Like you I was sitting in church because my mom made me. I was 9 years old. I had been in church forever! This service was no different than any other I had sat through. I just wanted it to end so I could go home. This night was different though. We had an evangelist preaching a revival and at the end of the message, I felt Jesus beside me asking to come into my heart. I'm 50 years old now, but that moment is still as fresh and emotional to me as that night. When Jesus sits beside you and asks to come into your heart, its VERY hard to ignore Him.
It was my time and I accepted gladly. I've been serving Him, I confess on and off all my life. I had a very real experience with Jesus and have depended on Him my whole life. What has He done for me? I can't begin to tell you all of the miracles and small things He has done for me over the years. The jobs He has given me, protecting me from my own stupidity, sparing me from death. I'm sure I'll only know a fraction of it until I get to Heaven and He tells me everything.
I can understand your doubts as a teenager as I had them myself, but I can tell you that you won't find a better friend in this life or on the other side than Jesus. He always has your best interests in His mind. Why do bad things happen to innocent people? Simply this: It goes back to Adam and Eve. When they disobeyed God, they set in motion a spiritual law that God won't turn back. That is that the wages of sin is death. I'm afraid that too many African tribes haven't even heard of Jesus or God. They worship their ancestors or whatever. Not all, there is a great revival going on in Africa and many thousands are coming to know Jesus. If you don't know Jesus, then the blessings of God won't come to you, and if you know Him, you can call on Him to receive the blessings fo God. But you have to remember that there are evil leaders in the world who do control the fates of millions of people. Hitler for example, controlled the deaths of 6 millions Jews. Where is Hitler now? Burning in hell and the Nazi nation is reduced to a memory. The bottom line is that sin has entered the world and will continue until God has had enough. Believe me, He is fast approaching His saturation point. He hates what is going on in the world. You have to remember that there are millions of Christians throughout the world who are praying for God's mercy on the earth. He hears them and listens to their cries, but sooner or later the more evil that is piled on, He will pour out His wrath. My dad also did not go to church. I found out later that the reason he didn't go to church with us, was that he preferred a pentecostal church over a souther baptist church. At the time I didn't know the difference.
