Testimony?

This is overdue but I've been pretty busy lately. A few months ago, I came to this site to talk about a topic in the music section. My wife and children were going to church every week without me. I decided to come into this section and ask about some problems I was having with Christianity, in particular Christians. From the start, I have said that I'm a believer but didn't call myself a Christian because I didn't go to church. So I used the other religion icon. I'm not going into the mess of answers that I was getting, it's unimportant now.

My family, grandmother, aunts, grandfather were very religious people, all could be found at church on Sunday but because of my parents work schedules, I was not in church. As I got older, I became even more detached from religion all together. Being involved in sports, left little time to really consider religion.

After some hard times (losing my maternal grandmother, my dad, 2 uncles, 2 cousins and having 3 friends from childhood entered into drug rehabs or jail), age 12-20, I decided to look into religion. It was all confusing to me. What I read in the Bible was not how I seen people acting. I started college and pushed religion away again. During this time, I met my now wife, who was very active in a church. Her parents insisted anyone she dated be active in church as well. Maybe for 3 or 4 months, I went every Sunday but then my college football season started and I now had football games on Saturdays, sometimes not getting home until Sunday, so those visits to the church stopped. By this time, my wife's parents had accepted me into their family and understood. Time went on but still no church for me.

I want everyone to realize at this point, I did believe very much in Jesus and prayed before every game that He would protect me, my teammates and the opposing team from injury. If you asked me, I was a believer but not a Christian, simply because the name seemed to be a way for others to justify their actions. A big argument recently on this forum, is about asking Jesus into your heart, how it is wrong because it's not in the Bible.

Back in 1998, there was a kid that I had become close to who was a patient at a Children's Hospital, who had leukemia. After each game, I would visit him. He was my biggest fan. One day, I was holding his hand, the next day he was gone. I dropped my college football career because I was starting to realize there is a much higher power than me. During these years, I had lost 2 more cousins (suicides), an uncle (suicide), 5 more friends to drug rehab or jail and my mom was diagnosed with Renal Cancer.

What I did have was my wife and a newborn son. Priorities on how to make sure they were taken care of, getting my second degree, this one a Business degree (this one was more practical than the Psychology degree I had). A few years passed, many prayers for my mom (my hero) and she made it through after having a kidney removed. In 2001, I had started a job as a Human Resources manager for a large cell phone company. We were getting ready to have our second child, a little girl. The breaks were starting to fall for us. Having just bought a new house, helping my mom move closer to us but then in a 4 month span, 3 cousins killed in a car accident, 2 more cousins committed suicide, another uncle to suicide and my grandmother was starting to fall, breaking her hip.

My wife and children were going to church every week without me. My priorities were still to take care of my family, not just my wife, kids and mom but my cousins, helping friends out that were jobless, some even homeless. In the last year, I had started to visit the church my wife and kids went to. I've went into the problems that came from that and those are not important now. What was important was that I, "talked" to Jesus everyday. A few weeks ago, my best friend from childhood, committed suicide, waking me up again to the fact that there is a higher power than me, than scientific evidence and decided it was time to become baptised.

***Two important factors to this***
When I was 14 or 15, I was playing with a gun. The gun fired, luckily the gun had been dropped by the previous owner which caused the sights to be off causing the bullet to miss me, even though it was close enough that I could not hear for 3 days out of one ear.

A few years ago, I woke up, stepped out of bed and fell flat on my face. My legs had no feeling in them. For the next week, I couldn't stand, needing a wheelchair to visit the Doctor who had no answer to what was wrong with me. Diabetes tests, MRIs but nothing was showing up as wrong. A week later, I was able to walk a little but still couldn't feel my legs. It took almost 6 months for me to have the confidence to even drive a car. Still no medical reason why this happened. Even to this day, there is slight numbness in my lower legs but I can walk fine, play with my kids fine and can live normal. It came and left without reason.
*********************
All of these things combined smacked me into reality again, that there is a Higher Power. The baptism went fine, my Pastor has already put to me work with troubled teens. I made the decision to be baptised, to accept the Christian label because I feel that God is more powerful than anyone or anything in my life. I can see my family growing stronger now that we are in church together.


I've said enough lately to probably get myself booted from the site but as I said with everything else, not my concern. My honesty and my real attempts to help others on here is enough for me. I wouldn't be able to help people if I didn't have God by my side and hopefully that has been seen.

Thank you,
Tim

Thank you for posting this. I was very happy to hear about your baptism, and I was touched by your testimony.

A good thing to do!

I hope not!

At the risk of looking completely pedantic:

Acts 11:26 -- The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Acts 26:28 -- Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?"

1 Peter 4:16 -- However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

Praise God that we both bear that name!

God bless you,

-- Radagast

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Lord, make me an instrument of your peace on this forum. Where there is hatred, grant that I may sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, unity; where there is doubt, faith; where there is error, Your truth and not my personal opinion; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy; where there is darkness, light. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled by people here as to console them; to be understood by them, as to understand them; to be loved by them, as to love them: For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Thank you Radagast, Tim really respects your opinion. We were all very happy that he took the step of baptism. I can only hope that everyone will be as nice.

Some of the competition on this site comes from people wanting to be respected. It's hard in our busy lives to take time to compliment each other, build each other up, and listen to each other.

We have such a diverse batch of people, all believing in the same God but interpreting the standards and texts differently. Some of us have found great strength in what we believe, and hope that others would find that too--but might forget that God can offer that same strength in so many forms.

The purpose for our gifts is to build up the body of Christ. If we are skilled and accurate teachers, we teach to inform and train others. If we are deep and passionate intercessors, we support others in prayer. We aim to do these things for the simple good of others, not to prove how good we are. But hey, our humanity slips out all the time--in gross bulges.

We often assume that the ones hurting are the ones who don't know Christ. But by our need to defend ourselves so vehemently, or our drive to pump ourselves up, we show that we too have gaps in being supported and loved. The acceptability isn't going to come from spouting the Greek and the supplementing historical data. That's useful information, and impressive, but if it isn't given in love, you're not going to feel the love and support back from others.

I'm not trying to go California on you all, but reinforce Tim's observations--why exactly are we here on the site?


Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Romans 12:10

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

I Peter 1:22

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

I John 4:8


Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:12, 13

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What is hateful to you, don't do unto your neighbor. The rest is commentary. Now, go and study.
-Rabbi Hillel

I have to say a BIG AMEN!!!! to each one of these posts. Tim never claimed to be a Christian in his earlier posts...he didn't have the Christian ICON...all these things that he has faced was God humbling him to the point that he realized that there is a God and he is a new person in Christ now..He now can proudly wear the Christian ICON..I have to say that I am a little shocked in the Moderators who have sent him this email to remove his Christian ICON. What is the Criteria for having the ICON that you have been a Christian for a million years (ok exaggeration) but do you get my point..So another words if a person is a non-believer today..accepts christ tonight he can't change his ICON to Christian because of something that he/she posted earlier as a non-christian....

Being a Holy Ghost filled Born again Christian my spirit is very uneasy about some of the other so called Christians on this site..I think that everyone needs to get down on their knees and ask God for forgiveness and to put the Love of God in them..I am normally a very quiet poster but the Holy Spirit that is within me is very uneasy..We are living in the last days people and yes things like this is going to happen because satan is out to Kill and Destroy..we need to be prayed up, read up and ready to come against satan and to be lead of God when you post..another words take time to ask for God's guidance when responding to posts...ok..well Tim I think I'd better shut up before I get myself in trouble.. or I start preaching....LOL But when the Holy Spirit tells me to do or say something..I am going to be obedient..so if anyone wants to get upset about this post..take it up with the Holy Spirit....

God Bless you and Welcome Tim to the Family of God,

Diane

Amen to the posts above! Tim raises an important point, which I believe many Christians (at least in my limited experience) overlook in practice, even while they evangelize theoretically: our behaviour towards non-Christians is the frontier of our faith, where we should be at our best and most Christ-like behaviour. But for many it's the back-alley and wrong-side-of-the-railroad of their Christian life, a place to be the most defensive and the most aggressive - not the substrate for being the "salt of the earth", the ground in which God's gospel must grow.

Apart from the fact that such a mentality has a detrimental effect on our testimony towards "heathens, pagans and sinners" (like Pharisees towards the "uncircumcized"), with the result of 'preaching from on high' rather than 'serving from below', it also affects our interpretation of the Bible. It's easy to undertand how we must take care of each other, our "brothers", but how do the verses heron quotes above apply to non-Christians? Do "neighbours" also qualify as "brothers"?

No doubt they do, but how to express this Biblically? Seekers are not Christians yet, and often have a false idea of God that they think is Biblical. Under such circumstances quoting the Bible cannot be a method of persuasion, but of clarification - it is our resource, not yet theirs. Otherwise, what starts as a theological discussion quickly degenerates into an argument over definitions, interpretations, meanings of words etc. It only emphasizes division (which already exists in understanding and background), and the testimony gets lost in the process. It's a hard lesson even among Christians (1 Tim. 1:4; 6:20; Titus 3:9). The Biblical answer to this is (no surprise here) brotherly love towards all people, "which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 3:5).

It's that last bit that we miss: evangelism starts with yourself, and it is only persuasive when that overflows into the other person's life. Then it will be the Spirit acting instead of you, the fruit of the gospel becoming visible from its roots in you - and people will see God more easily, without you getting in the way. "Love your neighbour as yourself" can only be true if that love emerges from a depth beyond your ego.

Evangelism means being a witness of how Christ treats 'sinners', supported by our knowledge of how He treated us. We are literally a witness, almost a specator, of God's work. But it requires us to be the servants of his will, messengers of his words: priests and prophets.

Not everybody has the gift of teaching or interpretation, and we should be the first to admit this. Invariably, a non-believer's first encounter with Christianity is the law, and the conviction of sin that comes in its wake can be paralyzing and overwhelming, which requires wisdom and support to get through - it should lead to repentance, not alienation! The law is only good if it is used properly (1 Tim. 1:8) The gifts for being fishers of men are "the greater gifts" we must actively seek (1 Cor. 12:31) which are only accessible through "the most excellent way" which is the universal, divine kind of love, practiced in faith, and giving hope. Without that, not even God's message spoken in the tongue of angels will sound like anything but a clanging symbal. "And if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?"

"Our behaviour towards non-Christians is the frontier of our faith, where we should be at our best and most Christ-like behaviour."

Interesting--compare Acts 5:15

As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

Hey Tim,

Thanks for the post. It was very real and inspiring, as in not sugar-coated. (hehe) Now, I really like this forum but I always remind myself that although people on here claim to be Christian, many don't act Christ-like one bit. In the bible Jesus said many times the word "hypocrite." They're everywhere and in EVERY religion, including Christianity. The icon does even matter. I don't understand why people care. What made me a bit upset is that if you didn't claim you were Christian on this site, you weren't allowed to view certain forums. It is like a division. I do know why people have made the forums this way, but still it angers me somewhat.

Anyway, I understand what you mean as far as your words. Your testimony was nice and awe inspiring. Good luck in the future! Feel free to message me and say hi!

Alicia (sincerebliss)

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Weren't allowed to view certain forums. It is like a division." ...interesting point. Maybe some parts are too scary.

( ;

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What is hateful to you, don't do unto your neighbor. The rest is commentary. Now, go and study.
-Rabbi Hillel

I think it's a way to lower some debate, heron. Still, it seems like it's another way to separate the christians from the non-christians. Can't we all just mingle together? Be happy! lol (Sorry, I'm going a little off topic here)

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