My personal theme or catch phrase is to live a "Wholly-Holy"
life. My book touches on how we take
care of our physical body, but being a wholly-holy person obviously goes far beyond
that. So as Thanksgiving approaches this
week, I want to tell you how becoming more whole in my Christian journey is
what I am thankful for this year.
Both my husband and I were raised in Non-Denominational
Churches. We grew up in what would be
considered contemporary worship settings.
When we got married we continued the “Non-Denom” world where he was on
staff as both a worship leader and associate pastor for a few different
churches. (Not at the same time). Our experience as believers was a pretty laid
back atmosphere with the kind of worship music we hear on K-Love radio. This is a great atmosphere for many young
people as it seems to mesh well with the mood of younger generations. We felt comfortable in this setting and
looked at the traditional “Orthodox” Churches as out of touch and certainly
missing the new thing God was trying to do. (Yes, I know, I am telling on
myself a lot here). Then about six years
ago the Lord began to shift our vantage point.
He began to take us back to the Hebrew Roots of our faith. We began and incredible journey of learning
about the Jewishness of our Rabbi, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach ; Jesus the Messiah. We studied the bible from a Hebrew mindset
and learned about the Temple service, the Feasts of the Lord, the Sabbath and
so on. We developed a love for Israel
and the Lord put it on our heart to start a teaching and support ministry
called Word Made Flesh. Now He had given
us a whole new view of the Bible and the God of Abraham. We began to enjoy hearing liturgical prayers
and the rituals of our Judeo/Christian Faith drew us closer and closer to the
Jesus we love! I am so thankful for the
relationships God has given us with Orthodox Jews in the Land of Israel who
have helped us see God from a whole different view but God wasn’t finished
taking us on our vantage-point-tour yet.
Just a little over a year ago the Lord brought a few key
people into our life. For Roman it was
the Pastor of the First United Methodist Church. For me it was a Catholic friend. These relationships brought up new topics of
conversation for us about God’s Word and about worship. I had never been to a Catholic service and so
my friend invited us to come on Palm Sunday.
. . .my husband and I both cried through the whole service! From the priest circling the altar with burning
incense, to the holy water, to the cantering of the Psalms; the service made
perfect sense to us. Six years ago we
would have considered it odd, but God had prepared us with Hebrew study so that
the worship made sense!
Romans friendship with the Methodist Pastor had grown as
well so we decided to visit the traditional service at his church. Once again it was a fountain of tears. The acolytes, candles, and hymns all brought
out a feeling of reverence for the presence of our Holy God that we had longed
to find. It didn’t take long for us to
realize we are most comfortable in an Orthodox Christian setting. It didn’t take much longer to realize this
was also a ministry fit for us and Roman was asked to come on staff this past
September. Now we are learning the
Doxology, and the Apostles Creed. The
congregation says the prayer of confession before communion and the Lord’s
Prayer just after the offering. I am
learning all about the Church Calendar which includes things like Advent and
Lent. We sat at dinner one evening with
our new Pastor and his wife. I told them
I had been a Christian my whole life and now felt brand new to so much of it. She is the one who first said God had given us the gift of seeing
Him from different vantage points. Kind
of like sitting in a new spot at the family dinner table. If you keep the same chair your whole life
the scenery never changes. When you move
to a different spot, you see things you were not able to see before. God is so BIG that we must be willing to move
out of our comfort zones to view Him outside of one little box. I love walking into my church in the middle
of a Monday morning and hearing the organ playing, or knowing that the first Sunday of each month
we will hear a performance of worship hymns played on the hand bells. The Lord has blessed us with many vantage
points of Him and we personally fit in a more Orthodox setting; however; I can
still go to a contemporary worship service and feel the breath of the Spirit! I encourage all of you to; at some point, visit
a church that may not do things that are within your comfort zone. Go with a friend who attends that church and
ask them about why they follow, or don’t follow, certain traditions. You may be and Orthodox who needs to see the
Contemporary point of view (or vice-versa).
Like me, I know it will help you grow more whole (and holy) as you are on
your journey of faith.
I am so thankful that God has allowed me to see Him from
more than one point of view!
