Hi JohnDB, I am also new...I am interested in knowing how God asked you to believe? (re your personal statement of faith) Will you be willing to share your testimony?
!
Sure I can share my testimony...
and have on many occasions...
I was raised in a Christian home but...
I went astray and became involved in
Adultery
Bad mouthing
corruption
Drugs
Embezzlement
Fornication
yadda yadda yadda
all the way up to Zero love....
But then I became a Christian...
OK...heard a million like it before eh?
well...there is a much better story that I have to tell...
and the best way to find out about what Kind of Christian a person is is by the favorite Bible characters they have...who is it in the "great Cloud of witnesses" it is that speaks to you today...and how you relate those stories to others...
And I have mine...
I ain't much for theology systems if you are fishing for one of them that tickles your ears...(Calvinist, Presbyterianism, Catholicism, Armenian, or Pelagian....
I simply don't fit into any one of them camps. (I do understand them...and know something of all of them...but just don't fit)
What I can tell you is that one day I was reading and studying and one verse in particular stuck out to me...because of the way that it was written.
John 1:12
For those that
recieved him, For those that
believed in his name, He
gave the right to be
called the sons of God.
Now this ought to be a pretty good quote of the NIV translation...(I am doing it from memory)
But also notice the emboldened words...
They are all past tense..as if it is over for the rest of us and we are all fooling ourselves....we know this isn't right...but why is it all past tense? (I wondered)
I checked some other bibles to see if it was a misprint or something...nope...all of them from the KJV to NASB all had this section in past tense...
And thus...I entered what is called the Halak. (ancient Hebrew word meaning "the walk")
And what this is is a system (I unwittingly stumbled into) of questions and answers...and those answers creating more questions....and answers to those questions creating more questions....and it about drives you nuts....
I went crazy searching out all of those answers and questions...
and I did learn a lot of trivia...and my biblical knowledge did cause me to lose a battle with pride...(I became a pompous jerk)
But...
I finally figured out somewhere along the way...dunno how...dunno why...dunno a lot of the reasons...
But that Being a real Christian wasn't so much about trying to be a "good guy" who does all of the right thigs and none of the bad things...CAUSE YA CAN'T. And being a real Christian wasn't about having all the right answers and telling people the perfect thing all of the time. (Cause someone will always disagree with you....always)
But being a real Christian is about meeting a really good God...more gooder than you can ever imagine him being...and having a real relationship with him....and getting to know him on a personal level....
and no...I ain't talking about having a relationship with a god of my own making either...but the God who is...and not the God I want him to be.
And for that God...I have given my life...all that I am and all that I am gonna be...and I wish it was more. It isn't nearly enough...but it is all I got.
