92 My condensed story for presentation

Here is my text for telling my story to my first mixed audience …at umw… half who have been reading my story and the other half whom I haven’t had a chance to tell yet… Obviously still a safe audience for me to step out in, I always say I could just go up there and smile and these ladies would be happy, I am so blessed to have the support I have, just existing makes these ladies happy and proud … how could you ask for anything else. Makes it easy to stand there each month… And now I move from being a good meeting leader to being the spiritual leader I need to be, the spiritual leader God wants me to be.

> ———- Forwarded message ———-
> From: “debbie”
> Date: Mar 10, 5:28 PM

My Condensed Story for UMW Presentation, My Conversation from Soda Bread to Yeast-Leavened, 10MAR

While preparing for Communion this evening at UMW – i remembered back to a couple of years ago when i forgot to purchase the bread – oops – well luckily i had made irish soda bread for the snack that night (was a recipe from my non-Irish but east European-heritage mom) – luckily we still were able to break bread with Pastor. So, yesterday, preparing for today I thought – I wonder if I should make Irish soda bread?  I checked with Pastor and he said sure – if there was enough time to make it  – well I never have enough time for anything – but I have learned how to make time – so I made some bread this morning – couldn’t find the recipe – but i got one off the web that said  “on St. Patrick’s Day, save a spot on the table for Irish soda bread to remember how far the Irish have come from the days when it was the only thing on the table to today when our tables are filled with good things to eat and thoughts of the Famine years (An Gorta Mor) are long forgotten.”

Yes – we shouldn’t forget how far we have all come from our famine years – but for me that meant something different – it also means I forgot that yeast bread is traditional for communion

Yes – i remembered that I taught a Sunday school class not too long ago that used yeast as an example – used it for the living organism used to make bread and wine – and that Jesus was living and he was the one we are to remember when we break the communion bread –

The act of communion is to remember the last supper and the time just before Jesus was crucified, died and was risen – all for us – for each and every one of us…  see Jesus was sent by God to show us the way to Heaven and to show us the way to Peace here on Earth – by LOVE – the greatest commandment is LOVE

Well, I knew that – but I forgot that – and i forgot that until i was thinking about irish soda bread… i forgot that  Sunday school lesson of using yeast bread as an example of Jesus.  and baking soda is man-made – not alive…  Irish soda bread represents man-made leavening… not God-made leavening…

Well, I also taught you a bible timeline and used yeast as an example of Jesus as a catalyst – where the addition of yeast to hydrogen peroxide and dish soap caused it to foam and overflow – and that this related to the spread of Christianity – that God sent Jesus to be the catalyst for change – to make the reaction go faster…  and now I am going to tell you that when i taught that experiment about a year or more ago – that that experiment changed me – not just the chemicals – but it actually changed me –

Yes – that experiment is how I became a Christian…  now, please believe me that I always loved God – and I even believed in the Holy Spirit – but I had a mental hang-up on whether Jesus was real – yeah i know, your president of UMW – a Sunday school teacher – person in charge of vacation bible school – I didn’t know if Jesus was really real – i didn’t know if he existed – if he was just another prophet with a good publicist…  none of this cast doubt on God – but i doubted man-made stories – how could i really trust the new testament to be real..

Well – that yeast experiment opened my brain and I said – hmm…  maybe God did send Jesus to be the catalyst of change – and i meditated on that – I prayed – i started to ask questions of my own belief system – you see – I had most everything in my head – but i didn’t’ accept it – i had it in my heart – but I didn’t allow my brain to believe it – and I was stuck – I needed help – i questioned myself – and I questioned a few trusted souls…  and one day – three months ago today – Dec 10th – I wrote a 5 page diatribe out – I only shared it with one person – whom I asked to be non-judgmental- someone whom I listened to guest sermons from – in the safe sanctuary of my car – sermons that touched my heart AND my head – and made me think – and he always said at the end – “Don’t let this opportunity pass you by, to be changed by the Holy Spirit” – and offered at the end of the sermons to pray with you if you had any questions and movement in your heart…. so well, I took him up on that offer – and I sent him my 5 page diatribe – carried it out of embarrassment for a week hidden in my car and then I got up the nerve and sent it as well as two other pieces, Christmas Flood (Dec 17^th) and Lego Christianity (Dec 18^th), to him – and soon he replied that it was “very honest and intense in a good way” and that we would talk soon – and guess what? – literally the NEXT morning I pulled out of my section from a completely different entrance onto the main road and guess who was right across the street at the car repair shop – outside? Yup, our cars recognized each other -there he was… God placed him there I am sure… And in our 10 minute conversation, and in one a few days later…in those conversations I was able to be so honest about how I did not question God but I questioned what man may have made up… questioned what I believed in… that started a month of continued conversations with so many people from all sides of my life… including both scholars who showed me the data and the writings of the new testament…this led me down and up the narrow path…right into Jesus.

Yeah – that started a series of God-sightings, unexplained interventions in my spiritual life – Christmas – a flood of good things – i had so much going on that i had to figure out how to process this all – and I started to write – and guess what? I haven’t stopped writing since – I have written and written – I have over 150 pages – Dec/Jan is all processing and Feb is all praise…  March is more processing and praise.

I have listened in my car to so many sermons (both from our guest sermonist and from Pastor (whose sermons do speak to me now – so differnt than before because my ears were CLOSED) and now I listen to others sermons, and of course praise songs in my car – my Subaru, that is my temple – I have read and studied the bible in it – especially when a verse of a song points me there… I listen to all the clues God places in my path. I am in a feeding frenzy – I have shared with first one person and then three and then a dozen – and now 100. I must say that my biggest vocal pep band leader-cheerleader – you name it …to reply to EVERY single one of my early essays – all 150 pages – was/is Pastor S…she has encouraged me like no other. And “K”, my pocket counselor, had been the most carefully conscious and concerned for me…truly a great friend…

and then, finally, on Jan 25th- I finally got a quiet moment to talk to Pastor – and he said “I KNEW!!”  – you cannot imagine how blown away I was…  what a joy for both of us! And that joy continues … New conversations, about faith, science, relationships,  I am, we are, so blessed with an amazing Pastor!

With an original admission that was embarrassment and questioning – I grew into a sincere seeker – and GOD IS GOOD – He is so good – he has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams ever since – the small miracles and god-sightings i have seen – I have been a part of – well, I don’t’ have time to tell you everything now – but Praise the Lord, I have been writing them!

Yes, over 150 pages for this story. I would be glad to send the whole packet to anyone.

I am not embarrassed now to tell my story…I have been empowered to tell it- –

I have been put here for a reason – and I don’t know why this was God’s timing – – I am 45 years old… God said now is your time to shine, so let’s fix this, let’s throw so many God sightings your way that you have no choice but to believe, and no choice but to tell your story, which is really God’s story, not mine.

When God put a mountain right in front of me and told me it was time to climb – well I had no choice to go anywhere else – I had to start climbing – I had to accept that this is where God was taking me -from skeptical cynic to sincere seeker in just over 50 days…I got to 99.44% pure, like ivory soap.

Then, I FINALLY GOT IT – and Feb 1, – Superbowl Sunday – after I had lunch with the women’s retreat planning women – which was immediately after I was blessed to hear from a wonderful friend part of their story of becoming a Christian. So, after lunch (where we saw an American Bald Eagle in flight), “K” offered for me to come for a cup of hot cocoa and decompression at her house…  But I got lost and found my car near the 911 reflection garden – never been – that’s where I stopped and I went to hold the trade center steel beams – I held them and prayed for the 3000 lost, prayed they were found – and prayed for the evil doers in the world- I then went from 99.44% believer in Jesus to 100%. There were coins filling the inside of the beans and I flipped over a plastic gold coin that had John 3:16 on it – God so loved the world that he sent his only son – on superbowl Sunday – a scripture always tied to athletic events because of the signs people hold up – and for the first time ever – I KNEW I believed it – 100% . I was filled with warmth – I really believed it… first time ever…I became Christian 100%.

So – back to the soda bread story – I realized that I WAS the soda bread – leavened by man-made means and not risen to the level that GOD wanted me to be – I was not there – I am SO there now –

See I am half Irish but my other side is from a place I’m going to journey home to in only 2 weeks, over to Europe.  My mother’s maiden name is xxxxxx which means CROSS… this speaks to me that I am not complete without Jesus… BOTH  sides I need  to be myself.. I need the cross of Jesus to make me whole.

I am so humbled to have God work on me and send the Holy Spirit to me. I am now the yeast bread…leavened by Jesus as the yeast…created by God’s will…filled with the Holy Spirit…And ready to share wherever and whenever God’s good news.
I ask that we have communion with both breads…Have two pieces….yeast for those accepting, and soda bread for those who were like me, a few short month ago, pray that they become sincere seekers…Please pray for them to find their way.

I am in Pentecost – I am in thanksgiving – Christmas – a new year – Valentines – St. Patrick’s – lent – Easter and most definitely in Pentecost – the Holy Spirit is coming strong and sure – and blowing me to places unknown – and sending his energy and fire through me and into whomever I can see – I can talk to – and I can inspire – and yet – this is not any of my doing – I just let it happen – and all this is due to GOD… and if anyone is getting any ripple effect from this it is because they are just witnessing my witness, and then they themselves are allowing God’s Holy Spirit to work in them. It is not my doing….and I take no credit.

Praise God and may Jesus receive the honor He is due!!!

Amen