Stand up and Testify!
Sunday, April 10, we had our first, official, open to everyone, Youth Group Meeting! So, okay, I'm still learning, and it wasn't necessarily firing on all cylinders. It'll get better! It's a growth thing! Sunday, April 10 was also my first anniversary as a Roman Catholic! Last year, Saturday April 10 was the date of the Easter Vigil, at which celebration I was received into full unity with the Catholic Faith! Good times! I didn't realise the connection when I decided to start the Youth Ministry regular meetings on the 10th. I didn't even realise it when I decided to give my testimony at the first meeting. It wasnt' until I sat down and thought about it that I realised that God has a wonderful sense of timing and humour! He is so good!
In case you're not down with the lingo, a "testimony" is the story of how a person came to faith in God, and recounts God's grace in his or her life. Often the most dramatic testimonies, the ones that get the most recognition or applause, are the ones that start off something like, "I used to be a long-haired, tattooed, guitar-playing druggy in a satanist rock band until Jesus came and turned my life around!" or some variation on a theme! And (despite my humourous exaggeration) it is amazing to witness the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit in someone--especially when it bears such obvious effects and results! For example, the Youth Pastor at the Pentecostal church I grew up in used to be a heavy drug dealer by the time he was 18, and God really did miraculously turn his life around!
The problem can sometimes be when we admire those testimonies so much that those of us who were brought up in the church and never really got in trouble start thinking, well, I really don't have a testimony! I've always been a Christian. Sometimes we think, I wish I had lived this crazy sin-life so I'd have something to talk about! But think about that. Imagine if the Virgin Mary thought she didn't have a testimony, because instead of being some drunken prostitute whose life was transformed by God, instead He saved her at the moment of conception so that she could be kept unstained from sin! We don't look down on her because her testimony isn't "dynamic" enough. Instead we venerate her as the epitome of what it means to be a pure, chaste, and obedient Christian!
So just because you weren't some murderous gangster before you met Jesus, don't think that your relationship with Him is somehow less important! Stand up and testify!
For myself, looking back I can clearly see God's hand in my life, even before I was born. 16 years before I was born, my parents got married, and wanted kids. They prayed about having kids. They even felt that God gave them the name of a son, Gregory. But for 15 years they had no children. I don't know why they couldn't. I never asked. They tried to adopt, but the line-ups are very long! Finally, after waiting 15 years to adopt, I came along, and I was given to them!
I was the child of an affair, a married man and an unmarried girl. By most standards today, I'd be considered an "unwanted child", and in 1980, abortion had been decriminalised for 11 years! Thank God my biological mother didn't choose the "easy" way out! Instead of aborting me, she gave me up for adoption, and I was named Gregory by my parents, Betty and Wayne Watson. Their example, waiting a decade and a half for a child, the length of the lineups at adoption agencies, tells me, and should tell everyone, that contrary to popular propaganda, there is no such thing as an "unwanted baby"!!!
My parents were very devout Pentecostal Christians, and they taught me about God from as far back as I can remember. I've always believed in Jesus. When I was five, there was this preacher guy who preached at my church one Sunday night about the need of inviting Jesus into your heart for salvation, that He died on the cross to forgive our sins, and that we need to accept Him. At the end, he did the "Pentecostal thing" and had an "altar call" which is where the preacher asks the congregation to respond to the sermon by either raising your hand, standing, or coming up to the front. Pastor Rhude had everyone bow their heads and close their eyes, and said that if anyone wanted him to pray for them to be saved, to raise their hands. As a 5-year-old kid, I completely disregarded "every head bowed and every eye closed" and was looking around as Pastor Rhude kept saying "Yes, I see that hand," and people put their hands down. But I had listened to the sermon, and wanted to be saved, so I put my hand up, and he said, "Little boy, I see that hand!" Well, didn't that just thrill me, so I turned to my mom (who was very devoutly following "every head bowed and every eye closed") and started tapping her and saying "Mommy, mommy! 'Little boy', that was me, Mommy!"
From then on I was a perfect little angel, and never caused anyone any trouble. The end. NOT! I did go to Kindergarten the next day and tell everyone! And I tried to live different. I think. It was a long time ago. I was always a pretty good kid, though. I never beat people up (though I got beat up a lot). I never rebelled or anything like that.
Then I got to high school, and like Aladdin said, "It's a whole new world!"--but not so much in a good way! There were new and crazy challenges in high school! People actually opposed and mocked Christianity there! They told me we came from monkeys! I knew that my Kindergarten faith had a lot of growing up to do! I joined the youth group at my church (which had the coolest kids anywhere!) and got involved in the drama team. Great times. I learned about the Holy Spirit, and how in the Book of Acts, He came and poured Himself out on the Apostles, and they got these miraculous powers like healing people and prophesying and speaking in tongues (for those who don't know, this stuff is pretty much what Pentecostalism bases itself on).
I wanted that kind of presence of God in my life. So at a retreat in '94 or '95 I went up for the altar call to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I got it! Speaking in tongues and the whole bit! Crazy! Most important, though, the Holy Spirit gave me a new power to stand up for my faith! I went back to high school and told people about Jesus! I still do--just not at my high school. Now I get to go to other ones! I love my job!
When I was 15, I went to a Christian camp and the preacher talked about Jacob in the book of Genesis. One of the stories is about how Jacob (whose name means deceiver) wrestles with The Angel of God, who blesses him by renaming him Israel (which means contends with God or Prince of God, depending on who you ask. Either way, better than "deceiver"!). The preacher said that God has a new name for all of us. A change in who we are, to make us more like Him. And we should all ask Him to change our name. He was being somewhat figurative, but I hated the name "Gregory" so I literally wanted God to change my name.
So the following week, I was reading the Bible during my daily time of devotions, or time to meet with God. At this time in my life, I was working my way through the Bible cover-to-cover. I was in Ezekiel (so more than halfway through) and that particular day I was reading Chapter 3. In verse 17, God says to Ezekiel, "Son of Man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel..." When I read this, God stopped me, and said, "That's you." I was like, "Huh?" (This is how we talk). He said, "I want you to be a watchman for Me." I'm like, "You're kidding, right?" (I wanted to be a cartoonist for Disney or something, not a missionary or pastor or whathaveyou!) God's like, "Nope. You know how you keep asking Me to change your name? Well, I already did. Your birth mother named you Michael, but I named you Gregory when you were adopted." Of course, I was using this bookmark I'd had since I was a wee lad to keep my place while I read through the Bible. It had my name on it, so I looked at it. It said my name, and then the meaning of my name: Watchman.
I wasn't sure what all that meant at the time, but I knew that God would tell me what I needed to know when I needed to know. But knowing my identity really formed who I was. I had a purpose. There's a line from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" where Giles, Buffy's watcher, asks her, "How many 16 year olds out there know what their purpose is?" Buffy starts to be sarcastic, but finally admits, "Ok, how about none." Well, I knew! And we all can know. God says that He has an awesome plan for each and every one of us! I'm extremely glad He told me early on, so I didn't have to waste time floundering without Him. Seek Him, and He'll guide you, too!
When I was 18, I dated a girl who wasn't Pentecostal, and she helped me see some things in their doctrine that I didn't believe were taught in Scripture. Pentecostals are great people and true Christians, don't get me wrong. But as a finer point of their doctrine they teach that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit must be evidenced by speaking in tongues. I didn't agree with that. Which is fine, not everyone agrees 100% with it. But I was supposed to be going into the ministry. That was what that whole "watchman" thing was all about! How could I be ordained a Pentecostal if I disagreed with a fundamental point of their doctrine?
So I went to an interdenominational Bible College to explore the alternatives. While I was there I learned a little bit at a time about Catholicism. Some of what I learned was favourable. Some was not. Some was outright biased against. But it whet my appetite! Around the same time, I met a Catholic girl and we started dating. We made a trade-off, that I would go to Mass in the morning and she would go to my Pentecostal church for the night service. This went on for about 3 years, while I, through Bible College and beyond, learned all I could about the Roman Catholic Church.
Finally, I reached the inescapable conclusion that they had the fullness of Christian truth! (So that's what 1 Timothy's talking about when St. Paul says, "The church of the living God [is] the pillar and foundation of the truth"!) But I was still a little disturbed by the Mary emphasis. I couldn't quite figure it all out. And even though they seemed to be right about everything else, so did the Pentecostals when I was there. If I left them even though I disagreed with only one doctrine (at the time. Now it's several), how could I embrace the Catholic faith while disagreeing still with one whole body of doctrine?
So I kept stalling, until I read the book that I talk about two posts previous, Hail Holy Queen by Dr. Scott Hahn. That book opened up Scripture to me in a new way, and opened up my eyes to really understand my Spiritual Mother, and her role in the faith! So it was that on April 10, 2004, I was received into full communion with the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. Now, exactly 1 year later, I've started a youth ministry in a Catholic Church! It's amazing to see God's plan and timing!
There are many things that attracted my to the Catholic Church. The fact that it stretches back to the time of the apostles themselves, in an unbroken succession (you can literally trace doctrines and beliefs back to the earliest Christians and show where they came from and how they developed!). The fact that the Catholic Church embraces art and pictures as aids to worship. As an artist, that was really cool, since many Protestants can tend to look down on pictures and statues as a form of idolatry. The unity of the Church was also a big draw, especially when I contrasted that to the 1000's of different Protestant denominations, constantly splitting from each other. The Catholic Church's unity (and Protestant disunity) springs from the authoritative teaching body under the Pope (or the rejection of the same). Without that infallible teaching body, protected and prevented from teaching error in issues of faith and morals by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul could never have called the Church the pillar and foundation of the Truth (1 Tim 3:15 again)!
But the main thing that attracted me and keeps me in the Catholic Church is the worship of the Mass, where, in the Eucharist, we receive Jesus Himself! As Scott Hahn teaches in another book, The Lamb's Supper, in the Mass we actually participate in the worship of Heaven! It is Heaven on Earth because Jesus is truly Present in the Eucharist! Now it is my life's joy and purpose to show others the beauty of the Catholic Church (whether they're Catholic or not themselves) and especially the joy of meeting Jesus as He comes to hang out with us every Sunday (and indeed, every day if you can go) in the Mass!
God bless!
(And if you want to know more details, remember, that's what the comments are for!)
In case you're not down with the lingo, a "testimony" is the story of how a person came to faith in God, and recounts God's grace in his or her life. Often the most dramatic testimonies, the ones that get the most recognition or applause, are the ones that start off something like, "I used to be a long-haired, tattooed, guitar-playing druggy in a satanist rock band until Jesus came and turned my life around!" or some variation on a theme! And (despite my humourous exaggeration) it is amazing to witness the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit in someone--especially when it bears such obvious effects and results! For example, the Youth Pastor at the Pentecostal church I grew up in used to be a heavy drug dealer by the time he was 18, and God really did miraculously turn his life around!
The problem can sometimes be when we admire those testimonies so much that those of us who were brought up in the church and never really got in trouble start thinking, well, I really don't have a testimony! I've always been a Christian. Sometimes we think, I wish I had lived this crazy sin-life so I'd have something to talk about! But think about that. Imagine if the Virgin Mary thought she didn't have a testimony, because instead of being some drunken prostitute whose life was transformed by God, instead He saved her at the moment of conception so that she could be kept unstained from sin! We don't look down on her because her testimony isn't "dynamic" enough. Instead we venerate her as the epitome of what it means to be a pure, chaste, and obedient Christian!
So just because you weren't some murderous gangster before you met Jesus, don't think that your relationship with Him is somehow less important! Stand up and testify!
For myself, looking back I can clearly see God's hand in my life, even before I was born. 16 years before I was born, my parents got married, and wanted kids. They prayed about having kids. They even felt that God gave them the name of a son, Gregory. But for 15 years they had no children. I don't know why they couldn't. I never asked. They tried to adopt, but the line-ups are very long! Finally, after waiting 15 years to adopt, I came along, and I was given to them!
I was the child of an affair, a married man and an unmarried girl. By most standards today, I'd be considered an "unwanted child", and in 1980, abortion had been decriminalised for 11 years! Thank God my biological mother didn't choose the "easy" way out! Instead of aborting me, she gave me up for adoption, and I was named Gregory by my parents, Betty and Wayne Watson. Their example, waiting a decade and a half for a child, the length of the lineups at adoption agencies, tells me, and should tell everyone, that contrary to popular propaganda, there is no such thing as an "unwanted baby"!!!
My parents were very devout Pentecostal Christians, and they taught me about God from as far back as I can remember. I've always believed in Jesus. When I was five, there was this preacher guy who preached at my church one Sunday night about the need of inviting Jesus into your heart for salvation, that He died on the cross to forgive our sins, and that we need to accept Him. At the end, he did the "Pentecostal thing" and had an "altar call" which is where the preacher asks the congregation to respond to the sermon by either raising your hand, standing, or coming up to the front. Pastor Rhude had everyone bow their heads and close their eyes, and said that if anyone wanted him to pray for them to be saved, to raise their hands. As a 5-year-old kid, I completely disregarded "every head bowed and every eye closed" and was looking around as Pastor Rhude kept saying "Yes, I see that hand," and people put their hands down. But I had listened to the sermon, and wanted to be saved, so I put my hand up, and he said, "Little boy, I see that hand!" Well, didn't that just thrill me, so I turned to my mom (who was very devoutly following "every head bowed and every eye closed") and started tapping her and saying "Mommy, mommy! 'Little boy', that was me, Mommy!"
From then on I was a perfect little angel, and never caused anyone any trouble. The end. NOT! I did go to Kindergarten the next day and tell everyone! And I tried to live different. I think. It was a long time ago. I was always a pretty good kid, though. I never beat people up (though I got beat up a lot). I never rebelled or anything like that.
Then I got to high school, and like Aladdin said, "It's a whole new world!"--but not so much in a good way! There were new and crazy challenges in high school! People actually opposed and mocked Christianity there! They told me we came from monkeys! I knew that my Kindergarten faith had a lot of growing up to do! I joined the youth group at my church (which had the coolest kids anywhere!) and got involved in the drama team. Great times. I learned about the Holy Spirit, and how in the Book of Acts, He came and poured Himself out on the Apostles, and they got these miraculous powers like healing people and prophesying and speaking in tongues (for those who don't know, this stuff is pretty much what Pentecostalism bases itself on).
I wanted that kind of presence of God in my life. So at a retreat in '94 or '95 I went up for the altar call to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I got it! Speaking in tongues and the whole bit! Crazy! Most important, though, the Holy Spirit gave me a new power to stand up for my faith! I went back to high school and told people about Jesus! I still do--just not at my high school. Now I get to go to other ones! I love my job!
When I was 15, I went to a Christian camp and the preacher talked about Jacob in the book of Genesis. One of the stories is about how Jacob (whose name means deceiver) wrestles with The Angel of God, who blesses him by renaming him Israel (which means contends with God or Prince of God, depending on who you ask. Either way, better than "deceiver"!). The preacher said that God has a new name for all of us. A change in who we are, to make us more like Him. And we should all ask Him to change our name. He was being somewhat figurative, but I hated the name "Gregory" so I literally wanted God to change my name.
So the following week, I was reading the Bible during my daily time of devotions, or time to meet with God. At this time in my life, I was working my way through the Bible cover-to-cover. I was in Ezekiel (so more than halfway through) and that particular day I was reading Chapter 3. In verse 17, God says to Ezekiel, "Son of Man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel..." When I read this, God stopped me, and said, "That's you." I was like, "Huh?" (This is how we talk). He said, "I want you to be a watchman for Me." I'm like, "You're kidding, right?" (I wanted to be a cartoonist for Disney or something, not a missionary or pastor or whathaveyou!) God's like, "Nope. You know how you keep asking Me to change your name? Well, I already did. Your birth mother named you Michael, but I named you Gregory when you were adopted." Of course, I was using this bookmark I'd had since I was a wee lad to keep my place while I read through the Bible. It had my name on it, so I looked at it. It said my name, and then the meaning of my name: Watchman.
I wasn't sure what all that meant at the time, but I knew that God would tell me what I needed to know when I needed to know. But knowing my identity really formed who I was. I had a purpose. There's a line from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" where Giles, Buffy's watcher, asks her, "How many 16 year olds out there know what their purpose is?" Buffy starts to be sarcastic, but finally admits, "Ok, how about none." Well, I knew! And we all can know. God says that He has an awesome plan for each and every one of us! I'm extremely glad He told me early on, so I didn't have to waste time floundering without Him. Seek Him, and He'll guide you, too!
When I was 18, I dated a girl who wasn't Pentecostal, and she helped me see some things in their doctrine that I didn't believe were taught in Scripture. Pentecostals are great people and true Christians, don't get me wrong. But as a finer point of their doctrine they teach that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit must be evidenced by speaking in tongues. I didn't agree with that. Which is fine, not everyone agrees 100% with it. But I was supposed to be going into the ministry. That was what that whole "watchman" thing was all about! How could I be ordained a Pentecostal if I disagreed with a fundamental point of their doctrine?
So I went to an interdenominational Bible College to explore the alternatives. While I was there I learned a little bit at a time about Catholicism. Some of what I learned was favourable. Some was not. Some was outright biased against. But it whet my appetite! Around the same time, I met a Catholic girl and we started dating. We made a trade-off, that I would go to Mass in the morning and she would go to my Pentecostal church for the night service. This went on for about 3 years, while I, through Bible College and beyond, learned all I could about the Roman Catholic Church.
Finally, I reached the inescapable conclusion that they had the fullness of Christian truth! (So that's what 1 Timothy's talking about when St. Paul says, "The church of the living God [is] the pillar and foundation of the truth"!) But I was still a little disturbed by the Mary emphasis. I couldn't quite figure it all out. And even though they seemed to be right about everything else, so did the Pentecostals when I was there. If I left them even though I disagreed with only one doctrine (at the time. Now it's several), how could I embrace the Catholic faith while disagreeing still with one whole body of doctrine?
So I kept stalling, until I read the book that I talk about two posts previous, Hail Holy Queen by Dr. Scott Hahn. That book opened up Scripture to me in a new way, and opened up my eyes to really understand my Spiritual Mother, and her role in the faith! So it was that on April 10, 2004, I was received into full communion with the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. Now, exactly 1 year later, I've started a youth ministry in a Catholic Church! It's amazing to see God's plan and timing!
There are many things that attracted my to the Catholic Church. The fact that it stretches back to the time of the apostles themselves, in an unbroken succession (you can literally trace doctrines and beliefs back to the earliest Christians and show where they came from and how they developed!). The fact that the Catholic Church embraces art and pictures as aids to worship. As an artist, that was really cool, since many Protestants can tend to look down on pictures and statues as a form of idolatry. The unity of the Church was also a big draw, especially when I contrasted that to the 1000's of different Protestant denominations, constantly splitting from each other. The Catholic Church's unity (and Protestant disunity) springs from the authoritative teaching body under the Pope (or the rejection of the same). Without that infallible teaching body, protected and prevented from teaching error in issues of faith and morals by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul could never have called the Church the pillar and foundation of the Truth (1 Tim 3:15 again)!
But the main thing that attracted me and keeps me in the Catholic Church is the worship of the Mass, where, in the Eucharist, we receive Jesus Himself! As Scott Hahn teaches in another book, The Lamb's Supper, in the Mass we actually participate in the worship of Heaven! It is Heaven on Earth because Jesus is truly Present in the Eucharist! Now it is my life's joy and purpose to show others the beauty of the Catholic Church (whether they're Catholic or not themselves) and especially the joy of meeting Jesus as He comes to hang out with us every Sunday (and indeed, every day if you can go) in the Mass!
God bless!
(And if you want to know more details, remember, that's what the comments are for!)
Labels: Conversion, Eucharist, St. Andrew's, Testimony, The Blessed Virgin Mary
posted by Gregory at 3:54 p.m.
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