I take it you used that name for a later son, then? You'd the 'the third' out of just two generations, I suppose.
Yes… our intention was to name the first male child with Wayne - which ended up being the name of the third. LOL Don’t know if you can rename them later.
What caused you to seek out Christ? Why did doing so have such a drastic effect on your marriage?
We were seeking. I personally believe that everyone has a void that we are trying to fill up with something. Both of us came from a divorced home having the baggage that comes from that and, probably, all I needed was an opportunity to violate our vows and follow my father’s footsteps. Probably at the most 3 years to disaster if not sooner.
Not knowing the first scripture about the bible but having heard that Jesus died for our sins, I was presented with the verse (in Spanish) Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
I raised my hand and asked if it was necessary to confess with your mouth. Their response was, “what does it say”? And it was still there
Three things went through my mind:
1) My life is going from bad to worse, I think I need to try something different
2) The bible is either false or true. I’ll begin with believing it is true and test the sucker and I will find out soon enough if is true or not.
3) It won’t hurt me to confess Jesus and my Lord.
So I went up, followed by my wife’s sister, and then my wife (each with different reasons) and we all confessed Jesus as Lord from our hearts.
The next day I called my wife and heard her voice and new something had changed in her. What also changed iin my was I found a new love for her that basically erased every thought of violating the vows. Later I understood that I had been born again and God, who is love, had filled my life. That was the first drastic effect on my life.
What kind of service did you do?
We had jumped into serving the children on Saturdays. We would go to the neighborhood around the church , invite the children to see a movie, make popcorn, and share the love of Jesus.
LOL It was so funny that at the beginning my wife had asked the children, “Do you want to sing a song?” They all chimed in “YES!”. She asked, “What song do you want to sing”. Most of them said “Jesus love me!”. Her reply, “I don’t know that song, can you help me?” That’s how much of a blank sheet we were. The children’s eyes popped out as they shouted, “YOU DON’T KNOW JESUS LOVES ME?” They were more knowledgeable than we were.
I always wondered how in the world did the pastors let us do that!
We were Bible illiterates! I guess, since it was a small church, if someone had two legs, they were using them!
We then joined the children’s ministry and basically learned from teaching at the beginning (and listening to the pastor’s sermons too).
I had worked in every area of ministry. Maintenance, youth and children’s ministry, Spanish ministry, home groups, praise and worship, toilet cleaing
, church accounting, event manager—you name it, I had done it. At one point I was wondering and considering uprooting our family and going to a Bible College. During the months of prayerful consideration, I heard an inner voice that simply said, “Don’t go, you will get all your training right here!” and the question of going vanished.
Years later hat same inner voice later said, “I’ve called you to be a pastor” and looking back at all I had done, I realized why I had completed every single ministry.
I just knew it was God’s voice.
That makes good sense.
What would be an indication of a 'violation' of said principles?
Two simple ones:
One that you hear about often is if you hear a voice, or a dream or revelation, or an angel that comes and declares, “You are the Messiah that I have called you”. Scripture says, “Many shall come saying they are the Christ”. And instant “nope”!
Another, “88 reason why Jesus is coming back in 1988 - I think there was a book out on it. Scripture is clear, “No one knows the time…"
It can get more complex in other situations.
A pink elephant would be fun, but I hear those type are just temporary.
There really are a lot of small ones...
I believe that!
Want to share any of those stories? (If its too personal, that's fine, too.)
I’m pretty transparent.
On healing, I was in my bed and couldn’t move without excruciating pain enough to go to the hospital. I remember grabbing the side of the bed and rolling off the bed saying, “I’m healed in the name of Jesus!! Repeating the phrase, I began pulling myself to the door, to crawling to the bedroom door, to walking to the door and when I got to the door the pain was gone.
A more funny one was when I was hit with a sneezing fit, runny eyes, fever and snot flowing! In my bed again and called to my wife to come. When she reached the bedroom door I said with a nasally voice, “Betsy, could you make me some chicken soup?”.
She looked at me for about 5 seconds and the said, “YOUR HEALED IIN THE NAME OF JESUS!!”. She turned around and shut the door. We still laugh about it! I was in my bed, no love, no sympathy and NO CHICKEN SOUP!
I thought to myself, “Well I can moan, groan and whine but I’m not getting anything” and decided to just get up. The moment I hit the floor e
verything left! I walked out completely normal. Reminded me of Jesus who rebuked Peter’s mother-in-law’s fever and she just got up!
That’s a couple on the healing side.
So, to make sure I understand...
While a person is talking in tongues, they are more likely to be able to have guidance or give blessings through divine intervention?
Exactly! I have gotten guidance through praying, found what to pray while praying in tongues, and intervention and blessing in people’s lives.
That makes sense.
