Growing up; every time the church doors were opened – I could be found in attendance with the regular congregation. An intense love for God had not drawn me there – but rather parental demand. And with the church being a legalistic Pentecostal branch , the demand was constant. Death was the only excused absence, for God could always heal the sick and restore the weary. However even in my early teens, I sensed something was not quite right with the theology as taught. The preacher insisted on a sinless life from all. And unknown to me at the time -that was their biggest sin. The belief that everyone must go through each day without committing sin. This sinless life was required to retain salvation – or face eternity in Hell. For a young teenage boy, it was a constant trip to the altar, begging God’s forgiveness – and a promise to never sin AGAIN! It was a hopeless cycle.
But age brought knowledge. This knowledge came via observation and experience for the adults of the church struggled with the same problem which haunted every teen in the congregation – sin was unavoidable. A brother caught with a cigarette or heard allowing a swear word slip off the tongue. A sister seen wearing jeans or snipping a little off her bangs. The devil didn’t care about age – he wanted to trap and rob anyone of salvation’s gift. At that time, the true gift of God’s Grace was foreign to me – and all whose entrapped within the legalistic family.