Golly, Elsie! Thanks for the compliment!
No, I’m not “BYU trained.” I spent almost 30 years actively searching for a religion to fit my beliefs. The LDS Church was the only religious entity that I felt comfortable with because it had answers to my questions.
And I had been asking questions for years, in every “church” I joined, hoping that “this is the one!” Some didn’t babtize by immersion, as Jesus was; some didn’t baptize at all; some didn’t believe in respect for the Holy Ghost; some didn’t believe anyone could be inspired by the Holy Ghost, much less receive personal revelation.
To make a long story short, like most of us, I chose the religion that made me the most comfortable.
And you?
In a landscape far, far away (For a Hoosier boy, 50 years ago - Denver was QUITE foreign), walking back to Lowry Airbase after midnight on a cool late fall night morning, ruminating over the late night TY show (something about miracles at Lourdes), I found myself stating what I'd heard in school: Big Bang, Evolution, etal - I dismissed the show as fiction; a religion advertisement, a sawdust trail appeal.
Looking up at the brilliant pinpoints of light, sparkling in the high plains air, I thought of how they came to be.
Einstien's formula - E=Mc2 floated up from memory...
Knowing that the equation can be turned around to M=E/c2 I thought, "Yeah! All that MASS up there now shining down - it appeared after the tremendous energy burst of the Big Bang! The rest is history."
Almost back at the gate, confident that I'd figgered it out, an almost audible thought(?) came to me...
"Where did the ENERGY come from?"
At that time; I had no answer.
The above was the start...
I had NO church background - just what I'd absorbed form our culture. (Now THAT was really informative! ;^)
So when I heard what the BIBLE was saying about sin - condemnation - hopelessness - available redemption - I, like many others before me, searched the Scriptures. And found Jesus there. (Nah... HE found me!)
I knew then and still do, that NO 'church' is the 'right' church - all having men in them.
I never looked for a church that made me comfortable - just one that used the Bible - a simple thing to find.
I've visted many types over the years and ALL of them do 'things' in service that ain't... ooooh... SCRIPTURAL, but NONE of those 'things' took away from Jesus' simple statement when asked:
"What must we do to do the works God requires?"
Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."