My Journey Into Grace Part 4

My Journey into Grace Part 1

My Journey into Grace Part 2

My Journey into Grace Part 3

IV. Wandering in the Wilderness

Shortly after my conversion to Christ I began to sense a call to the ministry. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what that call was, I just was so grateful to Jesus for what He had done for me, that I wanted to spend my life telling others about Him and helping Christians grow in Him. Over the next few years, this desire remained, but I do believe it became corrupted as I grew more and more proud of my own Christian testimony.

As college progressed I wanted nothing more than to serve God in full time ministry. I changed my major to Classical Studies, a very impractical major for anyone who doesn’t plan on going into a teaching or research field. But, Classical Studies gave me the opportunity to study Greek, Latin and ancient history which I felt would prepare me for seminary.

  After graduating from college, I wanted to go to seminary, but had spent the family fortune in college and was unable to proceed. So, I took a job as an insurance adjustor, ostensibly to bide my time while waiting for a door to open to go to seminary and into the ministry.

In 1986 I met a wonderful woman named Lynette Duncan who believed that God was calling her to serve on the mission field or to marry a pastor. I felt called to either be a missionary or a pastor and the two of us came together and were married in 1987.

Together we pursued this goal of ministry. We taught Sunday School and were involved in many different areas of service. About a year after we were married, God opened the door for us to go to seminary. We went to what was then called Columbia Biblical Seminary and Graduate School of Missions, in Columbia, SC. She would work and I would study and at the end of three years we would be on the mission field or in the pastorate.

The experience at Columbia was a good one, but it did nothing to quell my growing pride. In fact, as my head became more and more filled with knowledge my pride grew accordingly.

But, I had very little ministry effectiveness that I was aware of. About a year into this Lynette became pregnant. According to the doctor, Lynette had a condition that would not allow her to become pregnant without some medical intervention. But, God knows more than doctors and so He decided to surprise us. We had made the commitment early in our marriage that, when children came, she would not work but stay home and care for the kids. So, with the birth of our first child we abandoned our plans for seminary and I went back to work as an insurance adjustor. 

Still, we continued to hope and pray that a day would come when we would go into ministry and we continued to be involved and serve our churches whenever we could.

After dropping out of seminary, we moved back to Florida to be near family and within the next year or so I did a good bit of reading and became convinced that Reformed theology was biblical. So, we moved into the Presbyterian Church in America and joined a local church. Because we were living in Central Florida we were within driving distance of the Orlando campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. Within a year of joining a PCA church I was able to resume my studies at RTS-Orlando, thanks to the generosity of our family and some church members.

    It was while I was at seminary that I had a few huge wake up calls.

 

Comments

[Catez]

Now that is a real cliffhanger!