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Old 05-15-2009, 07:33 PM
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greenbear greenbear is offline
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Ohio
Posts: 492
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Some people are brought up in church and have preconceived notions of who Jesus is, what the Bible teaches, what it takes to be saved, etc. Throughout my life as an agnostic, honestly not even knowing or caring what an agnostic was, whenever my mind started to ponder "the origins and purpose and meaning of life" other mundane, worldly thoughts would immediately take center-stage.

When I was in my late twenties a Seventh-Day Adventist co-worker said something to me, I don't even remember the conversation, but it made my mind snap. It was the first time that I was consciously and acutely confronted with the possibility that Jesus was a real historical figure, not some fictitious character. That was just the beginning.

I read the Bible a bit but it was goobly-gook. Couldn't make hide nor hair of it. I joined the SDA church and read plenty of Ellen White. The problem was that I couldn't stop eating meat and working and spending money on Saturday (The "Sabbath"). I think it was when I read that EW wrote that even tea drinking could be allowing the flesh to control you that I finally gave up. I was still drinking a beer or two every night. What hope could there be for someone like me? After about a year of this I realized that I was not good enough or strong enough to be saved so I just gave up and embraced the philosophy of eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. At least I realized what a hypocrite was!

I don't want to bore you for too long so the rest of my story is the short version. I had managed to read a good portion of the Bible including Revelation after my SDA experience and vaguely understood that Israel was key to end-time events. Bush I's Iraq war and the images of the burning oil fields somehow struck a chord with me and for some reason that drove me to Christian bookstores and to church.

I ended up at a pentecostal church and was baptized in a lake at the foot of a nuclear power plant!!! Once I came back ashore all these men were trying to get me to speak in tongues as evidence that I was saved. I wasn't able to conjure up any strange, unintelligible words so they actually suggested that I just try saying any sentence that came to mind over and over again. I felt bad that I wasn't able to produce anything that they wanted to hear. Oh, well.

Since I came up short in that arena, I contacted a woman from the SDA church that I truly loved, because I knew that she loved me, and found that she was attending the Vineyard church. I attended that church for a while but I was perplexed and dismayed because they would sing verses about the Father and the Holy Spirit but they would ALWAYS skip the verses about Jesus. My spirit wanted to praise Jesus, I didn't understand why. Their pastor would pray for the mantle of the spirit to cover the congregation. I could feel the mantle descending but it was not something I liked.

I wanted to understand prophesy but no one whom I asked, and I asked plenty, had any answers for me. They all said just pray to the Lord for understanding. So I did. Within a month or so I met my husband. He was a kindred spirit who had a hunger for understanding the scriptures. His teachers were Hal Lindsay, Dave Hunt and many others. This intelligent and truth-seeking man had the answers I was looking for. The lies that I had grown up with, evolution, feminism, my whole world view, everything, was replaced by the truth.

My journey was easy compared to those who were raised in satanic/illuminist families who suffered ritual abuse beyond our ability to comprehend. Or those who delved into occultism of their own accord ( I skipped that part of my story).

Jesus can bring anyone out of anything if the person has even a centimeter of good ground. The way he deals with every single person on earth is truly astounding. Praise His Name.

That said, no salvation can be found in Babylon. And God doesn't have any grandchildren.