I have had so much running through my mind this week. It was good to
have quiet time in the house to lay things aside and rest. A big
blessing was getting some much needed rain. My family sat out on the
front porch with our hot chocolate and watched the storm roll in. We
went inside, of course, when the rain started coming down!
might take while keeping the Sabbath. Every part of Sabbath keeping
is new to me and my family. We are sure that God wants us to set
aside time with Him. We have acted in obedience to do this. We are
devoting our time and efforts to understanding this and putting it
into practice. And we are looking to God for guidance for any further
changes we need to make in our lives. One thing I am beginning to see very clearly is that there are beliefs
in EVERY denomination and church that are true AND beliefs that are
contrary to God’s truth. There is God’s truth and there is Satan’s
lies. Satan works so hard to mingle his lies among the truth so that
we will accept it and be thrown off. The more lies he can work in,
the farther God’s people get away from living and sharing truth with
others. I realize that I have to be willing to examine my beliefs. Not my
neighbor’s, my husband’s, or my friend’s, but mine. I need to find
out what GOD really says for Himself, not what I’ve always been told
or what I’ve contrived from things I have heard or read. I have seen different people with different views taking scripture and
using it to prove why they believe what they believe. Sometimes
people of opposing views use the same scripture. But I feel like we
can all prove OUR points if we want to. I would just like to look at scripture with no agenda in mind and no
point to prove to see what is real. I want to understand God’s Word
as a whole, in it’s entirety. Seeing from God’s perspective the past,
present, and future. As far as I know, there is no church out there
that does this perfectly. As my husband puts it, “It is sometimes a
matter of picking the lesser of two evils.” That is just a saying, of
course! All of this is a huge undertaking and one that will probably take the
rest of my life! But be sure that we will be GOD led in our future
decisions. And we don’t want to be a part of any church that requires
us to proclaim anything we know to be contrary to God’s Word. God’s blessing on you!
Until next week,
Lisa G.
I have been praying for you since the last comments I read posted here. And totally agree with your post!! Continue to let God lead you and may His Spirit be the light in your heart that guides you into all truth regardless of what anyone may say…and interpret because of their personal good or bad experiences somewhere. Blessings!!
The Bible is the story of God’s love for this world and His people. When His people obeyed they were blessed. God, through the prophets, told them the consequences of their choices, and some choose to disobey and received those consequences. Today, when we study the Bible to get to know God’s love for us we will be truly blessed. That is what I see you doing and praise God for your faithfulness. Because you have taken steps to follow His leading, He will show you more in His time. Do not let any person stop you or push you faster than God is leading. When He sees you are ready, He will guide you to more knowledge of His love. He is an awesome God – and has great plans for you and your family. I am praying for your family to remain faithful to His love.
Hello Lisa,First I would like to say that I am so glad to hear that you all got rain. My husband and I were in Oklahoma a couple of months ago and it was just heart breaking to see all of the rivers and creeks practically dried up. Since then I have been praying for God to send you all rain and I am so glad that He did.I would like to encourage you to keep doing what you are doing no matter what anyone else has to say. You are so right to say that every denomination has part of the truth and part of satan’s lies. Satan started doing that a long time ago as soon as Jesus ascended to heaven he began his attack on the very first Christians trying to kill those with the whole truth so that it would carry on. He has deceived so many, but his day is fast coming to an end. I believe that God is calling out those who will have the open and willing heart to listen.I would now like to share with you my story, because ours are so similar. I was raised in and out of Assemblies of God church as was my husband. I had come back to the Lord when our oldest daughter was about 3. Once again I joined an Assembly of God church and eventually became the Missionette Coordinator, which is over the children’s ministries for girls. At this time I alone was saved and not my husband. This went on for about 8 years with an unequally yoked marriage. For the most part God kept it peaceful but my husband was a very jealous man and always felt like I was at church looking for another husband. It came to a point where I knew that if God didn’t give our marriage a miracle it would be over. Well, thank the Lord that He did. My husband got saved at work in the middle of the night under a sewer plant, he was a wastewater operator. When he came home that morning a new life began for all of us. By then we also had another daughter that was now 3 and our oldest was 11. It all started with a simple question that my brother-in-law asked my husband. Why do we go to church on Sunday when Saturday is the seventh day of the week? My husband gave the typical reply that it doesn’t really matter as long as we give God one day. Well God really began to deal with my husband about this and he began digging into God’s word to see what he would find. Well let’s just say that, as you now know he found absolutely nothing supporting the change from Saturday to Sunday. He talked with me about it and I just did not want to hear it. I mean after all how could so many people be wrong about this. I even went to my preacher and talked to him about it. He excused it away just like everyone else has. I decided to dig for myself. Me and my stubborn pride. Thank you God for being patient. I not only dug in the Bible but also in history. Guess what I found that I was terribly wrong along with so many others. I still could not accept the fact that all of these people were wrong. My grandparents were such godly people and they didn’t keep a Saturday Sabbath.One morning in our praise and worship service, I was up in the choir praising the Lord when God began to convict me so strongly that I felt like I needed to run and hide under a pew. He kept speaking this scripture over and over in my spirit; They worship me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me. Matthew 15:8-9. Listen to that in vain do they worship me, in other words it is of no use. Wow that was so scary to me. I begged God to be patient with me and let me finish with the girls at church through the holidays. He was and I did and I haven’t looked back since.We too are the only ones in our family that keep the Sabbath and even after trying to share it with them they just don’t see, but I know that in God’s time they will. Since accepting the truth of the Sabbath we began to question everything that we traditionally did just because we always have. What a road it has taken us down. When you really want to know the truth and start asking why we do what we do. Where do all of these holidays and traditions come from I guarantee you that you will be tried and tested, surprised and disgusted by the truth. I could go into more detail here but I will let God lead you and if you should wish it then I will share.We as yet have not found a church to be a part of and I so desperately miss the fellowship but God tells us to be in one mind and one accord and we are finding it hard to find a church that is such. Most of the Sabbath keeping churches in our area have themselves bound to some of the Mosaic laws as well, what you can and can eat mainly. We have studied this and prayed about it. We have even put a fleece before the Lord about it and all has been the same. This is the part of the Old Testament law that Jesus nailed to the cross. This is what we are in grace from, all of the Mosaic laws not the Ten Commandments. So here we are at our home by ourselves teaching our daughters that it is more important to obey God than traditions of men. We read our bible and sing hymns and rest on the Sabbath.I apologize for such a lengthy post but I really felt that our testimony would encourage you. Please keep up the fight at all costs. Dig and dig for the truth, it is all in His word and in history. Satan has done his job of deceit well. We must truly seek the truths of God because I truly believe that time is so very short. My husband and I would absolutely love to sit and talk with you and who knows maybe God will allow it one day. Sometimes we just feel so alone with no one of like faith, but I know that God has a purpose and a plan even though I may not see it now. Don’t lose heart and keep searching you are headed down the straight path.Love your sister in Christ,Miranda
I started keeping the Sabbath about 12 years ago. I did not grow up a Chirstian. I was searching for God and truth. I had studied with many different denomations. The Sabbath lead me to the Seventh Day Adventist church. I think God will lead you where you and your family need to be. But the fellowship is wonderful. And the activies and potlucks and encouragment is a blessing. I have 6 children and I know how stressfull Sabbath can be with children. I too am learning not to stress the small stuff. And not every Sabbath is going to be restfull or smooth sailing. But there is something special about the day. Thank you for sharing your experience. It had helped me to remember the joy of first experiening the Sabbath. It is good to see pure love for Jesus. God bless.
I too have grown up in a church that did not keep the Sabbath. About 17 years ago my husband and I were convicted to keep the old testament food laws. I think we realized that God put certain animals on the earth to clean the earth i.e. the swine, they are the garbage disposal for the earth. They do not sweat and do not release any of the toxins that the ingest. The crab and lobster are the bottom feeders, the ones that clean the ocean, they are also highest in heavy metal and the crow, ewh, we know they eat the dead from the side of the road. Everything on the earth has a job, it is not healthy to eat these animals that clean the earth. Well after we started eating by the laws in Leviticus, we noticed that people in the Baptist Church stopped talking to us and it got so rude that we searched for another church that led us to the Seventh Day Adventist. After Bible studies and being in the church for 11 years, I believe we are where we are suppose to be. There are some things that I don not agree with, but they are not weighty matters. The Sabbath is a weighty matter and I can not see myself ever going back to a Sunday keeping church. We do have great fellowship and potlucks, which are vegetarian, Although the church’s beliefs are for the clean meats, they prefer to eat vegetarian because of the pollution and disease the meat carries. Our family is not vegetarian, but we buy freezer beef from a local farmer. I do not buy meat from the grocery store. Over half the entire SDA eats from the laws in Leviticus, the rest are vegan or vegetarian. There is acceptance with all and a individual path everyone must go down. We have been blessed to find a church that reads their Bible and strives to do God’s will! There are some difference of opinion as I stated before, but the blessings from fellowship and study totally outway them and like I also said before, they are not weighty matters. May the Holy Spirit guide you to a church where you too can receive blessings..
You are definitely on the right track! We all must seek God for ourselves, earnestly praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I truly believe that God is guiding your search for truth and will continue to do so. God bless you and your family on your spiritual journey.
Dear Lisa,If you are seeking a relationship with God He will bless you beyond belief! And that to me is what all this gets to…a relationship with the Lord. Getting to know His true character,how He loves,provides and guides us and so much more
Church and religion practices compliment my journey with Jesus but do not define it!The first half of my life I belonged to one denomination, the second half another…both churches had wonderful Godly men and women who prayed me into my walk with God. I look forward to being with them someday in the Kingdom!I believe that the Sabbath day was put in place at creation for the purpose of drawing us closer to God. Can we commune with God everyday of the week? of course! This rest can be such a burden if it is looked at as a set of rules to follow to win a ticket to heaven 
As I enter in my Sabbath rest each week I think of you and your family and pray for your relationship with God! Thank you for blessing me with the blogging of your journey!
Bernice & Judy- thank you for your prayers and encouragement!Miranda- thank you also for your prayers (especially for the rain!) and for sharing your testimony! It was a blessing to read. I will be praying that God would lead your family to a group that you can fellowship with. Sometimes I fear that we might be without a church home one day. I know how badly I would miss that love and support if that happened!Lois- it helps to hear others identify with keeping the Sabbath while caring for children! Thank you for that encouragement!Kelly- your information on animals was so well put! If you leave out religion all together and go strictly off of science and logic, I just don’t understand why anyone would really desire to eat animals that potentially cause damage to their bodies. I am sorry about the ridicule you received over this, but am glad you found a place to fellowship with others!Bonnie & Mia- thank you for your encouragement and prayers!