{"id":1712,"date":"2023-04-16T23:32:17","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T14:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/203.170.86.202\/wildeden.com.au\/news\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2023-04-16T23:32:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T14:32:17","slug":"first-time-in-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/soul-food\/2023\/first-time-in-church\/","title":{"rendered":"First time in church…"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the first times I went into a church off my own back, something *very* weird happened\u2026<\/p>\n

I was a drug and alcohol addict, on a road trip to end my life. I had been in a remote location (Peak Charles) from somewhere between 1 and 3 weeks. Strangely, I had no come-down, no headaches, no vomiting and no shakes, which baffled me.<\/p>\n

I did what any good addict would do: I drove 3 hours to the nearest pub (Norseman). I bought a jug of beer, but didn\u2019t even get through my second glass. It affected me so strangely, I was convinced it was laced with something and for the first time in my life, left alcohol I had paid for without drinking it.<\/p>\n

Walking out of the pub, a number of strange things happened that led me to sitting here, Sunday morning, in a little old church in Kalgoorlie. It was boring, quiet and I didn\u2019t really understand what was happening or what was being said.<\/p>\n

But one thing was clear: at one point a thought went through my head:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI need to give money to God\u201d !!!<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

!!! I mean what?! I don\u2019t believe God exists. If \u2018he\u2019 does, I hate \u2018him\u2019. I hate religious people. Why, would I, money desperate, rip off merchant, in any reality, give *anything* to a church or \u2018god\u2019????<\/p>\n

But the thought burnt in my mind. I had just read in the Bible, that if we give to God, if we put His Kingdom first, He will provide for us.<\/p>\n

Yeah right!<\/em> My scoffing attitude and logical brain knew that everything I had I earned, it came from much effort, planning, scheming NOT from some fake god!
So let\u2019s put this to the test! I will be dead shortly, so why not?!<\/p>\n

\"KalgoorlieI have no recollection if this Kalgoorlie was the church I attended or not…<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember clearly thinking \u2018god if you\u2019re there, I am giving this to you NOT this church.\u2019 I put everything that was in my wallet into the offering box thing.<\/p>\n

[It turns out that this was the last service of the pastor who had served there for years and years. He gave me some preaching tapes that ended up answering a key question I had – what a co-incidence!]<\/p>\n

But there was more – I had this niggling thought that I wasn\u2019t really putting God to the test as I was still getting money from the government.
The next morning I rang the Centrelink, the girl likely never had a conversation before or since like that:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI would like to cancel my payments\u201d
\u201cwhy?\u201d
\u201cBecause I think Jesus is telling me to!\u201d
\u201cwhat do you mean?\u201d
\u201cWell I\u2019ve been ripping you guys off for years – I was claiming while earning money and running a business\u201d
\u201cum\u2026if that\u2019s true you will need to pay it back. We may have to charge you\u201d
\u201cThat\u2019s fine, just cancel my payments\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And with that, I hung up, knowing that now I only had enough food \/ fuel to last a week or so\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over 20 years later, I can see clearly how God has provided for me from that very day. Hundreds of times I have sensed that He wanted me to give money away, help others, serve others, when I had no money or ability to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But every time, He provided a way. Over time, He provided so much we have been able to build a house(!). \u00a0<\/p>\n

If you sense God wants you to do something that lines up with the Bible – do it! Following Jesus isn\u2019t about a huge list of rules and regulations but a living relationship with the King of the universe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At time He will want you to do things that don\u2019t seem to make sense. Step out & be amazed at what He does through you\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Lord, give us the desire and strength to follow You. Help us to step out and be used for You so that others would discover the infinite benefit of knowing You.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.\u00a0<\/em>James 4:17 (NLT)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.\u00a0Matthew 6:32-33 (NLT)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the first times I went into a church off my own back, something *very* weird happened\u2026 I was a drug and alcohol addict, on a road trip to end my life. I had been in a remote location (Peak Charles) from somewhere between 1 and 3 weeks. Strangely, I had no come-down, no headaches, no vomiting and no shakes, which baffled me. I did what any good addict would do: I drove 3 hours to the nearest pub (Norseman). I bought a jug of beer, but didn\u2019t even get through my second glass. It affected me so strangely, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[240,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newman-trip","category-soul-food"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/screenshotMBP_2318.jpg?fit=956%2C754&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pasDCW-rC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1713,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions\/1713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}