When Pastor Randy asked me to take a few minutes and tell you what this church means to me, I was unsure about just how to put it all into words. The next morning the Lord brought to my heart this:
I began to think about the disappointment and utter hopelessness that Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdelene must have felt walking to the tomb that one heartbreaking day. All their hopes and dreams laid on this belief... that they had actually met the Messiah and that He would bring the Kindgom of Heaven to earth...to them. That God in Heaven would actually love them and be their loving Father. They believed this from Jesus, their friend.
It didn’t matter how many times that they had been told by the religious scribes and pharisees that God was ‘untouchable,’
and not for them. That they were unworthy and that God was only attainable through them... the holy ones.
What they said didn’t matter anymore... Jesus had told them His truth... the truth.
I can imagine the disappointment they must have felt when their hope and foundation, and all they had believed in, was suddenly and violently wiped away that one day at Calvary.
This testimonial was given during the Annual State of the Church service in January 2005.
One day a few years ago, I felt the same way as these two women must have felt. I was losing it all now... everything I had known and loved... my family turned their backs on me (except for my precious grandmother), my church, that I had loved so dearly, denounced me and held a special deacon’s meeting to remove my name from their roll books. A divorce, no income, and worse - possibly losing my precious children. I was told that God would never love me in my ‘sin’.
My life has always been encompassed with God from my first memories... Mrs. Gilson, my Sunday School teacher, GA’s, Youth group, summer camp at Siloam Springs... eventually as I grew older... teaching classes, leading ministries, and singing on the Praise and Worship team, but... they told me God didn’t love me anymore?
So... you ask me what this church means to me? What do you, as my church family, mean to me?
I am reminded back to these two women once again... how desolate and utterly discouraged they were, when all they had lived for and hoped for was now gone forever... or so they thought. I know how they felt.
However within the depths of their despair, sprang forth everlasting life, truth and transformation. When, what they thought was dead... their dreams... their foundation for their hope... appeared to them out of their hopeless situation... not as the resurrected Son of Man, but as the Son of the Living God.
Their dreams and hopes for their Messiah remained alive, He had conquered evil and death. And, that resurrection power of God’s love and redeeming grace remains an unmovable pillar of His faithfulness to us.
But you know, as Karen says, that’s their loss. I am a better person for living the ‘truth’, and the Truth has indeed set me free. God once told Moses to tell the people that His name was "I am that I am," El Shaddai, the God that is more than enough.
When death came to my religion, God brought me here... a place of His Life and Truth. To be loved by a Shepherd that knows the heartache and pain that I feel, and loves me with the Heart of God.
God brought me here to restore my family to me. You... who will love me just as I am. My life is so much better for knowing you.
God brought me here to be resurrected from the death and wounds of hate filled, ignorant religious people that don’t really know how God truly loves... unconditionally... no matter what.
God brought me here to live again. Old things pass away, behold, All things become new!
