I thought maybe I should take one post and give anyone reading this blog a little personal history, beyond what has already been mentioned. It might make understanding my spiritual journey a little easier 0r maybe just understanding me a little easier.
The first church I remember is a little white clapboard country church that my parents took me to when I was quite young, less than 5 years old. It's a little United Methodist Church and is still active. I drive past it every time I go to visit my mother. I grew up, so to speak, in the United Methodist Church. I was attending a United Methodist Church when I made the decision at 17 to follow the LORD. I was married at 19 in the United Methodist Church.
Then I began looking for something more, some spiritual reality that I was not finding in the UMC. I didn't want to just 'play church', if you know what I mean. Some how I have always known and believed that just as Yeshua/Jesus made a difference in the lives of every person He met while He walked on this earth, that if He was truly living in my heart, that He would make a difference in my life, too. And so, I was not content to go to church on Sunday and feel that I had met my religious obligation, and then go my own way the rest of the week. Sadly, this is what I see in so many who consider themselves to be good Christians. Too many hold a comfortable level of religion, but it never impacts WHO they are or HOW they live.
When I was 22 years old, I began attending a small Assemblies of God. The people there welcomed me as though I were a long-lost family member. There was such a loving atmosphere there, such caring. And there was LIFE--in the worship, in the preaching, in the living out of what we were studying in God's Word. It was very different and a little scary! I was not used to pentecostal worship with raised arms, clapping, saying 'Amen' out-loud while the pastor prayed or preached, or to speaking in tongues and interpretations. It was all very different from the liturgical style of the Methodist Church. Here people smiled and hugged each other and prayed out loud for one another. This wasn't just 'church'--this was family! And I ate it up! Every time there was a service, I was there with my children. When my second child was born, she came on Wednesday; on Sunday we were in church and I was going forward to become an official member of that fellowship. Whereas going to church was sometimes optional while I attended the UMC, here it was not. I looked forward to every chance to be in church. My children, all 6 of them over the course of time (5 daughters and 1 son), were raised in church. Our church home was our 'family' and our social life. When my first marriage ended in 1989, when my husband left our family and pursued a divorce, my church family was there to support and encourage and at times, provide for our material needs. Through the years, we attended several different fellowships, either Assemblies of God or non-denominational pentecostal fellowships like the AG. I married my 2nd husband some 10+ years ago in one of these fellowships.
Two spiritual disciplines that I have endeavored to make daily habits over the years are Bible reading/study and prayer. I am still working on that second one and probably will be for the rest of my life. But the first one I managed to make a daily habit over 20 years ago. About the time that my 5th daughter was born, I decided that I was just going to DO IT! Some where, some how I had obtained a copy of a daily devotional/Bible reading plan, I think from Walk Thru The Bible ministries. I began to use that and viola! in a very short time I HAD to start each day with reading my Bible. So for over 20 years of my life, I have been starting my day with reading at least one chapter of the Bible. Usually, I read consecutively through a book of the Bible. I have lost track of how many times I've read through the 'New Testament', Matthew-Revelations. I've read through the whole Bible at least a couple of times, but in the 'Old Testament' have tended to focus on specific books like Psalms or Proverbs or Isaiah or Genesis, rather than reading through the whole thing consecutively. A month or so ago my husband received a copy of a Billy Graham Evangelistic Assoc Bible reading plan from one of the prison inmates that he corresponds with which has you reading selections from the entire Bible each week. I thought it looked like a really good idea so am now following that. Here's how my daily Bible reading shapes up: Sat--read from Genesis to Deuteronomy; Sun--read from Joshua to Esther; Mon--read from Job to Song of Solomon; Tues--read from Isaiah to Malachi; Wed--read from Matthew to John; Thurs--read from Acts to Revelations; Fri--read any portion you like. It means I have a lot of bookmarks in my Bible, but I like having a plan to read from all of God's Word each week. I still read at least a chapter a day, making notes, comparing scripture to scripture and Bible version to Bible version to gain a fuller understanding of what I am reading and looking for the personal application that the LORD has for me in His Word. My mornings just don't feel right if I don't have that time in the Word. Some days time is at a premium and it's as though I grab a 'fast food meal', but other days I can take lots of time and just feast on the Word, savoring each 'bite.'
Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and
thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
All of that to say that, when friends who are 7th Day Adventists questioned me about why, if I believed that the 10 Commandments were supposed to be kept, I wasn't keeping the 4th commandment to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy? It wasn't something I had ever thought about until they asked, but I definitely thought about it a lot after that. As I do when I have a spiritual question that I need answers for, I went to the Word. I got out the Strong's Concordance and looked up every verse that contained the word 'Sabbath'. In so doing, I came to understand that according to the Bible, God's days begin with sunset and end with sunset. I also came to understand that He had commanded everyone who calls on His Name to keep the Sabbath day, to honor it and set it apart unto Him, to do no work on the Sabbath, to not buy & sell on the Sabbath, but to rest and fellowship with other believers and learn of Him. And so begins the journey of discovery and discipleship that I am on now. Once I understood about the Sabbath and believed what the Bible says about it, what God says about it, I knew I had to make some changes in my life. One of those changes involved changing shifts where I work so that I wouldn't have to work on the Sabbath. As a consequence, for the past 2 years I have been working on third shift, from 11 pm til 7 am, Sunday night through Friday morning. But the Holy Spirit didn't let me stop with learning about the Sabbath. From there, I went on to learn about God's appointed times, His festivals, and so much more. We found a small home fellowship of other believers who were learning and applying these things in their lives. In Sept 2004, we withdrew our membership in the Assemblies of God and began focusing on home fellowship, which is where we still are. And so the journey continues...
The first church I remember is a little white clapboard country church that my parents took me to when I was quite young, less than 5 years old. It's a little United Methodist Church and is still active. I drive past it every time I go to visit my mother. I grew up, so to speak, in the United Methodist Church. I was attending a United Methodist Church when I made the decision at 17 to follow the LORD. I was married at 19 in the United Methodist Church.
Then I began looking for something more, some spiritual reality that I was not finding in the UMC. I didn't want to just 'play church', if you know what I mean. Some how I have always known and believed that just as Yeshua/Jesus made a difference in the lives of every person He met while He walked on this earth, that if He was truly living in my heart, that He would make a difference in my life, too. And so, I was not content to go to church on Sunday and feel that I had met my religious obligation, and then go my own way the rest of the week. Sadly, this is what I see in so many who consider themselves to be good Christians. Too many hold a comfortable level of religion, but it never impacts WHO they are or HOW they live.
When I was 22 years old, I began attending a small Assemblies of God. The people there welcomed me as though I were a long-lost family member. There was such a loving atmosphere there, such caring. And there was LIFE--in the worship, in the preaching, in the living out of what we were studying in God's Word. It was very different and a little scary! I was not used to pentecostal worship with raised arms, clapping, saying 'Amen' out-loud while the pastor prayed or preached, or to speaking in tongues and interpretations. It was all very different from the liturgical style of the Methodist Church. Here people smiled and hugged each other and prayed out loud for one another. This wasn't just 'church'--this was family! And I ate it up! Every time there was a service, I was there with my children. When my second child was born, she came on Wednesday; on Sunday we were in church and I was going forward to become an official member of that fellowship. Whereas going to church was sometimes optional while I attended the UMC, here it was not. I looked forward to every chance to be in church. My children, all 6 of them over the course of time (5 daughters and 1 son), were raised in church. Our church home was our 'family' and our social life. When my first marriage ended in 1989, when my husband left our family and pursued a divorce, my church family was there to support and encourage and at times, provide for our material needs. Through the years, we attended several different fellowships, either Assemblies of God or non-denominational pentecostal fellowships like the AG. I married my 2nd husband some 10+ years ago in one of these fellowships.
Two spiritual disciplines that I have endeavored to make daily habits over the years are Bible reading/study and prayer. I am still working on that second one and probably will be for the rest of my life. But the first one I managed to make a daily habit over 20 years ago. About the time that my 5th daughter was born, I decided that I was just going to DO IT! Some where, some how I had obtained a copy of a daily devotional/Bible reading plan, I think from Walk Thru The Bible ministries. I began to use that and viola! in a very short time I HAD to start each day with reading my Bible. So for over 20 years of my life, I have been starting my day with reading at least one chapter of the Bible. Usually, I read consecutively through a book of the Bible. I have lost track of how many times I've read through the 'New Testament', Matthew-Revelations. I've read through the whole Bible at least a couple of times, but in the 'Old Testament' have tended to focus on specific books like Psalms or Proverbs or Isaiah or Genesis, rather than reading through the whole thing consecutively. A month or so ago my husband received a copy of a Billy Graham Evangelistic Assoc Bible reading plan from one of the prison inmates that he corresponds with which has you reading selections from the entire Bible each week. I thought it looked like a really good idea so am now following that. Here's how my daily Bible reading shapes up: Sat--read from Genesis to Deuteronomy; Sun--read from Joshua to Esther; Mon--read from Job to Song of Solomon; Tues--read from Isaiah to Malachi; Wed--read from Matthew to John; Thurs--read from Acts to Revelations; Fri--read any portion you like. It means I have a lot of bookmarks in my Bible, but I like having a plan to read from all of God's Word each week. I still read at least a chapter a day, making notes, comparing scripture to scripture and Bible version to Bible version to gain a fuller understanding of what I am reading and looking for the personal application that the LORD has for me in His Word. My mornings just don't feel right if I don't have that time in the Word. Some days time is at a premium and it's as though I grab a 'fast food meal', but other days I can take lots of time and just feast on the Word, savoring each 'bite.'
Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and
thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
All of that to say that, when friends who are 7th Day Adventists questioned me about why, if I believed that the 10 Commandments were supposed to be kept, I wasn't keeping the 4th commandment to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy? It wasn't something I had ever thought about until they asked, but I definitely thought about it a lot after that. As I do when I have a spiritual question that I need answers for, I went to the Word. I got out the Strong's Concordance and looked up every verse that contained the word 'Sabbath'. In so doing, I came to understand that according to the Bible, God's days begin with sunset and end with sunset. I also came to understand that He had commanded everyone who calls on His Name to keep the Sabbath day, to honor it and set it apart unto Him, to do no work on the Sabbath, to not buy & sell on the Sabbath, but to rest and fellowship with other believers and learn of Him. And so begins the journey of discovery and discipleship that I am on now. Once I understood about the Sabbath and believed what the Bible says about it, what God says about it, I knew I had to make some changes in my life. One of those changes involved changing shifts where I work so that I wouldn't have to work on the Sabbath. As a consequence, for the past 2 years I have been working on third shift, from 11 pm til 7 am, Sunday night through Friday morning. But the Holy Spirit didn't let me stop with learning about the Sabbath. From there, I went on to learn about God's appointed times, His festivals, and so much more. We found a small home fellowship of other believers who were learning and applying these things in their lives. In Sept 2004, we withdrew our membership in the Assemblies of God and began focusing on home fellowship, which is where we still are. And so the journey continues...
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