About me...
I was raised in a Christian home. As a teenager I was "born again." I realize for many that phrase is outdated or inaccurate. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but here is how it happened to me. I sat under Holy Ghost anointed preaching and fell under conviction. It felt like I had a weight sitting on my chest. At the end of the service when the alter call was given, I could feel something pulling at me and knowing I needed to respond. I fought it for a long time until finally I gave in. I don't remember what I said or prayed and I don't even remember walking up to the front of the church. But afterwards I felt like I had a bath on the inside. Our church had no baptistery, so one Sunday after church we drove up to a spot beside a creek simply known as "the old sycamore tree." My uncle was the pastor of our church, so he and I walked out into the water and I was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
It was those days as a young Christian where I learned to study the Bible. When I was 18 I was asked to teach the senior adults class at church on youth Sunday. That was scary to say the least. I took my friend Scott with me for emotional support. After the lesson, he said I did well, except for my 140 "you knows." Hopefully I've improved since then.
As I grew, I got more involved in church. I started out as an usher, then later became an assistant Sunday School teacher. In the meantime I graduated from high school then college, got married and started a family, and became more active in church. At one point I was the teacher of the adult Bible class, Sunday School Superintendent, and I even led the Wednesday night Bible study during the months when our church didn't have a pastor. Then the day came when I felt like God was calling me to be an evangelist. I told the church one night, and afterwards started preaching. Things were going as well as I could expect. I suppose it may sound like I'm bragging but keep reading. I did everything right, or as right as I knew to do them. That's when the bottom fell out of it.
Divorce. I never expected it to happen to me but it did. Me - a preacher - was getting divorced. How could I face people? What would happen to my ministry? I never admitted it, but I was angry at God. After all, I had done everything right - and now it was all gone. How could he let this happen? I laid the preaching aside and decided I would put my focus elsewhere. After I did, I never felt like my life had any stability. I was blessed enough to find someone who would love me as I was. But my preaching was always at the back of my mind when it should have been at the forefront of my life. I let go of the zeal for Bible study that I once had and my life took a bad turn.
Now here I am some years later, and for some reason the zeal for Bible study has returned. Some won't understand what I am about to say, but others will. I've started getting sermons again - like I used to. I've sat up many nights when I was younger as the Spirit of God gave me sermons and messages to deliver. For a long time that was gone, but it's back now. I can only think that God still has a work for me.
I know what many will say. "You can't do that - you've been divorced." I've heard it all before. In fact, I was told by my pastor at the time that my ministry would no longer have any effect. So I thought - "What's the use?" But there must be some use left in me. The world needs the gospel, and we are commanded to make disciples of all nations. I have a responsibility - regardless of what anyone else says. You can disagree, but that isn't going to stop me from being obedient. Maybe I'm entering the fields at the 11th hour, and I know there will be obstacles. Yet, I am comforted to know that God is the God of a second chance. I must respond, and I will.
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