This old man was born into this world long ago, as a baby, and had absolutely nothing in his mind. The knowledge and understanding that is in my mind now is there because of some input from outside. My manners came from Mom and Dad, my early education came through the government schools, experience, and lectures from parents. My higher education was acquired from books I chose to read and persons I chose to study, and teachers I chose to submit to. My faith came from God, through His Spirit. Between birth and adulthood, I had many choices, just as you did. The most basic of choices was to decide whether or not to believe what my parents, and teachers, taught me and to make choices that would later determine whom I would turn to for my higher education. As I strive for brevity, let me explain that I was not born into a Christian home. I didn't know that as a child or young adult because my parents called us all Christians, but man's ideas don't make truth. My mother, now 89 still hasn't a clue about what makes a person a Christian (Please pray for her). Since my childhood home's religion was "Churchianity"...going to church once per week and never associating with other church members during the week and not talking about Christ, God, the devil or anything spiritual during the week, I was overcome by the devil's deception, thinking I was a "Good Christian". I had trouble understanding why I couldn't resist opportunities to steal, lie, cheat, soak up porno, chase girls, then women, cuss, get drunk, etc. Something was not right; I knew that and through it all was on a life's mission to find out "What is real, what is true?", as I put it in my mind. The fact of the matter is, there were many choices of faith/religion (faith believes God [Christianity] Religion works to please God [Judiaism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhists, Humanism, etc]) Through all of my young adult years, I was angry, mean, unhappy and deperate to find out what was real. Accordingly, I searched for the answer in the minds of older men, in Positive Mental Attitude books, in illicit relationships with women, in bars, in the Catholic Church, the Ouija Board, Masonic Lodge, and other things. I despised the sound churches that taught the Bible, God's Word, and hated the people who filled them. I was in the devil's grip of deception. At the age of 33, I was chasing a pretty woman, whom I had recently met on a new job. I put on my best smile (deception) and asked her out for dinner. To my surprise, she accepted and said that dinner should be at her house. "Alright!!!" I thought, this will be easier than I thought! When I arrived for dinner and her pre-teen daughter was there also. She initiated a conversation with me and explained that she thought I was a nice fella, but that there would be no "messing around" with her, that her schedule was also quite full...with church six times a week. It would take more than a church to stop me, so I visited and asked if I could go with her. I wanted to see what there could be in a church that kept an intelligent and pretty woman so interested. I made it clear that I would go only once, maybe twice...out of curiosity. That was in 1980. The pastor preached the Gospel and I didn't understand it, but I went back the next night. Again, he preached the Gospel in closing, and when I understood that Jesus Christ had settled my sin account on the cross, lights flashed in my head, the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders and I had believed on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for my own personal salvation before I knew what had happened. I was relieved, I was excited, I was free. After all those years, I now knew why Christ didn't jump off the cross and destroy the guilty people who put Him there. The reason was because of a word that was seldom used in my childhood home...LOVE! That next evening, I went into that church weighed down under the chains of sin and I departed free, excited, and happy. Sure, there have been sorrows for me as a Christian, but now I didn't have to face them alone! Hallelujah! The reason I am a Christian is because God, His plan and His Word are perfect. As His Word was preached, His power worked in my soul and spirit, through the Holy Spirit. After twenty seven years of study, I am now able to explain the facts more completely: God's Word was written roughly 350 years before any religion's supposed "Sacred Writings". After 350 years, people who were under the devil's spiritual influence and bondage did the devil's work, as they plagiarized and distorted the revealed Word of God, offering many religions, while, in reality, offering only one other way to God...through human works, which God says will not work (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) I am a Christian because, as I was seeking the truth, God answered with His Word, the Gospel, His Spirit empowered me to "repent towards God", and gave me "faith towards Jesus Christ" His Son, enabling me to know that I had been saved even before I was born...because I believed Him, I received my redemption, my justification, reconciliation, and moved into my rightful place in God's family, as His adopted Son. All these years later, He brings tears to my eyes as I realize that He has guided me in producing this article, because even though I have been a bad boy many times in those years, He remains faithful and has answered my prayer to guide me in what to write today. Only the basic skeleton of this article was in my mind when I started. The rest is God's guidance...Praise the Lord! I continued going to church with this lady and six times per week. We continued to have a respectable platonic relationship, as she mentored me in the faith for quite some time, until the devil convinced me that I needed to move a long way away, to further my own life. That move was to a beautiful place that I enjoyed very much, but it also separated me from church and fellowship. Three years later I moved back and became very active in church again, was much happier again, and I have now lived "happily ever after" for a long time.
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