There is a song about two people falling in love and the people their love brought into being. I have been married almost 35 years and I can say that because we two people fell in love this world has a plethora of new souls. If my count is right it is 15, I have 5 kids and 10 grandkids and eventually there will be more but not probably for a longtime as my to littles may be the only ones to have any more grands, who knows I might have great grands before I have more grands.......
Today I am not feeling well and have been sick about a week, but it came to me that I am the pebble in a more important ripple in a more important pond, okay I did say I was sick and my mind tends to wander. It was about 4 years ago that it sort of started, I had just turned 50 and I really began to contemplate my life in Christ for the first time with real fear of God. I had been saved when I was 16 but I can not on any level says I was much more that a Christian in name only, I was saved but I was not even started down a path to discipleship or being a Christian in truth. I turned 50 and the Lord began to speak to me in ways he never had before. I didn't know it at the time but the Lord began talking to Poppie soon after and he literally began the conversation by landing a tree on Poppie. He will tell you, as part of his testimony of salvation that the tree was the Lord telling him he needed to be saved and become a Christian, but I digress. I began reading my Bible and contemplating the years of not going to Church, the years of living sinfully, and the years of not using my life to become more Christ like. I had periodically gone to Church, dragging Poppie along but you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink principle was all I had accomplished. Forcing Poppie to go to Church never got me any where, he couldn't be saved for me he had to do it for himself, himself. I used any excuse to not go to Church, used my families Church to not seek another Church once our Church was no longer an option in our town. I flat out was a saved person who had not even gotten on the path to being a Christian, or a disciple of Christ, little own gone down the path. I decided that I had to quit being a Christian in name only because I was fooling no one that I was a real Christian least of all Christ Jesus.
I began to pray and read my bible, then I read Christian literature to help me seek answers that for the most part I could tell you the answer but didn't know what the meaning of the answer was. I talked it over with Poppie about 2 and half years ago and he said I could find a Church to go to. I really investigated the options. I knew having been raised in a New Testament Church, the church of Christ, I need it to be a local new testament Church or I could not go as I do have strong beliefs that I could not walk away from or throw out. I knew I would be going to an alien church to me. Poppie had been to a Baptist Church off and on as a child and I knew enough about the Baptist Church, as I had attend one in high school when I stayed behind to finish my junior year of school in Joseph Or. We talked and decide that would be the first one we tried. I knew some one that went to the local one, Belle goes to one in Zootown but I didn't want to go out of town, I knew it was important to me, and Poppie, to stay local so I asked her, Violinist, about hers. She didn't give me much info but said we would be welcome to come.
We got our nerve up and went the next Sunday, February of 2012. We loved it, they were welcoming and loving. We learned, as we had suspected that some of their rituals were different than what I was used to but we have learned to accept and know it is my difference not the Church I goto's difference. I have changed some of my thoughts but I have to know it is God's will, in black and white, and some of the differences I will never change again because it is not black and white in the Bible. Today I went to the Church I love and sat in a room of 30 plus people, 12 of whom are my children, grand children, sister, her child and grands (sometime the number of my family is 21). Poppie has been saved, my two littles have been saved, my son saved, my son in law saved , my brother in law saved,(and more to come) and realized I was a pebble that had made a difference to one little Church and one big family. I had stepped out and guided my family to a new Church, God had lead and I had followed and my family followed behind me..... I am no longer a Christian in name only, I am working on become a disciple with the command to go and make disciples of my fellow man, to lead others to the Lord...... tomorrow.
Today I am not feeling well and have been sick about a week, but it came to me that I am the pebble in a more important ripple in a more important pond, okay I did say I was sick and my mind tends to wander. It was about 4 years ago that it sort of started, I had just turned 50 and I really began to contemplate my life in Christ for the first time with real fear of God. I had been saved when I was 16 but I can not on any level says I was much more that a Christian in name only, I was saved but I was not even started down a path to discipleship or being a Christian in truth. I turned 50 and the Lord began to speak to me in ways he never had before. I didn't know it at the time but the Lord began talking to Poppie soon after and he literally began the conversation by landing a tree on Poppie. He will tell you, as part of his testimony of salvation that the tree was the Lord telling him he needed to be saved and become a Christian, but I digress. I began reading my Bible and contemplating the years of not going to Church, the years of living sinfully, and the years of not using my life to become more Christ like. I had periodically gone to Church, dragging Poppie along but you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink principle was all I had accomplished. Forcing Poppie to go to Church never got me any where, he couldn't be saved for me he had to do it for himself, himself. I used any excuse to not go to Church, used my families Church to not seek another Church once our Church was no longer an option in our town. I flat out was a saved person who had not even gotten on the path to being a Christian, or a disciple of Christ, little own gone down the path. I decided that I had to quit being a Christian in name only because I was fooling no one that I was a real Christian least of all Christ Jesus.
I began to pray and read my bible, then I read Christian literature to help me seek answers that for the most part I could tell you the answer but didn't know what the meaning of the answer was. I talked it over with Poppie about 2 and half years ago and he said I could find a Church to go to. I really investigated the options. I knew having been raised in a New Testament Church, the church of Christ, I need it to be a local new testament Church or I could not go as I do have strong beliefs that I could not walk away from or throw out. I knew I would be going to an alien church to me. Poppie had been to a Baptist Church off and on as a child and I knew enough about the Baptist Church, as I had attend one in high school when I stayed behind to finish my junior year of school in Joseph Or. We talked and decide that would be the first one we tried. I knew some one that went to the local one, Belle goes to one in Zootown but I didn't want to go out of town, I knew it was important to me, and Poppie, to stay local so I asked her, Violinist, about hers. She didn't give me much info but said we would be welcome to come.
We got our nerve up and went the next Sunday, February of 2012. We loved it, they were welcoming and loving. We learned, as we had suspected that some of their rituals were different than what I was used to but we have learned to accept and know it is my difference not the Church I goto's difference. I have changed some of my thoughts but I have to know it is God's will, in black and white, and some of the differences I will never change again because it is not black and white in the Bible. Today I went to the Church I love and sat in a room of 30 plus people, 12 of whom are my children, grand children, sister, her child and grands (sometime the number of my family is 21). Poppie has been saved, my two littles have been saved, my son saved, my son in law saved , my brother in law saved,(and more to come) and realized I was a pebble that had made a difference to one little Church and one big family. I had stepped out and guided my family to a new Church, God had lead and I had followed and my family followed behind me..... I am no longer a Christian in name only, I am working on become a disciple with the command to go and make disciples of my fellow man, to lead others to the Lord...... tomorrow.
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