Upon starting a Steemit account we hoped to do 3 to 4 post a week. We failed at this.
Our lifestyle as team truck drivers and taking care of our off grid homestead has taken all out time. Here lately we had to go help others who ran into hard times and storm damage.
It is amazing how God has given us the strength and perseverance to be able to help others and ourselves. We know there are many who do not believe in a God and that's ok, you are the one responsible for your life choices. BUT, it would be another failure if I didn't tell you our beliefs.
See, I was raised in a Baptist home and was drug to church every time the door opened so we could be seen as good church going people. Setting an example for others.
Well here is the shocker! Even though I was in church and even as a small child I said a prayer, I was still lost. I was a faker, I claimed to be a believer (some call it Christian), but I wasn't. There was and had never been a change in my life. Even as I grew older I could fake my way around all the church goers and so called Christians.
I could play the part, knew the Bible as well if not better than most in the church. See I failed to tell you my earthly father was a Baptist Preacher. I was taught the Bible from a very small child. I had memorized many Bible verses and knew the religion better than most. I knew the Church Laws as well as the Bible. I could fool the best of the church.
See, I could live like the world and not show it to those I went to church with. I could put on the so called Christain lifestyle like I was putting on a jacket. I was the best faker out there.
When I got to leave home and be on my own I continued to put on the show. I never had that little voice that told me I was doing wrong and never got convicted when I sinned (did wrong). I keep living my life as I wanted with no worries about my future.
I joined the Navy, and boy I fit in with them. My mouth was foul, I wanted to advance and be the best and only prayed when something had gone wrong. When I did go to a church it did nothing for me.
I have seen some very nasty things in this world and it only affected me emotionally. I felt bad for them and did not like what I saw but it never affected me where I would call on my God.
See, I always believed in a God, I could not disprove it. I even believed in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, BUT I did not truly believe with all my heart and soul.
I enjoyed reading the Bible but all I was able to get was knowledge and it never truly was applied in my life.
I prayed like I was taught as a child, but never saw many of them answered. Sometimes I convinced myself they were, but truly it was more coincidence than a prayer answered.
After my military career, I began to hate all religion. I saw them as a business and a man made creation. I researched every organized type of religion out there. All of them lead back to the Catholic ways of doing things. I researched the split in Catholicism back the early 1600's and researched all of the different types of beliefs that came from this. Then looked at today and seen that they have all worked their way back to what they wanted freed from.
I started researching the BIBLE and its different translations (man are their tons of them) the KJV, NKJV, NIV, ESV etc. I even did a Bible Seminary so I could learn the Bible from front to back. Seeing all the differences and what was used to translate them drove me nuts. It came back to Catholic intervention.
The rules to convert Hebrew to English and Greek to English was controlled by the Catholic. What words to use and not use and that it had to stay within the guidelines of the Popes Bible.
I was going crazy. After seeing in History that the Catholic tried to destroy and kill anything that went against their church and beliefs. They taught that the Pope was in place of Christ. They did not allow common people to have or read a Bible. It was a by force belief. To me, it was a CULT that you could not leave unless you were prepared to die.
I could not believe that the ones who wanted Christ Dead was running the whole show from BC to the present day.
I hit an impasse, I could not affirm what I believed and what religion to follow. What to do? I was raised to believe a certain way, worship a certain way and live my life a certain way. I could not get clarity.
Then I found a Hebrew/Greek Study Bible that had NO man's notes put in it to sway my opinion. I just wanted the Bible and true Dictionary with the origional language and English translation. This a God Sent!
I found a church that the pastor taught in context. Word for word, verse by verse and did not put his opinion into the teaching. He showed that its application could be different in each person's life but it meant the same to all people. This is where I started to see I did not truly believe with all my heart and being. I started seeing and feeling I was missing something and wanted to be able to understand the Bible and the Life of Christ better. I did NOT believe in a sinners prayer and the golden ticket to heaven for saying a prayer.
Finally, after studying John chapter 3 I got my answer to salvation and how to get it. All the TV preachers and most I had heard in person had not covered this chapter properly. It always leads back to say a prayer, get baptized and join the church.
The truth is you must turn away from your sinful life you must leave behind all those things you did that were not in line with the Bible. Nicodemus snuck in the middle of the night to ask Christ what he must do to be saved. It's all in this Chapter.
You must BELIEVE in the Gospel, turn away from the world and there be a visible change in your life. There is NO promise that 100% of you will be fixed, but you will strive and work as hard as you can to remove the negative and bad from your life. Christ was the NEW COVENANT, he changed it all. There was nothing I could physically do to get to heaven. NOTHING I did matter before my conversion. No works, no good deeds not even reading the Bible and praying was going to get me to heaven.
I just had to Believe that God sent His Son to die for mankind (take the wrath of God for our sins), rose again and is coming back for the TRUE believers. AND TURN AWAY from the ways of the world and follow the Bible for guidance.
Okay, so you think I'm crazy. But Let me tell you once I did this, I could now see things in the Bible and understand things I could not before. My worldly ways started shedding off of me like old dead skin. I didn't fear death anymore.
Then I found the Bible that had NO Catholic directions in it. Wrote by William Tyndale (New Testament and some Old Testament.) This Bible has been the best help in my walk with Christ. I do still read a Hebrew/Greek 1611 Authorized Bible but I always go back to the Tyndale Bible for pure Greek to English Translation.
This is my beliefs. This is the person I am. I follow NO religion, all I follow is the Word of God and the earliest translations I can find.
I will cover many more subjects of false teachings and false doctrines and will call out many public preachers as heretics. I will do it using the Bible to prove the falsehoods. I will show how they cherry pick scripture to get their point across and will show the true context of the Scripture.
All I ask is be respectful when replying and keep the language clean and family friendly.
Thank you for taking the time to read what our beliefs are. No matter what yours are, I respect your belief and hope they are true and life changing.
Thank you for the wonderful post. Love yll