Hello, brothers and sisters! I've been gone quite a while, part of which was not having internet service for more than a month-wow, can you imagine? Well, I survived, and fairly easily too, amazingly enough! LOL
Anyway, I had to get on here and share the good news! I just found out that my church teaches TOTAL DEPRAVITY and UNMERITED FAVOR.
Our pastor has been since the first of the year, teaching about grace. In an unusual move, he told us he doesn't even know how long this series is going to be. He started out with the simple stuff, he likened it to using a broad stroke on the painters canvas, the general stuff--but today he said he was going to get out the fine brush and start filling in the details. I was very nervous, because i know what I believe, but didnt' know what he was going to say. I had always assumed that this church taught "free will, etc etc". At any rate. He started out telling a story about a man on a boat during a storm, getting to close to the edge and falling over. This man cannot swim, and starts to drown. He goes down several times and finally he cannot help himself any more. God looks down and sees him drowning, with just his fingers above water. He(God) throws a life preserver directly to the man, over his hand even, and all the man has to do is grab on--Tim(our pastor) goes on the say, "isn't God amazing, that He would throw us a life preserver and all we have to do is choose to grab it?"--of course at this time, my heart has sunk down to my knees, and I'm crying out in my head, "but but but..." and then the clincher. Tim goes on to say "but this is a LIE, it's heresy" I just about jumped out of my seat right there, praising God!
He goes on to list all the verses we try to use to prove total depravity, and tells about us being BENT away from God, that NO matter if God were standing DIRECTLY in front of us, we would NOT choose Him. And on and on. I was crying, I was so happy!
This is as far as he got today on the whole thing, but I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks--I went up to Tim after service and thanked him, explaining how I was soooo glad he was teaching this, etc etc, and he said to keep studying, because there was alot more to come!
Tim ended the talk today with the same story of the man on the boat, excecpt this time the man has drowned and lay at the bottom of the ocean, dead--and God looks down and sees him--He doesn't throw a life preserver, no, He jumps in, swims down to the bottom of the ocean, finds YOU among all the dead, and breathes life into you, and saves you.
WOW, what an awesome God we serve! And I praise God that He has given me a church that is not afraid to teach the truth about God's awesome MERCY and POWER!!!
Thanks for letting me share!! I"m sooo happy!!!!
Anyway, I had to get on here and share the good news! I just found out that my church teaches TOTAL DEPRAVITY and UNMERITED FAVOR.
Our pastor has been since the first of the year, teaching about grace. In an unusual move, he told us he doesn't even know how long this series is going to be. He started out with the simple stuff, he likened it to using a broad stroke on the painters canvas, the general stuff--but today he said he was going to get out the fine brush and start filling in the details. I was very nervous, because i know what I believe, but didnt' know what he was going to say. I had always assumed that this church taught "free will, etc etc". At any rate. He started out telling a story about a man on a boat during a storm, getting to close to the edge and falling over. This man cannot swim, and starts to drown. He goes down several times and finally he cannot help himself any more. God looks down and sees him drowning, with just his fingers above water. He(God) throws a life preserver directly to the man, over his hand even, and all the man has to do is grab on--Tim(our pastor) goes on the say, "isn't God amazing, that He would throw us a life preserver and all we have to do is choose to grab it?"--of course at this time, my heart has sunk down to my knees, and I'm crying out in my head, "but but but..." and then the clincher. Tim goes on to say "but this is a LIE, it's heresy" I just about jumped out of my seat right there, praising God!
He goes on to list all the verses we try to use to prove total depravity, and tells about us being BENT away from God, that NO matter if God were standing DIRECTLY in front of us, we would NOT choose Him. And on and on. I was crying, I was so happy!
This is as far as he got today on the whole thing, but I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks--I went up to Tim after service and thanked him, explaining how I was soooo glad he was teaching this, etc etc, and he said to keep studying, because there was alot more to come!
Tim ended the talk today with the same story of the man on the boat, excecpt this time the man has drowned and lay at the bottom of the ocean, dead--and God looks down and sees him--He doesn't throw a life preserver, no, He jumps in, swims down to the bottom of the ocean, finds YOU among all the dead, and breathes life into you, and saves you.
WOW, what an awesome God we serve! And I praise God that He has given me a church that is not afraid to teach the truth about God's awesome MERCY and POWER!!!
Thanks for letting me share!! I"m sooo happy!!!!
, 
This whole thing has been in the works for 6-9 months now. God works in wonderful, mysterious ways! 
