Need some Help from Christians .

[JasonPratt]

Calv & Hobbes ref points to Alexander!!! {bowing in his general direction}

The only way that picture could be more awesome, would be if it had "sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads". {g}{AustPowref}

Though on contemplation, I've changed my mind. A T-Rex flying an F-15 is more awesome. {g!} (Also, incidentally, something that might conceivably happen in future Jurassic Park movies; the 4th one, which is in pre-production right now, features a team of raptor-like dinos trained by the American government to act as special military agents. I kid you not!)

I need to pass that pic along to another 17-year-old Alex of my acquaintence; he would think it completely rules.

Okay, back to original topic now. {g}

[Sapphire225]

[quote="Fiore teh Duck"]All right...

So when I joined CAA]

We're called Christians because we believe Christ is our savior and lord and we make it our obligation to adhere to the bible, though I wouldn't call it an obligation, but our choice to listen.

However, Our pastor told us it doesn't matter if you are a christian or not, it is your relationship with God. (I'm not saying go atheist or satanist!)

God had saved me SOOOOOOO much. When I was younger, I had doubts if God really existed and almost drifted into a point of atheism. My parents were pretty unaware that I was beginning to lose faith, since they brought me to church and I would pray with them. Then, at a point of my life, when God saved my life & allowed me to live, I became curious about God. By reading the bible, I began to believe more and more. I go to church with a more direct attitude and enjoy learning about Christ and God.

In other words, yeah, big impact.

[Kamille]

Thanks for starting this thread, I really appreaciate it. In fact, a question like this is probaby the main reason why I joined CAA (well, that and anime of course).
I received Christ as my Lord and Savior a couple of years after college. My undergraduate years were some of the worst of my life, and to make a long story short, I barely survived - literally. But a couple of years later when I read the New Testament (I was curious about Jesus' life) I realized that God had saved me (both body and soul) to bring me closer to His Word, which is Christ.
I realized this because I immediately began to believe in Jesus right after I read Matthew (the fisrt gospel I read). All my life I had been looking for peace, and I thought it was so amazing that it turned out I had believed in most of His words even before I read them (really the only "hard" part was believing He is the Son of God, which I now believe). So I guess it felt that I fit right in with His teachings. And now I do my best to spread His light wherever I am each day.
God bless you all.

P.S. - I was going to say more, but I got so frustrated earlier when I was automatically logged out.

[Okami]

Let's see...I'm still a baby in my Christian life, this July it'll be 3 years in the living. And to be honest with you, I didn't allow myself to seperate from sin, it wasn't until last week when I just broke down, said I was sorry, that I'd try to do better...the same thing I'd do about twice a day every day for a year and a half. But this time I'd meant it, and I'd 180'd. Repented...I've never felt so strong, so clean and pure...I've got physical reminders around me everywhere of what to do if temptation comes too strong "Read your daily Bible verse" "Do your daily devotion" "pray" etc. And I still need more around me...

Why did I become a Christian? Most people, when I tell my story, think "Oh, well relatives and friends pressured you into it!" no, not at all. I was born 9 weeks early, with Cerebral Palsy affecting my right eye/leg/hand/arm well, my entire right side of my body, pretty much. What's this mean as a teenager? Well, I'll need an adapted car to drive with my left leg...and getting good friends is hard to come by. The one who opened me up to the whole Christian thing is still my best friend of nearly 8 years ^_^ Then about 5 years ago, my dad and I were in a potentially-bad accident, came out without any scratches at all, (it was a deer-crash turned car fire) 'Miracle' is the only way to describe it. Then, a year later, Dad and I and our new kitten were in a what-coulda-been fatal rollover accident. We came out with scratches. Once again, miracle. There's no way to explain it, I've escaped death at least three times over my life, all before ever even really knowing about Him. (My parents decided that they would let me have my own religious preference, so we hardly went to church or anything, I can remember going 3 times at a young age...)

What can I say, I was curious as to why I'd lived, and I guess it sparked in me some type of hope. Then I began learning more and more, and in the end, Christianity just seemed...fitting, I suppose. I had gone to CIY in the summer of '05, dedicated my life to the Lord, there. Since then I've done many Bible studies and have been viewing for myself what realism the Bible shows and how a lot of the "Ologies" are proving it. Like Fine-Tuning and archeological finds and numerous other things. We're learning something new everyday that points to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Isreal the Creator of the universe and the Father of Jesus my Lord and Savior ^____^

It's not the greatest retelling of my story, I understand...but I can't grasp everything I want to right now >.<; I'll retell later if I must...

[Chrysolite]

I was raised in a Christian family so believing everything in the Bible has always been second nature to me, but as I got older I started questioning why I believed, and thus realizing why. First of all, It's all too obvious to me that the universe couldn't have formed by accident. There's way too much evidence against it. That being said, it's not so hard to believe in God. Obviously there are lots of things that we as humans can't understand, and God knows this. That's why he demands faith and obedience. The sad thing today is that too many people get so caught up in religious debates and technicalities that they forget about faith and obedience. Of course we must strive to learn and understand, as the Bible clearly states, but we shouldn't let knowledge become more important to us than faith. There are lots of reasons to believe in God, but in the end it all boils down to whether he calls you and whether you decide to answer. Once you decide to believe and sincerely live a Christian life, the rest comes slowly. The process need not be a complicated one.

"He who has ears, let him hear." -- Matthew 11:15
"We live by faith, not by sight." -- 2 Corinthians 5:7

[agasfas]

There are countless number of reason why I put my faith and trust in Christ.

Our relationship with Christ is straight forward. If we are willing to devote the time and give praise to Him, the more we will experience and grow in our relationship with Christ.

Though for a side not:
In every other religion it is what we can do for God, but in Christianity, it's about What God Did For Us.
That's love.

[Kkun]

I'm a pastor's kid, so it's kind of assumed that I've been a Christian for a long time. I remember asking Jesus to come into my heart when I was about six or seven because I was afraid of going to hell. I think I was saved, but I don't think I REALLY got "it," or what "it" was all about. I don't think it really started to make a difference in my life until I was about fifteen, though, when I started to ponder if any of this was for real or we were just deluding ourselves. I went through a phase of heavy, heavy doubt that would pop up intermittently in my life, and I still have to battle with it from time to time.

However, I think the short answer is something similar to what Ryan said...Jesus Christ gives my life meaning, and something to live for. Jesus Christ died for the sins of all of mankind by being nailed to a cross, and in the middle of this great pain and torment, He asked His Father to forgive the ones who were hurting Him! This, to me, is a marvelous example of God's great love for humankind. When I read the Gospel accounts of Christ's death, I'm always the most stunned by that. Those soldiers, as well as all of the people who called for His death, didn't ask for His forgiveness, but He gave it to them anyway; more importantly, His death was to bear the sins of all of mankind. If you look at the Bible as a whole, it paints a beautiful picture of God's love relationship with humanity that has all of the ups and downs of a marriage. If you look at the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, and then move over to 1 John 4 where it talks about how God IS love, and then look back at Isaiah in the Old Testament, where it gives a prophetic account of what happened to Jesus and how His stripes bore our iniquities, what I see in all of that is the greatest, purest love that stands the test of time.

What I see in all of that is God's love for me...a sinner, even with all of my flaws and imperfections. That love makes me want to try to live a life that is pleasing to God. In 1 John 4:19, it says that "We love, because He first loved us." Also, Jesus Himself said that the greatest commandment of all was that

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind' - this is the great and foremost commandment, and there is a second like it, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself'. The whole Law and Prophets hang on these two commands." (Matt. 22:37-40, Mark 12:28-34).

Being a Christian isn't about following a set of rules or regulations, because "right" behavior, I believe, will come when you are making a genuine effort to follow Christ and the way He lived His life. We're called to love one another, and I know that was disjointed and probably hard to read, but that's why I follow Jesus: because of His love for us, and because that's the kind of love I want to have for other people.

[termyt]

It's really interesting to see all of the different answers in this thread. Different points of view reacting to the same person.

And that's the point. God is not just some abstract eternal entity floating out there beyond our comprehension. He’s not some cosmic genie who will grant our wishes if we suck up to Him. He doesn't exist to make us happy.

He is real and close. He is a person who wants a personal relationship with each of us. The relationship will be different for each one of us, just as the relationships are different among your friends.

[JasonPratt]

He is a person who wants a personal relationship with each of us. The relationship will be different for each one of us, just as the relationships are different among your friends.

_Excellent_ point, Termyt! {bow}

(Not to be confused, however, with the notion that God actually _is_ a bunch of incommensurately different things, so that anything someone might say about God is equally true. Which I know _you_ wouldn't have meant, but it seemed important to add for anyone newly thinking it over. {s})

[uc pseudonym]

I haven't answered the question in this thread yet, though I've monitored it since the beginning. Hopefully this isn't too late to have any meaning. Overall there are a lot of reasons I am Christian, but nothing stuck out to me until recently. This isn't the reason I believe as I do, but it is an important one.

When I look at Judaism, I see more than simply a socially constructed belief. Certainly, it developed in a society of human beings, but it also feels like more to me. For example, I can't think of any non-violent creation stories other than Genesis, in which human beings are not a meaningless byproduct of the gods. Or in the Psalms we see common formats from other religions, but instead of praising Yahweh for being powerful, the Psalms praise God for being just. Taken as a whole, it doesn't seem like human beings inventing something in the sky to make them feel safe.

Following that, I see Christianity as the natural development of this tradition. I think it is unfortunate that people tend to dichotomize the Old and New Testaments, because they are interwoven in many ways (the cries for justice in the Prophets are an excellent example). Many things said or written by Jesus and the early church strike me as the natural conclusion of the groundwork already laid.

Hopefully that expresses this idea well enough.

[Kkun]

I haven't answered the question in this thread yet, though I've monitored it since the beginning. Hopefully this isn't too late to have any meaning. Overall there are a lot of reasons I am Christian, but nothing stuck out to me until recently. This isn't the reason I believe as I do, but it is an important one.

When I look at Judaism, I see more than simply a socially constructed belief. Certainly, it developed in a society of human beings, but it also feels like more to me. For example, I can't think of any non-violent creation stories other than Genesis, in which human beings are not a meaningless byproduct of the gods. Or in the Psalms we see common formats from other religions, but instead of praising Yahweh for being powerful, the Psalms praise God for being just. Taken as a whole, it doesn't seem like human beings inventing something in the sky to make them feel safe.

Following that, I see Christianity as the natural development of this tradition. I think it is unfortunate that people tend to dichotomize the Old and New Testaments, because they are interwoven in many ways (the cries for justice in the Prophets are an excellent example). Many things said or written by Jesus and the early church strike me as the natural conclusion of the groundwork already laid.

Hopefully that expresses this idea well enough.

Thank you for posting that, UC. Your response actually gave me a lot to think about.

[JasonPratt]

I like that point, UC. {bow!}