Non-Christian looking for help converting

BillBob · Sep 7, 2020

As stated in the thread title I'm not a Christian, however as of late I've been thinking about converting to one. With everything going on in the world, I think I need someone like God. However, I simply can't make myself start worshipping him over night.

So I'm here to ask for help converting myself from atheist to Christian. I'm fine with meditation and reading and all that, and I can talk to people as long as I only have to reply by text. Please fine Christians, help me convert.

hluke · Sep 7, 2020

Praying to God with an open heart is a good start. As long as your prayer comes directly from your heart that's what matters most! Don't worry about saying anything fancy, just end it in the name of Jesus.

Peace.
Amen.

TzephanYahu · Sep 7, 2020

Hi @BillBob

My friend, this is great news. You have begun a journey which is going to be filled with excitement, twists and turns, big challenges but ultimately - liberty and great peace.

The best way to "convert" is to let go of any pride and sinful behaviour and to accept the Messiah as the Son of the Creator and you only means of salvation. Then you should get baptised as soon as you can.

But if you're not feeling that conviction in its entirety yet or are still unsure as to why. I would recommend reading Mark, Luke, Romans, 1 Peter and Revelation. Mark and Luke may seem to be the same story, but each tell gospel in a slightly different light. Eventually, you should read the whole Bible all the way through (for why see HERE), but start with those books.

Finally, pray each today to the Creator of all things, Yahweh, the God of the Bible that He may teach you and guide your steps in all truth and give you wisdom. Do this daily and you will be lacking in nothing.

Welcome to the family!

Love & Shalom

Melody Suttles · Sep 7, 2020

First, let me say how proud I am to have you in my family. I know you probably still wrestle with doubt, and that's okay.

The Bible offers some important principles for those who have begun a relationship with God.

First, as a new Christian, begin reading the Bible. There are many translations and numerous places to start. While there is no perfect translation, you could choose a Bible that is easy for you to understand. To sample some of today’s popular translations, you can go to websites such as these two:

Biblegateway.com BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages.

Youversion.com YouVersion: Creating experiences to encourage & challenge people to seek God daily.

I suggest that you begin your reading with the Gospel of John or one of the other Gospels to read for yourself what Jesus taught and did during His time on earth.

Hundreds of helpful articles on the Gotquestions.org website
(I am a new Christian. What is the next step? | GotQuestions.org) can help to answer the practical questions you have about God and spiritual issues.

Second, as a new Christian, begin praying. Prayer is simply talking with God. If we desire to know God more deeply, we must communicate with Him regularly.

Throughout each day, give thanks to God, ask Him to answer your daily needs, and pray on behalf of others. Find a church where you feel welcome, and as you develop relationships, keep coming here to CF for encouragement and start to pray together with others who follow Christ, both in church and here.

The following scripture is the Lord’s Prayer which He instructs us to also pray.

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Third, as a new Christian, be baptized. Baptism symbolizes your new life in Christ and proclaims that you are now committed to Jesus. Even Jesus was baptized (Luke 3:1-22), and He calls His followers to also be baptized. Baptism was practiced by the very first followers of Jesus in Acts 2:41.

A local church pastor or church leader should be glad to speak with you about baptism if you express your interest.

Fourth, as a new Christian, build friendships with other Christians. The Christian life is designed to be enjoyed with others. Jesus invested much of His ministry with 12 disciples as His closest friends.

Fifth, as a new Christian, help others.

Sixth, as a new Christian, tell someone about your faith.

Tony B · Sep 7, 2020

BillBob, I was searching like you. An acquaintance in my workplace recommended that I buy a Christian Bible (NASB is an easy version to read), and commence reading it from John's Gospel in The New Testament section, which starts around two thirds or so from the beginning of the Bible.

I did that, and I can't remember exactly where in the Bible it happened, but sometime into it I started to understand Who Jesus is and what He has done for me. That is when I received the gift of faith from God to believe. I didn't earn this faith, nor did I concoct it myself, nor did any other human being give it to me, only God could. In truth, you can't make yourself a Christian, nor can anyone else make you a Christian, only God can. When you start reading you'll understand what I mean.

When you become a Christian, God gives you membership to His church. There are many denominations out there that have formed up their own churches, but they are man made, God hasn't created them, and you don't need to belong to any of them to be a Christian, nor do you need to associate with them to live the life God expects of a Christian.

Keep searching, and read the Bible. If you are sincere about your search and wish to find out about God, He will find you, don't fret or despair.

Continue reading on beyond John's Gospel and into the Book of Acts (of the apostles), it's great for further understanding on how people became Christians, and how the early church got on together.

May God's peace be with you, and may He lead you to Himself.

d taylor · Sep 7, 2020

Converting is something that you do to join a church and has nothing to do with a non believer becoming a believer and receiving Gods free gift of Eternal Life.

If you want to become a believer and receive Gods free gift of Eternal life.

Read the Gospel of John this book states and explains that Jesus in the New Testament is the promised Messiah from the prophecies of the Tanakh.
The unique/only begotten Son of God.

If you believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah and trust in The Messiah for the free gift of Gods Eternal Life. You now have Eternal Life (never to lose it) and are now born again and have become a pernament child of God.

Now after becoming a believer study the Bible and began to grow as a believer trying to live a Christ like life. Live life in the spirit trying to avoid the fleshly desires of a sinful life.

Andrewn · Sep 7, 2020

I need God, too.

Meditation is a good start. Have you read the New Testament? If you haven't, start by selecting a suitable translation.

And start reading from Matthew's Gospel to John's Epistles, meditating on what you read and asking God to lead you.

If you have any questions, you can google for answers and / or post them here in new threads.

If you have a chance to join a Bible study group, that would be best.

Lukaris · Sep 7, 2020

On a basic & crucial level living according to the Gospel is keeping the Lord’s commandments ( see Matthew 19:16-19, Romans 13:8-10). This is not easy in a difficult world but these are the values that make life better when it can be (see James 1:17).

As a Christian I can see myself being a hypocrite & deluded ( Luke 18:9-14) whereas a non believer may do what is right ( Luke 10:25-37). Still, we believe there will be an accounting of what we do in life ( the prophet Daniel knew part of this, per Daniel 12:1-4, & the Lord confirms in John 5:22-30).

The Lord will save all those He can but we must reciprocate whether we know it or not ( John 3:16-21). A believer has a sense of assurance ( Ephesians 2:8-10) & a non believer only has their conscience but still may be saved ( see Romans 2).

Albion · Sep 7, 2020

I agree.

Other readers approach this differently, but in my view you have first to be convinced that there is a god. Going straight to the Bible and relying upon it exclusively is, for most people, premature. Certainly that is so for people who have been convinced that there is no god.

Fortunately, there is a lot in print that deals with the question of theism vs. atheism.

maintenance man · Sep 7, 2020

How to Become a Christian and What to do Next

ViaCrucis · Sep 7, 2020

I'd say that the fact that you have any interest in Christianity at all means your conversion is already underway.

With things the way they are now with the pandemic, I don't know how easy it would be--but generally speaking most traditional and mainstream churches have a form of something called "catechesis" which just means instruction. In the modern world this usually looks like classes and study, to learn about the Christian faith. While generally the end goal of catechesis is to receive Baptism and become a member of the Christian Faithful, a good catechesis program does not put any obligations that you do do. You are free to come, and then ultimately leave if that's what you want--and it should be without any guilt or judgment.

As such, I'd say try to find a church and attend as a visitor (given the current state of affairs this might mean online services and the like), but get in touch with the pastor as well, discuss where you are at right now, and how to proceed. I would suspect that adult education classes might also be done online/distance learning style in many cases.

Basically, investigate. Go and see what this Christianity stuff is about. Go through a catechesis program of some kind (likely called something like adult education or the like in many cases).

I think something is really important here: You shouldn't be made to feel pressure to formally convert. If you feel like you are being pressured, or being manipulated then don't feel bad about trying someplace else.

I don't mind offering suggestions for churches to try out, to go and talk to the priest/pastor and see what steps to take next--though I'd be the first to admit some of my own biases here. As I would recommend more traditional churches--Lutheran, Episcopalian, Catholic, Orthodox, etc. But that is my obvious bias, seeing as I am myself Lutheran.

As far as asking questions here on Exploring Christianity, that's also a good thing. But just know that you will get a lot of very different answers, often very conflicting answers. If you are okay with getting different, often contradicting answers to questions, then you should stick around and continue to explore around these forums. But you should do most of your search by real world exploration in real world churches.

-CryptoLutheran

Richard T · Sep 8, 2020

In a way you are in a catch 22 situation. You don't fully understand God enough to worship Him with all your heart, but on the other hand you know you have some need. The catch is that if you do not accept him, you may never understand his love or his ways. Thus, you are left with taking a bit of a leap of faith. I suppose you can wait until you learn more, but it is far easier to learn as a Christian in a relationship with God than when you are in some unbelieving status. Even worse, if you wait you might never take the jump and in your time of need you might have cut off your only hope. No doubt about it the times ahead are going to be very rough. Christians are sometimes criticized for using God as a crutch so to speak. Well it is true, God is not just a Christian's crutch,
3But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

You should take the deal. Salvation is a free gift, complete forgiveness and grace to change your life in ways you can't imagine.

To me the biggest hesitation for most is that they think they are going to have to give too much up. This is a misconception, when you work with God instead of against Him, things are better, not worse. Sin is an amusement of sorts, it can be fun for a season, but in the end it brings about destruction and heartache.

So again my friend, take the deal. Imagine a family in heaven. You become an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus. That is one seriously, winning family. The creator of everything wants to be your heavenly father and fellowship with you! So why wait?

Tony B · Sep 8, 2020

But faith comes from hearing, and from hearing (reading) from the word of God. I'm wondering if God has already spoken to him and is drawing him, because he is already searching, and therefore now it's time for him to hear from/read the Bible. More than one of us have recommended he start reading from John's gospel (in The New Testament). That's how I became a Christian. I'm not saying that's the only way to find faith, but it certainly has worked that way for some of us.

Shalom, Tony

coffee4u · Sep 8, 2020

Christianity is not something you decide and convert to, like other religions. It is God speaking to your spirit drawing you to himself. God is calling you and you are feeling that.

2 Timothy 1:9
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

After being called God says that we have to recognize that we are sinners who can never be good enough to come into his presence because of our sin.

Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

This is why Jesus came and died on the cross to pay our debt. He could do that because he was both fully man and fully God. He takes our sins upon himself. He took our sentence and cancelled it.

We accept God's gift of pardon by repenting of our sins and calling on the name of Jesus as Lord to be our saviour.

Acts 3:19
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out

Romans 10:9-10
Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Faith that God is real, that Jesus has this gift for you, comes from praying and hearing and reading the scriptures.

Hawkins · Sep 8, 2020

You need to go to a church to begin with. So you can ask a friend of yours who's a Christian to recommend a reliable church. Attending Sunday services can help you making progress in developing your faith.

FutureAndAHope · Sep 8, 2020

I have included a link to my website that includes testimonies of God "doing stuff" Everybody Matters Ministry | Online Church

Here is a link to my story, it may help you see how God has worked in another person's life.

mmarco · Sep 10, 2020

Hello Bob,

let me try to explain my view.
The fundamental reason why I believe in Jesus Christ, is that I find that the christian concept of God and of divine love is the highest possible concept. I find that the idea itself that God loves us so much that He chose to assume the human nature and accepted to suffer crucifission in order to save us, expresses such a high concept of God and of divine love that it can comes only from God and it is certainly a truth. This concept is fully convincing for me, it proves itself by itself and makes superfluous any other arguments . I believe that Chirst suffered His Passion to help us to have faith in Him and trust Him, to make us understand that God loves us infinitely, that God is good and mercifull and that God is near to us so that we may totally trust Him and open our heart to Him, be in communion with Him and be saved.

There are other religions teaching that God is love, but the problem is to define what the word “love” means, because by itself it could be only a vague and generic concept.
The christian faith is unique because it gives a very concrete and unique meaning to the concept of divine love: in fact God’s love actualizes in the acceptance of a terrible physical suffering; the God of the christian faith loves us so much that He is willing to suffer a painful death in order to save us. In the christian faith, love is not only a theoretical and vague concept; Christ’s Passion is a clear and concrete realization of the concept of divine love which teaches us what is the true meaning of love. I think that this christian idea of divine love is the highest possible concept of divine love and it is the fundamental reason why I believe that Christ is God.

I would like to explain to you also some rational arguments supporting the existence of God. In fact I am a physicist and I think that a rational analysis of our scientific knowledges provides strong and convincent arguments supporting the existence of a personal intelligent God.

Let me give you a short summary of these arguments:

All what science shows about the universe is that it manifests itself to us as a realization of some specific abstract mathematical models (what we call “the laws of physics”); in fact, the subatomic components of matters (quantum particles and fields) are actually only abtract mathematical concepts. On the other hand, mathematical models are only constructions of the rational thought and a mathematical model can exist only as a thought in a thinking mind conceiving it; therefore the existence of this mathematically structured universe implies the existence of an intelligent God, conceiving if as a mathematrical model. In other words, the universe can be only the manifestation of a mathematical theory existing in the mind of an intelligent and conscious God, i.e. a personal God.

There is another argument from physics that I find strongly convincing; according to our scientific knowledges, all chemical and biological processes (including cerebral processes) are caused by the electromagnetic interaction between subatomic particles such as electrons and protons. Quantum mechanics accounts for such interactions, as well as for the properties of subatomic particles. The point is that there is no trace of consciousness, sensations, emotions, etc. in the laws of quantum mechanics (as well as in all the laws of physcis). Consciousness is irriducible to the laws of physics, while all cerebral processes are. This is for me the most convincing argument against materialism (which identifies cerebral processes as the origin of consciousness) and in favour of the existence of the soul, as the unphysical and trascendent principle necessary for the existence of our consciousness. Since our soul cannot have a physical origin, it can only be created directly by God. The existence of God is a necessary condition for the existence of our soul, as well as for the existence of us as conscious beings.

Since God is the Creator of ourselves, He is certainly superior to ourselves. Since God has the capacity to create our intelligence, our consciousness and our will, He must be intelligent, conscious and He must have a will. In fact, since God is superior to us and He is the Creator of our own capacities, He must possess our own capacities in a superior way. Since God is superior to us, He must have a superior capacity to love.

I hope this may help.
Since I am catholic, I recommend that you talk to a priest; it would certainly be very useful.

bling · Sep 10, 2020

Bill,

Welcome to the Christian Forum and continue to ask questions.

You said: “I think I need someone like God”, but there really is no one “like” the Christian God.

I would like you to meet Christ face to face, talk with Him, let Him listen to you, let Him show you who He is and He is just like God would be here on earth, watch what He does, let Him ask you questions, help you find the answers with His guidance, spend time with Christ and Let Christ Love you.

This is not some academic quest you are going on, for God is literally at you elbow, yet He is not physically at you elbow, so you do not have to seek Him out. God is Love, so when you see truly unselfish, unconditional, illogical Love being shown to others you are actually seeing God. Do you really want to be Loved with an unconditional Love, really Loving you and others in spite of what you or they have done, are doing and even will do? Have you reached the point of giving up on self, not liking where you are heading, and tired of carrying a burden in your conscience for things you have done in the past which hurt others and/or yourself?

Read the Bible is good, but it does not replace a Christ like person coming along side you and allowing Christ to live through them for you individually. You are not converting to a “book”, but a Being.

1watchman · Sep 11, 2020

Yes! All mankind needs God ---and not just to feel good, but for eternity (like when we die, which could be today). A serious seeker needs to listen to what God says in such as John 3; John 14; Romans 8; etc. in your Bible, to see what God wants to urgently say to one. Reading the four Gospels in a sound Bible version (I use the Scofield KJV Study Bible) would better be first; then read Acts and the Epistles to learn about Church Truth.

Once a week one can also read from Genesis forward, but do not confuse the religion given to Israel to what God gave in fulfillment of that to the whole world thereafter up to this day. The so-called 'bottom line' is that one MUST make the Lord Jesus Savior of their soul for Heaven soon and that message is in the four Gospel books. Receiving the Lord Jesus as your best Friend, and walk and talk with Him will bring the blessings of His Father down and seal one as a "child of God". Keep looking up

Sketcher · Sep 14, 2020

Good to hear. What questions do you have?

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