Inspiration of The Heart

Living The Bible, It Really Works <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

As a small girl having been raised in church, going to church is the only life I know. My Daddy was the pastor of the church where we attended for more years than I can remember. I have two brothers and two sisters. We attended church every Wednesday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night. We were expected to attend church unless we were sick and I don't just mean a runny nose. Daddy was not like some of the pastors I have known in the past. These pastors should have watched my Daddy and taken lessons from him. I have seen some that had two sets of rules. There was one for the congregation and another for himself. Daddy lived what he preached and he set the example for everyone else to follow. We as the pastor's children were expected to set the example for the young people of the church. Daddy was a strict man but a fair man. I can remember at our home, family Bible study and family prayer. We would sit down after having supper and read the Bible, have discussion and then have family prayer. I can remember being so bored at times, wondering why Daddy made us do this. (Later, I would come to understand why this was so important.) I used to think that Daddy was so old fashioned, but I have come to understand that Daddy was the kind of father that is needed in America today. Family values have become old fashioned and even out dated, useless, a thing of the past. We need more parents like I had as a young girl growing up. Let me share with you some of the things that were taught at out home. One evening after our evening meal, something came over the television that daddy did not agree with. As a matter of fact, he was outraged at it. He looked at my sisters, my brothers and me and said, "God made sex to be a special act of love that is shared between a man and his wife. But, man has turned it into something that is ugly and dirty. What God originally intended to be beautiful, man has completely defiled. Sex is an act of love that joins a man and his wife as one person. It has a beautiful meaning, not just a few hours of pleasure. That was not the plan of God. This is the reason why more marriages last no longer that what they do today. Couples no longer get married for the right reasons. It was lust that put them together and not love." Daddy also said, "When your mother and I got married, standing there in front of the preacher that evening, I invited the Lord into our marriage and asked God to put us together as man and wife" He also said, "The Lord puts man and woman together and they are no longer two people in His eyes, they are one." A lot of television programs the other children watched, we were not allowed to watch. Daddy only approved of good clean family programming. I often thought Daddy was mean when he would not let us watch the programs that was popular in the seventies. (I would later understand his thinking and reasoning on this matter.) I can look at television now and see that if more parents were like that now, we probably would not have the problems with our children that we have today. I soon found that God was dealing with me at fifteen years of age. I remember going to church on a Sunday night and hearing the sermon preached. I don't believe that I will ever forget that sermon. It was on salvation and it being a free gift. We went home and God was dealing with me so that I just went to bed. I was so under conviction that I could not sleep. The longer I lay there the more that I would think. God let me see that if I died that night I would not go to heaven. That night I saw that I was lost, so I got up and went into my Mother and Daddy's bedroom. I told Daddy that I was not saved. (I was very emotional about it.) It did not seem to bother him. He got up and said, "Go into the living room and wait while I get my Bible." I did as he told me to. He came into the living room with his Bible. He began to read the plan of salvation and talk with me. He asked me if I wanted to be saved? I replied yes. We knelt down and prayed, I invited the Lord into my heart. I was saved that night. Time went on and I was soon engaged to be married. The night came for my sister and I to be married; we had a double wedding and of course were married by our Daddy. It is still so clear in my mind standing in front of him about to take my wedding vows, hearing him say, "I asked the Lord to come into our marriage and make us one in His sight." So, I stood there and prayed, " Lord, I want you to come into our marriage and make my husband and me one in your eyes." My husband and I have had some rough roads to walk. I am sure that if I had not prayed the night we were married, we would not still be married today. We have been married for twenty-three years. Men of God don't just happen, they are called. Daddy was for certain called of God. Everything about the man said it. Even the day he died. I will never forget the day that he died as long as I live. In 1995, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He bore up in under it like a good soldier. In July of 1996, he started going downhill. He continued to get weaker and finally in August of 1996, he went to the emergency room He was admitted to the hospital. All of the family was there. We received the news that he had blood clots that were going through his lungs. He probably would not live through the night. His condition continued to grow worse. He had us all to pray together and even told us to open the doors to his hospital room. He said, "Everyone needs to hear this, they need to hear about Jesus." As long as there was breath in his body, he was singing, praying and praising god. He would look at me and quote scripture. His favorite passage of scripture was John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." One of the things that he said before he closed his eyes in death was "I want all of my children and grandchildren to be saved." He said, "I will meet all of you on the other side of Jordan." (The Bible talks about the death of one of the saints being precious.) In today's world of life in the fast lane, parents no longer have time for their children. The baby-sitter and the television programs raise our children. We are in desperate need of true dedicated men of God like my daddy. When the Bible says to train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. It is true, you can bank on it. The Word of God is what you can raise your children on, I am living prove of it. The values that the Bible teaches has to be taught to your children when they are small children. You have to live what you teach in front of them. OUR CHILDREN TODAY DO NOT SEE VERY MUCH FROM THEIR PARENTS. Most of the things that our children are doing today they saw their parents doing them. We are the role models and look at what we have produced. I praise God that I had God fearing, Bible believing parents that taught me right from wrong. Not only did they teach me right from wrong, they lived it in front of me. I am now 41 years old and I have a son and a daughter. I am a minister of the gospel. I minister in music, and I try to work with young people and tell them the values that I was taught as a child, still apply today. That Gods' Word is true, what he says in His Word He means. He is going by what the Bible says. He will judge us with the Word. The devil is stealing our youth of today and it is up to us to do something about it.