The Church Under Fire
Chapter One
My Background
May 26, 2023
My name is Sue Love. I am 73 years old. I have been married
to my husband Rick Love for over 50 years. We are both originally from Akron,
Ohio, USA, and we met each other in University Singers at the University of
Akron. We have four grown children, 3 in-law children, and 14 grandchildren,
one of whom is married, and another is engaged to be married. They range in
ages from 5 to 24. There are 8 girls and 6 boys. And they all live not longer
than an hour from us, and some much closer.
My parents attended the same church gathering as each other
from infanthood, and they brought me and my four siblings to the same church
gatherings at least three times a week. Now the gathering I attended, most of
the time I attended there, was not of a church denomination, although it was
affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, but which did not become
a church denomination until 1971. If you are familiar with the name A. W.
Tozer, that was the denomination he was from.
Our church denomination had a camp on Lake Erie in
Vermillion, Ohio. They had children’s and youth camps one week each during the
summer months, and they also had a Bible and missionary conference that maybe
lasted a week or two every summer. I went to camp pretty much every summer, and
at the age of 7, I believe it was, I believed in Jesus Christ to be Lord and
Savior of my life. I sat on that old hard bench with tears streaming down my
face while I repented of my sins and trusted in Jesus to be my Lord.
I was very determined after that to follow Jesus with my
life and to do what his Word teaches us we must do. And by the age of 16 I was
teaching the Bible to children, and I’ve been teaching the Scriptures over a
period of about 50 years now, first to children, then to women, then some to
youth, and to college students some, too. Mostly I taught women’s Bible studies
in homes or at church gatherings or in Sunday School classes for women. I was (and
am) a serious student of the Scriptures who loves the Word of the Lord.
Now, I will tell you that there was a short period of time
in my adult life when I wandered off from that pure devotion to the Lord, and I
fell back into sin, on and off, but the Lord brought me back, and he restored
me, and later on he called me to this present ministry of writing down what he
teaches me from his word each day and putting it on the internet. I just write
what he leads me to write and then I post it on the internet and I have no
control over where it goes from there. But I do know that the writings are
going to people in multiple nations, and so I praise the Lord for that.
When the Lord called me to this ministry, he helped me to
unlearn some things I had learned wrongly, that had been taught to me out of
context, and so I needed to get those things straight. And he had me read
through the entire Bible, book by book, at least once, and maybe twice, and
then he had me read from the Psalms to Revelation several times over several
years and to write about what he was teaching me. And so I was learning the
Scriptures in their context and that was helping me to learn them better.
Then, beginning in 2017 (this ministry began in November of
2004) he had me start using Biblegateway.com for their verse of the day and he
had me begin writing devotions from those passages, in context. But then he
began to increase the number of writings he was having me write each day from
one a day to two a day to three a day and now mostly to four a day, as the time
of our Lord’s return is drawing closer. For I believe the Lord called me to be
one of his end times messengers because of the times we now live in.
In 2011 he gave me the gift of writing songs, which are
simple songs of faith based off the Scriptures put to simple tunes and mostly
all not professionally recorded, but to be included in many of the devotions
that he has had me write. And he gave me 185 songs to write. Then in 2018 he
began giving me poems to write (without music), and in 2020 he had me do my
first devotional video talk, and I did a few of them, but I did not resume them
until last year some time.
Now, we moved around a lot. We lived in five US states and
ten cities, I think. We lived in Ohio for 33 years (with a year in Indiana in
the mix), but we have lived in the southern states for 40 years. So, we have
also attended and participated in many different church gatherings from multiple
church denominations. And I (or we) have also had many experiences in these
gatherings, both negative and positive. And since the purpose of this writing
is to discuss “The Church Under Fire,” I will be sharing some of those
experiences with you as examples of the kinds of things going on today.
Although some of those experiences were positive, some of
them were also abusive situations which involved abuse of power and the
persecution of one who is following the Lord in obedience at a time when the
church at large is moving away from obeying the Lord in order to attract the
people of the world to their gatherings. For they don’t want to offend them
with the truth. So, I have wept many tears over those situations over the years,
but the Lord has been my comfort and my strength, and so I trust him with my
life.
By
G. M. Eldridge
“He
will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” Revelation 21:4
In the moment He appears
And the light from heaven shines,
I’ll forget ev’ry fear,
Ev’ry pain I’ll leave behind.
Then I’ll see Him as He is
And I’ll know Him as I’m known.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
Ever present is the tho’t
That a moment waits for me
When unworthy as I am,
His glory I will see.
I will empty all my praise
Before my Father’s throne.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
If the trial I endure,
And your presence I can’t find,
Be near me, Lord, I pray,
Bring back unto my mind
That your promises are firm
And I’m never on my own.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98Zvr1CyXg
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