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Andrew's Spirtual Story
.: posted Wednesday, July 06, 2005 ::: by .:webmaster:. ::: EmailThis! »

sent in by Andrew

Hi all

Hows it going? I am new to this group

My spirtual story so far in life is as follows , I was brought up in an interdenomational (one with baptist , methodist , anglican etc) church and made a commitment to Christ at the age of 10 at an evangalistic rally.

For the next 4 years or so I just went to church on sundays and that was about it. When I was about 14 years old one of the sunday school teachers told me there was church and they prayed for people and they were touched powerfully with the power of God , some people shook and some people fell over and some people laughed and cryed and she asked if I wanted to come

So I went to this church with the sunday school teacher that evening

They prayed for me and I was powerfully touched with the power of God and I fell on the floor shaking.

Previous to this I had been listening to just non Christian music but from the next day on I started to listen to the Christian radio station and I begain to be really full on for God!

I became involved in Drug ARM (awareness and relief movement ) reaching out to the poor and needy.

In 2001 I joined a church that had a bad effect on me. Looking back on it I think it was kind of cult like and legalistic.(ie you must do this and you must to that and you must do things that way) I also had some friendships that went wrong because of some bad conflict.

Over the past few years I have become quite disillusioned with Christianity and I have had many questions come up. I am not sure what I would call myself now I am still trying to figure that out. I think I am happier now than I was which is the main thing I think.

I feel I have gotten off a treadmill which is good , what I mean by that is that as a Christian you are meant to become more like Jesus , but Jesus also accepts you as you are , but I felt there was allways something that I needed to work on or needed to change to become more like Jesus which is true because as humans we cant be perfect but I guess I came to a point where I didnt want to change, I was just happy being me and if other people werent happy with that then thats to bad.

I have found it difficult to connect with God unlike in the past , and I have questions like If God is so wonderful and awesome and caring and loving then why is this world in such a bad state , with all the war and poverty and crime and sickness and disease , some of these things man has control over but some man has no control over. What about 9/11 and more recently the earthquake?

I also have become quite disillusioned with the church in general as I know it , the pastor or preacher sometimes acts like a superstar rather than someone serving God , and the church seems so inward looking , arent we meant to helping the poor and needy of this world instead of building a big flash church and paying the pastor some crazy amount of money?!

and somethings I dont understand in the bible like tithing is found in the old testament but we practice it today but why dont we practice other things in the old testament? and then we ignore some of the things in the new testament , doenst seem to make sense to me.

So I think at this point in life I am happy but still asking a lot of questions of faith and God and religon and Christianity etc

If you have any questions or comments feel free to send them to me

People want me to go out witnessing with them but I say no , I dont know how to tell my friends and family how I feel about things now , I am not sure how they might react.

Auckland
New Zealand
Joined: 10
Left: 25 Maybe
Was: Pentacostal Interdemonnational
Now: Confussed and Dissaluissioned
Converted: Felt the need for something more
De-converted: Many un answered questions
email: a_carter at xtra dot co dot nz

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1 Comments:

Anonymous wrote:

It amazes me that so many people still believe in Christianity! I have been down the same path, giving Christianity a try. I have read most of the Bible. It reads like an ancient fairy tale to me. It is a very confusing and inconsistant book. I find that people who turn to Christianity are those who are looking to get something out of it for themselves, not to worship God. Just the typical, "What is in it for me?" mentality. I fine Christians to be the most hypocritical people that I encounter. Generally, Christians are people who are lost, in some way, and searching for something to fix them. Instead of looking within for the answers. I am a happy person that I am not connected to a false religion, and look within myself for the truth. I believe that something created this world and us, but I am not latching on to religion as an explanation. I do not know the answers, and am not going to claim that I do, like Chrisitans play. I have an open mind, and am not closed to possibilites. But I have not discovered it yet.

posted: September 27, 2006

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