Chapter 16: Myth—God Owns Solid Rock

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Myth—God Owns Solid Rock

To fully understand the theft, let’s take a look at how it came about

that God told me to go to the Elk River Assembly of God Church. This theft was not conducted in a vacuous context. No, in fact the theft was enabled because Satan had already taken a strong foothold within the church. The only thing Satan needed was to consolidate his control.

When Jackie and I arrived in the small town of Elk River thirty years ago, we had leaned towards the Presbyterian Church as the faith we would raise our children in. That is because, quite frankly, I didn’t have a real faith

at the time. For that matter, I didn’t even care about the church. I had my fire insurance I guess and didn’t need a “real” relationship with God. For that matter, I could not even explain what that was. Nor did I know that I needed it. Like many men, I shirked my spiritual responsibilities to God and dumped them onto Jackie. She was taking the spiritual lead at the time and

knew that we needed to get our children into the faith. The Reverend David Searfoss from her Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church was a Pentecostal preacher of righteousness. He was the pastor that developed Jackie’s faith. Praise God for righteous women, especially when their husband’s are really

clueless about the substance of true faith in God like I was at the time.

We looked for a Presbyterian church, but couldn’t find one in town. As it turns out, there was a United Church of Christ [UCC] assembly in Elk

River. Apparently, when a UCC church is in a small town, a Presbyterian church isn’t and vice versa. I don’t know if that is always the case. It is just what we were told by the local UCC pastor at the time. So, we decided to worship at the Union Church in Elk River since we were told it was similar

to the Presbyterian Church.

At one point, I filled out a survey at Union Church indicating I only went there because of Jackie and I wasn’t getting much out of it myself. I

was brutally honest in the survey. I didn’t want any confusion about the fact I wasn’t really into this church stuff. Jackie became involved and served as a member on the board of Christian education. Eventually, I found God in the epiphany I talked about in chapter 13. Let’s pick the story up from the

point where I gave God my heart. It was the spring of 1978 that I let God into the bowels of my very soul. Remember? Life changed …