HOW THE JOURNEY STARTED

I thought I would share parts of my testimony. I am not going to write it all at once. Mainly because you couldn't read it all at once and get bored. I do tend to be very wordy when I write or when I talk.

(This will be a good practice for me as I have been asked to share my testimony with a group of people at a dinner on Saturday, August 19, 2006. Please pray for me as I have not given it before in a formal situation as this. I did give it to a small group of people last fall when I became employed with CEF, but discovered that I talk way too much. I need to be better prepared for this situation. )

I grew up in a Christian home. My parents always took me and my younger sister to church on a regular basis. When I was 11 years old, I went to church camp and had a counselor named Gaye Grumbles. ( I think God has a sense of humor!) She asked the girls one night if there was any of us that had not asked Christ to be our Savior. I raised my hand and later she took me aside and shared the plan of salvation with me. How much God loved me and wanted me to be able to live with Him forever, but because of my sin I couldn't do that. I do remember that she shared Romans 6:23 -"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD, and also Ephesians 2:8 and 9 - "For by grace our you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God and not of works, lest any man should boast." God used both of these two scriptures to convict me of my sin and to help me realize that I could not earn salvation, but could only have it by believing what Christ did for me on the cross.

I accepted Christ as my Savior and LORD that day and have tried to live for Him ever since. I was basically a good kid, but I did disobey my parents and talk back from time to time. My mom called it "sassing" when I talked back to her. I can hear my aunt now say "You're not sassing your mother are you? You better not be!!!" Being a Christian isn't easy when you are young because you try to be good but you don't understand that we are all born with that "want-to" sin. I had not completely let the Holy Spirit take over my life so that I could live for Him through His power and not my own.

I struggled with this concept through high school and college. While looking for a deeper relationship with God, I became involved with some Christians who were Charismatic. I had issues with some of that teaching as I felt that God wasn't able to use me because I couldn't be "slain" in the Spirit. I wouldn't fall over when the Bible teacher at the Women's Aglow Fellowship meeting laid hands on me. Every one around me, including my friend that came with me, was dropping like flies!!

Now I realize that the Christian Life is a process. You don't get it all at once. You have to grow and become more like Christ daily. I know that some people who are of the more Charismatic denominations might take issue with me on this. I am not going to say that God can't cause people to be slain in the Spirit, speak in tongues that they haven't learned or that miracles don't happen today. I will not put God in a box that way. I know that God can do anything HE wants to do when it will bring the most glory to HIM. I just want to be focused on the Giver and not on the gifts. I trust Him to give me the spiritual gifts that HE wants me to have when I need them.

That's all for now. More to come.