That sounds like the beginning of a joke. And it usually is, but not this time. Not unless the joke is on me. Just how low am I willing to go to get you to read this stuff?

I did walk into a bar one night nineteen years ago with nothing more than the intention of having a few beers. I was not looking for anything else, especially company. Little did I know that this seemingly insignificant moment in my life would result in one of the determining factors of my eternal destination.

This was the night that I met my wife, Tammy. Before this I had never met a Pentecostal. And believe me, she was not Pentecostal then. But she had been raised attending the very church we are a part of today. There were various reasons she was where she was at that time but that is not the focus of this post.

It did not take her very long after we settled down into marriage to go into service to Christ and the Kingdom. And that is when the change for me started. I had been an avowed atheist since my mid teens and had already argued with many Christians about the non existence of God. I had did it for fun mostly and just because I liked to argue, if I could win.

Now I realize that all the arguments with Christians were with those Christians of the reformed persuasion. These are the ones that hold to a view of God’s sovereignty and foreknowledge that does not allow for anyone to do anything that is not at His whim or with His permission. When faced with the real questions of how a God could be both loving and good, yet allowed or instigated all the evil that surrounds us and has for all time, according to history, most Christians crumbled or fell back to the mysterious, but still wonderful, ways of a God that was not for us to understand, defense.

Needless to say, they did not convince me that I was wrong or that He was real.

But then I met Tammy, married her, and she got saved. What I did notice, even though I did not care at that time, was that she seemed to have a real relationship with something I did not even believe in. My grandmother did too. And if I had been willing to discuss these things with them, I might have had a change of mind a lot sooner. But I never wanted to argue with them. Or maybe the enemy deceived me into keeping my mouth shut so he would not lose me. It was probably both.

The relational and interpersonal method of worship, the interaction with God as a true Father figure, the open view of His attributes, power, and actions shown by the very ways Pentecostals live for the Kingdom, (even if they won’t admit it and their theological speech implies reformed thought), are the true power of being Pentecostal. God is not some distant, egotistical, tyrant like figure that causes all things to happen, whether good or bad, for His glory. Instead He is a loving Father that wants the best for His children and invites us to come to Him, giving ourselves to Him fully, so He can direct our lives in the best possible way.

This is what meeting Tammy caused me to start seeing. That is not the end of the story of my transformation but it was the beginning. Did God set us up to meet? Did He direct all of this? I seriously doubt it but do admit that I don’t know for sure. But as promised, He does work it all out for good, if we allow Him to. Even if we might be in a bar when we shouldn’t be.

So a guy walked into a bar, that guy being me, and looking back, I am so glad I did.

Back then.

Love you all

Tags: atheist, Christ, Christians, Church, Enemy, Evil, Father, foreknowledge, Kingdom, Knowledge, Lie, Love, Marriage, mission, Pentecostal, Personal, relationship, Service, Sovereignty

Our lives can be measured by a number of key events or stages.  All have a beginning and most can be seen to be an ending also.  Some of these are totally out of our control and some we can control to some extent. 

Conception is where each one of us began.  God only created two as far as we can tell.  After that He asked us to share in His plan by being fruitful.  Since that command the population has depended on procreation.  There is not one person alive that was not conceived by a man and a woman.  Our lives began there and we can say with assurance that there was not an ending of anything.  Unless we try to say it was an end to our nonexistence.  Which I think is rather absurd.  So we can call this The Beginning.

Birth is another and the very next beginning for all of us.  Our mothers carried us all through the first stages of life and then when the time came for us to be born, we entered into another stage.  Birth can be called an ending in the sense that we had to leave the perfect nurturing embrace of the womb and enter the cold hard world we live in.  But for most it isn’t too bad.  A lot of people who came before are there, to love and embrace us, and keep us safe.  Birth is both a beginning and an ending.

School is the next major beginning for most of us.  We come to that place in time where we must start our preparation for what is to come.  We do that by leaving our homes and going off for the first time alone.  So we can learn what society believes we need to know.  Some of us never finish school.  Some of us seem to never want to finish school.  But we all have to move on at some time. 

Work.  Entering the workforce is the next beginning point that we can measure.  It is an ending of the time where we were basically as free as we would ever be.  We now take on real life responsibilities.  All of those teens who just wanted school to end will now be able to see that they had it made.  Work is the thing that most of us will do for the majority of the time we live on this earth. 

Marriage is another major beginning.  It might not fall in this order.  Some marry in school.  And although it may be very rare, some even get married after they retire.  Marriage is one of the best beginnings.  A lot of people joke about it and a lot of people don’t make it all the way through.  But almost all of us really want someone to share this life with.  It is the way God made us.  If it is going to work it should be an ending to our selfishness.  We must give ourselves to the one we marry.

Parenthood is a beginning for most people.  It is not for everyone but it is a very important stage in life.  We not only finally get to share creative power with God; we also get to share in the love for those who are so much less than us.  At least to start.  If it is not, it should be an ending to our own immaturity.  We may have finished school, gotten a job and gotten married, and still be babies ourselves.  But if we want to be the parents we should be, we need to grow up.

Retirement is next if we make it that far.  We finally get to stop working and live out our remaining years in a somewhat less demanding structure.  But it is an end to the bustling world of deadlines and meetings, stress and tiredness, and some just can’t do without it.  At a time when we should be at rest some find only boredom and anxiousness. It is very much an ending as well as a beginning.   

Death is the next beginning.  And it is the best of all.  Some of you may look at it as only an ending, an ending to life.  Some may see that it is not just an ending but is also a beginning.  But do you really see it as the greatest beginning of all? 

2Co 5:1  For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2Co 5:2  For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

2Co 5:3  if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

2Co 5:4  For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened–not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

2Co 5:5  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

2Co 5:6  So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

2Co 5:7  for we walk by faith, not by sight.

2Co 5:8  Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

While we are at home in this body we are away from the Lord. Death is the doorway we go through that allows us to leave behind all the beginnings and endings and spend eternity with the only one who has no beginning or ending, the Alpha and the Omega. 

When we were conceived we were doomed to a pretty rotten future.  But God made us a way through Jesus Christ to achieve that most glorious of all beginnings.  We call it death but God calls it homecoming

Love you all. 

Tags: Beginning, Conception, Death, Ending, Faith, God, Hope, Love, Marriage, Parenthood, Retirement, School, Work