Who was the person who (humanly speaking) did the most to lead you to Christ? Anyone want to share his or her story?

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Richard T. Zuelch, M.Div
Ruling Elder, OPC (not currently serving)
Westminster Presbyterian Church, CA (OPC)
www.alexandermaclaren.wordpress.com
www.reiterations.wordpress.com
www.spurgeonswords.wordpress.com

Devout souls do not take offence at the depths and difficulties of God's Word, but are, thereby, drawn to intenser contemplation of them. - Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910)

ooooooh, a Baptist being asked give his testimony! Isn't that the same thing as the gospel? *I'm sorry. Baptist joke*

I was raised in an Italian Roman Catholic home in Kearny, NJ. My mother was remarried and going through a lot of struggles with my step-father. I was a teenager going through my own struggles. During my mother's struggles she was going to tea and tarot card readers. Then one evening she came home with a bible. Someone had invited her to church. Over the next few months she started attending church regularly and claimed to have been "saved." This was during the "I found it" campaign of the late 1970's. In addition there were the "Jesus" rallies at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. My mother was part of all of that.

Although my mothers theology was strictly Arminian, she constantly invited me to church. I wanted no part of it. I thought she was off her rocker. But she never ceased to invite me. Finally, in order to shut her up, I went to an Assembly of God church in the neighboring town of Harrison. On that particular evening the preacher was sharing some scriptures from Romans. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord...that God commended His own love toward us, in that while were yet sinners, Christ died for us...that if you shall confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." I left that evening in a state of panic. I was afraid to go to sleep. I thought that if I died I would go to hell. I remember the closing remarks of the preacher. He said the men of the church would be having an all night prayer meeting. It didn't mean much to me at the time, but now at 1:00 AM in the morning and afraid of going to hell, it meant a whole lot. I walked about four miles to that church and got there about 2:30 am. I stood at the base of the steps and debated on whether I would go in. I wasn't the bravest 17 year old kid you had ever met. But I knew that I was at a pivotal moment in my life. I walked up the steps and down the center aisle of the church where I met one of the pastoral staff. Everyone called him brother Dan. I just went up to him and told him I wanted to get saved. I remember the smile on his face. He put an arm around me and we prayed right there at the altar. I stayed there at the church until 7:00 am, praying with the rest of the men.

That is the story of how my Mom was used of God to bring me to Christ.

Now I know, how Arminian! Assembly of God...good ole' fire and brimstone Romans preaching...the dramatic walking down the aisle in the middle of the night...praying the sinners prayer at the foot of the altar. Yep. Not exactly Matt McMahon expounding the scriptures in good Reformed style. But that is how the Lord dealt with me. Over the years He moved me to other churches where my theology was morphed and then to other churches where it was morphed some more. Eventually I embraced Calvinism and many aspects of the Reformed faith.

Richard, this may be more than you bargained for, but I pray my story is an blessing to others.

__________________
Bill Brown
Elder
Reformed Baptist
Maryland

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I don't like the whole "...who led you to Christ..." language. Reminds me too much of my Arminian days. I was even a Commander for the Royal Rangers: an Assemblies of God version of the Boy Scouts. I remember you could get merit badges for winning other boys to Christ. Yes, I know that the motivation to spread the Good News is good. I need to say that so Trevor doesn't get on one of his "Reformed people hate evangelism" rants!

Seriously, though, if you ask me who was most instrumental on putting me on a path that led me into the household of faith it was my Roman Catholic mother. My father left her when I was a sophomore in high school and it was very painful for her. She had four of us to raise including petulent and disrespectful Rich Leino. We attended a charismatic Roman Catholic Church and my mother faithfully attended Bible Study every Sunday evening. She studied her Bible regularly and prayed and I eventually decided to start going.

I can't even enumerate all the strange things I've been through theologically in my life. That Bible Study resembled anything but a traditional Catholic Church and is the reason I never wanted to attend another Roman Catholic Church after I went off to college because they were all too boring and weren't charismatic enough. If I had to state the person that was second most responsible for that path it was the Priest at the same Church that used to give homilies extolling faith as the only thing that saves you. I actually believed that there was no difference between Roman Catholics and Protestants because of him until I was about 28 years old and read Faith Alone! I always thought it was a difference between people who were excited for Jesus and those that were cold externalists.

I can't honestly say that I trusted the Gospel yet but when I finally had it explained to me by the teaching of R.C. Sproul, I knew my heart was well prepared for that message and I fell upon it like a starving man.

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Rich
PCA, Northern VA
Student, New Geneva Theological Seminary

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The holy spirit did. No one witnessed to me. I had the seeds planted because I was raised in church and when the Lord saw fit, he caused the seeds to take root and brought me to life.

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My name is Davis. I am the Lord's.

I gather with saints at Bethel Presbyterian Church here in Lake Charles, LA, where I live.

[b][SIZE="3"]"[/SIZE][/b][COLOR="RoyalBlue"]I dwell in the high and holy place, also with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones[/COLOR].[b][SIZE="3"]"[/SIZE][/b] -Our Father, the Lord God (Isaiah 57:15)

Richard - I like the parole officer polling option. Are you suggesting that a member of the PB may have needed a parole officer? Mmmm?

Was not led, but called and my eyes were opened by the glory of Christ and the reality of my sinfulness.

Follower of the Way,

Sydnorphyn

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John
Evangelical Free Church, no offices held
Langhorne, PA

[B]δός δοξαν τῳ θεῳ.[/B]
[B]ιδου ποιω τα εσχατα ως τα πρωτα.
הבל הבלים[/B]

The Lord saw fit to use many people along the way to bring me unto faith and repentance. The one most used was a senior master sgt. in the AF who was my supervisor. While reprimanding me on my bad behaviour in front of the younger airmen he began to weep and testify of the saving grace of Christ. The lord used his testimony greatly and called me from my darkness and into His light.
I have not heard from SGT. Norris is many years. I look forward to the day I meet him in Heaven.

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Psa 55:16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Psa 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
James Farley
Husband of Melissa and father of Ann.
Members of Redeemer Church ARP, Blacksburg Va.
http://www.redeemerblacksburg.org/

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

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I would have to say the Holy Spirit also.

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JC - PCA - PA...homesick for SC
A we n' de Ya, ho; I mak sikker; Deus juvat

Indicabo tibi o homo quid sit bonum, et quid Dominus requirat a te: Utique facere iudicium, et diligere, misericordiam, et sollicitum ambulare cum Deo tuo. Michaeas 6:8

"Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact. There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home" Bon Jovi

stupid me on Memorial Weekend 2001 decided to read Jonathan Edwards merely to satisfy my intellectual curiousity. Instead of satisfying my curiousity I got a severe dose of depression and anxiety over my sin. Enough said. I called my mother's Pastor and that was it.

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~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY Member of Franklin Square OPC

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

"None of the above" - As the saying goes.
I agree with Dagmire and Tumeric.
Apart from sunday school as a kid and the good old days of "R.I." = Religious Instruction at school - there was no specific mortal who contributed to this sinner coming to Christ.
Thus only divine "hands on" work on me.

__________________
Grant
Layman
Unchurched but seeking! [Presbyterian]
Scotland.
Revs.3:20 Church on the Doorstep.
"I know O Lord, that thy judgements are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." Psalm.119:75.

For those of us who were not raised in a bible believing church, we could have only come to God through the word preached. My mother was instrumental and getting me to a church where I heard the word, but it was the word that convicted me of sin and lead me to the repentance that leads to life.

I was about 7.

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Patrick
MDiv, RTS Jackson
Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church (OPC), Lisbon, NY

"He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ." Thomas Brooks.
"Let us not please ourselves that we have deep understandings, but let us shew our understandings by our practice." Richard Sibbes

I had an argument with someone over the idea of tongues. They knew their position better than me, and it embarassed me. I decided to 'find out for myself' and started reading the NT.

Somewhere along the way, God converted me.

__________________
Chris Latch
Corinth MS
Crossroads church - SBC
Evangelism leader

I certainly did not mean to belittle your or anyone else's experience! I don't want you to think that I was boasting that no human was used directly to bring me to faith. It makes me very sad that I was even the son of a reformed minister and no one in the church ever talked to me about Christ.

Someone asked me the other day if I was a Christian. (Neither one of us was being ugly) I told him I was and he asked me to tell him how I knew.

I couldn't. I don't have the words to explain it except in an arminian/semi-pelagian way. I do know I'm a Christian. But I didn't do anything, so I don't know how to explain it.

It started with the Bible church and the preaching I heard there was truth. I was intrigued by the stark contrast of this preaching and any other I'd ever heard.

This is the article that started it all. My four year old was bringing home Sunday School papers that were very different than any I'd seen before. They weren't just cute little pictures to color and a nice moral story about a perfect family with children who are wonderful little soulwinners. I wanted to know more about the place that made these Sunday school lessons. What was so different?

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceL..._of_Calvinism/

So I looked up the website that was in extremely small print at the bottom of my childs paper. I had never read anything about the five points of Calvinism before. Back in high school in Bible class I had to know what T.U.L.I.P. was. We studied it in the sense that we took notes on what our teacher was saying, but there was never any true study. I was taught that Calvinism was heresy. So there I was reading this article, trying not to listen to a lifetime of conditioning that was telling me this was heresy and dangerous doctrine.

I had LOTS of questions. So I hit the internet. I also wore through everyone I could see face to face. I was warned about the dangers of looking for answers on the web, but at the same time no one had the time in real time to spend answering questions. I'm not saying they didn't take time to answer questions, but my questions never stopped. I read lots of books, good ones like: How Can I Be Sure I'm a Christian?: What the Bible Says About Assurance of Salvation; The Almost Christian Discovered; A Treatise on Regeneration; Knowing God and several others.

I spent six months mostly on the PB, reading and then later asking questions. Many on this board spent a lot of time answering my questions and were so kind. I'll never forget it. I don't know when I slept. God was drawing me. It was like a crash course in knowing God. I was saved in the first week of Nov 03, but I don't know how to explain it. But I know it.

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Life is a journey; learn to enjoy it.
shelly {approved by admins for limited information in signature}
attending a reformed church

My Pastor's preaching was the singlemost influential factor.

Then Reading 'Around the Wicket Gate' by Spurgeon.

And finally a terrifying dream from which I awoke convinced of Satan's power over me and ran to Christ for mercy...

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Jonathan Hunt

Elder-Who-Preaches-A lot
Cheltenham Evangelical Free Church (Confessionally Based)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
-- Thomas Elsworth

I have a hard time saying exactly when I was saved (regenerated) so I always track it back to the time I will never forget when everything came into focus all of a sudden. That was the day I heard the gospel preached in my car driving down Colby Ave. in Everett, WA listening to R.C. Sproul. I had always from a young age been acutely aware of God and I had a very sensitive conscience very early. I thought about God all the time and was always aware and afraid when I sinned.

The reason I name that day is because I was raised in a visible church and listened to literally thousands of sermons at my arminian/charismatic church but never experienced anything like that day and I was forever changed from then on.

__________________
Traci
Lynnwood OPC
"I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and cast them through each other in a heap before the Lord, and fled from both, and betaken myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him I have sweet peace."--David Dickson

As a "bookslover" I'm surprised you didn't include a book as one of your choices.

Some people may have also been strongly influenced by the electronic media, be it internet sites or radio preachers. I suppose the latter could be "clergyman" but I don't know if that's what's envisioned in the poll. Listening to Alistair Begg was a big step for me since it was the first evangelical preacher that I had ever really listened to. Initially it was largely due to the novelty of his Scottish accent, but what he was saying soon started making some sense to me, although I wouldn't say that I was actually converted through listening to him. Growing up in a liberal church, I had previously believed all of the stereotypes about ignorant, obscurantist, mean-spirited fundamentalists and some personal encounters along the way had done nothing to dissuade me from that view.

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Christian
One Pilgrims Progress

I first heard the Gospel from the lips of my Grandmother as a young child.

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Donald Jacobs
Roanoke VA.
Covenant Reformed Episcopal Church.

Cum vero infirmor tunc potens sum.

The internet was by far the biggest factor in actually providing me with the Christian faith. I do know the Holy Spirit did work in a particular and profound way one evening when I was struggling to sleep back in 1998 that killed my "moralistic therapeutic deism" (I think that term Horton and others use to describe the religion of my generation is totally accurate) and eventually led me to Chirstian truth.

I wouldn't be a Christian if my parents had had a NetFinney Calvinism filter on their computer.

Laugh all you will, but if such a product existed, I guarantee they would have installed it. That and they were a bit undiscerning in filtering the books I'd gravitate towards. To say my parents loathe Reformed soteriology is an understatement.

I would say the direct workings of the Holy Spirit in utterly dismantling my deism and then strangely directing me to investigate what was always so disparaged by my folks.

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Scott - Dallas, Texas - Faith OPC

"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do." - Edmund Burke

Let me remind some of you that the Holy Spirit acts through means...
This is certainly not exhaustive. My only point is that the answer, "The Holy Spirit", is kind of a no-brainer. Everybody here is drawn by the Holy Spirit. The question was for you to reflect upon, and give glory to God for, the means and circumstances that He used in your life to bring you to a point where the ministry of the Word converted you.

I believe it is right and proper that we acknowledge God's Providence in our lives and not to downplay the significance that God works through a variety of means to His holy ends. In fact, in glory we'll be praising Him for the things that He worked together for His glory and our good!

Here, here!!

I had a dream about Jesus one night which awakened an interest in me to search this out. ( I was raised in a non-Christian home). Through a series of strange circumstances I wound up in a church, met someone there I worked with, answered an altar call and was baptised on the same day, (they just happened to be having their bi-monthly baptismal service the Sunday I attended), and have been growing and learning ever since, this was back in 1991 just before my 21st birthday.

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Erick Bohndorf, Redeemer Presbyterian PCA
http://qayaqtraveler.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pr...90&ref=profile
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. Ecclesiastes

My answer wasn't "the holy spirit, unlike the rest of you". I know that the Lord uses his saints to show others the light of Christ. But not in my life. I can't tell you a single moment from my life where a believer talked to me about Christ. No one in my church ever talked to me. Pretty much every "Christian" I've ever known has been a marvelous hypocrite. It was the direct working of the holy spirit that led me to Christ. I was living in complete sin and then I suddenly believed. My eyes were opened.


That's why I said that I didn't mean to belittle anyone else's experience in any way. My conversion is no more miraculous or beautiful than anyone else's. It just wasn't my circumstance that any person was used to show me the Light.

26.67% of the polltakers are on parole...

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Ryan
1689 London Baptist Confession

Davis,

I understand the distinction. I'm simply pointing out that it's not accurate in your situation to claim that you were saved immediately by the Holy Spirit (that is without means). Whether you can look to a specific person or not, you were exposed to the Word of God throughout your life. When the Holy Spirit converted you, it was through the means of the Word that you had some context for conversion. It's not as if you had never been exposed to the Gospel and the Holy Spirit simply transmitted all the Word of revelation directly into your mind.

Even hypocrites can't help being instruments of God's holy ends to the benefit of those He shows His grace to.

I didn't bring my Mom or the Priest in my story up because they took particular interest in my conversion or really even spoke to me about such things personally. I brought them up because I can see how they were means in a very complicated tapestry that God wove.

I understand.


I suppose the seeds were planted by the preaching of my father. They laid dormant in my heart until the Lord saw fit to cause them to take root.


I think I'm resentful toward my church for neglecting me after my dad died. And I don't like to think about my dad at all. It was probably just easier for me to say "The Holy Spirit" instead of thinking about the past.

I was raised in an evangelical church as well, but didn't ever really have the Gospel made clear to me for the first several years of my life. In my early elementary school days, I remember walking up to a neighbor on our street whom I had seen with a beer on more than one occasion, so I naturally assumed he wasn't saved. I briefly told him about Jesus, and mentioned something along the lines of, "And all you have to do is pray before meals and go to church on Sundays!" Neither my parents nor my church would ever advocate or even emphasize that mindset, but since the Gospel and the centrality of the Cross hadn't really been emphasized either at that point, those were the only things I knew to say, since they were the most tangible in my life.

I'm not exactly sure when I was converted, but I do know that it was gradually influenced by my children's pastor's preaching, and my own reading of the Scriptures through Christian books.

Wow, I never thought I'd meet another ex-Royal Ranger in my life! Which age-group were you a commander in? I went all the way from Straight Arrows, to Buckaroos, to Pioneers, to Trailblazers...never went on to Trail Rangers or my Gold Medal of Achievement, though, since the social pull of youth group eventually became too great!

I still remember all 16 points in the emblem, and while there is of course a significant amount of faulty theology and Christian living principles taught (as with almost any A/G program), I learned and experienced a lot in Royal Rangers that was beneficial as well. Plus I sure loved the annual pinewood derby, and even more so the one Camporama I attended.

__________________
Chris


A passion to know and reflect Christ by living and demonstrating the truth and richness of the historic Reformed faith

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Christopher Blum
Member of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Northern Kentucky (PCA) in Burlington, KY

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After being confirmed at the Methodist church in 9th grade, I was at a church service a week or so later reciting the Apostle's creed with everybody else, when it dawned on me that I didn't believe the words I was saying. As I said the words, "I believe in God the Father almighty", I realized I didn't even believe in God. I stopped reciting after that phrase, and just stood there. I couldn't continue saying something I didn't believe.

Shortly after that, since I was confirmed, my mom took me aside and told me that it was up to me whether to continue going to church or not. I'm not sure why she gave me that option, but realizing more and more that I was an athiest and that I believed all about Christianity was a myth, I stopped attending church. I told myself that I'd never go back again...but, God had other plans.

God used several people as instruments to draw me to himself, mostly some people who lived on my dorm floor when I was a freshman at college. Drinking never filled the void I was trying to fill, so when I went to college I decided not to drink anymore, but continued to look for meaninig in life. As an athiest, the one question that kept gnawing at me was what is the purpose for me being here? It made no sense to me to live for 70 years or so, and then die. What's the point? Is that all there is to life?

I got into TM for a while, looking for peace within. It brought peace (physical), but still there was a restlessness inside and I continued to ask those 'purpose questions'.

It seemed like there were only two types of people on my dorm floor, the partiers and the 'Jesus freaks'. I tried at first to avoid both groups, but several of the Christians befriended me after a while and began to challenge my beliefs, or lack thereof. One fellow in particular would use every opportunity to focus my attention on Jesus and scriptures. He didn't talk about religion, but seemed to always be asking me, "So, what do you think about Jesus and what he said?"

God used his faithful witness, and the witness of others, to bring me to the point where I could do business with God. I ended up using the scriptures in the 4 Spiritual Laws pamphlet when God drew me to himself. I've mentioned it before, but it still amazes me how God saved me. Up until the time I repented and sought God's forgiveness, I still didn't believe He existed. Immediately after my sin was forgiven, God became so real to me I thought I should kick myself for having waited so long. Praise the Lord for His goodness and His grace to this poor, wretched sinner!

I'm usually not an emotional person, but thinking of God's goodness to me in drawing me to himself brings me to tears, as He once again fulfills Psalm 51:12 in my life.

Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;

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B.Howes
Framingham, MA

It was the oldest group. The name escapes me because it was called one thing while I was doing it but then they were re-vamping the program in 1998 and I don't remember the name. I left shortly after it got re-vamped. I only did it for about a year because I had started reading R.C. Sproul about the time I began and I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the Charismatic Church we attended. One of the reasons I thank God is that I have lots of funny stories to tell people that are illustrative of why I'm not in those movements anymore.

My wife and I laugh about them all the time. There was this one lady that always used to bring her own tamborine to Church and would start using it in the middle of the singing. The problem was that she didn't have any rhythm and she would shake it hit it randomly. One morning her friend had enough and grabbed her hands and started forcing her to hit it according to the beat of the song.

Incidentally, I just thought of another Providence that led to my reformation. I had stopped going to Church altogether at 22. I attended sporadically in college (played guitar for the music group at Catholic Mass near campus). I met a girl when I moved to Monterey who was attending the Naval Postgraduate School. I asked her out to a movie and we sort of started dating. We realized, pretty quickly, that we were wrong for each other. She had gay friends in the Navy and I believed that was completely incompatible with military service and was a peversion according to the Bible.

She caught me on my hypocrisy, however. Here I was trying to stand on the Bible and what really amounted to "religious values" and she got fed up and said: "If you really believe this stuff, why don't you go to Church?!"

I took that as a sign from God. Literally, that afternoon, I picked up the Yellow Pages and flipped it open to Churches. I closed my eyes and randomly placed my finger down on the page. It landed on First Christian Church in Salinas, CA. Wasn't quite a convenient drive but I went the next morning. The music was awesome and is practically the only reason I thought I should stay at the time.

I became much more dedicated to being excited about being a Christian even though I didn't know what that meant. I also met the Jodikinos family there who had three daughters: Vicki, Sonya, and Gynny. Gynny had just gotten married when I got there and I thought Vicki and Sonya were really good looking but they both had boyfriends.

Sonya didn't have a boyfriend in December when she came home for Christmas break....

I was raised in a dispensational baptist church, said the "sinner's prayer" at a young age, was baptized and thought that I was saved. My parents divorced when I was around 11 and I no longer went to church. Throughout my teenage years I lived with my mother and pretty much did what I wanted proving my total depravity.

Sometime in '96-'97, I came across Harold Camping on the car radio. I was sure that the things that he was speaking about were unbliblical (they sure are now). I heard him talking about reformed doctrines (election, limited atonement, etc.) and dusted off my old Ryrie Study Bible to see for myself. I ended up listening to Family Radio and reading the scriptures on a daily basis. It was through that ministry that I saw my need for Christ. God used Mr. Camping to teach me to go to the scriptures. I still mourn about what's happened to Family Radio. God used it mightily at one time in my life.

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Dan
OPC
Pennsylvania

“Christ’s sacrifice is absolutely infinitely sufficient and utterly secures the salvation of anyone for whom it was made. To deny that would be to deny the gospel.” --- John Gerstner

My wife led me to the Lord. Actually, we were not even married yet, just dating (a whole 4 1/2 months from first date to marriage). I've only been a member of two churches, my current church and Branch of Hope OPC in Torrance, CA, which back then was nondenominational Reformed.

Among God's means to gather His sheep He certainly uses people. So there is no shame in acknowledging which person led you to Christ. I am eternally indebted to my wife, Teresa.

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BJ Mora
Grace OPC, Modesto, CA
Reformed & Presbyterian Churches & Denominations in North America

I was born into a Christian family, PTL! I don't have a conversion-experience to relate, because by His grace, I have believed in and loved the Lord as long as I can remember. But I do remember the first time I found out that there was such a thing as assurance of salvation (I was about 9 years old). It was like gold to me! All along, I'd just thought you didn't know if you were going to heaven until you got there. Almost like a lottery-acceptance-thing.

I'm very thankful for the Christian heritage given to me by my parents! (And that my mom straightened me out on the assurance of salvation stuff. Not that she used that term!)

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Kristine O.
Vancouver, WA
Hillcrest Chapel (non-denom.)
PCA-girl at heart
Daughter, Sister, Auntie, and Friend.

[I]"Our great Teacher never loses patience with His dull scholars."[/I] (Alexander Maclaren)

Having driven down that avenue many times, I can assure everyone else that it wasn't the scenery.

My experience is somewhat similar. I used to drive around and around fields in a tractor with a radio. The only station I could pick up carried J. Vernon McGee and Chuck Swindol. I learned to mock and imitate McGee and I would get mad at Swindol. Still, it drove me to buy a concordance so I could look up all these scriptures they were talking about so I could find a way to refute them.

But before that I was very sensitive to spritual things. I was confirmed in a social gospel Methodist church, but the hypocritical shallowness of it drove me to explore Catholicism. Bad choice, I worked as a church organist in a large Catholic church. It was all I could do to keep myself from shouting during a service that the priests were liars and thieves. I used to have vivid dreams about battling Satan while he resided in a church. Such were my passions in my early 20s.

I settled down to a truce with God. I'd leave him alone if he'd leave me alone. But I kept reading the Bible--for cultural literacy sake I kept telling myself. After many years of pagan and riotous living, God decided he was done leaving me alone. It happened because my wife started reading Genesis and said out loud about her friend, "uhoh, Cindy's right, the Bible is the Word of God." She looked at me as if to see what I thought and it all came crashing down. "Yes, it is, and Jesus Christ is the author." I was broken before I knew it, bowing the knee to my Lord.

Those sermons on the radio 20 some years earlier, plus my reading, finally broke through. I do have a thick head.

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Raymond Victor Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

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If you can say, yes, you believe this too, then you are most likely saved. (I cut and pasted my testimony...)

In August of 1997, I decided to go to a Presbyterian church. I met with the assistant pastor and his wife one day to talk about some of my fears about the world. They began to explain God’s perfection and that He is the creator of all things. The pastor told me about the consequences of Adam's disobedience that carried over into all humanity, including me. As our representative, Adam’s sin hindered me from believing in God because everyone's relationship with God was broken. I still did not understand so they explained God’s holiness and perfection made it impossible for Him to accept me as I was because my desires were focused on serving my selfish needs rather than God’s needs. The desires I had were what the Christians called sin. While they were talking, God began to move my heart to want to understand what they were saying. Then the pastor told me God’s plan to allow some people to enjoy His company. This plan involved Jesus Christ. Now, I had heard about Jesus, but I did not fully understand how He directly affected my life. So, the pastor told me about Jesus. Jesus never sinned, not even once did He think a mean thought or say a rude thing that was not in accordance with God’s perfect and loving laws. Jesus never sinned; therefore God used Jesus' perfect life as a substitute for our sinful lives. When Jesus died on the cross, God punished Jesus for all the sins I have committed. Since Jesus suffered God’s anger that I would have faced one day, God accepts my confession that Jesus took my place and imputes Jesus' perfect righteousness to me. God raised Jesus from the dead, and we have hope of future glory with him. At this point, I was very uncomfortable and did not want to listen any more, but at the same time, I wanted to know more. God was moving my heart to understand. The pastor told me, faith that Jesus did this, is like stepping off of a cliff but knowing that God would catch me, and I would not fall. Surprisingly, I felt that way, like a huge chasm was spread out before me, and I stepped off the cliff, and said, “Oh that's not so hard to understand.” God caught me! At that moment, I realized the truth that "he lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand" (Psalm 40:2). What took other people years of explaining about the Bible, God made clear to me in a few seconds. The pastor and his wife asked me if I received Jesus as my personal Lord and savior, and I said yes because I finally understood that Jesus saved me from the guilt and power of sin. After we prayed, I did not feel any different, but I knew something was supposed to be different because all the Christians said so. A few weeks later I had some traumatic experiences that led me to turn to God for support. My relationship with God was greatly strengthened because of His love and faithfulness during those sad times. My attitude toward life and reasons for living became to glorify God in all that I do and say. God truly made a drastic change in me. The changes God made in me were exciting.

As a good Southern boy my Grandma was the biggest influence used by the Holy Ghost to plant the seeds of our Holy Faith.

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et

John Chrysostom (349-407): It was the Scriptures which took me by the hand and led me to Christ. Fathers of the Church, Vol. 68, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, Disc. 1.6.5 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1979), pp. 23-24.

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Sola Scriptura est norma normans non normata
D. T. King, pastor
Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Elkton, Maryland
Augustine (354-430): Therefore what He [i.e., Christ] has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked. NPNF1: Vol. VII, Tractates on John, Tractate XXII, §1.

I am assuming your wifes name is Sonya. If that is the case I will have to start making all my decisions by opening the bible and pointing...it will make things a lot easier.

For me, the person who most influenced me when it come to the things of God was my best friend from California. Although we now are much different theologically, it was his Godly character that I noticed. Without a doubt, God used him to get to me.

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