Tuesday, February 24, 2009

My Testimony

Here is the question Mary-Lou asked:
I don't know if you have already posted this, but I always love hearing abut the personal spiritual journeys of people. How did you come to Christ? What has been your biggest challenge? What has been your greatest joy? How do you related to Jesus... Lord, Teacher, Savior? (I ask that last one because I think he is ALL of those things, but I realize that I tend to turn to him more as Lord than Teacher, etc. It is something I work on, continuing to develop all aspects of my relationship with him.)

So, today I will post about how I came to know the Lord as my Saviour. I will tackle the other questions later :)

My family went to church (Methodist) until I was 6. We moved to a new town, and my parents weren't big fans of the church there. So, we became Easter/Christmas "Christians" for a while, and as I got older, even that stopped. There were times in high school that, looking back, I can see God calling me. But, I was not ready or willing. I ended up going to a "Christian" college. My degree required me to take two religion classes. I put these off until my senior year (partly because I was working on a double major, etc and had to front-load those classes). In the fall, I took a class on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and in the spring I took a class on the heroes (and heroines) of the ancient world. Through these two classes, I came to the conclusion that there was a God, and the most likely, at least what I had read of the Bible, was true. But, I had VERY little of the New Testament.

Then I met my husband. We actually met online through one of the online chat programs. He was raised in the church and had accepted Christ at a young age. Some of our first conversations were about religion and Christianity. He (I don't remember how) got me to read one of the Gospels. I asked him and a female friend of his questions as I read through it. What I read, to me, was obviously true (with the exception of things I just didn't understand/was confused about - which is why I asked questions). This was all during the roughly two months I spent at my parents before going to grad school. At the end of this period, AJU1 also convinced me to find a campus ministry to attend. I chose the one that had some things online, including a Yahoo Group, so I could get to know people before I started to attend. Within a few weeks of attending that campus ministry and church, I had accepted Christ as my Saviour. I can't say what day it actually happened though. See, during the two months of really searching and studying, I prayed a lot of possible "salvation" prayers. Many of them where of the "If you are really there" type, so any of those could have actually been the point of my salvation. I just know that I am certain I am saved now!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing your story--at least part of it. I know a lot of people who have experienced what you describe... looking back and realizing how often God was calling them to him. I love that he persists when we ignore him.

(And I am glad that I saw this in my Google reader tonight. I am observing Lent by giving up blogging, Facebook, etc.)

Jen L. said...

Wonderful testimony!