[Brettation]

Well let me start...

I always believed god existed because my parents told me he did. I did not truly experience the community of christ until I started attending a christian camp. After that my devotion and belief to christ has grown.

I continue to believe in Christ because it feels right. I have tried questioning his existance, only to find that I feel uncomfortable to think that he is not there. I do believe christ exists, however my attitude is sometimes questionable, yet I always come around.

[Nate]

grace... and grace.

[Chris]

I came to believe in God because I knew that left up to my own ideas I was destined to fail and there had to be someone/thing that existed out there that could help me up when I fell down. Luckily *snide chuckle at the thought of luck in this instance* I had a Christian friend then who showed me who that person was.

I continue to believe because I can't not believe. God pushed all doubt in Him out of my head. I can't doubt His existence. I don't possess that ability anymore.

[KFBobInsanesMom]

Originally Posted by Nate

grace... and grace.

Amen.

[joshaber]

Originally Posted by Nate

grace... and grace.

Indeed.

[Blindman]

Well, in my last few years of High School I got more and more involved in my youth group, doing all the service projects and retreats, etc. - all the good Christian stuff. I even read the Bible from cover to cover. Everyone thought I was a model Christian, and so did I. And one night at a youth conference after I graduated, I was sitting and praying, saying, "Hey God, isn't it great how great a Christian I've become?"

And then for the first time in my life, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and what He said was, "Oh no you aren't." That is, He convicted me of sin and began going through all my "Christian credentials" - the retreats, the Bible knowledge, the service projects - and trashing them all, showing me that I'd only lived that way to glorify myself: to make people respect me and admire me and see me as deep and wise and spiritual and so on.

I believe that that was God "speaking" to me, because nothing inside of me, even subconsciously, would have wanted to take everything I'd been clinging to as a source of self-worth and demolish it like a house of cards. God was clearly acting against the opposition of my sinful nature, without any cooperation from me, so my real answer is the same as the others: grace.

As for why I continue to believe, it's only because God "is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy" (Jude 24). He won't let me go. That too is grace. I've turned away some times; He's dragged me back. "When we are faithless, He remains faithful" (2 Tim 2:13).

I also continue to believe because the more I learn as a Christian, the more my faith seems to be at odds with everything our culture thinks and values: weakness becomes a virtue and self-sufficiency a fault, receiving from God takes priority over giving to Him, faith is a gift and works are faith's result instead of its cause, paradoxes abound, egos are slain and pride is shattered, everything's just horribly and wondefully backward and gleefully countercultural and there's no way that this sort of faith could be a human invention because it goes against so much of what we as human beings want to believe.

[simple servant]

I became a Christian when I was 8 because I thought it was the "cool" thing to do at church. Little did I know that it actually meant something. It took a while to understand, but now I have a much firmer grasp on the concept of Christianity. Don't get me wrong, there's still oodles and oodles to learn, but I do comprehend God's Word and Christianity much better. And as Nate said, by grace.

[AlphaSigma]

I went to church all my life became a christian in 6th grade when I was sick of waking up wasted and hung-over. Became a christian at the camp and worked there ever since. Learned guitar and use it to glorify God.

[LiLJesusFreak]

Originally Posted by Blade84135

I went to church all my life became a christian in 6th grade when I was sick of waking up wasted and hung-over. Became a christian at the camp and worked there ever since. Learned guitar and use it to glorify God.

I grew up in a really really religious Russian Baptist church (trust me this church has so many problems, they are really tweeked in how they understand the Bible.) Anyway, my downfall began in middle school and by the time I reached summer break before starting my 12th grade year in high school, thats when I told God to hit the highway out of my life. I've been bisexual as far as I can remember all the way back to elementary school days, had my first homosexual experiance w/ another gal when I was about 10 years old. And yes I knew that what I was doing was a really bad sinful thing, but I couldnt help myself at the time. Yet I still showed myself to be this "very good little Christian girl" to my family. My family still does not know this side of my past about me and they don't need to. I moved on and am way past that stage, this is something I deal w/ God alone and so I don't want my family to know. I started to "come out of the closet" in front of my friends in 12 grade though. Aside from homosexuality, I had a drinking problem. I never did any kind of drugs only smoked ciggarettes (if you consider those to be a drug well then thats up to you.) I just wasnt fond of smoking pot or shooting myself up. I had a pretty bad alcahol problem, and what made that problem worse were the events that took place in my life. My parents were separating, two of my really really good friends died one of them whom I've known since we were both very little, and the other one, Chris, collapsed on the school floor and died hours later at the hospital. Then 9/11 happened and right 4 days after that my grandmother died as well. It was all too depressing for me, my friend Mike died in a car accident the month before 9/11 took place and 4 days after that, there goes grandma, 4 months after that, Chris died. And on top of it all my family was breaking apart. I came to know the Lord when I started my 1st year of college. I was invited to a Campus Crusade for Christ group that met every Tuesday at the time in one of the classrooms, and on Halloween of 2002 I found God. God has brought me through A LOT when I was slowly comming to the point of accepting Christ into my heart as my Lord and Savior, I lost my boyfriend (of that time) to another girl, God let the cheating take place behind my back because I didnt see that Loghan was a block between me and God. It was a painful process but the Lord pulled me through. I now have been a believer what going to be 4 years this Halloween.

[burningtr33]

through a series of events that brought me down to a realization that i was the problem and that god has the solution.

[WorshipJesus]

My family started going to chuch when I was in K or 1st grade. I went to AWANA and was really familiar with the Bible and God. I continue to believe in God because He has revealed Himself to me, the Bible is proven to be true and accurate, and is a testimony of God's existence.

[lilmissiongirl]

Well lets see i became a christian when i was 8 years old. At that time my parents didnt go to church it was only me and my older brother. I think at that time i FELT that i understood what getting baptised meant and god forgiving me for my sins but i dont think i really did
well when i went to camp living waters i talked to alot of people there and i realize what i needed to do well i came backand i gave my rededication testamoni to the church since then i have also dedicated my life to christ meaning what ever god calls me to do i want to do now by me saying all of this i make my fair share of mistakes exspecialy now me being 16 and going through all the "peer presure" its a hard thing but i have supportive christian friends who pull me back up. and im looking forward on going on my 3rd mission trip, i will be going to Neuva Rostista, Mexico and i just try to remind my slef god knows what he is doing but i need to tell my self that alot lol .

[twinner2]

welll, this kinda of summerizes life for me in a way

so i have been going to church all my life, my parents brought me there ever since i wasa tiny tot, i used to hate church, i used to hate havving to wake up early, get all dressed up (i especially hated the tights) , and then go tot sunday school and after anxsiously sit in the pews wating for childrens church, church meant nothing to me, i believed in more of a factual sense in more of this is what i was told, and my parents belive it so it must be true type thingi felt that way alll the way up until 7th

in the middle of 5th grade we moved all the way cross country from NJ to CA... in case any of you didnt notice, california and New Jersey are two totally different worlds.. haha... so i moved to cali and my family went "church shopping" for a while, this certainly dint help my dislike for church because now not only did i have to wake up and get dressed up (by then i wasntwearing tights anymore ) now i had to go inot a room full of people i didnt know every sunday, if i didnt have my twin sister there with me, i wouldve been even more down... but anyways.. so eventually we picked coastline community church... i love everything about it... the people are so welcoming, and i have grown soo much in God at that church.

when i started to going to the jr high youth group there, i developed in my faith a lot, it passed the factual faith stage, and i started to believe it with my heart instead of my head,

and to answer why i still believe....how could yo not believe after experiencing God's mercy and love, there is joy in the Lord, im never leaving his arms

[guitargeek6298]

I became a Christian when I was 21. I didn't grow up in a religious family, and had never really been to church, other than for weddings and the like. I was an agnostic/weak athiest, and denied the existance of any sort of God or spiritual being.

Well, I was dating this girl, and we'd been going out for a little over 3 years. She worked at a Macy's, and began talking to and hanging out with thus guy who also worked there. He was telling her all about Jesus and Christianity, and they started to become very good friends. Naturally, I didn't like that, because I just thought that he was trying to pull some moves on my girl. Eventuallly, she started going to church occassionally, something else that I didn't particularly like. And then she started going more often. And then she was going every week. By this time, I was absolutely convinced that this guy had brainwashed my girlfriend just to get with her. I didn't like that. So we broke up.

About a week later, I'm feeling really crappy about myself, three and a half years wasted with this person, all that kinda stuff when Mr. Macy's-witnesser calls me up and invites me to church. The nerve!!! Why the hell would I ever go to your church?! You stole her away from me you dawg!!! Of course, I politely accepted.

So I go to church with him that Sunday, and everything changed. I had heard before that Jesus loved me, that he died for me, etc... but I failed to see how it could ever be relevant since I denied the existance of God. Well, on that morning, God made me aware of Himself by speaking nearly audibly to me, and confirming His existance. It was like, I would hear the pastor speak, and this other voice would translate inside my head what it meant. It's rather difficult to explain, but I haven't had such a prfound experience like it since.

So basically I walked out of there as a believer in God. I didn't give my life over to Jesus for another couple of months, but that's digressing a bit.

I continue to believe because I've had undeniable interactions with Him. I'm naturally a skeptic, and so if I could have explained away everything, I would have. Becoming a Christian certainly hasn't made my life any easier, and my sinful side would love to take over again. It'd sure save me a lot of struggling.

On top of that, the futher I question my faith, the more I find reason to believe in Him. The more I read my bible, listen to Sunday sermons, and talk with other believers, I am reassured of my belief in a way that's beyond just intellectual understanding; I'm reassured in my "heart" (for lack of a better term).



Oh, and the guy that I thought was stepping in on my girlfriend? We're best friends now

[Lil' Match]

I came to b a "believer" because of tradition and my parents. Then in life I kind of strayed away with the wrong crowd, went ot the wrong places, etc., but something always tugged me in my conscience when I did something that was wrong. Before consciously repenting again, I started being more careful about my actions and started reading the Bible, and someone "mysteriously" stole all my secular CD's along with my CD player (now I know it was God's will). It was then I changed my musical preferences to Christian Music, mainly groups like Third Day, POD, Relient K, Kutless, among others. One day, I was listening to a Third Day album and I listened to the song "Nothing Compares". And I just kept on listening. I could not stop. I started going back to my memories, the times that God had been there for me even though I lived a lifestyle that blatantly refused him. And even then, i realized that He STILL loved me! After that I understood why nothing compares to the greatness of knowing Jesus Christ, Our LORD, just like Paul said. I came back to Christ after that experience and have no regrets about it!!!!!!!!! Romans 1:16-17