About My Faith And Conversion

I am being persecuted for my faith. Trolls demanded I "come clean" about my faith so I decided to write this article in response. It will be too long for the comments.

I was born and raised in the Lutheran church. But I found that there was something missing. I hope not to offend anyone but maybe it was the pastor at the time, maybe the local church. Anyway...

There was something missing. I just did not know what it was.

I searched through the years for that something. I tried different churches and assemblies but nothing ever seemed just right.

I joined the US Army in 1994 which took me around the World. I was not happy with life and had hopes of going to war and dying in battle since I knew suicide was a sin.

It did not happen.

But one day the Army Chaplain did say something to me that really bothered me for years after. Now the shocking thing is that Army Chaplains are trained to be quite neutral as far as the various religions go.

My Chaplain one day asked me something like this: "You are Lutheran, right?". I said "yes, why?"

He answered that the Lutherans are baptized by sprinkling of water on the head while in the Bible baptism was done by full under water submersion. Oddly he left off at that and oddly I never asked.

Years passed by, but that one comment kept nagging in my head.

I eventually finished my term in the Military and stayed in Germany where I was stationed at that time. I worked for the civilian side, serving our soldiers over there while I learned more German and build up a computer business.

After a couple years I left that job and went full time into my own computer business in Germany. I did quite well there but that is another story.

One day a German brought in his computer to be repaired and gave me some sort of church leaflet. I tossed it on a shelf and it eventually found its way under the counter in the dust. I never did read it.

But that man kept coming back many times for repairs. I was starting to feel guilty but it was always a new problem with the computer. You see God works in mysterious ways. This man was listening to me. Just sitting there, not preaching but listening to me talk and tell him about my life, my problems and goings on. This is what I needed.

I had been cheated and used by people for years. I had a nice group of people I called "friends" but who used me for my money. Some "friends" stole from me and so on. It was not nice. I needed a real friend.

This man was listening to me talk. I cant explain it but that did something in me.

One day he asked me to come to a beach get together on a Sunday. I felt I deserved a break after years of 16 to 18 hour days, 7 days a week so I closed my shop and went along.

Something was different with these people. They were all happy. I mean truly happy. Actually, at that time, it made me a bit queasy how happy they were. lol.

But I kept going to their open air and house meetings. I liked these people.

Eventually I was baptized in the ocean during a group visit in England. That night I received the Holy Spirit with the sign of speaking in tongues. If you dont know what that is all about, see Mark 16:16-18

Now this article is not about preaching. This is an answer to my trolls calling me out on my faith. You see, they have some pretty nasty things to say about me and my faith. They demand that I "come clean" about my religion. I dont think they expected this though. But let me continue.

So, after being baptized I started to smile for the first time. I mean, I had never smiled or laughed much at all. I had been proud of the fact that I never smiled. At this time I actually had pain in my face from smiling so much. I was using muscles that were not used to those motions.

Now, in answer to the ones asking....

We believe in the King James Bible as the Word of God. We do not add or remove anything. Those words are what we try to live by. Nothing more. Nothing less. That is our law and guide.

It was suggested that we treat women oddly.

Well, if opening doors, putting her first in all things and treating her better than myself is odd, then so be it. You see the Bible tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But with family it goes way deeper. But we are taught to put one another before ourselves. Each and every one of us.

Now I am sure parts of this will be misquoted and taken out of context but I am used to that now anyway.

They will ask me about "turning the other cheek" for sure. But there is a limit to how often a man can do that and still care for his family. A man is not to allow people to walk all over him and his family. The Bible tells us that a man who does not care for his family is worse than an infidel. And I know this will be a hot topic for them.

I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.

Thank you for reading this. Please give me a vote up to help out. Thanks.