We all have a story about how we became who we've become. An important part of my story is how I became a Christian after considering myself an atheist, at the very least agnostic. It's a long story, but to make it short there was a time before I married my oops husband that I was broken, hurt, and felt very small. A friend told me about Jesus and how he died for me, and that knowing that had brought her a lot of peace during a low point in her life. And she was so peaceful. And lovely. Her name was Genie.
I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior after attending church with Genie and her husband for a few Sundays, asking Him into my heart to save me from my sins. We all sin, folks, we call it making mistakes or errors in judgment, but it's sin all the same. Each morning when I woke up to get ready for work I read a chapter or two from the book of John. Each day on my way to work I would experience such great joy listening to praise music and knowing that however bad my earthly situation felt in my heart, the truth was I had a Savior and a God who would walk through it with me.
So off I went, with some little detours, into the world of church services and Bible studies, and eventually music ministry. There I met my husband and many wonderful friends, and I guess you might say I'm a big ol' Jesus freak now. I resemble that remark! It's not like I became the Church Lady overnight, I spent a few years being saved in Christ but not acting like it, but gradually I'm conforming to be more like Him.
Some people I knew before this change don't understand how this became so important to me. I sometimes speak "Christianease" that sounds weird to their ears. I get that! It sometimes sounds weird to me too if I am being honest. Words like "saved" and "my walk" and "the Holy Spirit showed me." It can be like a foreign language.
So without all the verbiage let me just say this: I felt scared and alone and Jesus brought me comfort. My life feels complete because I know that God loves me, and because of that love I can more fully love other people. The Bible promises that when I claim Jesus Christ as my Lord, the Spirit of God, called the Holy Spirit, is present in me always. The Holy Spirit interprets God's word and earthly situations from within my spirit. What others call a hunch or intuition I call the Holy Spirit. All that is good within me is what God has made good. He can make even bad things good. (Romans 8:28 again.)
This was a part of yesterday's post but I pulled it out in order to try to be more succinct. Maybe I'm starting a "Why am I This Way" series. I so, I should have started with "family," but honestly I'm going out with my husband tonight and I wrote most of this last night.
If you love Jesus, how did you find Him? What brought you to reach for His hand? If you're not into Him and would like to know more, email me. I would be thrilled to respond.
2 comments:
Hmmmm. I always struggle a bit with this "how were you saved?" question.
I was raised in the church I now attend and have never attended another church(other than visiting, going to VBS, and going a while to Wed night youth services at my husband's church when we were teens). It's hard to pinpoint a time specifically I was "saved" because I felt I always belonged to Jesus. Some call this type of raising a child brainwashing, and in a way it IS...but not more than teaching them manners, or values.
That said, I was also taught to think for myself, and I did. As I got into middle-school and had the teen angst going on like all of them do, I started to read the Bible. I read it through a couple times and this sort of started my coming-to-KNOW-my-faith journey. I now don't necessarily believe exactly like others even in my family, not in drastic ways, but in a way that makes faith my own, which I think is an important thing. Faith cause someone tells you to do it isn't really faith...you have to OWN your faith and KNOW why you believe what you believe. Especially in order to back it up when you witness to others. (Which is a real issue with me...those who blindly follow without thinking, even if they're following good or "good" leaders because they often do harm inadvertently to new/questioning believers.)
For me, now, being saved is still going on in a way. I'm saved, and I'm confident that I'm going to Heaven, but it's a choice I get to choose every day, multiple times a day...which is a good thing!
Good point. Just as we are all different individually, God sees us all differently and "speaks" to us differently.
I once had a woman in a Bible study break down in tears because some of us would say that God "told us" one thing or another and she was waiting for an audible voice. She thought that since she didn't audibly hear God say, "Child, go to a new church" or whatev, that she wasn't really His. That's one example of terrible Christianease getting in the way of what's really important.
Thanks, Jess.
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