--Rene,
 Amen sister to your excellent article about the deceptions of "the recognized religion" and to Rowina about praying for your son and grandchildren.

 First let me say that I have lived with a husband for the last 11 yrs. who is Catholic, he has an altar in our living room with "holy water", images of guadalupe (I refuse to call her Mary), oh he has an image of Jesus there too, behind guadalupe, and there's also a little statue of St Jude or as he calls him San Judas.  He lights candles, and buys flowers for his "imagenes."  He just a short while ago wrote a letter of prayer request to the National Shrine of St. Jude in Chicago, I'm sure for my son who is in prison and my mother with Alzhiemers, and I certainly appreciate the fact that he cares enough to pray for them.  I just wish he would pray to The One who could answer those prayers.

  I have tried for eleven years to get through to him, he listens to my Christian music and I have even managed to get him into my church a few times. Although he doesn't understand English well enough to grasp a lot of what he hears, I've tried to help him understand in Spanish that he is being deceived through the Catholic church; but like I said in a previous post it only gets me arguments and stony silence.

 A couple of years ago,at Christmas, after one of those stony silences I bought him a Spanish Bible... it took him months before he even picked it up.  He told me some time later that he had never in his life read a Bible.  I later bought a Spanish/English side by side translation to try and help him along but it became apparent that he really just isn't that interested in God's word... unless it comes out of the mouth of a priest.  He claims to believe in Jesus, yet he continues to pray and worship his other images.  He asked me to cross myself the other day for some reason I don't recall, and I told him absolutely not.  I may have to tolerate his little altar set-up and such but I will not participate in it with him.

  So Rowina I know where you are and how difficult it is for you.  The situation is a little different, no belief where your son is concerned, and misguided belief with my husband, but the end result is the same.  We love them and pray for them but we frustrate ourselves in the process.  I was raised a Methodist and left the Methodist church a few years ago for a wonderful non-denominational church because I was looking for a church that taught the uncompromising Truth of Jesus Christ, the Living God and my husband called me a traitor for doing so.  I have found myself falling out of love with him as a result of all of this conflict.  Don't get me wrong, he is a wonderful man, caring, kind, hard working and I do love him still.  But it is difficult to have the kind of intimacy God wants us to have in marriage when we are at opposing ends.  Before I married him I knew so little of the Catholic religion, like I said I grew up Methodist and a lot of the same "rituals" you'll find in both churches.  I went back to the church I had left on Easter with my Mom and brothers family who still attend there and I can't tell you how out of place I felt.  Don't get me wrong , I am not knocking the Methodist church, just that I wasn't being "fed" there, and I am at the church where I am a member now.

 I just think we need to keep praying.  I know my Grandmother's prayers for me were answered not long after she passed away.  I had been a Laodicean Christian till then. The hour she passed away, at 4am, my clock radio ceased to function.  I picked up my Bible, dusted it off and opened it, it opened to Psalm 121.  A couple of days later at her funeral, the pastor she had requested to give her eulogy opened with Psalm 121.  I felt that it was God speaking to me in my time of distress because I loved my Grandmother dearly and I was constantly aware of her prayers for me, although I had poo-pooed them off a lot of the times as I was growing up and my stubborn and rebellious side was alive and kickin'.

 God hears the prayers of his true children and He answers every one of them, in His perfect will and in His perfect time.  So until He comes we need to do as Paul instructs us in Colossians 4:2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.
I'm with you both...
Maranatha!
Cathy