ce at a Denny's on a Sunday following churchservices. I had never studied the Bible in a public place before and I felt ratherself-conscious. A guy named Micheal led the studies using notes from a flip chart, whilemy friend Donald took notes for me. I wondered why she was using a flip chart. I hadbeen under the impression that we were just going to meet and read the Bible together.Micheal proceeded to teach me scriptures about the "Word of God". He showed methrough various scriptures that the Bible was the inerrant word of God and that we had toobey everything that was written in it. I agreed with the scriptures that were shown to me,but I was disturbed by Micheal's matter-of-fact, dry, and somewhat harsh manner ofdelivering the scriptures to me. I felt judged by them, that they thought that I was less of aperson than they were for not knowing the Bible as they did. Nonetheless, I tried not to letthat bother me and I continued with the studies.For the next several studies, we met at Micheal's apartment and Donald was also alwaysthere. We studied "discipleship", "sin", "repentance" and the "cross". In the discipleshipstudy, they told me that I was not saved because I was not a "disciple" according to theScriptures. I agreed with them that I was not a disciple, because although I believed that Iwas a Christian, I had not been living the "Christian life" in previous years. When Iacknowledged to Micheal and Donald this realization, they exchanged a certain glance andsmiled at each other.After this, I quickly flew through the sin and repentance studies. I was told that I had towrite out a list of all my sins and share this list with them. I did not feel comfortablesharing this information with two people I did not feel particularly close to, but did as theyasked. When I confessed my sins, Micheal and Donald seemed cold and distant. I hadexpected understanding and compassion. But what I got was something totallyunexpected. They told me that I...
