Friday, March 10, 2017
Ez. 18:21-28; Ps. 130: Matt. 5:20-26
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, attended Sunday school, was a Sunbeam, a GA and sang in the junior choir. I was in church every Sunday and Wednesday.
My daddy remarried when I was a pre-teen and we moved across town; we didn’t go to church very often. As a teenager in the ‘60s, thinking independently and not being around many “church people,” I decided I was agnostic. This went on for about 25 years. I was running my life and it wasn’t going very well.
My friend Karen kept inviting me to the singles group at her church. This was a large group that had dinner and a program on Thursday nights along with Bible study on Sunday mornings. The problem was I swore I would never attend another Baptist church again since my memories from childhood were of a preacher yelling and condemning everyone and talking about a punishing God.
Well, God stepped in and I went to Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington, KY, one Sunday morning. I came back week after week, joined the church, and became active in the singles group and the “Big Church.” At Calvary, a CBS church, I learned about a loving God and the preacher didn’t yell. God had better plans for me and I decided to follow His lead.
When I moved back to the Tampa area, my old high school friend, Marilyn Rogers Jackson, invited me to Bayshore. The rest is history.
So, what I learned from this is: invite your friends to church.
–Carmen Huffstetler