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Ingleside Baptist Church
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Testimonies
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TESTIMONIES OF OUR MEMBERS
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Right now our lives are touching for perhaps just a moment through this little article, and I want to share briefly with you something that has shaped my life. I am getting close to being 50 years old, and as I look at my life there are many blessings I am thankful for.
I have had the opportunity to raise 5 healthy, bright children, to travel and to perform music that I love. Even though life to this point has had some ups and downs, I have to say LIFE IS GOOD. But if it were not for a special day 32 years ago, my life story could be very different.
When I was 18, I came to a huge turning point. Near the top of my graduating class,
with music scholarships lined up for college, I appeared to most people to have it all together, but deep inside me was a lot of tension, loneliness and guilt. I had been brought up in church, but never understood how to be secure in my relationship with God. Church seemed to be all about trying to be good enough to win God’s approval. From about the age of 12, I was a victim of sexual abuse on and off for several years.
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Margaret McLewin
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I wish I had sought help from a caring adult to stop it, but I felt so much confusion, guilt and shame that I didn’t ask for the help I so desperately needed. (If anyone reading this is in an abusive situation, please don’t let fear or shame stop you! Just get help, quick!) I decided there probably wasn’t a God, and if there was, I didn’t have any hope of pleasing Him. I thought I would just try to decide for myself what was right or wrong. This was a frustrating process and left me stressed out, unhappy and hiding guilt and confusion. With everything on the outside apparently positive, on the inside I was despairing of life.
Then one weekend I attended a youth retreat, just in an effort to get away from home more than anything. The guest speaker for that weekend, Dwight McSmith, talked about God and the Bible in a totally new way. Dwight was an intellectual, a research scientist, and he believed the Bible to be totally accurate. He even challenged us to find one statement in the Bible that was untrue. He handled all our questions convincingly. This brought me face to face with the idea that perhaps there really were moral absolutes in life…real sin…real consequences...and more than that, real love, real forgiveness, real grace!!! I remember praying, “God, if You really are there, if Jesus is for real, come into my life.” That was a moment of transformation! I felt the stress and shame lift and the love of God surround me.
God promises us in John 1:12, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” So, before you go on to the next thing in your day, I hope you will stop and invite Jesus into your life. If you have already done that, just thank Him!
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