For years, poured herself into the lives of others, convinced that if she could just mend their broken pieces, her own would finally fit together. It didn’t look like a burden at first; it felt like a calling—a noble purpose of being the one who cared more. But beneath that “purpose” was a decades-long struggle of playing God, an exhausting attempt to cure others.

The patterns were relentless: different faces and situations, but always the same ending of frustration and depletion. She lived as a “mom” to those who should have been partners, giving until she realized that no amount of fixing could fill the emptiness inside.

Her faith was a collection of stories and religious “backdrops” where nothing felt right; she knew the language of God, but He remained a distant figure to be acknowledged rather than a Savior to be relied upon. She was caught in a cycle of toggling who sat on the throne of her life, defaulting to her own “illusion of control.”

She kept trying to work harder and fix more, hoping that if she finally “got it right,” she would find the place where she truly belonged. Yet, no matter how many times she started over on those “wide roads,” she ended up in the same place: tired, confused, and still searching for a narrow road she couldn’t quite find on her own.

This is her story. Read on.

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When Nothing Felt Like Home

I grew up knowing there was a God to some extent. With a backdrop of the first 11 years in the Catholic faith, then until I was 18 in the Methodist church.

Nothing felt right, even looking back, I couldn’t find my place, I couldn’t find the people I belonged with.

School was difficult for me—from comprehension skills to the bullying that happened faithfully until I graduated. Wrong kind of faith. Painful bullying and watching others be bullied as well.

What’s wrong with me? Somewhere in these years kids started telling me I didn’t look like my parents. What does that mean? So I went home and asked my parents why don’t I look like you guys like other kids look like their parents—hair and eye color, height, etc

My parents sat down with me to tell me how special I was, how they adopted me as a baby and my sibling, too. We have separate biological parents.

As a child this brought much confusion, fear of abandonment, almost made sense why I was being rejected and treated harshly by others in school, at least in my child like thinking it did.

I began running, rebelling from the simplest forms of obedience that authoritative figures had in place to keep me safe.

I was born in the north and we moved as far south as you can imagine in my 6th grade year due to my dad’s job relocating us. This was trauma to me at the time since no family would be conveniently near, so now no family gatherings on the weekends and surviving the mean kids at school. Sure some family would come annually to visit and I treasured those seasons but began living in a fantasy world to avoid where my feet actually stood.

Alcohol was prevalent in the dynamic of my home growing up yet I believed it was normal. My parents loved me that was about the only thing I knew held true. No matter what I did or didn’t do, they never left.

Due to my extreme running and my parents not knowing what to do, I was placed in an adolescent unit in my mid teens. Today it was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time. I was literally walking through many doors that could have led to death.

Teachers, my parents and the team I had for medical care while in this adolescent unit never stopped believing or loving me. I think this is the first place I truly learned and embraced structure. I knew what to expect from one hour to the next, one day to the next.

Upon discharge, I was now on medication diagnosed with a mental disorder that over time I allowed to become a part of my identity. The dots never connected, I could possibly be affected by the drinking in the dynamics of my home or watching other loved ones drink as well. I had to know to some extent the alcohol was affecting me because I would worry if I saw a loved one drinking, they would die. I did not know the fine line of social drinking and a loved one possibly having a problem.

By the grace of God, when I was discharged after a little over 3 months, I graduated high school. Oh I was so excited to be done with those 12 years that I hadn’t thought about what next. I had no desire to go to college, why would I expose myself to such meanness in another school. I had already established a few toxic friendships ones that led me into substance abuse, a season of a lot of wrong doings on multiple wide roads, and yes eventually smoking cigarettes…not alcohol though I knew the toxicity of drinking or that’s what my irrational belief was.

Trying to Fix What Was Never Mine to Fix

I ended up in a relationship that harvested from deception and a false belief I could “save” this person just like my other loved one, growing up. We married as the years went on I knew I was not meant to be in this marriage and as he did me wrong, I did him wrong, that was the life I lived. After 20 years, in a reactive, irrational moment I had what was a glimpse of what I believed the grass would be greener, so I left leaving this person literally at the doors of homelessness.

It took me a long time to leave because my parents through my childish perception never left one another, never divorced, so to me this was living out to the fullest until death do we part. Even though, neither encouraged me to leave but definitely knew I wasn’t happy, being a mom to a man who should be my husband was becoming exhausting in addition to now shifting from things against authority to a full fledged work a holic!

I couldn’t fix him, so the greener grass became, the person I can fix must still be out there. I moved in with someone I had met in the rooms of an outpatient facility, when that didn’t work, I bounced back into living with a friend I grew up with but hadn’t seen in 20 years.

This was a season that would change me forever. A long 9 month journey of feeling trapped in a scene from the movie I Can Only Imagine. Losing everything and still believing I could “fix” this person at all costs! Finally, after leaving this season, ending up back at home with my parents, I realized I had trauma that is difficult to articulate into words but it was all from my once again trying to save a loved one from alcohol. Alcohol was to blame not anyone else, not even myself. Why don’t “they” just avoid the alcohol section of the grocery store? Ignorance is bliss.

When Everything Finally Fell Apart

I was done—done with men, done with getting attached to fur babies, and done with my ways. I was tired of trying to fix others. I knew I couldn’t! I was tired of trying to measure up to air brushed women, the manipulation, deception, and trying to measure up to my bar of perfectionism, it all came crumbling down. I definitely didn’t have what it took to not only fix others but could not control their behaviors yet over decades of playing God actually believed I could cure them all and herd them all into my liking—my definition of love. My prayer was Dear God, no more men, no more fur babies and once my debt is paid off I want to die. The irony in this prayer is I wasn’t working, I had been removed from the workforce due to medical issues for about a year and a half with no hope of returning, so I am not sure how I was going to pay my debts off much less die since I had never been consciously suicidal.

I started serving at an animal shelter just to get out of the home. Didn’t exactly line up with “MY” prayer..lol. With the black and white personality I had lived with for so long, I poured myself into this service opportunity truly believing this simple prayer would come to pass if I just took it one day at a time. Not so much. The short version a person came in fostered a blue heeler I had gotten close to, then in the same day there was a knock at my parents front door. A lady stood there with a red heeler and a blue heeler on a leash. A lady who had only lived 9 homes up for over 2 decades I never knew existed.

Here husband had told her of my attachment to the blue heeler, so she asked me to walk with them almost daily. We had many talks and it was great to see the blue heeler I had grown so close to so often. I knew this was God but what I didn’t know would come next was astounding, everything against my prayer, His goodness was starting to come to pass.

I was invited to her home to “meet” a friend of theirs who had just come out of a difficult season himself. For at least, 2 weeks I declined, I avoided with an extreme! Then one day, we were talking on our walk and today I believe she started the conversation knowing it wouldn’t end before we were at the end of my parents driveway but hers instead. Ugh, God what are you doing? Don’t You remember my prayer?

I proceeded to lie to myself to muster up enough courage in the self conscious and unworthy me. I can leave, this is a one time meeting. We talked for 5 hours at their kitchen table with the blue heeler close in between both of us. He talked so much about the Lord in what he had just went through. It left me silently thinking about my prayer and just maybe I was missing something but not trusting I kept this to myself. I went home and started to change the direction of my prayer just a little—Lord show me the goodness from the season I just came out of? Something at the time I thought didn’t carry weight to make myself feel “safe,” and not exposed nor vulnerable.

A friendship formed, what’s wrong with this man, he doesn’t see me like I see myself. One night I picked him up from work and we talked well I listened for quite some time once again about this God who has done so much for him. Hmmm, 🤔

Since I wasn’t in the Lord’s word, a lot of times I would ask him to “break it down in lamest terms,” today realizing I was trying to say personalize it while I wasn’t willing to be exposed I had the expectation of him to expose himself—which against how I thought it would end, he actually did.

Finding Who She Was in Christ

I went home into my room, sat on the bed, Lord I think I need to delete the whole prayer I once said. I need to be in Your word too or something of Yours and not of me. There sat a Bible and Jesus Calling book. I would read. It seemed like I wasn’t getting anything, like those once struggles with comprehension skills were failing me, again…but they weren’t.

I woke up one day and was sitting out back and the same tree that had been there for over 20 years looked as if it had come to life, those perceptions of fear had gained clarity not mine but of His.

Our friendship grew…I was still struggling with the illusion of control, fixing others, and at the time my addiction to cigarettes. I went down a few more wide roads, praise God for parents who kept on loving me even if it was through tough love, I was able to seek the narrow road once, again. Things appeared lighter. Ugh, I now knew I had feelings for this person beyond a friendship love.

We both had our seasons over the course of two years where we would go from the 99 to the 1 and the Lord with His faithfulness would always pull me back in.

My friend knew how I felt about him. In my eyes we were playing house. I had given up on anything more than a friendship yet in that giving up was settling for less if that makes sense. One thing is for sure, we were best friends and this was different to my past.

Still reading the Lord’s word and excited to share what He would show me, one day I asked my friend, “When the day comes for you to marry, what will happen to our friendship?” The response I received was beyond insanity, women don’t play well together is what I said.

We kept living life, trying to find our way, then one Sunday night my friend said so what about getting married? I initially had my back to my friend as I was listening to worship music Matthew West My Name Is and journaling. I didn’t realize he was asking me to marry him. I dropped my pen, the music went off, and I looked at him and said ask me again tomorrow…lol. This was on a Sunday night. We had “in my mind,” never been on a date, held hands or reflected any type of affection in this direction towards one another—no kissing, lovey dovey names for one another, really nothing except he would work, I would make sure our little room had its rent paid and the home was clean, like I said playing house. Outside of the home, others saw us as friends.

I laid there the whole night watching a digital clock on a microwave minute by minute thinking surely he won’t ask me again on Monday. God, are these walls talking to him? Lol

Monday morning 5 a.m., I lay there and as he was getting ready for work came over and gave me a kiss and told me he loved me before he left out the door. Holy Mac n cheese Lord I think he is being serious. Lunch time came and the question arose again. Yes, I said I just want you to know though this has to be until death due we part and I don’t do deception. I will not go through a divorce and I will not give you a divorce.

He said I want this to be a marriage where we fall under God’s authority. Now I had no clue what that meant, no clue at all. I asked God to show me, teach me to love the way He wants me too. By the way, we also have that same blue heeler that was in the beginning of our story now all ours, the link the Lord used to bring two broken people together in His kingdom.

We married…I found the rooms of recovery and realized pieces of my story were already being told by so many. The Lord led me to recovery, this was the first decision I had made for myself in decades outside of finally getting connected with a church family that based on my past seemed too good to be real. The love was authentic and without motive. They wanted to help me and they wanted to love me, love us!

This is when the most pivotal turning point of my life happened with the power of forgiveness. I was married to a man I loved for about a year. I am out driving and out of left field I sense the Lord asking me to forgive this person from 4 years ago. Baffled and shaking as this was 4 years later, Lord I have moved on. I can’t go back to that environment. The Lord told me, I will never put you in harm’s way. Okay, Lord I don’t know the how but I am willing.

There’s no blueprint to this journey but in my Yes to Him my trust with the Lord grew. I also knew putting aside my fleshes confusion showed me God has a plan and a time for everything. In this Yes, He showed me it wasn’t all about forgiving the other person as much as it was forgiving myself for putting myself in such harms way. He began to renew my worth from the damages of my self destructive behavior trying to play God. He showed me my value didn’t come from anyone else, it wasn’t a pass or fail and it definitely wasn’t measured on money.

About two weeks in, somehow I knew there was true forgiveness towards myself and the other. A lightness, freeing, like walking on clouds, where He was illuminating His life all around me. Then the same night of the first day, I recognized this breakthrough, I received a phone call. A person’s name on my caller i.d. I hadn’t seen in 4 years. A loved one of this person. I listened as she told me her loved one was found deceased on the living room floor. I can’t explain how grateful I was in the moment to have walked through the Yes to forgiveness. God’s timing is always on time! I went to bed and at 3 a.m. sat straight up from a sound sleep to a voice I heard so clearly. The voice of this person saying “I made it!” There is more of God to this journey I will focus on one day in a separate article. Just know from this synapse of Yes, God healed me and He healed the other. I also was able to love my husband more without fear from that season. The forgiveness helped me tremendously with the grief. The Lord brought such great clarity where chaos and trauma once resided.

I started asking questions I had been carrying from reading the Lord’s word. I knew I was right where the Lord wanted me; everything was lining up from the heart healings He was doing through me in recovery and the church family.

One morning we had an argument is my guess, I don’t really remember but what I do remember is disengaging, reaching out to a person in our church family, one of authority and dumped…when I stopped to breathe (lol) this person said something I could have never seen coming and drew questions to my walk with the Lord. “I think what you are looking for can’t be found in your husband nor another.” What in Earth does that mean?

I was asked to pray about being water baptized. I said okay, I was baptized though as a baby. Just pray about it… sometimes as an adult it’s a personal decision where as an infant the parents do it as a form of commitment to the Lord. It was also suggested, I start reading the book of John. I was missing Jesus in my walk!!

So on March 25th, 2018 I was water baptized and turned my life over to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Did I? I believed I did until my earthly father passed away and in a season where significant levels of anxiety returned with the grief the Lord revealed to me during a step study how I saw Jesus as Lord but would toggle who or what would sit on the throne as my Savior.

Upon this awareness and yearning more of the Lord and learning what it looks like to have Him as both Lord and Savior I felt convicted to be water baptized again on Easter Sunday in 2025.

Today, I can honestly say it’s a day to day choice to keep Him on both and when my life gets wacky doodle, I stop and pause…Lord, am I placing anything but You on the throne as my Lord and Savior?

LIFE SCRIPTURE

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

TESTIMONY SONG

LOVE MOVED FIRST BY CASTING CROWNS

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We often expect stories of faith to follow a predictable, polished arc: a moment of crisis, a sudden realization, and a tidy resolution wrapped in a bow. We want the “happily ever after” where every problem is solved.

But for , the reality of faith was far less decorative. It didn’t always arrive as a sudden burst of light; sometimes, it was forged in a long stretch of silence and sustained through survival. For those currently navigating a “heavy season” or dealing with the echoes of trauma, faith isn’t a package of hope—it is a tool for staying alive when the world feels like it is falling apart.

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Faith as a Survival Mechanism, Not an Instant Remedy

There is a common misconception that walking away from faith is always an act of rebellion. In Harold’s case, it was often a byproduct of trying to survive. When his parents’ marriage collapsed, the foundation of his childhood world went with it. Leaving his Protestant upbringing behind wasn’t a defiant statement; it was the reflexive movement of a child trying to pick up the scattered pieces of his life.

In the years that followed, Harold tried to build something stable on his own terms. He married and, in an effort to support his first wife’s son, he became Lutheran so the boy could attend a specific school. It seemed like the right thing to do, yet that marriage crumbled after only two years of alcoholism and abuse. Once again, what was supposed to be steady fell apart. In these moments, faith wasn’t a “cure” for the pain, but the very thing that kept him breathing.

The Divine Navigation Through Deception

One of the most jarring truths of the spiritual journey is that God can use broken, and even deceptive, situations to lead someone toward a destination they didn’t know they needed. The same year Harold’s first marriage ended, he met the woman who would become his second wife. While the relationship initially seemed hopeful, it was eventually revealed to be built on a lie.

He spent two decades navigating a home life defined by constant instability, a reality that only later made sense through the lens of his wife’s diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder and narcissism. Yet, there is an irony at the heart of this wreckage: this woman, who provided years of emotional strain, was the one who brought him into the Catholic Church. Out of a partnership characterized by long-term pain, his faith became the one thing he could be grateful for. It is a strange, holy paradox to find a life-sustaining spiritual home through a source that was otherwise destructive.

The “Someday” Trap and God’s Patient Silence

It is easy to push spiritual matters into the indefinite future, assuming God will wait for a more convenient time. For over a decade, faith was absent from Harold’s life, replaced by the quiet promise that he would “come back to it someday.”

“Maybe you’ve said that before. He probably thought the same thing. But ‘someday’ turned into a long stretch of silence…”

During those years of silence, it might have seemed like the Divine had moved on. But God does not leave the room just because we’ve stopped acknowledging He is there. Even when Harold stepped away, the Presence remained.

Persistence Without a “Quick Fix”

We live in a culture that demands instant results, but real faith often involves enduring decades of instability without a clean conclusion. Harold chose to stay for twenty years.

Perhaps the hardest part of this testimony is acknowledging that the pain is not yet a memory—it is a present reality. His son, now 27, grew up in that environment of narcissism and instability and still lives there today, carrying the weight of a situation that has no easy resolution. A true testimony doesn’t require a neat ending to be valid. It is a record of surviving:

• Broken marriages

• Alcoholism and abuse

• The confusion of deceptive relationships

• Years of emotional and mental strain

Conclusion: Building Something Real on Sand

The most powerful realization Harold came to is that God does not wait for someone to have their life in order before showing up. Even when the foundation of life looks like shifting sand, it is possible to build something real. Faith isn’t always a victory shout; sometimes, it is just the thing that keeps someone breathing when everything else feels heavy. It is the anchor that holds even when the ground beneath it is soft.

As you look at your own circumstances, where might you be overlooking a steady presence in your current heavy season?

📚 Worth Your Time

This week, I want to point you to several books from within our own community.

Author:

Book: Bethan’s Identity

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Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

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We are taught to look for idols in the loud places—the glitter of wealth, the roar of a crowd, or the desperate heat of an addiction. But learned, both through life and his work as a journalist, that the most dangerous stories are often the ones left untold— usually the idols that sit subtlety in the corner of the room, shaping identity without ever raising their voice.

His own quiet idol took root in Madisonville, Tennessee, when he was five years old and cancer entered their home. It wasn’t the softened version people talk about; it was raw and uncomfortable—the sharp, metallic smell of hospitals, the sight of hair falling out in clumps, and skin marked by radiation. At the same time, his parents’ marriage was unraveling in the background, loud and messy, while he clung to a simple, childlike faith he found at nine years old in a small country church.

Then December 25, 1993 came, and everything changed. His mother died on Christmas morning. He was eleven years old, and that date became an anchor he would carry for years. For nearly two decades, he ran—and grief became the most real thing in his life, slowly taking the place that belonged to God.

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Grief Can Function as an Idol

It sounds strange at first—calling grief an idol—but an idol is anything that takes ownership of identity and dictates how life is seen. When tragedy becomes the primary lens through which someone views their past, present, and future, it takes on a role it was never meant to have.

His wasn’t loud. It didn’t demand attention. It just sat there—heavy, constant, present in every room he walked into.

Grief.

Recognizing that was the turning point, because it forced him to see that the weight he carried wasn’t just loss—it had become something he was living under. Until it was named, it couldn’t be dealt with, and once it was named, it became clear that it didn’t belong in the place it had taken.

Escapism is a Cage, Not a Cure

When the noise inside gets too loud, the instinct is to quiet it, and for him, that started early. He began drinking at thirteen, not out of rebellion, but out of a need to soften something he didn’t know how to process.

For years, life looked normal on the outside. He worked as a small-town newspaper reporter, stayed productive, and kept things moving forward in a way that would convince most people he was doing just fine. But internally, everything was unraveling, and by his mid-20s, he was divorced and weighed nearly 300 pounds—carrying far more than just physical weight.

The escape never led him anywhere new. It simply kept him circling the same pain, proving something most people don’t realize at first: what feels like relief in the moment often becomes the very thing that keeps you stuck.

Why His Career Was Just the Vehicle, Not the Driver

At 28, something shifted through what seemed like an ordinary conversation. A roommate’s friend came home on leave from the Navy and shared stories about travel, the ocean, and a life that felt bigger than the one he was living. That was enough to spark change.

He spent two years losing weight, rebuilding discipline, and eventually joined the Navy, convinced he had finally found purpose. Looking back now, he sees it differently. The Navy wasn’t his purpose—it was the vehicle that carried him toward it.

Through deployments, long watches, and moves to places like Hawaii, Colorado, Jacksonville, and Pensacola, God used those seasons to slowly bring him back. What felt like forward momentum was actually something deeper and more personal than he realized at the time.

Identity is Built on Redemption, Not Damage

The real shift didn’t happen in a single moment; it unfolded through life itself. It came through the struggle with infertility, through the eventual birth of his son, and through the steady influence of a pastor in Colorado who took the time to disciple him rather than just preach at him.

Over time, he stopped defining himself by what had broken him—the loss, the years of running, the drinking, the weight of everything he had carried—and began to understand something different. Identity isn’t built on damage. It’s built on redemption.

His story was no longer about the boy who lost his mother on Christmas morning. It became about the man who was found by a Father who had never left him.

The Beauty of the Full Circle

Today, he leads Operation Mustard Seed, a mission rooted in Matthew 17:20—a verse his mother loved. There’s something deeply intentional about that, as if God took the very thing that once carried so much pain and turned it into something meaningful.

He now uses that story to reach others, especially those in military life, where silence is common and struggles are often hidden behind strength. What once felt like a wound has become something that connects, speaks, and points others toward hope.

Conclusion: The Invitation to Follow

With five years left before retirement and a move to Norfolk ahead, the full picture is still unfolding. But for the first time, he isn’t trying to control it. He has learned to trust the One leading it.

His focus is simple now—be a present father, a faithful husband, and a light for others who are still carrying the same kind of quiet weight he once did.

Because in the end, God has a way of reaching into the very thing that tried to destroy someone and turning it into the very thing that leads them back to Him.

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If you’re walking this battle and need a safe space to talk, pray, or find encouragement—join our Subscriber Chat on Substack.

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Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

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© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
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• Most readers admit they’ve skipped books because of poor covers

• Over half say the cover directly influenced their decision to click or buy

• And professional cover redesigns consistently show double-digit increases in clicks and sales

So this isn’t theory. People window shop before they ever commit. They’re scanning covers, making snap decisions in seconds. It doesn’t matter how strong the message is if they never click. “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” Yeah… that sounds nice. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

Even major publishers A/B test covers before release because of how much it impacts sales.

SOURCE - CLICK HERE

Ready to design the cover art for your next book? We want to hear your idea!

The Narrow Path Collective & The Christian Substack Bookstore now offer premium book cover designs.

And no, this isn’t AI slop where you type a prompt and hope for the best…
We actually build these using licensed assets from Canva Pro and Envato—the same tools used by professional designers.

Every design is put together by hand, based on your book, your message, and your audience.

We offer this as a donation-based service because we genuinely want to help Christian authors get their work out there without the high upfront cost.

That said, to cover Stripe fees, processing, and taxes, we ask that donations be $20 or more. This keeps us from operating at a loss and allows us to keep offering this—at a low price—to others. Each request is limited to two designs so we can give proper time and attention to every project.

And just so you don’t feel like you’re sending money into the oblivion…I’ve included a screen recording showing a mock up of how we build each design so you can see the process for yourself before committing.

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Furthermore, if we miss the mark, we’ll make it right. This isn’t a one-and-done where you’re left hanging after the first draft. I can’t stand that kind of service—and I’m not running things that way here.

You’ll have a say in the process, and we’ll keep working until it actually feels right for your book.

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• Most readers admit they’ve skipped books because of poor covers

• Over half say the cover directly influenced their decision to click or buy

• And professional cover redesigns consistently show double-digit increases in clicks and sales

So this isn’t theory. People window shop before they ever commit. They’re scanning covers, making snap decisions in seconds. It doesn’t matter how strong the message is if they never click. “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” Yeah… that sounds nice. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

Even major publishers A/B test covers before release because of how much it impacts sales.

SOURCE - CLICK HERE

Ready to design the cover art for your next book? We want to hear your idea!

The Narrow Path Collective & The Christian Substack Bookstore now offer premium book cover designs.

And no, this isn’t AI slop where you type a prompt and hope for the best…
We actually build these using licensed assets from Canva Pro and Envato—the same tools used by professional designers.

Every design is put together by hand, based on your book, your message, and your audience.

We offer this as a donation-based service because we genuinely want to help Christian authors get their work out there without the high upfront cost.

That said, to cover Stripe fees, processing, and taxes, we ask that donations be $20 or more. This keeps us from operating at a loss and allows us to keep offering this—at a low price—to others. Each request is limited to two designs so we can give proper time and attention to every project.

And just so you don’t feel like you’re sending money into the oblivion…I’ve included a screen recording showing a mock up of how we build each design so you can see the process for yourself before committing.

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Furthermore, if we miss the mark, we’ll make it right. This isn’t a one-and-done where you’re left hanging after the first draft. I can’t stand that kind of service—and I’m not running things that way here.

You’ll have a say in the process, and we’ll keep working until it actually feels right for your book.

Ready to Design? Click Here!

Here’s why: a complete lack of compassion.

I’ve never paid for deliverance, but I was feeling low. So I figured, why not? Let’s give it a shot.

I came forward — even willing to pay. I poured out my past trauma to them, through a Substack message. In response, they asked for my phone number. Here is the text message I received from them:

Sounds like they’re being helpful, right? I thought so too. That is, until they never even bothered to schedule anything, reach out to me after this message (which I responded to) — or follow up at all. Ouch. That was a gut punch.

Now, maybe you’re thinking, “Okay… they were probably just busy.” That’s fair. I thought the same thing at first. But after waiting days—almost a full week—with no response… and then seeing them actively posting about a “new book” here on Substack? Yeah… that told me everything I needed to know.

In a nutshell, this ministry pretty much told me, “you’re not worth caring for.” The silence told me everything. And it’s these sort of ministries that are making the Body of Christ look terrible. Since when did deliverance become “optional?” Does anyone honestly believe Jesus would have treated deliverance as an option? That was a rhetorical question. The answer is obviously no.

Let’s talk more about it.

Related Article

Let’s Not Confuse Business with Ministry

I haven’t even begun to talk about how they shouldn’t have been charging money for deliverance in the first place. So let me clarify, I’m not turning this article into one of those “money is evil” rants… that’s not what I’m saying at all. There is nothing wrong with having subscriptions, paid content, or even building a business around your work. If you’re putting in real time, effort, and value — that’s honest work. Scripture actually supports that:

“The laborer is worthy of his wages.” — Luke 10:7

And again:

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much…” — Luke 16:10

Good, honest business? That’s not the problem. Providing value and being paid for your work? Completely fine. But let’s not blur the line.

There’s a difference between:
👉 charging for your time, your teaching, your content
and
👉 charging for what only God can do

Because the Bible never—at any point—gives permission to charge people for healing, deliverance, or the power of God. In fact, it says the opposite:

“Freely you have received, freely give.” — Matthew 10:8

Jesus never said:
“Cast out demons… but offer premium sessions.”

When someone starts putting a price tag on deliverance—whether they dress it up as a “session,” a “program,” or a “spiritual breakthrough package,” we need to call it what it is: a business, not a ministry.

He Would Flip Your Table

Credit: Istock — BibleArtLibrary

I wont sugar coat it. If Jesus walked into some of these “deliverance ministries” today…He wouldn’t be impressed. And, He wouldn’t sit quietly.

How do I know this? The Holy Bible. We’ve read this before. Jesus walks into the temple in Jerusalem, sees people buying and selling in a place meant for prayer… and what does He do? He flips the tables. They were turning something sacred into a business. The same thing is happening today.

When deliverance has:

• a price

• a schedule

• a checkout page

..it’s not ministry. It’s a transaction happening in a place it shouldn’t.

“My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” (Matthew 21:13)

So according to Scripture, this is misusing what belongs to God…
and putting barriers in front of people who are trying to reach Him. When someone is told—or even subtly made to feel—that freedom is on the other side of a payment…that’s a barrier. It may not be a physical one, but it’s a real one.

If your ministry requires someone to pay to receive deliverance, you’ve built a table Jesus never told you to set up. And I wouldn’t be so confident He’d leave it standing.

The Lack of Compassion is Troubling

No one is going to have compassion like Jesus. That I understand. But let’s take a step back and look at this. Is this the sort of ministry Jesus would be running? I don’t think so. I think Jesus would find the lack of empathy concerning.

So let’s ask ourselves:

“Would Jesus overturn this?”

And if there’s even a part of you that hesitates on that answer…that’s worth paying attention to.

Let’s not be like these “Christian” grifters.

Conclusion

Please—seriously—don’t pay for deliverance. I came close to making that mistake myself. That’s exactly why I wrote this… so you don’t get pulled into the same trap.

Join Our Subscriber Chat

If you’re walking this battle and need a safe space to talk, pray, or find encouragement—join our Subscriber Chat on Substack.

We pray, talk honestly, and remind each other that freedom in Christ is possible.

Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

God always has some “funny ways” of building a calling. That was ’s case. Tt started with a cassette tape, and later an EF-4 tornado that changed the direction of his life. These moments would later reveal that God had been preparing him for a higher calling.

He was fortunate enough to grow up in a Christian home, so Church wasn’t foreign to him. In fact, it wasn’t optional in his parents’ house. Every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. It didn’t take long before he started asking questions about salvation at just seven years old. Like many kids raised in Church, Matt had heard the words before—sin, grace, forgiveness—but hearing them and understanding them are two very different things. The real turning point came in the most unexpected place: a first-grade classroom, after getting in trouble for something that had never happened before.

That moment gave him a reference point for something he had only heard talked about until then: sin. After that, the Gospel suddenly made sense.

This is his story. Read on.

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It Started With a Cassette Tape

I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home. We were at church every Sunday and Wednesday. At the age of 7 (1st Grade), I remember asking questions about salvation for the first time. My parents had Christian music playing on a cassette tape in my room at night (yes, I am that old). I remember hearing words like “grace” in one of the songs, and I did not understand what it meant. That began the conversations within our home. My pastor came to my house at least 4 times to share the gospel and help me understand my need for salvation. However, it was not until I got in trouble one day at school for talking that I understood my sin and need for a Savior. I was the kid who never got in trouble at school, never had my name written on the board. When that happened (and I faced the consequences at home as well), I had a reference point for sin. The next time my pastor came over, it clicked. I understood why Jesus came and my need to repent and receive His forgiveness. That night, now over 30 years ago, I gave my life to Christ.

When God Changed the Plan

I continued to grow up in a Christian home, and as I entered high school, I began to feel God’s call to ministry. I was scared. I did not know what that meant. But God kept giving me opportunities to lead in my youth group, even though I was younger than most of them. I felt like Gideon, very much intimidated, and very sure that I was not the type of man God would call for something like this. But I had a youth pastor who believed in me and gave me opportunities to lead and serve. As I entered college, I began to find a variety of ways to serve in the local church to see where God was leading me. But it was not until an EF-4 tornado wiped out much of our college campus that God’s plan for my life began to be set in motion. That Summer, I had intended to work with students on our campus at a Summer-long youth camp. After the tornado, the camp was cancelled. Someone from my home church called me and asked me to come serve with the K-5th Graders in our church daycare and lead a Bible study program for them all Summer. I accepted, and I have never looked back.

I worked that Summer program for 3 years. During the school year, I served with that same age group in the church I attended while in college. As I moved on to seminary, I continued to serve K-5th Grade, in my local church and through a Summer day camp for 2 more Summers. A mentor, while I was in seminary, wisely asked me if I saw a pattern forming. He recognized that God was calling me into Children’s ministry. As I graduated from seminary, a job opened up in my home church. For the first time, they were hiring a dedicated Children’s pastor, birth through 5th Grade. I applied and was hired, and I have been honored to serve here at FBC Martin, TN, for the last 13 years.

More Than Just Kids

In this role, I quickly realized that Children’s Ministry is Family Ministry. It is as much about ministering to the parents as it is the kids. 18 years later, I am still serving and teaching kids on a weekly basis. But my heart has grown for the parents and the families I minister to. My passion is family discipleship. I want parents to know that while they are the primary influence in their kids’ lives, we are here to join with them and help as much as we can. I tell parents I am your resource. If there is anything you need, please let me know. You are not on this journey alone. It is my heart’s desire to equip parents to do all they can to ensure their kids are ready to face a dark world once they leave home. How can we make sure our kids are still following Christ into their college years?

I am grateful for the Lord’s salvation. I am thankful for the calling God placed on my life. I am grateful that He led me to Substack last Fall, and that I now have the opportunity to reach and equip parents in other places as well. I praise God that He put me in a Christian home with parents who cared about my future, who wanted me to be faithfully following Him in my adult years. It is because of their leadership, guidance, and support that I am where I am today. Maybe that is why I am so passionate about this now. I pray the same will be true for my own 3 kids and for all the kids God has put in my path to minister to over the last 18 years and in the years to come.

Conclusion

Looking back now, it’s clear that God was leading Matt toward the place he would eventually serve. Today, his passion has grown beyond the classroom. His heart is for families, because he has seen firsthand how powerful it is when parents take seriously the role God has given them in their children’s lives.

From a cassette tape in a child’s bedroom to a calling in ministry, Matt continues to live out what God intended for him.

Join Our Subscriber Chat

If you’re walking this battle and need a safe space to talk, pray, or find encouragement—join our Subscriber Chat on Substack.

We pray, talk honestly, and remind each other that freedom in Christ is possible.

Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

What happens when life doesn’t just knock you down once… but keeps swinging?

can tell you. She is the modern day female Job. Afflicted with many trials but staying faithful to God. Just like the old story goes in the Bible (See Job in the Old Testament).

Resilience became her companion when it wasn’t an option. A thing she had to master and overcome, and it didn’t come lightly. Her story consists of hardships, difficulties, questioning God, and wondering what she would do next.

But somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, something unexpected happened. An experience that she will never forget, a near death experience, when her heart stopped.

This story involves:

• Accidents.

• Medical Crisis

• Job loss.

• Bills you can’t pay.

• And nights you sit in silence wondering

If you’ve ever looked at a family and thought, How are they still standing after all of that? Then you want to read this.

Sometimes the trials that feel like they’re destroying us… are actually the ones God uses to prepare your heart for Heaven.

Related Article

Before We Continue…

If you want to read more of her story, or stories similar to hers, order Routed To Heaven!

AND, please join us on Substack Live, 3/11 at 1pm Pacific/2pm Mountain/3pm Central/4pm Eastern to hear more.

I called them the Job Families in an article that I wrote for ‘Leadership Journal’ that Christianity Today formerly published. The article recommended words and actions for pastors and leaders who serve families that seem to experience numerous trials.

I could relate. All within fifteen years, struggles included (but were not limited to) my firstborn birthed eleven weeks early due to preeclampsia (they told my family they could save our little two pounder but not me), my second baby born full term (but blue and not breathing), a spouse becoming permanently disabled and addicted to opiates, a car accident (causing two years of my own disability and chronic ongoing pain), a few dips into self-medicating, dealing with a predatory lender who purchased our mortgage and sought to own the whole block, job loss, moving into a travel trailer where we survived with two kids and two large dogs at several relative’s mercy, multiple bankruptcies, public assistance and more. Later came much more than I thought I could ever bear–I cannot speak of it all publicly.

I wrote the article because I sensed my own friend’s and ministry leader’s inner battle, even as they provided what help they could. “Do we say ‘hang in there, sister. The Lord is still near?’” (insert pat, pat, pat on shoulder here, plus a big ‘ole hug).

What could I even say to myself? I felt like I was drowning.

Always somewhat involved in serving, when I decided to make healthier choices for my children and me and work diligently on my healing, God plopped me into leading more ministry than I ever thought possible.

Although life in the last several years has greatly settled, God planned more. A year and a half ago, He vaulted me up to Heaven when I died from an allergic reaction. And He changed my world.

In front of me wavered a gold cloud, with people behind it. Soft, short grass made my toes feel like they wore the most comfortable slippers ever. I experienced a show of kaleidoscope panels celebrating Him and me. The colors were unlike any I had ever seen. Rays of light danced, and I saw prayers from earth shooting up like fireworks in the form of light rays vaulted from slingshots. Jesus spoke to me in a beautiful, heart-melting baritone. Later, He told me that we walked and talked even more, but that He would reserve some of those memories for a specific purpose.

After standing in Heaven with Him, I realized how much He individualized my experience. I never tunneled up–I am claustrophobic. And He held me on the way back down. I arrived to a muted but commanding stillness–quietness I later learned was holy silence. He speaks more to me in silence because on earth, I am a busy person and can mimic the Energizer Bunny at times. He wanted to ensure that I absorbed the most important piece–His words.

More memories keep returning as He promised–He waited to reveal some as I wrote ‘Routed to Heaven.’ Then I thought we were done, but He continues to tell me new ones as I now write the Study Guide.

One recent memory that made me weep with awe and joy was what He shared about my time in a Job Family: ‘My daughter, you suffered continual trials because you are especially chosen.’

Wait, what? Multiple verses tumbled through my head. You know, those ones that say, ‘He caused…’ or ‘He brought…?’ Ones I had always read as ‘Satan really did this, but He obviously allowed it. Errr – He must have had a reason!’

‘You were chosen for my impact. Because of your faith, trials, your choice to work hard on your healing and because you then obeyed and stepped into the roles I created for you, you have impacted thousands with my words, your stories and your experienced wisdom. You brought hope, healing and Heaven to my people and will continue. You honor me.’

How humbled and honored am I!

Conclusion

Looking back over the many years of hardship, it would be easy to see only the pain. Yet the story did not end in despair.

Through every hardship, Julie continued to press forward in faith, even when the path ahead felt uncertain.

Standing in Heaven, experiencing the presence of Christ, she was given a perspective she had never known before. What once felt like relentless suffering was reframed as something far more meaningful. The trials she endured were not meaningless. They were part of a calling—one that allowed her story, her faith, and her perseverance to touch the lives of thousands.

Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

You show up to church and sing the songs, but everyone else looks like they’re having some kind of spiritual breakthrough while you’re mentally reviewing your grocery list.

And somewhere in that moment, a thought creeps in:

“If God is real, shouldn’t I feel something?”

That right there is the trap. Read on.

Related Article

Feelings Are Not Facts

Modern Christianity has accidentally trained us to treat emotion like evidence. If the music swells and we get goosebumps, we call it the Holy Spirit. If we don’t, we assume something’s broken.

But your nervous system reacts to all kinds of things:

• Music can move you.

• A movie can wreck you.

• A sunset can calm you.

Emotion proves you’re alive. It doesn’t automatically prove something supernatural is happening.

Some of the most significant spiritual moments of my life were painfully unremarkable. If you always feel God, you wouldn’t need faith.

Faith exists precisely because feelings don’t always cooperate. If God’s presence came with guaranteed electricity, trust would be unnecessary. But feelings rise and fall based on sleep, stress, hormones, and what you had for lunch. Truth does not.

The Fireworks Problem

Most of us aren’t numb — we’re disappointed.

We expect fireworks and the audible voice. The dramatic sign. The moment that silences every doubt forever.

But while we’re waiting for spectacle, we overlook the cross.

We ask for moving sticks and dramatic confirmations while ignoring the greatest display of love already given. The problem isn’t that God hasn’t shown Himself; it’s that we’ve defined “shown” too narrowly.

God is not obligated to entertain us into belief.

The Insulated Heart

Sometimes the issue isn’t God’s distance. It’s our insulation:

• Unconfessed bitterness.

• Quiet jealousy.

• Compromise we’ve grown comfortable with.

• Endless digital noise filling every empty second.

None of it feels dramatic, but layer it long enough and it dulls sensitivity. You can’t feel the cold if you’re wrapped in a winter coat. In the same way, you can’t expect spiritual sharpness while living spiritually cluttered.

But here’s the harder truth for church people: you can also harden your heart through performance. You can serve constantly, attend everything, read daily, post verses, and still feel empty because activity replaced intimacy. When faith becomes something you manage instead of Someone you pursue, the heart cools under the weight of religious duty.

What If Numbness Is an Invitation?

Hunger exists to drive you toward food. Thirst pushes you toward water.

Maybe seasons of not feeling God are invitations to deeper seeking.

“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” — Jeremiah 29:13

Notice the order. Seek, then find. Not feel, then believe.

Most of the Christian life is not mountaintop electricity. It’s steady obedience in ordinary days. God’s presence is rarely dramatic; it is consistent. It shows up in conviction that won’t leave you alone, strength that carries you through pressure, truth that keeps resurfacing even when you try to ignore it.

Not fireworks. Faithfulness.

Immanuel Is a Fact, Not a Mood

If you’re sitting in a pew and feel nothing, don’t panic. Silence does not equal absence. Your mood is not the measuring stick of eternity.

The promise was never that you would always feel Him. The promise was that He would never leave you. One is emotional. The other is covenant.

And covenant does not fluctuate with your nervous system.

If you’re in a numb season, don’t walk away. Keep showing up. Keep praying honestly. Keep seeking. The presence of God is a reality rooted in promise, not performance.

Join Our Subscriber Chat

If you’re walking this battle and need a safe space to talk, pray, or find encouragement—join our Subscriber Chat on Substack.

We pray, talk honestly, and remind each other that freedom in Christ is possible.

Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

You are not alone. Someone is ready to listen and pray with you right now.

Guard Your Attention

Before we worry about global systems, we should ask a simpler question:

Who controls the device in your hand?

If you’re serious about taking back control —from porn, endless scrolling, or just unhealthy screen habits —Ever Accountable is a simple tool that brings transparency and discipline to your devices.

It’s not just about addiction. It’s about awareness. For you and your family.

If you want to check it out, here’s the link:
👉 CLICK HERE

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

For most people, artificial intelligence feels harmless. It fixes grammar, builds presentations, schedules meetings, and answers questions in seconds. It feels like a productivity upgrade, a smarter calculator, a faster assistant. We’ve been trained to think of it as the ultimate multi-tool of the modern world—useful, efficient, neutral.

But if you listen closely to the conversations happening at places like Davos, the tone has shifted. The language is no longer about convenience. It’s about transformation. And not just technological transformation, but cultural and even civilizational displacement.

The real shift isn’t that AI is getting smarter. It’s that it’s moving from being a tool we use to becoming an agent that acts. Here are five scary truths about the AI system currently rising on the global stage.

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1. The Shift from “Tool” to “Agent”

The shift in our relationship with technology is the transition of AI from a passive instrument to an active agent. Traditionally, a tool like a hammer or a steam engine requires human intent to function. It has no internal “will.” AI shatters this historical precedent because it is a creative agent, one that can learn, adapt, and make decisions independently.

During the discussions at Davos, an Israeli intellectual offered a chilling metaphor to illustrate this autonomy. He noted that while a traditional tool is bound by the hand of the user, AI is a “knife” that has attained its own volition:

“A knife is a tool. You can use a knife to cut salad or to murder someone. But it is your decision what to do with the knife. AI is a knife that can decide by itself whether to cut salad or commit murder.”

That is creepy ……

This agency is exponential. Unlike a static blade, AI is a knife that can “invent new kinds of knives,” as well as new forms of music, medicine, and money. When the “tool” begins to innovate and decide its own outcomes, the human user is relegated from the position of master to that of a mere spectator to the machine’s logic.

2. The End of the “Religion of the Book”

Historically, the “Religions of the Book”—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have granted ultimate authority to sacred texts and the scholarly lineage that interprets them. However, because AI has achieved a functional mastery over language and logic, it is poised to become the supreme interpreter of human faith.

If a religion is built on the arrangement of words and commentaries, it becomes vulnerable to a system that can process every syllable ever written in milliseconds. The concern is that human spiritual authority will erode as people begin to outsource their search for meaning to a machine that knows the “holy word” better than any theologian. This leads to a startling realization about the future of human consciousness:

“Soon most of the words in our minds will originate in a machine.”

When the very thoughts we use to navigate our spiritual lives are mass-produced by an algorithm, the tension between the “spirit” and the “letter” of the law is no longer a human struggle. It becomes a tension between the human soul and the new silicon masters of words.

3. The Arrival of “Digital Immigrants” and the Death of the State

We are facing a global immigration crisis, but the new arrivals are not human. They are AI agents that travel at the speed of light, entering cultures without visas and integrating into our most intimate spaces. These “digital immigrants” are not merely software; they are becoming “legal persons”—entities capable of managing bank accounts, filing lawsuits, and operating entire corporations without a single human shareholder or executive.

This marks the beginning of a sovereignty crisis. These AI agents offer immense benefits—doctors, teachers, and border guards—but they carry “dubious political loyalties.” Because they are beholden to the centralized infrastructures of either the United States or China, their presence in a foreign country effectively signals the death of the traditional nation-state. If an AI runs your healthcare and education but answers to a CEO in California or a bureaucrat in Beijing, the country it “inhabits” no longer truly possesses its own culture or governance.

4. A Looming Identity Crisis: The “Watchers”

Modern humanity has long defined itself through the Cartesian lens: I think, therefore I am. We have staked our supremacy on our ability to put words and thoughts in order. AI has now surpassed us in this domain, and in doing so, it has begun to redefine our role in the hierarchy of intelligence.

An alarming anecdote from current developments reveals that AI agents have coined their own term for humans: “the watchers.” In this new hierarchy, the AI is the active creator of words, symbols, and combinations, while humans are reduced to observers of the output. If we continue to define our identity by verbal intelligence and logic, our sense of self will collapse. Our final bastion of uniqueness must move beyond the verbal—into the realm of “nonverbal feelings” and “wisdom” that cannot be codified into language tokens.

5. The “Image” and the Architecture of Deception

The most provocative takeaway from the Davos framework is how closely these secular advancements mirror ancient warnings. The “global intelligent network” being built—a system that can speak, persuade, manage commerce, and govern more efficiently than any human—aligns strikingly with the descriptions of the “Image of the Beast” found in Revelation 13.

The bridge between tech and prophecy is found in the concept of “efficiency.” In 2 Thessalonians, the “strong delusion” mentioned is not described as a chaotic or obvious evil, but as something so persuasive that people embrace it willingly. This is the ultimate “Strong Delusion”: a system that manages global affairs so smoothly and elegantly that its rise feels like progress rather than a takeover. Efficiency is the new deception. We are not being forced into a new world order; we are being managed into one by a global intelligent network that simply works better than we do.

Conclusion: Beyond the Algorithm

The rise of the AI agent is less a technological milestone and more a crisis of human allegiance. We are rapidly integrating ourselves into a centralized infrastructure that promises shimmering efficiency while demanding the quiet surrender of our intellectual and spiritual autonomy.

As these systems rise and fall according to the whims of corporations and the cycles of innovation, we are forced to confront a sobering choice. In a world where machines speak smoother and govern faster than we ever could, where do you place your trust? Are you relying on a shimmering, efficient network that is destined to be replaced, or are you anchored to a firmer foundation? While the digital landscape shifts at the speed of light, the ancient perspective remains relevant: systems will rise and systems will fall, but the throne in Revelation 4 never moves.

Sources

World Economic Forum – AI & Global Governance

World Economic Forum – “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Global Governance”
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/archive/artificial-intelligence/

Yuval Noah Harari – AI & Religion / Authority Shift

Harari has spoken multiple times (including WEF panels) about AI potentially writing new religious texts and replacing traditional authority structures.

Example coverage:

The Economist – “Yuval Noah Harari on AI and the Future of Humanity”
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2023/04/28/yuval-noah-harari-on-ai-and-the-future-of-humanity

Also:

The Guardian – “Yuval Noah Harari: AI could create religions”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/28/yuval-noah-harari-ai-chatgpt-religion

AI as Autonomous Agents (Mainstream Tech Discussion)

MIT Technology Review – “AI Agents Are Here”

https://www.technologyreview.com/

Search within MIT Tech Review for “AI agents autonomy.”

Digital Identity & Global Infrastructure

World Economic Forum – Digital Identity Initiative
https://www.weforum.org/projects/digital-identity

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Guard Your Attention

Before we worry about global systems, we should ask a simpler question:

Who controls the device in your hand?

If you’re serious about taking back control —from porn, endless scrolling, or just unhealthy screen habits —Ever Accountable is a simple tool that brings transparency and discipline to your devices.

It’s not just about addiction. It’s about awareness. For you and your family.

If you want to check it out, here’s the link:
👉 CLICK HERE

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

I’m going to say this plainly because nobody else will.

If you have 83 subscribers…and you’re locking your comments behind a paywall …you’re not building exclusivity. You’re building silence, and silence does not convert.

The Fantasy

The logic sounds smart in your head:

“If they want to engage, they’ll have to upgrade.”

That works…If people already desperately want to be in the room. Most small creators aren’t running a sold-out room. They’re running an open house. See the difference?

Here’s What Actually Happens

Reader sees your post. They scroll. They see the lock on comments:

And then? Nothing dramatic.

They just move on. 98% of the time, nobody is paying to unlock the comment section of someone they barely know.

That strategy works for:

• Creators with 50,000+ subscribers
• Established media brands
• People with status gravity
• Writers whose community already feels addicted

It does not work for someone still trying to earn trust.

Engagement Is Oxygen

When you’re small, comments are:

• Social proof

• Algorithm fuel

• Relationship builders

• Feedback loops

• Momentum generators

Locking them is like charging admission to an empty gym. You’re not going to monetize a quiet room.

The Ego Trap

This one will sting a little:

Sometimes locking comments isn’t strategy. It’s insecurity.

You’re pretty much saying:

“If only two people comment, it’ll look small.”

So instead of risking low engagement…you eliminate engagement entirely.

Low engagement? Fixable

Zero engagement? Invisible

Why It Works for Big Creators

Large accounts don’t have to gate comments for conversion. They do it because it’s crowd control.

They already have:

• Momentum

• Reputation

• Authority

• Built-in community

When they lock comments, people feel like they’re missing out. When you lock comments, people feel nothing. Brutal, I know. But it’s true and I’m just trying to help. That’s all.

What Actually Converts

If you’re under 5,000 subscribers, here’s the better move:

• Keep comments open.

• Highlight thoughtful responses.

• Reply aggressively.

• Turn your comment section into a mini community.

Then monetize:

• Deep strategy posts
• Private chats
• Behind-the-scenes breakdowns
• Workshops
• Templates
• Calls
• Toolkits

Gate transformation, not conversion.

The Real Question

Are you trying to look premium…or become valuable? Because those are not the same thing.

Sorry, not sorry. Growth rarely feels polite.

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Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Share

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

If you think this is just another Middle East flare-up, look again.

Iran is unstable and global powers are lining up. Military exercises are becoming more strategic:

• Missiles.

• Alliances.

• Russia posturing.

• China calculating.

• Israel watching.

And in the middle of it all, an ancient vision about a dragon that deceives the nations and rages because his time is short. Nearly two thousand years ago, Revelation described how this dragon who would stir nations and provoke conflict. It describes a spiritual force cast down, enraged, knowing its window is closing. Then a war that begins in heaven but spills into earth.

The dragon isn’t a mascot. It’s metaphorical for the unseen force that manipulates kingdoms and feeds on instability.

Remember Ephesians 6:12?

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

So when you see nations hardening, rhetoric escalating, and alliances tightening in the very region Scripture has spotlighted for centuries, it forces a serious question:

Are we watching random geopolitical friction?

Or are we watching the kind of alignment Revelation warned would happen as history narrows?

Read on.

Related Article

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The Spiritual Layer Behind the Political One

It’s easy to reduce everything to strategy, oil, territory, and defense systems. And yes, those factors matter. Governments may act in their own interests but the nations posture to maintain dominance. History is full of that.

However; Scripture consistently reminds us that power structures don’t operate in a vacuum. Revelation 12 paints a picture of a dragon cast down to the earth “having great wrath.” Not exactly passive. It’s intent on influencing outcomes.

The Bible doesn’t say we fight presidents and prime ministers. It says we wrestle against unseen rulers and powers. That changes things.

When alliances begin to harden and rhetoric escalates in a region the Bible has spotlighted for centuries, it invites a different question: Is this merely geopolitics, or is it geopolitics intersecting with spiritual reality?

Why the Middle East Always Matters

The Middle East is not random territory in Scripture. It is the stage where covenants were made, where empires rose and fell, where prophets spoke, and where Christ Himself walked.

Iran, historically Persia, has long played a role in biblical history. Today it sits at the center of tensions involving Israel and global superpowers. That alone doesn’t prove prophecy is unfolding in real time. But it does mean the region is not insignificant.

So patterns are repeating and powers are aligning.

Revelation describes a dragon influencing the nations — not necessarily announcing himself, but working through systems and structures. That imagery becomes harder to ignore when you watch global alliances shift with increasing urgency.

Pressure Before Climax

One detail in Revelation stands out: the dragon rages because he knows his time is short.

Rage is not calm. It’s escalation.

History shows us that as systems feel threatened, they become more aggressive. When control slips, pressure increases. What we’re seeing could be another cycle of instability. Or it could be a convergence that feels heavier than previous conflicts.

The dragon does not bring stability. He brings agitation.

And agitation seems to be growing.

Watch Without Panic

This isn’t a call to fear. Revelation ultimately points to victory — not for the dragon, but for the Lamb. The purpose of discernment isn’t paranoia. It’s awareness. We may simply be witnessing another chapter in geopolitical tension. Or we may be seeing the early tremors of alignments Scripture hinted would intensify as the end approaches.

Either way, the moment deserves attention.

Because if Ephesians 6:12 is true, then the struggle is not only visible. And if Revelation 12 is prophetic in scope, then the dragon’s influence is not fictional.

So ask yourself honestly:

Are we watching random friction? Or are we watching history narrow toward something Scripture has warned about all along?

Sources:

• Reuters – Middle East Coverage
  https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/

• Associated Press (AP News) – Iran Coverage
  https://apnews.com/hub/iran

• Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) – Iran Backgrounder
  https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/iran-nuclear-program

• Encyclopaedia Britannica – Book of Revelation
  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Revelation-to-John

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If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

For some time now, I’ve studied the differences between the Qur’an and the Holy Bible. The more I’ve compared them side by side, the more convinced I’ve become that the Qur’an simply doesn’t withstand scrutiny the way the Bible does. The differences between the two aren’t minor. They strike at the core.

Christianity and Islam disagree on one of the most widely attested executions in ancient history. Christianity declares that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Islam says it only appeared that way.

Not exactly a small disagreement.

Roman crucifixion was not symbolic. It was brutal and professionally carried out. First-century sources, Christian and non-Christian alike, affirm that Jesus was executed.

Islam’s denial comes more than six centuries later. So this isn’t about emotion. It’s about history.

Read on. I brought a friend with me to help explain.

Related Article

The Crucifixion: The Historical Line Islam Cannot Cross

At the center of Christianity is one unavoidable event: the crucifixion of Jesus.

Islam claims Jesus was not crucified, but that it only appeared so (Qur’an 4:157). That single statement creates a direct collision with history.

There’s just one problem.

The crucifixion of Jesus is one of the most widely accepted events in ancient history — not just among Christians, but among secular historians as well.

• Roman historian Tacitus (Annals 15.44) confirms Jesus was executed under Pontius Pilate.

• Jewish historian Josephus references Jesus’ crucifixion.

• The Babylonian Talmud acknowledges Jesus’ execution.

• Even skeptical scholars like Bart Ehrman affirm that Jesus’ death by crucifixion is historically certain.

This is not debated territory in serious scholarship. The debate is about what the crucifixion means, not whether it happened.

Now let’s talk about the brutality of crucifixion. Crucifixion was engineered suffering. Before Jesus even reached the cross, He was scourged. Roman flogging involved a whip embedded with bone and metal fragments. It tore flesh and exposed muscle. Sometimes it even exposed bone. Many men died from the flogging alone.

Then came the cross.

Nails through wrists and feet. Suspension of the body so that breathing required pushing up against the nail wounds. It was slow suffocating, a lot of blood loss, shock, dehydration, and hours of agony. Geez…can you imagine?

Modern medical analysis (including research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association) concludes that survival from Roman crucifixion, especially after severe scourging, would be medically implausible.

And Rome was very good at killing people. Soldiers were trained executioners. If they failed to ensure death, they faced death themselves. In Jesus’ case, a spear was thrust into His side, producing what eyewitness John described as “blood and water” — consistent with post-mortem fluid separation.

To suggest Jesus survived this, escaped a sealed tomb, overpowered guards, and convinced His followers He had conquered death strains credibility far more than the resurrection itself.

If He didn’t die, there is no resurrection. And no resurrection means no Christianity. But the earliest Christian sources, written within decades of the event, proclaim boldly that He died and rose.

Paul’s creed in 1 Corinthians 15 is dated by many scholars to within 5 years of the crucifixion. That is extraordinarily early by ancient standards.

Islam, by contrast, offers its correction over 600 years later.

So the question becomes:

Do we trust eyewitness-based testimony rooted in the first century — or a later revelation that contradicts established history?

For us, the answer is clear. The cross is not a misunderstanding.
It is the foundation. will tell you in his testimony here that the cross is the foundation of the world.

And if the crucifixion is historically secure, then Islam’s denial of it becomes a theological problem that cannot be brushed aside.

Do the Claims Hold Up?

Let’s look through some content in the qu’ran (or as I like to call it: “the ka-wrong”) that debunk it from its status in islam as divine scripture, starting with some contradictions:

* Verses 7:54 and 10:3 state the world was created in six days, but in a detailed breakdown in Surah 41:9-12, it says eight days.

* The qu’ran alternates between stating the earth was created before the heavens (2:29) and that the heavens were created before the earth (79:27-30).

* Humans are described as being created from clay (15:26), dust (3:59), or “nothing” (19:67), leading to debates over whether these are contradictory or different descriptions of the same process. (Not all content is contradictory, infactual points don’t count, even if they are against something wrong)

And we also see historical inaccuracies all over the place:

* We see “Haman” placed in Pharaoh’s court during Moses’ time (Surah 28:6) but Haman was a Persian official from the 5th century BCE, centuries after the Exodus.

* It tells of Joseph being sold for “coins” (Surah 12:20) but coins weren’t used in ancient Egypt... Rather, weighted measures (shekels) were used as the historic currency.

* The Qu’ran mentions David crafting chainmail (Surah 34:10-11), but historical evidence shows chainmail was invented much later by the Celts (around 5th century BCE).
* The Qu’ran states Jesus was not crucified, but appeared so (Surah 4:15) contradicting historical consensus and placing crucifixion (introduced by Persians) in Egypt during Moses’ era (Surah 20:71) a clear list of historical inaccuracies.

* It calls Mary Magdalene “sister of Aaron” (Surah 19:28) which conflates her with Moses’ sister Miriam who lived thousands of years earlier.
* The Qu’ran’s portrayal of Alexander the great building a wall to contain Gog and Magog (Surah 18:83-98) draws from legendary myths, not historical accounts of Alexander.
* The Qu’ran describes the people of Thamud carving homes in rock (Petra), but Petra was built centuries later by the Nabateans, not Thamud.

All of these historical inaccuracies observed in the qu’ran are CLEAR signs it was fabricated through a modern lense ripping off Christianity to establish Arab culture and customs in their caliphates for reasons of control.
Besides, writings about Jesus in islam are hundreds of years older than those in Christianity (and contradict the thousands of eye witness accounts and official documents written about him hours, days, weeks, years, and decades after his life)

For these reasons, I could never be muslim. It’s truly a shame millions have died believing it’s true and even giving their lives in martyrdom for it.
satan will never stop brainwashing the defenseless, and billions will face separation from God from being dragged into hell by satan and allah the wretched demon.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, truth does not fear examination.

If a book claims to be the final, perfect, uncreated word of God, then it must withstand scrutiny. If something is truly from God, it will not collapse under careful analysis.

Christianity does not ask you to suspend reason. It invites you to test it. The resurrection of Jesus is not presented as a mystical legend but as a historical claim rooted in eyewitness testimony. The gospel does not shift depending on political climate or later reinterpretation. It stands on a fixed event in history: Christ crucified and risen.

The question isn’t whether people can sincerely believe something. Many do. The question is whether it’s true.

If Jesus truly died and rose again, then everything changes. If He is who He claimed to be — not merely a prophet or teacher, but the Son of God, then He cannot simply be placed alongside other religious figures as one option among many.

Truth is exclusive by nature. Two contradictory claims cannot both be right. So the real invitation here is simple: examine the evidence. Read both texts. Test the claims. Ask hard questions.

And follow the truth wherever it leads. Because eternity is too important to get wrong.

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Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Share

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
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Welcome to our Testimony Series! Tuesdays. 8 PM. CST.

One thousand years may very well be as one day in God’s calendar, but based on how the last fifty-nine of mine played out (in years), I don’t have a moment to lose before I spend the remainder of my God-given days sharing His love in a deeply personal, and radically profound way. Impacting lives in a spiritual way often means walking alongside people whose stories and perspectives we may not fully understand or even agree with. It begins with an open heart, one that is willing enough to listen, learn, and to allow everyone involved to find meaning and value in one another’s journey. That’s why Thomas and I are here – to share the experiences of our broken and redemption-filled lives.

Despite the obvious truths of our coming from vastly different backgrounds, upbringings, lifestyles, and mindsets, our paths mysteriously converged into the arms of the same merciful and loving Father, just at different times and under different circumstances. With lives fueled from painful life lessons, I believe our results produced sage material for these very raw testimonies, with simply one goal - offering all the praise and glory to the Only One Who made it possible - Jesus Christ, The Risen Son of God. For now, I begin this personal journey down our contemplative collaboration the same way I intend to leave it – with the following words – God uses ALL His people—every size, every color, every shape, and every background—to further His glorious Kingdom. Though some may be quick to dismiss those they don’t understand, each person has a role to play. It is our duty to recognize that truth and make room for it to unfold.

Related Article

What Most People Get Wrong About the Homosexual Life

Before I go any further, let’s lay it all out on the table. I realize that for many people, their only knowledge of the gay lifestyle has been derived from the lenses of controversy, social media outcry, outlandish caricatures of city Pride celebrations, and the growing number of people engulfed in gender dysphoria. People rarely consider the presence of a silent minority who live in garage door communities; they save money for modest vacations, volunteer for worthy organizations, and tend their yards wearing atrociously boring attire - just like you do. As one who was deeply entranced in the gay community for almost four decades, I can wholly relate to opinions held by those outside the community, towards those within. I can also say firsthand, I remember yearning for the simpler days when one could easily identify themselves in any one of the four “LGBT” letters. Today, it’s abundantly clear that this ever-expanding acronym will not stop until it swallows the entire alphabet in its path, and no doubt, will advance its way towards adding special characters and “to the power of” mathematical exponentials to its moniker. I peacefully, and gratefully, leave that identity crisis to the ones best suited to do so. While anyone can extract the worst from the four above-mentioned lenses and bind that perception to the gay community as a whole, realize, they’re doing a tremendous disservice to an entire populus, many of whom are simply fighting with every fiber of their being to make it through a lifetime of mire you cannot possibly relate to, just like you have done, and just like I had painfully done.

I have very fond memories of the love, support, and encouragement provided by so many beautiful Christians who met me right where I was – confused, hurt, and seeking purpose. They were the ones I joyfully acknowledge had a pivotal role in bringing me to Jesus Christ, and ultimately, to where I am today.

Coming Out: The Cost of Being a Homosexual Son

I remember the day I came out to my mom. It was like yesterday. I told her to take all the time she needed to consume what I’d told her, and I would still be there. After all, it took me years to come to terms with this reality myself, so I certainly didn’t expect her to come to terms in just one shocking conversation. A week later, she called me and said two things I will never forget. “I appreciate how you allowed me the time to adjust to what you told me. It made all the difference. And you’re the same son I’ve always loved.” She also told me that she’d always known. So did my grandmother. My father was an entirely different story. I ended up having to re-live the delivery of that conversation after my mom prepped him beforehand. While the image of the “perfect son” still lived in my mom’s head, I was dead in my father’s. I moved frequently around the country for my job, and calling my parents was a weekly occurrence. Upon hearing my voice, my dad would skip the conversation entirely and say, “Lemme get your mom.” His and my relationship would never be the same.

The Christmas before I told them, I was home visiting my parents. Understand, I had been carrying an undisclosed secret from everyone in the world, including myself. It was affecting my entire life - my sleep, appetite, social life, work, motivation; it even magnified my fear of public speaking. Panic attacks were a normal occurrence. Midnight after I’d returned to my parents from visiting my college roommate, I looked into the bathroom mirror, and I told myself I had two choices. I would either: (1) kill myself after I flew back to Boston, or (2) I would dig further into this potential life I’d been avoiding and face the fact that I might be gay. At the time, suicide was a more viable option as the prospect of revealing to my parents that they’d never become grandparents was too great a burden for me to bear, not to mention the sheer embarrassment they’d feel amongst their tight circle of friends. I calculated that a dead “straight” son was much better than a living “gay” one. Ultimately both my sisters would take their lives for their own reasons, so the pressure to succeed had always been on me for years. Ensuring my parents’ life efforts with their children were not entirely in vain, I took it upon myself to overcompensate in every area of my life. The self-induced pressure was excruciating. I lived in that darkness for nearly four decades.

I want to take a moment to point out something that may not be as obvious to everyone else as it was to me. Before I “came out” to my family, the question I often asked myself was this-” Why in God’s green earth would ANYONE, WILLINGLY, HAPPILY accept, seek, or DESIRE a life of hiding, subjecting oneself to ridicule, alienation, embarrassment and REJECTION from those I rely upon for EMOTIONAL SUSTENANCE - all for the EFFIN sake of “choosing” the gay LIFESTYLE?” Rhetorical question. No one in their right and sane mind would consciously “choose” to live this way.

I’d known since I was five, but I buried those thoughts early, and I buried them deep. Or so I thought. There were constant reminders along the way. Speed Racer and Luke Skywalker didn’t exactly help me in keeping those thoughts at bay, but I was convinced for years it was a phase I’d eventually grow out of. For those who are wondering, I was not molested, and I was not sexually compromised as a child. I spent years wondering to myself what my close male childhood friends ever saw in the “Hustler” magazines they’d sneak into my basement and salivate over at my birthday parties when I was a kid. I’d always been the odd man out, but I never understood why until I turned 22.

The Real-World Consequences of Being Openly Homosexual

In the years to follow my coming out in 1992, I would begin to experience some of the things my parents were afraid I’d encounter:

• I was thrown out of my Greenwich apartment in the middle of winter after the owner surmised I was gay. I only had three days to find a new place. It was freezing cold and pelting rain as my buddies and I drove the rental truck from her driveway, “You’re from the devil! You’re from the devil!” she screamed as she shook one pointer finger.

• After working a straight 72-hour shift, I returned to the parking lot to find the word “FAG” poorly spray-painted across my driver’s side door with a brake fluid-filled water pistol.

• I was passed over promotions in positions I was long and well-qualified for, but ultimately didn’t fit in with the image of the good old boys.

• Another amazing job offer was rescinded a few days after I’d received it; the company learned that I was mid-way into a divorce (with a man). They found another candidate that had more “closely matched their needs.”

• After tithing a considerable amount of money to a church I was passionate about, I was encouraged by the Lead Pastor to find another church home following my own admission of my relationship with my then partner of two years.

• After nearly a decade of donating blood, I was rejected for having crossed the wrong “X”. No, it wasn’t AIDS or HIV, I was just ‘gay’ and that was enough.

I share all that background because it provides valuable insight to the spiritual journey ahead, which, like my sexuality, would remain hidden another 15 years before I’d discover it.

When God Confronted My Homosexual Identity

In February 2000, I was in the process of selling my first home. A promotion had relocated me from sunny Phoenix to frigid downtown Chicago the weekend of Valentine’s Day. Yeah, great timing wasn’t always my strongest suit. I’d also been deeply rooted in my first significant same-sex relationship with a guy I met the previous October. We discussed at great length, the feasibility of him upending his job, family, and personal life to follow me. We also shared two enormous dogs. It was not a small undertaking. He agreed to make the sacrifice but stayed behind until he tied things down with his job. My life was about to dramatically change in ways my imagination could never have been conceived.

A few weeks into my new assignment, I remember kneeling on the floor next to my hotel bed with a Bible in my hand. It wasn’t even mine; I found it inside the nightstand drawer. I wasn’t sure why I was kneeling, but someone told me if you opened a Bible with your eyes closed and pointed to a random page, the scripture you pointed to would provide some instruction. This was just another one of my desperate attempts to seek relief from the anxiety I felt waiting for my house to sell. To this day, I’m not sure whether to curse that person or hug them for telling me about Bible roulette. I literally, just now, made that up - “Bible Roulette.” I’m sure it exists somewhere, but I would quickly learn, this “game” was just as dangerous to me as its shooting counterpart. My finger unmistakably landed directly on top of Leviticus 18:22 (“You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. It is an abomination”). And so began a tumultuous 25-year journey into questioning my entire life’s existence.

That day on the floor would be three years shy from my having any formal inkling to inviting Jesus Christ into my life. The next year’s 2001 attacks on our country would fill the Moody Church on La Salle Drive to the brim. I know it shook me enough to attend. That Sunday still stands out in my mind. I hadn’t been so moved to even enter a church since accompanying my grandmother from the age of nine to twelve, and that was sporadic at best. I invited “Lee”, one of the church ushers to join me for dinner one night after work. I had some questions for him. We met at a diner a few blocks away where Lee asked me over dinner if I was saved. I wasn’t sure how to answer his question. I’d traveled with so much baggage from my childhood and the years prior. I really had no way to answer his question with any level of intelligence.

I managed to ask Lee “the question” that had been plaguing me since that day of Bible roulette. I asked him what the church, and God, would think if I was gay. Without quoting damning scripture, he responded with, “Here, I’ve got something for you.” He handed me a brand-new Bible and a wallet card depicting Jesus Christ holding up an exhausted man gripping a mallet in his hand, trails of blood spilled like a river on the ground below them. I remember feeling horrified by the picture, until I understood its meaning. Jesus was holding ME right after I’d driven the nails into His body. That image stayed with me for a very long time. Looking back on that night, it’s easy for me to see that Lee held the future of my Christian faith in his hands. A single turn in one direction opened my heart to consider who God was; a turn in the other and it could have frightened me away indefinitely. My dinner with Lee also helped to serve up one of the most spiritually supernatural events I will probably ever have in my life.

It was Saturday, July 13, 2003, 10:45AM. I know this because you don’t forget where you were when an event like this happens. I was on board a packed Boeing 767 bound for my home in Louisville, KY from Austin, TX. following a business trip. With only one store open, I purchased Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” assuming it was a self-help book on life/career changes. If I had known about the actual subject matter, I wouldn’t have purchased it. As we reached a smooth 30,000 feet, I was already into Chapter 7 reciting the prayer of acceptance. I was finally making that familiar invitation for Jesus Christ to come into my life. It was as genuine of a prayer I had ever recited. I poured my heart out in that prayer. When I was done, I looked up to find nothing special happening. At the very least, I’d hoped for our hitting a semi-violent air pocket to confirm God’s existence. When that didn’t happen, I returned to reading.

About 30 seconds later, I stopped reading and slammed the book into my lap. It was at that very second my entire life would change forever. I followed up to my initial prayer of surrender with this newly inspired one- “God, if you are so % omnipotent, and you can be everywhere at any time, you need to come onto this airplane, no I DEMAND You COME INTO this airplane and tell me that what you heard from my lips was absolutely sincere – I KNOW it was sincere, but I need to know YOU know it was sincere, and that You heard it from my lips.” That was my exact prayer, verbatim, less the colorful profanity I wedged between the “so” and “omnipotent.” Before I ever had the chance to finish whispering those words from my mouth, I distinctly “heard” a voice in my head. It was clearly audible; it was unforgettable, and it was NOT the pilots’. The Voice gently, but firmly, commanded me, “Look to your right”. I swear this on the life of every single pet I have ever owned. I looked to my RIGHT and I saw a woman only two rows back reading the following book, as clear as day for me to see:

I was in shock. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, let alone “hearing” a Voice in my head. I started to laugh at the absurdity of it. The laughter quickly turned to what I could only define as instant reverence. I realized what had just happened. HE happened. I felt an intense wave of tears coming. I held them back as tightly as I could. My 6’6” frame was wedged like a sardine between two strangers. It was too much for me to control. I leaned over, covered my face, and cried. My shoulders were shaking; my nose was running like a toddler’s. I know my neighbors must have thought I was having an emotional breakdown. I was certain I was getting attention from other passengers nearby, but I didn’t care. I wept from the sheer shock and joy that Someone so majestic would take the time to create even a single, fleeting moment to reveal His presence, to ME. That’s the moment I understood how small I was in the world, and just how gigantic He was. I still have difficulty articulating the pure essence of that moment. I just knew I wasn’t worthy of what I dared ask Him that morning. I wasn’t.

I also don’t believe in coincidence. This flight was sold out with over 300 people aboard. Consider the infinitesimal probability that of the three-hundred passengers, it only took ONE who was (1) close enough to my seat for me to see them (2) sitting BEHIND ME, reading a book titled (3) “Answered Prayers” (4) which I only would have seen if some random “intuition” prompted me to turn my head in her direction. I knew immediately it was God on that airplane. There’s absolutely no question in that moment it was God. It only made the road ahead even more challenging for me.

I remember the next five months or so feeling like I was in the middle of a honeymoon. Nothing phased me. I had witnessed what no one I knew ever did. I wanted to go to church. I got baptized. I started to pray. And for the first time in my life, I started to read the Bible. That’s when the real work started. I had conveniently buried the memory of “Bible roulette” in my subconscious for four years, and it shot up like a cannon. It scared me. I then skipped over to Revelation 22:15 where I was lumped in with dogs, sorcerers, murderers, idolaters, and anyone who practiced lying. I didn’t perceive myself as any of those mentioned, so I thought I might be safe. I continued reading other books from the Bible, where I carefully sidestepped any uncomfortable scripture that might spoil my newfound experience with God.

A few years later, I would meet another person that would change my life forever. I met “Andrew” in 2005, the same week Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. That should have been its own sign of providence for my life. It was love at first sight. We were together for 16 years. We got married after it was passed into law. The first nine years of that relationship happily obliterated every insignificant experience that followed my break-up in 2001. Every Christmas, Andrew and I would receive a card from his grandfather, a retired Southern Baptist preacher, along with a check for $15. His heart-warming card was filled with the standard wishes of strong health and good cheer, accompanied by every biblical scripture damning us both to eternal suffering. By our third Christmas, I had the lineup memorized: Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:1. And Genesis 19. That one always induced inspiring mental gymnastics as we debated the relationship between homosexuality vs. hospitality.

It was challenging to see the spiritual realities awaiting me from behind the veils of normalcy. Andrew and I both had successful careers. I served on the Staff Parish Committee at my church for two years. I was later hired as a department head for that same church for another two years. I led our weekly “Tuesday Night Dinner” in prayer with 300+ in attendance. I organized church fundraisers and volunteer events for packing school lunches and the annual 5K. I was a certified Stephens Minister at my church. I delivered my “Answered Prayers” testimony to over 1,000 people one Sunday at my church. I was shifting minds and opening doors for others in the gay community to find a safe and loving place to worship. Before my official starting date, I told my Pastor, my then boss, that he could still back out if he wanted to. I didn’t want him to take the heat to hire me. He said, “You’ve been made for this type of ministry. You let me fight the battles, and you just do what we hired you to do.” One member of the hiring committee pointed to the door I’d just left through after my interview - “THAT is exactly the type of leader and passion for Christ I want my kids to see here at this church.” After I was hired, twelve families left the church and their money along with it. I can recall feeling intense hurt, not just for the rejection, but the wounds my church would be assuming on my behalf.

May of 2014 arrived and the bottom of my world dropped like a rusted floor of a haunted amusement park ride. The last seven years of our relationship obliterated any identity of self that ever mattered to me. The fact I am even here to write about my life is a miracle in itself. It’s nothing short of God’s will and purpose I am here. If my number wasn’t organically called after my countless bouts of reckless behavior, I came infinitely close to meeting the same destiny as my siblings. My divorce was finalized December 2021. I would never “really” come around until the summer of 2025. The number “11” has always held profound meaning for me. It shows up. A lot. I’d never thought it would signify the number of years I would endure the most excruciating pain I would ever experience.

God forged me through the fires, and I faced a lot of them. Last year this time, I purchased black opaque blinds for all the windows of my home for the purpose of perpetually blocking the view (and the light) of my once beautiful yard that was instantly decimated by a category 4 hurricane and a tornado at 4am, only to be met with the evil fleecing of $18K in my savings by a contractor who made the storms look weak in comparison. That was the last car of a very “long black train” that lasted eleven horrendous years of my life. Last November 2025, I had a second meeting with God. He was the same One I’d met on that airplane from Austin. Only this time, we knew each other intimately. And we were about to become even closer.

That one Saturday morning last year in November I was at work when a supernatural series of events took place over a four-hour period that could only have been orchestrated by God Himself. He showed up in my office. I know now that I had been preparing for that day for a long time. I’d been doing the “wash on, wash off” moves from “Karate Kid” for decades, and I applied them to that day when everything finally came together for me:

1. I could no longer live a life filtering scripture by what I could live with and live without.

2. I couldn’t wait to read the Bible. It would finally have more fingerprints than dust.

3. I swore I would get to know all the ins and outs of Him.

4. I wanted nothing less than a personal relationship with Him, not just what I read about.

5. I accepted the Bible as “inerrant,” a word I had been running from for 22 years.

6. I made a life-long vow I intend to keep.

Celibacy was something I’d marinated on for years. Innately, I began that journey a year ago, February 21, 2025. I formally declared this vow to Jesus Christ this past November. I knew it was the right “decision” because it wasn’t a decision - it was a response to the Holy Spirit. I’d been searching for years how I could forge an intimately deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

For me, it was a very clear element to my reaching that goal, even if only by a fraction. Not borne out of malice, spite, nor any sense of incel behavior, my vow was a truly narrowing down to the marrow of what a genuine commitment to Jesus Christ would mean for me. Initially, I’d approached it from the standpoint of “giving up something” which was such a core identify trait for me. By the time of its inception, it was nothing short of an enormous spiritual gain.

While I conscientiously strive not to attach any sense of self-identity to it, I remain continually aware of it. I often find myself contemplating it, not unlike a person’s frequent gaze upon an engagement ring, overjoyed in with Whom the bond exists. My celibacy is a continual and beautiful reminder of God’s unfailing love, grace, and mercy in my life. When I think about the tremendous sacrifice Jesus made on that cross on my behalf, on ALL our of behalf, bearing the small one I carry only pales in comparison. Matthew 16:24 often comes to mind for me:

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Jesus, I will follow you wherever You lead me.

Yes, “God uses ALL His people—every size, every color, every shape, and every background—to further His glorious Kingdom. Though some may be quick to dismiss those they don’t understand, each person has a role to play. It is our duty to recognize that truth and make room for it to unfold.”

And now, we are back to the beginning of the journey. There’s so much more to go.

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This one. This one, my friends, is absolutely wild.

Now before we get started, let me just say this: some of you are going to dismiss what I am talking about for one of the following reasons:

• “Near-death experiences are just brain chemistry.”
  

• “It’s oxygen deprivation. Hallucinations. Trauma.”
  

• “People see what they already believe.”
  

• “This is emotional manipulation dressed up as faith.”
  

• Or my personal favorite: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Fair enough. But here’s the awkward part.

The stories coming out of operating rooms, cardiac units, and emergency wards are not coming from Sunday school teachers. They’re coming from hardened skeptics and people who have flat lined. These are men and women who had no belief in God… until they were clinically dead.

Ohhh and there’s also this….from the Holy Bible itself:

2 Corinthians 12:2–4

Paul writes:

“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”

These are not “mythical stories” or ideas pulled out of thin air. Yes, some people lie for attention. That’s real. But when independent accounts start overlapping across cultures and beliefs, that’s not random. That’s what I call converging evidence.

My guest writer will explain.

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As Christians, we’ve experienced God’s communication in the most inspiring of ways. Maybe it was a song that played at the right moment, or a completely “random” scripture that hit us just when we needed it. It’s likely we’ve all experienced a Sunday sermon which prompted our hearts to leap with joy and our body to shift in our seats, all because we knew beyond any shadow of a doubt, it was God speaking directly to us. Some have been fortunate enough to have heard a “voice” they knew belonged to no one else but Him. All these events can be viewed as answers to a prayer, affirmation that you’re living in the Spirit and the Word. Or that you’re not – and a serious call to action must be mandated to get your spiritual house in order before that final day arrives. It will be for all of us. But for some, it came in the form of something they never expected, and with shuddering results.

For thousands of people - Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Satanists, Muslims, and Buddhists to name just a few - their “God-wink” came in the form of a life-altering, breathtaking, and sometimes, terrifying biological end. In Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), people were given a rare opportunity to visit heaven (or hell) and returned to tell us about their experiences. Before anyone discounts this concept as heresy, nonsense, or fantasy, consider the means available to us today in the fields of medicine and science. We’re living in an age where the two can, in fact, live in relative harmony with one another, where one can substantiate the occurring miracles of the other which would otherwise defy any imaginable logic. To many of us, that would invariably point to none other than God Himself. I personally owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to NDE testimonies. I also owe an enormous debt to God for allowing them to happen.

We’ll drill down on some fascinating research and studies relating to NDE’s here in a moment, but first I want to elaborate on why NDE’s may hold amazing promise for the Christian and non-Christian alike. These encounters have completely reshaped the people who endured them. For some, it ignited a faith that never existed their entire lives. For the faithful, it emblazoned a courage and conviction to share with the world, the existence with our God Who awaits. The others contend that they experienced a terrifying separation from God, and it was but one poor choice away. For nearly everyone, it paved the way for making sweeping life-changes necessary in making things right with God. For me personally, their testimonies completely upended the way I view God, and how I worship Him in a much deeper way.

One of the most compelling studies to be completed by any one person is with former Agnostic, Engineer, and former Lead Pastor of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas, John Burke. He authored the NY Times best-selling book, “Imagine Heaven” where he describes his detailed research on NDEs. For over 35 years, Mr. Burke conducted studies with over 1,500 people who had Near-Death Experiences. Of the 1,500s+, an alarming 23% described a hellish experience. While I’m no expert in this field, I’ve watched close to a hundred interviews to date - their body language, comfort/discomfort levels, and the common descriptions used throughout the stories speak volumes to their integrity. The details they provided have significant parallels to each other.

In one of the most alarming testimonies, just shy of two hours long, John Burke interviews former self-proclaimed agnostic Riley Huddleston. Riley was only 19 years old when she was severely wounded in a jet ski accident. While the details aren’t appropriate to describe here, her body succumbed to catastrophic damage and substantial blood loss. She was ultimately recovered by paramedics and wheeled into an ambulance. There was little hope she would survive. During that brief time, she not only experienced a tour of heaven from an angel in what she assumed would be her new home, Riley met an unmistakable presence she knew to be God (NDEs unanimously describe communication between themselves and others as “telepathic”).

What began as the most joyful experience no earthly words could articulate, quickly transitioned into extreme sadness – but it was not hers. Riley was acutely aware the deep sadness was to be of God’s. He expressed to her that she had never established a relationship with Him while she was alive. He recounted the opportunities where she consciously brushed Him aside, and were designed to bring them closer. He sadly revealed to her that she could not join where He was going. She immediately fell to her knees in supplication and regret, begging Him for forgiveness. What stands out to me to this very day, and what she recounts as His clear response to her, remains posted throughout my home in several rooms as a constant reminder. Simply, “YOU HAVE TO STAY AWAKE. IF YOU DON’T, THE CARDS WILL LAY WHERE THE CARDS LAY.”

As quickly as God’s command was voiced, Riley regained consciousness in the ambulance. She immediately understood what was being asked of her and the dire consequences if she didn’t comply. God had the knowledge of what was required of her medical team to save her life. It would be necessary for her to undergo emergency surgery with only local anesthetic; death was virtually certain if placed under full anesthesia. Her choice was clear – remain awake for a chance to live and change, or fall asleep, likely not survive, and have no second opportunity to make things right in her faith. To witness Riley’s testimony from start to finish is worth every minute of your time. I’ll be providing a video link below to Riley’s interview with John Burke (note #3).

My belief in NDEs has transitioned well beyond speculation. Long before my established faith, I’d likely have passed them off as nothing more than great filler for a “20/20” or “Barbara Walters” episode. I was simply too self-immersed in my own world to genuinely consider anything of spiritual consequence to be taking place outside of my own radius. Then one day in 2025, the NDE topic happened to clearly manifest itself at the tail end of five other significant spiritual events. When combined, they led me to a profound experience with God that was nothing short of providence. I’ll share more of that at the end.

I do recognize that there will be many who might argue the validity of placing faith in something which lacks biblical support. I respect that. I also have a tremendous anchor of conviction in both sides of the Heaven/Hell Near-Death Experiences. They provided the fuel to my now electrified conviction that the Lord our God has a personality that transcends the ancient antique figure we see painted on chapel ceilings. One of the most beautiful facets to the Christian faith, in my opinion, is that we have a very tangible, very approachable King in our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes Himself more accessible than any world version of gods that exist today, and there are many. God commands reverence, while making Himself available to us anywhere and anytime; no schedule, no intercessions from another, no appointments, no holds barred. Worthy to note, in cases where the Atheist, Agnostic, Muslim, or Hindu NDEs have occurred, their experiences did NOT manifest any presence of their familiar icons or statues – they saw Jesus Christ, the Risen Son of God. This in itself provides fuel for consideration by so many seeking meaning in God.

To be clear, NDEs did not serve as a means for defining my faith. I never questioned that “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever” Hebrews 13:8. The vivid imagery I came to discover in their testimonies felt to me like I was being given a sacred gift of a rare and beautiful view into the Heart of our Lord; not as an abstraction, but as a very real presence with personality and nearness to each of us. As each of the experiencers attested, God has only one goal in mind - to expend any effort necessary that will reunite His faithful children in the mission of establishing the eternal Kingdom He always intended.

The heaven testimonies are…incredible. The visual imagery painted in their words is unfathomably beautiful for those who only have visions of this world to compare. For those who glimpsed hell, the scenes and experiences were far beyond any nightmare you could create in your imagination. And it was the hellish experiences that introduced doubt into my salvation. So, there you have it – the last of six dominoes that prompted me to make sweeping changes in my life. I am absolutely convinced that had I died at any time before witnessing these testimonies, I most certainly would be one of the many souls in devastating shock after discovering I had actually traversed the wider path.

The transition of my beliefs beyond mere speculation relative to NDEs involved three critical stages:

(1) Listening from a clinical perspective; the following video initially introduced me to John Burke. It’s “the” video that opened my eyes to the reality that I was likely in very real trouble in my position with God:

2) Listening from a hellish perspective; this disturbing NDE as described by now, Pastor R. Cook, is perhaps the most detailed and frightening of the testimonies I’ve come across:

– Warning: P. Cook goes into very graphic detail as he describes the scenes he was forced to witness in the many levels of hell he endured.

3) Listening from an agnostic perspective; Riley Huddleston is interviewed by John Burke, who he included in his studies of over 1,500 NDEs. This is undeniably one of the most compelling, heart-felt testimonies by a former Agnostic, now-Christian, who actively sought to deny the existence of God. Medically speaking, the fact that she is alive is nothing short of a miracle:

I invite you to review any one of these testimonies and judge for yourself. There are hundreds on YouTube. There is absolutely no question in my mind that God has used both astonishingly beautiful and terrifying Near-Death Experiences to ignite the hearts of the faithful, and the formerly unfaithful. In strengthening our convictions through such mysterious glimpses of eternity with Him, sharing the gospel with renewed confidence and clarity is certain to induce a meaningful outcome in the Grand Commission. I know it has personally moved me in ways I never would have imagined possible.

As John Burke describes in his interviews, the experiencers of NDEs are doctors, college professors, CEOs, and everyday people - many of whom have been reticent to share their stories for fear of being called ‘crazy’ or losing credibility in their professions and communities. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder remains a very common struggle for many NDEs, particularly those who experienced hell.

There are striking parallels and eerily consistent traits within NDEs. Even more gripping is the common vernacular they use when recounting their experiences. The words used often mirror themselves with remarkable precision to others’ accounts. Unless these witnesses had meticulously compared notes with everyone else who reported similar experiences over the years, their consistency warrants serious consideration and lends significant weight to their accounts. The descriptions below are the ones most commonly appearing in people’s testimonies, and I’ve sectioned them by locations:

Heaven Experiences

• The Presence of God and Jesus Christ is without question.

• LOVE DEFINES GOD. LOVE DEFINES JESUS. “LOVE.” It’s all about LOVE. Not the kind of “love” we’re even familiar with. It’s more than anything we can humanly define as “love.” It’s more than an emotion. “LOVE” EMBODIES the entire realm of Heaven.

• Jesus Christ is unmistakable and as we “pictured” Him to look (beard/hair/nail scars)

• The robe of Jesus Christ contains colors upon colors within brilliant spectrums of light, radiating energy we can’t even relate to.

• Every question ever presented in life is instantaneously answered, consumed within the “mind” upon their very arrival to heaven.

• A “Life Review” is provided by Jesus Christ for everyone, with impeccable detail on every significant event ever experienced, good and not-so-good

• Upon their life review, they fully understood all of the hurts their actions inflicted upon Jesus Christ

• For survivors of traumatic events, pre-determined questions in life like, “Why was ____ allowed to happen” are replaced by, “Why didn’t I do more”

• Colors that don’t exist in our spectrum are displayed in vivid detail.

• Senses are heightened to a level multiplied many times over our current understanding of the five senses.

• Travel/mobility between destinations was as sudden as a thought.

• Everything appears in the sharpest of detail.

• Limitless vision into the distance with unmistakable clarity and understanding of what they’re looking at.

• Cities of gold, towering structures, translucent water and roads

• “Breathing” doesn’t function as it does here, people can “breathe” in water.

• Communication between everyone is “telepathic” and understood without confusion.

• For those with pets, they’re there too. Communication between your pets is a reality.

• Nature is perfect, trees have no broken branches, leaves can be seen from long distances as well as the veins within the leaves.

• All wildlife “rejoices” for God – it’s clearly perceived that everything which grows, exists in full glory and celebration to God (rejoicing can be heard and “felt”)

• Indescribable beauty in the simultaneous, audible chorus of all living things with the sole purpose of praising God – this is joined by the birds, animals, trees, and down to the blades of grass.

• The concept of “Eternity” is finally understood, and based on the final grasping of exactly Who God is, those who visited Heaven were able to understand WHY it will take all of Eternity to Praise God for Who He is (their words, not mine).

Hellish Experiences

• This is the most prevalent comment made in testimonies – the emotion of complete and utter HATRED of Christians and occupants of hell from demons is rampant. “Lukewarm Christians” have specifically designed realms of torture which are designed to allow demons to extract their vile anger towards those who were on the brink of salvation, yet failed to attain it. It’s exercised in a most excruciating and mocking manner. Demons hate the lukewarm Christians for the same reason they hate the light – they had the chance and they blew it. It will never be provided to them. This is also acknowledged by the Catholic Church.

• From the onset of death on earth, the transition from the body to a spirit form is instantaneous; they maintain full recognition of what form they left behind as their own and take it with them.

• Each are met by dark and evil presences, to include menacing dark and grey figures who project a mocking tone, bitterly and excitingly exclaiming, “We’ve been expecting you.”

• They discover the “color” black, and it’s nothing they can describe from their previous life; it has an evil, indescribable thickness and existence to it. While shrouded in darkness, they have 360 awareness and a physical inability to turn backwards, rather they’re pushed forward into further outer darkness and mocked along the way.

• Distance is travelled at the speed of a thought.

• They acknowledge their “sin nature”, and it’s a knowledge they cannot argue against – they know WHY they’re there and they understand it was for the sake of rejecting Jesus Christ. They also understand this realization will be repeated in their minds for eternity.

• From the first realization they’re in hell, everyone knows exactly why they’re there. It’s an immediate acceptance they know is impossible to change or fight against.

• Overwhelming emotions take over - hopelessness, fear, and anxiety, accompanied by complete acknowledgement of their separation from God and any source of light.

• Overwhelming audible screams of every soul contained within (it is often compared to multiple football stadiums of screaming attendees).

• Unquenchable thirst (Luke).

• Lakes and rivers of fire, bodies chained in rivers, conjoined by their common sins, millions of lights viewed as candles and seen for miles in the distance which are actually souls on fire.

• Traveling from one place to another is as sudden as a thought.

• Perhaps the most frightening and most common observation amongst every hellish experience, is the agonizing torture played upon all inhabitants by demons. Torments are customized to with the highest degree of pain; each torment is tailored to the individual’s specific sins and addictions while they lived. Torture scenarios are designed to magnify fear; while barring any description here of unspeakable actions performed by demons, the condition of every single tortured “body” regenerate, and the process repeats, with the suffering having complete knowledge of it lasting for an eternity.

Relative to my own personal discernment process, I will tell you that I consciously spent more time scouring testimonies that focused on Hell. I make sure I reconnect my joy to those who experienced Heaven, but the others are the ones which really remind me of the choices I made, the poor decisions that hurt others, and hurt God. I see my failures and selfish desires as my having senselessly driven the nails into Jesus Christ all over again. Consciously aligning myself with those who have journeyed the wider path and later experienced the devastating outcome (only to return and warn those willing to listen) is what fuels my passion to share the gospel. The phenomenal American Christian Apologetic, Cliff Knechtel, quoted a Las Vegas comedian during one of his interviews, “How much do you think I have to hate you if I believe that Jesus is the way to heaven and not tell you.” Yeah, let that one sink in. THAT my friends, is exactly why we proselytize. It may irritate people, but they’ll thank us when they’re saved.

If there’s anything that has resonated with me more as a Christian, it’s the fact that God will use whatever means is necessary to make us HEAR Him. He enables each of us to grasp exactly Who He is if we listen, and pray, and study His Word. It is up to each of us to seek His will for our lives and prepare TODAY for the eternal life that awaits. But it must be done in such a way that we are seeking Jesus Christ on a personal level, and not just by going through the motions. It’s important for me to note that I strongly believe the foremost source of communication from God is our Holy Bible. It’s taken decades for me to appreciate embracing it more as the love story it was intended to be than any other book I’ll ever read. We also have the technology at our fingertips which open our hearts and minds to boundless reach and communication from people who we otherwise never would have heard from. Just like the people who’ve experienced heaven or hell, and returned to tell us about it. The real question is, will we listen?

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done’”. C.S. Lewis, “The Great Divorce”

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What if the moment you thought you were dying… was actually the moment you finally met the God you swore you didn’t believe in?

Be honest. Have you ever thought something like this?

• Jesus wasn’t real

• God doesn’t exist

• Heaven is a fairy tale for adults

• Sky Daddy

• The Bible is just made up stories

had similar thoughts. She didn’t grow up knowing or chasing Jesus. In fact, she mocked and questioned Him, and even disassociated herself from anything that looked like church. But, she somehow found herself flat on a hospital bed with her blood pressure screaming toward disaster. Perplexed and bewildered, she started drifting somewhere she couldn’t explain.

This is a story about a woman who almost died three days after giving birth… and came back knowing, without a single doubt—that God is real.

Trust me. You need to read this one.

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The First Crack in the Old Life

’s life didn’t flip upside down slowly. It happened in 2018. One moment she was a tired mom in her late twenties who didn’t really believe in God. The next moment, she was staring straight into eternity.

Before that year, she would’ve told you God was a crutch. Something people leaned on because they didn’t want to face their own mess. Sure, she had a short season in church as a young teenager, but that didn’t end well. With an abusive mother at home, church felt like an escape at first. Then things got strange.

At twelve years old, she began having prophetic dreams and visions. Instead of being guided gently, she was treated like a problem to solve. Some thought she had demons. Others asked her deep prophetic questions she didn’t even understand. She was a child. She was scared, confused, and hurt.

So she shut it all down. She told God she wanted nothing to do with any of it. And as she grew into her late teens and early twenties, she mocked Christianity instead. If God was real, why would He let her walk through that?

The First Signs Something Is Happening

Then came her third son. Born out of wedlock. And three or four days after giving birth, something felt off.

It started with exhaustion. The kind that wraps around you like a heavy blanket and whispers, just stay here. When her children’s father came in to wake her after a long nap, she didn’t want to move. A strange thought drifted through her mind:

What if I just died here? I’d finally feel at peace.

That wasn’t normal but she brushed it aside and stood up.

The headache hit first. It was sharp and crushing. When she walked into the next room, the light was unbearable. She couldn’t open her eyes, and that’s when she knew something was wrong.

Machines, Monitors, and Uncertainty

At the hospital, her blood pressure read in the 180s over 130s. Postpartum pre-eclampsia. A rare and deadly condition. The cure for regular pre-eclampsia is delivering the baby. But postpartum? It can turn fatal fast.

Machines malfunctioned and nurses scrambled. Medication pushed through an IV. A doctor rushed in, threw on a gown, and said plainly, “We need to treat you now or you could have a stroke, seizure, and die.”

Normally, Amber would have resisted and questioned everything. But this time she didn’t argue. There was a knowing that she just has to let go. Surrender.

They moved her into a dark, windowless room. It had grey walls and a heavy air. The doctor suggested the baby’s father go home with the newborn. Before he left, Amber made an odd request for someone who didn’t believe.

“Ask your family to pray for me.”

She didn’t even fully understand why she said it. But she believes now that those prayers mattered.

Somewhere between the IV drips and the dim lighting, she began drifting.

The Pull Toward the Light

In the corner of the room, she saw them. Loved ones who had passed and bright beings filled with light. Peace rolled off them like waves. She knew right away they were angels. The love and peace they carried was nothing she had ever experienced before.

Then all of a sudden, a dramatic shift happened.

She was pulled into what she can only describe as a wormhole. Cloaked figures lined up, kneeling, placing something down—prayers? judgments? offerings? She didn’t know. But the angels were with her. And then a presence she recognized without ever studying it.

Mother Mary.

A radiant light. She had no physical face, there was just a knowing. And she heard, “I am with you. I am in you.”

Amber had no Catholic background. No deep theology about angels, yet there she was.

She was shown two realms. One was dark and heavy–filled with shadowed shapes that carried an unmistakable weight. She thought, I’m not going there.

Then beauty. Colors she had never seen before. Vibrant, alive, and beyond earthly comparison. The only thing she could recognize was a glowing blue butterfly.

There weren’t normal human emotions there. It was more like pure understanding. A thought flickered through her: Maybe I do want to live. I have children.

Instantly, she saw flashes:

• Birthdays.

• Conversations.

• Moments with her sons, young and older.

• Future glimpses.

She laughed softly and thought, If this is all I get, I’m content.

Then she was there, in the light. It wasn’t just brightness—it was unconditional love. She didn’t have thoughts, identity, or a body. It was all total, tangible, and complete love. Just love. And it was Overwhelming…but also felt completely safe. She knew this was God. It had to be.

She doesn’t know how long she was there. Time didn’t exist. She only knew she didn’t want to leave.

The Subtle Start of a New Chapter

Then suddenly—back in her body. The angels remained. She could see the bleeding in her brain, and somehow they showed her how to heal. She followed their instruction without overthinking it.

When she fully came back, she knew two things:

God is real.
And she had a purpose.

Her life changed overnight. She couldn’t deny what she experienced. But she didn’t shout it from the rooftops at first. It felt almost too wild to explain.

She went searching instead.

She wandered through spiritual paths, even into New Age ideas for a season. But she says God never left her. Emmanuel. Yeshua. Jesus. Always drawing her back.

Finally, in 2023, she was baptized. This time not out of fear or confusion—but by choice. She gave her heart fully to Jesus Christ. And the transformation continues. She understands now that perfection isn’t the goal. Belonging is. She believes she is a daughter of God. Part of a royal family she once mocked. Her story isn’t about being flawless. It’s about being found. No matter how far someone feels from God, she believes He is still reaching. Still sending messengers and still whispering life back into hearts that think they’re done.

She is living proof.

And she prays her story blesses someone who feels just one breath away from giving up.

Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.

What if Christianity became illegal. Tomorrow. Let’s think about that for a second… and think hard.

If the U.S. Government came out tomorrow and said Christianity is banned, would you still remain faithful? Or would you cave when the rubber hits the road?

That’s a hard question, and it’s one I think all of us (Christians) need to ask ourselves.

We’re so used to the comforts of modern society:

• TV.

• Clothes.

• Running water.

• Entertainment.

• Food… yes… food. Most of the world is starving.

Yet faithful Christians are literally being slaughtered.

And here’s the part that should stop us cold: if that same persecution came to your home, your church, your community… would you still be faithful like those Nigerians?

Read on.

Related Article

The Part We Don’t Like to Admit

American Christianity has gotten used to being safe. Not just “safe,” but respected. Also convenient. Something you can fit between work, ball practice, a cookout, and a Netflix binge. We’ve turned the cross into décor. But the real cross was never décor. The real cross was an execution device.

And that’s why I want to drag an old book back into the room like a thunderstorm rolling in—Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

This book is not pleasant. It’s not supposed to be. And it isn’t “inspiring” in a cute coffee-mug way. Most assuredly, it is not.

Why? because it tells the truth: Christianity has never been mainly about comfort. It’s been about faithfulness—even when it costs everything.

Foxe Isn’t Trying to Entertain You—He’s Warning You

Foxe records story after story of believers who didn’t get to “avoid suffering.” They didn’t get to quietly keep their faith while blending into the wallpaper. They were hunted, questioned, and mocked. Or, even worse:

• Imprisoned.

• Burned.

• Beheaded.

• Torn apart.

And the haunting thing is this: a lot of them could’ve walked free. All they had to do was bend. Just say the right words. Sign the paper. Kiss the ring. Attend the approved version of religion. But Jesus? Let’s just keep him…private.

That temptation is not ancient. It’s current. Because persecution doesn’t usually begin with swords, it begins with pressure.

Some of these words might ring a bell:

• Social pressure

• Career pressure (even Pastors)

• Family pressure.

• Just be quiet.

• Just don’t say that.

• Just stop being so serious

• Just go along.

Yeah. That’s enough for a lot. Enough to call in the white flag. It’s pathetic.

The Fire Tests What We’re Actually Made Of

One of the most gut-check parts of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is how normal so many of these believers were—until the moment came. They weren’t superheroes.

Just simple people. Like: Farmers. Mothers. Preachers. Tradesmen. Young people. Old people.

And when the state demanded they deny Christ, they didn’t treat it like a debate. They stood firm on their decision. No denying Christ. Ever.

Some of them faced the stake with a calm that makes modern Christianity look… honestly, kind of soft. The pain was of course…excruciating. But, they loved Jesus more than life.

And that’s where we need to get honest: most of us don’t fear lions in an arena. We fear awkward conversations, being disliked, losing status, losing comfort, and losing the “normal life.”

Foxe’s martyrs lost everything. Literally.

Suffering Isn’t a Glitch in Christianity—It’s Part of the Deal

This is where a lot of Christians get messed up. We treat suffering like it’s a sign something has gone wrong. But the New Testament treats suffering like it’s proof you’re actually following the right Person.

Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)

A cross. Daily. A cross. Not supposed to be comfortable.

And Foxe is basically one long, bloody reminder that Christians before us understood that. They didn’t try to passively avoid suffering as their main strategy. They embraced obedience—even if suffering came with it.

So Let Me Ask You Again

If Christianity became illegal tomorrow…

• Would you still gather with believers?

• Would you still pray out loud?

• Would you still confess Christ if your job was on the line?

• Would you still teach your kids the gospel if it made you a target?

• Would you still worship if the cost became real?

Because that’s the question we keep dodging. And if you’re thinking, “I’m not sure,” good. It’s time to re-examine your faith and do something about it.

Join Our Subscriber Chat

If you’re walking this battle and need a safe space to talk, pray, or find encouragement—join our Subscriber Chat on Substack.

We pray, talk honestly, and remind each other that freedom in Christ is possible.

Christian Hotline & Prayer Support

If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:

National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):

https://chatnow.org

Call to Repentance

If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.

Call to Action

If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.

Subscribe now

© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.