Classic Mary Moments: It wasn't me...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

It wasn't me...

"It wasn't me! It was God!" Have you ever heard someone say that? They sing a song or preach a message and someone compliments them. Says they did a good job and what do you hear them say? "It wasn't me! It was God!" I remember as a child hearing people say that. I would hear someone say, "Oh sister, you did a GOOD job singing today!" and i would hear them respond, "Oh thank you! But it wasn't me, it was GOD!" And I remember standing there just trying to make sense of what they were saying. I would be thinkin ummmm ACTUALLY, I'm PRETTY sure it was YOU standing up there singing! I just didn't really understand those words until I was about 15...
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I was 15 years old when I discovered that God had bestowed upon me the ability to write. I started writing a fiction novel for teens that all my girlfriends loved to read. I would bring it to church, they would read it and beg me to write some more... AND it was FUN writing...That was my first experiance with writing BUT it wasn't until my English teacher announced a poetry contest that I really discovered what it meant when people said, "It wasn't me, it was GOD!"
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I had an idea in my mind for a poem I wanted to write. It was gonna be a love poem for married people. So I had my mom drop me off at the public library, so I could have some peace and quiet! (Cuz you gotta understand with FIVE kids in the house...there are basically people EVERYWHERE!!! And the Ginty's ain't exactly QUIET if you know what i'm sayin) So i'm at the library and without missing a beat, I sit down and just write this poem that I thought was PRETTY GOOD! So I run outside, count my change and call my mom on the pay phone in the front of the library! i am soooo excited about the poem that I read it to my mom. When I get off the phone, there is this lady that had been standing behind me and she is like, "WOW! That poem was beautiful! It belongs on a Hallmark card or something!" I thanked her, but was basically SHOCKED!!!
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I brought it to my pastor and his wife and they loved it...once again...I WAS SHOCKED!!! They helped me do some editing on it and I passed it around to married people that I knew and they would tell me how it touched them...and I was ALWAYS SHOCKED! I was just a 15 year old girl that didn't know a THING about true love and marriage. AND believe me, if you knew me when I was 15...If you think I'm cRaZy now, magnify that x10 and that was me at 15! Oh man...tping, water fights, door knock ditching, I wore the wildest-funkiest outfits, I flirted like CRAZY, I talked to soooo many guys on the phone, I slipped love notes under the hotel room doors at conferences, OH MAN!!! LOL ( AND DON'T you ALL be like, OH WHAT'S changed!?! I will SOOOO slap you if you do...JAC!!! LOL ;) I wasn't a bad girl though... I was just an immature 15-year-old!

And I remember one day, seeing someone getting teary-eyed about that poem, I just thought how could something I, MARY GINTY WROTE, have caused that reaction on someone?! AND in that moment...I KNEW! It wasn't ME! It was GOD!!! Now I understood, the poem was God inspired! What I had heard all those people always saying made sense...IT WAS GOD!!!

Even today, as I prepared my lesson for bible class tonight, the WHOLE lesson was from God. And as I wrote that poem, read stuff in the bible, so many other things to write would shoot into my mind and I wold have to stop and jot them. And every thought and idea that popped into my mind, I KNEW it was GOD!!! Cuz BELIEVE me...my own thought run along the lines of...okaaay sooo HOW exactley am I gonna get the scoop on that one guy? and I really feel like buying a really cute flower to accesorize with my one green jacket and MAN I know I need to lose more weight but I SURE am hoping we go to Spinatos for dinner tonight...yeah thats about the depths of MY thoughts!!! :) I don't EVER want to forget, where ALL THE GOOD STUFF COMES FROM!!!

For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many

redound to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 4:15

The Votaws!!!

He has preached all over the US, China, Taiwan, the Philipines, Vietnam and many more Asian countries. He preaches in underground churches in communism countries. He converted a man on death row in prison to Christ and 3 hours before that man died he baptized him in Jesus name. He prayed the first man in Vietnam to kill and americn soldier through to the Holy Ghost and Baptized him in Jesus name. He has converted trinitartin preachers all over to the Oneness doctrine...BUT ABOVE all else...I thank God that I TOO am ONE OF THOSE souls he reached out too...he gave 7 years of his life to New York City!!! I thank God that he answered the call!!! It wasn't until his 6th & final year as pastor there, that our family came into church...we were there for 9 months before we came to AZ and then right after that the Votaws left NYC for the mission fields of Asia...I THANK God that someone had a burden for NYC!!!

Sis. Kathy!!!

This is the woman that invited my Momma to a Pentecostal church!!! She told me that she was actually new in the church herself and that she would see my mom in the front yard of our house playing with us kids and she just wanted so badly for my mom to have what she had just recieved herself. It may have been just one person that she was witnessing to at that time, but that one person has had an affect on her own five children and now its her Grandchildren that are still recieving the blessing of Sis. Kathy's witness. 25 years ago, it wasn't just my mom...I may have only been two at the time, but it was ME she was winning too! I thank God she wasn't afraid to be a witness and that she didn't give up on my mom. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. (Acts 2:39) When you decide to live for God it doesn't just stop with you!