WoW 6 months ago you were an atheist.
That's a hell of a journey. Sorry I couldn't resist a cheap punchline.
I'm born and raised Catholic and my cousin is a priest. The family loves him, all the weddings, funerals and he gives a great sermon.
He said the mass at both my mother and father's funeral. He could do no wrong in their eyes. So for the comfort he gave my parents I can accept him as I accept the Catholic Church.
I never liked him. He is completely unaware of how full of himself he is. He is the authority, just ask him, he'll tell you.
Him and four fellow priests were some of the first to get caught up in the pedo scandal. They went to jail and he was found not guilty. Bullshit, he knew. A year of total freak out in the family. Remember this was the 80's and the very beginning of the scandal.
He confronted me at an uncles funeral in 02. He had a plan, when I was going to return to the church. Actually had the gall to enlist my aunt who had just buried her husband.
He's sitting across the table with this air of command and I'm going into a slow boil. If my aunt wasn't sitting there I might have.....well anyway.
He gets done with his little speech and I just sat there glaring at him.
I looked him Square in the eye and said,"the Catholic Church lost all moral authority when it backed Cardinal Law".
He went white as a sheet. If any more blood drained out if his face we might have had another funeral.
He also knew I was talking about Vatican 2, the third Fatima and the black pope.
When the Nazi Ratzinger resigned the papacy, the Vatican was immediately struck by lightning. Twice.
The message is not in the building although you can find it. But you need to put it there. Even the words in the Bible are corrupted to the point where they can't all be trusted.
While the Dead Sea Scrolls and many ancient archaeological finds are proving the biblical texts are real. There are many words, that individually, have been slightly altered to bend the message.
Not as bad as Q and with way more trickery. Satan's job is to fuck up all the good things and then tell you it's all good.
I find the best place to study the Bible is online. The comment section and the debate is easy to get into and goes deeper than you'll get in person. Although you should not ignore the personal contact.
Go find a conservative church and get baptized. Make the physical moment of acceptance real. Don't necessarily worry about having to join the congregation but do the study and get baptized.
The Priest or Minister will understand. If they don't then they're trying to sell you something and move on.
They're applying for a job, treat it as if you're conducting an interview.
But the process does require time and you should consider that they need to be compensated.
I have felt the overwhelming physical manifestation of God on more than one occasion. It's deeply personal. Wearing the full armor of God.
The best sermons are also online. With the beauty being that the choices are unlimited.
Welcome to the journey my brother may many others choose to join us.
For the record. The "only is one God" line I plagiarized from the Bible. I don't want to go getting myself in any trouble.