From A Canaanite Harlot to A Part of God's Family

Here's a translation of Patricia Javier's testimony that happened long ago proving this ex-porn star now a mother and a house meet proves God can change EVEN the most regenerate sinner, this is one testimony the Pharisees would hate to read:

Patricia came from a poor family. In her adolescence, her parents separated. She and her siblings stayed with their mother. To help her mother provide for the family, Patricia joined beauty pageants to pursue a dream and for the prizes which helped to tide things over. Her break came when she joined the country's  most prestigious beauty pageant, Binibining Pilipinas or Miss Philippines. 

Although she did not win the title, the Bb. Pilipinas pageant opened doors for her into the Philippine movies. As her star rose in show business, she quickly built a fortune she had dreamed of.  "From nothing we have built a beautiful home, I was able to travel to many places and met people I had never imagined of meeting in my life," she said in her testimony. 

But she paid a high prize for her dream. Appearing mostly in flesh flicks, she allowed herself to be used by men who could give her the luxury in life or more movie breaks. In her testimony, she said that she was happy for a while until she found out that something was missing in her life. That drove her into drugs. 

"I really used my body to get what I wanted in life. For a while I was happy but there came a time when I became insecure, I wanted ... (to live  a new life), to have a husband who respects me. I hated women who allowed themselves to became mistresses of married men, but then I found myself in the same situation. I tried drugs to escape from that reality. I admit I tried ecstasy," she confessed. 

It was at this point that her mother talked to her thoroughly. "She told me 'everything that you have done for us boils down to nothing. You have given us a good life but you are ruining yourself'," she remembered her mother telling her. "I felt more depressed, I felt remorse for everything I had done, I realized  that I was sinning." 

As it is often said God will work in mysterious ways if you would only seek His help and live a life in keeping with His counsels in the Scriptures. Patricia, who went to the United States for some show biz engagements, meet a Christian who invited her to join a church congregation. Despite her fears that she might lose her career that provided her fortune, she attended church meetings and services and found changes in her life. 

"I just kept on attending and then I felt that God was working in me, I felt changes in my life. I forgot all my insecurities, what I had done in the past ... I did not think of the men in my life anymore, the material things. I felt like God was telling me that you will find happiness if you will follow me. I began to realize, so that's it when God is in your heart," she said. 

It was then that she met her future husband, Dr. Robert Walcher. When she returned to Philippines after her show biz engagement, people who knew her were surprised at how she had changed. Shortly after, she married Dr. Walcher. 

"My name, Genesis, means the beginning. I told myself 'this is the beginning of a new life'," she said toward the concluding part of her testimony. "I said 'God I am giving my life to you, I trust my life to your care'." 

Patricia's story reminds me of counsel in Proverbs: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart; never lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will show you the right path."

My reaction is plain and simple to this one.  You see here the brokenness of the sinner:

• Patricia had the remorse for sinning.  She had a lot to be ashamed about- homewrecking, adultery, drugs- you name it.  She looked like a hopeless case.  Like Rahab, Mary Magdalene and the adulterous woman by the well the Law called her a sinner. She would only deserve to be stoned to death.
• She tried drugs and everything, nothing worked.  But she didn't try on Jesus as an add on, she knew she could lose a lot if she turned to Him later.
• Obviously she was counting the cost of following the cross.  She knew she could lose her money if she gave up on porn and smut, on her various love affairs but she didn't let her love for sin stop her.  She threw herself at the feet of the Savior just as the Law would have demanded her to be stoned to death.
• At the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, all she could do was throw herself at His feet.  She was an outcast in need of God's mercy.  She got the mercy she did not deserve.
• Her changed life- from a degenerate pornography star to a help meet.  
• Like Rahab she was pulled away from degeneracy to regeneracy.  Rahab was a Canaanite and a harlot, God's justice demanded her to be removed with the other Canaanites but by her conversion, was changed. 
• God works in marvelous ways to convert even the vilest of sinners.  If he could change Rahab, Mary Magdalene and the adulterous woman, same goes with everyone.  1 Corinthians 6:11 describes God's life changing grace.
• Much different than the sham professions of people who claim to be Christians but are still engaged in smut.