Re: Stop Demanding Dumb Answers to Hard Questions
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 6:58 pm
I misunderstood who God was. He seemed like someone who demanded 100% effort and rewarded the same as if I gave 50%. I felt a lot like Martin Luther, who admitted that he had grown to hate God, because nothing would ever be good enough. I know that sounds awful but that's how I felt when I had misunderstood who He was and what He was about. I felt taken advantage of and lied to by imperfect people during my mission. Zone leaders that stole our money and mission presidents who kept them in leadership roles to continue this because they made up peoples names and reported more baptisms. I remember one MP who would berate the missionaries and say that he and his wife could baptize 15 families/month if they were to do the job themselves which was BS. Why not do that then? Like many missionaries I saw the worst side of the church/fellowship and that also contributed to my misunderstanding of God and what He was like. Any missionaries who were like this are now either excommunicated or repentant. And church leadership has seemed to be able to put a stop to such shenanigans that I thought they once looked the other way on. Even if the leadership had looked the other way at the time, it doesn't affect my testimony now. That's personal between me and my Lord Jesus Christ. The church is perfect. The people are not. And ultimately, I'm not responsible for the choices other people make, only my own.Why didn't you love God before you considered eternal promises?
Not at all. I love talking about the Lord. There's nothing I enjoy more. Because I've learned that every problem and every bad experience He can turn into a blessing not just for the Church collectively but for me personally and everyone else individually in eternity.I'm just curious. You don't need to answer if you'd rather not. I'm not trying to intentionally derail this thread.