being licensed, which was preceded by long, hard hours of studying and
testing. During our year of licensing, we had to show our worth to be
ordained. We traveled cross country preaching to bikers, hookers, drug
dealers, in store-front churches, and anywhere else the Lord led. We
pastored two churches, had Bible study at our home, worked with drug
addicts, and held Christian 12-Step programs, as well as facilitating
Christian-based marriage classes.
Although our lives suffered a setback that I am still trying to deal with
and recover from, I know who holds my life in His hands, and He alone
is the maker of Heaven and Earth. He alone decides how we are to live
and act. It is in Him that we have our being. He alone made Adam
from the dust of the Earth, and blew His own breath into Adam's
nostrils and gave him life. It is He who gives His Holy Spirit to us, to act
and work through us. It is the God of the Universe who sent His own
Son to suffer and die on the Cross, to shed His blood so that we might
know Him intimately and personally, and have Salvation rather than
die, spending eternity in Hell, separated from God.
God loves us all. He proved that when Jesus died on the Cross. Love is
a verb, it's action, which is unlike this world that seems to think
love is a noun, a thing you say. But people don't know you love them
just because you say they do, they know it because of the things you
do for them. I know my husband loves me because he works every day
to pay the bills and make sure I have all that I need and want. He
opens car doors for me, he opens all doors for me, and his greatest
pleasure is when he can take me to a certain place I love to go for
breves and scones. He works out of state three weeks and then he
drives six hundred miles to be home for one week. He drives a truck for
the oil rigs all over south Texas and Louisiana, so when he gets home,
you would think he wouldn't want to do much of anything. Instead, he
takes me to this place I love, and it's a two hundred mile round trip.
Yes, he drives me two hundred miles so I can have a scone. That is the
kind of love I'm talking about.
But as much as my husband loves me, he still can't save me from going
to Hell anymore than i can save him from Hell. Only the blood of Jesus
can do that, by confessing our sins to Him in prayer, and asking Him to
be our Savior with sincerity. And then reading the Bible and obeying
God so that we don't fall back into the sins of our past. It's so easy for
the devil to tempt us with our past, to tell us that it's nonsense, and
Jesus was just a man who can do nothing for us now. When our lives
have setbacks, like losing a job, fighting with our spouse, being short
on money no matter how much we work, the devil will use that to pull
us back into our old mind set, our past, and the old sins we practiced
for so many years.
The reason I say this is to set up what I'm about to say so you will be
able to understand my mind set and how it may differ from yours. Not
too long ago, Chick-Fil-A came under fire for their beliefs as Christians.
They were going to set up a store in Boston, without mentioning their
personal beliefs, but the mayor of Boston asked the owner how he felt
about gays. As a Christian, he answered honestly. He believes it's a sin.
And the ensuing battle began.
There were so many nasty posts on FaceBook, Twitter, and many other
sites telling the man he was a "hater" and if he really was a Christian,
wasn't he supposed to love everyone, and didn't the Bible say not to
judge. All he actually had done was answer a question honestly. It was
the mayor of Beantown that caused the problem, and I didn't see
anyone asking the mayor what difference the man's personal beliefs
made, he just wanted to grow his business. I think it's the mayor who
was the hater, and instigator, and someone who needs to learn to love
his fellow man.
As Christians, we are commanded to love our fellow man, just as we
are commanded to call sin what it is, and point it out so that the
person in sin can ask God's forgiveness so that person doesn't go to Hell.
It is not being judgmental, or hatred, it's pure love for that person.
I hate to think of anyone going to Hell. None of us can fully understand
what Heaven will be like until we get there, nor can we fully under-
stand what Hell will be like but the Bible gives us a good idea of
both.
Hell is firstly, a separation from God. Secondly, it will be a very lonely,
lonesome place full of horror and torment. It will be a burning lake of
fire and brimstone that lasts for eternity. There will be no second
chance, no way out and no end. As bad as that sounds, when someone
dies without knowing the Lord Jesus, they don't go straight to Hell.
First, they go to stand before the throne of God. They actually get to
see Heaven and the glory of God before they go to Hell and are sepa-
rated from God.
I wouldn't wish that fate upon anyone. I pray every night for my
children, my grandchildren, my children's spouses, and their families
and mine that are known by blood, marriage, or divorce, and for the
friends they know now, and the ones they are going to meet. I want to
make sure I can cover as many people as possible in the prayer for
Salvation. And then I pray that someone who knows the Lord, or a lot
of someones, will come into contact with each of them and preach
Salvation to them so they will all come to know Jesus as their Savior. I
pray for the people I know and ones i haven't seen since I was a child,
or people I see in Walmart that stick in my mind. I don't want anyone
to go to Hell.
The first chapter in the book of Romans is dedicated to homosexuality
and other perverse behavior,and when the Chick-Fil-A debate was
going on, I often commented on people were saying against the fast
food place. I have a few friends who are gay and they know my stand-
ing on the subject. But, like all other sin, God will wipe your slate
clean and give you a brand new life, if only you ask Him.
In 1996, the church I attended in CA invited a man named Dennis
Jernigan to speak, and I was amazed at this man's testimony. He plays
piano and sings, and does both so well, there is no doubt he is blessed
by God. The amazing thing is he was a gay man, who had been
delivered by God.
Being gay is a sin but like all sin, God can deliver all of us from those
sins. It's only the lies of Satan that make us believe being gay is okay
with God, or "just the way they were born."
Mr. Jernigan has been married to his wife for 30 yrs next year. I
remember when he spoke at my church, he said the Lord told him he
was going to be the father of 9 children. He and his wife had 7, when
his wife found out she was pregnant again. She told him she didn't care
what God said, she was done having kids and that was going to be her
last pregnancy. And it was because she had twins! God is always
faithful.
If you would like to know more about this fellow Okie, go to the
