070 Cheri Gregory Testimony

Do you know the Bible is God's Holy Word? Do you know it is

inspired, in errant, and infallible? If so, like, share,

subscribe and support this podcast. So we are merinathal ministries and now reduction draweth

nigh. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the program. I am

your host, Matthew. Once again, we're going to do a very important

testimony tonight because everybody needs to know that Christianity is experiential. You must be

born again, so says the Lord Jesus Christ. So tonight we have on

a very dear sister of our Shrey. She's been a part of this ministry

for let's just say, over a decade. It's been you know, here

come may you know this is going to be fourteen years in this ministry.

So she's been a part of this ministry for at least a decade, over

a decade, and she's got a very important testimony just like everyone. Look,

every single Christian that is God's chosen people have a very important event in

their life and it's when they were born again. You must be born again,

so says the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's very important that we take

this time for testimony because there's people out there interacting with Marianatha ministries that have

not been born again and they need to know the message of the Lord Jesus

Christ that you must be born again. So, Sherry, do you have

the floor and you just need to go where God wants you to go.

But that's the point. The point is for us to be taken from you

being lost to you being found. So just go in whichever direction you'd like.

Okay, Well, it started from a very young age. I would

say around eight or so. My experience with boys slash men started from a

very young age and being sexualized, not so much sex, but being sexualized.

I was chubby, redheaded, freckle faced. I was made fun of,

tormented in a lot of ways. I would I equated it to torment.

And so when these advances would come in my naiveness and my innocence and

my stupidity, let's be real, I felt like it was love and I

was never taught anything different, so it was all that I knew and that

carried on for many years, got out of control after I got out of

high school. My parents were good people, they were not Christians. I

was not raised in a Christian home. I had everything that I wanted but

or needed, I'll say needed. We were not rich, we were not

poor, but we had everything that we needed. And they were good people,

but they didn't teach me how to respect myself. They did teach me

how to respect others, but not how to respect myself. And I guess

it kind of blossomed from there, and in my teenage years, that's when

I kind of started getting a little out of control and I was looking for

love. Of course, men were looking for something else. I did not

have the what I needed in order to differentiate that this is not how you

find love. This is not love. But I didn't realize that it ended

in a pregnancy at a young age, and my father absolutely refused to let

me go through with the pregnancy, and it so it ended in abortion.

And I was not even smart enough at the time to understand what i'd done.

It was what my dad told me to do, and I would and

I did what my dad told me to do. Other than the whole ordeal

with men, I was a good girl and I did what I was supposed

to do, and otherwise I didn't caused trouble. I wasn't in trouble.

I was a good girl, or so I thought. So after the abortion,

I think that seep down inside I knew that something was wrong, and

I kind of more desperately started seeking love and just kept getting rejection after rejection,

you know, being told I was redheaded and I was ugly, and

you know, I mean, they would get what they wanted and then they

would tear me to shreds. And that was all that I knew. So

all I ever wanted was to be loved, and I just kept looking and

looking. I finally got married when I was thirty, and I still was

not saved. The marriage went south fairly quickly. I had my two children

and about seven years and it ended in a divorce. I actually divorced him.

It was during that time, and being a single parent to two small

boys, I had to move to Tennessee because my mom was the only one

that could help me. I lived in a tiny little trailer out in the

middle of nowhere. I had to start all over again, not knowing a

soul. Of course, I'm already rejected and naive and feeling, you know,

vulnerable, and I was not in a good place. It was a

very difficult thing and I fell down hard. I just realized I couldn't do

this on my own. So I I had a good relationship with my sister

in law, who did talk about Jesus some while I was married, and

so I thought, you know, I've got nowhere to go. I'm going

to find a church. And I did. I found a little Baptist church,

Smoky Mountain Christian Church in the heart of Tennessee. And I loved that

little church. It was wonderful. It was warm, it was caring,

and people followed through. They actually checked on you. And I remember about

a year after i'd been there, I started feeling a pull this poll that

I just I couldn't get away from it. It wouldn't leave me alone.

And every weekend they had an altar call and they would do baptisms right then

and there. So I watched this. I had been feeling like, oh,

I want to do this. I wanted to just I just knew it

was something I had to do. And the pool just got to where I

couldn't. I couldn't contain it anymore. And one Sunday they showed a video

about harvest and I thought, oh my gosh, that is so mean.

That is so me, I just I have to do this now, and

I got baptized and I got saved all at the same time. And from

that moment, my life changed radically. I was not the same person.

But my testimony doesn't end there. Even though my life had changed, I

knew that I was a different person, and nobody had told me that.

But I just knew inside I was changed. I was different. I was

not that same person. But little did I know that it would take decades

yet of God to unpeel the layers and layers and layers of hurt and rejection

and the abortion and having to I mean, that didn't hit me until a

couple of years after I'd been saved, when because I was in my Bible

morning, noon and night, it never left my side. I ate it,

I slept it, I drank it. I was in the Word for

two or three years NonStop. I would go to my kids baseball games,

football games, and I'd be in the stands reading my Bible, and everybody

thought I was weird, and I really didn't care. I needed the Word

and I knew I needed the Word, so little by little I started to

understand, you know, where I'd aired, and that there was far more

to love than I had ever a clue of. But it took years and

years, and there were many hurts even after I was saved. After I

left the Smoky Mountain Christian Church, I left because my first husband had been

calling me. Of course, he's the kid's dad, and so he kept

in touch and he wanted to know I was kids were doing. But he

started asking us to come back, and I was like, oh, no,

no, I don't want to do this. But I was still so

young in my faith and I just wanted to please Abbah. That was all.

So I'm like, God, I don't know how to do this.

I don't know how to hear your voice, and so I'm just going to

pray and I'm just going to ask you. So I did. I asked

him, you know, daddy, do you want me to go back to

my husband? And I didn't know what else to do. So I took

my Bible and I opened it up and I closed my eyes. I stuck

my finger down in the Bible and I opened my eyes and blowing bold,

I opened it to the scripture where it's talking about if you can be repaired

to your husband, you should, and my heart sank and I thought,

oh, no, are you asking me to go back? And I felt

like he was saying, yes, that's what you should do. So I

found out that he had gone to one of those oh, I don't know,

those big huge men things. I forget who it was that was doing

the big huge things with the men and promise keepers. Yes, thank you,

And so he had been saved at that, and so I thought,

Okay, we're both young in our faith. You know, maybe this has

got it work, and maybe this is what I need to do. But

inside I'm like, I'm freaking out. I don't want to do this.

I don't want to go back. I'm scared to that, you know,

but I want more than anything to obey God. So we start making arrangements.

In that time, I got laid off from my job and I had

applied for an addition to the little tiny trailer we had, and that fell

through because I lost my job, and I thought, Okay, God,

this is confirmation I'm supposed to go home. So it was just a couple

months after that I was back in Michigan. Well, then we had the

whole thing of we had to get remarried and and all that, and we

started going to a little church there, and it was kind of strange.

It wasn't like the church that i'd been to before. It was there was

nice people, and I met good people there, but there was none of

the support that I'd known before, and it was kind of strange. But

because I've been musically involved before, I got into the choir and the priest

team and all these wonderful things. And you know, I would sing my

little heart out. And I'd met my husband actually in a band, and

but that was a rock and roll band. It had nothing to do with

church. So this was my I was like, Oh, I can sing

for God. That's awesome. It was nice for a while and it worked

out really well, but then the marriage didn't go as as planned. He

started kind of dragging his feet, and I could tell he didn't want to

get remarried, and I kept telling him, I want to do this right,

and so we need to get remarried. Well, we did finally get

remarried into a completely loveless relationship for another nine years. It got abusive and

verbally abusive, not physically abusive, and I started reverting back into those childhood

fears and insecurities and I was clinging to God the whole time, and I

was confused and I didn't know what to do. I was lost, I

was terrified. I was terrified. I was hurting Abba, but I didn't

know what to do. And the whole time God is working me in other

areas. He's helping me to see that even though I'm in the choir and

the praise team and I'm doing all these wonderful things, and I'm thinking I'm

serving God, He's like, no, you're really not. You're serving yourself

because you're still singing because you want to be seen by men. And I

thought, okay, And so he took me out of everything to do with

the church. Then I started really I actually got a part time job at

the church, and then I started seeing the underbelly of the church, and

I was like, oh, oh dear, oh dear. So I'm dealing

with a marriage, I'm dealing with the underbelly of a church, and I'm

dealing with all these insecurities, and this whole time, God is just very

slowly, very cautiously, very delicately trying to peel back the layers and layers

and years and decades of pain and rejection and hurt, and it was so

complicated. I'm sure I made it way harder than it needed to be.

But there's lots more. I don't know where you want to go with this,

but there's lots more to the testimony. Let's pause for a second,

because you brought up something that people really don't realize. For instance, my

church, we have a baptismal right there in the front of the church.

But the problem is is that the altar has been taken out and this generation

don't know. They've forgotten that, Yes, you were supposed to go get

saved at the altar. Once you were saved, they'd opened up the baptismal

and you'll get you'd get saved right on the spot. You get saved and

baptized at the same breath. That's what baptismals are for. And these things

have been they've been swept underneath the rug. Now, of course, Sherry,

when's the last time you've been to a church and that they had an

altar call? Why do you think that I did find a church when I

moved back to Tennessee, did the second divorce to my first husband. I

did move back to Tennessee, and I did join a church, and they

did have baptisms, but they were not every week. They were when they

got enough people that desired to be saved. And it was a production,

right, it was a production. You realize that should really bother you.

It should have been once somebody was saying, you get them right into the

baptismal. They intentionally don't do that anymore. They intentionally make you wait on

a waiting list. This, of course, has the this has the supernatural

effect of nipping the spirit in the butt. M It's perfect for doing that,

isn't it. Yes, So explain to us why you didn't go back

to the first church. If you went back to Tennessee. Why didn't you

go back to the first church? Sadly, I went back to a completely

different part of Tennessee. It was two hours away from two and a half

hours away from where I was the first time I was in Tennessee. Now,

is that because your mom moved to a different places? Yes? Okay,

so literally this is all hinging off your mother. Yes, And you

never explained to us her role in your childhood. You mentioned your dad,

but you never mentioned your mother. So what was her role in your childhood?

Honor? We had I want to say we were more like sisters than

we were mother and daughter. She was, I mean, she's a good

person, so to speak. She was in her sixties and actually I was,

and her second husband was instrumental in getting her saved. But she,

I mean, we were close. We did a lot together. But she

led me into areas that I should never have gone. She helped me to

delve into. She brought a wigi board home and introduced all of us kids

to a wigi board and then also a spirit medium. And I didn't know

what it was. I was far away from being saved yet and didn't really

have any I'd gone to church for I don't know, about a year,

had a terrible experience when I was about eight or nine years old and was

terrified of the church. So yeah, so she she didn't know either.

You know, we were curious about spiritual things, and so we did this

for a while. And it was when I had a bad experience with it,

I said, no more, no more, ask me this. How

was your dad? Was he a good guy or a bad guy? My

dad and I had a very strange relationship. We were not a lovey dovey

family where an at a huggy family. We didn't talk a lot, but

we were still a good family. And I don't know how that works like

that, but it did. You know, I have a lot of very

fond memories as a child, and we did vacations together, and we you

know, Dad was always there for us, though I didn't realize it at

the time. He was not emotionally there for us, but he you know,

built us ice rinks in the winter so wee could ice skate, and

he kept a pool for us in the summer and hung out with us in

the pool every day to make sure that we were safe. So Dad was

always there. But it was a close and yet distant relationship, if that

makes sense. Well, one thing's for sure. It's interesting that you would

compare you and your mother to sisters instead of your proper relationship. Because both

of you were curious about the supernatural. You chose one side of the coin,

she chose the other. Well, yeah, she chose the supernatural,

and she kind of brought me into that because she knew I was curious about

it. We both got out of it. I mean, when I said

no more, that's it. I'm not doing not good. And I didn't

I didn't know at the time, but when that bad experience happened, I

thought, Nope, this is bad, this is horrible. I don't want

anything to do with this. So put this on the timeline. Was this

before your marriage, after your marriage, or during your second marriage? After

the abortion and before I got married I was in my young twenties. I

would say, Okay, so you had this very bad experience. So yes,

this leads you to this, this maelstrom. Now that you're out of

the marriage for the second time, you go back to Tennessee to a different

place, literally going through the same trudge you were in before. Yes,

and you go to a new church. You find the flip side of church.

And you did that very appropriately. The first one, the first church

you went to, was obviously a very good church. Yes, the second

one you flipped it over. You said, the under belly. You experienced

the underbelly of Christianity there, So, yeah, why don't you talk about

that for a minute, because there are Christians at church? So what are

these Christians that are making up this under belly. Well, is a very

unique set of circumstances. I needed a job, they needed a secretary.

I had years of secretarial experience, and so it was just a natural thing.

I became the secretary. I worked part time, so I worked directly

for the pastor, and he was, for all intents and purposes, the

only thurgy or whatever you would call them. There were a couple of elders,

but I didn't see them, I didn't talk to them. I pretty

much was working for the pastor, and I kept hoping I was going to

find a place where I could fit in, and I just kept feeling more

and more rejected as it went. And I was having trouble with my oldest

son and I had gone to them and asked them for help, and they

didn't even lift a finger to help. And this was serious, serious issues

that I was going through with my oldest son, who was, oh gosh,

I don't know, seven eight years old at the time. It was

a very crucial time for a young man and he needed a man in his

life and his father wasn't being it. And so I was looking for help

from the pastor what could I do, Where can I go? And nothing.

Nothing. So I kept working there and I just kept seeing things,

and in the meantime, you know, the marriage was starting to fall apart.

It was pretty obvious it was not going to last a whole lot longer.

But I was just trying to be obedient. I was fighting to keep

my marriage together, and I was doing anything and everything that I felt like

the Lord wanted me to do. But there was no love. There was

no relationship, there was no conversation, there was nothing. There was nothing.

It was it was a dead issue. And he started drinking. And

he was the part of the priest team also, and you know, Daddy

was already starting to show me stuff at that time, and so I knew

that that was bad. You shouldn't be doing that. You needed to be

holy if you were going to be on the platform. And God was already

starting to show me that I was not, you know, and so he

was already starting to do that work in me. So I went to the

pastor and I said, you know, I don't know if you realize this.

I said, but my husband is drinking before he's getting on the platform

on a Sunday morning, on a Wednesday practice. I said, I I'm

not comfortable with that, you know, I just want you to know.

And he said, well, you know, he's still coming to church.

So as long as he's still coming to church let him do it, and

I was like red flax, Yeah, I mean my mouth hit the floor.

And from then then I felt like God wanted me to give sort of

a harsh word, but because I was a female, I thought, oh

God, this, this can't possibly be God. And so I kept pucking

it under the rug and pucking it under the rug, and I didn't want

to do it. So I just kept feeling this pressure and I didn't know

what it was, honestly, and so one day I just kind of sat

down desperate with God and I got really real with him and I'm like,

what is happening here? What have I done that has upset you so much?

And why do I feel like you're so far away? I can't live

like this, you know. So I felt like you said, because I

gave you a word and you didn't give it, I ran. I ran

to that pastor and gate that word right away, and immediately I felt released.

But it ended in my being fired from the church, which was honestly

a gift, a gift from God. Wow, you were fired from the

church. I was fired, so needless to say, you didn't go to

that church anymore? No, So did you find another church, I well,

when I moved back to Tennessee. Yes, I did. And I

felt like he was the closest thing to truth as I was learning in at

the time, because I was already starting to understand things that were not popular,

and because of my diligence to the Word and my studies, I was

already learning that that's pre trip thing. I don't know about that. I

don't think that's really what that is, and other things as well. Plus,

like I said, he's still peeling back layers of onion and this I'm

sixty two years old and I'm still a work in progress. So eventually you

were born again? Correct? Yes? Absolutely? When did that happen?

On? This time at the Smoky Mountain Christian Church? And from then on

it was God starting to do the work. God started opening my eyes about

things little by little. He was very gentle and very loving and very caring

and very merciful and gracious. And it was very slow, and I would

fall down and he would wait until I would pick myself back up, and

I'd fall down again, and he would wait, and I would fall and

he would wait and I would fall and he would wait. And this is

you know, decades of a process, a very big I was very very

damage by the time I found him. So answer me this directly. So

when you got saved at the church, that's when you were reborn. And

that first little absolutely changed and I knew I was I knew I was a

new person, even though nobody had said it. I just knew inside somehow

I knew. And from then on it was miraculous. It was amazing.

It changed everything. But it took time for I'm a slow learner. I

need to go around the mountain a million times. I don't know what it

is. But it was took a long time because of me, not because

God was always there, and he brought me through some stuff. And there

were many times when I fell into deep depressions. There were times moments when

I even considered suicide because it was just so hard, But He kept me

through everything. There was only one time in my life when I began to

question, did I lose my salvation? But even in that, he was

gracious and he was merciful, and he brought me through. And He is

continuing this day to work on me and peeling back those layers and delivering me

from things that have kept me bound for many, many many years. Well,

this is key critical you answer this question. I mean, this is

impactful. You were admitting with your mouth you had been born again. Yes,

and then after many more trials and tribulations, you got to this event

that made you question your faith. Yes. Describe that event. I had

met a man to Christian Mingle and his page whatever you want to call it,

his profile, I guess is what it's called, was amazing. And

I remember reading that and thinking to myself even and even telling God, oh

this is this is a man of my dreams. He sounds like a man

that is totally in love with you God, and and that's what I want,

you know, that's what I want. I want a man that loves

you, and I don't want to share you with anybody who's gonna hurt that

I can. And we started to talk and we got very close. He

was very sweet, and it was just comfortable. I felt comfortable talking to

him, and we literally he was in Alabama, I was in Tennessee.

We never met, we never met face to face ever, but I after

two years of talking to him, I slowly started to really fall in love

with him. And when that happened, everything got weird and things started sliding

back into those old mentalities, and he started treating me like like men had

treated me in my past. And it was confusing and I was baffled and

I didn't I didn't understand it, and I just kept questioning God, what

is this? What is happening? And this went back and forth. He

would then he spit me out. He would draw me in, and he

would spit me out, and I just kept thinking, well, he's wounded

and he's working through stuff, and I kept making excuses for him. And

this went on for years, went on for years, and the whole time,

I'm up and I'm down, and I'm up and I'm down, and

I don't know what to do, and I don't understand what's happening, and

I'm just I just keep going to God, what is happening here? What

is going on here? What am I supposed to do here? And I'm

just trying to be a good Christian girl, you know what I mean.

I'm trying to do the right thing, but I don't really know what that

is. And all my past is rushing back and flooding in and trying to

take over. And then the relationship started getting a little weird and he started

getting flirty, and then I was like, oh, I don't like this.

In a long run, after many many years of this, it it

put me in a very bad place. I ran headlong into another disastrous marriage

that only lasted two years. At first, because I thought maybe I'd found

it. He was loving, he was caring, he was the only one

on the planet, the old man that ever was like, what do you

want? What can I do for you? And you know, I've never

had that, So I thought, maybe this is love, Maybe this is

what this is. And maybe I had it wrong, maybe I was looking

anyway, it was the minute he got the ring on my finger, it

went bad very fast, and he stopped caring about himself, he stopped taking

care of hisself. He quit his job, he refused to work. He

spent all my money as fast as I could make it. And I'm trying

to do this house by myself, and I was making minimum wage, working

my find to end off. And so I was getting more and more discouraged

and frustrated and still just desperately trying to figure it out what happened here,

you know, and just totally not understanding what was going on, and I

didn't realize it at the time that I was still very much a work in

progress and I had not been healed and delivered from a lot of these things.

Anyway, it spiraled out of control. I was desperately seeking sisters and

asking for advice, and everybody was saying something different, and it just got

more chaotic and more confusing, and finally it was like shut off. And

it was suggested to me that, you know, sharing, maybe maybe you're

in a bad place with God, and maybe you've lost your salvation. And

I spiraled into depression and wanting to die in my mind and in my heart.

Without God, there was no point to this life and I wanted no

more. I did not want to be here anymore. And that went on

for two years. I didn't leave everything. I was in the background,

and I was around, but I didn't talk. I didn't I didn't feel

worthy of friendship or any kind of loving relationship. I didn't feel worthy of

anything but death. And one day I couldn't take it anymore, and I

thought, God, if you're not with me anymore, just pat me,

because there is no point to this life without you, And instead of taking

me, he actually saved me, and something happened, and I don't understand

what happened, but I knew that he was still with me and he'd never

left me, and that it's been two or three years now and I finally

feel free, free from them, free from their abuse, free from their

torment. I don't care what people think of how I look. I'm not

here to please you with my looks I have. The only thing I care

about anymore is people's souls. I care about where they're at with God.

All I care about is their salvation. That is the whole reason I'm doing

today, as hard as it is. The Only thing I care about is

I love you, even though I don't know you, and I want you

to know my God, who was so so gracious, so wonderful, and

he is so loving in a way that even if you can't understand, you

just have to take it by Satan. Know, Matt Well, Sherry,

this is a pretty impertant point. So who put this seed in your heart

that maybe you had lost your salvation? Who said that to you? Somebody

that I loved and trusted very much. And I don't want to give names

because it doesn't matter, because I know this person only did what they did

in love. They didn't mean to be destructive and I know that. Well,

so this is a repeat event then, regardless, this is a repeat

event just like your mother and your mother cared for you. Correct, Yes,

your mother introduced you to the Ouiji board. Correct. So this is

happening again, only this time. Boy, it certainly has a massive impacked

on you. Yes, this time this attack pretty well, it succeeds in

in casting the doubt, casting this shadow. Yes. So was there an

event after that? Because many people would say that you probably had an event

that was like rededicating your life to Christ. Did you have an event after

that? Well, it was that moment when I finally I got on my

face and I sobbed, and I screamed at God and I begged him.

I said, God, if you're not here, if you're not with me,

tke me. I have no desire to live anymore. And instead of

taking me, he actually gave me life. I don't know what happened.

I can't explain it, but I was like reborn at that moment. Hey,

you were reborn, you know. Most people share. It's funny how

you have the talent that's the only way, I can put it as talent.

In our English vernacular, that's the only word for it. You have

the talent to say the exact thing that needs to be said, and many

people don't know that. In the Greek language, the Lord Jesus Christ gives

this term. He says you must be born again, and that's two words

in Greek. But in First Peter chapter one, Peter, having hearing what

the Lord said, he makes a compound word in Greek. And it is

only in First Peter chapter one when you read it in English, it reads

the same like what the Lord Jesus Christ said. It says you must be

born again. But no, that's not what it is. In Greek.

It becomes one word, and in First Peter chapter one, the only word

we have for it in English is reborn. You must be reborn. So

that's pretty amazing that you say that, not knowing what just come out of

my mouth. That's amazing to me that you clearly can define your salvation moment

and the time when you were chosen. You were elected at one point and

you were chosen in another. Many are called and fear are chosen, and

your life perfectly describes these two events and it is amazing to me. So

I would hope that Maranatha Ministries had something to do with this, but I

have an inkling that I probably didn't have anything to do with it, although

Maranatha Ministries did, but I don't know if I personally did or not.

So why don't you describe that? Where did you come into contact with this

ministry and how did that play out in your you being reborn? Well,

it started with that man I met and Christian meaning he found you first,

he brought me in and that's how I met you. That's how I found

your ministry. Qunch dedicated to it ever since then. But it was the

girls that I met, and we became very close, and we had our

upper sounds at our trials, we had our out. You know, it's

hard to a group of women together. We can be kind of caddy at

times. We've had our we persevered, and we've been through a lot together.

And I would say that it wasn't just me, it was all of

us, you know, we we we have kept very close in all these

years, and so I would say that they were very impactful. But you

were in ways that you probably don't understand because I am a woman of a

million questions, aren't I And I think that you don't understand that. You

know, you wouldn't always answer me, and sometimes you're a little slow,

and that would frustrate me and I would get a little bent out of shape

at times. But I would take it to God and I would be like,

Okay, you know, I know he cares about me. It's not

it's not that kind of thing. But you know, anyway, long story

short, what it did is it drove me to understanding that the Holy Spirit

is my teacher and he's the one that I need to depend on. And

it's all layers again being undone, and it's learning how to trust who I

need to trust, which is God in Jesus, in a Holy Spirit,

and rely on them be first and then everything else starts to come together.

Took sixty two years to learn it, So that is amazing thing will just

come out of your mouth, the simple fact that you are admitting that I

am not Maranatha Ministries. We all are. And a lot of things I've

learned just this very day that I was not aware of at all. And

if it hadn't been for the other members of Maranatha Ministries, those things could

have not been learning experience, and those things that I were unaware of proves

that it's detrimental who the shepherd is. And it's not me, And it's

not Jonie, it's not Jenny, it's not Sherry. It certainly is the

Lord Jesus Christ. He is the shepherd. It is and this just happens

to be our little flaw right. And you are very instrumental, don't get

me wrong. I have learned invaluable, vast amounts of things from your ministry

things, and you were so patient and so kind of gentle and patient to

wait for me to learn, because there was a lot of stuff that had

off of me before my mind could wrap around some of what you teaching.

It literally has just been, i would say the last years, but even

the last few months since the girls and I started getting back in the Word

again, dedicated to getting through the Bible, and where of course I can't

help it. I can't just read it. I have to divide it.

I have to conquer and I have to listen. I dig I can't just

read the Bible. I can't just do that. It's impossible for me.

So you've been very instrumental and very patient and being unbelievably and patient to wait

for, as you used to call us knuckleheads, to get a grip on

things and to start to get some sort of comprehension about what Bot is really

saying. So for that, IAM eternally and forever grateful to you. For

that. You are very instrumental. I don't mean to imply that at all

you were very instrumental, But I do know who my head is and who

my shepherd is, and that is Jesus Christ. So you know, you

mentioned one theological event through this whole diatribe, and I'm surprised you never mentioned

you know, once saved, nois saved. You didn't mention that, But

you didn't mention a pre tribulational rapture. Yes, so you come from a

you come from a quagmire. Just saying that term, you came from a

quagmire. Yes, you're saying that this ministry taught you a lot. Yes,

Is that the biggest thing that it taught you? No? No,

Oh, my goodness, Well that was the beginning. That was just the

beginning. I mean so much. I was one of those obnoxious first saved

people who knew and I never doubted that I would walk through the last days.

I knew it, and you could not shake me from it. I

would not be turned away from it. I knew that I knew that I

knew, and nobody was going to tell me different, and so and I

from people crazy because I refused to back down. And I knew that there

was way more to the Bible than what I was hearing. And I mean,

Matthew, you know, for over a decade, I would listen to

you, and while I'm listening to you, I'm like devouring. I was

so excited and I could hardly contain my excitement in the word. And I'm

like yes, and my spirit is just absorbing and soaking and and it was

so exciting and I couldn't hardly contain it. But I would go to tell

somebody else about my excitement, and I was like, I didn't have a

clue. I didn't know how to tell them what I learned, what I

felt like I learned. My spirit knew it, My spirit knew it was

true, but my head was like, mush, it's still like mashed potatoes

in there. You know what I'm saying, And it's so I would hear

you speak and my spirit was just oh, I was just like you know

inside and I'm like, yes, yes, this is truth. I know

this is truth. And it was so exciting and I'm just some things,

you know. And I knew what I was hearing was right, and I

had longed for that for so long, but it took a long time for

me to be able to wrap my head around it because it was so deep,

so deep. So what you're describing here is is that God would muzzle

you. Yes, the way you can do it because all the information is

quite daunting. Yes, If you're not prepared to have somebody hit you with

questions, you're going to misspeak God's word, right, Yes, And that's

a dangerous place to be, isn't shared? Yes, So for your own

good it sounds like to me, you wanted to share this information and God

just slap a muzzle right on you. The only thing that we should really

be sharing with the general public is the gospel. Amen. Yes, And

you will never be muzzled just preaching the gospel. You will never be muscled,

not ever. Right, it comes to these deep theological things, we

have to fear God. Yes. And if you don't know the question before

the question is asked, you can do a whole lot of damage. Sherry,

go to your Let's just use example as your mother, if your mom

came to you and asked you a question. We just had this, of

course with Jenny. Jenny come to me privately and she said, you know,

my mom's asking me questions, and I need to ask you first.

I said, what's a good thing? You told me that you make a

timeline and give me the timeline. So Jenny draws out a timeline, it

gives it to me. I'm like, no, I never said that.

When I explain it to her, she said, oh, oh, you

did say that, but I didn't translate that to this timeline that I made.

I said, Jenny, it's very important that you do this before you

share with anybody else. You cannot run the risk of confused. You cannot

make them stumble, you can't. Right, this is secondary issues. Who

cares about all this information? Right? Shareot doesn't matter. What matters is

the Gospel. That's what matters. Yes, So any of these deeper theological

questions, they're not important. And if God needs to slap a muzzle on

you first, you can be well rest assured. I don't care who you

are, He's going to slap a muzzle on your mouth, and just like

Jenny, you won't be able to do it. You'll be like, no,

Mom, I'm gonna have to ask Matthew first before I get back with

you with that. So that's a natural thing. But let me ask you

this, sary. So you said you had secretarial or secretorial experience. Had

you gone to college? No, that was just where I landed fresh out

of high school. So I had many, many years. I had two

three decades of secretary experience. So you did graduate high school? I did,

and I did some night classes in college, but I never got a

degree. So the pregnancy didn't hinder you graduating high school? No, Okay,

So that means to say you're you? You would call yourself a average

intelligence, right, Yes, But you and I would agree if we were

to discuss some of these deeper theological issues. You know a whole lot more

than any teacher or preacher you've ever went to church with. Correct, probably,

but not to the point where I would be able to help them.

Right, You wouldn't be able to tell them you were going to discuss it

with them, because God would slap a muzzle on you because those people have

been educated, right, say that again? Those people do have a degree

from an institution of higher learning. Yes, yes, and they would be

able to twist the Bible and twist your words to the nth degree. Yes,

and quite simply God will not permit that. Yes, amen, praise

God for that. But it is exciting to hear that through all of this

quagmire you came through, the Lord was able to take you from calling you

to choosing you to this place where you are now, through all this Maelstrom.

Now, your children have had children, right, yes, and you

are very close and instrumental to those grandchildren. Correct, yes, Now,

so what kind of childhood does your grandchildren have compared to yours? Are they

having a very good childhood? Are they being raised in church? What's it

like for your grandkids? They're not in church at this point, probably because

I could not find a church. Mom. They're of course, my son

and his wife have talked about going to church, but they're they're walking out

their own salvation right now, and they are questioning and they're working through stuff

on their own. So right now, you know, I'm teaching the kids

things about the Bible trying not to get in too deep, trying not to

overstep my bounds. So we're working towards it well, a lot of prayer,

and where I'm hopeful, I'm walking by faith, believing that God is

going to finish the work that he began in them as children. Children,

they were in church, they do know God, and you know, at

some point they've had their own relationship, but they veered and they're doing their

own thing and they have to learn on their own. So I can lead

the horse to water, but I can't make him drink. He's got to

do it soon. So how far are you from your children and your grand

grandchildren? Are they a mile away? Are they an hour away? Where

are they at? Well? I live with my son and his wife and

three grandchildren, and my other son and his wife and my other grandchildren are

about miles away from me. So you are literally the one that is up

these grand children in the way they should go, the ones that live with

me. Yes, So would you call this a blessing or a curse?

Probably a little of both. So your grandkids do they have it better than

you or not? No? I would actually say they have it much more

difficult, much more today's world is completely different from when I was a child.

So it's a good thing they have you. Well, i'd like to

think so, and I'm praying that truth. So God, Sherry, what

advice do you have for people, for women who were right where you were

at? Oh? My goodness, you don't have to be a victim.

You don't have to stay in that place of rejection, that place of being

bound and teathered. You can be free. Reach out to run, the

run, go as fast as you can to your knees before God and just

receive his grace, receive his salvation. Run to him. Do it today,

Do it now. You cannot do it fast enough. He is there

and he is waiting, and he is full of grace and mercy and love

like you will never experience through any man ever. Run So, Cherry,

you kept saying this, You said this several times. Tell us what impact

did the Bible have in all this, everything, everything? It's helped me

see things about me that I couldn't see before. It helped me see things

about the circumstances that it was in. It helped me find forgiveness, desire

mercy rather than repaying evil with evil. At talking everything, everything you need

for life and Godliness is in everything. Well, you know that's that's pretty

important that people know that that once you have a salvation event, the Holy

Spirit is going to put this draw in you to His word. And that

is just you are testimony to that it's undeniable. So if this is a

place where you're wanting to go, is it not true that if you haven't

had this salvation event yet, a good way to get this drawing is to

saturate yourself with the word of God. Yes, Now you know it's funny

because it triggers things in me because I brought up First Peter chapter one and

this Greek word reborn. It also makes me remember other things about First Peter

chapter one. And I'm going to read this, ladies and gentlemen, and

just listen. Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your

souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently, what love one another

from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed which

is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring Word

of God. Halleluia, howllelujah, how llelujah, indeed, hallelujah. So

this is a good thing, and certainly we reinforced that here at Marianava Ministries.

And you certainly, I mean, I wouldn't you use the term question

because normally your questions are like buckshot, there's like twenty or thirty questions in

one in one shot. So and certainly on Patreon you have started a whole

series entitled questions. We got to go through Sherry's questions and you know right

now we have that right because you did not have a copy of the septuagen

the nets and we sent you one right, yes, you did, and

it was the worst thing I did, because you immediately turned right around and

sent me some questions. Oh so, so has that been a blessing you

getting a copy of the Sebtuagent. Oh my gosh, yes, Oh my

god, yes, huge, huge, Godford. Is that impactful? Yes,

so, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to listen to that.

If you're desiring to be called, if you're desiring to be chosen, saturate

yourself in God's word and this thing will happen. And Sherry is a testament

to that. She was called. She described as how she had this drive,

this urge. She would literally go to ballgames and not be at the

ballgames. She would go to the ball games and be in God's work,

and after many trials and tribulations, she was reborn. You can do this.

I don't care who you are. I don't care where you are.

I don't care if you're short, fat, I don't care if you're smarter

or dumb. You can be reborn. So with that, Sherry, can

you take us out of here in prayer? Please? I'd be happy to

Father God in the name of Jesus, I thank you so much time with

my brother. I thank you for the opportunity to share your love and your

mercy bull you and every that will listen. I pray that you prepare the

ground of the hearts that listen, and prepare them to receive of your word,

your grace, of your mercy and salvation. I thank you again,

Father, and I enough for all that you have done, all that you're

doing, and all that you will continue to do. I thank you.

Father is the author sure of faith, and I have you will be faithful

to that which you have begun, and me and all those who will dare

to move forward. Chriss in with you and your son Jesus Christ, in

whose name I pray and Amen and amen, Amen and Amen. Until next

time, ladies and gentlemen, God bless, God speed. Thank you for

listening to Marinath the Ministries with Matthew Miller. I appreciate you tuning in.

For more information, stop by and visit us at patreon dot com, backslash

Matthew Miller, or you can correspond to us via snail mail by writing to

PO Box zero two four reader, North Dakota five eight six four nine.

Now, if you are a God fearing, Bible believing, Gospel preaching Christian,

please repeat after me, I pledge in regions to the Bible, God's

Holy Word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light

into my path. It spurs while I hide in my heart, that I

might not sin against God