Thoughts…

Its Later Than You Think

Scott was kind enough to allow me to do a blog on a recent church experience I had.

I had been to Atlantic Shores Baptist for several years, went through the membership classes and became a member. I found a great ladies class with Pam Ainsley being the teacher. Great lady, she was a studier of the Word and did an excellent job of relating it to this day and age, how to be a Christian and what we’re supposed to look for in how we live our lives. Fortunately for some Californians, she ended up marrying a gentleman who got a church in California, and went there to minister with him. After that, there wasn’t a lot of reason to stay at the church. I missed the solid teaching and the sermons became gimmicks. The last one had to do with Fishers of Men. The stage was decorated with nets, boats, etc. For me, I got tired of the props, I felt like I was in play rather than the focus being what was taught. It was Christianity Lite, rather than trying to teach me to grow more in the Word. So I left.

I ended up at Harvest Assembly. I found out that they’re an Assemblies of God church. However, in a couple of years attending, I had one case of someone speaking in tongues, one person who was “slain in the spirit”. The teaching was a lot better than at ASBC, at least for me. The adults pastor, Pastor Brad, introduced me to E-Sword, this wonderful free Bible software on the net. Man! This tool has Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, and various versions of the Bible, including Strong’ and Thayers’ concordances. Even a prayer list organizer! This really made a huge difference in my life, I started to grow more often. Mercedes’ Bible class, where we started at the beginning of the Bible and read and discussed what happened, was outstanding. I was really happy.

Then … “it” started.