In Him I Live, Move, and have my Being

by

Marshall Osborne, Jr.

AuthorHouse™                                    AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

© 2006 Marshall Osborne, Jr.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 8/21/2006

ISBN: 1-4259-3380-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-1095-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006904048

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

All scriptures are taken from the King James Version of the Open Bible, Copyright 1985 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

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

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

About the Author

Dedication

To my wife, Delores; my children, Laurie and Maurice; my grandchild, Erin; and most of all my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who have given me another opportunity to compose another manuscript for the purpose of educating, teaching, edifying, and exalting his name in all the earth. I thank all for your support, patience, and love while laboring with this task. May God continue to bless you abundantly in all aspects of life, spiritually, materially, and physically. Love, your husband, father, grandfather, and servant.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to express special thanks to his son, Garrick Maurice Osborne, for designing and producing the cover of this book. You are exceptionally talented in your discipline and it shows. May God continuously bless you in all your endeavors. Love, your dad.

Introduction

F or in him we live, and move, and have our being; ……………… (Acts 17:28).

This verse was written by Luke, the physician, giving us an account of the sermon Paul made on Mars’ Hill when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore, he (Paul) began to dispute with the Jews, and devout persons in the synagogue, and market-place daily. And I find it today, as if we ourselves are in Paul’s shoes, as we see many things succumbing our sisters and brothers to sin. Yet when he (Paul) passed by and beheld their devotions to the unknown God and realized that these people needed some knowledge of who God is, he no doubt had to care. For sometimes we ignorantly worship a God that we know not. But despite our ignorance, the true, and living God reminds us of our total existence in him. We didn’t create ourselves but there was God who created us in his likeness and image. God made the world, and all things therein. Thus, he is Lord of heaven and earth, and dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is he worshiped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things (Acts 17:23-25).

Furthermore, God made all nations from one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth for the appointed times and bounded their habitation.

That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like gold, or silver, or stone graven by art and man’s device (Acts 17:26-29).

As a result of God’s knowledge, I realized I cannot even exist if it weren’t for him. I didn’t become a living soul until God, my savior, and redeemer, blew his breath of life into this old body, and then I became a living being. That being is the expressed likeness and image of God almighty emanating from within me. Thus, in him I have to declare that I live, for if he takes his breath, I shall not live. His breath allows me to live, and move, and have my being. My being should be in him and him alone. And when it is, I find myself doing the things that God wants done. It’s no longer my being that liveth but the God that is in me that liveth. That’s why Jesus came to make us those new creatures in God. My thoughts are no longer my thoughts. My ways are no longer my ways. My word is no longer my word. Everything that I am I owe to God.

This book is about that being that I am becoming, and how it is being used to fulfill God’s will, and earthly purpose. We all were created for God’s purpose. We are just a flower specifically placed in the earth to add beauty to that environment we are in. Yes, the earth is God’s beautiful garden with all its beautiful beings. Did you ever imagine that God would ever use us in such a fashion? I could and still can imagine wondrous and greater things getting ready to be wrought by God through this being of his. I found that He can only use us when we recognize that we are no longer alive, but that He now liveth his life through us. Wherever I go, He goes. Whatever I do, He does through me. The life that I live, I live for him. This relationship, I have started with God, goes back many years. I hope He allows me to see the culmination of this being. But if not, I wish to share with you, my readers, book two, a collection of events on the theme of In him I live, move, and have my being.

Chapter 1

My Beginning in the Vineyard

Although I didn’t know it, God actually had my transformation in the making three decades ago. While I was a very active member in a predominantly Baptist church, things began to happen that set the transformation in motion. I had a love for the Word of God, and decided to begin a Bible class to teach and share the love of the Word with other interested brothers and sisters. The class was setup and seemed to attract a number of members from various denominations. We would all assemble at my church since I had received permission from the pastor and board of deacons to meet there. The class went well, with members learning, and applying the Word of God. Everyone seemed to be ecstatic, and anxious to get back together every week to learn something new. Needless to say, the class caused such a stir among our church members that rumors began to surface. The class and I had to defend ourselves against them. The main rumor, which perplexed the class and myself, was that we were trying to set-up a church of our own.

This was so far from our minds that it was mind boggling to think how someone could come up with such an absurd idea. Not one member of the class had mentioned establishing or building a church for ourselves. We were all quite happy assembling on Saturdays, and attending our own sanctuaries on Sundays. The rumors seemed to have quieted down, and we settled back into learning and applying the Word again. The entire class grew in knowledge and wisdom of the Word that we became a blessing to our sanctuaries, and they didn’t know it.

I recalled a situation in the Bible class that caused quite a stir. We had a mixed, and diverse membership at the time of the stir. One day as we were teaching on the immaculate birth of Jesus Christ, a member stated that she had become pregnant without man’s participation in the conception. This puzzled me at first, and all of a sudden another young woman stood up, and said something similar. Here were two women, one a Caucasian, and one an African American, both were married standing before us, stating that they were pregnant by God. The Caucasian woman’s husband, who was in attendance, stood, and confirmed that he had not had a relationship with his wife for her to be pregnant with this child, and no other man had had a relationship with her. The African-American woman’s husband was not present in the assembly. The members of the class began to rejoice, and congratulate the women.

Now I was even more puzzled. I thought that they were knowledgeable enough to understand that there wasn’t but one Immaculate Conception, and that was the birth of Christ. I waved my hands and said, Attention please. Everyone got quiet, and I began to choose my words carefully not to offend my sisters, for they all had to know the truth. They didn’t quite understand why Jesus said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I reiterated the fact that God said his only begotten Son, and He meant just that. No one else shall be conceived like Him. So how could we say that no man has participated in these pregnancies? Everyone got very quiet. I went on to say that Jesus must have the preeminence in all things, and He would not have the preeminence in this regard if these two pregnancies are true.

One member asked, How can you say that this is not of God, if you were not there? I told him I didn’t need to be there to know that the Word of God is true all by itself, and regardless of what man says, I would believe the Word of God above all things. This was a question of accepting the Word of God as factual, and the foundation of our existence, as a class. If we weren’t going to believe the Word of God as written, then what are we going to believe, man, woman, etc.? These creatures were created by God himself, and can’t speak above God’s Word. We requested the women to assure themselves that they were pregnant, and to let the class know on the next assembly they attend. They did as we requested, and said that the doctors confirmed their pregnancies. One member said to me that I now needed to apologize to the women and their husbands. I quickly responded that I would not be so quick to apologize, but would wait, and see the babies before I did; no more, no less. I requested that they ensure that we know the outcome of these pregnancies in November. Thus, we had about six and half months to wait and see the results. I promised them that if this were a true immaculate conception, I’d give up teaching the Word of God. That was just how much confidence, and assurance I had in the Word of God, and that this was not an act of God. The two women kept attending the Bible class, and we all kept an eye on them, as they began to get larger in their abdominal areas. The Caucasian woman was experiencing some baby movements, and requested that one of the sisters feel the baby move, while we were having class. It stopped the class from learning at the moment, and we all turned our attention toward them. The two women shared the excitement with the class, and we returned to our Bible teaching. We continued to teach the immaculate conception of Christ for a couple of weeks, and moved on to other agendas.

Time was fast approaching for the pregnancies to come due. The two women had grown larger, and larger, just like a normal pregnancy. The friends of the Caucasian women threw her a baby shower at one of her friends’ home. She received many wonderful gifts, and she showed the pictures of the shower to the class afterward. Some members of the class participated in the baby shower, and were there to witness the shower firsthand. I wasn’t invited, didn’t attend, and wouldn’t have attended if invited, due to my faith and stance on this matter. The African-American woman’s friends also threw her a baby shower. She also received many wonderful baby gifts. The closer we got to November, the more excited I became, because I wanted this quagmire to end, and allow the class to get back to serious learning.

It was during the middle of November that the Caucasian woman was due to deliver her child. The time came and she delivered not a fetus or baby but just a liquid jellylike substance. I was told it was not a living organism. She was very embarrassed after this, needless to say, and did not attend the Bible class anymore.