Close-minded! 
“You’ve become close-minded!”
My mom’s reaction when I openly shared with her my explanation of the religion in which she brought me up to my new Christian friends. Thinking about her reaction, I realized at this point that I had chosen Christianity over the Baha’i Faith, although at this point only intellectually.
I was brought up with great values about people: be accepting to all nationalities, all religions, that we are all equal. But with this, I was also raised that Christianity was legalistic, close-minded, and sexist. The church upbringing my mom received can be characterized in one phrase: “You should attend a church to be accepted in society.” Therefore, my siblings and I grew up with a strong skepticism of the Christian church. While being told to accept everyone, we were aught not to trust them as well.
One day, my sophomore year in high school, a friend invited me to a Young Life meeting – a youth Christian Ministry. Although I thought that first night was “stupid”, I continued to attend because the teaching challenged my perception of Christianity. Mr. Lewis always spoke of the humanity of Jesus Christ. Jesus had emotions, was tempted by fear, had hopes and was failed regularly by the people around him. This was a picture of Jesus I could relate to. Every week the teaching was relative to what I was experiencing at that time. I continued being active in Christian groups into college, but continued my mom’s ideology that all religions can be valid at the same time. In college, I joined a church where I learned to tell people about how we all miss the mark of God’s standards and need Jesus’ death so we can have the opportunity to be united with God and spend eternity with Him in heaven. After several weeks of communicating this message to people, I saw my need to whole-heartedly accept Jesus’ sacrifice for me, personally. I also failed to meet God’s perfect standard, but He loves me unconditionally and died for me. It was no longer just an intellectual decision, but a change in my perspective and I now have a restored relationship with God, our Creator.
Soon after this decision, I spent time learning about the basics of the main stream religions and found that they all say different things about history. They contradict about real time events, facts and therefore cannot co-exist as reality. The more I’ve studied the Bible/Scriptures and learned about world history, the more I see the validity, and historical accuracy of the Bible.
I have continued in my upbringing of accepting all nationalities, backgrounds, upbringings and seeing all people as equal. Because of my willingness to be open-minded, I have found a freedom to accept people unconditionally, that I did not know or witness growing up.
Many people are like me with an upbringing that is critical of Biblical Christianity, but it is worth looking into, by digging into the Bible and seeing that our Creator has had each one of us on His heart since He first created mankind. He is still present and seeking to bring us into that personal relationship for which He died.
Acts 17:26-27 “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
If you realize your failings (or sins), and see your need for the perfect death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and desire a restored connection to God, just tell God three things: 1) that you believe in Jesus’ death for you, 2) that you know you cannot meet His standards on your own and 3) that you accept His free gift of freedom to spend forever with Him in heaven
and a restored relationship with Him.
If you have made this decision, I encourage you to commit yourself to a group of Christian believers and invest time to grow in your new relationship with God.
You are welcome to join me at my church, the Expedition.