Looking Back

May 11, 2024

Looking back at my childhood Bible education at my Mom and Dad’s University Presbyterian Church, today, I truly appreciate the Sunday School curriculum. I learned all the main Bible stories like Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, Jesus and the Children, and the rest… However, that is where my Bible learning stopped.

I became a teenager… and like the cartoon caricature of adolescence, I became the pouty, rebellious, and stubborn misfit (as far as going to Church was concerned).

What ensued was the tug-of-war between Dad and me about what my plans for Sunday mornings were and what his expectations of me were.

Well, he was the boss. So, off to Church I’d go.

All the same, education about the Church — not Bible education — became the priority, because Church Membership supposedly sealed the deal: Becoming a Church Member would guarantee my trip to Heaven when I died…

Now, at that age, who thinks about death?

It became obvious to me that Church simply wasn’t “doing it” for me. So, I began to go it alone — not that I had any idea what would actually “do it” for me.

Going through High School, I had a confusing mix of wonderful times and horrible times; great times but having to battle against suicidal times. So many unanswered questions about life but no answers, especially about how to live my life.

Long story short, God began to provide answers — even when I was “dazed and confused” — but then, after I asked Jesus into my life to save me from myself, a whole new life dawned.

But here’s my point: Why didn’t my parents’ Christian Church ever give me the tools and some of the answers by telling me the story about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, who wanted to adopt me, a Gentile, into the family of God?

Apparently, they had taken the name, Christian, as a routine inheritance, an assumed, practiced, and habitual matter, presuming a Document of Membership replaced a personal relationship inclusive of God, Jesus, and the Bible. (So, speaking foolishly, I ask, would my Union Card also get me through those “Pearly Gates”?)

Now, I’m not blaming that Church, my parents, or anybody else, because they were handed the same things that their parents handed them, and their parents handed them, and on and on for centuries…

Just the same, come on, then, let’s get real…

God exists. Jesus is real. The Holy Spirit is still hovering over us to respond when we call.

Please. Start talking to Jesus and read the Gospel Books for yourself. Seek God’s presence in your life.