When did you become a Christian

[davej]

Share your testimony here's mine When I was growing up, I was always made to go to church. Even though I didn't mind it, I realy didn't enjoy it all that much. It was a Southern baptist Church. Our church was very strict. We sang all the tradtional hyms. Had to sit very still and quiet in the pews. and the preacher was a guy with a monotone voice that would put you to sleep. There were no young people around my age to socialize with. Needless to say, it was boreing. Every Sunday morning, SUnday Night, and Wednesday night we were at church. At the age of 13, I became a Christian. Looking back on it, I felt like becomeing a Christian was the right thing to do instead of it being a calling from God. I felt that it was something I should do because it was just what you did. I continued to go to church, sit through the boreing services and never really devoted myself to God. I really wasn't "feeling it". I finally moved out and went to college. My first Sunday away from home I woke up and thought Thank God I don't have to go to church (no pun intended) From that point on I stopped going to church and stopped believing in God. I began to party pretty hard, drank alot and ran with the wrong crowd. my life became one big train wreck. after a couple of years of this, I pulled myself together and straightened up my act. I began to question religion and started to visit a few churches but still wasn't "feeling it". Again i sunk back into my hole and forgot about God. Amazeling I did well in college but i think it was all apart of God's larger plan. I graduated college and began to work. After a year of being out of college, I lost my mom to a 13 year battle with cancer. I never understood why my mom had to pass away. i questioned it and became very fustrated. My world had totally collapsed. I began drinking and partying again, mainly to get over the hurt i was feeling. after about 7 years of this i finally needed a change. I felt as if i was going nowhere in life and even began to hate the person i was looking at in the mirror. Even though I had a good job and was making good money, it wasn't enough. Notice at this point i was never arrested even with all my wreckless behavior (another part of God's big plan for me). I begin to question religion again and said a little prayer asking God that if he was real, if he had a plan for me then to open up some doors and send me to where i need to be. I started looking around and found a much better job in Nashville TN, just out of the blue there it was. Not only was this great job in Nashville but my sister and her husband lived just 20 minutes from there as well. I applied for the job and ended up getting it. Later i found out that i was like the only one out of 400 people who got this job. I packed up and moved to Middle TN and began my new life. at this point i was really questioning religion and decided tha tI would get back into church. I visited several and found one that was ok but only went a few times. Over time, I ended up meeting the most beautiful, most careing, most loving, most wonderful woman who i am proud to say is now my wife. She was going to a local church and had invited me many times but I always declined. Finally one Sunday, I decided to go. the first Sunday I went I fell in love with the church. I could really feel God during the service. I mean REALLY feel him within the service and within me. I had never felt that before. The service was fun, we sang modern Christian songs and the service was upbeat with an energetic preacher. I continued to go and the more i went, the more my questions about religion and about God were answered. I actually looked forward to going to church. I was saved and became a Christian again. Now, my wife and I have devoted our lives to Christ and our lives get better and better the more we grow as Christians. Looking back, I see itwas all in his big plan from me to not really liking church as a kid to becomeing rebellious... to me trying to find a new start, landing a great job 500 miles from my home town just to move out there to meet my future wife and finally land into a church that i feel in love with and really found God in. I still don't know why god decided to call my mother home. That is somehting I will find out when I pass away but for the time being, I do find great comfort in knowing she is with the Lord and I will see her again one day. I know this was long winded but lets here your stories...

[Bonsay]

It's interesting. Whenever you listen to those Kirk Camerons etc. they all say how they used to be atheist bla bla... I guess officially they were, by the definition of the word. The sad thing is that these people are aiming to compare themselves to all the public rational thinkers, scientists whose experience of atheism goes beyond "I stopped believing in god and then I went to a party where I got wasted for the next X amount of years before I got saved".

[davej]

It is perfectly alright with me if you don't want to believe what i am saying Bonsay... if it will make you a better person by all means, go ahead and debate what happened in my life. I guess it is obvious that you have nothing better to do right now but try and prove to everyone else my life is false. good luck with that by the way.

[ClouD]

Many posts deleted due to their disrespectful or insulting nature. Do not continue to post like that, you can express your opinion in a way that is not hateful or derogatory. Any similar continuation will receive warnings/infractions from staff. OP please also keep it on topic, as well as everyone else.

[Idolfan]

I am not one to say whether you are 'saved' or not by your definition of the word, but your belief that your life is a piece of prose suggests that you are still largely in the grip of the ego. I could tell you a story about a boy genius who passed his university degree looking foreward to a succesful career and an altruistic life who then got hit by a bus and died, but I feel that I would then be ruining your innosence. You know I'm glad you could share this actually because it is honest; it gives me a little insight into how certain lifestyles can break people. My dad's life has been ruined by alcoholism... so I can relate to it. I am trying to sort out my integrity before I ever go out drinking or partying (which by the kind of comments I've been posting recently you can tell I haven't exactly done yet). But that's only because I can. I just so happen to have been born into a secure environment... and I have the time to think about such things... all that makes me want to do is help those less fortunate. I think that the reason people have unequal childhoods and upbringings, the reason for this profound injustice, is because it forces us to love each other. The fact that I have not been disturbed by anything more than my own mind (and your God, but I won't leave any more smarmy comments), makes me feel as if I have to love other people. To the people whom life has betrayed: seeth over it. To the people whom life has not betrayed: seeth over that. That's the meaning of inequality. So; for whatever mistakes you have made or been exposed to in your life you should feel no less agony as the next person. And if they choose to ignore their blessings... then that's their wrong.

[Scatterbrain]

My story is a short one. Parents/Family/etc: God exists. Me: Ok.

[Marvo]

I'm not a christian myself, but a good friend of mine became a very strong believer, after his little brother survived cancer. I guess he was christian before that, but he probably didn't think much of it, and it was first at that turning point in his life, that he became more aware of it. I don't know what to think of it. It's difficult to argue against personal experience, and I don't feel like arguing the subject with him anyway. He's a really nice guy, he's very smart and he knows what he's doing.

[Rakjavik]

I guess I was born an Atheist since I was a baby. But I became a hardcore christian after a bible camp when I was around 13. I went to another camp and felt the holy spirit course throughout me. I loved god and was reading my Bible nightly. I hit 14 and got my first modem (14.4k). Throughout reading chats and message boards, I got involved with gay porn. I realized I was different. (even though I knew I was from probably about 9 or 10) At 17 I moved out of my parent's house and basically became agnostic the moment it happened. At 18 or 19, I read "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris, and became an Atheist after reading it. I'm 24 now, and have not looked back.

[davej]

most have been a pretty powerful book for you Rakjavik.

[Idolfan]

I guess I was born an Atheist since I was a baby. But I became a hardcore christian after a bible camp when I was around 13. I went to another camp and felt the holy spirit course throughout me. I loved god and was reading my Bible nightly. I hit 14 and got my first modem (14.4k). Throughout reading chats and message boards, I got involved with gay porn. I realized I was different. (even though I knew I was from probably about 9 or 10) At 17 I moved out of my parent's house and basically became agnostic the moment it happened. At 18 or 19, I read "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris, and became an Atheist after reading it. I'm 24 now, and have not looked back. Can you tell me what it was like 'feeling the Spirit' course through you? I have never had any such experience so it startles me that you can walk away from it. Have you since found any kind of rational explaination?

[Rakjavik]

Can you tell me what it was like 'feeling the Spirit' course through you? I have never had any such experience so it startles me that you can walk away from it. Have you since found any kind of rational explaination? It's like being at an awesome concert and getting pumped up and jumping and singing to the music. It's a feeling everyone has felt at one time, just as a religious person at the time, I thought it was the holy spirit. Come to find out, you don't need religion to have those feelings. DaveJ, it was a good book, I had also been read God Is Not Great, The God Delusion and The Case for Christ. Letter to A Christian Nation just was the most influential as it was geared toward Christianity in America, so in a sense it was speaking directly toward me.

[davej]

I have studied religions of the world, mainly in college but I think i may pick up that book, not because I'm intersted in becoming an athiest but to see what it is about. i do enjoy good literature even if it isn't of the Christian faith.

[Rakjavik]

I have studied religions of the world, mainly in college but I think i may pick up that book, not because I'm intersted in becoming an athiest but to see what it is about. i do enjoy good literature even if it isn't of the Christian faith. Just now read your OP (at first it was TLDR). Sorry to hear about your mom. From reading your post it sounds like religion is very comforting to you and it motivated you to do more with your life. Which is great. Do you think this could have happened without God? That maybe the ability to improve your life was within yourself the whole time, and religion was a catalyst for bringing it out?

[Idolfan]

It's like being at an awesome concert and getting pumped up and jumping and singing to the music. It's a feeling everyone has felt at one time, just as a religious person at the time, I thought it was the holy spirit. Come to find out, you don't need religion to have those feelings. I think I get you; but it obviously must be stronger in some people than it is in other people. I feel kind of alone that it's never happened to me. All the Christian God has ever given me is fear and grief.

[davej]

I don't believe that I would have been following God's path that he had laid out for me. I was following my own path their for the longest time and it was leading me no where. Even though it may have seemed like fun times, it was actually a miserable time for me. It was like I was always looking for something and couldn't find it. When i finally turned everything over to God, it seemed as if my life turned around, as if the rain stoped and the sky cleared... Cheesey I know but that is the best way I can describe it. I feel like my life is really going places now... that i have a purpose instead of just living day to day. If i didn't get that spark i wish for something new, i really don't think i would be where I am today. One book that really helped me when i started to find God again was The Purpose Driven Life. God has a plan for me. i don't know right now what his entire plan is but it seems to get better and better every day and I will continue to follow his route in life for me.

[davej]

Thank you rak for your words about my mom. It is still hard but like i said, I know where she is and I know I will see her again one day. Another very comforting thought for me is now I have my very own personal guardian angel I know my mom is watching over me and I would like to think that she is proud of the way my life turned out. One thing that does tear me up from time to time is the fact that she never got to meet my wife or her grandchild but again, I know she will one day.

[Zhaylin]

Thanks for sharing your story. I too am sorry to hear about your mom I always loved God. The love I felt became more concrete when I was about 4. I was saying bedtime prayers with my grandma and I asked God to make the Devil nicer. She giggled and said I couldn't ask for that. I asked her why and she couldn't really explain that to me which made me very angry lol My parents weren't religious and I only spent the summers with my grams. I studied the Bible on my own though. By the time I was 7, on my own, I learned God had a name- "Jehovah" (Psalm 83:18) and I knew the earth would never be destroyed. I didn't believe in ghosts and knew at least some people would live forever on Earth. I shunned necromancy (boards, seances etc). Then I met a group of people in Puerto Rico where my dad was stationed in the Navy. They were a group of kids having Bible studies and I loved it. Eventualy, I started going to a nondenominational church off-base. The Preacher didn't believe in baptizing kids, but he grilled me thoroughly on Scripture and I had a genuine love for God so I was baptized. My [step] dad was baptized the same day as me... I had convinced my parents to join the church and they loved it and even turned their lives around for awhile. We moved to Pensacola, FL when I was 10. My parents looked for a church like the one they left, but the churches seemed more concerned with dues and my parents lost their faith. I was left to my own again. I poured over the Bible on my own, again but also attended several different churches with friends. I studied with some Southern Baptists, the Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists and others. My brain became very confused. What I had learned on my own was being contradicted by all of the other faiths and no one could answer the question I had at the age of 4. I became disillusioned with Christianity and got into spiritism. I went on to devote my energy to the Wiccan and Celtic religions and became a solitary practitioner of magick. I studied the powers of the mind, EPS, scrying, out of body experiences, UFO's, became obsessed with the Bermuda Triangle, telepathy, tarot cards, palm reading... but Christianity kept pulling at me. I couldn't NOT believe in God. I went through a time I didn't believe in Jesus, but that didn't last long either. I called my beliefs "April's religion" (my name) lol because I just hodge-podged together different things I liked about different religions. For a while I called myself a Christian Witch and then found the passage "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" and that ended that. At the age of 15 I started studying with 7th Day Adventists and others, but Spiritism kept calling me back. I had frequent premonitions, was an expert at reading cards and interpretting dreams and I felt a deep connection to the earth. I cried at the thought of going to Heaven. I kept praying "I know the earth isn't going to be destroyed. You'll need someone to take care of the animals and stuff... I want to stay here". By the age of 20, I was studying with some Pentecosts (sp) and I even attended their church. I felt the "Spirit" but it was more demonic to me than holy. I had a hallucination during one service of the roof collapsing on everyone and I never returned. (I was severely sleep deprived during that time of my life and was border-line insane). There were people speaking in tongues but there was no interpreter, which I read in the Bible was a must. I then stopped studying with couple. Then I moved to West Virginia. I studied with the Mormons. The Elders implied that God was allowing my marriage to fall apart because I was smoking and I came to LOATHE God. The Elders meant no harm though. I attended their meetings for awhile, but I couldn't even pray without telling God I hated him. I then became a stripper, was deep in spiritism, and thought I would die before changing my ways. Then I met the man who bacame my hubby after my first marriage fell completely apart. I moved in with him and he had an abundance of religious books that I lost myself in. Then Jehovah's Witnesses (JW's) came knocking on my door. I began studying with them, but most of the time, I avoided them because I was still a smoker and planned on opening my own strip club. We moved to a different county, the plans for the club bombed, I restarted my study (though I continued studying on my own in between). In November 2000, I stopped smoking. I read a powerful JW book while on vacation in January 2001. By February, my entire family and I were attending meetings. It was then that I figured out all the books my hubby had were JW books and he used to be one before falling away before we met. He had been disassociated (like disfellowshiped) so no one would speak to him on a social level. He started studying with one of the Brothers though. In March, an Overseer visited us and told me we would have to stop living together if either one of us would progress. So the kids and I moved to another house and then to the Farm I now live at. He was reinstated that summer and in October, I was baptized and in November we were married. We had a nanny for the kids for about a year (before our marriage if I recall correctly) then that bombed and we put in a modular home beside his. The kids and I lived in the modular. He started missing almost all of the meetings and I tried taking care of the spiritual etc needs of my kids on my own (4 kids from my previous marriage) as well as his daughter every other weekend. Eventually, I fell apart. It seems like an eternity ago, but our old Presiding overseer moved and the new one kicked my hubby and I out of the congregation (disfellowshipped) because my housekeeping was deplorable and hubby wasn't helping me. (We can still attend meetings but not socialize with anyone). I took up smoking again and I'm still struggling to return to the congregation. I know I belong there because they've been the only ones who have been able to answer ALL my questions. Even that very first one at age 4. They use the Bible as the ultimate authority and nothing is "a mystery". After the Mormons though, I've lost a lot of the emotional love I had for God. Serving him, after that became "the right thing to do" and logical love. I miss the daily "conversations" I use to have with him. I miss my zeal. I miss my hope for everlasting life. And now Spiritism is calling me back more than ever before. I'm resisting, but barely. When I finally stop smoking, everything will start falling into place. I'll find my way back to God, but part of me doesn't want to.

[Jesus of Suburbia]

Well, I first learned about Christianity when I was four and from then on considered myself Christian (I had no division, though) but at the age of 10 or 11 realized that it all made no sense what-so-ever and therefore am currently an atheist.

[Idolfan]

One book that really helped me when i started to find God again was The Purpose Driven Life. God has a plan for me. i don't know right now what his entire plan is but it seems to get better and better every day and I will continue to follow his route in life for me. Strange, cognitive differences... I'm not going to troll you anymore, kingerman is my new victim. Just wondering how is this so? If there was a God it would make my life seem absolutely purposeless. Knowing that there is a supreme being who can stop all of the suffering in the world with a snap of his fingers but chooses not too... it kind of makes me feel sick to my stomach. Just wondering if you could describe how knowing there is a God gives your life purpose.