One day I'll sit down and write it all out but for now...
I was raised in an atheist home, my dad was a strong atheist and told me religion was for woman and children. I followed his lead and would knock Christianity and other religions relentlessly. When I was a youth I participated in boxing, judo, karate and wrestling and it was through my karate training that I was introduced to Buddhism and it's meditation practices. I set up a small shrine in my bedroom and practice meditation faithfully for years.
Around the age of 19 I had a chat with a friends mother about religion and God in general and we went back and forth for 8 hours! I pretty much tore her arguments apart and I felt proud. With this (sinful) pride I began reading the Bible to gain more information so I could defeat Christians using their own scriptures, problem was, I became a Christian from reading the Gospel of Matthew. I became convinced Jesus Christ was God in the Flesh! By the time I got to Romans I was what is known as a Calvinist.
Not knowing any better I began attending a local Anglican parish where they told me I was a Calvinist, I was shocked and horrified, not understanding what they meant. This entire time I continued to read my Bible and eventually left the Anglican parish due to his liberalism. I stopped by a Roman Catholic Church for a short time but ended up in a Greek Orthodox Church but never became Orthodox. The Greeks were more interested in promoting Greek culture, I get it. Plus, I had and still have the persistent conviction of Calvinism.
After a few years of bouncing around I ended up in a Baptist Church, my wife was raised Baptist, and stayed there for 15 years. When I children left home for school I got the itch to visit other churches again and spent most of 2017 in an Anglican Parish but they have gone off the deep end now with liberalism. 2018 I was attending a historic black Baptist church but that didn't workout. In 2019 I visit Roman Catholic parishes all over the city and even a Roman Catholic Shrine but it's not for me.
I have been back at the Baptist church for 3 months now and happy, God is good, and I feel I'm back where I belong...finally.
That's the short version.
Yours in the Lord,
jm