Yeah, been there.

Submitted by kman (United States), Nov 24, 2008 at 19:36

I hear you. I was taken to the Anglican Catholic (Episcopalian) church in my youth. Of course, it's protestant. Just the same, there was a lot of pomp and ceremony, and a lot of dead Christains. My family and own youth were ravaged early on by numerous catastrophes & nightmares. I eventually told mom at age 15, that I was not going to go to church anymore. I spent the next 13 years as a very devout atheist.

One day God walked a preacher into my life who used to be me. I went confidently assuming I could handle yet another "idiot" Christain, preacher or not. It was a crefully laid "God" ambush. Short story, God came in, slapped me around, and blew my doors open. I have walked hard with him ever since. He directed me pointedly to his Word, which I read intensely for the the next year to year and a half.

He told who he was before sending me on to a church. I outgrew the church. It waned, waxed, and eventually walked the same path as that old Episcopalian Church. I went on, found a new on fire church that could grow me from where I am now at, and started soaring. All that stuff about "soaring on eagle's wings" and "walking off cliffs" into full fledged flight happened. I don't climb montains any more via long ladders or stairways. I've watched to many "christains" get tired, burned out, and spiral down in flames under their own efforts. God is currently pushing me into "rocketry".

I know all the atheist and agnostic claptrap because I was there. I will not follow or waste time or anything else on something that I haven't fully investigated. I will not follow another sappy bunch of pollyanna do-gooders into "works". God kept ahead of me the whole way. I have been stretched, hopped on "freight trains, and hopped from there onto "guided missles". Once he more than proved himself to me, I took a "step". It happened to be a onto a "freight train". Stepping off at high speed was too dangerous. I never looked back, only forward, from then on.

I've seen many religions like the Bahai's. They always point the easier way that doesn't ask a person to make choices that can be costly. The one true God never, ever varies off absolute truth, moral integrity, righteousness, love, and sacrifice to hold steadfastly to all that is right. With him, two plus two never fails to equal four.

From my vantage point, the Cathoics have very gradually, centuries ago, gotten a tad off the ever important track. Jesus never told us to pray to men who went the heavenly route (heart stopped & brain stopped functioning) no matter how "holy". Study them and learn from all the greats of Christianity, and then do what the Christ told us to do. He said that the path to the Father was clearly, only through Him via the Holy Spirit.

I don't pray to dead men regardless of their destination or height of their past life's flight. All believers are "saints" some great and some not so great. We all obey and pray to the provided Messiah who is a straight throughput to the Father who sent Him (originally referred to by the Apostle John as the "Word" - "who was in the beginning") . Some think it all sappy, a delusion, or blindness.

When a supernatural force started slapping me around, it only unscrambled my brains - not the other way around. My knowledge of all things "Christ", "Spirit", and "Father" have been expanding and leap frogging so fast lately, that it'sall I can do to hold on.

Three and a half decades ago, I walked confidently into a church with an appointment with a "preacher" who I was going to "set straight". I never would have believed in my wildest imaginings that all that God and Bible "stuff" would be the slightest bit believable. I will not go to church for anyone but myself - under the steady hands of the God who put me through "flight school".

Find Jesus, a cliff, and run full tilt right off into space. It's a blast!!

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