Day 4 – Grace To You

I was reading Pastor John MacArthur’s site tonight about how his church he pastors, called Grace To You, in southern California got started.

According to his “About” page, in his early days as a pastor, he pastored at a small church in the general Los Angeles area, and decided that he would tape record his lessons so that the members who were too ill to attend services could listen to them.

Volunteers helped him tape record his lessons in those early days. A handful of hears later, some of his tape recordings were played on air, and this is how “Grace to You” radio began.

Grace to You became a nonprofit, and in the early 1980s they bought a building and were able to hire staff.

Many of you know who Pastor John MacArthur is and faithfully watch his sermons online – like I do – and are very grateful for his online teachings.

I can’t go to church in person. I’ve already church-shopped and hopped here and there to many churches in my general area, none of which I want to become a member of.

I can understand how people want Christians to attend church in person but my feeling is that spending time in a watered-down, public-pursuing corporate environment that seeks to sell their CD’s, books and beginning inspirational “bible classes” that are like social clubs and community centers are not worth the time.

I’m not going to change their teachings or pastors so I can’t make the change I want to see there. I have tried such as sitting through their classes, sermons and group studies over many months and they don’t change. They’re not students of the bible. I don’t want to go.

So pastors like John MacArthur, who is a true long-time bible scholar and gives us the truth of God’s Word is invaluable to people like me who really want to follow Christ, and want a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus. He’s my guide through the bible and I want to keep learning about Christ through John MacArthur’s teachings.

So time spent today has been about wondering, from an earlier dream, how long it would take if I built something to serve Christ Jesus as John MacArthur has, but I’m not a pastor nor am I financially secure enough to do something like that instead of working my full-time job I have right now that I’m seeking to convert from a contract and temporary role to becoming a permanent employee in Human Resources.

The amount of study it would take to create a space to grow an audience of Christians who would bond together through Christ would be a full-time job and not pay much. (That’s a joke – it would be unpaid). I cannot write books with the time it takes to write them and I’m studying for a certification in the Human Resources space which might take up to a full year of study along with working full-time. This is a reason I’ve found it so hard to come here every day to journal.

I will try short snippets of audio’s but I can’t promise I can continue daily content over the long haul; after all I’m looking to move soon.

All these things together and being a member of my neighborhood association writing their newsletter and taking the minutes of their meetings, as well as keep up with a group I started in my area on NextDoor and having memberships in other groups like Facebooks keto, intermittent fasting and even Christ-centered groups keeps me too busy. My priorities have to change in order to do something with this blog.