When did you accept God in your life, or realize you did not believe in him?

I don't even remember. I know that's probably going to sound fishy but my mind just took off from there.
It had been on my mind - just contemplating myself and spirituality - I think it was even in an email. Just another cheesy forward about religion but something she said - she was from South Africa - in her message before she sent it on, it got my mind going. I was walking somewhere on campus and my mind just took off. Kinda like a roller coaster, not so much the speed but the lack of control. I just took in what I was thinking and questioned my own faith, and my mind came down to why I hadn't taken that step. And then I just did. I guess I had been working up to it - with detours along the way - for a while. It was just the right time.

Not a glamorous story and the story's not done, but it's mine and it means a great deal to remember that feeling.

 

Yes it sure is a good memory. Thats part of why I posed the question in another thread about chosing God. For me it was almost as if God came and got me. A lot of things happened to put me in the right frame of mind to accept Christ.

 

When Fluffy died. No god would ever let that happpen

 

i was raised baptist and did all the things baptist kids do until i was a freshman in hs. i did not truly feel god working in my life until 4 years ago when my ass fell off and i had to put all of my trust in a higher power, since then i have had no doubt that i am in god's care.

 

it was June 28th 1992. I was at an Amway convention outside Washington DC. I was young and dumb, and all I knew was that I wanted to be rich and I bought into the dream that Amway promised. I was a big pothead and tried to figure out a way to make enough money to pay my bills and support my habit without getting a job, because it (job) interfered with my getting high.
This lady (Joyce Meyer) whom I had never heard of and who wasn't a part of Amway, spoke a couple of times over the weekend. While everyone else was talking about strategies to get rich and how wonderful it is to be rich,she talked about real life issues that everyone encounters and how God helped to overcome them. Having been taught well by my college professors that there is no such thing a god, I listened and was touched by her stories but thought she was a little crazy and that her perseverance was what had got her through. But Sunday morning was different, I thought I was going to a meeting to hear about how to get rich and they had a church service. I thought about leaving but decided to stay, and she preached a message about God's forgiveness and love. I don't remember all that she said but I found myself tearing up and thinking to my self "I need that" on several of her points. As she closed she asked everyone to bow there heads and for anyone who is not born again and would like to ask Jesus into there hearts to stand up. I didn't. I didn't know if I was born again or not. I was raised in a church. I had gone through the confirmation classes. So I figured that I probably was. Then she, as if she's reading my mind, says "If you're not sure, then you're not, and you need to stand up." Then the heat was on. I knew that I either accepted or rejected it. I was really afraid of what others might think of me. In fact I thought I heard voices telling me not to do it saying "they'll make fun of you!!" And I'm sitting there crying and wanting whatever this is but too afraid to stand up. So I prayed to myself and said "God if this is real I want it...", and as soon as I prayed that something picked me up. I know it sounds crazy but the muscles in my legs didn't flex. I found myself suddenly up and about to fall, so i locked my knees and grabbed the chair in front of me and cried like a baby as all my sins were washed away.

 

One day God and some of his tough-guy pals were pushing us around at recess. They called me and my buddy names like "fat-ass" and "rim-jobber" (even though we didn't really know what that meant). We were all pretty scared of God because he'd beat us up pretty bad if we didn't do what he wanted.

For some reason, this one day I decided I just didn't care anymore. When he told a dumb joke and then looked around at his friends for their reaction, I just kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could. God went down hard, and when I didn't run away, his pals just looked at each other and took off.

Ever since then, God hasn't messed with me.

 

Was that because people told you things that weren't true (a la churches in the middle ages making EVERYTHING spiritual), or because you've learned something scientific that refutes the existence of God specifically?

 

From a Christian perspective.. I said the salvation prayer when I was fourteen, but re-dedicated my life to Jesus at 18 - 20 - and just last year.

 

Very good story.. I totally believe you about the "being picked up".. i've felt things like that in the past.

 

I was raised in a little Methodist church in Arkansas. It was the kind of church where the social elite went to be seen. Like most kids, I went because Mom made me go, not because I wanted to. I was confirmed and sprinkled at 11 (I think), but shortly thereafter Mom quit making me go. The Sunday morning hangovers were too much to overcome, I guess.

By that time, I was starting to have serious doubts about Methodist doctrine anyway, and I was really starting to pick up on the hypocrisy in the church. I soured on it quickly.

When I moved to California, I didn't go to church because Dad didn't make me go. It's just as well -- he's Episcopalian, and I would've hated it anyway. Then my new best friend asked me to go with him to a Baptist church. It was old school, stiff, and very "hell, fire, and brimstone". I went a couple of times, but never went back. By that time I'd pretty much lost interest in church. Not long after, I began to have serious doubts about God.

It wasn't until I started dating my wife that I was open to going back to church. We went to her church for a while, but I saw too much of my old church there -- too much money, not enough... something else, I guess. So we bounced from church to church for a while, but never found one I could buy into. So I wrote off church altogether.

Then my wife started going to the church we attend now. She went for 6 months before I finally agreed to join her. I went once and thought it was a little weird. A few weeks later, I tried it again and I was hooked. I heard a sermon that spoke directly to my heart and mind, and I've been going ever since.

But it was a couple of years later before I started to get serious about making any kind of commitment of faith. I wasn't interested in a feel-good piece of fluff -- an emotional crutch I could pull out of my hat when things were hard. I'd already been through hard times without that. I wanted to know what the truth was.

So I spent another three to four years researching not only the integrity of the Bible and various denominations of Christianity, but also other religions including Islam, Mormonism, Judaism, and some Buddhism, trying to keep an open mind as best I could. By Thanksgiving Day, 1999, I had seen enough validity and logic in the Bible to place my trust in Jesus, both in life and in death.

That doesn't mean I'm no longer interested in truth, however. To this day, I'm willing to listen to anyone with an opposing view, and I always will be. I've never been much on throwing up my hands and saying, "well, that's where faith comes in." If there are answers, I want to know, and I'll keep digging until I find one that makes sense.