recentchristian

Prior to becoming a Christian, I approached JB, asking about an audio Bible and from there, she told me about a book study (group of girls getting together to study the book “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer).  She didn’t pressure me in any way, she just told me about the book study and told me that I was welcome to attend (she also told me that JF, another girl at work attended the study – this made me feel a bit at ease).

I attended.  I was soooo lost!!!  I didn’t understand some of the things that were being talked about.  I had so many questions but didn’t want to ask during the study (I’m a tad bit on the shy side).  So, JB would ask me afterwards if I had questions (she knew I would) and suggested meeting for a coffee so she could explain more.  I took her up on it and explanations she gave would lead to more questions from me.  Don’t get me wrong, Knowing God is a great book, and written so that anyone can understand it – it was the side questions and conversations we would have that left me somewhat in the dark.  I was (and am) so thankful for JB and for the few others that were so patient answering all of my questions!

Then there’s scripture.  Some verses are interpreted in different ways, depending on the human doing the interpreting (and, our tendency may be to interpret scripture to suit ourselves).  This is tough for someone (me) that likes black and white – I’ve always been that way – things are right or they are wrong – I don’t like the shades of grey.

Then the whole Old Covenant New Covenant thing – huh??? – the New replaces/cancels the Old?  Did I get that right?  But the Commandments are part of the Old.  I’m still trying to get my head around this.  After I understand, assuming that I will understand, I’ll blog again.

Really?  Depending on the denomination (Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc.). some of the beliefs change.  Ok, this can’t be right – some beliefs change depending on the denomination??  Prior to becoming a Christian, I had no idea that some things (some are small and some are a bit bigger) changed between denominations.  I just googled “Christian Denominations” and found this:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations – I had no idea that there were so many!!!

There are so many questions and so many things that have confused me since starting my Christian journey.  I like to think that when I get the most confused, it’s a good thing because I’m just on the edge of wrapping my head around something and really understanding it.

So, if you’re a non-Christian and you’re reading this and want to understand more about The Bible, keep persevering.  Ask questions.  There are so many great resources available.  You can access sermons online now!  They even have podcasts!  LOL, don’t even try to listen to all of them (at one point I thought I was going to) – there are too many.  I find the www.desiringgod.org website to be a great resource.  You can also feel free to start a conversation here, on my blog – lol – I probably won’t have an answer for you – I do have some fantastic resources so I can get an answer for you though.

Before anything else though, it all starts, comes back to and ends with reading The Bible.  If you don’t own one, and can’t afford one, there are a lot of free ones available.  When I first started going to church just under a year ago (my anniversary is December 29), there were three or four people from the church who asked if I had a Bible and I’m sure that each of them would have been willing to give one to me if I didn’t have one.  There are Bible apps (hmmm, this will be a later blog) and there are online Bibles.  Some of the Bibles that you can get have helpful blurbs to help you understand scripture better (this has been and will continue to be a great resource for me as I read!).  Some even break the reading down day-by-day for you (these are called “devotionals” – I didn’t know that a year ago).

So, download an app or get a Bible (printed or audio) and start to get to know God!