Be Ye Separate

A bit more about us

Blessings!

   I've been contacted and asked by so many folks about us so I thought I would give a bit more information about us this way:)

   This is a picture of our family. My husband and I, my "sister" (best friend) and the three of our children still at home. We had been visiting and went on a walk. The picture was snapped by the neighbor:)

   I have shared that we are Mennonite. It's a difficult thing to explain as we are not connected with the churches back east at all. We are not members of the Mennonite Conference, or the Brethren Conference. We are a small fellowship that was planted by folks from a sect of the Mennonite from up north of us.

   Unlike the rather staunch and restrictive communities that most folks associate the Mennonite faith with. We believe the bible is the only and infallable Word of God. We believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. We believe that the Holy Spirit is given to us by our Heavenly Father to help guide us. We are all sinners and all fall short of the Glory of God. That through Jesus we come to the Father. We believe that all things can be forgiven except one. (Denying the Holy Spirit)

   We do not think that technology in and of itself is a sin, it's the sinfulness that can come from it when it takes us away from serving our Lord. We have a car, use electricity (even generator, solar and wind), we use a telephone and obviously the computer.

   We were not always Mennonite. In fact, my husband was raised Catholic and I wasn't raised with anything.  I had been married twice and had 6 children. My husband had been married once and had 2 children. He had fallen away and I was just seeking when we met. We married two years later. A year after that we were saved. And two years later we began our plain journey.

   Through the last 10 years we have learned many things about the Father and His undying love for us. Many times we came up against certain things that the Old Order Mennonite and some other anabaptist churches believed in. We were concerned that our choices were wrong and that there was something wrong with us and our family. After all we were a previously married couple with children on both sides. We had divorced, lived lives of worldliness and had so many bad habits.

   We prayed, studied, prayed, searched and prayed some more. We had begun to attend different fellowships. We prayed, studied, searched and prayed some more. (yes I know I said that twice):) Then we visited the fellowship that we are with now. After several weeks we were invited to the home of the mother of one of the leaders of the fellowship. We figured it was going to be the time when they asked us to leave as all the others had done.

   The dear woman asked us right out with no stalling or beating around the bush if we had divorced before. I said a quick prayer and dove right in. I made no excuses. My husband did the same. We had learned early on to just be forthright with the information rather than wasting everyones time. She hugged us both and said, "Divorce is a sin, but not an unforgivable one."

   After spending a lot of time in prayer and scripture with the elders we knew that though we had a past that was unpleasing to the Lord, we had repented and were ready to lead a life for Him.

   Now this doesn't mean that plain is mandated by scripture. In fact, what we learned is that we must live IN the world because we are born in it but we mustn't be OF the world and live in the worldliness that the pagans do. We also know that we are forgiven of our past and the slate is clean and we must move on in His service.

   We discovered that our desire to be "plain" was our way of honoring the Father with our lifestyle because that's what we felt led by the Holy Spirit to do. I used to think that being "plain" was an attitude. It's become very clear it's a heartitude:)

   Not everyone is called to our lifestyle and we do not believe that folks that DON'T subscribe to our lifestyle are wrong. In fact, no one's way is completely right. That's why we have Jesus as our Saviour. He was the only one before or since that didn't need saving:) We won't know how right or wrong we were until we stand before the judgement seat. ALL fall short of the glory of God. NONE come to the Father except through Jesus.

   I am a sinner. I do not always live my life the way I should. I make mistakes. I struggle with my choices. I am not the perfect wife, mother or daughter. I will, one day, have to answer for all my sins before God. I certainly don't want to heap judging a mans heart on top of that:) We have learned that faith is not religion. And when you argue religion it ceases to be about God.

   I pray that our journey of faith is a blessing to others as we share here. The faith that we have in trusting the Lord to lead us to where we are in our hearts and life has blessed us beyond measure.

   God be with thee!

Sister Lori

I pray that I be not a hindrance!

Fellowship

{ 01:42, Thursday, May 10, 2007 } { Posted by ranan }

Lords Blessing to you and your family.....I totally agree about divorce...My husband and I are from a Catholic background...seeking the truth and found the Mennonite faith to be simple and biblical sound. We were part of a Mennonite fellowship but found that they were not forgiving when it came to Divorce. We struggle ......even though we have never been divorce. This conflict errupted when we were asked to go to Arizona to help start a church on a reservation. We did not fit the mold so another couple went.....We no longer attend that fellowship, but belong to a Bigger Fellowship with Jesus Christ as the Head. Sister Nancy

Questions

{ 05:28, Thursday, May 10, 2007 } { Posted by mvose1051 }

Hi Sister Lori!
I was wondering if your congregation also practices plain dress?
And am I the only one who is not able to view Sister Lori's pictures? They only come up as a little white box with an X. I try to open them but I get nothing. Humpf!
Blessings,
Miki

Untitled Comment

{ 09:33, Thursday, May 10, 2007 } { Posted by southernbelle }

Thank you for sharing such a wonderful testimony. Sounds to me like we share the same beliefs. I look forward to reading your blogs. (can't see the pictures)

Picture

{ 16:27, Friday, May 11, 2007 } { Posted by lerdman4 }

I can't see the picture either just to let you know. Thanks for posting it for the bloggers that can though
Lisa

~~~I'm sorry you aren't able to see the pictures. I have heard from different folks who either can or cannot see it. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong:s
I have them linked with a URL like it told me to. I wonder how to fix it?
God be with you!
Sister Lori

Edited by SisterLori on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 11:31