Mark,
I always loved the Bible since becoming a Christian and have read it constantly since then. For some odd reason, I found it no problem to walk around while holding to very contradictory things.
I read a book called called The Grace Awakening, not realizing until reading it again years later that it contained much error. I remember visiting a reformed church with a friend of mine and her father taught the Sunday School lesson about the Law. My reaction to his lesson was that he was legalistic. Yes, I was a Christian, but a deceived one at the time. I didn't realize until years later reading Tabletalk Magazine that the law is good, even if we cannot be justified by it, and we are to love it, and it is given to us to guide us into all righteousness because it is based on God's holy character. (I am speaking of the moral law here.) I finally saw that the negative way I had viewed the law as something we want to get rid of had been very wrong.