I’m a second generation
WCG member. My parents started attending the WCG in 1964, part of
the "early years!" I was 5 years old. My father had listened to
Mr. Armstrong on the radio for a few years before he actually knew
there was a church available to attend! He wrote for a visit and
that’s where my story starts. My life didn’t really change much
when we started attending church. We never kept Christmas or ate
pork...(kind of the things young kids worried about anyway!) Such
as we couldn’t go to grandma’s any more on weekends, because we
had to go to church, no more sitting in class alone while everyone
else enjoyed Christmas, Easter or Halloween parties! We had to be
escorted to the library, away from the bad influences of paganism!
I know all of this
sounds bad...but it wasn’t really that hard on me. I can’t speak
for my brothers and sister, but I really didn’t care what the other
kids thought of me. I adopted my parents attitude of supremacy...or
our own special corner of God, the one of being special and the
one that all of the other poor people in the world didn’t have what
we had...the truth!
This attitude sustained
me throughout my teenage years and I was baptized at a young age
for a WCG Teen...16 years old! I wasn’t really ready then...but
it was what I thought I was supposed to do, and the ministry agreed.
I thought I had a wonderful relationship with God (not much thought
about Christ or the Holy Spirit, though).
Only after many
hard knocks and several broken hearts later, (from men who weren’t
members and "off limits" at that time), one failed marriage with
a WCG member, who probably had as many problems as I did, and a
realization that I really needed God in my life did my spiritual
life start to form..
I previously dreaded
Saturday mornings. I had 3 young children to get up, get ready for
church, drive for 1 hour, and spend all morning in the mother's
room, not being able to hear any of the sermon, try to sit on my
3 kids and keep them quiet, and then drive home again after it was
over. No spiritual rejuvenation or love from Grace was felt here!
Just that I knew something was missing...and that it was probably
my attitude, which made me feel worse! After all I had married a
man that wasn't a member and I deserved what I got, didn't I? This
was actually repeated to me by a minister of the WCG!
I did marry a wonderful
man who was not a member, had three children, but still kept my
close relationship with my parents who remained loyal and faithful
members of the WCG. My father was the strongest and most faithful
"rock" I have ever known, even to this day. He died at the young
age of 58, leaving my mother alone. The New Covenant was just starting
to be preached, but oh, how I embraced it! I drank in the new revelations
and attitudes toward Jesus Christ and Grace and even the Holy Spirit!
I thanked God for the wonderful new truth and the much needed spiritual
boost in my life! I felt guilty because I understood all of the
changes... almost before the ink dried on the paper the new truths
were being printed on, and many of my friends didn’t.
Even now, I long
for some of them to know the wonderful "free" feeling that I have
deep inside. I always felt guilty before...like I would never measure
up...I knew it, and God knew it, but my pastor, my friends and my
parents didn’t know how "bad" I really was inside! I could "fake"
spiritualism with everyone but God! I knew I would never "make it."
Grace was the most wonderful concept to me. Jesus actually love
me...how much? To die for me? Wow!
When I finally
understood, it didn’t matter how good I was or how bad I was, Grace
was mine...a free gift from Jesus Christ...my life changed totally...for
good...forever. I could never go back to the attitude I had before.
No way...no how!
I have always seemed
to be a leader, and now am the women’s ministry coordinator for
Norton, VA congregation. I publish Sarah’s Daughters Newsletter,
and have had the pleasure of meeting many wonderful women at our
Beacon’s Retreat! I thoroughly enjoy living under the "Grace" of
Jesus Christ. It makes me want to attend church, want to serve others,
want to be there for the members in our little church. Want to pray
every morning, and throughout the day, just a thought away from
Christ at anytime. I have grown so close to Jesus, so much more
close than I had ever thought I could...before.
I sing songs of
praise in my car, driving to work in the morning’s, not caring what
the other passers by or motorist in the next lane think of me, bouncing
up and down, tapping the wheel with my hands in time with the music.
I talk to Jesus whenever something comes up throughout the day..whether
a friend is in crisis, a patient of mine really needs Christ’s help,
a hitchhiker needs a ride in the rain, etc. I share my day with
Him...I share my entire life with Him, and I love Him with all my
heart and soul. I don’t know how I lived before. Honest!
I don’t think what
I had before was living...it was existing. But now I have come into
the fullness of His joy, the joy that comes from His Grace and Holy
Spirit within me.
I know that I fail
Him many times throughout the day...I also know that He knows I
will fail. I do feel like I have let Him down when I sin, although
I don’t feel like I am condemned and will never make it, like I
did before. Instead I confess my sins to Him, all throughout the
day, and on a bad day, many times!!) and let Him comfort me and
lead me to where He wants me to be, where He wants me to go and
into what He wants me to do!
As I read my words
now, I realize that I sound like the people I used to privately
"make fun of" for being one of those syrupy Christians.... How tragic
I was, and didn’t even know it!
It’s true that
there is no joy, but for and in Him.
After being married
to a wonderful man for the past 15 years, he is now attending church
every week in another denomination and I now have the freedom to
attend with him on Sunday morning and experience a closeness that
I never expected to have. I pray that he will come to realize that
He also needs Christ in His life, just as I did! He sees the change
in myself, as well as the change in our denomination and I think
this has changed his perception of "religion."
He has been attending
church now for almost 3 months, and I can sense Christ working through
Him. Besides, I tell him that I am now "extra-righteous" since I
attend my church on Saturday mornings and his on Sundays! (Just
kidding!!) He knows all to well my faults!! HAHA!
I hope you can
make sense of my long ramblings, however heartfelt they may be...they
are all for His glory now! I am so glad that I can write these things
with complete honesty and Love for Him. I wish everyone could have
this feeling of complete LOVE. I would give it to them if I could,
but I realize it must come from Him! I know how wonderful life will
be for the world one day, when He returns and His reign will descend
upon this love-starved planet! I pray for that everyday!
I do not have any
feelings of regret over anything that I might have missed out on!
I realize the attitude and sacrifices that we made in our early
years, were just that! I made those sacrifices to God, and do not
begrudge them or want to take them back! That would be like an "Indian
Giver"! (no racial slur intended). We need to be thankful instead,
that we no longer have to miss out on anything! God has given us
the best of all there is!
When we fully experience
the "forgiveness" and know that we have been forgiven...we are washed
clean...there's no greater feeling of love that we can experience,
I think. When I wrote the article on "Forgiveness" for In Touch,
the thought of being forgiven for my transgressions does actually
make me weak in the knees! I wish we could all bestow a little more
of His Grace on each other!" Imagine how much happier we would all
be!
