March 2018 Week 3: Oxen FRIDAY | Page 2

MY OX

Good Day and welcome to your Kingdom Connection for March- Week 3- Friday! I hope that each of you have come to an understanding and/or another level of appreciation for the OX in your life. Today, I want to close this week's topic on my personal testimony of my OX!. While I had given my life to Lord around 12 years old, I never had anyone to teach me how to live saved. My mother did an excellent job teaching me Bible stories and making me learn bible scriptures. My grandmother would play the find the scripture the fastest game with me which is how I learned where the books of the Bible were and how many chapters and were in each one. I would call out something like "Jonah 15:22" and she would say, "Ain't no 15 chapters in Johah!" LOL. We went to church EVERY Sunday morning but the word coming forth was not penetrating much less changing me. It kept God on the forefront of my mind but that was it.

It wasn't until I was in college and a friend named Amanda was talking to be about salvation my freshman year. I understood salvation and I knew in my heart I wasn't ready to live totally for God so I declined her offer to lead me in the sinners prayer. She confirmed that I understood that if I died tonight, I would go to hell and I told her I understood. My heart just wasn't ready to allow God in at this time. But by the end of my 4th semester and now on academic probation I was yelling, "YES LORD- JUST DON'T SEND ME BACK HOME EMBRARRASSED!" I was easy LOL. But I meant every word of it. I was in Houston and went to the BAPTIST church down the street and when they opened the "doors of the church" I went to the altar. They took me to the back to have my picture taken and I refused and said,"I want to give my life to the Lord today!" They promptly found me a Deacon who understood the sinners prayer and led me in it. I will never forget the long line of picture takers who did added their name to the church roll but not the Lamb's Book of Life. I then went back to Austin for school and met a man who attended a tiny Holiness church. I went that Sunday and they helped me get filled with the Holy Spirit. I was still clapping, crying and speaking in tongues while they closed the service out. Then I heard the Pastor say, "Just let her praise Him" so then I knew to stop. I was gone BABY! But that wasn't my church and he wasn't my OX. I went to the popular Baptist church but felt nothing. I talked with my friend and she said, "I just think about what the choir sings". I didn't know what I was looking for or what I needed I just knew I was so empty so then it came to me call Amanda. She introduced me to Praise Tabernacle, now the called The R.O.C.K. and while I can't tell you what Dr. Carson preached that day, I remember thinking, "Where have you been all my life?" And I've never been without him for 28 years nows. This was my OX. This was my spiritual father. This was the