"MY BIRTH & NEW BIRTH"
I was also born into a church going family. My parents & grandparents were members of a very conservative, legalistic church. I went to church all the time & many Sundays I would sit on the 2nd pew with my paternal grandparents. I loved sitting with my grandma.
Being raised in this particular church was difficult for me because although I loved the people there, the church's doctrine was in error on some things.
I was taught to believe in accapella worship only. The use of instruments was for us a sin. Also according to the doctrine, you could not be divorced & remarried (without scriptural grounds) & still go to heaven. The bible simply does not teach this, but it has been made �the unpardonable sin' in some churches. And it was so in mine.
Jesus so clearly & lovingly addressed the woman at the well, 'acknowledging' her 5 marriages, & went on to say that the man she was presently with was not her husband. Am I condoning divorce & re-marriage? (Absolutely not!) God hates & is grieved by divorce. But He doesn't send people to hell for it. Man sadly makes hell his ONLY choice when he rejects Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior.
Jesus did not condemn the woman at the well, or the woman caught in adultery, or even the prodigal son. Jesus never came to earth to condemn any of us. He came to offer us the GIFT of 'eternal Life' through His death on Calvary. Isn't is sad how many who wear the name of Christ (the example we 'SHOULD' follow), are so quick to cut people to shreds and destroy them over church doctrine? Jesus never came to condemn any of us. He came to SAVE us & deliver us from the power of sin. (JOHN 3:17). He came to offer Grace & mercy to a fallen humanity; to those who will accept Him.
For me, being raised in such a church was like being between a rock & a hard place. When I left the church in 1990, my grandpa looked me in the eye & told me that I would go to hell for leaving. That's another thing that many churches teach, that 'THEY' are the only true church. Another fallacy of man! Some people take this so literal when God meant that there was only one universal body of believers in Christ! He was never talking about buildings, doors or labels.
My grandpa also told my mom when her dad died that he went to hell because he was Baptist & not a member of 'this' particular church. My Mom left the church after that & didn't go to a church again for many years. How utterly deceived many people are about Jesus & His church. People who believe like this are not being led by the Holy Spirit.
My grandpa departed mortal life & entered eternity resulting from cancer on Wednesday, August 30th, 1995. Though he was a cold, harsh man, I did love him & I miss him. I was holding his hand when he breathed his last breath here & slipped into eternity. Knowing my grandfather's life as I do, I have undecided feelings where he is in eternity. I know that people prayed with him before his death, including myself & I'm glad. But then his eternal destiny is NOT mine to decide. Jesus & His word are our final judge & only God knows the condition of a man's heart. I hope & pray that my grandpa is with the Lord.
Despite all the error in the church I grew up in, I know God had His reason for placing me there & I am thankful to Him that there was a sufficient amount of truth from God's word there to penetrate my heart. 'To His glory it did'. The Holy Spirit, though a stranger to me at the time, kept tugging at my heart & drawing me to God. I finally answered Jesus' knock on my heart's door on November 13, 1973, accepting Him as Savior. I was 11 years old.
It would be several years however, before I would understand about surrendering my will to God giving Him complete Lordship of my life. The reason is that there was so much I didn't know at 11. In fact new believers know very little because they are babes in Christ. To complicate matters, I had tons of emotional baggage that God needed to heal me of & out of ignorance (lack of awareness) I didn't exactly make it easy for Him.
Like Jesus in the hours before His death on the cross, I first had to be broken. I had to go through my own personal garden of Gethsemane, trial & crucifixion before I would understand that to have �true life' meant �self' had to be put to death. Only when we are emptied of �SELF', ( our OWN will, our OWN way of doing things, our OWN ideas, our OWN wisdom, & our OWN abilities,) can the perfect life of the Holy Lamb of God be lived & accomplished through us. I had a long, hard, road ahead. And though I've grown & matured much. I still have far to go'. I have not arrived by any means!
Art is copyright � Greg Olsen