As I look back at where I began my conversion and religious journey, I am amazed that I stayed on the legal treadmill for as long as I did. Many people simply decide that they can no longer jump through the religious hoops and they opt out of the formal religious power plays. The good news is that most keep pursuing the spiritual path that religion didn’t pay much attention.
My formal introduction to God came at age 17. He was my Abba Father!
And then it got more formal. There were all these orientation classes that Had to take and then instructions as to how to convert others. I tried them on my mother and my step dad but they weren’t impressed. Maybe I wasn’t doing it right. After all, I was a novice. So, I took more evangelistic instruction classes. I probably didn’t play the fear of hell card strong enough.
I was taught that God was HOLY and that I was a total REPROBATE!
I started my Bible study with Genesis and of course there seemed to be a disconnect between me being this awful sinner and the very first chapter of the Bible saying that I was created in the image of God and futher more God’s creation of me was “very good”. My questioning these issues found little favor and I was told that I simply needed to BELIEVE (wat they told me). To question anything might lead me into dark territory.
In fact I was assigned to an older man to watch over me and make sure I didn’t fall into heresy since I was such a novice in the things of God.
Every time I asked a question that didn’t seem to make logical sense, I was told that God just worked in mysterious ways and as long as I followed the church and it’s leadership, especially what my pastor said, I’d be rewarded in heaven. After all God LOVES good little boys and girls and I remembered the “stars” I used to get when my grandmother took me to church at the age of 5 which were “kisses” from God for being a “good boy”. I even remembered having a star taken away from my name that was on the wall when I pinched the boy next to me.
No wonder Marcion had such trouble with the Old Testament God!
Thankfully, I’ve moved away from my “introduction to God” and I’m now walking with my Creator in ways that my denominational teachings (even as late as my early 30′s) instructed. Sadly, many have just walked away from church and religion altogether. But, the God I now know will find them, love them, and never ever take any of their “stars” away.
Only the church does that!
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