Developing an appetite

By the time I got back to the Church the next Sunday I had changed. Not only was the Bible beginning to make sense to me but I also believed every word. I felt God was with me all the time and that I would never be alone again. I spent a lot of time thinking about what was happening to me. Issues that I didn’t agree with in the Catholic Church, core issues that had bothered me in the past, I found that the Bible didn’t agree with them either! A lot of what I was taught as a child wasn’t true! You don’t pray to dead people, not to Mary, not to the saints, not to your dead relatives. The Bible forbids it! You only pray to God. Under certain circumstances divorce is allowed (at this time divorce was still illegal in Ireland). And not only is it allowed that our Church leaders are married but it is thought a good thing. It is actually recommended that they be family men! It’s all in the Bible for you to check. I was crying and reading so much within the first couple of weeks that I started to get headaches! I found it hard to go to sleep at night because of all the things going through my mind. Sometimes I would wake up during the night and lie for hours thinking about what I had discovered and the changes that were occurring in me. Every day I was letting go of some old part of me and I was feeling renewed. My problems of old seemed almost to disappear; I spent that little time thinking of them. They didn’t seem that important to me anymore. I cut down drastically on drinking and quit smoking the night I got saved at the meeting. And with a couple of exceptions, I only had one or two drinks, or indeed none at all when I went out, which was a new thing for me. Before my conversion I was well used to going to pubs and discos and drinking. God was very good to me and Sean (although I couldn't have known or acknowledged it at the time) and I always felt fine the next day and able to get up the next morning and care for Sean. In a sad way it is an indicatin of how much I had changed in those short few years, from being a very moderate drinker to increasing it and drinking too much. But God totally transformed me in this regard. Thank you Lord. Over the weeks I continued to attend Church. I also attended meetings on Wednesday evenings where we studied the Bible. This gave me the opportunity to question Stephen, the Pastor, and others about what the Bible says, and have whatever I needed explained to me. Most times however, when I had a question, I was told to refer to the Bible. I didn’t always appreciate this answer, but can now, in hindsight, understand and appreciate the lesson I was being taught. I was not being allowed to get into the bad habit of relying on anyone or anything other than the Bible which means I was going directly to God for answers. There are so many opinions out there, people’s opinions, that are unfortunately, mostly unreliable. Stephen encouraged me to look to the Bible for my answers every time. There were lots of leaflets and booklets available in the Church that I took full advantage of. I am told that it is quite natural for newly converted Christians to read a lot. When I found things in the Bible I didn’t quite understand I would take notes and ask Stephen or other members of the Church to explain them. Every effort was being made to assist me, but no credit was taken.