# Where were you ten years ago today?



## C. Matthew McMahon (Feb 4, 2005)

I was just expelled from my first pastorate for preaching on sin in a Pelagian church after 4 months. My wife and I were broke, had to live with friends for a few months (we were in Gerogia), until God opened the next door. 

Strange how God moves us from place to place and the things he puts us through.


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## Scott Bushey (Feb 4, 2005)

I was at Calvary Chapel ministering and for employment was at The Cleveland Clinic, Florida in the general medicine area as a staff nurse. I believe I lived w/ an unregenerate man at the time whom smoked pot and watched porno's in the same home I lived in.


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## ReformedWretch (Feb 4, 2005)

I was in my second year here at the Children's Home. I was a relief house parent rotating between a boys home and a girls home. I was still learning aboiut liberal Christianity that surrorunded me. I was delving deeper and deeper into my Arminian, dispensational faith buying tons of books at the local Christian book store preparing myself to stand against the liberals.


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## bond-servant (Feb 4, 2005)

We were living in Seattle, about to purchase our 1st house. Our children were not born yet. 1995 was the 1st year that I was in leadership in women's ministries. We had a black lab named Zeke. Little did we know that over the next few years God was going to refine us with very, very hot fire. with His grace, we came out the other side with stronger faith, but boy was it painful to the flesh.

Praise God, He is faithful! Wow. Time flies....


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## blhowes (Feb 4, 2005)

I was two months away from being released from jail, after serving a 5-year sentence for armed robbery, possession of narcotics, etc... (jk)

I was active in a local baptist church, leading the evening worship service, doing the tape ministry, and taking turns with others doing children's church. I was also 'anxiously awaiting' the birth of my second son.


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## tcalbrecht (Feb 4, 2005)

I was getting ready to take a position as IT manager with an organization called "Great Christian Books" in Elkton, MD. (You may have heard of it. Formerly Puritan Reformed Books)

I spent three years there, until they went belly up from financial difficulties.

Our youngest child was 4. Our oldest was starting college. We had been at our church for 15 years.


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## lwadkins (Feb 4, 2005)

I was in Pueblo, Colorado in a arminist Baptist church being taught how evil was a system of belief called by my teachers Calvinism. Trouble was they couldn't explain to me what that system entailed other than they (Calvinists) didn't want everyone to go to heaven. Isn't it amazing how we get from there to here! Thank you God!


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## Me Died Blue (Feb 4, 2005)

I was in "kids' church" at First Christian Assembly of God in Cincinnati, probably just learning how to speak in tongues.


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## pastorway (Feb 4, 2005)

I was 4 months into a 10 month pastorate in an SBC church that ended after I had made attempts to integrate the congregation and reach the other "people groups" in our small West Texas town. I did not realise, as one deacon (the ringleader) put it, "Those people have their own church and should not be coming here and intermingling with us."

Then I found out, after the fact, that the past practise of this church was to charge those from that other church a security deposit and usage fee when they needed to use our baptistry since their church did not have one!

"Sure you can use our baptistry. That will cost you........"


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## ReformedWretch (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Me Died Blue_
> I was in "kids' church" at First Christian Assembly of God in Cincinnati, probably just learning how to speak in tongues.



I know I shouldn't, but I laughed at that.


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## luvroftheWord (Feb 4, 2005)

I was suffering through the second half of my 8th grade year.  This was getting close to the time that I began being all "sold out for Jesus" and what not. I didn't know as much Scripture then, so I was running are pure passion and emotion. Sometimes I miss those days.


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## doulosChristou (Feb 4, 2005)

Ten years ago, I was living in a tiny garage apartment. I was a single paedobaptist and a programmer for a Bible software company.


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## fredtgreco (Feb 4, 2005)

I was in my second year of law school, worshipping in a small Calvinistic, SBC church, an just starting to understand the implications of Dispensationalism.

I would meet my wife later that same year, and get engaged.


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## matthew11v25 (Feb 4, 2005)

I was in the 4th grade. I was considered a loser, and at my school I was the "cootie mascot"...the girls hated me. I had severe sinus problems, and "snot" would always be hanging out of my nose...even the teachers didn't want to be around me.

The rare times I did go to church I went to an AoG church.


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## Puritanhead (Feb 4, 2005)

I was a sixteen-year old punk at a rural high school and thankful I wasn't in the neighboring city high school... ughh. I played computer games all the time and missed the maximum amount of days you could legally miss without the sheriff coming to your parent's house and asking why you do not goto school. That adequately sums up my life as a spiritually malnourished teenage punk-- Oh I would goto church every so often to alleviate my sinful conscious.


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## Contra_Mundum (Feb 4, 2005)

10 years ago...
I was 25 years old. I was living in upstate NY, about 30 miles from Canada (which I visited maybe once?). I was close to a year from final separation from the Army; I still had a vauge hope to stay in for at least a few more years. I had just moved into my final job assignment.

I was single, was trying to keep my first girl-friend relationship alive from a long-long-long-long-distance, was driving 70 miles one-way on Sunday to go to church. My idea of entertainment was to go to the mall on my days off and watch the latest movies at matinee prices. I was not thinking about becoming a preacher.

In the last 10 years I have made a number of radical direction/life changes, moved 6 times, had 9 jobs, been to seminary, been licensed to preach, gotten married, had 3 kids.


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## ReformedWretch (Feb 4, 2005)

> In the last 10 years I have made a number of radical direction/life changes, moved 6 times, had 9 jobs, been to seminary, been licensed to preach, gotten married, had 3 kids.



WOW!


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## fredtgreco (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Contra_Mundum_
> 10 years ago...
> I was 25 years old. I was living in upstate NY, about 30 miles from Canada (which I visited maybe once?). I was close to a year from final separation from the Army; I still had a vauge hope to stay in for at least a few more years. I had just moved into my final job assignment.
> 
> ...



I hear you! In the last 15 years, I have gotten two graduate degrees, working on a third, been a Classicist, a lawyer, had four jobs, moved 9 times, gotten married and had four kids and a dog.

By the way, I probably asked this before - but where in WNY were you? I wonder if we were actually living near each other.


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## ReformedWretch (Feb 4, 2005)

> In the last 15 years, I have gotten two graduate degrees, working on a third, been a Classicist, a lawyer, had four jobs, moved 9 times, gotten married and had four kids and a dog.



You two are starting to make me feel a little better as I look into new possabilities!


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 4, 2005)

I had just finished high school (as a January graduate) and was just "hanging out" waiting for June 6, 1995... my report date for basic training at Ft. Benning, GA. 

I'm glad that in God's providence that He let me become an Airborne Ranger. 

I'm glad to be free of the meaningless insignificance that I had while I was just a normal American.

[Edited on 4-2-2005 by SolaScriptura]


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## LadyFlynt (Feb 4, 2005)

I was 19 going on 20, in my second year of marriage to my highschool sweetheart, a nanny to a Lutheran couple (I had wonderful conversations with the husband on the Bible-his wife had been raised Catholic, so wasn't into much religious conversation....wished I had asked more questions back then), we had just left the SBC and were attending a 2000+ United Methodist Church...which due to it's leberalism is what sent us into our spin into the depths of legalistic arminianism. DH was working at a factory, where he was witnessing to the guys, had a Bible study going, and due to that nearly got run over several times and had his tires slashed.


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## Contra_Mundum (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by fredtgreco_
> where in WNY were you? I wonder if we were actually living near each other.


When I wasn't, uhhem... _away,_ I was stationed at Ft. Drum, up near the Thousand Islands region, from Jun 1992 to Feb 1996.

[Edited on 2-4-2005 by Contra_Mundum]


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Contra_Mundum_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by fredtgreco_
> ...



Hey, Bruce! Were you an 11B?


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## Puritan Sailor (Feb 4, 2005)

I was in Orlando, at the Naval Training Center (which no longer exists) in Nuke School. I would have been in the Navy about 8 months. I was still a charasmatic back then.


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## Contra_Mundum (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by SolaScriptura_
> Hey, Bruce! Were you an 11B?


Yeeeah. Hoo aaaaaah (Al Pacino, _Scent of a Woman_)


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## SmokingFlax (Feb 4, 2005)

I was about a year and 1/2 old as a Christian and still very "up" with the newness/freshness of it all -even though I was going through my usual seasonal unemployment from grinding and finishing hardwood floors.

I too was beginning my long descent into legalistic Arminianism and charismania. 

I spent my temporary free time meticulously combing through the book of Joshua looking up (in Strong's and Smith's) and writing down the definitions of every single name and word in the text.

I was also practicing quite a bit of classical guitar which I needed to brush up on so that I would be ready for my audition to get into the Crane School of Music in upstate NY. I probably drove right past Bruce at Fort Drum.


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## ARStager (Feb 4, 2005)

I was probably lifting weights after school, listening to "The Rooster" by Alice in Chains, over and over again...and though only a freshman in high school, I was bench-pressing more than I ever would again. 

I was also trying to figure out how to be cool in youth group and high school. 

I'm still trying to figure these things out.

I am patently uncool. Ask my wife.



> "Sure you can use our baptistry. That will cost you........"



You know how they have that BTT pamphlet "The practical implications of Calvinism"??? Perhaps they need to make a new one called "The practical implications of paedobaptism."


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## VanVos (Feb 4, 2005)

I would have been in my 2nd year at Senior school (13 years) Actually that was my worst year at school. Got it to a few fights but sadly would finish second. God has been good, He has brought me such a long way since then.

VanVos


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## ANT (Feb 4, 2005)

10 years ago ...

I was 23 year old heathen!

I was still recovering from a car accident that had happenned in July 1994.
I was hit head on by a drunk driver in Pompano Beach, Fl. I spent a couple weeks in the hospital. I had almost 50 broken bones. I also had around 15 surguries to fix them up. 

I was in my wheelchair for around 6 months, so I had probably just gotten the hang of walking with crutches for another couple months.

This was probably one of the hardest times in my life to endure to date. It was filled with physical and emotional pain. But, I sure am thankful the Lord helped me through that time (not even aware of it then, but looking back, I can see it.)


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## Joseph Ringling (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Puritanhead_
> I was a sixteen-year old punk at a rural high school and thankful I wasn't in the neighboring city high school... ughh. I played computer games all the time and missed the maximum amount of days you could legally miss without the sheriff coming to your parent's house and asking why you do not goto school. That adequately sums up my life as a spiritually malnourished teenage punk-- Oh I would goto church every so often to alleviate my sinful conscious.



You and I have a lot in common. 


I was sixteen. I actually found a loop hole to keep the police from coming to my house. I went to school for the first class and then ditched the rest of the day. The school I went to didn't seem to mind as long as I checked in every day.:bigsmile: I would wave to the hall monitors on the way out the door. After I ditched I would go over my cousin's house to do stuff that I shouldn't be doing. All I cared about was girls, parties, getting stoned, drinking, hanging with my friends and counting down the days until I turned 18 so I could get away from my mom. Needless to say, I wasn't going to church anymore during that period of my life.


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## Breadloaf (Feb 4, 2005)

> _
> 
> I'm glad to be free of the meaningless insignificance that I had while I was just a normal American.
> 
> [Edited on 4-2-2005 by SolaScriptura] _


_

Are you a abnormal American now? 
Are we to understand that your meaningless insignificance was because you were a "normal American"?

JK
PCA
Cambridge MA_


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## ABondSlaveofChristJesus (Feb 4, 2005)

I had recently 'opened the door for Jesus to come into my heart' when I prayed the sinners prayer after a Jesus film(The Campus Crusade For Christ one), at First Baptist Church. 

[Edited on 4-2-2005 by ABondSlaveofChristJesus]


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Breadloaf_
> 
> 
> > _
> ...


_

You'd better believe it. Now I'm a proud (ex) member of one of America's most elite units. I've seen and done the things most people only get to see in movies. That makes me a super-American.

[Edited on 4-2-2005 by SolaScriptura]_


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## Ivan (Feb 4, 2005)

I was starting my second career as a reference librarian. Went through a third career since then and now I'm waiting to find out what the next career will be. I'm running out of time.


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 4, 2005)

> _Originally posted by ABondSlaveofChristJesus_
> I had recently 'opened the door for Jesus to come into my heart' when I prayed the sinners prayer after a Jesus film(The Campus Crusade For Christ one), at First Baptist Church.
> 
> [Edited on 4-2-2005 by ABondSlaveofChristJesus]



By your  sign are you stating that you think it was a bad decision to call upon the name of the Lord and acknowledge him as your Lord?


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## Larry Hughes (Feb 5, 2005)

I was a 29 year old having just been befriended by a Church of Christ member for 3 years & just beginning to be struck by the idea that there might actually be a God. I thought, "If true, I'm in trouble." But that didn't stop me from continuing to supress the truth with all within me at that time.

Loooost with a capital "L".


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## turmeric (Feb 5, 2005)

I was a pagan trying to write poetry about the earth & the seasons and all things pagan. I was 4 years away from conversion. I had no job, lived on disability, didn't want a "straight" job. It's a wonder I have any brain cells left.


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## Larry Hughes (Feb 5, 2005)

Josh,,

YES!!!


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## Craig (Feb 5, 2005)

10 years ago around this time I was about 3 or 4 months into my new life...I had just prayed my un-sinners prayer and began my outright living of being unsaved.

About this time I was sitting in the back of the church, a worship leader up front pointed out my row (mostly me) and noted how we never stood up, he made a joke...people laughed, I responded by laughing sarcastically and calling him an a**hole...only a few rows heard me.


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## future expatriate (Feb 5, 2005)

I was in grade four. I was busy memorizing Bible drill verses and listening to American Family Radio like it was the Gospel.


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## Irishcat922 (Feb 5, 2005)

Fort Worth


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## BlackCalvinist (Feb 7, 2005)

WOW @ all of this thread. I've been meaning to answer it.

94, I was in college as a 1st semester Jr. working on my Music Ed degree, writing Christian articles for my school newspaper (I had a spot in the Opinion section), actively involved in apologetics on my campus.

Oh wait, 10 years ago is 95. 95, my then-girlfriend and I were heading for the rocks and growing apart on all levels, my spiritual life was starting to head downward as more and more tests were coming my way and I was busy preparing to pledge my fraternity. I was still attending a conservative dispensational church and had never heard of Calvinism.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 7, 2005)

Ten years ago I was living in Raleigh, North Carolina, working for IBM, and a member of a PCA mission church in Durham. 

I was preparing to move to the Dallas, Texas area to live near the wonderful woman who later became my wife. 

It's remarkable to look back over the years and see God's hand in the providences that shape our lives.


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## RamistThomist (Feb 8, 2005)

I had just discovered the joys of biblereading. Fortunately, although it was to be too brief, I had a Christianity that was not tainted by dispensationalism. Now, as a 12 year old I had no idea what calvinism, postmillennialism, Dispensationalism was. I do believe I was postmillennial. (This will show you how weird I am)

I always dreamed of a renewed Christendom and if you have a Zondervan Bible you will notice that there are maps in teh back. Well, as a 12 year old I always pretended that I was king or Lord Protector over one country and I would annex the other countries into mine and so have a non-Catholic Holy Roman Empire.
Hopefully, my theology has improved somewhat. I hope you weren't too horrified by a 12 year old's mind.


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## LadyFlynt (Feb 8, 2005)

Sounds like a guy that lived across the hall from us ten years ago who swore he was going to be the one on the White Horse.....scarey since he was 21. You at least were only 12.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 8, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Draught Horse_
> I had just discovered the joys of biblereading. Fortunately, although it was to be too brief, I had a Christianity that was not tainted by dispensationalism. Now, as a 12 year old I had no idea what calvinism, postmillennialism, Dispensationalism was. I do believe I was postmillennial. (This will show you how weird I am)
> 
> I always dreamed of a renewed Christendom and if you have a Zondervan Bible you will notice that there are maps in the back. Well, as a 12 year old I always pretended that I was king or Lord Protector over one country and I would annex the other countries into mine and so have a non-Catholic Holy Roman Empire.
> Hopefully, my theology has improved somewhat. I hope you weren't too horrified by a 12 year old's mind.



:bigsmile: That's pretty cool, Jacob!


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## RamistThomist (Feb 8, 2005)

*My Decline into Rapturism*

Sadly, the story gets much worse. I well remember the day, church youth-group camp bus-trip, where I heard talk of the rapture. It did alarm me, to some extent; how could I, a guy who reads his bible regularly for a young high-school kid, miss out on so deep a concept of the rapture? I determined to school myself in the deep things of God--ie, read Left Behind. I noticed a lot of inconsistencies in the books but God would make it clear in time. 

Well, he did make it clear in time. But that is another story...


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## daveb (Feb 8, 2005)

10 years ago I was finishing up high school and choosing which Bible school to go to. I was a fairly new Christian attending the local youth group and hanging out with a few other Christians I knew. I was reading the Bible (KJV version) with great hunger and asking my mom a lot of questions. It was a fun time, everything was new and exciting.


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## Ranger (Feb 9, 2005)

Well, ten years ago, I was recovering from a horrible accident.

When I lived in Wyoming, I had some of my childhood friends from Dallas come up for a vacation. One night, we went out rollerblading, and were on our way home, when a speeding car (80mph+ in a 30mph zone) lost control, jumped a curb and threw me flying. I flew 120 feet in the air, and skin down a hill on my back for 100 feet until my back was rubbed down to the bone. My left leg had multiple compound fractures, my right ankle bone was laying in the street, and my right arm had compound fractures as well. Oh yeah, and I had bleeding on the brain, so my memory from the event isn't there.

The police investigated it as a homicide since the paramedics said that I wouldn't make it to the hospital alive. I was never supposed to live, then I was never supposed to walk again, then I was never supposed to be able to walk without a cane, then I was never supposed to be able to run, ski, play basketball, etc. God's plan is always greater than the doctor's though.

So ten years ago, I was in a wheelchair, recovering from the accident still. I didn't have to go to school that year, but had tutors and therapists come to our house each day so that I wouldn't get a year behind in school.

That was a crazy year now that I think back, but by God's grace the accident happened, and I am much stronger for it, and have been able to share with others the miraculous healing power of the Lord through testimony.


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## JonathanHunt (Feb 9, 2005)

When I was 17.... it was a very good year

But seriously, I was 17, and in my final year of school, editing the school magazine, being a prefect and Acting Company QuarterMaster Sergeant in the Cadets, looking forward to studying a law degree at the Uni of London. I had been saved two years and was a member of the Metropolitan Tabernacle (Spurgeons). I was just about starting teaching Children's Evangelistic Sunday School (Sunday afternoon outreach, not 'kids-replacement-church').

Since that time I have done a year's law study, worked three and a half years in scientific publishing admin, six months in chocolate logistics , two years as a truancy officer, moved 100 miles from London, got married, saw my wife baptised, joined the church together, opened a new childrens sunday school, worked in a sorting office and a gas station, and ended up for the last two years working for the ministry of defence, recently moving to the new Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre, currently dealing with RAF Casualties but soon moving on to take in Navy, Army and Marines. And all while taking a part time degree in English Literature...

Character building, thats what I call it!



JH

[Edited on 9-2-2005 by JonathanHunt]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 9, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Ranger_
> That was a crazy year now that I think back, but by God's grace the accident happened, and I am much stronger for it, and have been able to share with others the miraculous healing power of the Lord through testimony.



Praise God for your recovery!


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## JohnV (Feb 9, 2005)

> _Originally posted by puritansailor_
> I was in Orlando, at the Naval Training Center (which no longer exists) in Nuke School. I would have been in the Navy about 8 months. I was still a charasmatic back then.



A charismatic in nuke school? I shudder at the implications.


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## JohnV (Feb 9, 2005)

Ten years ago I was moving into the house we presently live in. That year would prove pivotal, as I lost my job and began to work out of my home. This point in my life would shape me for years to come, to this very day, as I had to live with the results of a decision I made the year before. I began to be greatly discouraged by the practices of my church as regards the choosing of office-bearers. There were others who were concerned as well, but did not dare to stand up for their convictions. But I was placed square in the middle of it, and there was a plain choice beween doing the right thing and bending with the wind. So I did the right thing. And I have been paying for it ever since. 

My boss was a member in the same church as I was. As an employer he regarded his employees as almost chatel, being verbally abusive, and always openly complaining of the cost of having employees. But we got the job done every time, and were good at it. We had a good crew. There's much more to it than that, like the day he got someone, a family man, fired from his job so that he himself could boast and laugh about it, over some petty lawn damage; but I don't need to go into details. Its just that at this time this boss was nominated for elder, and I knew that I knew things that constituted lawful objections. Being in the same church, and my fellow workers knowing all this going on, the onus was very heavy on me to do something. So I decided to take the quiet route, and to speak to an elder about it. What a mistake. Did I choose the wrong guy to tell it to. It got blown way out of proportion, and I found myself on the outside looking in. 

I have been, for all intents and purposes, and in spite of my efforts, without a church ever since. For not long afterwards I found out about a new Reformed group meeting in my general area. I was phoned by one of them and asked to come to the meetings. I did, and found it wonderfully refreshing. We studied the WCF: @ 25 sesssions on Ch.1 alone. We started a church together. My part was that I built the pulpit and learned to play the piano for the psalms and hymns singing. (That part is a story in itself, learning to play the piano. ) But this church turned sour pretty fast. Within in a few years the minister and everyone else but my family became staunch Reconstructionists. So we were again on the outside, as we got underhandedly pushed out again. As of today, I am still on trial for this, as being the one who caused the trouble. Imagine that, being the cause of schism by objecting (only) at coffee times (never disrupting church activities) while the minister freely uses the pulpit to hammer home his own conscience upon us, and monopolizes Bible study times and prayer meetings for the propagation of Reconstructionism. 

I went through a sham of a trial, in which I was deemed guilty of something I had not been charged or tried for as a basis for the charges I was on trial for, and any attempt to appeal to the facts was thwarted; the testimony on record is only the clerk's summary of it, not the actual testimony; I was called, "full of the devil" during the trial by the chairman; and countless other unusual activities. And it continues, as now I find that members of Session are "poisoning the well", so to speak, by using my past against me at Presbytery before I can even get to that level of judicatory. Anyone with some cursory knowledge of jurisprudence knows how heinous such a thing is. 

This coming Monday I am scheduled to meet with Session to find out the outcome of this trial. 

In the meantime I have come down with this myterious illness, the only name for which is yet "Chronic Fatigue." To explain it, there just isn't enough gas in the tank to do much of anything, though the disire is there. The body gives out at the crossing of the starting line, so to speak. And it is not a diagnosable illness, so I am not eligible for any kind of sick benefits. 

Yet for all this, I think myself most fortunate compared to some of the things some of you have gone through. In all this God's blessings and providences have not ceased. As many of you have witnessed as well, they have in fact merely begun, in retrospect. I am very gratefull for what I have learned, and the time I have been granted to learn them. (I do not idle my time away just because I can't do anything. ) And I cannot express my deep thanks to Matt and Scott for starting up this Board when they did; it has been a God-send.


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## ANT (Feb 9, 2005)

Wow, that's quite a testimony John V. It's always best to stand for the Truth, even when it brings injury to your person. Glad to hear you stayed strong and did not violate your conscience or the Word of God.


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## ReformedWretch (Feb 9, 2005)

Wow, prayers are with you JohnV!


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 9, 2005)

> _Originally posted by houseparent_
> Wow, prayers are with you JohnV!


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## JohnV (Feb 10, 2005)

Thanks, friends. Just remember, please, this is the church we're dealing with. It may be that things aren't being done right, but there is no reason at all to think bad of the Church of Christ, and it is there too. Otherwise it would have been better to just walk away from it all. 

I wouldn't have said as much as I did, except I read all those posts about how much God had done for so many of you in these last ten years, the various trials we all endured, and how we all became stronger in faith through it all. Just think, we may not have a Puritan Board if Matt hadn't preached his sermons on sin. Now he has touched hundreds of lives even more personally than if he'd stayed in the pulpit in that church. And in that time weve all come a long ways. And the fact that it all coincides so much with my own life's problems, and the much-needed solutions and fellowships, well, it's just amazing to think of it. That's what got me to writing. 

We serve a mighty and loving God.


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## Bernard_Marx (Feb 10, 2005)

Where was I ten years ago?

I was in grade 8, attending a small private school and wasn't a Christian. I lived with my father in suburban Toronto. I was interested in Star Trek and was obcessed with Submarines. When I grew up I wanted to be a submarine captain. Yes, I was the Mayor of Nerdsville. I wish I could say that I had been doing something a little more significant but alas, it isn't so.

Since that time life has become so much more complex. 


[Edited on 10-2-2005 by Richard B. Davis]


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## a mere housewife (Feb 10, 2005)

I was a teenager in Mexico City helping missionaries, as an alternative to being kicked out of my house (brave missionaries). I was dead set against submitting my will to Christ, if that was the last thing I did(n't do). And sometime in May in Mexico City, God effectually called me. I also met my husband there: but I was almost certain (I was then a premillenialist) that he would grow up to be the antiChrist. We didn't get off to a very good start...


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 10, 2005)

Lots of intriguing stories...


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## Breadloaf (Feb 10, 2005)

> You'd better believe it. Now I'm a proud (ex) member of one of America's most elite units. I've seen and done the things most people only get to see in movies. That makes me a super-American.
> 
> [Edited on 4-2-2005 by SolaScriptura]



Were you a Christian in your meaningless life? Or, what gave your life meaning where it had none.

Also, did you become a super-American because you were in one of America's most elite units, or because you have seen and done things that most only see in movies? Or is the combination thereof?

I don't understand if you're being tounge-in-cheek, or if you are saying that to be a "real" or "super" American one must be in an elite unit?

Maybe a question for another thread

-JK
PCA
Cambridge MA


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## ReformedWretch (Feb 10, 2005)

> _Originally posted by JohnV_
> Thanks, friends. Just remember, please, this is the church we're dealing with. It may be that things aren't being done right, but there is no reason at all to think bad of the Church of Christ, and it is there too. Otherwise it would have been better to just walk away from it all.
> 
> I wouldn't have said as much as I did, except I read all those posts about how much God had done for so many of you in these last ten years, the various trials we all endured, and how we all became stronger in faith through it all. Just think, we may not have a Puritan Board if Matt hadn't preached his sermons on sin. Now he has touched hundreds of lives even more personally than if he'd stayed in the pulpit in that church. And in that time weve all come a long ways. And the fact that it all coincides so much with my own life's problems, and the much-needed solutions and fellowships, well, it's just amazing to think of it. That's what got me to writing.
> ...



Excellent attitude John!


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## HuguenotHelpMeet (Feb 10, 2005)

Ten years ago...

I had just turned 19 (do the math...I'm turning the big 3-0 this year!!)
I was living with my parents. I was corresponding with a young man from NC who wanted to marry a Huguenot girl, but after searching the country, he settled for me. ;-)

On March 2, 1995 Andrew moved to Texas...and we were married about 18 months later.


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## Breadloaf (Feb 11, 2005)

Oh, and all things American aside, 10 years ago I was a non-Christian trying to incorperate the Bible into my new-age pantheon of religion by combining the teaching of Jesus with those of the Budda and Lao Tzu. What I didn't know is that God's Word is powerful and accomplishes His purposes. Eventually this sinful project brought me to repentance. 

At the time I found my meaning in what girls thought of me.

Yours,


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## Shane (Feb 12, 2005)

Ten years ago! 

Well, while many of you seem to have been in the Charismatic circles I was just as lost in the Roman Catholic church. I was 21 met my wife to be and was later to tell her there was no way I would get married in any other church but the catholic as all others had strayed from the original church of Jesus. She therefore had to convert ad that was it. 

What an arrogant lost fool I was, and how amazing is Gods grace that He reaches people so lost.


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