For those that left the UPC...

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by ForeverBlessed

Yes, it is easy and comfortable to just follow directions and rules, much easier than having a daily relationship with God. A relationship that reflects commitment to him of the heart. He wants us to be followers of him.. and him alone. Living with the fruits of the Spirit being manifested on a daily basis is far harder than just throwing one clothes to look a part. It takes picking up your cross daily.

This is the one reason that if I could go back and change things.. it would have been that I left earlier while my girls were much younger. I believed differently, but stayed in, going along, looking the same. My girls seemed to think (although I was telling them otherwise) that to live the part meant that I truly believed to a certain extent. Even though I talked one thing, I didn't have the courage to live another. I was afraid to trust God because it was the only thing I knew.

I have spent a lot of time using scripture to change the thought process of my girls. Not to do with clothes, but the inward man and their perception of God their Father...it is not works based performance...and it never can be.

I have had my work cut out for me. I have had to dismantle distorted views and self condemnation that were put there from the time they small. I keep telling myself that I didn't know better, and even as he teaches me... I turn around teaching them.

I love your first paragraph!

All of the UPC isn't this way though. In the UPC church I came into after God saved me in England....the pastor never taught on "standards"...ever! He was the most Christlike person I have ever known! Didn't speak an evil word against anyone, not even those who left the church, spoke evil of him, and took others with them. Some UPC pastors allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in setting personal convictions.