Corinne Accepted by God, Part 1

Corrine grew up in a Mormon family but these ties dwindled when her parents divorced when she was 12 years old. “I always was a spiritual searcher and remember being afraid of hell. At the age of 14, I remember crying out to God to save me.” She began attending a Pentecostal church which she stayed with until she was 28.

“At this point in my life I was doing a lot of soul searching. I felt I wasn’t really living my life the way God intended.” She explains, “I prayed that God would show me the truth and give me wisdom to discern what He wanted for me—and not what everyone else was telling me.”

Corrine was working at a bank and occasionally had brief spiritual conversations with an elderly security guard. One day he loaned her a Christian DVD which contained a link to the Amazing Facts website (amazingfacts.org). During downtimes at work she began to peruse the whole site. She stumbled on the online Bible study lessons with worksheets and completed every single study and even received a certificate of completion.

The studies pressed on her heart, especially the Bible teaching about the observance of the Sabbath day. She says, “I remember questioning why we observed Sabbath on Sunday.” The answers she had received, such as, “It was changed by early Christians to avoid persecution,” were not biblical. She came to understand God had never changed the Sabbath.

Corrine also enjoyed studying about last-day events and was taught that Christians would be raptured before the seven-year tribulation period and the rise of the antichrist. But, once more, she could not find in the Bible any reference to a secret rapture before Christ’s second coming. She also learned the antichrist was not a person but a false religion.

During this time Corrine admits, “My walk had taken a wrong turn. I had divorced my husband and was living with another man. I thought if I attended a Sabbath-keeping church I would not be accepted.” So she continued to study on her own and the Holy Spirit kept calling to her heart.

Reflect: Have you ever cried out to God for help, but hesitated to fully surrender to Him? Remember, the only thing you really have to give up is a broken and sinful life.