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I grew up as a Christian meeting in the local churches. My parents both began meeting with the local church when they were young, so I was born meeting with the local church. Growing up, I took the Lord and the local church for granted and pretty much became a Sunday Christian. I filled my soul with many things in the World, until I realized that nothing could fill it. I eventually had to reckon with a deeper part in my being, my spirit, that can only be filled with God. I realized that if I wanted to find God, I needed to be in His house, the church (1 Timothy 3:15). I remember hearing on a retreat for college students concerning this, that what you are in large measure is determined by where you are. I heard: Don't sojourn in the house of God. You have to chose to dwell here; and this choice has to reach the level of your will--not your emotion, not to just want to, but to decide to. That realization issued in a choice that I had never made before: I chose to dwell in the house of the Lord for the length of my days (Psalm 23:6). This was my choice. This was no longer a way that my parents had chosen and I was born into. But I had chosen for myself to dwell in the house of God. Since that choice, the local church has really become my home and the place where I can pursue together with others to enjoy God. It is here, with the local church that I find my home, my family and God.
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