The Word Became Flesh

When I was 20, I met a lady who became a daycare provider for my baby daughter. During that time, she was very loving to me and eventually invited me to church. I told her that if I ever went back to church, it would be to my parent’s church, the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Why I would respond that way, I don’t know, given the fact that I never believed in their teachings. Anyway, she popped right up and told me that she used to be a Jehovah’s Witness. Well I had never met someone who used to be a JW, so this was very surprising to me! She then went on to inform me that the reason she left was that she found that the JWs had changed the scriptures to fit their doctrine, and they were a cult. This was the first time I had heard that term applied to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The first thing she showed me was how they changed the meaning of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NIV), by adding one extra word to this verse. The extra word was added in an attempt to change Christ from being God to being “a god”. As she took me through the first chapter of John, and explained who Jesus was, God made sense to me for the first time in my life! I can’t really explain how it happened, but I just knew in my heart it was true. After all those years of knowing in my gut that something didn’t add up, I finally understood why. At that same time, my friend also shared a little booklet with me called The Four Spiritual Laws, and told me that God loved me, and had a plan for my life. She explained that through faith in Jesus Christ I could be forgiven of all of my sins, have a relationship with God and receive eternal life. Then, she invited me to pray to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life. On one hand this was all very exciting news to me, yet on the other hand, I felt very uncomfortable and reluctant. However, I allowed her to lead me through the prayer. As I repeated the words of the little prayer, I got very emotional and cried and wanted to leave right away. My eyes had been opened, but I was scared to death.