A one off comment.

Its so very rare i ever get into a discussion about 'religion'..and i do know that many lovely folk have many different beliefs, i would NEVER argue that my belief is the right one...but it is the right one for me.
I have lovely friends who do NOT believe as i do, and some dear friends who have NO faith whatsoever...and i care for them all...they ALL have something to add to my life, & hopefully I do to theirs... However God as proved himself to me,..sometimes through extreme circumstances, its not usually the good times that make a person believe..but adversity....my life as not been easy..but the Bible does tell us that this is a fact that will happen....sometimes when you start to believe....life gets much harder, (is that some other power trying to test my 'faith')..maybe, I'm really not sure about that.
I was once an atheist...couldn't believe there was a God, not when the World is in the mess its in etc...when my daughter became disabled with M.S...when my best friend died while i was a teenager, many bad things happened in the family that i find hard to talk about etc, etc....pretty much like most folks lives i suppose.
One day, many years ago, i heard a man speak about a ' personal relationship' with God through Jesus...and i started to listen..it was as if someone had switched a light on in my head....Its a very long story, but basically the Bible was no longer a dry old book of things that happened long ago.... he made it make sense and i wanted to learn more..a big step for me....things i had never realized before.....IF i'm honest i had not read much of it at all... I just didn't think it was relevant to life today.... Since then so many things have happened that have totally & utterly convinced me that God is real...and that he did come to Earth..to give all who believe in him 'Eternal Life'...no one has to believe, of course,..but i do now, ..totally..I knew my life wasn't going to suddenly become wonderful....and it certainly didn't !!!.. but despite so many very bad times..my faith is still strong... A few years ago i lived on a very busy Main road in Tamworth at the time....the children were still young & i had been to visit my Mom in Birmingham ( i had been a Christian for about 2 years at this time ) ..as i was driving down my road....i suddenly had a strong ,strong compulsion, that i cant explain... to drive past my own house......at the same time it was as if someone held the steering wheel and would not allow me to turn into my drive....the kids were yelling ..why haven't you gone up the drive Mom !!..all i could say was....i dont know, i cant explain it, i just cant turn the wheel !!!.....only a matter of a minute later the compulsion left me..and the steering wheel was under my control again....so i went to the next side road & turned the car around...as i was driving back up the road on the other side, i hit a very bad traffic jam, that seemed to have come out of nowhere.... and was only moving about a foot every couple of minutes, and it then stopped completely.....so as the kids were hungry, i decided to park up in a side street and walk up the road and collect the car later......The terrible shock as i approached my house was unbelievable,.. crowds were gathered around my drive & in my garden......there right on my Drive were my car would have been, & my children would be getting out, had i turned when i normally would....there were two cars that had crashed into each other ( one from the other side of the road i later heard)..and both had landed on my drive and garden..and were a mangled Mess....even writing about it now..my blood runs cold...we would have been mowed down on our own drive..it took an ambulance and firemen ages to cut the folk free and remove the vehicles.....i know we would have been seriously injured at least, probably Much worse had i been able to pull onto my drive..as it must have happened just secinds after we drove past...and the kids would be getting out of the car....Jimmy was a baby still in his carry cot in the back,... and Simon & Vanessa were only only very young.
I Know in my heart that God prevented that tragedy...it was not just coincidence..many may say i was 'lucky'....but even as i drove past earlier, & didn't understand why ..i felt a voice saying..'Trust me'.......awhen i was an Atheist i would NEVER have believed this could happen....but i know it did so did my kids...even now they sometimes talk about it.
Dont get me wrong....i would Still believe even if this didn't happen......but it built my faith up & despite all the bad things that have happened since...i still know God is real...i still cant explain why there is so much poverty & cruelty in this World....BUT if you have a belief in the power of good (in my case God)..you must also believe in the Power of Evil ( everything, especially spiritual things as an opposite, this is recognized by most religions)......i know i believe this.., its a long story and its explanation is too complicated to talk about in a small blog like this.. ..Do you know that the Bible actually tells us that the Devil...is the ruler this World, at this present time. ??.....but those that believe in Jesus will have eternal life in the next one.?..we were never promised an easy ride down here..just that God would be with us, if we believe......I once said i would NEVER bring Religion into my blog....but just this ONCE i felt i wanted to stick up for what i believe.......while deeply respecting the belief of others who may totally disagree with me. ..I will not write on this subject again, as it is not a Religious forum/blog..but i have so much to be thankful for & i wanted to speak about it...just this once.