A Young Wife’s Tale

Well, it’s official. David and I are members of a church here in New Jersey. We joined with mixed emotions. We’re happy to have a church home, but we want to be back in our Dallas church.

Many of the other churches we visited here were not friendly. At one church, no one spoke to us, even when they handed us a bulletin. This church has made us feel quite welcome. They’re quite accommodating to people with disabilities. It’s quite impressive for a church that averages less than 100 on Sunday mornings. Most importantly, they have excellent, Biblical, expository preaching. We’re very blessed to have found this church, and we hope to be a blessing to them, as well.

I do not like New Jersey. It is not a nice place. But New Jersey has been good for us as a couple. Being thousands of miles from every single person we know has forced us to rely on each other. Literally, months went by before I met anyone other than the apartment complex manager and our leasing agent.

My will is in limbo. I feel like a stretch Armstrong doll who’s about to be pulled in half. I feel like my stretching tolerance level is about to come abruptly to an end, and I am going to come to pieces. Has God ever damaged someone from pulling too hard? Probably not, but I want to believe that God is a mean butt hole because it makes my tantrums more justifiable.

You say to yourself, “God doesn’t pull. You must be resisting Him. Your suffering is in your lack of submission to God.” A year ago, I would have thought the same thing. I would have looked at this situation and scoffed. Obviously, that person doesn’t have the spiritual tenacity to withstand the awesome call of God on their lives. They are just not prepared enough, not holy enough, not spiritual enough.

MacArthur’s message is a good one. He’s right: Jesus wasn’t mild or politically correct. Christians should follow his example at times and be bold and take a stand for the truth. We should also turn the other cheek at times. I just felt he could have shortened this book into an essay. Several chapters felt redundant to me.

Sunday we visited a wonderful church. The people were so kind and friendly. It was so different from the other churches we’ve visited in South Jersey. Many churches here have hard wooden pews. This church has padded chairs which is a big plus for David’s back pain. The church is about five minutes from our [...]