I was a luke-warm Christian for 63 years, as members of Anglican, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches near our various homes over the years.
When we moved to Manitoulin in Dec. 2006, we similarly joined our community's small church, a United Church of Canada, that was constructed in ~1917.
After sitting in the pews for 10 years most Sundays, helping on fundraising, and serving on the Church Board, we were informed that our 97 yr. old church was closing, and the building sold.
We were invited to join the next closest United church in a town 15 km away, but we decided to stay home and read our Bibles every Sunday.
That meant we had to buy two new Bibles, as we no longer had access to the Bibles in the closed church. We bought Common English Bibles, as the ad said they were the easiest to understand. For the very first time, we read the Bible cover to cover. When you stand, reading the Bible out loud, it takes ~72 hours to read it cover to cover.
Upon completing our cover to cover reading, we were shocked!
The Christian religion we had experienced for 63 years in 4 different Protestant denominations was totally different from the Bible.
At first, I thought I had inadvertently bought the wrong Bibles; possibly the CE was a New Age "bible" version? I bought two King James Bibles, 1790 AD text versions. The problem didn't go away.
We also learned a new term in John Chapter 3, called "Born Again". Had we fallen asleep in Sunday School, and had a freak coincidence of being away on vacation every Sunday for 63 years that Born Again was in the Pastor's sermon? I doubt that.
We had learned that all the denominations we had attended over the last 63 years were all badly corrupted, and don't follow the Bible.
We were totally isolated. We were sinners. We weren't Born Again. We carried grudges and unforgiveness against those who had screwed us over decades before. If we died suddenly, we'd die in our sins, heading towards the eternal Lake of Fire.
In Feb. 2017, our fear of God and His judgment against us was overwhelming. We decided to follow the KJV Bible, confess, repent, get full immersion baptized, and be Born Again as an obedient child of God.
Once we had saved ourselves through the grace of Jesus Christ, we worried about all others. Were there other individuals and families nearby who had made a similar discovery, and were now isolated as well? Could we all come together for Christian fellowship that followed the Bible, rather than the cultish teachings of humans?
I put up posters on every available billboard. I did a bulk mailing through the Post Office, to every home and business. If there were like-minded obedient, Bible-believing Christians out there, I wanted to find them.
Within a few week, we met one lonely Christian who had been praying for many months to find other True Christians. He said we were the answer to his prayers.
From that discovery process, we found a few kindred spirits. We decided to form a home-based church.
King James Bible Church Manitoulin was born.
In Nov. 2017, with inspiration from the Holy Spirit, I drafted a poem to describe my experiences of becoming Born Again, and forming a home-based church.
I memorized the first three verses, and often repeated them to myself.
Next, I started singing them to myself in a tune that naturally came to me.
After a few months of singing my hymn, I heard there is a free music composition app for Android phones. I searched up and down a piano keyboard to find the first note of my song I was singing. I repeated this, note by note, for the whole song. I then used the app to write proper sheet music for my hymn.
Seven years later, King James Bible Church is still here. We have adoped this hymn as an integral part of every Saturday Sabbath service for our home based church.
Here is our story, and our doxology, set to music:
Here is the sheet music, with lyrics:
Here are the lyrics:
KJBC Hymn
1. O God, my God, glory be, All my evil that You see, Comes from my will wildly flexed, Stains this life, destroys the next.
2. Sin on sin, Your patience tried, My sin grows iniquity, My life wasted, gray goes black Help me God, please bring me back.
3. Seven churches, most are lost, Their foul doctrine must be tossed, No one local that I know Help Your Word in me to sow.
4. Wilder-ness voice that I hear Calls to me so I come near He is also a lost sheep We're a new flock God can reap.
5. Book and verse we struggle long To consume Your Word so strong We are confused, me the most Thanks for sending Holy Ghost.
6. Your pure Word lifts Satan's fog, Sobering us from sinful grog, Prayer and worship we enjoy, With our hymns we sing in joy.
7. Please forgive our deadly sins, Stop our losses, let us win
your salvation that we seek. Brash is gone, so now we're meek.
8. Holy Father, time is short, Second Coming soon report, Your Commandments we now know, In-i-qui-t-y we don't sow.
9. Signs in stars, so we look up, Patience! Wait to fill His cup, Watch each day for blessed hope Satan's dark world, can we cope?
10. Till You come, we have our flock, Persecution, us they mock, Loving this world do not keep, Climb the narrow way, it's steep.
11. We praise God, for all His love, We love God in Heaven above, O-be-d-ience shows our love, Wise as serpents, harmless doves.
12. Share the Gospel, we go forth, Looking for our blessed hope Oc-cu-py until He comes, That is whe-n we'll have won.
### End of Lyrics ###
We think we're 100% aligned with the Bible, but we're open to suggestions to further improve.
You are welcome to distribute or use the song, music, lyrics, & video in any way that serves the God of the Bible, the One true God, the Creator of Heaven & Earth, and everything therein.
If you played this video for your church, and asked the congregation for their feedback, to compare & contrast this hymn to your church's teachings. what do you think your congregation will say?
Only one way to know for sure: try it. Are you courageous enough to do this?
God Bless !
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