Woody: I knew God as a small child, and it was a natural thing. Jesus loves children, and they love Him. In the bible, the disciples forbade small children from coming to Jesus while He was teaching. The children just wanted to jump in His lap.
Jesus scolded His disciples for it, and He wanted the children to come to Him. He said all people must come to Him like a child. That is how they receive Him. That is how I received Him as a 29 year old man. I came to Him as a child, and I asked Him to forgive me. I felt like a child, and I was restored as a child.
Was this your experience when you became a christian?
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MW*: No, as a child I lived in a fairly agnostic home. My mother, who was raised hard-shell Southern Bapatist, was a tad more religious than my dad who was raised Methodist. The only times I went to church was when I accompanied my neighborhood friends to the local Primitive Baptist Church in the deep South in South Carolina. One Sunday near Easter, the Sunday school teacher asked us to say something to Jesus because he had died for us. I was a very timid and bashful child and direly afraid to speak in public, and the teacher called on me first. I was shaken with fear, but the first thought that came to my young mind was to say, "Jesus, I'm sorry you had to die." The Sunday school teacher came over and slapped me across my face, and I nearly fell out of my chair. Then she went into a rage using me as an example of what NOT to say to Jesus! She said Jesus died for all of us, and for my being sorry for that, I would burn in hell! Needless to say, I never went back. I was agnostic through high school and never really gave religion any thought. When I had children, I decided I wanted to raise them with religion, and my husband's family were Catholic. I took instructions for a year and was re-baptized into the RCC. I believed in what I was taught. I also taught catechism for 17+ years. I was an elected official on our parish council. I did the whole catholic thing, traveled to shrines in Europe, and really lived my faith. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. Then the more I knew about my religion, the farther I distanced myself from it. I'm not just saying catholicism here, because catholicism was my avenue to christianity. It was the inexplicable things in christianity that my priests couldn't answer. Some refused to answer, and some told me to quit asking. Then the last priest I ever spoke with told me that women shouldn't be questioning the bible. That did it. When I went to The Vatican, I couldn't find Jesus anywhere, but Paul was there, and Peter was everywhere. I went there to get closer to Jesus, and to try to understand his will more clearly, but there was nothing spiritually fulfilling about the place. I'm a very sensitive person, and while I was in St. Peter's, I just kept getting chills up and down my spine -- not from all the glitz and glitter but a feeling that something wasn't right. It felt demonic. When I returned home, I began studying everything I could so I could understand my eerie sensations in The Vatican and in Rome. Rome had just become a communist country, and I just told myself that this was what was bugging me. In reality, it wasn't that. It was the total unsurety I felt in The Vatican. I got to shake the new pope's hand, JPII. I arrived in Rome the very day of his coronation as pope. I don't blame him at all. He's just doing a job. I believe he is onto the conspiracies and cover-ups, and I think that's why he's publically apologized for the past horrors of the Church. The more certain cover-ups are about Mary Magdalen, Jesus, his children, and his Mother. I'm sure there are many more, the worst being the lies and manipulations of Paul. The connection between Christianity and the Pagan gods became obvious to me. It was a real spiritual let-down. Christianity as a true religion didn't even exist! Pagan beliefs were simply reworded by Paul to reel in the Gentiles. It is no wonder that today christians are leaving their faith by the droves. Maybe they have experienced the same things I did. Maybe they have awakened to the truth.
Jesus scolded His disciples for it, and He wanted the children to come to Him. He said all people must come to Him like a child. That is how they receive Him. That is how I received Him as a 29 year old man. I came to Him as a child, and I asked Him to forgive me. I felt like a child, and I was restored as a child.
Was this your experience when you became a christian?
*************
MW*: No, as a child I lived in a fairly agnostic home. My mother, who was raised hard-shell Southern Bapatist, was a tad more religious than my dad who was raised Methodist. The only times I went to church was when I accompanied my neighborhood friends to the local Primitive Baptist Church in the deep South in South Carolina. One Sunday near Easter, the Sunday school teacher asked us to say something to Jesus because he had died for us. I was a very timid and bashful child and direly afraid to speak in public, and the teacher called on me first. I was shaken with fear, but the first thought that came to my young mind was to say, "Jesus, I'm sorry you had to die." The Sunday school teacher came over and slapped me across my face, and I nearly fell out of my chair. Then she went into a rage using me as an example of what NOT to say to Jesus! She said Jesus died for all of us, and for my being sorry for that, I would burn in hell! Needless to say, I never went back. I was agnostic through high school and never really gave religion any thought. When I had children, I decided I wanted to raise them with religion, and my husband's family were Catholic. I took instructions for a year and was re-baptized into the RCC. I believed in what I was taught. I also taught catechism for 17+ years. I was an elected official on our parish council. I did the whole catholic thing, traveled to shrines in Europe, and really lived my faith. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. Then the more I knew about my religion, the farther I distanced myself from it. I'm not just saying catholicism here, because catholicism was my avenue to christianity. It was the inexplicable things in christianity that my priests couldn't answer. Some refused to answer, and some told me to quit asking. Then the last priest I ever spoke with told me that women shouldn't be questioning the bible. That did it. When I went to The Vatican, I couldn't find Jesus anywhere, but Paul was there, and Peter was everywhere. I went there to get closer to Jesus, and to try to understand his will more clearly, but there was nothing spiritually fulfilling about the place. I'm a very sensitive person, and while I was in St. Peter's, I just kept getting chills up and down my spine -- not from all the glitz and glitter but a feeling that something wasn't right. It felt demonic. When I returned home, I began studying everything I could so I could understand my eerie sensations in The Vatican and in Rome. Rome had just become a communist country, and I just told myself that this was what was bugging me. In reality, it wasn't that. It was the total unsurety I felt in The Vatican. I got to shake the new pope's hand, JPII. I arrived in Rome the very day of his coronation as pope. I don't blame him at all. He's just doing a job. I believe he is onto the conspiracies and cover-ups, and I think that's why he's publically apologized for the past horrors of the Church. The more certain cover-ups are about Mary Magdalen, Jesus, his children, and his Mother. I'm sure there are many more, the worst being the lies and manipulations of Paul. The connection between Christianity and the Pagan gods became obvious to me. It was a real spiritual let-down. Christianity as a true religion didn't even exist! Pagan beliefs were simply reworded by Paul to reel in the Gentiles. It is no wonder that today christians are leaving their faith by the droves. Maybe they have experienced the same things I did. Maybe they have awakened to the truth.
