I grew up in a home where we went to church most Sunday’s, because that’s what we were supposed to do, faith was something I was supposed to have but we couldn’t really explain why, we recited prayers, kind of just an obligation versus something we really took joy in etc(this is what I saw as a kid, so maybe I just didnt see that there was more to it). But at the age of ten I had decided I did not want to spend eternity apart from God, experiencing His just wrath...went through a baptism class and was baptized, then basically just tried to be what I thought was a good Christian, but honestly spent most of my teens and early twenties partying and drunk and trying to pick up women, then trying to pray for forgiveness and reconciling my “fun” with the conviction I felt, convincing myself that at least I wasn’t doing drugs, or stealing, or ruining anybody’s marriage etc...but I didn’t feel right and just kept telling myself I’d stop when I was older.

This is what I was doing when I met my wife, at a bar in Manhattan KS after a KSTATE fb game, I talked with her and tried like crazy to get a kiss and she wouldn’t give me one, but we started dating. She had been very active in her youth group and then had been hurt and was a little bitter towards her church experience, but as we became more serious in our relationship we began to talk about faith more deeply and she introduced me to Matt Chandler from The Village Church’s sermons online and I heard him preach a sermon he called “the explicit Gospel” in 2011 and was struck by the genuine passion in his preaching and the radical (to me) life that Christians are called to in the Bible. It hit me hard that this was what I had believed in but had never had explained or modeled for me, that faith was more than saying you were a Christian and trying your best to act right, and I was overwhelmed by a conviction of the sin id been not only living in but justifying for so long. Then the beauty of the cross really began to set in, I was in tears that a God so holy, so righteous, so worthy of obedience and praise, would have so much grace to pursue me and place people and songs and situations and sermons in my life and draw me to Him, an idolatrous, rebellious, foolish, arrogant sinner like me. I immediately began to read my Bible for hours at night, would sometimes read a verse I had learned in Sunday school and it was like seeing it for the first time, and I’d be crying and praying.

That same year my wife(girlfriend at the time) was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma and watching her faith grow through the trials of her chemotherapy and radiation therapy for months just encouraged me to dive in even deeper, that she could be going through something like this and have not just an obligatory but a joyous faith was so powerful. It was then that I read Desiring God for the first time and that book has been such a big impact on my faith walk, and I couldn’t recommend it more.

There are always new sins being revealed in my life and old battles I thought were over raise thier ugly heads every now and again, but I know now it’s not about what I do but about what Christ has done, and what He has done motivates me to pick up my cross each day and my goal now as a father is to model humble, obedient, seriously joyful faith, the kind Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 6:3-13, and make my home a place where my kids can see and hear me talk to God in prayer in a way I never witnessed growing up, and where the fruit of the Spirit is visible in my life, that I would run the race with endurance.


This was a long post but I couldn’t cut out anything that was so important to my testimony and I think this was the point of the thread, so may as well be thorough.

Now that's deep! I can't even conceive what you've been through.

I had to get away front the church

My mother made us attend church.Some happy she did.

Great testimony Derek, thanks for sharing.

The pandemic, Phil Robertson, Trapperman. In that order. Haven't arrived yet, but it's a journey, right?

I was actually, really, finally, and forever saved some 2000 years ago on a hill outside Jerusalem. Jesus really died specifically for me and my sins on that black day.

I grew up in a Christian family, church, and high school. When I was five years old I said a prayer asking Jesus to come into my heart.

In my high school years I had to reject Christianity because I figured it didn't make any sense. Christianity claims God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and sovereign over the events of this world. It claims God created me as an individual and is in control of the world around me. I determined that a just God could not create a person and put them in an environment where they never hear of Jesus Christ, or are taught all their life that he is a fraud, and then condemn them to (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) for not believing in him. God couldn't justly do that to someone while he gave me all the advantages of a Christian upbringing, parents, friends, teachers... and then reward me with eternal life. It's not even close to fair that I should have all the rewards of union with Christ because I took the easiest route of choosing to follow him while someone else who is trained by God's world NOT to believe is sent to Hades.

One day I explained this to a pastor friend and he showed me where the Bible says that unregenerate man is the enemy of God, dead in his sins, and unable to choose to follow Christ unless God gives him a new heart. He showed me where the Bible says that faith is a gift of God, not something that comes from within ourselves. He showed me that I would never choose to follow Christ out of my own natural choice. He helped me understand that all the Sunday school classes and Bible memory verses in the world would never be enough to make me submit to Jesus Christ as Lord. And THAT is exactly the moment it hit me like a freight train that I didn't need to make the right decision to put my faith in God and follow Christ. NO! What I needed was a SAVIOR to rescue me from my depravity. I realized that it wasn't that I just committed some sinful acts sometimes that I needed to apologize for. I realized I was a fallen human being in my very nature and I needed to be transformed and changed. And that's when it all started to make sense.

So, when did I become a child of God? I don't know. Was it when I was five years old and had a child-like faith? Was it when I was in my early twenties and realized that in my core I was truly a sinner in need of a savior? Or, was it the day they crucified my Lord? Maybe it was all of them.

Amen Kart29

Reminds me of Jesse Ventura's comment on religion. He agreed with your first sentence, but went on to say that religion was a crutch for weak-minded people.

Was the OP's question related to a "come to the faith" of Christianity?

Blessings,
Mark

Pretty safe assumption, Mark.

I was just wondering as some of the answers don't reflect the relational aspect of the Christian faith which is the one New Man = Jew + Gentile = made effectual by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
If someone says they are saved by grace through faith in Jesus as the Christ and then they follow that up with they don't need anyone else in that circumstance, they miss the entirety of Jesus' Gospel, which is a wine branch without the vine stem or wine dresser.

The Body of Christ, is all believers, and is New Man of Ephesians 2:15, which was foretold in all the OT.
An individual faith with no need for anyone else would be called a modern spiritist theology, not Christianity.
To not know this is fine and would need to be corrected (2 Tim 3:16), but to declare it as your brand of Christianity... well, there's no such thing because in elevating such a theology, a person then minimizes the sacrifice of the Lamb on the Cross.

Blessings,
Mark

Mark I’m not challenging you just trying to figure out what you are saying. Isn’t a personal testimony what God did in your life, grafting you into the new plant, adopting you into the family? The thread was sharing that life changing testimony. Like Paul meeting Jesus and being struck blind on the Damascus road, or Luther in the storm on his way back to law school, or Augustine hearing a voice saying “take up and read”.

I don’t question for a second the importance of the body of the church after that salvation, we are part of a body and what good is a foot without a leg, only unified is the body fully functional, and it is called out that we should not neglect to meet as some are apt to do. It is so critical in the life of a believer that they be in fellowship with other believers! And the body transcends city, state, and national borders, we are one body of believers with Christians the world over.

So maybe I misunderstand, but I thought we were just telling the part about our eyes being opened, the first step of a long journey we take with fellow believers. Like I said I’m not really questioning you, I agree, just explaining what I understood the intent of the op to be. Thanks for your input as always

I also want to clarify I can’t say it enough how important worshiping together with the body of believers is. It is our purpose, what we were made for.

Spot on.

Maybe Mark will share his so we can see what a real one looks like. If he's not to humble to talk about himself.

I spent 30 some years of my life thinking I was strong enough and smart enough to make life live by my terms. The Holy Spirit started opening my eyes and softening my heart preparing me for what was coming next in life. God saw me through 4 pretty tough years after that and I haven't turned my back since.If my eyes had been opened i would have never seen what i need saved from. I've lived on both sides of the road and can clearly see the difference. I couldn't imagine going back.

Easy y'all. I am not the redeemer so I have no say in the redemption process or who is or isn't justified or sanctified depending on your theological stance.
But I see from the bows and arrows shot at me, that the modern teaching of our faith (Christianity) is on full display. Which is fine. I work in a pluralist - all roads lead to Jesus hospital setting most days, so I'm used to it.

But, I was digging deeper into a theme I was reading here on Tman;

Which is that Christianity is something we do alone or is done to us alone.

God pricking and circumcising hearts one by one? Sure. That's written all over the Old and New Testament.
But.... me and my Bible, and my God, and my way of life without any other believers?
That is not biblical and that is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ at its core. What that thinking is and always will be is a constructed conspiracy of falsehood of the flesh (I don't care for those people), the world (why would you want to be with those people?), and Satan (did God really say you have to be with other people?).

My testimony of coming to faith? I'm still living it. And by God's grace I'll die to this life able to do the same.
Because I'm not a lamp with a shade over it I pray.
A coming to faith implies a continuing testimony of it, empowered by the same God that retooled our hearts in the 1st place.

Question y'all and it's a solid one:
Who sold us on the fact that the Christian faith is a one and done?

There is no faith called Christianity that includes a one and done. That is a false teaching.
Not to be confused with the circumcision of someone's heart that allows people who are called one by one by God, and gifted by the power of His Spirit, to do a task.
That's biblical y'all.
We who are called by God's Grace are now part of a Body.
Why would we need the Holy Spirit within us anyway if it was a one and done?

What is the Spirit's purpose?
Ah, there's the book of Romans, Ephesians and ALL the New Covenant writings!
The Spirit was given in Acts 2, to empower the Apostles to teach those whom God was gathering (and still is) the teachings of the Gospel until such time as Jesus comes back the 2nd time.
When's He coming back?
We're not sure right, but until that time we are called for a reason and that reason is can not be for a one and done and "I got my heaven!".... "Good luck to y'all. Hope y'all make it to heaven like me!"
Because that is all false teachings Paul and Peter and John wrote extensively about.

Hope this clarifies.
Blessings,
Mark

If saved but not discipled, one can go astray. Been there done that. So the body is of the highest importance as long as the body does what it is called to do.

Wow.....

Agree JS. The deceiver does his best work if he keeps us as loners.

Here's big picture 30,000 foot view Q;
Why do we think Jesus called in Scripture = the Bridegroom even came to earth as the Godman?
Do I think the God who made me sent Jesus to save me?
That's the 6'1" vision. Me.
Let's think about the 30,000 view even though my flesh like the 6'1" bestest, best, and best.

We need to understand that there is a Bride for the Bridegroom and at a time called the Day of the Lord, the Bride will be given to the Bridegroom.
One man and one woman = one flesh covenant (Genesis 2:24) is a glimpse of what is to come.
Because the one flesh covenant of the Ephesians 2:15 One Humanity (Jew and Gentile = that's all of us) with Christ as the Head above it (Ephesians 1:22) is key.
This IS the Bride = the Body of believers. With a One-Flesh relationship to Jesus as the Head.
As man is the head of the woman one flesh.

You know, it's all laid out if we'd only listen and respond to the Word of our Father in Heaven.
But I don't all the time so I need the Spirit's leading.

UNITY. It's what the Bride was/is all about. Perfection? It can't be.
So that the world would see - in us who are believers - the unity the unbelievers wish... and hopefully some day pray for.

We're all not much different than those 1st believers y'all. And God knows that. Unity of the Faith is important to pray about often.
We pray for one another. You see it here on this forum as it is in heaven.
We stand no chance agains the flesh, the world, and Satan alone. And God knows that also.

Ephesians 4:11-16;
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Blessings,
Mark