My Personal Testimony
I was raised in a house where Christianity was passive. I was taught that Christ was the son of God and I believed it. However I was not taught that I needed to place my trust in Christ to be saved. About the age of 30 or so I had some unusual things happen that drew me to try to understand God better. Thinking things had to be more complicated Christianity I went looking at other religions. I wanted something that took more thinking than just “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith,” I read everything I could find on Buddhism, Hindu, Sufi, Zen and pretty much every other Middle East and Far East religion. I thought I needed something that required me to work my brain so that my ego could say that I “figured it out.” This was a 10 year period at the end of which I considered myself a Sufi. The primary tenant of the Sufi religion is “There is one god upon which man puts many faces.” I am now aware how totally arrogant that statement is but at the time it made sense to me.
When I was 42 my mother in-law was let go at her job. She took it very rough. Over a few months she became very depressed and I was very concerned about her. At one point I remember telling her she had a choice she either needed to see a pastor or a shrink. God was watching out for us, she chose the Pastor. She started going to a regular Bible study and attending church. After a few months she invited my wife to come along. The next week my wife told me how cool the music was so I went for the music. We went to church every week for a few months. I loved the music and enjoyed what the Pastor was saying. I agreed with pretty much everything he had to say even though I still held onto my belief of all gods being one god.
One Sunday in October of 2006 while standing and worshiping I heard words I will never forget. Ok I did not actually hear them. I am not sure what the words of the song really were. All I remember is what I heard in my head.
Even if all those gods you have been reading about were real what did they ever do for anyone? Even in their own stories they don’t make any claim to have helped anyone.
I was stunned I had to go back over all the things I had read and look for some claim of help by any of them. In Buddhism a man once walked up to the Buddha and said to him. “You have it don’t you?” The Buddha replied “yes.” The man said, “But you can’t tell me how to get it can you?” Buddha said, “No” What kind of help is that. Krishna tells Arjun in the Bagwagita that he cannot help him. Wow you are a so called god.. and you can’t help him. What is the point then? I stood there stunned. If these “gods” were GOD.. they would know that we are not able to lift ourselves up to their level. If God created the universe what could we as limited as we are hope to do to be worthy of any relationship with him? It became clear to me at that point that I needed help to have any relationship with God and that Christ was the only one even offering any help. I had never doubted he was the Son of God I had just “put other gods before him” There is a line in the book of James where he says,” So you believe that God is one, so do the demons and they shudder.” Reading this I realized for the first time what I had done. The demons know that God is God.. but they know they are not saved just by knowing who he is. They are just as condemned as someone who rejects that he even exists. At that moment I know I put my TRUST in Christ because I was aware I had no other way to have any relationship with God. When it says “No one comes to the Father but through me” it is pointing out that we as humans are not capable of reaching up to God we require him reaching down to us. I walked forward and His help, that I did not know I needed, has changed my life in ways I was not aware were even possible.
The depression that had been part of my life, my whole life, was greatly reduced almost right away. Later once I started serving others it went away completely. The marriage that had been rough, livable but rough became great. The most amazing thing was that there was a lot more to this Christianity thing than I had thought. See I wanted something I could sink my brain into… teeth into brain around.. something like that. And although the basic function of being saved is very simple.
Place your trust in Jesus Christ, that He died on the cross for your sins, was buried and rose again, and now sits at the right and of God… and is coming back.
