illumination

As I grew up, we moved somewhat frequently. We moved down the road, across town, over to the next town and down into the next state. As we would move, we often were in search of a new church. My father’s personal position wasn’t to search for a church so much as to find our pastor. This is something that I learned from and deeply respect my father for. When a pastor would leave and a new one then came, if it became somehow clear that he was not our shepherd, we would move on. It wasn’t loyalty to the denomination that was important, it was to our pastor, right or wrong. As a result, we spent considerable time in Independent, Baptist, Presbyterian, Missionary Alliance, Assembly of God, Foursquare and few others churches I do not recall. For all of this exposure to the various parts of the Body of Christ, I am today, so very grateful. It has served to give me a very real love for the Body of Christ at large.

As a result of this, I was exposed to many and varied churches, theology and forms of church. My father had received a powerful revelation of God’s Grace when he was young and in the ministry as had my grandfather before him. In fact my grandfather would have been the first in our family to become what might be called, a Bapticostal. Before my dad had the revelation of God’s Grace, my grandfather and my dad would discuss or rather argue this question over and over. Then, one night as my dad was studying the scriptures and getting ready for a meeting the next day, the Lord illuminated his understanding and he finally saw the light of the truth concerning God’s wonderful and powerful Grace. It was for him a true revelation. It was thereafter that my dad would find himself being on the same path as Grandpa, that of becoming a Pentecostal with a clear and powerful revelation of grace. They were the first, as it were, Bapticostals in our family.

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