i'm not really certain where to start, or what to tell. i am currently 55 years old, God willing, i will see my next birthday in june. if not...
i was given awareness in my early 20s. when i say awareness, i mean, awareness that there is a God, that that God is doing something in the universe, and that maybe, just maybe, there was a part in that thing for me. there was a lot of pain for me involved in that experience of awareness. pain that started quite some time before He granted.
having been given awareness, i sought a place to go to develop an understanding of what it is that The Creator is doing, and what my piece of that might be. i landed in a worldwide church of god congregation on the south side of chicago. the minister that i had was an expository minister, and gave me the understanding that there was more to the scriptures than what was translated in the bibles we read.
through this minister's encouragement, i purchased many scriptural helps, and spent much time combing them and the scriptures to understand what God's will is.
for those of you that know it, the wwcg was a works based organization, and i was locked into that performance based belief except for one problem; sin. i had a problem that continued to present itself into my life, daily, hourly, constantly. i prayed, i fasted, i cried, i fretted,i i was sick with worry over the fact that i could not give up this particular sin. no matter how hard i tried, this "weakness" stuck to me like white on rice.
after wrestling with this sin for near a decade, i decided that i needed to walk away from church to deal with it. i felt like such a hypocrite going to services. my minister told me that i was making a mistake walking away from church, because my motivation for change would go away.
what has happened after i stopped attending has been nothing but amazing to me. i stopped attending services in 1995. since that time, The Father has gone to great lengths to show me that this has never been about me and my behavior, but His providence and declarations. there is not enough space in this forum, and i won't bore with details all that He has done to show me His love.
i found my way to the bible-truths site some years back, probably ten years now? a former wwcg member had a list of biblical links on a website that he had put together. there was much assurance provided to me through the reading of the understanding that The Father provided to ray. i am here for fellowship. i am in quite a significant trial right now, and have been for quite some time. i hope to be able to post some of that in another posting. this was intended simply to be an introduction, brief as it is.