Howdy, All!

[rebeccat]

My name is Rebecca.  I live in Hudson WI, outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul. 
I actually found tentmaker about 5 or 6 years ago.  The start of my story was that I was in the process of re-reading scriptures from front to back (my favorite, non-church approved method) and was really appalled at some of the stuff in the OT.  I think I got to a story about a woman who drove a stake through some guy's head and had to stop and ask God what the blazes the deal was.  He told me, "I work it all together for my purposes."  Now, this is kind of a big idea to really grasp, and if you accept that quite a few folk are headed to ET, then this idea presents real challenges.  Was God saying He could give up on some folks, just let their lives be taken because there was no hope for their salvation anywho?
At the same time, I was on another message board which discussed topics of religion and brought together people of all and no faiths.  There was a woman there who quoted 1 Timothy 4:9-10 in a rather cryptic way one day.  Another poster who was a die-hard evangelical ET'er responded, "I'm so sick of hearing this universalism crap."  I had no idea what this "universalism crap" was so I just typed "christian universalism" into my search engine and came across tentmaker. 
I read tons of stuff from the scholar's corner, did some more research on my own and realized that this all made sense, held up to scrutiny and was inline with my own knowlege of the Living God.  Plus, it made God's previous message to me about working everything out for His purposes so much clearer.  Of course, as the truth is wont to do, I found that I was so much free-er than at any time since I was a brand new baby Christian.  I was free to love other people fully no matter how screwed up they are, since God could be trusted to take care of them in His own time.  I didn't fear failing and falling since I knew I could trust God to come back for me if I did.  I could trust God fully and without any fear since I knew that there was no chance He would reject me or abandon me for any reason.  Praise God! :cloud9:
Now I'm a few years into this walk.  I've seen how closed and resistant most Christians are to this message and I learned to let it be unless God has called it out of me.  I'm very open with non Christians about what I believe and find that they come back to me, rather than me chasing after them. 
Right now, my husband (also a UR believer) and I are preparing for a kind of scary mission which we believe God has given us.  We will be starting a church together.  It's purpose isn't primarily to spread the word about UR, but it will absolutely be in our foundational beliefs and something we preach about as openly as other pastors teach ET.  I know that there are those who disagree with the whole concept of the modern church and it's teachers and such.  However, we do feel that this is a call that God has placed on our lives and that He intends to do something big with it, as long as well remain open and obedient.  And although I do understand the arguments surrounding modern churches, the fact of the matter is that when someone is hurting and in need of God's love, they aren't going to show up on my door and say, "hey, I hear you have a good word for me."  But they will go to a church.  There are certainly enough churches out there preaching garbage waiting to recieve the hurting, so i think God wants us to have a place where that same person can go and hear the truth.
Of course, in order to do this, we cannot associate with a denomination.  And up until recently I thought that the fact that God wanted us to do this also meant that he wanted me to go to seminary.  Now, I'm not so sure, which would mean I'd be starting with some cracker-jack ordination.  Of course, ordination has become such a worldly, twisted thing that it is probably best not to feed the beast more than need be.  But still, just standing out there with no worldly back-up, preaching a message which is guarenteed to bring attack is a frightening prospect.  Especially because it seems to both my husband and I that God does not intend for us to be low-profile.  But we simply cannot preach UR with integrity without triggering distracting battles while attached to worldly things like denominations and proper certifications.
However, as Gary has written about, there are substantial numbers of people, including pastors who secretly believe in UR.  If God wants to start raising up people to boldly proclaim the truth (like that guy down south who was on "The Messenger" a while back) and people begin to be drawn to a message which represents God's best made for His creation, perhaps over time, many of those secret truth holders will find the courage to step forward as well.
I believe that God revealed to me some time ago that it is His intention to bring about a generation of renewal for His people and His church at this time.  I think UR is going to be central to that.  And when God is on the move, you're just along for the ride.  So although from an earthly, worldly perspective, I find the whole thing unnerving, I'll go God's way.  And praise God, He's at work in me and I know that by the time He's ready for us to go, I'll be prepared by the best jewler there is  :Sparkletooth:
Anywho, this is probably too long and TMI, but for some reason I felt drawn here to share this tonight.  I'm not sure how much I'll be able to be around.  I have 4 kids and a history of message board addiction that I need to be careful to keep under control!
But I just wanted to share . . . because sharing is caring!  :icon_jokercolor:

[martincisneros]

Hi,

Welcome to Tentmaker.  I'm so glad you're here.  You're going to love it here, the few moments that you can steal away from everything else you have going on and will have going on.  Thanks for sharing.  You're in my prayers that you'd have the wisdom, provision, favor, protection, boldness, health, and utterance of the Lord for all that He's called you to.

Martin :Sparkletooth:

[SeekerSA]

Hi Rebecca

:welcome: to tentmaker

Be blessed here

As for ordination/certification, not being in the USA, this maybe all needed just for Weddings and Funerals.  You are already ordinated by God to preach the "Good News"  Not sure what is available but you may want to touch bases with Gary on this matter.

Blessings

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Amen to that prayer, and Welcome!

[Taffy]

wowza...some intro

Welcome Rebecca :icon_flower: :icon_flower:

Blessings
Taffy

[hopeful]

Hi, Rebecca!   :dsunny: Welcome to Tentmaker!

Thanks for the intro.  I like to hear details!
I have 4 children, too but only one left at home.

:HeartThrob:

[Pierac]

 :hihat:   Rebecca,


Welcome!

Paul