I had had enough. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. It was only his
interpretation. There were many things he said that I did not agree with, but
I wrote it off to the fact that he was just very zealous for God. For two
years before that, every time I went to church something would scream in my
soul to "get out, leave, you don't belong here any more." I thought I must be
possessed, that demons were trying to keep me from God. All the while,
without my realizing it, my soul was trying to get me to move past the
closed-minded, stagnant thinking of those tunnel-visioned individuals.
I have learned more about God in these last eighteen years than I ever did in
the fifteen years I went three to eight times per week, depending on how many
services they held. What I did learn there was The Word and how to apply it
to my life. I did learn about the compassion of Christ and the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. For those things I am eternally grateful.
When I opened up to where God was leading me and not where I thought I should
go, it became much easier to receive from Him the lessons and teachings He
had placed on my spiritual pathway. When I let go of all of my old, learned
spiritual prejudices and began to seek for wisdom and knowledge, God was so
merciful to lead and teach me that there were so many other ways to
appreciate the way His people worldwide, worship, praise, and serve Him. He
has many Holy Names and He is many things to all of the different cultures of
this earth.
He taught me an appreciation of the way others worship and a Holy respect for
their right to do so as they interpret the Holy teachings of their particular
tribe of people. We are all members of a tribe. Indians, Aztecs, Africans,
Egyptians, Orientals, Christians, English, Scottish, Italians, Germans,
Irish, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Russians, Jews, Arabs, and
many more are all specific tribes of people. Each teaches different ways of
spiritual holiness and purity. God created this world and is in all things.
He is directing the way for all of us. He will find ways always for us to be
led to Him if we only seek after Him.
For myself, I choose to believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. I believe that through Him, I am saved and have the promise of
eternal life. I believe that He sent His Holy Spirit back for each one of
us, so we may be comforted during times of trials, sorrow, and suffering.
This is written about in the Book of Acts, in the New Testament portion of
the Bible.