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Re: Why Are You Christian ?
That's a tough one to explain Scott.
I am what I am.
I felt called to God when I was a little catholic girl. He let me know His presence when I was standing on a street corner in the city where I grew up. An unlikely place. Just a few words spoken to me in my heart. When I think about it now, I had the same feeling then as I do when the Holy Spirit is stirring within me now.
It is a knowledge, a feeling that God himself inserts into my being. He makes Himself known to me.
I screwed up in my teens and came to Him in early adulthood through the UPC. I don't care for organized religion or man's view of biblical stories even though I will listen to what they have to say. I glean from it what is useful to me and discard other people's personal opinions of their interpretation of the Word as being fact. God lets me know what is truth when I read His word. I can read!
I will say this: sometimes preaching comes straight from the pulpit..anointed and shoots straight through to me and into my being and I know it came from God.
Other times it is just as tinkling symbols.. a noise that you just know is there.
There is something more than just getting dressed and making your way to a building every Sunday morning and evening to hear some man's biblical point of view. Despite the recording in your mind from past pastors that you must obey them....I prefer to listen to the voice of God in my heart. I know I must obey God.
I've heard some pastors say that God goes through them to tell you what He wants for you. I reject that because I firmly believe that God lets me know what He wants me to do. A pastor may confirm that for me ... if he is honest with himself in not being top dog in my life. But no...I believe that God writes his laws in my heart and that I do not have to live by a grocery list of do's and don'ts. The Lord Himself reprimands me when I step out of His will...step across the line He sets for me. It is grievous when that happens...much more so than being ostracized by a group of people who feel they must punish you for not following their outward signs of 'standards'.
Hebrews chapters 8 and 10 tells me who I follow because I am grafted into the chosen.
Some of ya'll can criticize me all you want because I do not fit in with your style of 'holiness'. But I have a peace within me about who I worship and how I live my life. I am still growing in Christ even though it's been 46 years since I first felt that calling to serve Him.
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It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (Psalms 118:8)
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