Donna's Belief

Kirk and I are currently atten ding King's Harbor Church, which is belongs to the Four-Square Gospel denomination. But what does that mean? Well, when I joined the church, I signed something that indicated that I agreed with the church's statement of faith. But it didn't start then -- it started MUCH earlier!

I spent years and years of my life attending churches and calling myself a Christian. But during that whole time, I did not live the life that I claimed to believe in. My life was centered around me. I measured success in how good a job I had, how many friends I had, how many trips I could take (and to the coolest of destinations), the car I drove, how "nice" I was...

In 1996, I had been attending a church in Dallas (where I was living) for about 8 months and yet didn't know anyone else there. I decided it was time to try and get "plugged in". I headed back to a sunday school class for folks my age (where I had previously been overwhelmed by its sheer size - over 800 people each Sunday) and learned that they were advertising a retreat in a month or so. I immediately signed up, figuring that once I'd paid, I would go.

A month later, I headed off to the retreat. During the first session, the weekend's speaker (Bill Lawrence) started out defining success. He covered all the ways I had been successful. Then, he recited Phillippians 3:7-14 and Ephesians 2:8-9. Based on that single passage in the Bible, all the things I had put my trust in, built my identify on, were rubbish. What a shock! No matter how good or nice or friendly I was to anyone, I could never earn my way to heaven! And yet, what a relief - I didn't have to do the work or worry whether what I did would be good enough. Instead, there was One I could put my trust in that would never fail me - the person of Jesus Christ. That night, I spoke to God and turned everything over to Him.

Putting my faith and trust in God doesn't give me an "easy" life. He never promised that - rather, He promised that He would never give me more than I could bear and He would always be there with me. I had a difficult time when I moved to California - I was working crazy hours, had a hard time finding and plugging into a church, and easily got distracted from what God wanted for me. But He has provided over and over again - a roof over my head (and more!), food on the table, a wonderful husband, great friends and what a beautiful place to live (especially if you love the out-of-doors, which I do).

If you want to know more of what I believe and why or want to hear more of my story, feel free to email me.

Here are some more resources:

The Bible - God's Instruction Manual for Life
Biblical Studies Foundation
The Persecuted Church

OR, check our some of the Christian links I've been collecting.