As much as I hate to do this, I am at this point moving my blogging to:

http://tabolty.wordpress.com/

(If this link does not work, copy paste it into the search bar on your browser)

I'm switching my blogging to Wordpress for now because it has no advertising. I really hate to loose touch with a few of my fellow Xangians, but I can't tolerate the kinds of ads that now appear on Xanga. :( I will however keep my subscription so I can check in with some of you now and then! :)

For now, this is where you will find me:

http://tabolty.wordpress.com/  ( copy/paste to search bar if link does not work )

You can subscribe to my site if you want to...like any of us need more subscriptions, but just in case...:)

Love to All,

Theresa

I'm feeling a little like Truman on the Truman show where he see's the same car go around the block again...and again...and again...except it is my life and the car is 'dinner'.

The following are foods that often come out of my kitchen. If I didn't know better, I would think they were the SAME four meals going around and around...so I'm going to list them:


enchiladas
chili
spaghetti
enchiladas
chili
spaghetti
enchiladas
chili
spaghetti
enchiladas

Give me a minute...trying to think here...:)


Ok, I think I'm ready now...I thought of a few more:

roasted potatoes with garlic oil and herbs
meatloaf
baked potatoes ( olive oil and salted before cooking)
chicken chili - white or red
pizza ( homemade and delicious! )
french dips with homemade au' jus
green beans with butter and romano cheese
baked chicken
grilled chicken
chicken picante
chicken and biscuits

Now...if you have read this far, can you list what typically comes out of your kitchen?

Then we can all compare notes and maybe add one more recipe to our Truman meals going around the block :)

Love to All,

Theresa :)

" If I became a Christian, could I keep the same friends? "

Sharon very wisely answered something to the effect that we would want to have friends who shared our faith and if we had friends that would pull us away from God or into sin, that we really could not have them...we would have to choose.

OK, so she wasn't giving easy answers. Follow Christ. Lose Friends.

I'm pretty sure I asked her if I would also have to stop partying...to which I am sure she had some wise response.

One of the girls then spoke up and told us she was an atheist and that her mom would not like us talking about God and could we stop. Sharon complied and told us we could talk to her privately if we had any more questions.

That night I went to bed weighing all that she had shared. I instinctively knew she knew her God and by her witness I could see that salvation was real.

Real.  Real is what I knew I wanted.

I wanted what she had....but I also knew it would come with a price. Leave my friends? The few I had...at least I had them....but I did not know anyone who knew Christ like Sharon and I knew I would be alone. Was I willing to do that?  My city is known as the 'city of churches' and yet I didn't think I knew anyone who knew the Lord as she had demonstrated.

 I lay in bed that night for a long time. There was a battle raging in me. I wanted to know the Lord like Sharon did, but if I did, I knew I had to leave all that was familiar to me. I knew I had to leave the drugs and partying scene. I would be alone because I didn't know anyone else who knew the Lord in this way. What was this worth to me?

I didn't feel I had anything. I knew I was dead. I had already reached the end of myself.

So I lay in bed fighting with myself. Struggling. Knowing that somehow I was playing with life and death. I knew instinctively that this LIFE I wanted would also mean DEATH. But I also knew that I would be dying to something that was already killing me, no matter how familiar it was.

Finally after a few hours of struggling and anguishing, I knew what I wanted to do. I prayed and told the Lord, "God, I know you are there now. If you would just give me the strength." That's all I spoke. That's all I really knew to say, but I knew what it meant...this was a death and new beginning.

The moment I prayed that prayer it was as if all the muddiness of my brain untangled itself and on one side I could see black and on the other side I could see white. I knew at the time of my prayer the the line had been drawn and that God had made it very clear what just happened - that I had just stepped from darkness and into His marvelous light!.

After a while I whispered to my friend, Karen, to see if she was awake. She answered and I told her, "Karen, I just gave my life to the Lord."

I don't quite remember what her response was, but I know she was happy and excited. I was excited because what I was feeling was REAL!
 Karen insisted that I tell Sharon right away. It was somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning when I crawled out of my bunk.

I quietly went up to Sharon to wake her and called her name. She immediately answered, and I told her, "Sharon, I just gave my life to the Lord."

She said something like, " I know. I have been praying for you all night."

What? How could she be praying all that time? And how did she know ? I knew that also, was testimony of the reality of God now in my life.There is no way she could pray that long and for me if God had not been speaking to her or if He was not real...but He was yet showing me that He was.

 Well, I have to say I was really excited. I could feel the new life with in me and I could hardly sleep. Sharon let us go down to the bathrooms and Karen and I were like two year olds running and laughing in the pouring rain to and from our trek.
   

Two days from then, we said 'good-bye' to everyone and exchanged addresses. Sharon took mine, but of course,  I didn't know if I would see or hear from her again.

When I got off the plane in Grand Rapids, I ran to my mom and threw my arms around her and said, "Mom, I'm not the same girl that left here a week ago! " Of course, she didn't know what I meant by that and  it was later that I explained to her and my dad that I had given my life to the Lord.

 I had a few snares. I had to tell my friends that I could not hang out with them anymore. I told them I didn't want to party anymore and that I knew if I hung with them that I would eventually go back to partying. They tried to tell me that we didn't have to party, but I knew better...I knew that was what our relationship was mostly built on...and I didn't trust myself to ruin all that I had just gained.

 Ironically, one of my friends was very happy for me and it was she who wrote on a 3 x 5 card, "Trust in the Lord withall your heart and lean not on your understanding.Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He shall direct your paths." That verse has often been the cornerstone of my faith walk. She also was the one, along with her sister, who introduced me to Christian music.

 While I enjoyed a couple of times with her, I realized that she was not going to change her ways. She knew to give me a few precious gifts and she did not discourage my walk...but she wasn't coming with me.

 I really was alone. I didn't know anyone, so I committed myself to reading the Bible. Sharon wrote me and shared about the Holy Spirit and told me to read the gospel of John and Romans to start with. ( Sharon later told me that while she wrote me in faith, she really didn't think that I was going to make it. What a great reminder to believers to keep sowing even when you think it isn't working! )

When I went back to school and walked through a school yard on my way to the bus, I was met by an old 'friend' who happened to be a dealer. He opened his coat and pulled out all kinds of bags from his pockets. The guy was loaded with illegal drugs and marijuana. Here it was, right in front of me anything I wanted, a candy store and I had just sworn off the party. I told him thanks, but I wasn't interested just then and I turned to leave and walked away. I just walked away...and I knew the steps I was taking were creating a chasm that widened the divide between light and darkness.

Eventually on a bus one day, I told one of the other gymnasts who I remembered might be a bit 'religious' that I had given my life to the Lord and she was elated.  I had told her that I didn't know anyone who knew the Lord like I had just met Him and was pretty much alone. It was she who introduced me to Campus Life, a Christian youth group, where I began to meet people who shared my life in Christ.

I have to say though, that it took me a long time to get used to them. I was used to being 'cool'' and talking like I had a hit of marijuana stuck in my throat. These guys were NOT cool...but they were a LOT of fun...and eventually won me over. :) They were the first of many precious friends that I met over the years and with whom I shared a deep love for the Lord.

I had a long road ahead of me of learning what it meant to be a Christian and to be healed from the wrong thinking and struggles within. I wasn't always successful but one thing I did know was that I was never going back and that I would always seek to know more of Christ.

It has now been thirty years ( ! ) since I first gave my life to the Lord! Even now I can still testify that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus, old things have passed away and behold all things have become new!"

Well...this took 'forever' to actually write, but here it is. I hope for those who might have actually hung in there to read it all were blessed. God still is in the business of saving and redeeming. Never give up on those you are praying for!

Love to All!

Theresa

I suppose I could write about all the snares of my sin...but  sin is sin and the results are not unique in anyone's life.

 All sin leads to death...spiritually, emotionally, mentally....physically. All sin ravages the soul and leaves the sinner for dead. All sin has 'pleasure for a season' but in the end it will never give life .

Rom 6:22-23
 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I was dead...and miserable in my sin.  Dead...but ever able to feel the lack of life and the agony of knowing that life existed...somewhere... but was beyond my reach. Hell will be like that...multiplied.

I was angry at the world. Angry at myself. Angry at people. Disillusioned with  people and frustrated that there wasn't more to life...and angry that no one seemed to care if there was.

I was full of rebellion, challenging of authority  and distrusting of people...screaming for answers...wanting none.

( Let me say here, that yes, there were those people who were anchors for me here and there and as I look back I see that God did plant people and hope for me to keep me until I would finally find Him. I really did not hate everyone. I didn't WANT to...but I did have so much anger and frustration inside! I know now that God used that to drive me to the LIFE HE had to give. )

So finally, the summer I turned sixteen, I was giving up. I was dreading going into my junior year because I knew I was not going to make it. I might as well not show up at the door. My GPA was 1.8...proof that I often went in the front door and out the back door when I got to school.

That summer my parents were sending me to a gymnastics camp in the Pennsylvania mountains. (Thank you Mom and Dad! ) I was a gymnast in High school. It was a good place for me to unleash a lot of  angry energy. That and arguing with my coach about life which I continued to do after I came to Christ. )

 However that summer, I was also burning out. I only cared about the next party and I certainly was not fit to go to a camp. I was weak and out of shape and hardly prepared for 8 hours a day of activity! Not to mention, there was no smoking or partying allowed. O_o

A week or so before I was to go to camp I told a few of my fellow gymnasts that I needed help and didn't know what to do. I told them what I was doing and I told them I had no idea of how to get out of it and that I knew I would never make it through the following year of school. They suggested checking out some counseling services in GR and I told them that when I got back from camp maybe I would check them out, but I didn't have a lot of hope for that either.

Little did any of us know, when I got on the plane to Pennsylvania, what plans the Lord had for me.

Little did I know that my life would soon end as I knew it...and begin again.

It wasn't counseling I needed. It wasn't anything the world could give me...I just needed a new life.


  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Cor 5:17

To Be Continued...

Love to All,

Theresa