I did share with you that I’ve had the worst week ever, i’ve never cried so much in my life, watching on television the D-day films. There was a film where they followed them into Germany, actually filming it.
I was born after the war, but I’ve got my memories and my stories of it. But I don’t think that anyone, apart from the people who were actually there or people that experience it can appreciate what sacrifices were made.
Unfortunately, I feel history isn’t taught in schools now, not that type of history. History that is taught is when the first computer was made in the 1950’s, this is where we’ve moved on. I hope that film is watched, I hope that film and the memorial services are seen by people of all generations, to see what it is all about.
You can see how we can turn to religion on that and say ‘how did God let that happen?’ terrible atrocities. I can remember years ago, there was a little girl that we knew and she came to the church that I was at and I got to know her very well. She was about 9 at the time, she suffered from cystic fibrosis. We would give her mum a bit of respite, she would come and stay with us over the weekend. She loved us, she loved my husband, she was like an old woman, she would be in hospital, she would help all of the mums, she was a pure angel. We went in one day and because her veins had collapsed, she had to have a cannula put in her ankle. She was saying ‘come on Jacquie, come on Alan, you can come in with me’.
Well I came out of there horrified because of what this child was going through. I asked ‘what is going on?’
I was already working for Spirit but anyone that knows me would know that I wouldn’t take an argument on unless I have got all the facts. I have to find the facts and I really needed to find out what this life is all about. And I was told by Spirit ‘mans intervention’. I couldn’t understand it, I was also told that ‘it would change from within’ and again I couldn’t understand that.
Most of my life, from the age of about 10, I’ve had this quest to find out the purpose of, what is religion all about? I was born a Christian, I was Christened in a Christian Church and had a Christian upbringing. At the age of 12, just after my nan had died, which had horrified me, I thought how can we love someone so much and then they’re gone so quickly? That didn’t make sense to me. Then a few weeks later I had a very good friend at school. She was the year above me, we used to sit at play times and lunch times, after school she’d come over, our neighbour was friends with her mum, so we were really close. I’d see her at school and she said ‘I’ve got a new boyfriend’ and she told me that she was going out that night. I didn’t know she was going out on a motorbike and she got killed in a car crash, in Rotherhithe Tunnel in Stepney. At that time, I wanted sanctuary, I wanted answers. So I went to my church, but the doors were locked. I had no sanctuary to go in to, and I think that’s what changed me from seeking and finding.
I have been all around the world, I have got a degree on religion and I have read the books. I love having a chat, I’ve got the Mormons that love coming to my house to have wonderful chats and they go away with their ideas. But what I found from each and every book based on religion, that is all one thing so significant in that. The interpretations can be taken different, but if you read between the lines, the purpose, we are here for a reason, we are God’s children, we are here.
People get wrapped up, they may have read religious books, they may have followed the Bible as they Mormons do or the Book of John Smith. I love it when some of the others come and knock on my door and I can have some lovely arguments with them, it goes on and on. But at the end of the day it’s what we believe in now.
After my quest went on for many years, there wasn’t anybody that could tell me, I had to find it. And I did, over the space of time it’s within here. I didn’t need to go into that Church to get sanctuary because we are our own temple. We are responsible for ourselves, what we think, our actions, we are part of mankind. We see with the past week on what collectively what man can do to mankind. We all have a responsibility in this life. I work very much on a love energy, I love everybody absolutely. Some people I don’t like, but I love them. What I found over the years is that whatever is being sent to me, I send back my love. I know that my love is much stronger than anything that is being sent to me and I am a strong believer that what goes around, comes around. I wouldn’t wish any harm on anybody, but this is the world that we live in unfortunately. I’ve always said that if everyone was as nice as me it would be a wonderful world, unfortunately it is not, it would be boring wouldn’t it? But, we all believe in one thing, it’s not just the Spiritualists that believe in it the descendants? Jesus Christ died on the cross and he rose from the dead. We all believe in something, what gives us purpose is that belief, the things that we have got around us.
I have got an escape, I go into my garden. I was out there this morning for half an hour, it’s too early to cut the grass yet, it’s only 8am. So I started something else, and then I started something else, and then I started something else, I thought I’ve got to go inside in a minute and when I went back in it was 1oclock. I’ve done jobs and everything else, it’s my sanctuary. This temple that we live in is our sanctuary, there is no one else that we can blame or call on to change our lives. There is no pure or simple answer. Spirit cannot interfere with our pathway because we have all got freedom of choice, it’s free will. But if we ask, we get and I can guarantee that because I ask so much. I love Formula 1, I’ve followed it all my life. I was upset this year because it got changed to another channel and now I only get the highlights. So, I had a row with my husband and I said ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t afford Sky, I’m missing it and on the news they tell you the results before you see the highlights.’ I got an email from Mercedes to say would you like to enter a competition for two VIP tickets? And I won them! I couldn’t believe it.
So be patient, believe in what you want to, if it gives you purpose to go forward, then you can’t go back. This moment now is so important.
I said to a friend years ago, I stopped the car and said ‘look at that!’ We were surrounded by trees and bushes, It was Autumn time and every single leaf was different colour, but she couldn’t see what I was getting at. I said to her that we will never see that again, because within a moment it has all changed. That is the importance of this journey that we have got here. There is one sure thing in this life, we are all gonna pop off. When it comes we don’t know. We have all been subject to losing loved ones close to us. We have experienced it and we don’t move on from it, but we learn from it and we go forward from it. We know that we have the help and the guidance and the upliftment from our loved ones in Spirit.
I know that with my husband, we have more rows now than we did when he was alive. The thing is I can’t hear him answering back. This is it, we need that purpose, we need to go forward and we need to believe. It lays with us and that is what I was told, ‘mans intervention’. So however we allow mankind to interfere with our life, it’s up to us with our love to send it out. It’s a special love that we can seek out and find. It’s there for all of us to reach out and you will at some stage in your life feel that calmness, feel that love.
I come to this church and I think that the energy is wonderful, that’s what it is all about. It’s a positive energy and we can go forward with that, it doesn’t matter how hard life is or how down we are, we can all walk around with a big smile on our face and being the biggest joker in the shop, but people don’t know what is going on inside. Be strong, be positive and love. The main thing that you need to do is love yourself. Not in an egotistical way, but know who you are and be happy with who you are. It says in the Bible, love yourself. It’s not until you start going on a quest on what the meaning of that, the first thing, love thy neighbour, I’ve got a neighbour, and sometimes feel, I want to rip his head off but I love him. Even though I’ve trained my dog, I’ve got a guard dog, a German Shepherd, but she just looks at him now. I know if he did attack me she’d have him, but I just turn my back. Bless him.
I had a road rage moment coming down here tonight, but I just took a deep breath. We are all entitled to have our road rage moments, to have our anger, we are human. If we were machines then we could switch those feelings off, but we can’t. So just accept yourself.
I’m the biggest moaner, I go into Asda and I moan about everything, I moaned about the bread last week because it was mouldy. ‘That’s unusual’ but if it’s on the shelf too long then it will be. They all know me but that’s life. All I’m saying is believe. Believe that those loved ones that have gone before us are there to give us that strength and upliftment. How often do we go through things in life and just can’t find a way out, we get stuck and it’s like being in a big hole. But we can turn it around with their help. So believe, anyone upset just send them your love. What goes around comes around. I hope that you can take these words home and think about them. It took me some years to go through it and learn it all. But if you’re patient enough then you’ll get there.
This is a transcript of a Spiritual Address given by Jacquie Stevens during our Divine Service on 9th June 2019, at Thundersley Christian Spiritualist Church.
