A Lesson Learned About the identity of the "True Church"

The reason I got involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses is that I had been on a quest most of my life to find God’s True Church. The one that Jesus and his Apostles started back in the first century. I had longed to be part of this church since I was a young child. This quest took me into many different churches. But, I never felt they were the right one, or right for me. I would be either confused or disturbed by the things they were teaching, and that would eventually send me out the door and into another church.

For instance, most of my family is Roman Catholic. And I remember my Italian grandmother praying to several saints. Each saint had a specific function. There was a saint to ward off Satan, a Saint to heal your sick pet, another one to pray to sell your home. The list went on and on. I couldn’t wrap my head around all this praying to different saints even as a child. Instinctively, all I really wanted was to go directly to my heavenly father in prayer. I mean, why does God need all the middle men?

Since I was confused by my Roman Catholic Heritage; I decided to try other churches that my school friends attended.  One of the first other churches I went to was a Pentecostal church. This church is not for the faint of heart that is for sure. You know, they speak in tongues there? And let me tell you that can be really scary for a young child. Next, I tried the Baptist church, but that was even scarier with its “damnation to a fiery hell” sermons about every Sunday. After making my way through most of the Christian denominations, I am not ashamed to admit, I even read a pamphlet on the Hare Kristina’s. But, this religion's depiction of a blue, fairy like God reminded me too much of Aladdin. One of my favorite movies, but not a God I could really worship.

As I was saying, deep down I always knew there had to be one true church. The trouble was finding out where it was. The initial draw for me on getting involved with the Jehovah witnesses is they claimed they were the True church of the first century. And that they could teach me the pure simple Christianity of Jesus Day. Well, I just about thought I hit pay dirt!

Of course, I eventually and very painfully I might add, found that there was nothing “simple” about their brand of “simple” Christianity. That is because they imposed on their followers almost as many rules and regulations as the Mosaic Law did on the Jewish Nation. They had rules about holidays, blood transfusions, friendly associations, types of entertainment, saluting the flag, how you should dress at meetings, no beards for men, 5 meetings a week, 10 hours of field service per month (that was the national average) , and well if you’ve been there like me, then you know the rest. Again, there was nothing “simple” about it and their version of Christianity was certainly NOT like what Jesus started back in his day.

After leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses I decided to give up on my exhausting search for the true church and after much reflection on it, I decided to take an entirely different route instead. What was that? Well, I will tell you. It occurred to me that I had been going about the search all wrong. Instead of relying on myself to find it, I put it in Jesus hands to lead me to it. After all, it is HIS church I was looking for.

This is when I had one of the greatest spiritual awakenings of my life. After nearly 25 years of searching for the “true” church, which I thought was a correct building or denomination, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that it was literally right under my own nose all along! That is because I AM the church. And not only me, but all believers baptized by Holy Spirit make up the Church, which Christ likens to “his body”. He is the head of his body of believers and WE are all his body members.  (Ephesians 1:22-23)

We are part of a living, breathing entity, the temple of the living God, were the Spirit of God dwells in us. This is the TRUE Church of Christ.  And no particular creed or denominational view is necessary. When believers are gathered together, in Jesus name, he is among us. In actually, Jesus has NEVER left his church. This church was started at the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out onto believers, and continues on through the centuries, still alive and growing. (Acts 2:1-3, 16:5) Thanks be to God, that by his Grace, HE has finally made ME part of His True Church. 

Peace to all.

Scriptures for thought; 1Corinthians12:13, Matthew 18:20