Posted on 06/23/2021 1:48:10 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
I know I speak for many a believer who feels a burden for a loved one, neighbor/colleague/friend to come to the fullness of faith in Christ.
The dynamics at work in the spiritual lives of children and adults are different for obvious reasons...Simply by virtue of adults having had more life experience, more ideas to consider, etc...
So for those of you who are willing, can you summarize what made you ultimately decide to be a Christian? And if there were any individuals who played a role, how so? And vice versa: what or who may have contributed to your initial hesitancy, if any.
This is an ecumenical thread so Catholic, Orthodox Protestant/Evangelical all apply.
I was saved by God suddenly, as a bolt out of the blue, one day while out hiking up in the High Sierra at age 48. He told me I had been misapprehending everything, my life was a picture of futility, and besides I was breaking His law by ignoring Him. I understood implicitly, I was utterly convicted, and so I knelt and prayed for the first time in my life to a God who I KNEW was there and hearing my prayer.
‘I hear you,’ I said to Him. I immediately felt a profound sense of relief and peace as though a burden had been lifted and my cares resolved.
All my life up to that point I had been an agnostic and not at all interested in God. I had not been on any sort of spiritual quest and there was no prior event or encounter I can point to. It really came out of nowhere as a complete surprise but the experience was clear and unmistakable.
I returned to S.F. from the trip and picked up a copy of ‘Mere Christianity’ that had been gathering dust on my bookshelf for years. I had never even opened it previously. I read it straight through and the Holy Spirit gave it to me to know that what it described was the true living God.
‘Wow, I’m a Christian!’ I said. I was genuinely surprised. Who knew? So I started going to church, reading the Bible, and praying. Everything changed at that point and I’ve never gone back to that previous life.
I’ve since heard many other people’s testimony and I know there are many, many ways that people come to a saving faith in Jesus. In my case it was a flat-out gift from God, so plainly so that I could never claim any part of it no matter how much I might want to.
L8R
I became a Christian in my 30s. No, God decided to make me a Christian. I’ve never doubted since then. Being a Christian, It’s essentially joining a spiritual army, as the wife of Christ.
We help him with his vision. We amplify his father’s purpose. It has not been easy, not easy. But I thank God I’m a Christian.
Example:
The Good News According to John 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 1The same was in the beginning with God. 1All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. 1 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 1The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome a it. 1There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. 1The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him. 1He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light. 1The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. 1He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. 1He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. 1But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: 1who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 1The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. 1John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’” 1From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. 1For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 1No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son,b who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. 1This is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are ....
Read more at:http://raylcross.net/flatBible/WEBibleSmoothRead20150809.pdf
If you mean adult as in ‘over21’, then yes...got saved in ‘87 at age 26.
Raised Roman Catholic and went to Catholic grade school, though my father was Orthodox. Started reading science fiction around age 12 and quit going to Mass. Arthur C. Clarke turned me atheist for awhile, later I believed in God but not Jesus as Savior. Messed around with some occult things, but was conservative and pro-life. In my mid-thirties my divorce hit me very hard, and at the urging of my brother returned to confession and Mass after a couple Sundays at a Lutheran church.
I think I had the prodigal daughter experience. Overnight I gave up the occult issue and went to Mass weekly. I was transformed. I was given a direction in life put there by God as clearly as if he had said, “Do this, move here, this is your new life.” Those first few months and year, despite being inconsolable about the divorce, I felt so uplifted and held and protected by the palm of His hand. This was a magical time for me...still very upset about the divorce but given experiences that proved this was God’s hand and not coincidence.
Science is very important to me, and my faith enhances my appreciation of the incredible design of the universe. Every day I see the wonders of the world and speculate on how heaven will be exalted to the millionth power.
I was raised as a French Canadian catholic. I left that religion at 24 when I understood the truth of the Gospel. I’ve been a proud evangelical ever since. I listen to lots of J MacArthur sermons.
I became a Christian at 25. A young professional with a good start to my career, a nice income, a nice house, a nice car, lots of friends, lots of hobbies and a nagging sense of dissatisfaction that I couldn’t shake. One day, I was working at a client’s site and absolute disorder reigned - except for one young lady who was this source of calm in the midst of this chaos and I instantly knew she had what I lacked. A couple of days later, I got a chance to talk with her about it and she presented the Gospel to me. After a few weeks of a young adult Bible study and my own exploration, I surrendered myself to Jesus Christ and my life permanently changed for the better (as if I have to tell that to Christians).
great story
“ I think whether people are converts or were brought up as Christians and then as adults suddenly realized it was true, we’re all convert Christians.”
That’s very good! “OMG it’s all TRUE”.
I’ve been exactly there.
most agnostics are atheists who want to appear to be open-minded on the subject...
Thank you and praise God. What a beautiful and powerful testimony.
Dear Lord,
Allow this thread to serve as a vehicle for reconciliation among your children here who are often angry and quarrelsome with each other, thinking they are acting in Your Name, while the ravenous Prince of this World gathers soul after soul.
Let us all be a light unto the nations, let us be salt, let is be an EXAMPLE to bring others to you.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All dressed up and no place to go.
To make a long story short, we signed her up to a drug trial program to get free blood transfusions for as long as she could live. The drug was basically a steroid that was supposed to restart her bone marrow as in puberty. It didn't work, but it destroyed her hip joints where the injections were made. By about 18 months, everyone in her study group had died except her. I'm trying to make this quick, but there was so much more taking place in the 18 months showing me God was near me and my wife. To end the story, Her hips disintegrated to the point they fell out of joint and she was bedridden screaming in pain. She started to beg us to kill her or let her die.
We had been praying for new doctors, another miracle drug, a new technique, or anything, but nothing worked. She had refused taking anymore injections for over 3 months begging to die. We talked the doctors into giving her a hip replacement on the government grant, they agreed. The morning of the surgery, my wife said she heard a voice telling her to "Pray for your specific need". She knew instantly what to pray for. She prayed for one stem of Jesus' bone marrow. I was very cynical and asked the surgeon if he just wanted to cut on her and have her bleed out on the table. Al the others were dead and the transfusions were being rejected by her because it wasn't close enough to her blood. Her platelets could be as low as 20k (100k is normal)and she could take a bag of platelets to raise to 50K and be back to 15k in a couple of hours. I asked how he could cut on her and her not bleed to death? He said he would give her a bag of platelets, do the hip, and then giver her another bag of platelets.
My wife and I stood at the door praying for one stem of Jesus' bone marrow as she went in. When she came out I asked how many platelets she had to take and he said none! She was 20K that morning but in an hour she was over 70k with no bags of platelets. He hip healed in about a week or so and she went home completely healed of Aplastic Anemia. She lived for another 20 years and died of heart trouble.
I knew it was time for me to take God more seriously and I know that He was calling me to Himself. I was 43 at this time and living for the devil. I'm 70 now and teach home Bible studies and Sunday school. He turned my life completely around and I'm a new creature.
When I was twenty five years old my life came crashing down on me. I had just got out of the Air Force and lost everything I owned. I was an alcoholic and set aside a day to kill myself.
There was a lady in the neighborhood that had been annoying me for months, talking about Jesus. I had a little knowledge of the bible and some minimal church experience, and thought I was pretty good at fooling her. That was not the case.
I sat in my front porch one night with a few beers and intended to get very drunk and take a lot of pills.
Then, the annoying woman pulled into the yard and asked me to come to a potluck dinner at her church that week as a member of her family.
I got saved that night, and haven’t regretted the decision to follow Christ.
Now I have a wife and three kids. I have a full-time secular job, but have been teaching, preaching and pastoring for about thirty years now on the side.
:)
Top tombstone sayings for atheists
I’m Out.
Busy feeding my worms.
One and done
Here lies cosmic accident 20,432,489,760,214...
But later...
That is the church both my ex and I were baptized in and where my journey began.
So you and your ex-wife were baptized twice? Why?
I could never quite commit to the "There is no god" belief structure. It took too much faith.
I almost gave up on God, but he did not give up on me.
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