Baptism
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:33 am
Hi Guys
Just thought I let you know that I got baptised on Sunday. It was a wonderful experience. I found it more emotional than I thought and I was taken by surprise by that fact. At one point I couldn't sing cos I was so chocked and the tears just rolled down my cheek. It is certainly a day that I will remember along with my wedding. I was actually more nervous than I was with my wedding, especially going up and reading my testimony. I thought I would share that with you here. Just quickly though - I want to thank you all for you kind words and advice, and for the person who set up this website in the first place - because it really has helped me on my journey and I have certainly recommended it to others who are approaching God in a similar way.
God Bless
My Testimony
My journey towards God and Jesus comes from an almost desperate hope that it is all true, because otherwise in my opinion all existence on the planet would be meaningless. Nothing would have any point at all. This is a concept for me that is too horrifying to contemplate.
So unfortunately I guess my motives are fairly selfish. I had always an idea of a God when I was growing up – but as I approached thirty I sort of had a very early mid-life crisis. A lot of things were changing in my life – mostly for the better. However, one area that did concern me more than anything was I was now very aware of my own mortality and this scared me. My twenties were rapidly disappearing and my childhood long gone. Gone were the days when I was immortal and nothing could harm me.
I had already started to feel the affects of smoking on me so I quit that, but I needed to know if there was anything else for us in this life – or more importantly after it.
My wife, was definitely the catalyst for my journey. I obviously knew she was a Christian, and she was an excellent witness to that. She had a book called “The Jesus I never knew” by Phillip Yancey. I read it and I was surprised at how fast I did. It made me incredibly hungry for more. The irony of the title of the book was not lost on me. I think from here my journey began in earnest.
I needed to start with God. If I could believe in God then I could believe in a Son of a God. Being scientifically minded I need to approach this logically, my faith would not stand to self scrutiny if I didn’t believe the reasoning behind it. So I did my research. I investigated the origins of the universe and the origins of this planet and learnt how wonderful it all was. “The Heavens declare the Glory of God” was one quote I had heard time and time again. I was trying to find out if this was true. It certainly seemed that way.
I looked into areas like the Anthropic principal and intelligent design. I was certainly amazed at how ordered everything seemed to be and geared towards life. I looked at the odds of us being here by chance and it seemed to me ridiculous even considering the size of the universe. It became the case that it would need a bigger leap of faith to believe there wasn’t some intelligent intervention.
I went down to the biological level and read about ideas like irreducible complexity in human cells – again all evidence for the intelligent intervention. I believe it was Aristotle that once said that you need to go where the evidence pointed and considering the evidence I had gathered I moved towards God.
Next was Jesus. If I believed in a God that created the universe, then becoming a man on our level would certainly be well within his ability. But not only that – A God that could create such a universe and such a beautiful planet could only be a God of love. This is certainly how he is portrayed in the bible and how Jesus himself comes across. The idea of Jesus sacrificing himself for everyone to make us right with God is definitely an act of a loving God. This all made sense to me.
So I investigated Jesus and after reading several books on the subject I realised that there was a surprising amount of evidence that supported Jesus’s claim of who he was. The logic of all this appealed to me very much.
So my journey towards Christianity came about this way. My faith is not as strong as others who might have approached it differently, because for me it is a constant battle of reconciliation of science with the Bible and who Jesus is. But my heart is becoming more in line with my head. The final leap is a leap of faith and not of reason and logic and I feel I need to make that final motion and place my trust in God and Jesus. Trust in who Jesus is and what he has done for me.
I am hoping that my faith will strengthen over time to bring me more closer to God and really feel the measure of his sacrifice for me.
Coming to church has also helped as well, and again I have to thank my wife for that. I guess that she was the guide God had sent me. The love of the people here and the grounded realistic sermons delivered by our ministers each week strike a chord within me. It just makes sense and sparks credibility on a level that really appeals to me.
In the end I take comfort in the words Jesus said to Thomas after his resurrection – “You believe because you see, Blessed are those that believe and do not see”. I believe Jesus was talking to us today with those words. We are separated from the incarnation by 2000 years. For me it is sometimes hard to see, but I am trying and willing to believe – And I pray that I will be blessed for that. This is my hope.
Just thought I let you know that I got baptised on Sunday. It was a wonderful experience. I found it more emotional than I thought and I was taken by surprise by that fact. At one point I couldn't sing cos I was so chocked and the tears just rolled down my cheek. It is certainly a day that I will remember along with my wedding. I was actually more nervous than I was with my wedding, especially going up and reading my testimony. I thought I would share that with you here. Just quickly though - I want to thank you all for you kind words and advice, and for the person who set up this website in the first place - because it really has helped me on my journey and I have certainly recommended it to others who are approaching God in a similar way.
God Bless
My Testimony
My journey towards God and Jesus comes from an almost desperate hope that it is all true, because otherwise in my opinion all existence on the planet would be meaningless. Nothing would have any point at all. This is a concept for me that is too horrifying to contemplate.
So unfortunately I guess my motives are fairly selfish. I had always an idea of a God when I was growing up – but as I approached thirty I sort of had a very early mid-life crisis. A lot of things were changing in my life – mostly for the better. However, one area that did concern me more than anything was I was now very aware of my own mortality and this scared me. My twenties were rapidly disappearing and my childhood long gone. Gone were the days when I was immortal and nothing could harm me.
I had already started to feel the affects of smoking on me so I quit that, but I needed to know if there was anything else for us in this life – or more importantly after it.
My wife, was definitely the catalyst for my journey. I obviously knew she was a Christian, and she was an excellent witness to that. She had a book called “The Jesus I never knew” by Phillip Yancey. I read it and I was surprised at how fast I did. It made me incredibly hungry for more. The irony of the title of the book was not lost on me. I think from here my journey began in earnest.
I needed to start with God. If I could believe in God then I could believe in a Son of a God. Being scientifically minded I need to approach this logically, my faith would not stand to self scrutiny if I didn’t believe the reasoning behind it. So I did my research. I investigated the origins of the universe and the origins of this planet and learnt how wonderful it all was. “The Heavens declare the Glory of God” was one quote I had heard time and time again. I was trying to find out if this was true. It certainly seemed that way.
I looked into areas like the Anthropic principal and intelligent design. I was certainly amazed at how ordered everything seemed to be and geared towards life. I looked at the odds of us being here by chance and it seemed to me ridiculous even considering the size of the universe. It became the case that it would need a bigger leap of faith to believe there wasn’t some intelligent intervention.
I went down to the biological level and read about ideas like irreducible complexity in human cells – again all evidence for the intelligent intervention. I believe it was Aristotle that once said that you need to go where the evidence pointed and considering the evidence I had gathered I moved towards God.
Next was Jesus. If I believed in a God that created the universe, then becoming a man on our level would certainly be well within his ability. But not only that – A God that could create such a universe and such a beautiful planet could only be a God of love. This is certainly how he is portrayed in the bible and how Jesus himself comes across. The idea of Jesus sacrificing himself for everyone to make us right with God is definitely an act of a loving God. This all made sense to me.
So I investigated Jesus and after reading several books on the subject I realised that there was a surprising amount of evidence that supported Jesus’s claim of who he was. The logic of all this appealed to me very much.
So my journey towards Christianity came about this way. My faith is not as strong as others who might have approached it differently, because for me it is a constant battle of reconciliation of science with the Bible and who Jesus is. But my heart is becoming more in line with my head. The final leap is a leap of faith and not of reason and logic and I feel I need to make that final motion and place my trust in God and Jesus. Trust in who Jesus is and what he has done for me.
I am hoping that my faith will strengthen over time to bring me more closer to God and really feel the measure of his sacrifice for me.
Coming to church has also helped as well, and again I have to thank my wife for that. I guess that she was the guide God had sent me. The love of the people here and the grounded realistic sermons delivered by our ministers each week strike a chord within me. It just makes sense and sparks credibility on a level that really appeals to me.
In the end I take comfort in the words Jesus said to Thomas after his resurrection – “You believe because you see, Blessed are those that believe and do not see”. I believe Jesus was talking to us today with those words. We are separated from the incarnation by 2000 years. For me it is sometimes hard to see, but I am trying and willing to believe – And I pray that I will be blessed for that. This is my hope.
