I grew up in the south in a Holiness/Pentecostal church. I was raised knowing I was in the only “true” Church of God (of Prophecy). Other churches were only a poor imitation of what Christianity should look like. We were holy people and we were proud of it. I loved church and wonderful worship, knowing a personal Jesus and what a good “Holy Ghost” message sounded like. We were quite clannish and were willing to “pray it through” until the Lord gave clear direction.
I am thankful for my roots.
My greatest memories and some of my happiest, are remembering the closeness of Jesus to us, His people. I go to bed at night and follow the prayer patterns my grandmother taught me of calling out to God for those I love, asking the Lord first for my husband and children and then my extended family and church family. I follow a pattern of history that my mother and grandmother shared and I have passed that on to my children. Prayer does change things.
The Lord recently reminded me of an old song we sung in church.
You will have to use your own imagination ( or find a rendition on the web) but try to hear the pedal steel guitar carrying the tune and make sure you sway a little while you pitch just a tad “southern.”
Today, even with it's pretribulaton message, I think much of it is true to my understanding of church:
The Great Speckled Bird
What a beautiful thought I am thinking
Concerning a great speckled bird
Remember her name is recorded
On the pages of God's Holy Word.
All the other birds are flocking 'round her
She is despised by the squad
But the great speckled bird in the Bible
Representing the great church of God.
All the other churches are against her
They envy her glory and fame
They hate her because she is chosen
And has not denied Jesus' name.
Desiring to lower her standard
They watch every move that she makes
They long to find fault with her teachings
But really they find no mistake.
She is spreading her wings for a journey
She's going to leave by and by
When the trumpet shall sound in the morning
She'll rise and go up in the sky.
In the presence of all her despisers
With a song never uttered before
She will rise and be gone in a moment
Till the great tribulation is o'er.
I am glad I have learned of her meekness
I am proud that my name is on her book
For I want to be one never fearing
The face of my Savior true love.
When He cometh descending from heaven
On the cloud that He writes in His Word
I'll be joyfully carried to meet Him
On the wings of that great speckled bird.
I am very proud of the way I was raised and the heritage I am from. My grandmother came from her Baptist background to a fuller understanding of the gifts of the spirit during WWI. The story of the angel of the Lord who came to her as she prayed in the smokehouse are what family history is all about. This angel told her to not fear the pentecostals, that what they brought from the Lord would bring salvation to her family. It did.
All through the war and the dark days of the depression, the church was the Rock for my grandmother and her large family of nine kids on a cotton farm. Hard times and a drinking man, no money and plenty of nothing, insured that all kids were in church with my grandma every time the doors were open. They can all tell the stories of walking miles on black topped roads in the sunset and coming home in the dark, bringing the “travelin' preacher” home with them to have a hot meal and sleep in the barn.
The snake handlers and bare-foot hot coal walkers were real people that I grew up loving and trusting. They knew how to get God's attention. By the time I knew them they were old, with only their stories left to tell, but I understood God answered their prayers. They didn't have to do the wild things anymore to have others believe them about what Jesus could do, they had already lived it.
Scripture was always touted and I was raised to believe, “Know the truth and it shall set you free!” Truth had it own price tag and every man had the right for more of it. It was free but it might cost you everything.
Coming from good stock that loves the Lord like that, means you really can't be complacent in your own walk. There is something in my family tree that says I can't just “ get by.” I was raised to want and know truth. That “want to” led me into a discipleship program as a young adult, kept me involved in missions, and has led me into studying more theology and church history than any sane person should.
In my denomination ancient church history couldn't be studied. Hey, we might have been the true church of God but we weren't formed until 1903! I had never heard of the Church Fathers, the Nicene Creed or anything historic, until I was an adult. Then I studied everything: Anabaptist, Reformed, Calvinist, Arminian; you name it – I tackled it. The one place I didn't care to go was to Catholicism. It just wasn't for me. It was too weird and they were the guys that always tried to kill off people that differed with them. I knew they had some great reading material but it really didn't seem very relevant to real life situations or practical, for that matter. The saints were all dead and what made them a saint anyway?
God has a way or weaving His own story and certain things happening the way they do, might just be His way of getting your attention. A series of life changing events led my own family through a very similar depression, much like my grandmother's. How blessed we all were to have Jesus as our anchor. Without the strength of the Lord, we would not have survived as a family. I had prayed for God to do whatever it took to make us look more like Him. He did. He is good like that. When it was all said and done, I was looking square into the face of Rome.
How did a Holiness pastor's daughter become a Catholic? I wanted more truth of WHO God was. Because of His love for me, I followed a very clearly marked trail. That roadmap took me to the true Church of God. This church is very real, like God's family should be. It has nastiness and wickedness along with everything beautiful. With all of the good it has, there is still plenty of bad because it is made up of many, many kinds of people. Some desire more of Jesus in their own life and some are happy just “getting by.” It has withstood the test of time and trials and even being wrong but the rightness of it far outweighs the sinfulness of men that might be in it. It still takes the blows from the world. There are those who would want the Mother Church to lower her standard. She doesn't. She has holiness as her claim and she sticks to it.
This Church is the Great Speckled Bird I grew up singing about:
and She's Catholic!
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