HOW DID YOU BECOME A NEW CREATION

[farouk]

I was 19 yrs old, hitching around the western states, going to the hippie gatherings, hanging out in communes, totally "new age" and becoming Wiccan. Materializing things, astral communication, things like that. I had been reading for the previous couple of years all the different "holy books" of the world, and all kinds of different belief systems, from the Gitas, the Book of the Hopi, Edgar Cayce, everything I could get my hands on.

I had gotten ahold of the I-Ching, a Chinese divination method. For 2 weeks I used this for a few hours a day, asking ever more detailed questions, and getting ever more detailed answers, and learned,

If I go north with those people to form a commune, it will all fall apart. If I go to New Mexico to start up that commune, it will all work out OK. But the greatest good would happen if I went to visit my family first. If I did that, I'd be taken captive by the "chief authority" for 2 weeks, but then I'd be set free, and the greatest good would be accomplished.

So me and my occult symbol covered sign hitchhiked home, the Disneyland area. I stayed with my brother, who had become Christian while I was gone. My sister, who already was a Christian, invited me to go with her to be baptized in a few weeks. I politely turned her done.

But when my brother left for work, I browsed his bookcase, and read "What The World Is Coming To", then, "The Late Great Planet Earth". Having read so many other books, I knew right away that the Bible's prophecies were totally different from everything else out there, and therefore the Bible showed the greatest evidence that it was in fact from "outside". Irrefutable evidence!

The problem was, I remembered the 3 yrs old Sunday School, and the flannelgraphs of "Release Time Education", and I knew what the Bible said, "Jesus is Lord". The real problem was I believed myself to be lord. And the struggle began.

I was locked in a battle of knowing now the truth, but being unwilling to accept it. For the next two weeks I couln't think of anything else. But I finally admitted to myself, It's real, Jesus IS Lord, and I'd better obeying Him.

So I called my sister, told her Yes, I'll go get baptised with you. So we were baptized together, one of us in each of Pastor Chuck's hands, in the ocean at Corona Del Mar. And I could tell right away . . . I was different inside. And so I have been ever since, through good times, through horrible times, but always different inside.

Much love!

@marks Interesting testimony, indeed...

So maybe your sister with whom you were baptized has a similar testimony?

 

[marksman]

Yes, and when I look back I can see that God had his hand on me all the time. i sould have loved to belong to that small mission church but wasn't allowed and like you said:
"If I had to rely on them to find out about salvation, forget it." so even though I got confirmed as was required it was all religion and no nurturing at all. But they did give me a little confirmation prayer book which I used regularly to pray at night.

Good onya! God was there all the time and he had chosen you and no one was going to stop that happening.

 

[marksman]

@marks Interesting testimony, indeed...

So maybe your sister with whom you were baptized has a similar testimony?

My sister wasn't baptised.

 

[dhh712]

Oh, Lord, I would have gone back to the world long, long ago if I had not, by God's grace, found a personal relationship with him and ended up in 'religion'. It's everything.

I was about to say the same thing! Knowing Jesus is everything to me; I can't imagine just like doing things to check off a check list or something but not knowing Him as a person as the motivation for doing anything at all. Jesus makes the things in the world look very bleak. On another forum I mentioned how there'll be times I'll doubt and consider what it would be like to leave the faith and "go back" to the world and whenever I think of that it just strikes me as so unbearably miserable, just a nonsensical and pointless life. Like Peter said when our Lord asked his remaining disciples, "Will you also leave?" he says, "Where would we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life."

And, yes, so refreshing to be with others who also know and enjoy a personal relationship with God. I've been living in the desert alone for years and know that I need to get back into face to face fellowship with like minded brothers and sisters. I was in a wonderful fellowship for the first few years of my Christian life where we met together to seek and build our relationships with God in our daily living, not meet to argue who's theology is correct and who's is not. It was the best years of my new life. I haven't found a fellowship like that since. I've been in Bible studies that came close but they lacked certain essential elements to make them 'church'.

That does sound like excellent fellowship--I do hope you will be able to find something like that again (I lived "in the desert" at one time--in and around Las Vegas, Nevada. It is actually where I was saved. I actually had the best fellowship when I was there at the first church I officially joined).

It was only after my husband passed that I realized how important fellowship is. I have a lovely church family here. We enjoy discussing theology; I like those discussions, but not when they turn into arguments. My one friend in church has a slightly different theology, actually is really does match my own--armenian and calvinistic as I say believing is 100% God and 100% man as a reformed pastor I heard at a conference describe it---and we have some really great theological discussions. But I really hate to argue and the derisions and insults that I see here on this board are nothing more than the work of Satan that I try to avoid. All who love the Biblical Jesus are my brother and sisters in Him no matter if they are Baptist, Methodist, Non-denominational, 7th Day Adventists, whatever it is; there's no "one true" denomination.

It is edifying to read people's testimonies on here. I'm hoping to post my own soon (got to prepare for our church luncheon first!).

 

[farouk]

I was about to say the same thing! Knowing Jesus is everything to me; I can't imagine just like doing things to check off a check list or something but not knowing Him as a person as the motivation for doing anything at all. Jesus makes the things in the world look very bleak. On another forum I mentioned how there'll be times I'll doubt and consider what it would be like to leave the faith and "go back" to the world and whenever I think of that it just strikes me as so unbearably miserable, just a nonsensical and pointless life. Like Peter said when our Lord asked his remaining disciples, "Will you also leave?" he says, "Where would we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life."



That does sound like excellent fellowship--I do hope you will be able to find something like that again (I lived "in the desert" at one time--in and around Las Vegas, Nevada. It is actually where I was saved. I actually had the best fellowship when I was there at the first church I officially joined).

It was only after my husband passed that I realized how important fellowship is. I have a lovely church family here. We enjoy discussing theology; I like those discussions, but not when they turn into arguments. My one friend in church has a slightly different theology, actually is really does match my own--armenian and calvinistic as I say believing is 100% God and 100% man as a reformed pastor I heard at a conference describe it---and we have some really great theological discussions. But I really hate to argue and the derisions and insults that I see here on this board are nothing more than the work of Satan that I try to avoid. All who love the Biblical Jesus are my brother and sisters in Him no matter if they are Baptist, Methodist, Non-denominational, 7th Day Adventists, whatever it is; there's no "one true" denomination.

It is edifying to read people's testimonies on here. I'm hoping to post my own soon (got to prepare for our church luncheon first!).

@dhh712 The theme of fellowship is so central to John's First Epistle..........

 

[dhh712]

@dhh712 The theme of fellowship is so central to John's First Epistle..........

It sure is. A couple of "good" things (and I say good like that because I know they are good, and certainly so for my faith; but, my physical self is just not so partial to them as what I would prefer, sadly. Very sadly, but I feel it may be common. I am talking to someone who lost his spouse and it is so bitter. I feel that is a common thing to feel upon such loss; many of us are just not spiritually that mature enough to accept the Lord's plan in this way over our own preferences. So--onto what was good then!) I've found upon the loss of my beloved spouse that my fellowship with other believers increased exponentially and my faith became much stronger.

But I would just urge anyone in the church to practise fellowship with other believers. It certainly did not happen overnight for me. It took about a good year, actually probably closer to two years, until I really began to enjoy being with them. And this certainly will probably apply more to introverts like myself who like to be alone more than with others. But I forced myself to stay and to try to talk with others, and attend church meetings outside of Sunday worship. And, overtime, I became attached to them and the fellowship is so sweet (prior to that I just went to church and home and sometimes something in the middle of the week; but I always was glad to go home).

Sundays are the best days for me, when I get to spend time with those I love who love the Lord Jesus. I don't have that when I am "out in the world"; most people I associate with are not believers. When I go to church (and other things), I just don't want to leave. It just gives me an idea of what it will be like in eternity where there won't be any parting anymore or leaving those we love; where it will be eternal joy with our Heavenly Father and his family.

 

[dhh712]

Here's my testimony: Was raised nominally Catholic (no strong religious upbringing in my home). We stopped going to church when I was in high school. My father studied the Bible under a non-denominational pastor and I tried that for a little while; I found it very interesting (nearly got through the entire Bible, think I stopped somewhere around Thessalonians). My brother was/is an avid atheist so when he found I was reading the Bible he talked to me about how it was illogical and things along that line; I thought what he said made a lot of sense so I stopped reading and became a nonbeliever.

Fast-forward to 2011. I had been studying the American Civil War and came across this D.H. Hill character; just found him fascinating. Wanted to know everything I could about him. Found out he was a devout Presbyterian and thought what better way to know someone than to learn about what they are passionate about? I didn't know much about the religion; recognized it as one of the denominations, some church or something. I eventually got a three-volume history called "Presbyterians of the South" and they kept referring to this Westminster Confessions of Faith. I eventually realised that this comprised what they believed, so I found a copy and started reading (this was some time in 2012).

When I read through that everything about the Bible made just perfect sense. It was like I had never read it before. No one had ever explained the Bible in this way before--I had never heard about hardly any of the things it talked about. I started reading through the Bible again and when I came to the book of Matthew, that was when I met my Lord and Saviour Jesus. That was when I was converted when I realised I was a sinner before a Holy God and he was the only one who could reconcile him to me. That was in February of 2013.

So that is my story and it just shows you the powerful Sovereign hand of God. Someone earlier on this thread mentioned how God can use anything or anyone to convert someone and even someone who has been dead for over a 100 years can still have a part, a central part, in bringing someone to the Lord. It is just astounding how he works in our lives! Praise God for his mercy! He looked on me, contemptuous of Him and mocking, and had mercy on me not anger or revenge. Hallelujah, what a Saviour! What amazing love! (How can it be? That Thou my God shouldst die for me?).

It always seems so new and fresh to me how God in his mercy sent his beloved Son into this world to die for our sins; it's just unbelievable. In church when this is mentioned I want to just jump up and shout how amazing it is to know the Lord, how profound is his mercy! I just want to shout aloud and praise Jesus. It just brings about so much uplifting emotion in me and ecstatic joy! I attend an Orthodox Presbyterian Church though and there's none of that going on. I love my church family though as I mentioned in a previous post. I'd love to go with my one friend there to like an Assembly of God church (if only the times didn't conflict) one day because he says they're more open and expressive in praising God. One day I'm going to have to go somewhere like that where expressions of ecstatic joy at how the Lord Jesus has covered our sins and that we are reconciled to God is something that everyone at the church gets ecstatically joyful about!