Your Right To Say It

Welcome to our new blog, I just wanted to start out by telling you a little about myself:

I grew up in a Christian home going to church on a semi-consistent basis, the thing I remember the most about my younger years in church was falling asleep. I believed in God but it didn’t really interest me that much, I couldn’t see him so I never thought too much about him.
Then one day my mom brought home a movie, it was one of those old cheesy religious movies made on zero budget, called “A Thief in the Night”. I must have been around nine or ten because looking back at the movie it was terrible, but at the time I was terrified. The fear of not going to heaven became real to me for the first time. I began to cry, full out tears. I was so terrified about never seeing my family again after I died. My mom brought me into the other room and sat down with me, I told her every thing I was thinking, all my fears. She began to explain that I don’t need to be afraid, there is a way that I could know for sure that I will go to heaven. She began to tell me about how God knew we would never be good enough to get ourselves into heaven so he sent his son to die for our sins, in our place. It was a gift; all I had to do was accept it.
I know what you are probably thinking, “Nick, you were at most ten years old, how could you fully understand that?” and honestly I probably didn’t. But I never forgot that night and that conversation, and now it has fully reshaped my life. It has shaped the way I think, the way I act, and the way I live.
As I got into high school I started getting more serious about my relationship with God, but I also started realizing how intolerant people are of Christianity. If you say you are a Christian, people will start calling you a bible-thumper or other names. The teachers would even join in on the intolerance, hiding behind the lie of separation of church and state. In Biology they would tell you Christianity was a “pseudo-science”, but evolution was gospel. It was this, though, that made my faith stronger.
It was also in high school that I met Evan Smith, a great man who took me under his wing and showed me how to truly live for Christ. I was in a weekly Bible study with him and several other students; we would get together and talk about God and whatever else was on our minds. Evan encouraged me to do more in ministry; I never thought I could do that. He had me start to lead lessons and various things like that, I loved it, but I still doubted myself. Since that time I have grown a lot, spiritually. My wife and I are now the outreach team leaders at our church, and I am training for Eldership at my church. I still doubt myself sometimes.
This has been a brief history of my spiritual walk. My political walk is significantly easier to explain. I am a Christian, and because a lot of those beliefs coincide with conservative beliefs, I am a conservative.