Taking another step

I suppose it was only a matter of time before this happened...

I have spent the last 6 months of my spiritual walk predominantely sitting back and listening. I've attended my church and listened to my Pastor and other more experienced Christians than I and have soaked up the information like a sponge. Sounds normal, right? Sure, it's okay to listen, but what has been missing from my walk are my responses, my questions, and most importantly, my education.

My relationship with God has been almost all the way based on prayer alone. I haven't been taking advantage of the privilege I have to read His word and make decisions about my beliefs by myself.

It wasn't until a few days ago that this revelation slapped me in the face. I met a new friend who I have been talking to a lot lately. He is a Christian, but also a Seventh-Day Adventist, and a very passionate one at that. He has told me a lot about his faith and has used a lot of scripture to back it up. That has really made me realize how little I understand about Christianity and why I am doing what I'm doing. When he showed me the verses explaining, in particular, why he goes to church on Saturday, I had absolutely nothing to say about why I go to church on Sunday.

Frankly, it's very frustrating to realize my lack of knowledge about the Word. I'm merely going through the motions without any truth to show any sort of justification for why I do what I do. That is most definitely not the way I want to live.

So, it's just up to me to open that Bible and figure things out for myself.

But, what I already don't understand is why there are religions that do things so differently. My friend the SDA says that his religion follows the Bible the most word-to-word out of other religions and that a lot of other religions just interpret the Bible to fit the way they want to live, not the other way around. I would almost bet that someone who wasn't SDA would say the same thing about them. So, what is one to think? It's almost overwhelming to think about.

I went to church with my friend yesterday and didn't really see that many differencees between that church and the church I normally go to. The biggest difference, obviously, was that it was Saturday not Sunday. And I see the scripture clearly saying God rested on the seventh day, but who decided which day was the first day? It's just so confusing.

So, it's obvious that God has put this challenge in front of me to read His word and build a strong foundation so that I can go through my walk with more confidence and know why I am believing and living how I am. I praise God for putting these situations in front of me and thank Him for putting this new person in front of me.. he's great.