I thought I would write a bit about myself as an introduction to this blog. I was raised in a secular home, my parents did study with the Church of Christ in our home for a bit and we all were baptized.In the Church of Christ baptism is a large part of  salvation. My parents went to church only a short while but found the church was very mean spirited and so opted out of the church life and so their life remained pretty much the same as it was before the church study, not that they were bad in any way just your normal household who had secular Christmas and Easter without the religion. My father was disabled with Rheumatoid Arthritis in his twenty's ,became disabled and when he got on disability he moved the family from Los Angeles Calif. to a very small 10 acre farm in the middle of the Ozarks in Missouri. We raised all of our food and lived a life with not much money and things but we always had food and shelter. We lived about 25 miles in the country from where I went to school,the town had a population of about 600, so we lived in what is called the 'boonies' or 'the sticks' literally. We lived at the end of a mile and a half dirt road at the bottom of a hill surrounded by either pastures or woods. I went to church mainly out of boredom it was a small Country Church of Christ ,very conservative and when it came to doctrines we butted heads a lot, but I still went because there was nothing else to do and there were  boys and some of my friends who went there. So it was an outlet for me. Although I wanted to be a christian I really had no good avenue to learn about Christ instead it was all about church doctrine . When I turned 16 I partied a lot when I could get out of the house, there was nothing else to do around there. I went to college for a few years , it was in college in an OT class that seeds of doubt were planted in me and where I pretty much left what little faith I had  and so after this class instead of going to church I really learned how to party instead. I later got married had 2 daughters. My religious life was up and down, guilt and free spirited, I went to various churches now and again but never enjoyed going so I didn't most of my adult life. My Christian life was on and off throughout my adult life.For about the last 20 years when the Internet came into the home I discovered a whole new world of various religious and spiritual thought and so I managed to journey through quite a bit of those. From Wicca/witchcraft, paganism, Taoism, New Age, New Thought even Christo-Paganism . Although they each had something to offer I found it never satisfied me in the way Christ does, there was never any hope for my future , never addressed the real issues other than your free to believe what ever you will and pick and choose a god and form them in the way you choose to see them, nope I just knew too much of the truth of Christ to fall for that. Although there is much within the Organized religion of Evangelical Americanized Christianity I find distasteful, in fact it is one of the reasons I lift Christianity in the first place, along with my stent in the Word of Faith /Name it Claim it aspects of Christianity. Those aspects of Christianity left a nasty taste in my mouth for many years and in fact still does. But through it all Yahshua /Jesus Christ has been there for me and in that I am profoundly grateful. Although I threw out the bathwater of religion I did not get rid of Christ.My husband  was raised in the Church of the Brethren and was active in that church for a while when in High school but now he is pretty much secular, he got burnt bad in the Word of Faith racket and hasn't felt a need to return. But there is hope, he gave his life to Christ as a young man and I believe Christ is more than able to keep him in His hands.

My beliefs now within Christianity is very Eclectic, I pull out of various thoughts what seem more right than others. I mainly pull out of the Grace/Finished Work and Anabaptist thoughts and I have found good solid apologetic has been instrumental at helping me know the reasons for my beliefs and remain true to Christ because it has given me ample reasons and information to believe. Speakers like Paul White Ministries, Greg Boyd/ReKnew,  NT Wright, J. Warner Wallace , William Lane Craig  to name a few.

So that is pretty much my life in a nut shell. Yes I felt nuts for many years, I was torn in so many ways it wasn't funny, my beliefs and assumptions went back and forth, I did not know if I was coming or going, I never knew how I felt about the issues of our day because I flipped flopped so much because my foundation was being torn apart. But Christ has remedied that situation, through the different apologetic ministries that have help me lay a solid foundation of  the truth of Christ. I have chosen to take  my stand for Christ and his ways in my life  and now I feel like my foundation has been set on solid ground and out of the sinking sand of the silly notion that everyone's truth is valid. I now am convinced  that only Christ is the Truth, and I am thankful for that revelation. I learned  that it is about Christ and not me. I learned that it is not what I do, or how I do it, it's about knowing that it's about Christ and who He is IN me. The Good News, The Gospel is that I have right standing with God because of what Christ did for me and for no other reason, all I have to do is except that exchanged life, Christ's life for mine, and in that and that alone makes me in right standing with God. That is the good news. It is not about me or how I live my life, but about Christ and how He lived His life and died for you and for me. My life will change from the inside out , not by any thing I can do or will, my life changes because Christ lives in me and as I trust in Him , my life transforms into His, nothing I can do will change me, only in trusting in Him to do it within me. But the good news is that I am ALREADY  righteous in God's eyes right  now ,as I am ,even at the very moment I trusted in Christ life . I can never be more righteous in God's eyes than I am right now without every doing anything because it is all about Christ and His Righteousness in me. So now I live my life in the light of His Grace , His free gift and learning what that really means.

In Christ

PATC