Comments on: Why I Left and Returned

By: tim

tim — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 06:21:58 +0000

Joules65

Thank you so much for sharing your unique story of leaving and returning.

I liked how you related your prayers to Adam and Eve: “lots of defensiveness and hiding.”

By: doubtingjonas

doubtingjonas — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 22:25:10 +0000

Thank you for charing!

By: rosacola

rosacola — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:21:04 +0000

Joules65

The most important thing is our intimate relationship to God. Seek Him, in or out of Institutional Church. That is what it is all about.

By: Joules65

Joules65 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:36:17 +0000

True, true; however, the whole vine and branches, body of Christ concept can’t be ignored. We don’t have to be afraid and keep ourselves away from church. There are questionable practices and events among house churches, Emerging Churches, and in the Institutional Church, but the Lord gives us His Word as well as His Spirit to help us discern when we’re in a fellowship situation that isn’t the best.

By: Robin

Robin — Sun, 20 May 2007 05:30:18 +0000

Thank you for sharing your story. I’m thinking you were the main character in many of the stories I read about in the Young Miss magazines that my Grandmother used to send me. I was so far away from being a minister’s daughter, I didn’t even know how to act any sort of part. Which is why I never learned how to be part of a church. I was born an outsider. What a blessing you must be to your church. You were raised in it, so you know the feeling of security that comes from that - also a sense of basic goodness, wich I think is important to a child. But all the foundations that was built upon were able to be destroyed, and now something very solid and real has taken its place. A belief system that is truly yours. That is a splendid thing indeed!

By: Joules65

Joules65 — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 06:15:50 +0000

Hi, Robin:

I meant to reply to you sooner; however, I couldn’t get back on the site and, being a busy mom, I decided not to spend any time trying. Now it’s late and I should be sleeping but it’s a good time to mess with changing passwords and stuff like that.

So…I guess my first reaction to what you posted was to remember how, when I was a kid sitting in church, I sometimes wished I had a “cool” testimony like all the people who’d done terrible things and been forgiven much. They’d get up and share and cry and people would cry and hug them. My testimony was so “boring”!

I appreciate your comment. Thanks for taking a moment to respond.