Jeremy,

I do remember you and welcome. I think you are being wise and prudent about 
your  church search... little songwriter internal rhyme there haha.  One of 
my pastors use to tell visitors to "date" the church, stay long enough for 
them to "impress you or depress you" of course he said both of those 
contexts in jest, but stay a while, date the church and if it isn't for 
you, they'd bless you going out just as they'd bless you coming in. Point 
being even though you and Jen have decided upon this church, and  your 
encounter with another grocer may or may not be a sign to attend it, only 
you guys know what the Holy Spirit is telling you. If there is no specific 
"yea or nay" don't feel that because you currently feel you ought continue 
attending this church, that there is no alternative in a month or two. 
Believe me it takes much more than a month to see the inner workings and 
personality of a church. I've also found it to be pretty accurate in the 
old saying "Look at the personality of the pastor, and that is the 
personality of the church". Why? Because his personality will draw like 
minded people, they can identify with that pastor and then stay there, 
begin to work in the church and become leaders themselves. So use that as a 
guide too perhaps. It might be good  as well to involve your selves in a 
Bible study, small group, volunteer to be greeter or usher and in those 
meetings you attend as leaders you get a better look at the church from the 
other side of the pulpit.

Hope that is  of some help... if not  no worries.

Brad



At 01:24 PM 2/10/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>To the list at large,
>Hello one and all, some of you may remember me or not, I am Jenifer's
>husband Jeremy.  I have quietly signed back up with the list once again
>and just have been sitting  back and just enjoying the emails and
>praying for those who ask for prayer requests.  Now if you all do not
>mind, I would like to send out a prayer request out.
>Myself and Jen have been looking for a new church since we got married.
>I am also eager to hear what the list thinks of this experience, when
>this happened, I will admit I had goose bumps on the spot.
>Like I stated above we are looking for a new church to attend.  I have
>been praying about this for some time.  We both agreed that we would
>like to attend some kind of assembly of GOD church.  I have since then
>done some research on the net for those kinds of church in and around
>our area.
>I came up with 3 such churches.  Bethel Assembly of GOD, New Hope, and
>Taylor Assembly of GOD.  We had agreed to try each one for a month pray
>about each one then go back to the church we both thought was the best.
>Ok, in the mean time we had to do some shopping this last Wednesday,
>now, here is where things get interesting.  Since both myself and my
>beautiful wife are visually impaired, we usually get shopping
>assistance.  The gentleman who helped us was probably one of the better
>people who has helped us.  During the time we were there, we got to
>talking about how we met our spouses, he stated that he met his in
>church... I popped up and asked him what church?  He stated Bethel
>Assembly of GOD... folks, the exact church that was on our list to
>attend and the very church we said we would try first starting this up
>and coming Sunday.  I told him this, at this point the goose bumps
>started... a few minutes later, he offered to pick me and my wife up for
>church this Sunday.  My wife also stated between her and I that she
>would like to find a small church, one that we can get to know the
>people of whom we would be worshiping GOD with.  Again, I asked the
>question, About how many people attend your church?  He said roughly 100
>people of witch a lot of people are very newly weds like ourselves.  He
>also stated that the pastor there was good, and that the pastor asks
>everyone to pray for 5 minutes
>  Every day about something, and that something the pastor would say at
>the start of every week... this week just so happened to be about the
>economy.  Folks here I am, having loads of all these thoughts in my
>head, and this church being the one that was on our first list to attend
>this Sunday? Wow.  I am sorry for rambling like this, and swear I will
>try not to do it again... but here is the thing... I felt like I was
>burned on my last church, I don't want to get burned again...  My
>request is this... to help myself and Jenifer to make the right choice
>of what church to attend... what happened this past week would lead me
>to believe that GOD is in control and would like us to attend this
>bethel assembly of GOD church, but you know how the DEVIL is, he could
>think that he would not like myself and Jenifer to start growing in GOD
>and throw this in our path, a church that would have no good teaching,
>or what ever, and make it look like this is all GODS doing, I also don't
>want to second guess GODS doing either.  I have been praying that what
>happened was truly the work of GOD, and not something playing with my
>hopes of finding a new church.
>Thanks so much for any prayers, and again sorry for rambling.
>Your brother in Christ
>Jeremy

Brad

   To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner 
was you