I was born and raised as a Catholic because it is the largest Christian Denomination in the Philippines. When I was a child my mother always takes me to Church to pray and touch the saints so that my asthma gets cured. I remembered how I was innocent that time thinking that the statues of saints will heal us, I had that belief.

I can say that I was a very smart kid, I love science and is obsessed reading things about Dinosaurs and all other science experiments that were available. Growing up with a Catholic Faith is very hard for me, since going to the Church just gives me boredom with all those repetitive rituals done by the Church until you would memorize what is next, when you will stand up and sit down and when the offering of money happens.

Because of it, my belief in God has weakened, maybe because as a child I was not given the proper guidance by the Church with their short psalms with added jokes so people won't sleep. I can't blame myself since I was a kid, but I think it was my choice to escape the boredom of religion.

In high school, I went to a Catholic school where the Daughters of Charity runs it. There were Bible sharing that happens once a week, prayers before and after each classes and etc. But to be honest it wasn't enough to make students have a strong relationship with God. Then I started reading the Bible, it was all for the sake of discovering how the universe was created and how my belief in the theories of science debunks it.

But unexpectedly, I was amazed of the stories I read in the Bible, it was like watching a historical fiction and realized that I learned lessons from it. And that is how I came to realized what I had done wrong for so many years and found out how great God's love is! I learned that what is taught in the Catholic Church is mostly opposite from what is written on the Bible. There was no child baptism, no confessions to a priest in order for your sins to be forgiven, and that God hates idolatry which is evident with the statues of saints today.

I even had an argument with a nun because she insists that circumcision is not in the Bible, and that I was being blasphemous until I read the Bible in front of my classmates proving that there is such a thing and it is a covenant. Imagine that a nun who "serves" God and don't even know such concept exist in the Bible? As I grew up as a student I became rebellious of the practices done by our school. I am slowly not making the signs of the cross and only pray directly to God without any aid from the saints and Mary.

Whenever I tell people that what they do is wrong, they get mad and say that I'm a son of the devil. Yes, the false belief has taken influence in most of the Filipinos, and I know that is the reason why many Christian denominations exist in our country because some people can't stand the wrong practices of the Catholic Church.

But as I grew older and thought that people will just hate me for what I have learned in the Bible, it made me an outcast, a lone wolf until I grew tired of it and went back to sin and slowly becoming far away from God. My faith was slowly fading but I still hold that belief that there is only one God, but I wasn't that active anymore.

In college, I have read about a new rising religion, where man must connect with the Universe through meditation, I even fancy Ancient Aliens and other theories that is being delivered today. My faith became different, I believe in God and that He is the greatest scientist and mathematician in the world that posses a Divine Intelligence. that's how I lived my life.

To be honest, as I grew up, I became doubtful about Jesus Christ, I was on the edge of being deceived by the internet that Jesus was a hoax but I refused to let go because I know this world is cruel and that Satan will always find a way to lead us to sin.

During April of 2015, my loving mother died in front of me with so many blood on her mouth, they say she was attacked by a high blood due to a very hot summer season, before she died they went to a doctor with my father to have a check up, but the X-ray result came late, we later found out that she had the very worst case of tuberculosis. I was hurt and questioned God why my mother have to die that way. She was a very kind, loving and caring mother and she died like that and how I wished she had died in peace while asleep.

Even though I questioned God I still had the courage to accept that it was His will that should be done and that I prayed that whatever God plans on my life, I will accept it and trust His ways. And during my mother's funeral, I got an unexpected visit from a friend who was a born again, he was there to give condolences along with my other online-gaming friends. We all sat down that night and talked about happy times until we talked of religion, and that's how it went.

In that group, we had different religions, I am a Catholic, the other is a Mormon, a Born-again and a Seventh Day Adventist. But what amazed us that although we have different religions, it was the topic of the Bible that unified us, as if it was a universal language. We talked about wrong practices of other Churches and discussed what is the true salvation.

And then that's how it all started, my weak faith has become stronger because of friends who discussed about salvation given by God through his son, Jesus Christ. We had that very long talk and decided that we will have a Bible study every Sunday.

Our first Bible study was awesome, I learned lots of things, our first study was about true salvation, which is believing in Jesus Christ and accepting Him in our hearts. We believed we did not meet in accident, the death of my mother was an instrument so that my relationship with Jesus Christ goes back. It was Jesus knocking on my doors and I was glad to accept him. 

I may not be a perfect Christian, but I am now starting to build a strong relationship with Jesus Christ and that is the reason why I made this blog in order to share my experiences and thoughts. I am still a Catholic, but since Religion cannot save you, I have no plans on switching to other Religion, because I know that what matters most is a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen!