Dear Brethren and Sisters,

I received the following post yesterday from Sister Brenda Fordham (wife of Bro. Burney Fordham) and she has given me permission to share it.  It brought tears to my eyes and I believe you will rejoice in it also.  May the Lord bless each of you with a good weekend in the Lord.

In Christian love,

Bro. Ralph

Dear Bro. Ralph,

I loved reading this little message this morning, I was raised a full-fledged Missionary Baptist and so were my first two children and the rest of my siblings and their families. After I married Burney and went to the Old Baptist Church I stood steadfast in "my beliefs" and thought what a convenient religion he had, you get to do whatever you want to in life and if you are his elect you still get to go to heaven to be with the Lord…This could "not" be true, because I was always taught to do good and "accept" the Lord, I was baptized at 8 years old. My Daddy was a very religious man, he loved the Lord and it showed in his daily life, we were in church every Sunday morning, night, Wednesday night prayer meeting, G.A.’s and every function they had…but I never remember being taught predestination and election…so when the Old Baptist Elders began preaching it on my visits to Burney’s Church, like I said I stood fast in my own beliefs and continued to go anyway because I felt it best that Burney, myself and the child we had together should go to church together as a family, my other two children were already grown and on their own…over time I began to question my belief’s, the Bible always seemed to contradict itself before, but these Elder’s could prove what they were saying in verses from the "Good Book" and one day the Lord opened my eyes and I could see very clearly that what I had been taught, by very wonderful people in my life, I might add, was wrong…that the Bible taught here and eternity and what I had been taught was just eternity, everything I did was based on what would happen to me in the here after, so of course that’s why the Bible seem to contradict itself to me, because I remember reading that nothing could take you from God’s hands, nothing…lots of things the Missionary Baptist belief in his teachings are meant eternal, they read the Bible literally and not distinguish here and eternity as they should…one verse comes to mind, "I stand at the door and knock" that was taught to me as I have to "accept the Lord" while he is knocking or else I am doomed to hell fire for eternity, what I understand now is that he came to give "His Elect" life and have it more abundantly and we can have that (abundant life) if we follow in his teaching and be obedient while we are here and he will be with us every step of the way and that nothing, no works that I can do will get me anywhere, good or bad, except that I be under condemnation while I am "here" and not eternally in Hell…I use to go to bed at night and say my "Thankful, and Forgive Me Prayers" as I call them and would feel so down hearted because I had sinned that day (usually losing my temper) and thought to myself, "I’m never going to get this right, I thought I had to be "sin free" in order to go to heaven and I was not "sin free"…as I look back I think to myself what a joke!…LOL…I will never be "sin free" while I am here…although it was very real to me then… anyway, my point is that I still don’t know how to explain, the right way, what my beliefs are now when I am asked by my family…so when you send these wonderful messages to me and passages from the Bible to back them up, I love to send them to my first two children and to my sister’s, they say what I want to say but don’t know how…so thank you Bro. Ralph, I’m not trying to change my family’s church, I just don’t want them to go to bed at night thinking another day came and went and they still did something wrong and are going to Hell…I just want them to feel the same peace inside as I do that there is "nothing" I can or cannot do that will erase or add my name to the Lamb’s Book Of Life…it was sealed… it’s a done deal! Jesus has "already" taken care of that…that love overwhelms me and is almost unbelievable at times…as I am, of course, "so" unworthy in any way, shape, form, or fashion…just "very grateful" that he does loves me and still continues to bless me and my family daily even as unworthy as we are…he is so good to us…again thanks for this message this morning…I’m so glad that the "Good Lord" blesses you to write these messages, we already know the truth but it’s like a good song we might love, it’s good to hear it "over and over" again, I never tire of hearing it…we at Red Hill are very blessed also with an Elder ( Jack Anderson) that the Good Lord blesses to reminds us of who we are and why we are, and of "His" love for us…may God continue to bless you and yours…

Sis. Brenda