E
My experience is a bit unusual. I wasn't raised in church. For the purpose of this discussion, I was an Atheist. Didn't believe in God, the Bible, Heaven, Hell, the usual Atheist stuff. I had people invite me to church on many different occasions and I declined. Notice, I said they invited me to church, they never preached the Gospel to me. When I was 30 years old, I was having a discussion with a man (a Christian) about our beliefs. After a while of discussion, I told him to read some books about why God didn't exist. He said he would, on one condition, that I read the Bible. He advised me to read the New Testament. I had never read the Bible, only heard a few passages quoted by a few people. So, I agreed. I thought, here is my chance to really find the flaws in the Bible and point them out to him. So I went and bought two Bibles, a KJ and a NASB (he recommended either one, but I got both). I began reading the New Testament and making notes. I was concentrating very hard on disproving the Bible. After about a month or so, I was finished and started going over my notes. You know, getting a strategy set up to disprove the existence of God. At first, my notes fit my beliefs. Some of the notes are things such as; "a virgin has a son...YEAH RIGHT...that's ridiculous"; "this Jesus fellow seems like a sissy, a real pushover, probably wouldn't follow someone like that"; and "big deal, he (Jesus) died for a cause, plenty of people have done that." Things of that nature. But about half-way through my notebook, I noticed that things started to change. I noticed I wasn't making any snide remarks. I noticed I had written things like "no one comes to the Father except by me (Jesus); "there is none (meaning no one) righteous"; "it appears that being saved (born again) comes by grace (of God) through faith (in God)"; and "if God predestines people, and those He predestines He calls (don't know what that is) and those He calls He justifies, where does that leave me, someone he hasn't predestined?" These quotations are just a few of my actual notes. Anyway, after getting through reading my notebook, there was something going on inside me that I couldn't explain. I tried to fight against it but I couldn't. The harder I fought the worse it got. It was like supernatural forces at work (remember at the time I didn't believe in the supernatural). For the first time, I really felt the weight of my sin. For the first time, I hated who I was (and I wasn't a bad person, ethically speaking). Right there in my den, without realizing what I was doing, I cried out "God if you are real, save me, I'm sorry!" Faith was imparted into me and the rest is history. I haven't been the same since. So, in a sense, I didn't come to Christ, He came to me.
Of course, I could have taken up a lot more space in describing all the circumstances of my conversion, but I hope you get the gist of it.
Blessings
Eddie
Of course, I could have taken up a lot more space in describing all the circumstances of my conversion, but I hope you get the gist of it.
Blessings
Eddie