Hi everyone..Just wanted to introduce my self to the forum. I live in California in the foothill country of the the Sierra Nevada mountains ,approximately one hundred forty miles east of San Francisco.I first heard about L Ray Smith from another web site of a man named Ernest Martin, who was a member of the same World Wide Church of God that Mr Smith was a member of.Ernest martin was a prominent member and Dean of the College in England and eventually in Pasadena,California.He resigned because he started to see false teachings that the leadership was pawning off as truth.Any way,I was very curious as to why he was always vilified,and why he left the church.So eventually I ran across his web site.He talked of universal salvation.He also had other references to people who were teaching similar beliefs.L Ray Smiths web site was listed, so that is how i found L Ray Smith.
I was also around the same time trying to find the real meaning of grace.That was heavy on my mind as I searched for some clear meaning for several years.There was a lot of teachings that were more confusing and that was frustrating me .Also , the Worldwide Church of God taught annihilation,and if it was true,i was in big trouble.That was truly eating me alive with terrible fear and anxiety,heart pounding and full of terror.I needed to either die or find out if God was going to really throw people into literal fire and end there existence,or if not,then what was really going to happen.When I came across L Rays web site,it was like the most amazing relief and the most amazing revelation of the word of God that freed me from a distorted image of who God was. I had a belief from childhood that God was gentle and kind and easy to talk to.It took religion to get me to have a fearful dred of God.I now know that God does these things to drag us to Christ,kicking and screaming,just like my first day of going to school,where my Mom had to literally drag me to the classroom.LOL!
Well,thank you all for the forum,and I hope to respond more in the days to come. By the way,a little more about what I do hear in California..I am self employed,in the furniture refinishing trade,also staining and painting cabinets and also painting houses occasionally.For recreation, I really love hiking up in the high country,which is quite beautiful ,and fishing in local lakes and steams occasionally.I like to watch my favorite sports teams from the San Francisco area,the Giants baseball team and the 49er football team.Which is not soccer,to all outside of USA,lol.When I was a kid,we had a priest from Ireland teach us soccer,which I enjoyed playing thoroughly,but find it difficult to watch. I also come from a large family,eight brothers and four sisters,two brothers have died many years ago.I miss them,but know that they are sleeping till there time comes for God to teach them His ways.Thank you all in Christ our Saviour.
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