Episode 66

The grace of the Lord Jesus extends to all the ends of the Earth. Even those entrenched in other religions can hear the gospel and be saved. This is what happened to Mary, a former Catholic who heard the gospel of Christ and was saved from empty works and ritual to knowing the one true God. Join us on this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast as we explore what her barriers were and how Christ remove every single one to save her. 

I was in my 20s and all of the accounting staff was very stoogey, very kind of stiff and not personable and not unchatty. I was always in trouble with my boss because people will come them to visit me and I would try to get rid of them, but I would get in trouble. I didn’t go back from lunch on time. I went to Kate’s desk. The lady’s name was Kate Floor that had invited me. I went to her desk and I said, Kate, why does that verse bother me so much? I couldn’t get past this. I couldn’t get past it. Why? She said, Mary, it’s because you’re not saved.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers Podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG, and we’re attempting to Remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross. This is episode 66 of the Removing Barriers Podcast, and this is a 17th in the series of How Were Your Barriers Removed? And in this episode, we’ll find out how Mary’s barriers were removed when she came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Mary, welcome to the Removing Barriers Podcast. Thank you very much. Great. Glad you can finally fit us in your busy schedule. It’s not a matter of busyness. It’s a matter of not thinking that people really want to hear the story, but I know that it’s important. And as a Catholic before, I think it may give people hope that their Catholic relatives would be open to the gospel. Amen.

So let’s get into it. Mary, what state or country were you born in? I was born in New York City, in the United States. Oh, wow. Where did you grow up? I really grew up in Maryland. I was there from first grade until I got married. And then Neil, my husband was living in Virginia, so I moved to Virginia to live with my husband after I got married across the road. But I grew up in Maryland. Yes, I grew up in Maryland. Great.

Tell us about the area of Barry, and you grew up. What kind of community was it? Tell us about it a little bit. Well, it’s a place called Bowie, Maryland, and it’s just a middle class suburb of DC. I went to Catholic school until I was in 8th grade. I was able to actually walk that school was behind my house. And then when I was in high school, middle school and high school, my parents were not able to afford the Catholic high school. So I went to a public high school, and I graduated from the public high school right there in the area that I grew up in. Yeah.

Booye is a little bit of a historical type town, is it, Booy? There is a section that’s called Old Buoy, and it’s by the train tracks. It is more historic. There are some really cool little restaurants, and I think that they’ve kind of revived that area. But the housing development that I lived in was built in the 60s and their eleven homes, asbestos were in the walls. Yeah, but it was just a middle class community built for people that were coming to DC for all the jobs. 20 minutes to DC from where I lived.

You described your parents a little bit when you said that they sent you to Catholic school. And of course, later on, they sent you to public school when the funds weren’t there. But it sounds like your parents were a religious bunch. Or did you grow up in a religious family? And you mentioned that you were Catholic? Was your family like, die hard Catholic, or were you nominally Catholic in your family? What was your family like growing up? Okay. Well, my father was a very devout Catholic. He taught high school and College catechism classes at night. He was very committed to the Catholic Church. We prayed the Rosary as a family when I was young, not in my later teen years, but because something happened in the Second Vatican Council of Rome. Something happened that my father was not in agreement with. So my father actually stopped going to Church. But I was a very devout Catholic. My name is Mary. And the reason my name is Mary is because I was born on August 15, and I don’t know if you know what that is, but in the Catholic Church, it’s a very high Holy day. It’s the day that a Pope said that Mary ascended into heaven. Oh, wow. Now everyone at my school did not know my birthday was the Assumption, but my name was Mary, and I was taught by nuns until I reached 8th grade. I had never had anyone but a nun as my teacher. So they’re very devout. And of course, you want to please people. So you follow the piety and adhere to all the rules. And because I was close to the school, the Church was connected to the school. I went to Church before school a lot. I was very devout. I really was very I was not a Godly person, but I loved God. And I knew my name was Mary because I was born on this special day, and I never, ever could be good enough. I just saw myself as such a failure because Mary is the mother of God. And why was I named like after her? It was hard, but my parents were not. In my late teen years. I went to Church every Sunday. Rain sleet. It didn’t matter. And I walked to Church. I went every Sunday. My parents did not go to Church, but I did. I was trying to live outwardly the way that I wanted to be. Inwardly. I didn’t have the power to make the changes. But I was trying.

Was your mother as devout as you were, or was she like your father, where she was devout at one point? But then did she have a little falling out with the Catholic Church with the Second Vatican Council that you’re talking about as well? My father really never got back to going to Church until much later. I have four brothers and a sister, and my sister didn’t always go to Church, but one of my other brothers and I pretty much always went. We were the ones that went to Church. Now, my father was a wonderful person. I truly believe he did love God, but he just had no faith in the Catholic Church anymore. Now, the hard thing about Catholics is that even if they don’t go to Church, they will not say anything openly about the Catholic Church. They would never say something bad. For example, by this time, I don’t think we were still going to the Catholic school, but it wasn’t because of the Vatican Council. My father just couldn’t afford it anymore. He had four in school and there were two more coming along and he couldn’t. So he transitioned us all to the public school. I kept going to Church. That’s one thing. I was devout. I felt I would go and get my Ashes. On Ash Wednesday, I went to confession. I lived the outward appearance of adhering to the commandment. I don’t know what you know about the Catholic Church, but going to Church and going to Mass and accepting the Eucharist, which is what it’s called. There is a Sacrament, and you’re baptized. That’s a Sacrament. You’re confirmed that’s a Sacrament when you get married. That’s a Sacrament when you go to Church, that’s a Sacrament. If you don’t go to Church and you don’t participate in this, well, I was told I was going to go to hell. Wow, that I had to do these things. These were mandatory. These were not optional. And so I’ve always been a very sensitive person. And I went to Church. In fact, when Neil and I were dating, I told him we’re getting married in the Catholic Church and we’re raising our children. Catholic period. No discussion. It’s a package deal, and I meant it, and he knew it because he really didn’t have a faith. He didn’t go to Church. He did when he was young, but he didn’t go to Church.

So you mentioned that your father had to pull you out of Cartilage Church. I imagine going to Cartler school sorry. So if I had to pull you out of Cartley school and you have been going to Catley school for up until junior high, seems like, yes. What kind of shock was it for you to actually go to a public high school, moving from Catholic school, dive into that. Okay. It was terrible. Part of the problem was in the Catholic school, math and English are very important. So as just a normal person going to Catholic school, your education is better than your peers in the public school. So when I went to the public school, I was ahead in math and I was ahead in English, but I wasn’t really smart. So I got put in the smart kid classes and I could not keep up. Once they caught up to me, I was in trouble. So I didn’t make connections in my classes because they were a different kid. It was hard. I didn’t have friends. The kids already had been two years in that school, so they all had their friends. I had never been to a public school, so I didn’t have that back. The friends in the mind. As far as the Catholic, when you think of going from a religious school to a secular school, there wasn’t an issue with that. We learned the same subjects. It’s just the English and math was really good at the Catholic schools. So by the time I went to high school, I was only one year in the middle school and then 10th, 11th and 12th. By the time I went to high school, I had made a few friends and I just followed the wave. The transition for me was the Catholic education was superior. And when I went to the public school, I was so far ahead, I thought, this is going to be easy. And once those smart kids caught up to me, I could not keep up their pace. So that was a little bit of a shock because here you are thinking, oh, I’m so great. But no, as far as socially, it wasn’t a big difference because it was the 60s, and it was a crazy time. Anyway, it was a really crazy time. Many things were going on that dwarf my experiences and my challenges with getting into the school. Well, I’ll briefly tell you. So girls were not allowed to wear pants to school. This was that era, and there were a few girls who wore pants to school, and there were sit ins. And there was one girl that actually shocked wore shorts to school, and she was escorted out. And there was so much going on because the 60s was just such a crazy time. It was nonstop. And there were social issues happening during that era. You guys are younger. So you’re not really familiar with the crazy things. But Woodstock things like that were going on and kids were picking up on that and trying to get in on it. And the school administrations were not receptive.

Yeah, this is grossly off topic, Mary, but a lot of folks are comparing right now the 20s, their teens and the 20s to the 60s. What comparison? Similarities and differences do you see? Well, when you say the teens and the 20s and then you mean 60s, as in older people like myself? No. I mean like, they’re 1960 to 2018. 1920? Yes. Okay. Now I got you. I wanted to make sure I was following your question. What’s happening right now? Socially, I do see similar things where people are feeling frustrated. And I consider myself when I was in the 60s. Obviously, I was young, 1213. We had the Vietnam War. We had Vietnamese kids coming to our schools, which was really exciting because I made very good friends with one little girl that came to my school. But people are unhappy. People are looking around and they’re seeing gas prices creeping up. They’re seeing social issues because the 60s, where black people were not allowed to buy in certain neighborhoods, it was white. Only now, as a kid, I didn’t really understand this. But now that I’m out of it and looking back, I realize, yeah, that was kind of strange. There were no black kids in my neighborhood. Now there were black kids in my school, but they didn’t live near me. So today I’m kind of seeing people beginning to say there’s a difference, and I was just recognizing there are differences. Do you understand what I’m saying here? We’re being told there’s a difference. Whereas before I was like, I think they’re different than me. I was so naive. Right. But the social angst of my generation and the social angst now, yes. I definitely see a correlation. And I’ve spoken of it with different examples with my children recently because it’s a different time, but it’s similar, if that makes any sense. Yeah, definitely.

You described how devout you were as a Catholic as a child coming up in your home, would you say that your life and your upbringing were for you personally, it was about striving to be a good Catholic and to win favor with God. Or do you feel like your days coming up before your Salvation? It was just a constant struggle because you knew who you were on the inside, but you were striving to be something else on the outside. Could you describe what your life and upbringing were like before the Lord saved you? Okay. So if I understand your question, I don’t know how familiar you are with Catholics. But when you’re saying winning favor with God with a Catholic person, I was taught that I needed my good deeds to outweigh my bad deeds. And if I did something bad, I needed to go to confession and then pray so that my good would outweigh my bad. So you’re always conscious. Oh, I did that wrong. Oh, I need to go to confession. Oh, I did that good thing and so my parents didn’t stress. I mean, I was always in trouble. I was definitely the one who was always in trouble. Of my siblings, I was always in trouble. But we prayed as a family. We prayed the Rosary when I was young. Yes, they taught me the Rosary. They taught me to pray it. And they taught me if you’ve done something wrong, you need to pray. You need to pray, and you need to go to confession. I was never taught to go to Jesus, though I revered the Son of God. And I know he died on the cross for the sins of the world. We were taught that, but I didn’t understand. It was a personal thing that it was between the Redeemer and individuals. I believed he died for the whole world. Now I want to say one thing that probably going to sound really crazy to you, too. But I was taught that only Catholics go to heaven. Wow. And so I fully expect it to go to heaven. Now, if my good outweighed my bad, I wouldn’t spend as long in Purgatory. But I was Catholic. So I did the sacraments. And then when you died, you get extreme unction, which is the final Sacrament. I couldn’t be a priest. I couldn’t receive that Sacrament. I couldn’t be a nun. I fully expected to go to heaven because I was Catholic. And if you weren’t Catholic, you weren’t going to heaven. I wasn’t going to be dogmatic about it. But that’s what I was taught.

Would you describe the first time you heard the gospel? Throughout all this, you’ve been taught that only Catholics go to heaven, all your upbringing, everything going to confession. Do you remember the first time you heard the gospel, or would you describe it for us? I feel sometimes like I can remember this as it was yesterday. Briefly, I will explain how I heard the gospel. I was fortunate enough to get a job at a place that was not very far from my house. Not only was it not far from my house, but I got a raise, and it was wonderful. So I started working. I was an accounting technician for this Corporation, and this woman who was an executive administrative assistant, came to my desk one day and she said, Mary, she said, I’d like to invite you to a Bible study. And I kind of looked at her and she said, we meet every Thursday at lunch. She said, Sometimes we eat outside. Sometimes we get a conference room. It was a beautiful building. We had conference rooms. It was fabulous. So I said, Well, sure, I’d like that. I’m a Catholic, but I’m a Christian first. I’d love to go. Well, the very first Thursday that I had lunch with a couple of ladies. Everyone didn’t meet every week. Some people couldn’t make it. They were talking about the Virgin Mary, and I’m sitting there just listening to this conversation between these ladies because I didn’t even have a Bible. I just came and had my lunch at the table with them, and they were talking about her. But they weren’t talking about her the way I learned about the Virgin Mary. So one of the ladies happened to be the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher. She was one of the higher executive administrative assistants in this organization. She had a really good job. And I said to her, I said, Why don’t you pray to Mary? And she just looked at me and she did not want to answer that question because that was the first time I went to the Bible study. I said, Come on, why don’t you pray to Mary? Because I could tell from the conversation that they didn’t feel towards Mary the way I did. So she said, Mary again. She said, if you can find it in the Bible, I’ll do it. And I thought, oh, okay. Well, our house was only 4 miles from my work, and I lived next door to a lady from South America, and she was a very devout Catholic. She and her husband very devout Catholics. And I went over to her house and I said, oh, my goodness. I said, I went to this Bible study and they’re talking about Mary. And I said, Why do we pray to Mary? I need to show her in the Bible. So she said to me, Mary, we pray to Mary because at the cross, Jesus said to John, Behold thy mother, and he said to Mary, Behold thy son. I didn’t think that was a very good answer. So she handed me this paperback. I wish I would have had the wherewithal to have kept it all these years, but it was basically a caricature, but not disrespectful of the Gospel of the Crucifixion. But it was a paperback. It was not convincing. So keep in mind, my parents were Catholic. My sisters are Catholic. I have four brothers. I didn’t go to any of them. I went home.

I was just not convinced that was not a good answer. I was very perplexed. So I continued going to these Bible studies every Thursday for weeks and weeks and weeks, one day and the way that they did the Bible study. We basically went through books. We were in Timothy and we just had conversations. We talked about charismatic, the charismatic, the gifts of the tongues and things, which was really enlightening because I didn’t really know what it was. But I learned that it’s not current day Biblical anyway. So I learned a lot of good things. I had the Bible. That was Neil’s mom. So we’re reading through Scripture and the Bible says in one Timothy, two, five, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Well, there were just three of us in the Bible study that day. I got angry. I said, what, you guys picked that verse because, you know, Catholics pray to Saints, and my two friends are looking at me. Mary, we’re studying through Timothy, and I said I was just so mad because I was cut. The Bible is a sword, Amen. And I was cut. I was just so upset. Well, I was in my 20s and all of the accounting staff was very stoogy, very kind of stiff and not personable and not unchatty. I was always in trouble with my boss because people would come to visit me and I would try to get rid of them. But I would get in trouble. I didn’t go back from lunch on time. I went to Kate Steph. The lady’s name was Kate Floor that had invited me. I went to her desk and I said, Kate, why does that verse bother me so much? I couldn’t get past this. I couldn’t get past it. Why? She said, Mary, it’s because you’re not saved. I said, oh, for heaven’s sake, I said, Am I drowning? Do I need to be pulled from a burning building? What do you mean, I’m not saved? What does that mean? She said, Mary, the Bible says, whosoever believers on the Lord shall be saved. You’re not saved. He has not redeemed you. He died for you. He was buried. He rose again so that you could be saved, Mary, so that you could go to Heaven when you die. And I looked at her and I was so perplexed. But let me tell you that’s all I needed. I don’t know how I got through the rest of that day, but in my car on the way home from work that day, I said, God, I only want Jesus. I don’t want the Catholic Church. I don’t want the priest. I don’t want anything. I just want Jesus. Now. I didn’t understand, confess and profess and be baptized. There were pieces missing. But I called on my Redeemer and I told him, I only want you, Jesus. I believe you are God’s Son, that you died for me, that you rose again. All of those things were familiar. As a Catholic. I believed all of that. But this verse, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I will never forget. Never forget that experience of being angry at these two precious ladies as if they were doing something to hurt me when all they were doing was what God asked them to do, share His word with me. It just brings tears to my eyes because that is my Salvation verse. That is the verse that finally ripped my heart open and showed me I was lost. Amen, because I was adding, I was praying to this Saint or that Saint or the Rosary or whatever. And I needed just Jesus. That’s it. That’s all you need.

It sounds like you had a thousand things hitting you at one time. Now, if I’m overstepping and stuffing memories where they don’t belong. Please let me know. But it sounds like they read the verse and it cuts you to the core. And so not only are you having to figure out, why is it that I grew up in the Catholic Church and have never been taught this? But what does that mean for my soul? Am I right with God? Have I been living this life like everything that you’ve known all of your life, up until you were in your 20s? I think you said it all comes crashing down around your ears, and you’re just like what? It’s a paradigm shift. It sounds like. Would you say, Mary, that at that time you came to a full realization of your sin at that time as well? Or was that just the time where you just realized, okay, the Catholic faith, it’s obviously not the truth. Let me just trust Jesus with what I know right now. Trust him for learning everything. Later on, did the full weight of your sin, the realization of your sin happened at that time as well? Or was it a progression in your walk? Okay, so because the gospel was being revealed to me through a Bible study and not through a discipleship program or door to door visitation and a Church, I was at a disadvantage. I admit that straight up. But there was a Baptist Church in town, and another lady had someone knock on her door and invite her to Church, and she said to that person because she was one of the ones in the Bible study. Anyway, there were about ten of us. She said, I don’t need a Church, but I know someone that does. So she gave me the track that he left. It turned out that this Church was walking distance from my house. So I went to this Church. And so when a person gets saved in the fashion that I got saved and I didn’t have anybody discipling me specifically, I was still learning a lot through the Bible study. I went to the Church, and I didn’t even know what I was doing. I knew I needed to go to Church. I didn’t really understand repentance, although nobody has to tell me I’m a sinner. So I understood being sorry for sin and knowing that Jesus died for my sins. But looking back, my Salvation experience was kind of like it was synchro swim. I was dropped into a situation where I needed to find what I needed to feed. I needed to be fed, and I knew it, but I didn’t understand that way. So I went to Kate’s Church. I wasn’t comfortable there. I went to this Church, and it was wonderful. They were preaching the gospel. He was preaching through the Book of Revelation. One of the Daniels in the Lion’s Dead at Kenya missionary came. I was exposed to missions at this Church. It was an independent fundamental Biblebelieving Baptist Church in Leesburg. It’s still going today, and I literally must have been amusing to see me sitting there in Church because I imagine I had my mouth hanging open the whole time, and I still take notes, but probably was furiously taking notes, trying to get all this information and get it into a format that I could then understand later. Neil was not saved yet. My husband was not saved yet.

So how long have you been married before this point, Mary. So you’re married at this point? I was a mother. I had my daughter. Okay. Got you? Yes. Neil and I were married. And first we were living in Herndon. And then we moved to Leesburg. And that’s how the Lord was able to save me. Got you. Okay. The pieces to my Salvation puzzle were put in place beginning back when I was in high school. And little things. I can remember, things people said or invited me to something that I didn’t go. I was handed a Gideon’s Bible on the College campus, which I took on my honeymoon, and I wasn’t even saved. Looking at how God he just lovingly kept pushing me in the direction that I would accept. If you had knocked on my door and said, You’d like to present the gospel, I would have slammed the door in your face. I would have said, who do you think you are? No way. I was invited to a Bible study, and I went, I was shown the word of God, and I was drawn to it. And then I was shown this first. And then I was given an invitation to an independent, fundamental Bible believing Baptist Church. At the same time, I told my husband I got saved. He didn’t like it very much. He called me this Holy roller, and it was not good. But our loving God was working on him at work. There was a wonderful man at his office that was having Bible studies with my husband. And my sweet husband couldn’t say anything to this guy. He went to the Bible studies, but he really wasn’t on board. Do you know that he accepted Christ? I wasn’t with him. We’re on the way somewhere. And he says, I said my prayer today, and I’m thinking, you what he said. I said my prayer today, and I looked at him and I said, Did you accept Jesus? We almost had an accident. We almost had an accident because I was so overjoyed because he had been so mean. He did not like it. I changed. God changed me. You become a new creature. When you accept Jesus. You stopped wanting to do things that you did as a sinner, and you stopped wanting to do things that weren’t sinful, but they were not Holy. You just begin to look at things differently. And he didn’t like the new me. He didn’t like it, but he did. He did like it. Both of us are just amazed. We’re just amazed Amen. Some people won’t accept someone at the door, a stranger. They won’t accept that. But you can invite a friend to have a Bible study with you. They can take or leave it. You’re not telling them that you know everything. You’re just sharing something that means something to you with someone. And that’s what the young guy did at Neal’s office. And that’s what Kate did at my office. And that’s how I got saved. And that’s how my husband got saved.

You’ll listen to the Removing Barriers podcast. We are sitting down with Mary, and we are finding out how well her barriers removed. We’ll be right back.

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All right, Mary. So before we go to the next section, you have been talking about your lovely husband, Neil, and that might be the only time I call him lovely. How you met your husband. I always liked the older people. I went places with my sister and her friends. She’s a year and a half older than me. So she took me to the junior College she was going to and Neil was there. It was a mixer. They had a band, and it was just a place for young people just to talk in a school building, like an auditorium setting. It was safe, a very nice, safe place to meet and mingle with people. So I met Neil there. Well, he wasn’t really interested in me. Plus, I wasn’t in school yet. He’s a few years older than me. So the next year, I went to that same school, and he and I had classes on Tuesday and Thursday, the way school was back then Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday, Tuesday and Thursday classes. I only had two classes, so I had a big break between them. So Neil and I saw him a couple of times, and a friend of my sisters knew him really well, and she kind of introduced us, shall we say? And I don’t know. I just really liked him. I thought he was kind of shy. So anyway, we started dating, and from the very beginning, I thought I really like this guy. So we got married. It was almost three years later. But anyway, I was only 20. So I met him in Maryland. We were both going to the same school. He had gone to Maryland University, and he didn’t like it. The classes were just too big. He doesn’t have that personality. So I’m very glad that the Lord sent him to the school that I was going to. That’s wonderful. Neil’s mother died when he was 17. He wasn’t religious. She was the one that kind of kept them going to Church. So he was a good match for me. For me getting saved because he wasn’t a hindrance, right?

When you’re describing your testimony so far, you mentioned how the Lord brought so many different pieces of the puzzle together to create your Salvation testimony. When you look back on how the Lord saved you, what do you think was keeping you from getting saved? What barriers were presented in your life to keep you from seeing the Gospel clearly or from getting saved? The biggest barrier at the time. The scary thing was, what will my father think? What will my mother think? What is my family going to think when you say barriers? I didn’t think about any of those things emotionally. I just wanted Jesus. I loved God. I went to Church and I meant it. When you go through the Mass, there are certain things where you beat your breasts and different things. It’s very ritualistic. I realized that, but I meant it. So I was very sincere. The barrier for me was me. Could I possibly be saved? Could he forgive me? Could I actually just ask Jesus and him say yes? But I’m going to go back. There is one God and one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. The mystery of Salvation will be revealed to me when I meet the Lord. The things that happened to bring me to Him, to a saving knowledge of my Savior will be the most glorious thing to really see the picture of what he did do that I didn’t even realize Amen. I wrote in College, I had a Journal and the English teacher made us do this, but she wouldn’t read it. She just made sure we were doing it. And I asked God to show me the meaning for my life. I asked him to help me save Neil’s soul. I had no idea what I was asking. God. None. No idea. I think my purpose for having this time with you is to encourage people if they know someone that they know is not a believer, that they need to pick these gentle, kind, thoughtful come to a Bible study. Can I share a verse that’s been a really big blessing to me? It’s God’s word. This book is what brought me to the place of being able to understand Salvation. When I read the Holy Bible at my parents house as a girl, it was Greek. I didn’t understand anything. Nothing but this verse. This is clear. This is clear. And to a Catholic who prays to Saints and carries a Saint Christopher or carries her Rosary. This is clear. This is saying no. You don’t need those things. You just need one, Jesus. So the barrier is fear. My barrier with witnessing is fear. I don’t want someone to get mad at me. I don’t necessarily mind that they don’t like me, but I don’t really want someone to be rude to me. I don’t want to cause someone to be upset where I tell the Lord I give out tracks and I tell the Lord. I’m afraid I don’t want to hurt someone. I don’t want to offend someone. I remember being a lost person who would not have been receptive, and I would have felt very put out if you would have tried to give me something. But I know that if Kate had never asked me, I still could be lost. I don’t know who else would have. As far as I know, no one else in my family has accepted Christ. Wow.

Do you still keep in contact with Kate? I have lost contact with Kate. Yes. No, I do not keep in contact, but I do pray for her. And I thank the Lord for her on a very regular basis because she was the one who invited me to that Bible study. And she was the one who sat with me and told me, Mary, it’s because you’re not saved. You are not a Christian. And Catholics think that they are Christians. From my vantage point, they are not knowing what I know about the Catholic Church. They are not Mary. You and I have done witnessing together a few times in the past, and I remember going, witnessing and just having this sort of bulldozing attitude. You all are going to accept Christ, whether you like it or not, going to the door and just being really bold. And I remember, how would I describe it? Especially when we were talking to Catholics. You had this way of approaching it where it was, in hindsight, far more effective than what I was doing. Just bulldozing in there. And you described how you remember what it’s like to be a lost person, that you’re not receptive and that you wouldn’t have been receptive had someone knocked on your door or handed you something. But it took a coworker. It took a friend to just invite you to a Bible study. And those barriers through the word of God, of course, being that sharp, double edged sword that it is, the barriers came crumbling down.

Would you say that the way that your barriers were removed, that it’s possible for those barriers to be removed in the life of someone else, the way the Lord removed your barriers? Oh, yes. The most important thing to share where the Catholic is that they know who God is. They have the head knowledge, but they don’t have Him in their heart. They respect God. They honor God, but unfortunately, it’s like the Pharisees. They honor Him with their mouth, but they don’t honor them with their heart. You can’t tell a Catholic that they don’t honor God with their heart. You’ve got to get their appetite wedded so respectfully and so gently because they are taught that you’re not going to heaven. But they are. They are taught that it’s blasphemous to say, you know, you’re going to heaven because that’s not what the priest tells them. The priest tells them that your hope of eternal life is yours because you’re Catholic, but that you need to pray for the dearly departed so that they do get to heaven. You see, they’re told these conflicting things when I go to a funeral for a Catholic. Oh, our sister’s in heaven. But we need to pray that she gets there. I sit there and I think what and the most devout Catholics from my family would send Mass cards showing that they had Masses. They paid for a priest to do a Mass so my mother would get to heaven. It’s like gobbly Goop. It doesn’t make any sense. And if you have a conversation, like, if I have a conversation with my sister, she’ll just get mad. She’ll just get mad. That’s not what it means. You have it confused. You’re not right. That’s not what it means. Let’s talk about something else. They don’t want to deal with it. They don’t want to deal with it. You cannot do the outward with a Catholic. You cannot say you’re wrong. And this is why you’re wrong. You have to say, I know you know all this. Why don’t you come to Church with me? I know you believe in God, and I know you believe that he loves you and that he died for the whole world. I’d really like you to come to Church. There’s a special speaker. I think you’ll really like it. And then, as God did with me, let him do it because he will. He will. That person will feel this. I have got to go. I could have been at that Bible, said it was one other person and I would still have gone. I went every single Thursday. I didn’t miss anything because my heart was being drawn. What am I going to learn today? What am I going to learn? There was a Pentecostal. There was a lady that just went to a Baptist Church, which was a dead Church. There were, like just a Bible Church. All different kinds of churches. The people that came to the Bible study, all different churches. No two of us went to the same Church. But we studied this book and a couple had the NIV. I had a KJV, but a couple of people had the NIV, and we would read the verses. And if they read the NIB, they read the NIV. If we read the KJV, we studied about this. The things that we did in that Bible study were welcoming. You were welcome. It was a casual, peer led Bible study. And that’s the way I was reached. My husband was reached through a Bible study. But I’ve seen people saved on door to door visitation. I have seen people saved in a variety in fact, when Neil and I were working at the Church there in Leesburg, I was going out soul winning with the teens. And do you know one of the teens that went out soul winning with me got saved one night? Oh, wow. I didn’t know she wasn’t saved. I said my prayer tonight and I looked at her and I said, Well, she said I wasn’t saved, and I thought, oh, my goodness, she’s been going out soul winning with me, and she wasn’t even saved. So God uses all kinds of things. Love friendship, especially Catholics. That’s what will break down their barrier. You love them as they are where they are because that’s how I was treated.

So, Mary know that you’re saved. What are you doing personally in the area of evangelism to help others remove the barriers like you face in your life right now, the only thing that I’m doing is handing out tracks because of COVID. I guess I’m too sensitive. I don’t want someone yelling at me. We’re going to go this Saturday for tracking. That is the easiest thing to do. Put a door, hanger on someone’s door with a gospel. That’s the easiest thing to do. But I do give out tracks. When I go to the store, I have a bunch in the front of my purse a thank you tracks. And I say, this is for you to read later. This is just for you. No pressure. I said it talks about God, and that’s what I give the tracks. I feel that there is much more that I need to do. I don’t have employment anymore, so I have more time. So I’m excited. I’m really looking forward to this Kova being behind us so I can be freer to do more, but just handing out tracks right now. That is the only thing in Evangelism that I am participating in at the very moment, a lot more than others are doing. So thank you for doing that. And I think you retire early, though. You don’t look like you have been at the age of retirement. I worked 30 years for one place. Wow. You know, God is very good. I never thought that every year I said I’m going to stop doing this. I’m going to stop doing this in 30 years. I work for Fairfax County Public Schools for 30 years. Wow.

All right, let’s go into a little bit of fun section. Mary. Okay. What is your favorite crypto verse? Well, obviously one Timothy 25 is my favorite because that is the one that pierced my heart and convicted me of my need. Amen.

What is your favorite biblical historical account? Some people call them Bible stories. We call them Biblical historical account because the Bible has no stories in it. It’s all true. So what’s your favorite? You know, I teach little kids, so I have a gazillion favorites. Every time I think I read through the Gospels and the woman with the issue that just brings tears to my eyes. She has tried everything, and she just cannot get better. And she hears that Jesus is near. And she just if I can just touch the hem of his garment, the faith, the yearning. And then when he says, who touched me, that just seems like such a profound like, Are you kidding? We are in a throng of people pushing, shoving, and she just falls down, falls at his feet. But I could go on. I could tell you ten stories. My heart is just bursting. When I get to teach some of these things to the little kids, I get so animated, I get so excited because these stories are real to a mature Christian, they’re not just stories to have fun with. They’re real. I feel I feel the empathy or I feel the excitement or I feel the sadness. But I love the story where she just if I can just touch him, I know I’ll be. She didn’t have to talk to him, didn’t have to see his face. Just touch him. Oh, that’s just very exciting to me.

What about the most convicting scripture passage? Do you convicting? Well, I think when Jesus because my reading through the Bible, I’m in Mark, I guess. Anyway, when Jesus always knows what they’re thinking, the Pharisees are saying, oh, you know, he shouldn’t do that. And Jesus turns and says, whatever he says. The important thing isn’t what he says thing is that he knows what I’m thinking. I can’t hide anything from Him. I can’t hide selfishness, pride, arrogance, vanity, nothing. I’m completely open before him. I’m convicted every time I read the word of God of my frailty and my need. And it’s greater than just my need for Jesus. It’s greater than that. But that’s what convicts me. Just the recognition that and we were taught that as Catholics, Jesus can see you. He knows. Not only can he see me, he knows what I’m thinking, what I really need. If I’m lying, very humbling, very convicting. And I’m just thinking the idea and the truth that the Lord sees us and all he sees us laid bare. That’s a very frightening idea. Like you said, because you can’t hide from Him. You can fool a lot of other people. But you can’t hide from Him. He knows exactly what you’re thinking and what your motives are. No. Yeah, that’s right.

What would you say would be the most comforting verse to you? Oh, my comforting verse. I’m sure we need some comfort after knowing that the Lord sees all and we’re all laid bare before Him. What comforting verse do you cling to and that you find most comforting in the Scripture, a verse that I taught my children very young and they know this. So I’m 56. Three. By the time I am afraid I will trust in me. I know. And then the other verse, I say all the time whatsoever. Things are true whatsoever. Things are honest whatsoever. Things are just whatsoever. Things are pure whatsoever. Things are lovely. If there’d be any virtue. If there’d be any praise, think on these things when my mind wanders to something that’s distressing or maybe something that I saw that I don’t want to revisit. I just quote that verse. So those two verses are just like at the tip of my tongue in a need basis. If I’m afraid I’m going to trust in me. If I don’t want to think on something, I’m going to think on these things. He gives me a list of the things that I should think on. That will help me to get away from the bad thought or the perplexing thought or the stressful thought or what have you and those two verses? And they’re so simple and they’re so simple. It’s not even profound. It’s just basic. Don’t think on the bad things and trust in me what time I am afraid. I will trust in me when I’m afraid I’m going to trust in you. God, I’m calling on you. I don’t want to be afraid. I want to trust you. It’s not only what time I’m afraid I’m trusting you, but I’m basically making a statement. God, I don’t want to be afraid. I just want to trust.

What is your favorite? Him of the fate. Wow. That’s a tough one. When I was first saved, went to the nursing home all the time and we would sing with these old Saints. Sweetheart prayer, count your many blessings. I would stick with those two sweet hour prayer and count your many blessings to hear some of these old Saints. They can’t get out of that wheelchair and can’t sing to keep a tune in the bucket like me but singing out sweet hour prayer that leads me from the world of care bits me up my father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known just to not only sing those songs, but think of these sweet old Saints that would sing with me and I do not sing well. I am the joyful noise maker. We would start singing and it didn’t matter how I found it because they were not with me. They were singing to the Lord because there are lots of other songs that I like because I love to sing in Church. I love to sing in Church. But what I like about those songs is I think of these sweet little old ladies that would come to our Tuesday. Of course they came to see Erin. I would always have her in the stroller and they wanted to see that baby. But they come and they sing and we didn’t have him books. We sang every verse from memory. It was great. Those would be sweetheart of prayer and count your many blessings Amen.

Which would you say in all of the scripture is your favorite giant of the faith. I really like Joseph. I really like Joseph. Now, when you say, do you mean Old Testament or New Testament? It doesn’t matter throughout the entire scripture. Okay, Joseph, what happened to Joseph and how Joseph, he and Daniel are just phenomenal. They were taken away from their families and they had to stand in a foreign country and neither one of them ever lost faith in God. We don’t know how fabulously Joseph did later in his life, but, wow, I really love the story of Joseph. And of course, I love Daniel too. But I really love the story of Joseph. I think Joseph is just. Neil recently was doing a Bible study. He gets a thing comes in his email every day and some very interesting things brought out about Joseph just adding to things. I enjoy. Joseph Amen.

All right, Mary, let’s wrap it up. Tell us, how can those barriers be removed in the life of others? So just imagine there’s a cat Lake listening that has similar background to you tell them by sharing the gospel how their barriers can be removed. As a Catholic, I was taught that Jesus died for the sins of the world. But if you read the Gospel of John, Jesus died for your sins. And the most beautiful thought is that if only one person got saved, he still would have died for that one person. He suffered on that cross and he bled and he died. He was buried, and he rose again to take away my sin, not just the sin of the whole world, my sin and your sin. You do not diminish all the things you did as a Catholic by only turning to Jesus. The Bible clearly says, for there is one God and Catholics, you believe that and there is one mediator. Unfortunately, in this case, Catholics believe that they can have many to intercede for them to the Lord and pray for them in glory to the Lord. But that’s not what Scripture says. Scripture says there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The next verse is who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Jesus is the truth, the life and the way no men cometh unto the Father. But by Jesus said by me. So a Catholic can be a believer to the degree that they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he came and he died for the sins of the world. But until they understand and have that confirmation in their own heart, he died for them. They are the sinner. It’s me. It’s me. It’s me. O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It’s me that needed to be saved. I’m not looking at someone else and saying, oh, you’re a dirty, rotten, scoundrel sinner. You need to get saved. No, I needed to get saved. Each one of us needs to get saved. It’s not the whole world. Yes, he did die for the whole world. But the whole world is made up of individuals and you cannot be saved. As a group. You must be saved one at a time. I admonish any Catholic to read the Gospel of John and then read 1st, second and third John. And then once you’re hooked because you will be read the entire New Testament. And then once you’re hooked on that, start at Genesis one, one in the beginning. God. Because this book is God’s love letter to us. I truly, truly believe that I can’t read it without feeling overwhelmed that God loved me so much that I can have my own. There are people that don’t say argument to a Catholic is you need to read your own Bible. If you don’t read your Bible, you’re not going to know the God who authored it. My father told me one time that I can’t read the Bible because I can’t understand it without the priest explaining it to me. And I said, dad, let me read you this verse and I read John 316. And then I read Romans 310, 323 623. He got angry. He did not like it. His daughter is not going to be teaching him something so I can’t read it to them. But I can tell them. Read it. Amen. It’s for you. It’s for us and of all nations on the Earth. There must be enough Bibles in this country to share. I have six of my own Bibles man.

Very thank you for joining us on the Removing Barriers podcast. I hope that God uses it for his glory. Amen. And I appreciate your time, both of you. Thank you so very much. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to get a hold of us to support this podcast or to learn more about Removing Barriers, go to removingbarriers.Net. This has been the Removing Barriers Podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.