HOW I BECAME A CHRISTIAN

June 2, 2008

JM in Reno is a fan of my web page and a very frequent correspondent about political matters. Today, he wrote me about something spiritual.

“I've been reading your articles & corresponding with you via e-mail for quite sometime now. I have a problem I want to tell you about.

“You are a Christian; I am not. I am a dyed-in-the-wool secularist who is having a major problem with a change of heart. Listening to Christian sermons on the radio doesn't help; going to Bible-believing churches doesn't either.

“What is wrong with me? Do you have any suggestions?”

I wrote:

I was very frustrated too. I had been hanging around Christians for over five years, but I had the same problem you did. I was reading my Bible, going to some Christian fellowship groups and associating with Christians very frequently.

One day, after a conversation with a Christian professor friend, I was walking across the campus of that hallowed institution in Tempe, Arizona. I remember looking skyward and simply saying: "God. I want to know what these Christians know."

I just remember an incredibly good supernatural feeling coming over me unlike any I had felt before or have felt since. At that point, on October 22, 1986, I became a Christian. My past was totally forgiven and my future was totally secure.

I know that I have not always acted as if this were the case. Jesus calls us “sheep” for a reason. We are so monumentally stupid.

God does answer the prayer of an unbeliever.

You are right. It is a question of heart, not intellect. I am a theological doofus and will probably always be one. Hence, I have nothing intellectually profound to say on this matter.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” – Revelation 3:20, KJV

Try it. Invite Jesus into your life. He tells us to do that.

I hope this helps.

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Yes he does it all, for he led you to the places you describe prior to your conversion and waited for your prayer to ask. He did that for me in Oct 1996 via a Christian radio station when the question was how many works must I do to be saved. There's a question I always had, the answer was a suprise, we are saved by grace and not by works EPH 2:8.9. I cried out Yes! I want to be saved! On OCT 26, 1996 he sent a messenger to speak with my at the top of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, he spent hours with me, answered all my questions. It took 4 years and many other events before I felt comfortable in a church. I love it today. -- GE in Florida

Re your story below, becoming a Christian cannot be just intellectually done as you stated. It is an issue of faith that needs only be as small as a mustard seed, but, often has the results as big as a change as you experienced. "Faith, alone, in Christ, alone" is that answer and keeps all human effort or thought out of the equation since He did all the work. My own salvation experience was very significant, but not all people have that. I find that a curious and wonderful thing allowing us all for our own separate uniqueness. -- AL in Colorado

That was great! As you may know, I was raised Catholic but it didn't do anything for me and eventually in my later teen years I literally became an atheist or something like that! Anyways, I was in the Army stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii (Oahu), and I saw some of my friends start going to church and reading the Bible and I saw a real change in them. On September 6, 1976 (Labor Day) I gave my life to Jesus and have never looked back. I was instantly delivered from binge drinking (alcohol), drugs (pot, THC, coke, etc.) and cigarettes (yuk!). But the biggest change came in my attitude and the way I now saw people and appreciated them for who they were, not what they could give me or anything like that.

It's been nearly 32 years and I've been through a lot, but God is still so very good and on my side (if God be for us, who can be against us?). He is still the Saviour of the world, the Healer, the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, our Great Deliverer and the only Way, the Truth, and the Life!

Thanks for the encouraging words! -- RB in Colorado

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Freely Speaking: Essays by Doug Newman

Email: dougnewman@juno.com