Finding My Faith

I was raised loosely Methodist. We went to church when we lived in Michigan and I attended nursery school at this church. In 1st grade we moved to Puerto Rico and didn't go to church at all; and then before I started 3rd grade we moved to Indiana. My dad was a contract engineer for the phone company so he got transferred a lot. I had no idea what it meant to be Methodist, or how their beliefs differed from anyone else, I just knew I was Methodist like some people know they're Catholic or Jewish.

Once we were back in the States, I think my parents had just fallen out of the habit of going to church, because the only time I went to church was if I went with a friend. I always enjoyed going but it never occured to me to ask why WE didn't go. Come to think of it, a lot of questions never occured to me at that time.

I was visiting a Baptist church with a friend when I was 16 years old, (we'd go hide outside and smoke while her aunt was in choir rehearsal) and I saw someone get baptized. I thought perhaps I should be baptized if I hadn't been - not sure why I wanted to other than it seemed like the thing to do. I had seen my on-again, off-again boyfriend get baptized at that same church a year before. My friend told me that I had to be saved first. I said, "OK, I'll get saved!" not having the first clue what that meant.

She took me to the pastor, who took me into the church library and showed me the 'Romans Road.' I nodded and agreed with everything he said, and when he asked me if I wanted to pray, I informed him that I was not sure what to say. So I repeated a prayer after him and got dunked the following Sunday. It was right after that that my friend started working on Sundays and quit going to church. I sure wasn't going if SHE wasn't going!

After I graduated from high school, I moved in with my then boyfriend, now husband. The ONLY pastor available to marry us over Labor Day weekend was the same pastor that had baptized us and believed we were Christians. We had our first baby 9 months, 5 days later. When she was about 6 months old, he was looking in the classifieds for a better job and ran across an ad that read: "666 is COMING! Call 1-800-###-####" and out of morbid curiosity he called the number, expecting to hear some demonic message but instead it was an end times, repent and be saved, turn or burn message.

We found ourselves at the same Baptist church and this time, we heard the Spirit call us. I know that I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! I sang all those Christmas carols for all those years and all of a sudden I knew what they were talking about when they sang, "Veiled in flesh the God-head see, hail th'incarnate Deity!" Hallelujah!!!

So, I was born-again and raised Independent, Fundamental, Pre-millenial, KJV-only Baptist. And I thought that I had the Truth. I believed everything they taught me because they could point to Bible verses and say, "That means this...." and I never doubted. When the Left Behind series came out, I thought maybe Mr. LaHaye had a bit of his eschatology mixed up, but the premise of the series gave me NO pause.

Stay tuned....