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THE WITCH WHO FOUND CHRIST
The Witch Who Found Christ
CBN.com
– To Sherry Barnett, wicked things were cute, the concept of death
inviting. But her growing obsession with the occult brewed serious side
effects. She felt her very life being sucked out of her.
Barnett: “In
kindergarten, during art time, I made — out of Play-Doh — a little
coffin with a little body in it. And I explained to the teacher that
this was a vampire.”
Just listen to Sherry Barnett
for a while, and it won’t be long before you’ll detect a consistent
theme running through her conversation.
Barnett: “Halloween
was to me as a child what Christmas was probably to other children. I
thought it was a cool thing. You know, wicked things were cute, and I
didn’t see any harm in it. When the going got rough, I could always rely
on suicide because that was a way of escaping. I liked the idea of just
being dead, not existing anymore.
Barnett says that there was nothing unusual about her home life. So what is it that makes a person’s obsession in life, death?
Barnett: “My
childhood was the perfect childhood. I had perfect parents. We did not
have the Lord in our home, but I had everything a child could want. The
fascination for the occult began back when I was five, and it started
with simple things like little childhood storybooks about witches and
ghosts. And that just grew.”
As she grew older, Barnett’s childhood obsession with vampires increased.
Barnett: “It
just grew into a lifestyle for me. I mean, as opposed to somebody else
just, watching a vampire movie and saying, ‘Oh, you know, that was
cool,’ I took it to heart. I made it my life.”
Indulgence in drugs, alcohol
and sex were also becoming a lifestyle for Barnett. And her fascination
with the occult brought with it a price. When she slept, her dreams
became nightmares that were hard to distinguish from reality.
Barnett: “Sometimes
I could even almost hear something coming down the hallway. I could
feel it, like something was coming into my room. And it got so bad that I
couldn’t move, I couldn’t wake up. And I just always remember that
every time I’d struggle, I’d hear the same voice telling me, ‘You know,
Barnett, don’t struggle. The more you fight, the worse it’s going to get
for you.’
Barnett’s drug and alcohol use
escalated as she tried to suppress the dreams, but the result was
depression and worse nightmares.
Barnett: “I
would feel this heavy presence on me, pushing me down, trying to suck
all the life out of me. And then I would hear this screaming. It would
start real quiet, and the scream would get louder and louder and louder
to the point where it was just deafening to my ears. And I would wake up
screaming myself.
“I remember this one night that
I was just so depressed, I wanted to die. But that night, I thought,
‘Well, I’m going to give myself one more chance, and I’m going to pray
to the devil.’ I wanted to pray to Satan himself.
“I’m going to pray to Satan and
I’m going to ask him to come and help me. I’m going to give my life to
him. I’m going to give my soul to him. And maybe, he’ll help me out of
this. And so I drew a pentagram on the floor, I got the candle, put it
in the circle with me and I prayed to the devil. And I just gave him my
soul that night. Nothing happened. I cried and cried and cried, and
still nothing happened. And I thought, “Well, that’s not going to
work’.”
And nothing else was working for Barnett. Even marriage and a baby could not drive the depression away. When a co-worker gave her husband, Rick, a Bible, Barnett took an interest in it.
Barnett: “I
sat down and read a little bit of it, and then I started thinking about
it. And that’s really what started me thinking about God. And when I
started reading that Bible, it was like something started asking me,
‘Well, Sherry, where is your hope?’
“I just grew up thinking that
God was out there, but he wasn’t for me. He was for priests, he was for
pastors, he was for other people, but not for me.”
Barnett says she was finally ready to believe that maybe God was for her.
Barnett: “I
was in the kitchen doing my housework, and I just kind of like
whispered to myself, ‘Well, God, if you can take away the love for
drugs, I will give my life to you.’ And I just said, ‘God, I can’t do
‘it. I cannot do it.’ And I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was
really talking to God. And God heard me.”
As she went to sleep that night, Barnett says that something unusual happened.
Barnett:
“It was like a flash of lightning went through me. And then I just sat
up in bed, I bolted up and I felt like I was sober — instantly sober.”
“And then all of a sudden I
heard this voice tell me — it was a comforting voice. It wasn’t anything
scary this time — a voice telling me, ‘Sherry, you’re going to stop
this. You have to stop this. No more drugs; no more. You’re going to
have to stop this.’ And right away, I just felt like I was sober, but I
was scared. I was shaking. And I had this new type of feeling in me.”
“That little prayer that I
rambled off in the kitchen — it wasn’t even anything real formal. It was
pretty much just talk, you know. To me, I didn’t think that He was
really listening to me. But He did. He delivered me. And that day was
when I gave my life to the Lord. I said, ‘Lord, this is it. I’m going to
be a Christian. I’m going to live my life for you.’ And I’ve never been
the same.”
“There was no more blackness
inside. There was no more having to run out and try to do something else
to fill up that blackness — that darkness, that oppression that was
inside of me. It was just — it was gone. It was gone. And I never think
about death anymore.”
Barnett’s
husband gave his life to Jesus Christ soon after Barnett. They’re now
rearing their three children in a home where love, not fear, reigns.
Barnett: “The
Lord has brought so much hope into my life. I know who I am. I know why
I’m here. And I have stability now. He’s faithful. He’s been faithful
to me to this day. He hasn’t let me down at all.”
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