{"id":201,"date":"2012-07-23T23:53:43","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T04:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/?page_id=201"},"modified":"2018-09-21T01:05:53","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T06:05:53","slug":"church","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/church\/","title":{"rendered":"Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I was glad when they said to me, \u201cLet us go into the house of the LORD.\u201d\u00a0<\/em> Psalm 122:1<\/p>\n

I have been a worshipper of God since 1983.\u00a0 I say 1983 because, in that year when I was baptized into Christ,\u00a0I actually knew what I was doing.\u00a0 For many years before this time, I wanted to know the God of Hope and Peace and Sustenance that I believed existed but had not really experienced.\u00a0 I had heard of Him in songs and\u00a0had even heard\u00a0a number of\u00a0people call out to Him, but\u00a0unfortunately, with no visible\u00a0effect.\u00a0 But one day I believe I saw Him in the life of an elderly woman who never actually asked God for anything, or at least not as others had asked.\u00a0 He was made\u00a0manifest when someone threatened to take a large inheritance from her, someone who felt justified in their action.\u00a0 Instead of standing up for what was rightfully hers, the woman willingly gave all that was to be\u00a0given to her,\u00a0to someone who, though undeserving, needed it more.\u00a0 In her gracious manner, I knew that when she spoke of Jesus, she knew him better than many who had called on Him in the past.<\/p>\n

I am glad to go in the house of the Lord, to worship, to teach, to serve.\u00a0 I have taught many people in various settings how to “call on” the Lord and walk with Him on a daily basis.\u00a0 I chose to come to ACU\u00a0for the opportunity to serve\u00a0with a community of Christ-likeness.\u00a0 From this invitation to serve, I have grown\u00a0as I have seen my students grow, in grace, and mercy, and in service to God, for there is no\u00a0better place to serve than among those of like mind and purpose.<\/p>\n

Although our sons are now adults and have united with other Church families, Dwain and I continue to worship at the Wylie Church of Christ, as we have since we returned to Abilene in 2007.\u00a0 Dwain serves as a deacon and teacher of the adult and teenager classes.\u00a0 He also serves as the mission liaison for African Ministries.\u00a0 He recently visited missionaries in Zimbabwe to ensure their financial support continues and is well used.\u00a0 As his wife, I serve him as he continues to grow in these roles.\u00a0 I continue to teach Bible classes, attend workshops, participate in door-to-door evangelism, host groups in our home and\u00a0am active in other opportunities to serve as made available by Church leadership.\u00a0 However,\u00a0in this community, we have learned to serve as we extend and receive grace and mercy; we have\u00a0served when we chose\u00a0to put aside\u00a0differences and to love unconditionally.\u00a0 We have\u00a0served in the\u00a0face of repeated social challenges, as we choose to\u00a0rise above them and focus on the need for human flourishing.\u00a0 Since we have been here, we have served in more ways than we would have\u00a0if we had instead\u00a0followed our own interests or walked our own charted path.\u00a0 As most of us do, we have thought about moving to another congregation at various times.\u00a0 However, each time God has confirmed the need to stay.\u00a0 These years in Abilene have been the most challenging years for us as we strive to find our place in this community.\u00a0 Over the years, our experiences have\u00a0been mixed with both joy and sorrow as we continue to dwell in\u00a0a West Texas\u00a0spiritual community.\u00a0 Yet, in this we rejoice in that we share the suffering of Christ, and, with each new challenge, are being made whole, to continue in service for His purposes, and not our own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I was glad when they said to me, \u201cLet us go into the house of the LORD.\u201d\u00a0 Psalm 122:1 I have been a worshipper of God since 1983.\u00a0 I say 1983 because, in that year when I was baptized into Christ,\u00a0I actually knew what I was doing.\u00a0 For many years before this time, I wanted … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Church”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":782,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-201","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1375,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/201\/revisions\/1375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/oxb00a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}