Hi! My name is Linda and my husband's name is Frank. Jesus Christ is our Savior and we believe that He is the Son of the living God, and that He is returning to take us back to live with Him for eternity in Heaven.
I was raised in a somewhat roudy and noisy Penticostal church in northern California, where we ate, slept, breathed and lived church. In fact, we were at church seven days a week, rain or shine, sick or well.....we were there! Not only were there the regular Sunday morning and Sunday evening services, but there was a Wednesday evening worship service and a Saturday evening service. On top of that there were the Missionettes (girls' group), Royal Rangers (boys' group), CA's (Christ's Embassadors--young people's group) as well as the Street Corner services and Nursing Home services.
Our church was richly blessed with musical instruments with which to make a joyful noise, and a joyful noise we did make! There was a piano and organ, tamborines, trombones, trumpets, drums, a musical saw, banjos, a harmonica, guitars, and many more that are too numerous to list. Music was a big part of our worship, and I will never forget the sound of hundreds of voices rising up in praise singing "The Lion of Judah". God poured out His blessings and many were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Our church also had social times, and the ones that I remember the most are the auctions and cake walks. The women and girls would either bake a cake or prepare a picnic type lunchbox, and the men and boys would bid on the items. Whoever bid the highest would eat the lunch with the person who prepared it. They would also take votes on who was the "Most Henpecked Husband", and I remember when my dad's boss won and he wasn't very happy about winning! There were Christmas parties as well as skits and plays, and there were so many church activities that we were never bored.
During the summer we would attend church camp where my parents would help out, so in exchange we were able to stay for three weeks at the campground in our little camp trailer. We also attended camp meetings with the Hopi Indians, and I have very fond memories of the experiences from those summer activities.
It was June 20, 1965 during Children's Church when I asked God to come into my heart, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It was a blessing that I'll always remember. The leaders of the Children's Church gave me a Bible that they had signed and dated (which I still have), and I remember them telling me that God had something special for me to do for Him.
My father passed away of cancer when I was 13, and we moved to Washington State where my grandparents lived and where my mom had been born and raised. We attended a small country church, and although it was the same denomination as our church in California there were very little similarities. Several years later I left home and went into the Army, and it was during that time that I met and married Frank.
Frank's religious background consisted of attending a Catholic church where he was an Alter Boy, where he participated in different Masses as well as baptisams, funerals, and other functions. His family was active in the church with his father being the handyman who performed a lot of the needed repair and maintenance work, and family outings were shared with Father Bannigan. Even a couple out-of-state vacations were shared with him. Frank got drafted and entered the Army, and five years later he met and married me (Linda) while we were stationed at Oakland Army Base in California.
When Louie and Duke (our two sons) were two and four years old we visited the church I grew up in, and sitting in front of us was the couple who had been in charge of the Children's Church. While talking with them afterwards she asked if we attended church and I told her that we didn't, and she told me that God still had something special for me to do for Him. She reminded me of the blessing that I had received several years earlier, and I told her that I hadn't forgotten it.
However, over the years we never attended church, so our different beliefs created very little problems for us. Louie and Duke attended Sunday School with their grandmother for four years after we moved to Washington state, and both made the decision to be baptised (by submersion in water) by mom's pastor.
It wasn't until Louie was a junior and Duke a freshman in high school when we began attending church on a regular basis, and we quickly got involved with the church and its activities. Duke enjoyed playing on the church's softball team, and I enjoyed being on the cheering squad.
On July 26, 1992 I was baptised in water at a local lake, and although I had been dedicated to the Lord as a baby it wasn't until that time that I was ready to turn my life completely over to God and to serve Him with my whole heart. Two and a half years later Frank began attending church with us, however by that time Louie was in the Air Force.
We thank God for leading us to our church, and for our pastor, his wife and family, and the friends that we've met through the church. Tanwax Country Chapel is a Village Missions church, which is a good compromise between the way that Frank and I were raised.
I still feel that God has something special for me to do, so I pray that it will become clear to me as I feel as if I'm just spinning my wheels. He has a plan....I just don't know what it is yet!
We prepare the church's weekly bulletins and donate desktop publishing and printing to our church, other groups, businesses, and individuals as we feel lead, and it has been returned to us more than ten-fold. God is so good, and we wish EVERYONE could experience Him.
If you would like to ask Jesus into your heart to be your personal Savior, please do so today. All you have to do is ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and to come into your heart. God's simple plan of salvation (below) will show you how to make that decision.
Are you saved? This is not a question of how good you are, or if you are a church member, but are you sure you will go to Heaven when you die?
God says that in order to go to Heaven you must be born again. In John 3:7 Jesus said, "Ye must be born again."
First you must realize that you are a sinner. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
Because you are a sinner you are condemned to death. "For the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) This includes eternal separation from God in hell.
"....it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)
God loved you so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to bear your sin and die in your place. ".... He hath made Him to be sin for us....that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus had to shed His blood and die. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." (Lev. 17:11) "....without shedding of blood is no remission." (Hebrews 9:22)
"But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
God said my sins and your sins were liad upon Jesus and He died in our place. He became our substitute. It is true. God cannot lie.
"God....now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30) This repentance is a change of mind that agrees with God that one is a sinner, and also agrees with what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
In Acts 16:30-31 the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas: "....Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved...."
Simply believe on Him as the one who bore your sin, died in your place, was buried, and whom God resurrected.
His resurrection powerfully assures that the believer can claim everlasting life when Jesus is received as Savior.
"But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." (John 1:12)
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13) Whosoever includes you. Shall be saved means not maybe, nor can, but shall be saved.
In Luke 18:13 the sinner prayed: "God be merciful to me a sinner." Just pray: "Oh, God, I know I am a sinner. I believe Jesus was my substitute when He died on the Cross. I believe His shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection were for me. I now receive Him as my Savior. I thank You for the forgiveness of my sins, the gift of salvation and everlasting life, because of Your merciful grace. Amen."
Just take God at His word and claim His salvation by faith. Believe and you will be saved. No church, no lodge, no good works can save you. God does the saving....all of it!
God's simple plan of salvation is: You are a sinner. Therefore, unless you believe on Jesus who died in your place, you will spend eternity in Hell. If you believe on Him as your crucified, buried, and risen Savior, you receive forgiveness for all of your sins and His gift of eternal salvation by faith.
It's that simple! It is scriptural. It is God's plan. Believe on Jesus and receive Him as Savior today.
If His plan is not perfectly clear, read this over and over until you understand it. Your sould is worth more than all the world.
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)
Be sure you are saved. If you lose your soul, you miss Heaven and lose all. Let God save you this very moment.
God's power will save you, keep you saved, and enable you to live a victorious Christian life. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13)
After you are saved there are three things to practice daily for spiritual growth: (1) Pray -- you talk to God. (2) Read your Bible -- God talks to you. (3) Witness -- you talk for God.
You should be baptized in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ as a public testimony of your salvation, and then unite with a Bible-believing church without delay. "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord...." (2 Timothy 1:8)
"Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven." (Matthew 10:32).
Additional helpful scripture verses: John 3:16; 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:6; James 1:15; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-9; Proverbs 27:1; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 10:27-30; 1 John 5:13.
The File Room
May God richly bless and keep you!
Where would you like to go now?
View Guestbook
This website is a GeoChristians site! It is listed in:
|
