So you think God's not there. . . .

As stated in the movie Love Comes Softly , God doesn't want bad things to happen to us, but He promises to be there when we hurt. We come into the world as God's precious children. As we mature, He hopes we will want a relationship with Him. For many of us, we tend to stray, myself included. The way we stray comes in many forms. Honoring your parents is one of God's laws. In a way, I was being dishonoring when thinking I was too cool to tell my parents that I loved them. It took being shot in a hunting accident when I was a teenager to shake me up enough to say it.

Looking back on it, though I believed in the Lord, I was turned away from Him. I did not even say a prayer at the time of the accident asking for His help. I do know He did not turn away from me, however. I believe He sent His Holy Spirit that dark November morning to guide the bullet through me and to calm me, which minimized blood loss. Did God want that to happen to me? No, but He used it for good.

When I married the first time, God was not part of the union. We rarely went to church and never prayed together. It was definitely “all about the world.” But again, God brings good from bad. Because of His strength and encouragement, I am a stronger person today. Having spent a few years not in any relationships, He blessed me with an angel. I am now married to this wonderful, Godly woman and I have an incredible step-son.

In the midst of that previous marriage, one of my siblings died. We never thought that 29 would be a full life. What is hard is we don't really know what happened. God must have needed my brother. Almost a year after his death was 9/11. When the first anniversary of 9/11 was approaching, James Dobson had people on his Focus on the Family radio program with 9/11 stories to tell. One that my parents caught was of a lady who was one of the last to be found alive. When she had just about given up all hope, a “fireman” took her hand stating, “It's okay. We're coming to get you. My name is Paul.” The lady continued her story of being taken to the hospital and how she asked for the fireman named Paul. The men told her they were the only ones there and neither of them was named Paul...Paul was my brother.

Everyone has stories like these they can tell of tragedy and heartbreak, each one grieving God just as much, if not more. Many times I think of the poem “Footprints.” This poem may have been written by human hands, but I believe was inspired by the Holy Spirit. An excerpt from the poem, about the Lord's response when He was asked about the one set of prints is how I see God: “My precious, precious child. I love you and I would never leave you. During those times of trial and suffering in your life you see only one set of prints, it was then that I carried you.”

It's never too late to ask God back into our lives. He wants a relationship with us…even though He is so vast and we are so small. All we have to do is ask….

Dawn's Testimony

Thank-you Nancy and Pat for your kindness and showing us God's love. Terry and I will be celebrating 16 years of marriage.  This is the happiest I have ever been.  God has been doing amazing things in our marriage and life. Terry is bringing truckers to Christ.  We are living more "out of the box" and experiencing new things.  God has restored our marriage and it feels wonderful. Some people wonder how we can do it with Terry being gone for a month at a time .  But we have learned how to trust, and communicate.  We have also learned how to put God first in a marriage.  In order for a marriage to work both people have to be willing to heal the wounds they have separately before they heal the marriage wounds, and allow God to be first in the marriage. Thank you for accepting us the way we are and allowing God to do his work in our lives.  Both of you are a blessing to our lives and the lives of this church and community.

Dawn

God saves marriages!

After experiencing many years of a marriage tainted by pornography and lingering emotional hurts from a previous marital relationship, Sally had lost all hope of her present marital relationship ever getting any better.  She and Harry had become Christian roommates, living two separate lives under the same roof; “Christian married singles” was the term that would best describe them.  Although they appeared to be getting along well with each other in public, theirs was a marriage far from what God intended it to be. 

On the verge of divorce, Harry and Sally started coming to Pastor Nancy Block at Oasis Ministries.  Through the counseling sessions, Harry came to openly admit his secret addiction to pornography.  He came to realize its detrimental effect on their marriage over the years and his total inability to free himself from the addiction without help.  Because he truly loved Sally and wanted to choose her over the addiction, Harry agreed to Nancy's suggestion to ask a computer savvy brother in Christ that he trusts to keep him accountable regarding the pornography readily available to him on the internet. 

Sally realized how her past hurts and inclination to run away from confrontations had contributed to the deterioration of their marriage relationship.  Through the counseling sessions, she started to learn how to identify, verbalize, and work through the difficult situations that arise in any marriage relationship.  Because she does love Harry, she is willing to keep herself vulnerable to him and is learning how to trust him again.

After acknowledging that the original marriage covenant had been broken - both Harry and Sally have renewed their marriage vows to each other before God – starting over - forsaking the “married singles” lifestyle and are learning together what it truly means to become “one flesh” – now nurturing and growing the godly, intimate marital relationship that God intended them to experience.

They would highly recommend Pastor Nancy Block at Oasis Ministries to anyone needing a godly boost to their marriage relationship!

From Andy

I was brought up in a home that didn't go to church.  As a result, I was an atheist for the first 26 years of my life.  It wasn't a conscious decision that I made, but rather a decision that was made out of my ignorance toward God, Jesus, the Bible, etc.  There were times when I was curious about what people were doing on Sunday mornings, or why people went to church on Easter ("what do Easter bunnies and candy have to do with church?"), but my questions went unspoken and unanswered for the most part.

When I was 15 years old, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I enrolled myself in a local Confirmation program so that I could better understand what religion was all about.  I stayed in the program for about 1.5 years, but eventually dropped out.  The whole process left me hollow.  I wondered what everyone saw in religion.  I could recite the books of the Bible in chronological order and I knew the Ten Commandments, but that didn't seem like enough.  If that was what religion was about, then I didn't need it.

Years went by.  I grew more cynical toward religion.  I saw people go to church and pray and cry out to a "non-existent" God and inwardly I laughed at them.  "You're weak," I'd say to myself.  "If you spent as much time just working and taking care of yourself as you do crying out for a miracle, then you wouldn't be so miserable."

My bad attitude toward the Church was made worse by the fact that I had led a blessed life.  I had gone through minimal hardship in my life, yet I persevered through the tough times that I did have to face.  I was a great student in school.  I was good at sports.  I was fairly popular.  I was happy with myself. 

I.....I.....I.....I........

Fast forward to a couple years ago (2002).  I was married to a wonderful woman.  We had three beautiful children together.  I was working at a job I loved.  I owned a home, two cars, a white picket fence.  Life couldn't be better right?

Wrong.

My marriage was in shambles.  I was a below-average father.  I had numerous possessions, but they didn't mean much to me.  I was up to my ears in debt.  I was crying myself to sleep at night.  Outwardly, I had the world in the palm on my hand; inwardly, I was miserable.  "How did I get here?" I'd ask myself.  "And more importantly, how in the world do I get out of this place?"

My life started to change during the summer of 2002.  First of all, my wife has been a saved Christian since she was a little girl.  While I usually didn't want to listen to her preach at me, she didn't let that stand in the way of fighting for me and praying for me.  This is a woman who prayed for me as a little girl, long before she knew who her husband was going to be.  Without those prayers and her unwavering faithfulness and support, I wouldn't have been as blessed as I was.  My marriage would have been over before it started, my relationship with my kids would have been severely fractured (possibly beyond repair).  In short, I wouldn't be where I am without her.

Second, I met a man named Pastor Don Prewitt at Riverside Assembly of God.  I can remember seeing him the first time I came to church with my wife.  He was, after all, hard to miss.  He sat up front and sang his heart out while playing the piano more enthusiastically than I've ever seen before.  Midway through the service there was a greeting session and he walked over to introduce himself to me.  He looked at me and I could tell he "knew" everything about me.  I'd never met the guy, but he could read me like a book.  He knew I was hiding my misery.  He knew I was wearing my church smile on the outside while I was crying on the inside.  >From that day on, he always went out of his way to stop by and say "hi" and see how things were going.  At one point, he called my house and asked me out to dinner.  I can remember being upset with my wife because I figured she had put him up to it.  She hadn't.  Like I said, Pastor Don just "knew".  We went out to dinner and spent a couple hours talking to each other.  Not once did he preach to me.  Not once did God's name come into the conversation.  You might ask yourself how he could have ministered to me without doing these things, but he did.  Instead of coming at me with lecture, he came at me with love and compassion for the place I was at in my life.  From that day forward, I had a newfound respect for Pastor Don.  Not only that, I wanted -- no, needed -- what he had.  I wanted to be as happy as he was.  Upon meeting with him again and again, I quickly found that it wasn't a home or a car or a job that made him the man that he was; it was a deep-rooted, loving relationship with the Lord.

Soon after my talks with Pastor Don, I started to analyze my personal beliefs.  I had seen what having a relationship with the Lord had done for people like my wife and Pastor Don, but I still wasn't buying into it (pig-headed person that I am!).  Instead of asking God to forgive me for my sins and ask Him to be my Savior, I started to challenge Him.  I wanted to see Him.  I wanted to have Him make miraculous changes in my life and the lives of people around me.  I wanted Him to prove Himself to me.  It all came to a head after I'd been having migraines for a few days.  My wife had told me to pray for healing.  Instead, I called out "Lord, if you're so [bleeping] powerful, why don't you give me a migraine right NOW?!!"  The words weren't even off my lips when I was suddenly struck down to floor by what felt like a massive blow to my head.  As the cobwebs cleared, I found that I was lying on the floor with the most brutal migraine I have ever had in my life.  I crawled slowly through the house, made it into bed, and offered my first prayer ever to the Lord.  I spent time apologizing for my sins, for my ignorance, and for my arrogance.  I asked for His forgiveness and asked Him to be the Lord of my life.  With that done, I fell asleep.  Twenty minutes later, I woke up -- healthy, renewed, and refreshed.  I knew that God had not only taken my pain away and was now working in my life.

The only problem was that I had lived without God for almost 26 years of my life.  I didn't know where to go from there.  Fortunately, I found Oasis Ministries at Riverside .  I immediately enrolled in an Encounter Weekend as well as the Elijah House video/counseling series.  My wife and I also began counseling with Rev. Nancy Block .  Through Oasis, I was able to work through the issues that had been building up in my life -- my rocky marriage, my poor relationship with my kids, etc.  Also, I was able to work through issues that I didn't even know were there -- having a heart of stone, fighting with performance, having guilt over being an atheist for so long, etc.  Oasis Ministries provided me with an opportunity to create a solid foundation in biblical principles, which in turn helped me build a lasting, powerful relationship with God, my family, and my friends.  By taking advantage of the services offered by Oasis I was able to put aside my old self and step into the new life that God has always had destined for me.

Riverside Assembly Of God and Oasis Ministries are amazing places.  You can feel the presence of God as soon as you walk through the doors.  The church body here -- from the pastors to the community groups to the counselors to the office staff -- all have a desire to see people build a lasting relationship with God as well as receive healing and deliverance over life-controlling issues.  I can honestly say that I wouldn't be the man I am today without the incredible ministries offered by Riverside and Oasis.  I've seen the changes in my life and the lives of many other people who have been a part of this church body.  I would encourage everyone to take advantage of the incredible opportunities that are available here.

Andy