Some More of My Story

For many people who “grew up in the church,” their testimony is a two-part story. Many children accept Jesus as their Savior. Later, as young adults, those same children often go through a time when they question and perhaps even rebel against their beliefs. I believe this period, usually in the late teens and early twenties, is a time of decision. The young adult is deciding to either accept what they have been taught as their own or to reject the teachings and follow their own path.

You can read the first part of my story here: Sylvester & Tweety Bird. This article is about the second part of my story.

Time passed and I continued to grow, both physically and spiritually. However, I reached a point where I became bored with church, God, and the Bible. I moaned at the same old stories. I had heard them over and over through years of Sunday school and Christian high school! Other activities and interests started looking more interesting; I spent my late teen-age and early adult years in a spiritually dark place.

I sensed God calling to me as the end of college approached. He wanted to pull me out of the pit I was in. I knew I wanted out but I was still leery of religion as I had come to know it – legalism, repetitive stories, and controlling leaders. However, the Spirit’s persistence and the logic within my own head won in the end.

I looked at the world around me and knew the God of creation could not be a boring God.

The God who enacted a plan thousands of years ago, prophesied that plan’s end, and carried it out thus far, could not be a boring God.

The God who would give His only Son to be born of a virgin, die on a cross for the sins of all mankind, and resurrect, thereby conquering death, could not be a boring God.

I determined I would seek the God of those things.

Despite many gifted and dedicated pastors and teachers, some of whom might be reading this blog, I came to realize I was responsible for my own spiritual growth. I believed every Word of Scripture was absolutely true. I also knew God wouldn’t have included it in His Book if it didn’t serve a purpose, not only at the time it was written but for us today as well.

So began an amazing journey of studying the truth of God’s Word.

• Of diving into the hard stuff.
• Of wrestling with it until it makes sense with the rest of the Word.
• Of breaking it down so we can understand it.
• Of considering the significance of the details.
• Of tying the Old Testament to the New Testament to the world today.

God is bringing me along one step at a time through this journey. In the beginning, I studied by myself; no one except God ever saw that work. Then, God called me to teach. I studied on my own at home and taught studies by other authors at church. Later, God called me to start sharing some of the lessons He had taught me in the privacy of my own home. As the journey progressed, God led me to start writing the studies down so other people could teach them. With the publication of my first Bible study, “Seven Roles, One Woman: You Expect Me To Do All That?” I have come one step further in the journey. A journey I believe God created for my life. At this point, I look back in awe of how God has worked in my life – I look forward in eager expectation of completing the journey.