Faith

I believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, authoritative, inerrant Word of God.

I believe there is one God, eternally existing in three separate persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I believe in the virgin birth, sinless life, atoning death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus ascended into Heaven on the third day and sits at the right hand of the Father. I believe that Jesus will make a personal return to earth in power and glory.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to Heaven. I believe that His crucifixion and death was payment for our sins. I believe that all human beings are sinful and only by God's grace, mercy, and the shed blood of Jesus are we saved.

For God loved the world so much that he gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NLT)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (NLT)

I believe that by placing your Faith in Jesus and accepting God's gift of the crucifixion and death of Jesus and by repenting of your sins, you will live eternally in Heaven.



My Testimony:

I don't have an exciting, grip your seat, you can't believe God would save a sorry human like me testimony.

I was 9.  I don't remember the sermon. I don't remember anything that would relate to my personal questions about Faith or Jesus or being saved and what that meant for me at the tender age of 9. I remember sitting in that church pew and feeling an overwhelming crushing feeling in my chest. I knew God was talking to me and I knew I could not ignore Him. I was EXTREMELY shy as a child (shocker, I know) and I still can't believe that I got up and walked that aisle by myself. I remember crying. A lot. I don't remember praying the prayer, I don't remember anything else that day. I only remember the crushing conviction of the Holy Spirit. Oh my, what a powerful force!

Fast forward to the next Sunday, or maybe it was that same Sunday during the evening service, I don't remember. In my defense, I don't remember a LOT of my childhood - blame it on whatever you want. I just don't remember. What I DO remember is my baptism. I remember the pastor standing over me as I sat submerged in the water of the baptistry. I don't remember going under really. What I do remember is coming up and having a feeling that I still can't describe. I FELT like a new person. I FELT different. SOMETHING had changed. I felt different after I prayed the "sinner's prayer" too, but this feeling was something more.

Fast forward a few years. I'm a teenager. We are still at the same church. Something happens. Bad feelings. We stop going to church. Only go to Sunday School. And then, we stop going to Sunday School. I don't remember it being a sudden thing, just kind of gradual.

Fast forward a few more years. I meet and fall in love with my dear hubby. We get married. We start our family. We add to our family. We add to our family again. The only times we have set foot in a church in our adult lives is for weddings and funerals.

So, my precious little Z man had arrived. My dad was terminally ill with COPD. Z and I took Dad to a doctors appointment when Z was 7 weeks old. It was two weeks until Christmas. That was the last time I would see my Dad. He died a week later. The phone call came in the middle of the night. I don't remember the time - I think I blocked that one out. My sister and her then boyfriend (now husband) came and picked me up to come here to Mom's. T couldn't go with me, we didn't want the kids to go and someone had to stay home with them. I remember riding in the backseat of their car and trying to silence my sobs. My heart was hurting worse than I could imagine possible. I prayed there in the backseat through my tears and sobs for God to help me. As I prayed, I physically felt God's hands on me and a peace washed over me. I felt this just as physically as I feel this keyboard under my fingers. It began at the tippy top of my head and slowly washed down over every inch of me. That answered prayer, that peace (that passes all understanding) would carry me through the next few days.

Fast forward a couple more years. Still after all this time, no church for us. We are believers. We pray - when we need something. We try to raise our children the way we think God would want us to raise them. We have good morals and values. We help others. We let family and friends going through a rough patch live with us. We provide for them when we can barely provide for ourselves. We try to be "good samaritans". We don't have to go to church, right? Because, sitting in church makes you no more a Christian than sitting in a garage makes you a car. Right? I mean, nevermind the foul language. Nevermind the anger. Nevermind the hateful attitudes. Nevermind the unforgiveness. Nevermind that our kids don't go to church and are being influenced more at school than we can influence them at home. And what an influence we were.....see above. All the while we thought we were living right, doing good, and being a positive influence to others. HA!

God decided to send me some more signals. Louder ones. Ones even I could see with my own eyes. With these loud, glaringly obvious signals, and my new boss repeatedly asking me to join her at church. I relented. It was only one church service after all. I didn't have to go back. But, I did go back. Repeatedly. A few church services later I got that feeling again. That crushing feeling in my chest that wouldn't go away. I ignored it this time. I was too prideful. I didn't want to get up and walk to the front of a church full of people looking at me. I didn't want them looking at me with their knowing eyes. If I gave in and went to the front to pray with the pastor, the gig was up. The charade was over. I would have to take off my mask - the one I thought was covering up the real me. I didn't want them to know the real me. The dirty, rotten, stinking sinner. Because, by the way, no matter if you are saved or not, you are still a sinner. Always will be. No. Matter. How. Hard. You. Try.

What I was forgetting is that church is full of sinners. I was acting and thinking like an unsaved person. Thinking that the church is full of righteous saints who will look down their noses at me and shake their heads at the shame and shambles that was/is my life. HA! If we all knew each others secrets. We ALL sin. Your sin is no worse or less than mine. It doesn't matter what it is. You murdered someone? Well, I gossiped about someone. IT IS THE SAME THING IN GOD'S EYES. Oh, the things we forget when we are out of God's will and living for ourselves instead of for Him. A couple of Sundays, maybe three, and it was all I could bare. I hung my head and walked to the front. I was met by the pastor and he asked me why I was there. I told him I had been living wrong and wanted to get my life right. He prayed with me as I surrendered my life back to God. I did not get re-saved. I was saved as a child. I believe once saved, always saved. But, sometimes, some of us "fall off the wagon", stray, wander off the path of righteousness and I was saying with my outloud voice, "I'm giving it all back over to You.".

That was quite a few years ago. What a glorious ride it's been since then. It has been beautiful. It has been hideous. I have sinned. I have asked for forgiveness. Repeatedly. And will continue to do so, because no matter how hard we try, we will still sin. It is our nature. Don't let anyone ever mislead you and and let you think they are holy and without sin. There IS ONLY ONE who can make a such a claim and His name is Jesus! But, the beautiful days far outweigh the ugly, hideous ones. My joy far outweighs any sorrows that come my way.

Life is hard. Human relationships are hard. We live in a depraved, sick world. But, there is Hope! You were made to love Him. You will never be truly happy until you figure that out.

I pray that if you don't know Him personally, that my story will encourage you to find out more about Him. I pray that you will see His love for you and you will not hide from it, but will embrace it with open arms.

I pray that God with abundantly bless each and every one of you!