My first trip on my religious experiment was to go the the Ten Mile Christian Church. They are a non-denomiational congregation. I liked the experience of going there and hearing what they had to say. They had a band and sang songs to begin with. I liked the songs, because they did talk about the grace of God and did praise his name. It was neat to sing along and think about the words of each song.
The sermon was about keeping rules. The purpose of this sermon was for the congregation to learn for ourselves the importance of rules and then tell others that we aren't all about rules and mearly follow the rules, because we love others and because we love God. This was something that I am not used to hearing. I think I've been raised to believe that we follow the rules no matter what. Lately I have been taking the stance that if I don't like a rule then I won't follow it and see what the consequences are. When I told my wife this she asked what rules am I not following and as I thought about it most of the so-called "rules" are actually just made up by those that were in my culture or were just made up in my head. We don't have to go to only our church on Sundays. We have the opportunity to visit other churches and find out what we truly believe.
So far by doing this experiment I have been blessed so much, because I have been able to see myself as a sinner and have been willing to let the atonement work in my life because I know I'm not perfect.
The pastor made an interesting point during his sermon: He said that if he hypothetically kept all the rules (which he knows he could never do) he would still not be saved. I know this to be true, because that was Satan's plan. He wanted to make us keep all the commandments. But we know that we wouldn't have done it for the right reasons and with all our hearts.
So far the experiment is going well. We'll see where it takes me next week.
