A Blast Into The Past

Random pictures from the past...........

These pictures cover a wide range of time and places. I am very limited to the pictures I have access to on my computer. I tried to pick out some from my earlier years with the children to the latter ones with my mom, sister, brother and grandchildren. I have lived in many places in my life and it seems that pictures are a good way to help me remember some of those places.

-I guess that is what life is, a constant moving of physical locations and spiritual levels of growth. If any of us are the same spiritually today as we were 20 years ago or 5 years ago I think we have missed something. -

When I think of where I was in the beginning of my spiritual life it takes me back to a little bitty church in Baton Rouge. Mission Drive Church of Christ. I only remember little bitty churches when I was little. This church only had about 40 benches, 20 on each side. And that is probably bigger than it actually was. You know how things looked much larger when we were small than they actually were.

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I don't have many good memories of my childhood religious days in church. I remember rules, rules and more rules. I don't remember any joyous occasions of worshiping the Lord or any sermons that just brought me to tears when learning what Jesus had done for ME. There was lots of sadness on the faces of everyone that I can remember. We didn't pray to God for healing of physical bodies or financial healing for families that were having a hard time making it. As I recall we were all pretty much in the same boat, living from day to day.

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My whole family went to this little church. Grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. My father did not go because he was an alcoholic and just didn't get much out of that little church building. A lot of criticism and judgemental stares and lots of condemnation.

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My mother was a very very strict lady of the church. Nothing came before the church. Notice! I said the church, not God, not Jesus who was very seldom mentioned by name............THE CHURCH came first.

My mother died HOPING she would go to heaven, never knowing if she had done enough, believed enough, repented enough, given enough. She truly thought you had to work your way into heaven. That just believing that Jesus died for you and gave His life for you is what saved you was ridiculous. To just believe that HE did that could not possibly be enough to save you. And to be taught that I was one of the very few blessed ones to be going to heaven while millions and millions of people were not because they did not go the THE CHURCH I went to. But then again I was never sure if I was going to heaven either because I didn't "work" hard enough" Duh........................................

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We want to raise our children to be better than we were, to be more than we were and are. WE want to uphold ourselves as being all knowing and all righteous and having all the answers. We want to control what our children have access to and what they hear and see. Oh that is in the church though, otherwise we let them watch tv, have free access to computers, all types of music that we cannot even understand the words to, go places we don't know about, hang out with friends that we know nothing about or their families. Truth is our children do need to hear about JESUS, not just the things we have had taught to us since we were children. God forgive me for the things I passed onto my children before HE showed me that HE did not live in a box and that HE did not need me to make up rules and regulations for his children to follow. A church is only as perfect as the people that sit on its pews................................so therefore I would say there are no perfect churchs

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I grew up never knowing if I had a chance to go to heaven. Always feeling guilty of everything and never ever feeling "Forgiven" or even hearing about God's Grace or His Mercy.

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It truly breaks my heart when I think of all the little ones that are being taught this same theology today. God is a just God, certainly. He holds us accountable for unconfessed sin certainly. BUT...............He loves us and His mercy and GRACE is sufficient to save us and KEEP us saved regardless of how much we work (which I would love for someone to define for me exactly WHAT kind of work is acceptable and worthy of salvation).

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I knew all the scriptures, all the arguments, I could hold my own with anyone that DID NOT go to THE CHURCH! I did not know how to share the love of Jesus or how to help someone find their way to the CROSS, to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. I only knew how to tell someone how wrong they were and that they were going to hell unless they believed as I did. May God please forgive me for such arrogance.

Everyone has the right which God gave them to believe what they want. Free choice it is called. I do know that I missed a lifetime of beautiful music, worshiping music, praising music. Thank you Lord for opening the door for me and leading me out into YOUR WORLD.

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If we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and SAVIOUR and believe why he died for us then we will love HIM with all our heart and want to serve Him everyday for the rest of our lives. And IF we mess us (which we will I promise you) He is ready to forgive us, love us and remember those sins no more. As far as the East is from the West...........a new slate every time after we confess and repent......No this does not give us an open door to go sin. If we love our Lord we will not want to sin, but we are human and we will sin. Just as you are willing to forgive your child when they mess up our FATHER is ready and willing to forgive us, pick us up and give us those new mercies He talks about,,,,,,,,,,,every morning.

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So I can certainly tell that I have come a long way spiritually. No I know I have not reached perfection, all knowing! That would be arrogant on my part to believe I had reached perfection. Heaven forbid! And there are some of you, possibly MANY of you that have not experienced the gifts of the spirit that God tells us about in His Word. Never think you know it all, never stop asking God to show you more of HIM....and NEVER think that you have done too much wrong, sinned too bad, moved too far to the left. I promise God knew you would do that before you were born. HE loves you and has a purpose for you. Trust Him.