Growing up in church was not always that great. I must admit my journey has taken many detours and I have ended up here. By that I mean I finally understand what church was meant for although I didn’t learn it there. Most of what I have learned about the Christian faith came from experience; the side roads I took taught me life lessons as I ventured out on my own and off of God’s path. Let me just say for the reader’s sake that I don’t recommend going that route. It is long, hard and often very difficult to rectify.
However I do know that my foundation in church plus having family members like my mother and aunt influenced me greatly. Remembering my childhood in church was listening to long, boring sermons, eating great food and running around the church building. John 3:16 stood out as my most memorable Bible verse but didn’t everyone know that verse?
Jesus is real. Every day he becomes more real to me than the day before. Depending on what I am going through or dealing with at the time, Jesus always shows up. He really showed up first in my twenties when I started having one crisis after another. Maybe I just thought he arrived then but really he was there all along; I wasn’t paying attention. Funny how that works; we get ourselves into trouble and what do we do? We pull a Jonah on God. After we are swallowed up by a whale we cry out to God to get us out. I am so glad God has a sense of humor because his own stories are a reflection of how he knew we would turn out.
No matter what I have been through I know Jesus is the answer. I didn’t use to believe that. I always wondered why preachers preached that. Now I know. It says it in Colossians 2: 2-3. It speaks of Jesus being the mystery of God where all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. I find that to be fascinating! It just makes sense.
Why wouldn’t God have provided some way out of everything? He is God isn’t he? If you really ponder those verses you realize that the plan was always there even if we didn’t think that it was. No matter what we do that plan is always in place. Our job is to find the plan God has specifically designed for us as individuals. Knowing that God would want to pay that much attention to each of us is a mystery in itself. After all we are descendants of Adam and Eve and we know how that turned out.
God placed a desire for writing in my heart at a very young age. Finally, after raising our daughter, working outside of the home most of my life, I have the time. There was also the issue that I didn’t know what to write about. Seven months ago God showed me when my father became very ill and miraculously saved dad’s life. God wanted me to write about Jesus. It was one of those “light bulb” moments that went off in my head. I have the opportunity to tell my stories to encourage, enlighten and guide others in their walk with the Lord.
For the first time in my life I know that God doesn’t waste anything. He takes our mistakes and turns them into lessons. He takes our pain and replaces it with his comfort and peace. He takes discouragement, despair and heartache and fills our hearts with his presence. The “alone time” I have spent with the Father learning about him is finally being written down hopefully to teach others to seek him voluntarily; he is waiting.
My original reason for writing was more for personal gain. The desire to write has now become a place to sink my thoughts and real life experiences into the hearts and minds of those who hear a servant sending a message. The message is one of unconditional love from the Creator of the Universe that is deeply rooted in the cross. There is no match for Christ’s resurrection.
Realizing the common sense standpoint of the Bible and Christianity has truly opened my eyes to the reality that there is no other way to live. Having a personal relationship with Jesus brings everything to a full circle. Getting to know God by his standards, not the way of the world helps us to become more like him. Simply put, it just makes sense to follow Jesus.
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