My name is Connie Schmoll. I reside in the small town of Orleans, Nebraska with my husband Don. We have a son David who also lives in Nebraska.
I was not raised in the church so I pretty much got a big taste of the world. I am able to see now that at age 15, I allowed rejection in my life to send me on a downward spiral. Starting at the age of 15 and on through my early 20's, I wandered around in a confusion of drugs, alcohol, fornication and unhealthy relationships, trying to escape emotional pain that I endured daily. At age 22, I found myself unwed and pregnant but suffered through a miscarriage. At age 23, I was in an abusive marriage and divorced 11 months later.
At the age of 24 was when I first entered a Pentecostal Church. I didn't really know much about the Bible and I had suffered much pain and hurt in the world that I was so hungry for love. I knew I was living a very dangerous life and had developed a bad reputation. I had learned in this church that there was Someone who loved me and would forgive me for my past life. I find that there are not many people who can do that. So I would have to say that it was God's forgiving power that brought me to Him. I was so thankful to finally find someone who would forgive me of my past and give me a new life...a new beginning.
This church taught a salvation message based on Acts 2:38. We were to follow 3 steps to salvation: Repentance, Water baptism, and Holy Ghost Baptism with evidence of speaking in tongues. They also taught that we were to uphold "holiness standards": men to be clean shaven, women to wear dresses, no pants, no make up or jewelry, and cutting of the hair was forbidden. They seemed to have Scripture for all of this by their interpretation. And as I shared earlier, I knew nothing about the Bible so I believed them and obeyed.
In the year of 1985, January 27th, I repented of my sins. February 10th, I was Baptized in Jesus Name and on February 17th I was baptized in the Holy Ghost. The day I was water baptized, my friend brought me a skirt outfit to be baptized in and said that I needed to wear dresses from now on. So I did. And as time went on, I learned all the other rules I was to follow. We also were not suppose to have a TV in our home or go to movies. The list goes on and on.....
Things were really great for awhile, but then things began happening in my life that I didn't understand. Mistreatment, unfairness, and Control. I accepted all this as lessons to learn as I was growing in the Lord. I ended up moving from my hometown in Ohio to Minnesota to attend a Bible College. It was there that I met my husband Don. After two years of marriage, we had our son David. But again...not so great things began to happen in the church. A church is suppose to be a place of love and healing, not a place to afflict hurt on people.
After being affiliated with this church organization for 15 years, God started revealing to us some errors in their teaching. Their teachings about salvation seemed to always be about what WE had to do, when our salvation is about what Christ did for us. I spent years trying to measure up to the right standing with God, by following their rules and standards and always lived in fear of losing my salvation if I didn't. This only led to a very frustrated life. The truth is, we are not saved by works. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
It was the year 2000 when we left this belief. We knew that God had called us into the ministry and we knew that we could not teach these false teachings to others when we did not believe them ourselves. The next 15 years have been really tough, trying to work through many issues, but through it all, God continues to reveal truths to us, that continually set us free from all the false teaching.
I started this site so that I can share some articles on the many truths that God has revealed to me. I am so thankful that He has shown us the TRUE revelation of Grace.
I know that God has a plan all laid out for our lives and I have accepted the fact that those 15 years in that belief was also part of His plan because I believe my steps are ordered by the Lord. The way I learned how to deal with this was in Galatians 3:24 Paul tells us that the law was our school master to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by Faith. So the way I see this church is I was schooled by the law bringing me to Christ but now I have finally graduated to Grace. Praise God!
If you have found yourself in a place where what you have lived for many years of your life has been a lie and you can relate to some things I share on here, I pray that you will find complete freedom in Christ.
Click on any of the tabs above to read the many articles that I have posted to share the truths God has revealed to us correcting some of the false teachings we received all those years in that legalistic church.
If you have any questions, you can reach me at the email address below or fill out the Contact Me form on the right.
God Bless,
Connie Schmoll
cjschmoll@gmail.com
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