeds of doubt in my head about the church I was attending when he explained the role of pope in the Catholic church. He explained that there never should have been a pope. He told us that when the Catholics ‘adopted’ the idea of a pope they purposely confused the wording of what Jesus said at the time. Jesus had said: “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church …. ” The Catholics took that to mean that the church was built upon a man and hence they appointed a person (pope) to be that man. (The new testament was written in greek and the greek for Peter and rock is similar Petros and petra so the catholics or roman empire, as the catholic church originally was, confused this and said the word meant the same Peter and Peter. Peter was never a pope during his life time and never recognised by the followers as anyone other than who he was – an apostle of Jesus. The catholics when they were formed from the fading Roman Empire in about 600AD misconstrued the words of Jesus. Jesus said: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.” He didn’t say you are Peter and upon this Peter I will build my church. Jesus was talking about what Peter had said earlier: “Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God.” Jesus said: ” ... my Father in heaven has revealed this to you … ” So Jesus himself was building his church (“I will build MY church”) on a rock of inspiration, the inspiration that had made Peter say what he said about Jesus. A faith in Jesus Christ is inspired by Himself.

So when my husband left me, and my catholic faith let me down and I remembered the Colin Urquhart meeting, I went to see my sister and her new christian friends. And I became a ‘born-again’ christian. In other words I, ME, MARIANNE totally changed (repented) the way I thought about God, Jesus and even myself and became a different person as if I had been born again.

And this total change doesn’t result from effort on my part but from revelation and inspiration of Jesus himself in the form of His Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit begins to work in you, once you accept Jesus into your life.

How do you have Jesus in your life?
By simply accepting that He is there. Having had rules to follow all my life, it did become very difficult to live life without rules. I so wanted to go to an official church and to be told what to do by someone. I did find it difficult to believe that I was still a good christian and that God loved me, without having to go to church. Before I could only measure that love of God by seeing that I was obeying the rules of the church and going to confession whenever I felt guilty. Now I had to accept that I was loved despite all my faults, that I was loved by God, without having to do anything. Jesus came into my life as a human being I can speak to and trust when I accepted Him and what He did for me.

What did Jesus do for you?
Jesus died instead of me. We all know we are going to die. But in the Garden of Eden, death wasn’t there. To bring us back to heaven someone need to pay the price for my sin. I believe that Jesus paid that price.

Why did God send His Son to die for you?
When I was made, I was made in the same way Eve was and if I was Eve I would have done the same as her, tempted Adam to take from the Tree of Knowledge.
God had a plan in mind. He wanted us back in the Garden of Eden. God loves each one of us so much and wants us back with Him. Death resided in life outside the Garden of Eden and being sent outside of it was the punishment for taking from the tree of knowledge. But God had a plan to bring us home again. He sent His Son to die in our place. So although we suffer the physical death, our spirit doesn’t die, when we believe in Jesus as our saviour.

How do you know you are being the Christian God wants you to be?
Do you mean how do I know I am doing the Will of God? This has worried the life out of me since becoming ‘born-again’ until about 3 years ago. I had no rules to follow since leaving the catholic church, and I wanted some rules. I eventually learned through other christian friends, my own will in wanting to do what God wanted, and understanding what it was to accept Jesus Christ, that the Will of God is very simple and doesn’t involve following rules.

So what is the Will of God?
To accept Jesus Christ, you accept your imperfections, you accept that you cannot possibly recompense God for your imperfections and you accept God’s forgiveness for your wrong-doings, through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. You accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour. And give every area of your life to God.

No rules?
No.
No going to church every Sunday?
No.

But what do you do then, I thought you went to a meeting every Sunday, isn’t that church?
The word church means ‘called out’. The Apostles created the first church when they were filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly spoke about Jesus to the crowd and every nationality in the crowd understood. The crowd felt called out, and left their synagogues and idols, and became Christians. That was the first church – a group of people accepting Jesus. (remember Jesus said that He would build His church and He did, after He died and left His Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen those who believe in Him.

Naturally when people are like minded about something, they want to meet and discuss their thoughts and lives with each other so they met in their own houses. It was the Roman Empire, facing a loss of power that sought to literally cash in on this new power – the Christians – and they created a building where Christians could attend but they had to pay money every time. This was the beginning of the Roman Catholic religion (religion means a set of man-made rules). To encourage Christians to attend, they corrupted the meaning of the words in the bible – hence a pope being made, they corrupted the understanding of tything, hence money being paid. (And look how wealthy the Vatican is, it even has its own bank!)
However to answer your question: Jesus asked us to remember Him and what He did for us at meal times. The Ten Commandments tell us to: Keep Holy the Sabbath day.

It is important to rest once a week, that was keeping holy the Sabbath day as God did when He made heaven and earth. That is all you have to do, make sure you totally rest from any work once a week. It makes sense really and it is for our health. Christians can rest any day of the week, it doesn’t have to be a Sunday but it just so happens that it is convenient for the day of rest to be a Sunday if you want to meet up with other like minded Christians. Jesus asked us to remember Him by sharing a meal – bread and wine = food and drink. So it is convenient that the meal takes place when Christians meet.
So I do go to a meeting on a Sunday but I don’t necessarily go every Sunday. I want to, I find it wonderful to meet with my Christian friends. But I can’t always go on a Sunday and it doesn’t make me feel guilty when I don’t go.

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Loved it, well done!
— Pam Crump Nov 4, 10:52 PM #
Have just found your web site searching for information about hydrolised veg oil which I found very intreresting. I am in the process of looking at other parts of your site which are also interesting. I myself am a born again Christian and find your thoughts challenging. Thanks

— Liz Boot Apr 1, 12:16 PM #
Hi Liz, great to hear from you. Did you find what you needed to know about hydrolised veg oil? If you want to email privately about any thoughts then you are welcome to use the email address on the contact’s page. Reading through the article again I am not sure if I have got my thoughts right especially the part about there being no death in the Garden of Eden. So I would be interested to hear what you think.

— Marianne Apr 1, 06:43 PM #

I would be very interested to hear your comments: