Saturday, December 17, 2011
Afraid to go to church..........?
My parents sent me to a private christian school for my highschool carreer and I loved it. I have been raised in a non-denominational family my whole life, but we did most of our bible studying at home. Our last church we traditionaly attended was a Baptist church and my dad was best friends with the preacher there, and he was the one who influenced my dad and got him to accept christ. Unfortanetly, he ped away one sunday during his message and died of a heart attack. So, ever since then, my dad decided that it was best to have our bible study at home.(I was 11). When I was a junior in highschool, I was attending my private christian school and as a mandatory requirement we had to attend a week lone jubilee (where a lot of different preachers from different denominations come together and take turns preaching the gospel). Well, I was sitting in one of the front rows with the rest of my cl and for some reason this one particular preacher called on me during the sermon and asked me what I would say to the Lord if He where to come back right this second and if he where to ask me why I deserved to go into heaven. I was so shocked that he was calling me out and asking me this..and I have always been an extremly shy person and awkward in large social settings. I was knocked speechless and was shaking and I studdered out that I have no idea. Well anyways, he precided to use me as an example for the congregation that I was "an unsaved teenager caught up in the world". I was so shocked that he would automatically ume these things about me. That he would humilate me infront 200+ people and would judge me and my relationship with the Lord in that way. I (apparently) ignorantly have always looked up to christian leaders/preachers and have always viewed them as good, decent, non-judging individuals. So you can imagine my shock at that moment in time. Afterwards, he told me to come up front and kneel down to pray with him, so that I could be saved. I got really emotional and started to cry a little (I was not spiritually moved...just embarred beyond belief and a lot more worried about my salvation, since I was apparently suppose to know what I was going to say to God) and I turned my head down and ignored him...he became a little offended but did not press me any further.(Probably under the impression that I felt convicted or just a stubborn non-believer) After the program was over, I had all of these different people from the church trying to "save me" and "show me the way" or "let's have you baptisted", and all I could think was....why in the world did these people not see what he just did to me? That he just publicly humiliated, and judged me? And they just went along with it, calling out "amens" during his peseccusion of me. A few years later, I started to realize that not all preachers are correct. And that no adamic natured human being on this earth has any right to judge me..only the Lord does, but I hate that it weakened my relationship with the Lord and it made me ashamed of myself for so many years. Now that I am 21 years old, I look at 16 year olds as children! Why would he pick out and pick on a 16 year old child during a sermon? It is sort of like that saying "satan in a sunday hat". It's like the devil knew that he could weaken my faith through that man and make me afraid of attending church. How do I get over this fear?
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