My name is Melissa Feast and I live in Australia with my husband (non-believer) and two children. I found this site soon after my conversion in July 2016 and at first I was intrigued as the information was certainly different from what I had read elsewhere. Then I became somewhat shocked and dismayed by the list of false teachers as I couldn't understand how some of them could be false. Some of them seemed so genuine in their message. As a new Christian I continued to wade through the plethora of Christian information online in order to try to understand the Bible and its teachings. It was overwhelming for someone who did not have a religious background. I found that Christians couldn't agree on much at all and every denomination had a different interpretation of God's word. There were many contentious issues that it seemed Christians just made their best guess as to what was right. I didn't have a spirit of discernment for what was false, so I became disillusioned and cried out to God often to keep me on his straight and narrow way and lead me in his way everlasting. I came back to TPOT site from time to time and studied many articles and tried to understand, although I struggled with having understanding. Then recently I read your article about the lake of fire and the penny dropped, that most of Christianity are taking parts of the Bible literally when they should be taking it metaphorically. Certainly there are some Bible teachings that are literal but it's such a relief to know that hell, the lake of fire, the second death and such, are actually speaking of our inner state. Also, your teachings on the second coming made far more sense to me than the literal interpretation. So that is how I came to be here and I thank you so much for taking the time to write all these articles. You are very generous with helping people. Now I just want to tell you a little about how I came to believe in Jesus Christ.
I'm now 47 years old and I have believed in God for most of my life, although God was never mentioned when I was growing up. When I was about 16 years old I was introduced to the Bible by our school pastor. I was overjoyed with the Good News but the seed fell on rocky ground and I fell away after a short time, mainly because I was afraid of everyone's opinion of me. I was very much alone and depressed, then very quickly after that I started using drugs, drinking, listening to satanic music (unbeknownst to me), messing around with boys, got into new age teachings and left home at 17. I can only say that the next 15 years were a living hell of depression, loneliness, drugs and tumultuous relationships with men. I cried out to God but I didn't know about repentance or sin or that Jesus was the way. I had forgotten anything I might have learned from the pastor at school. I was heavily into new age teachings and thought it was a higher teaching than the Bible, that it was spiritually superior. I met my husband, conceived two children out of wedlock, then had ten more difficult years, no longer using drugs but still battling depression and a lot of problems with my firstborn who had all sorts of problems like asthma, nightmares, boils, itchy skin, disobedience, aggression.
Then in July 2016 God saved me. I can't explain it, except that I had called out to the ethers that I was lost, completely lost. And He found me. He reached me through a video on Youtube that told me what I needed to hear. One day I was a die hard new ager, the next I was a believer in Christ. I suddenly realised what sin was, and I had plenty of it. I repented, forgave, burned all my new age books, purged my house of every abomination, bought a Bible and became a new creation. No-one was more shocked than me, let me tell you, but I am so thankful that the Lord did not forget me. I am His forever.
Thank you if you've managed to read this far. It's a bit hard to give a life story in a few paragraphs, but that is the gist of it. I look forward to having fellowship here with others seeking the truth. God bless.
Melissa