Sometimes I can hardly contain my excitement about how wonderful God is and the message of salvation. Most of my friends and family are atheist so they think I am just a bit weird right now but maybe the spark will light up their minds too. I think God wants people who knew me before to see how much happier I am and how I am still pretty much the same person - just a better version of me.
Carolyn,
i understand this very well. Some from my family even think I am crazy. But they cannot be blind and not to see change in me and my life. Am more strong, have more peace and joy and hope. I was atheist my whole life minus 2 years or so and people who knew me before can now compare.
And also, it is not just about being happy, but about being true...
But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
-- 1 Thessalonians 5:21
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
-- Philippians 1:6
I think somewhere in the NT it says something about not being able to stop singing His praise - well if it doesn't it should - I am not so good at recalling chapter and verse. However, the more I read the more I am in love with Jesus Christ. what a guy! I hear his Father is kinda cool too
CazPerth wrote:I think somewhere in the NT it says something about not being able to stop singing His praise - well if it doesn't it should - I am not so good at recalling chapter and verse. However, the more I read the more I am in love with Jesus Christ. what a guy! I hear his Father is kinda cool too
Carolyn
But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
-- 1 Thessalonians 5:21
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
-- Philippians 1:6
Coming to Christ for me was like the pang of child birth, and I guess you could say I was literally born again in the hospital.
Where to start? I was a happy child, however growing up I matured at a young age and was interested in girls, but I did not know the ways of the world and these girls ended up rejecting me making me take on the spirit of depression.
From probably about 13 on I was depressed, my goal in life was to be an artist, and my parents dabbled with the idea of going to Church, but I thought it would be a boring waste of a Sunday and why bother.
I struggled in life, and when I struggled I believed in God I just did not know the true nature of God. I looked for God in all the wrong places, mainly the internet. I had my own theory of God and the way the universe works, that our souls were infinite and eternal and that God was there to guide the soul to growth, and I essentially ignored the problem of evil and what God's plan was regarding that. I became a love and light New Ager and took my "theology" from the internet personalities like David Wilcock, who teaches the universe is divine and that we all have a purpose, things that sounded good to me, and I still believe we all fulfill a divine purpose.
Little did I realize I was on a dangerous path, and my deep depression was also causing irreversible damage to my brain. I ended up working in life as a computer scientist because I understood computers better than people, and I liked to play with computers. What made me believe in Christ was the following conversation I had with Christ throughout my life.
The first time I read the bible was at 17 years old and while I kind of believed what I was reading at the time about Christ, I was afraid to tell my parents about him and I prayed to Jesus to show me if I was good or evil, I prayed fully in tears. Then I forgot about Jesus and got married to my first wife. She was adulterous and the reason she came out about it to me was because of a Christian sermon we went to where she felt guilty and spilled the beans about it. I forgave her but she didn't get the real message, so she did it again and I finally got divorced to her.
During that time I was together with her God put some Christians in my life path, which looking back at it were instrumental to being saved. One of them was while I was randomly traveling with my first wife, and he prayed for me. Another was a math professor at my university, and he said something I remember. He said he saw a Christian student and he asked him why he believed, and the Christian student said he believed but the math professor would just out-smart him in challenging his faith, just proving he is smarter and not necessarily proving or disproving the existence of God. This lead the math teacher to a path of salvation of his own and he became very in love with God, which puzzled me because I didn't think Christians were very intelligent at the time, I guess the caricature on TV got to my head too much where Christians can tend to take genesis a little bit too literally and not as a metaphorical creation story describing mans relationship with God.
I remember picking up the bible once and reading that Jesus came for the sick and those in need of healing, and my thought was "I am not sick and in no need of healing," and so I put the bible back down again. Later I think Jesus triggered my illness to prove me wrong on this accord, and while I was in the hospital I realized that everyone is sick to one degree or another, it's just the REALLY sick ones that we notice as a society and shy away from.
These are stories in my life that didn't necessarily lead to my salvation. I became very enamored in the New Age cult of love and light and this lead me to believe that a person that I would love very much would appear to me, if I only had faith and followed certain steps, such as going downstairs in my building and putting my hands/head against the wall until something happened. The "something" that happened was somebody calling the ambulance for me, which was my first hospitalization. I still say to this day that it was a voluntary hospitalization, but God did something to my brain. He was making sure I actually had some faith to see if I would be able to be saved and put on a different life path without me becoming wicked and mocking Christians too much which I did for a short time watching DarkMatter2525's youtube videos. Anyway...
My first hospitalization was a bizarre experience and I felt like they were re-enacting the first chapters of the bible at the hospital, and at the time I thought I was a healer/God and I tried to rewrite the rules of creation. I overheard a conversation in the hospital about someone uploading a virus into creation that caused humans to become human and fall from grace, which I guess was the heavenly realm humanity first came from. There were mentally ill people there and the hospital was trying to diagnose me as a drug user even though my tests came out clean, later they diagnosed me bipolar. This hospitalization was winter solstice 2011. The theme of my first hospitalization was "if there is a will, there is a way." I just didn't know who's will and what way.
I was in a bipolar support group shortly after my 2011 hospitalization, where I would eventually meet my future girl friend so in a way it was true that I would find a girl through my hospitalization, it just wasn't instantaneous and it took until about 2015.
My second hospitalization was Spring 2013. This time I began to act weird around my family and believed I had the power to free my family from machines from the future. This time in the hospital I met someone who was special and told them we were going to take over the universe together. For better that relationship never worked out. She told me some bizarre things like random people missed me and that she was worried about her daughter Emma.
My third hospitalization was the freakiest hospitalization event ever. I went in because I wasn't able to sleep for a couple of days and maybe went through some hallucinations. It was in October of 2015, right before Halloween. They slowly sneaked me through the hospital and I got weird messages from people in the hospital. One was that the love you feel in your heart is all that matters, this is what a priest said to a man who thought I was going to steal his girl friend Amanda? I'm not sure. Then I was attacked in the hospital when they said a witches prayer over me and I saw through the dimensional veil and saw little imp like creature with it's finger over its mouth wanting me to be hushed. I was so mesmerized by this that I kept quiet and confused. Then I was taken to my room and I had a strong feeling that people were going to try and kill me, and I became very afraid and would have almost jumped out the window if I was able to. In the hospital there was a mean staff member who called me "man child of God" and told me I wasn't welcome there and I thought was trying to kill me somehow and I was hissing and screaming when I thought he was trying to kill me, and I heard an old women's voice in my head saying that me that her and me have my life down to the last second in essence proving God's existence without God revealing himself, and that I was considered a true son of God, that Jesus's death caused evil to win for all time on this side of eternity, but on the other side where God is I'm guessing it means Good wins for all time and that God has great plans for us humans.
When in the hospital, there was a point where I confessed to my visiting parents, "Jesus is Lord."
The third hospitalization to me proved God's and Jesus's existence and I decided to take the introductory bridge (think Alpha) course at my church. I learned about God, hell, and sin for the first time in a long time, and began making friends with Christians.
One night I said a prayer for God to reveal how he thought about me, and God took me down to the devil's realm and I heard the words "hedonite isrealite." Now I know it's the devils job to kind of make us look bad and I guess this is the worst he had on me. This is kind of a both good and bad mixed message for me, the devil considers me a pleasure seeking Israelite, which is odd because I am not from Israel but I might just be God's adopted son or a true son of God and so God is considering me an Israelite through this adoption. I found out about the bridge (intro) course at my Church due to my girlfriend at the time. That's the story of how I found Christ, or maybe he found me. Whatever it was, I am forever thankful for Christ to revealing himself to me and proving his existence to me so that I may be a thankful follower.
Wow, Clay - that has to win the "Wildest First Post Award." Welcome to the forum. How old are you? Do you attend a church or are you in regular fellowship with mature Christians? Did you remarry? Where do yo live?
I'm currently 31 years old. I came to Christ at 30, being born into a secular family.
I attend a local non-denominational Evangelical church in PA. My current "Life group" has plenty of mature christians, although that will end for the summer apparently. I'm currently watching Robert Breakers videos from the Cloud Church.
I did date a little bit, but the person I dated had severe mental issues that kept them from functioning at an adult level, so I broke it off. Honestly, I don't feel called to remarry, unless God makes it happen. I'm following [Matthew 6:33], "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." But I honestly think I might make a better christian unmarried, where I can focus my time and resources on God more.
I believe Christ engineered the events that lead me to Him. When I strayed for a little bit, Christ lead me back to him and broke my chains of addiction, that's another short story. He is REAL and he is GOOD.
Clay: One night I said a prayer for God to reveal how he thought about me, and God took me down to the devil's realm
Philip: Clay, what do you mean: "... the devil's realm?" WHERE was that?
Hi, it was in my sleep. I think an Angel or something brought me down (no visuals only feeling and audio), and there I heard a raspy dry voice that sounded like it was in pain, say "Hedonite! Israelite!" At the time I know satan is the accuser, so I'm accused of being a pleasure seeking israelite? It confuses me a little bit too.
Then, as I was brought up out of that state, I heard a bunch of whispers combine into a voice that said, "READ THE WORD!"
So, I'm a pleasure seeking Israelite that needs to read the bible? I guess? Maybe that's how God sees me.
- I am not so good at recalling chapter and verse. However, the more I read the more I am in love with Jesus Christ. what a guy! I hear his Father is kinda cool too 
