Welcome Home…Maybe…[Revisited]

Posted by Debbonnaire Kovacs, May 13, 2015

Next week we will begin publishing the autobiography/memoir of an anonymous woman who was featured in a recent sermon published as a two-part feature. As an introduction, here is a preface written by her long-time internet pastor and friend, Gregory Matthews.

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This is the story of a woman raised in the heart of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who early in her life found herself on the outside looking in, and of her struggle to find peace with God and the denomination of her childhood.  It is a story of human failings, some on her part and others on the part of congregational members who thought they were doing what was right.  It is a story that did not have a perfect ending.  At the end of her life she had restored her relationship with God but she remained estranged from the denomination of her choice.

Her last words to me, a couple of hours before she died, were to the effect that when she next opened her eyes, she would look into the loving eyes of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  That was one of the issues.  She had experienced the love and salvation of the Christ.  In her desire to share that love, she sometimes got in the face of those who saw things differently.  In her spiritual journey there were doctrinal understandings that departed from standard Seventh-day Adventist teachings, and life-style issues that others felt she needed to work on.  Some just did not understand how she could be so excited about her salvation.

In the months preceding her death she and I worked together on what she wanted to be her last proclamation of God’s grace, love, and salvation.  This was the story of her life and her relationship with the God who spared nothing to bring her back into a positive relationship with him.  As she and I worked together, she charged me with the task of getting her story published.  But the time was not right for immediate publication and for several years her story has remained untold.

This story is told in the words that she wrote.   Names and identifying content have been changed to protect embarrassment to some.  As part of that, she has been given a pen name.  Other than such changes, editing has been minimal.  This story is her story and generally in her words.

Parts of this story reflect our human condition and are not pretty.    As she would say, in telling them they give glory to the God that is capable of saving anyone and desires to do so.  As Paul said:  “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”  (Romans 5:20 NIV)  Our objective in publishing this material is to honor her desire to proclaim the availability of God’s salvation to all.  Like a prodigal daughter, she had wandered deep in the world of sin. But her Lord had continued to pursue her like a hound from heaven chasing a fox. (“The Hound of Heaven” is a poem written by Francis Thompson.)

Gregory Matthews