catapult magazine

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discussion

questions on your faith

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deuce305
Nov 01 2003
12:56 am

When and how did your faith become yours, rather than something you were taught or heard about? When did it make sense to you or “click” that this was truth, that Christianity was the best path?

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grant
Nov 01 2003
07:35 am

I had a memorable “conversion” in the back seat of my car when I was five years old, after my sunday school teacher had prodded my class to take Jesus into our little hearts. I usually trusted adults and their instructions, and I did feel the “warm bright light inside” that people always talk about. It was a very memorable “first time”. In fact, it was so good that I asked Jesus into my heart a couple more times, for good measure, at various bible school and church functions in subsequent years.

It wasn’t until 9th Grade, when I was in a Public School and weening myself off Michael W. Smith and onto U2 that I started to take on reformational Christianity. There was a rebelliousness to it, since I didn’t have to be moralistic anymore (breaking some of the preconceived notions about Christianity that my unchurched friends had). And I felt like true Christianity was much more rock’n’roll than rock’n’roll itself, since many of the people around me were very conscientious about following the “rebel” dress code and putting the right amount of swear words into their speech so they could sound like they didn’t give a fuck. Also, I believed in Predestination, which automatically makes you pretty eccentric in a public school where the victory of the Enlightenment is regularly celebrated in history and literature classes.

As far as Christianity “clicking”, I think I’m always looking for the doubt that’s going to burst my Christian bubble, but when I read the Bible closely (and I’ve been doing that much more these days), it makes much more sense than any of the other philosophies or religious perspectives. In fact, the Bible speaks directly to many of the problems and issues of Western thought both during the Greek and Roman period and still today. I feel like I’ve underestimated the power and testimony of Scripture, probably because I was taught to read it wrongly when I was in church and sunday school (as a moral document rather than as a historical account of God’s sovereignty). As I read the Bible now, I think I’m still learning why the path my parents and adults told me was the best way is really the best way. Though I’ve heard many arguments for other ways, they still seem less powerful than the ones the Bible sets forth. But maybe it’s just that the back seat experience I had with Jesus left me so smitten that I’ve only got eyes for him now.

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JabirdV
Nov 01 2003
08:45 am

I grew up in the Nazarene Church (a Wesleyan theologically based denomination) and whilst I made a choice at a very young age to accept Christ into my life, I really didn’t know what that truly meant for most of my adolecence. After years of blatanlty non-Christ likedness, I recommitted in my late teens. I thought that I would serve God best in some form of ministry capacity, so I abandoned a full ride at GIT (Guitar Institute Of Technology) and went to a respectable Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas. I still wrestled with much of the theological perspective and could never fully commit my heart to the faith because of that.

I took a job at a christian bookstore and ended up in shipping and receiving. Whilst there, my manager and I had lengthy conversations about philosophy, faith, doctrine and theology. He introduced me to Francis Schaeffer (and The Choir). He gave me a King James bible and told me to try reading it, as opposed to the NIV (not that he was saying the NIV was bad…just a different linguistic perspective) and assured me that if kept my heart open, God would lead.

What happened was that I started discovering that there were reasons I had problems with the theology I grew up in. There were problems with the approach to the scriptures that I was unaware of whilst in the middle of it. God started reforming my view of Himself and His word and before you knew it I was digging through Calvinism and eating up everything I could find. I got really hungry for knowledge of who God is and what His design (through time and space) was really all about. I guess that a spiritual foundation was being laid that instilled a deeper faith than I had ever known.

I guess that in essence, if we are to truly live as spiritual beings in the physical world we must submit constantly to the leading of the Spirit. That often means becoming uncomfortable with the safety of our religiosity. Faith cannot be manifested, nor nurtured, when God is not seen clearly for Who and What He is.

As most people around these *cinitial parts, I have had my struggles and moments of the proverbial “shaking your fist at God”. I am finding that the tough times are not really faith builders…they are experience builders. It is the breaking that builds faith. When God literally strips away what is blocking your view of Him faith is built. Faith has a price…self.

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Mac7
Nov 13 2005
04:18 pm

Your faith becomes yours when you choose to consciously accept it and believe in it….essentially when you make the choice to have faith in your ‘faith’