I have been coming to Bible Truths for a short while now, but I felt that it was time to share a little about me and how I came to Bible Truths and Ray’s teachings.
Lately, I have been reflecting on how it was that GOD has brought me to Him and how many different things that he did to influence my journey and the lessons I have been taught along the way. It is amazing at what clarity GOD has been showing me of late in understanding how everything in my life has fit together so succinctly to bring me to HIM.
I grew up attending a Methodist Church until my parents’ marriage fell apart when I was about 10. At that time, I know my mom went and spoke with the minister of the church seeking guidance to help her cope with and make decisions for the future of our family. My biological father at this point was manic-depressive, an alcoholic, and had deserted us. The advise she was given was under no circumstances was she to leave her marriage and from what she related to me, was that they made her out to be a women with a scarlet letter tattooed to her chest. Needless to say, my mom took it upon herself to take us out of that church. We did eventually end up attending a non-denominational Protestant Church , although sporadically, where my (step) dad and mom where married. Even back then, when I was attending church serves, I use to think to myself, why is the minister spending an hour of the 1 ½ hours of the service making announcements about what the church was raising money for and reading from the church bulletin and where was the guts to this sermon. It just didn’t take. You know it’s funny; GOD was even working through my mom back then. She had been raised in a very strict religious household but never had us water baptized, because she felt it was important for us to have our own calling towards religion.
Fast forward to my mid to late 20s. I was dating a man for 3 years who seemed to be such a very spiritual and religious person. During this time, we where attending The First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. We use to speak quite often about the beliefs of the church and doctrine. As it was explained to me, the major point of the Presbyterian religion was their belief in predestination and that if you weren’t in the book, you weren’t getting in to heaven and there wasn’t anything that you could do about it. At some point, I starting attending the courses that the church required to become baptized. I went to a few of them and then one Sunday, I just didn’t go…and the following Sunday I didn’t go. He finally asked me why I wasn’t attending, and my comment was, “that this has to be about me and what I believe and not about you”. . I won’t bore you with all the details, but I was lead to believe that I was far inferior in my knowledge and religious views and not quite up to snuff with how well studied he was, at some point being told, that he didn’t know whether he could be with someone he wasn’t going to see in heaven. He went on to eventually attend Presbyterian seminary and shortly there after I was on my way. Looking back now, I realize how important a milestone this was in eventually being brought to GOD. HE wasn’t going to let me fall for some trumped up church doctrine.
The years following, was a time of searching. On and off, I would attend various Christian Churches in an attempt to find a home and be with GOD. I tried small churches, medium churches, and mega-churches (we even have one here that has a Starbucks-like coffee house in the lobby). But it seemed that each place I went made me feel like a ship out of the water. Even attending a bible study group were I was made to feel inferior by the members when I would asked a question.
In December, I was introduced, by a mutual acquaintance, to someone who was in need of finding a home. This isn’t something unusual, as this is what I do for a living, but what was unusually, is the conversations that would take place over the next few months that were such a departure from a normal client relationship for me. I think one of the first conversations that we had was about circumcision, can you imagine, it’s not even a topic that I would feel comfortable talking to my dad or brother about, at least in the physical sense. This lead to a very enlightening conversation about physical vs. spiritual beliefs and how Jesus had delivered us out of the old covenant and ushered in the new covenant. Now, how you get from house hunting to this topic, I really don’t recall, but what eventually transpired was me opening up about the problem I had with the church’s explanation of predestination and freewill. He shared with me a paper that Ray had written (at the time I didn’t know where the information came from), but I can’t tell you what an unbelievable sense of joy and relief that I felt. Each time we subsequently spoke, I was starved for more truth. Settlement Day arrived, and we had joked about a gift for me for all my hard work, many discussion about summer footwear ensued, (I am a girl after all), but imagine my surprise at being given ALL of Ray’s teachings! I think my comment was, “What are you trying to do keep me busy for the rest of my life?”. Truer words had never been uttered by me.
But this is how I have come to understand it, GOD has been working on me for a very long time, in small increments. It was amazing how many of the events in my life, brought me to where I am suppose to be and that it is all of HIM! His Time, His Way, His Love.
NoviceBeliever
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Topic: An introduction: Now that I've been outted....OR "It started with a house" (Read 5087 times)