Hi

[Next]

hi. just wanted to introduce myself and give my testimony. i am 23 and live in canada. I have been a "christian" my whole life (i was raised to be a christian) but i never really felt like i was one. i have always tried to find God. i've always thought that if i put in enough effort looking for God, He would eventually show himself to me. I have recently found that to be a half-truth. i dont know if anyone has read a book called, "God's way of peace" by horatius bonar but i read it recently and it was exactly what i needed to hear. this book showed me that the grace of God is not something that needs to be earned by doing any work. the grace of God is a gift from God to us that does not need to be bought with a price. to try to earn this gift is to say that what Jesus did was not quite enough to redeem us and is an unfinished work. if we need to earnestly search for God or become righteous of our own means than that nullifies the work of Christ. so i say that it is a half-truth because i think that if you search for God hard enough it can lead you to find out that searching for God hard enough is exactly what is stopping you from finding God. i was searching for God in such a way that i made it to be the work that i had to perform to make myself worthy to accept God's grace. and that was nothing other than self-righteousness and was exactly what was cutting me off from God. God's grace is mine for the taking right NOW. it is not something that i have to earnestly search for for such and such a time period to show God that i deserve to be a child of God. faith is not a 'work'. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. i simply must accept God at his word. Christ died for my sins. Christ died for your sins. i am righteous through Christ Jesus.

so i am now a true believer. i accept the righteousness of God by grace through Christ Jesus. (and NOT through my good deeds).

i wanted to share this because i know there are probably a lot of people that are just like me out there that grew up in a christian home and were assumed to be christian by everyone they knew but never really were christian and were just 'trying' to be christian because they felt it to be truth but couldnt seem to have any real chirstian experience. i almost wish that i grew up a non-believer and was converted in a dramatic way because i think it is a lot easier for the non-believer to grasp how truly GOOD the good news is

but anyways, im new to this site. im looking forward to learning and growing in my faith and hopefully one day ill be able to help others grow in their faith also. i'm here to learn.

 

[Jimmy Engle]

Hi Next. Praise God for revealing Himself to you. Self righteousness is such a horrible thing to get caught up in. Every religion out there is all about gaining merit through works and earning ones way to heaven or paradise. Not Christianity. It's about turning to Christ and admitting that you are a sinner bound for hell and there is nothing you can do to save yourself. You repent and trust in the finished work of Christ and he justifies you declaring you to be not guilty before God and you are clothed in Christ's righteousness and receive grace and eternal life.

So welcome to CB and I am glad to meet you. God bless

 

[Next]

thanks for the welcome bud. i agree, self-righteousness is an easy thing to fall victim to and a hard thing to find in yourself and a hard thing to root out. as i grow in my faith i will probably find more examples of it buried deep down and i will root them out just the same. i think the best way to learn is to surround yourself with people that know more than you do and thats why i joined this forum. hopefully i can learn a lot from the people on here. i am also looking for a good church to join where i live but for now this will have to do.

 

[Jimmy Engle]

thanks for the welcome bud. i agree, self-righteousness is an easy thing to fall victim to and a hard thing to find in yourself and a hard thing to root out. as i grow in my faith i will probably find more examples of it buried deep down and i will root them out just the same. i think the best way to learn is to surround yourself with people that know more than you do and thats why i joined this forum. hopefully i can learn a lot from the people on here. i am also looking for a good church to join where i live but for now this will have to do.

I was in your shoes about a year ago. I got saved and didn't know a good church and didn't know where to turn. I spent most of my time watching sermons online to learn about things but eventually came here to seek answers from fellow Christians. What bothered me though is I would ask a simple question and get five different answers and logic says they can't all be right. So when you do ask about something just keep an open mind...don't latch down to something just because it appears/sounds right. Always look at both sides of the coin before accepting something.

 

[Next]

thanks for the advice. ill keep that in mind and ill try to keep an open mind. in fact i was just thinking about that. i was reading another topic somewhere on this site and there was one person that seemed to think he/she knew all the answers. this person claimed to be getting inspiration directly from God and was being kind of confrontational claiming all kinds of crazy things. now i think its possible to get direct inspiration from God but it seems to me that if it doesn't measure up to what the bible says, its not from God. if you can't back up what you are trying to teach to people with actual scripture, then something is wrong. something can sound right and you can want it to be truth all you want but that alone doesn't make it true.