Infinite Grace
02-05-2006, 06:26 PM
In case anyone is wondering what I am doing, I am trying to get as many threads started as possible. We can archive stuff later. Anyway, for anyone who might come new to this forum, I'd like to introduce myself. I am a Golden Retriever. I love people. I can just sit and chat with you all day long, and long into the night. I love people. I like to make people feel like someone loves them. But, like any big dog, when I'm backed in a corner, I come out barking. That's the side of me that far too many people see when they encounter me on the internet.
I was born and raised in Michigan. I was baptized Methodist, raised Episcopalian. Always believed that the bible was the truth, but never really knew the God that inhabited the heavens and earth. About 25 years ago, I met that God in a little Church of Christ in Abilene TX. About five years later, I learned a little about that sovereign God, and became an unapologetic, idolatry-smashing, bible-thumping, law-abiding Christian Reconstructionist. I knew everything, and if you didn't know that I knew everything, I'd tell you, and then I would try to impart my wisdom to you.
In 1990, I left the military, and my wife left me and our three children for her boyfriend (he was still in the military). For 3-1/2 years, I tried my best to raise my 3 kids, but I failed miserably at living my life for God. I no longer felt like that law-abiding citizen of God's kingdom: I was divorced. Passions were strong, and I fell strongly. Alcohol, pornography, strip bars, and woman-chasing (and they were running) led to me "losing my faith." The only thing that kept me going was my children. They didn't realize the double life I was leading, they thought their daddy was "God's Man."
Sometime in 1993 God kicked me in the butt to get my attention. I realized that my life was at the bottom of the pity pool, and God began to bring me to the surface - all grace. I met and married a very godly woman, with whom I just celebrated TODAY our 12th wedding anniversary. She gave me a 6 year old son that she brought into the marriage, and due to the fact that I kept my past from her, she gave me a whole lot of self-pride (always telling me what a godly man I was...she didn't know any better). It was nearly a year later that I finally told her of my activities after my divorce and before we met. It shook her world. But, we were Reconstructionists - law-abiding, possessors of the TRUE Gospel, the Calvinist gospel - the one that if you didn't believe it, you were going to get your butt fried...FOREVER, no appeal, no mercy...God was just, holy, righteous, and he wasn't going to forgive anyone who wasn't just like him. But he forgave me - I was, after all, holy like him.
Well, God has a funny way of doing things. After years of hell-fire and brimstone, predestination, election and reprobation, God showed me preterism. Preterism led to a questioning of everything - EVERYTHING. Then I became a full-fledged lovey-dovey liberal, even beginning to doubt God's word to us through his son. It was close folks. It was way too close for my liking.
But then something happened. I realized that I might not be right. My friends might not be right. None of us might be right. But GOD WAS RIGHT. JESUS WAS RIGHT. That's what mattered. GRACE. God's grace, infinite, comprehensive, common, fulfilled, advancing; it was a B-E-A-U-tiful thing. And it changed me forever.
I am now 47 years old (as of Jan. 21). I have 8 children (1 hers, 3 mine, 1 ours, and 3 the state's -adopted). Our oldest got married 3-1/2 years ago to the greatest son-in-law a man could ask for. Our eldest son is a Marine in North Carolina. We have two adult children (a daughter and a son) living at home, making a living, helping to pay bills, waiting until God brings them to the place to be married. The other 4, which include the 3 adopted ones from the state and our one biological child, are under 10. They are homeschooled as all their older brothers and sisters were.
We are homeschoolers, believe in courtship, are conservative politically, and believe that life should be lived in service to our neighbors. It is our hope to be "the Face of God" to our children, our neighbors, our fellow Christians. It is MY hope that this forum, and our corresponding websites will be to the world "the Face of God." That all that is said here, that is done here, that is discussed here, will teach all who come here that God is Love, as it says in his holy scriptures - and is testified to by the sacrifice of Jesus, and the love that is spread abroad in our hearts for all humanity.
I was born and raised in Michigan. I was baptized Methodist, raised Episcopalian. Always believed that the bible was the truth, but never really knew the God that inhabited the heavens and earth. About 25 years ago, I met that God in a little Church of Christ in Abilene TX. About five years later, I learned a little about that sovereign God, and became an unapologetic, idolatry-smashing, bible-thumping, law-abiding Christian Reconstructionist. I knew everything, and if you didn't know that I knew everything, I'd tell you, and then I would try to impart my wisdom to you.
In 1990, I left the military, and my wife left me and our three children for her boyfriend (he was still in the military). For 3-1/2 years, I tried my best to raise my 3 kids, but I failed miserably at living my life for God. I no longer felt like that law-abiding citizen of God's kingdom: I was divorced. Passions were strong, and I fell strongly. Alcohol, pornography, strip bars, and woman-chasing (and they were running) led to me "losing my faith." The only thing that kept me going was my children. They didn't realize the double life I was leading, they thought their daddy was "God's Man."
Sometime in 1993 God kicked me in the butt to get my attention. I realized that my life was at the bottom of the pity pool, and God began to bring me to the surface - all grace. I met and married a very godly woman, with whom I just celebrated TODAY our 12th wedding anniversary. She gave me a 6 year old son that she brought into the marriage, and due to the fact that I kept my past from her, she gave me a whole lot of self-pride (always telling me what a godly man I was...she didn't know any better). It was nearly a year later that I finally told her of my activities after my divorce and before we met. It shook her world. But, we were Reconstructionists - law-abiding, possessors of the TRUE Gospel, the Calvinist gospel - the one that if you didn't believe it, you were going to get your butt fried...FOREVER, no appeal, no mercy...God was just, holy, righteous, and he wasn't going to forgive anyone who wasn't just like him. But he forgave me - I was, after all, holy like him.
Well, God has a funny way of doing things. After years of hell-fire and brimstone, predestination, election and reprobation, God showed me preterism. Preterism led to a questioning of everything - EVERYTHING. Then I became a full-fledged lovey-dovey liberal, even beginning to doubt God's word to us through his son. It was close folks. It was way too close for my liking.
But then something happened. I realized that I might not be right. My friends might not be right. None of us might be right. But GOD WAS RIGHT. JESUS WAS RIGHT. That's what mattered. GRACE. God's grace, infinite, comprehensive, common, fulfilled, advancing; it was a B-E-A-U-tiful thing. And it changed me forever.
I am now 47 years old (as of Jan. 21). I have 8 children (1 hers, 3 mine, 1 ours, and 3 the state's -adopted). Our oldest got married 3-1/2 years ago to the greatest son-in-law a man could ask for. Our eldest son is a Marine in North Carolina. We have two adult children (a daughter and a son) living at home, making a living, helping to pay bills, waiting until God brings them to the place to be married. The other 4, which include the 3 adopted ones from the state and our one biological child, are under 10. They are homeschooled as all their older brothers and sisters were.
We are homeschoolers, believe in courtship, are conservative politically, and believe that life should be lived in service to our neighbors. It is our hope to be "the Face of God" to our children, our neighbors, our fellow Christians. It is MY hope that this forum, and our corresponding websites will be to the world "the Face of God." That all that is said here, that is done here, that is discussed here, will teach all who come here that God is Love, as it says in his holy scriptures - and is testified to by the sacrifice of Jesus, and the love that is spread abroad in our hearts for all humanity.