The Ease of the Good News

By Dr. Candace L. Wilson

Have you ever gone to church and felt everything except welcomed, loved, and worthy to be there? Can you remember being desperate for God and feeling defeated every time you left the church?

In The Ease of the Good News, you will see clearly through the author's story how none of us will ever be worthy of God's love. So whether you think your life is in line with God or not, this book is for you. God used simple truths and real-life situations to send a personal message to everyone who reads these pages. His love is offered daily to us all even when we continuously reject Him. This book will show you how to see people as people and appreciate even the worst things in life. God's love conquers all things, and He died so we can be free. Life seems complicated, but salvation is easy. That is the Good News!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639611294

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The Ease of the Good News

Dr. Candace L. Wilson

ISBN 978-1-63961-128-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63961-129-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Dr. Candace L. Wilson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Introduction

Before you read this book, you should know a few things about me. First of all, I am a straightforward person. Others would describe me as one who tells it like it is. So what is written in the following pages is pure truth—the good and the bad. Second, I never thought of myself as an author of a book but kept getting pressure about it from a friend. Then one day in church, God gave me a title. Last but definitely not least, I love God. I have come to the point in life where I depend on Him for everything in my life. I hope His love for me and you will become apparent as you read this book. My prayer is that God uses me to share His Good News in a way that impacts others like how He has impacted me.

Be blessed!

Chapter 1

In the Beginning

Here’s where it all began…

You ever heard that scripture about how God knew you even before you were in your mother’s womb? Well, until about two years ago, I can honestly say I did not just take God’s Word for it. In my mind, it was a Bible story or a good church cliché. In reality, Jeremiah 1:5 is my story, and it’s yours too.

I am what people refer to as a church baby. During my entire life, my parents have been in church and raised my sisters and me to believe in and respect God. That was the basis for my relationship with God today. For most of my life, I have attended Pentecostal churches. There were a few nondenominational ones in there too, but they had Pentecostal beliefs. Later, you’ll see how none of that really matters.

As a child, I can remember my sisters and I playing church in our living room. It was hilarious. We would come up with ridiculous testimonies not too far off from some we would hear in church and then start fake shouting all over the house. Shoot, we’d even fall out on the floor just so someone would have to throw a blanket on top of us. It’s what we learned at church. We could fake speak in tongues Hescomininahonda with the best of them, and shouting or dancing in the Spirit (for those who don’t know), we had that down. I could slow-robot shout, huck-a-buck, and smooth shout with the rest of them. And don’t let us play the preacher or minister! We could preach (or scream), talk really nice to encourage someone, or completely cut people’s testimonies off and check them—all of that and everything in between.

We were kids. Let’s face it, kids are sponges. They soak up what they see and hear, and then when you least expect it, it gets squeezed back out. By ten years old, I had mastered church. I knew how to act and when to act that way. If my friends and I decided to be saved that week, we would go to the prayer room and start tarrying for the Holy Ghost. What does that even mean? According to Dictionary.com, tarry means to remain or stay; to wait. We’ll come back to this later. So we would get in the prayer room, and they would tell us to start calling on Jesus and say hallelujah. I remember saying hallelujah and Jesus so much until it turned into Halehalehale…jejejejejejejejeje. And if you said it fast enough, it might seem like you got the Holy Ghost and were saved. I even remember when some of my friends appeared to get the Holy Ghost before me. The adults would start rejoicing and be so happy. One time, I decided I was tired of all the tarrying, and they were going to rejoice for me too. So I got my fast hales and jejes ready and started rolling on the floor. It fooled everyone except my dad. He came in there, picked me up by the arm, and said, Let’s go. He saw right through it! I remember feeling like he was so rude by interrupting my moment like that. I laugh while even writing this now. It was so foolish. Thank God my dad knew God enough to see through that.

Then there was baptism. Perhaps I should have put this before the Holy Ghost. That’s the order we learned. You get baptized in the water, and then you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Have you ever seen someone in real life or on TV get baptized? You know the stories. All the people who really love them are there, gathered around. The person has really decided to dedicate their lives to the Lord. They get baptized, everyone rejoices, and they live happily ever after, right? Yeah, that’s not my story. I don’t even remember how old I was, maybe nine or ten. My sisters were already baptized. One summer, we went back to El Paso (where I was born) and visited our old pastor and his wife. I remember her telling us about heaven and hell. She had a gas stove. I remember her putting someone’s hand close to the flame to demonstrate the heat of hell. Well, my sisters were convinced they didn’t want to go there, so they got baptized. I, on the other hand, was harder to convince.

Once we got back to Minnesota, I saw that it was becoming popular to be baptized. So a couple of friends and I decided that we would do it one Sunday. I was not too happy about having my body submerged in a tub of water. However, some of my friends who did it previously said that the deacon would let me hold my nose. I don’t know which deacon they got, but Deacon H. did not let me pinch my nose shut! He told me I had to cross my arms in front of my chest. So there was a little bit of a discussion before he just dunked me. Oh my gosh! I came up choking and coughing. Everyone else was happy and rejoicing, and I was mad. Let’s just say I didn’t feel Jesus in that moment.

The next step was the Holy Ghost, remember? So here’s the thing. While we were in Minnesota, it didn’t seem like people were keeping track of the date when they got the Holy Ghost. Perhaps they had, and I missed that part. Well, I already told you, I could fake with the best of them. Plus, those in my age group would be saved and backslide together. That was our cycle. Looking back on it now, I doubt we were saved at all. We were just really good at playing church.

None of that really mattered until we moved to North Carolina. I tell you what, there’s a whole world of difference between being saved in the North versus the South! I’m not sure why that is or was, but it was evident. My parents stayed the same the whole time, but the church standards of salvation were definitely different. The worse part was when my parents decided to join our church (which we, the children, were definitely against), the pastor made this big announcement that ended with And all three girls are saved! Wait, what?! No, I’ve just been faking and playing church. I did feel God’s Spirit a few times, but I don’t even remember when that was. Now people are asking me when I got saved (meaning when did I receive the Holy Ghost). Me being me, I just said, I don’t know because I faked for so long and it just hit me one day. What else could I say? The faces of those who were not ready for that answer were priceless. That’s when I knew I had to get saved for real because these people were expecting something I did not have.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the thing I didn’t have—the Holy Ghost. Now as a Pentecostal-raised child, you grew up memorizing Acts 2:38 (KJV), Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Sounds pretty definite, right? Yet I kept seeing people go to the altar week after week and still leave without it. I mean, it made it seem like this gift was really hard to get. The people would look so defeated too. It seemed like they wanted it so badly, but they just didn’t have what it took that day. They seemed so desperate for it. Why wasn’t God giving them the gift? I always wondered that. Why did they have to keep repeating words or phrases for God to give them this gift the scripture said would definitely come? I mean, people were repeating until their throats were raw or they threw up. How come they left defeated without the gift?

I never understood that until I actually started listening to the preachers preach. Apparently, it was a matter of the heart and mind. Well, if you’d follow the scripture, people didn’t want to repent. They just wanted the gift. What does repent even mean? Here’s what I’ve gathered from over the years. To repent means to feel regret or sorrow for your past sins, turn away from them, and turn to God. Seems easy right? I mean, you already feel bad about some of the bad stuff you’re doing. So you just have to quit doing it and turn to God to get your gift, right? But why do people still have such trouble receiving the gift? Why are preachers preaching so much about why people don’t receive the gift? I mean, this gift seems pretty hard to get. Why would I want it anyway?

Let’s move on to the preteen/teenage years. I learned a lot during these years. I learned about all the gifts of the Spirit as the Bible talks about in 1 Corinthians 12. We learned more about the power we have with the Holy Ghost, how to pray, how to worship, how to praise, and how to give—you know, the basics of being a disciple of Christ. Things were getting serious now. Fakers were not cute anymore; they were frowned upon. You don’t discuss your struggles except with your absolute best friends. You have to be a great example now so others might want to be saved. Lots of pressure, huh?

Those were some super intense years, mostly because I was trying to be someone everyone already thought I was. I was pretty sure I loved God and even more sure that I disappointed Him in some of my decisions. Sometimes because the bar was set so high, I felt like I would never be able to do enough to get back into God’s graces. Can you show me where it says that in the Bible? I haven’t found it yet, but it seems like other church folks have. The gift didn’t seem like a gift anymore. It seemed like a burden that separated me from anyone outside the church and made me stand out in a way I didn’t want to. I found out later that religion was doing that, not God—very separate but always grouped together in people’s eyes.

I’ll give