My Mother ,.thank God ,.raised me in very much the same fashion ,.She wanted us to have the freedom to choose what we believed in,.and I too had placed my foolish trust in science ,.and have studied ,.and still do continue to study many fields ,.God does not want us to check our brains at the door,...
,..while studying the field of philosophy ,.we learned how logically,.God must exist ,,..I believed in God,..yet still I doubted the Bible,..
,..while studying the nature of religion,.we learned who wrote and re-wrote the Bible ,.and for what purpose ,.still I doubted the story of Jesus,...not fully understanding the concept of the Holy Trinity ,.that though being the Son of God ,.He was in fact still God,...
,..eventually like my friend had said many times,.how he could not knock the Bible because he had never read it,.I decided that while I was locked up in a high security solitary cell ,.I may as well read it,.so I did ,.and still I missed the message of salvation that it contains,...for I did not truly believe,.nor did I understand what it meant to truly repent ,.my heart was still full of hate and pride,...
,..and though I will gladly speak freely with you of what I believe ,.it may be to no avail ,.because only God's laws will weigh heavy on your heart ,.I hope and pray that your heart will not remain so full and puffed up with pride and doubt and fear and rebellion ,,.like mine was,..that it might end up being too late for you to feel the weight of His laws upon it,.and that we have all broken them ,..that we all require salvation ,.and that there is nothing that we can do to gain it ,.outside of Jesus,..
I did not understand that Jesus was God ,.He is God ,.and it is only by the power of His Holy Spirit that you will be drawn towards Him ,.and find the Truth ,.the Truth that once you come to know it will set you free,..
,..I have been a new believer in Christ for less than one year and I can not tell you exactly when God made me a Christian ,...I can tell you that the first time I had ever been in a Church ,.other than for a wedding or a funeral,.I felt the touch of God ,.and I do not mean that in a figurative way ,.I mean I actually felt it ,.on my arm ,.and I was as you may imagine ,.thinking like,.what the hell was that ! And it was not for many weeks later that I somehow found myself in yet another Church ,.rigid in my doubt and disbelief in what I could only see as a mere religion,...staunch in my trust for science and still needing more proof,..full of pride still in my ability to do things without God ,.and better than God,..and all I did was sit and answer the questions that were put to me by six Saints,.and I answered them as truthfully as I could ,..
,..and Nick ,..I have to tell you ,..it ended up coming down to this one thing ,..we all must make a choice ,.a very important choice ,.the MOST important choice ,..who are you going to fight for ,..what team do you want to be on ,..if you do not choose to be on God's team ,.if you do not choose to fight for God ,..by default you are choosing to fight for the enemy ,.and by not making a choice ,..you already have ,.and you may not believe that you have chosen and are if fact fighting for satan ,.yet you have fallen for his trap and are playing right into his hand ,..I have watched your videos ,.and I have been down that road before ,..mistrust ,.doubt ,. conspiracies,.lies,.more and more worldly things designed for the soul purpose of keeping your focus off of what matters most of all,.the Truth of Jesus.
The good thing I can say is that at least you are seeking the truth ,..there is something inside of you that deep down knows that there must be more to this life ,.and I can assure you there is ,.there most certainly is ,.so much more,.life itself,.and life more abundant! What you do not realize is that you are dead,.yes you may have a body and a soul ,.a soul that satan is trying to destroy ,.yet you remain spiritually dead,. to gain true life ,.life everlasting,.eternal life,..you must become born again,.born into Christ ,.
,..so I ask you Nick ,.being a man of science,.who gets his results to his hypotheses by performing experiments and analyzing data,..have you analyzed the data in the Bible ,.have you prior to making up your mind about it, even read it ? Even though I can not promise that if you read the Bible you will be saved,.... God promises us that if we seek we will find ,.and if we ask ,.we will receive,.that if we seek first the kingdom of Heaven,..He will provide for us ,.His Children what we need,..what we need is salvation from eternal death and condemnation for our sins against the Almighty and Powerful God ,.He has given you the gift of free will,.much like your parents have,.so choose wisely,.the time we have here on this earth is short ,.but a mere single grain of sand on the beach of eternity,..and as the first hand accounts of Jesus dying upon the cross for our sins detail ,.He then rose again three days later having defeated death ,..this is the Gospel ,.someone had to pay for our sins,. because Jesus lived a sinless life,. he was the Lamb of God which needed to be sacrificed so that we could be able to have a relationship with God again under His new covenant,...
I still remember what it felt like to hear these kinds of things as a non-believer,..you feel a cringe,.you feel you are being preached at ,..the Bible itself even says that you will not understand it unless you are a believer ,..and I ,.nor yourself ,.nor anyone but God Himself can make you a Christian,.a believer in Christ,..the only challenge Nick ,.is that He gave you free will ,.and will not make you a Christian unless you ask Him to ,.so do you want to be on the winning team ,.for though the battle rages on all around us ,.Jesus won the Victory over satan and death upon the cross,..so the war has already been won,.we are trying to help you fight that battle against the one who is deceiving you ,.the one who right now is making you think that this is all crazy ,.and that you need not pay any attention to this MOST important of choices ,.do you want to make peace with God ,.and stop fighting against Him ,.so that He can save you from playing for the losing team and the eternal death and damnation that comes along with it,.who will you choose Nick? Jesus or satan ? Jesus is The Way,.The Truth,.and The Life ,..satan is all lies and death,..who will you choose,..?
(this was to be posted in response to Nick on Empire Avenue ,.in continuation of the conversation posted below.. substitute Nicks name for any non-believing atheist or agnostic,....this is for anyone ,.and everyone ,.we all must make this choice ,.please ,.please,.God ,.help us to all choose wisely ! )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRBFxAKt8AA
Growing up without being surrounded by religious words and symbols, gave me the chance to earn my own values by discovering life by myself. I'm a man of science. I want proof and verifiable results. In doubt, i make hypothesis that are plausible in a scientific way.
Did you ever question yourself why you believe in God ? Not if "he" exist, but why you think it exist. Why this date or why 12 guys. Who re-wrote the bible and for what purpose. When you'll be able to speak freely about the thing you believe in, without giving me lines from books or pastors, i'll respect you for that.
Jesus isn't hope. It's a stall. If you don't think this way, your not part of the humanity i hope in. Sorry !
posted about 5 hours ago