Where is God?
How do I know for a fact God is real?
What if the Bible is just a book of fairy tales?
Who is to say the other religions don't have it right, and we have it wrong?
Have one or more of the above questions ever gone through your head?
As much as I hate to admit it, questions like these have been plaguing my mind for a few weeks now. I've grown up in church and have been a "good girl". I was the kid who was there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, and ever other time. Those things alone though can't get you to Heaven. You have to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
Like I said above, I was always the church kid. I said the prayers, I tried to obey all the rules my Sunday school teaches taught about, I have even been baptized...but nothing was ever "REAL"
September 11, 2011 is the date I finally nailed down my salvation for good. It was during the evening service that Sunday. My pastor had been preaching on Revelation and the end times. I was terrified. But I was good, but not good enough to get to heaven, no one is that good on their own. The conviction was heavy on my heart, but I was ready to get up and walk out that service as quick as I could.
What kept me from fleeing though was the love of my best friend. She saw straight through whatever facade I was trying to make to cover my fear.
So right there in the sanctuary, with my best friend on one side of me and my pastor's amazing wife on the other. I surrendered all. All to Jesus, I surrendered.
From that day on...I never doubted was salvation...WRONG
Welcome to Religion 101 (from a secular university stand point) .... :S
January of 2012 I decided to take an introduction to world religions class...little did I fully understand what I was getting myself into. Everything was going well, I breezed though Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, but once we hit Judaism...the doubts started.
- The Jews are God's chosen people, but Christians think they are to replace the Jews
- They believe mostly the same thing Christians believe, Christians just added their own books to it.
- The Christians are responsible for the Holocaust
I decided to try to keep a clear mind so I text my pastor, only to have him call me.
I told him what was going on, and what was going through my head. He assured me that one of the great things about Christianity was that we could KNOW if our salvation was real of not. and that once we had it, there was no losing it. We are under grace and nothing I do can separate me from God, the price had been paid. I was free. He proceeded to tell me that these doubts could be occurring for 3 reasons:
- I really wasn't saved and it was God convicting me to follow Him
- I had become complacent and slowly walking away from God
- Satan was using the situation I was in to confuse me so I would be of no use to the Kingdom
After our conversation, I posted a simple status to facebook, "Need some prayer warriors right now...." and right away got a response of prayer from 2 very wonderful women in my church, neither one of them even knowing exactly what was going on. I stayed seated in the car for a little longer, before I decided to grab my Apologetic s study Bible and head inside.
Then I met Hal....
On my way inside, I was greeted by Hal Crenshaw. Hal was at my house to spray for termites and pests so they couldn't get inside the house. Little did I know that this greeting was ordained by God to show himself to me.
Hal came over and shook my hand, and when he did he asked what book I was carrying. I shyly showed him the cover and told him it was a study bible. "Cool", he replied, "that was going to be my first question, I was going to ask if you were a Christian." I looked at him and just nodded. He continued, " that's a good reference Bible you have there, I graduated from Bible college and my main focus area was Apologetics. Just the other day I was witnessing to a Jewish man and he just broke down in tears. He thought what he believed was good enough and I had to convince him that Jesus was the Messiah that his holy book foretold"
~~Wait! Time Out! Was he ease dropping on my phone call? Well, there was no way he could have. I was in the car, with my windows rolled up, and Hal was all the way across the yard, with a drill running, under the house!! ~~~
I was shocked. That was just too perfect! I continued to listen to Hal talk and became increasingly more brought in by his words. Everything he said was in perfect align with what my pastor had just told me 10 minutes earlier, you would have though they had planned it! but they had never even met, and my pastor was on the interstate in the mountains!
Hal continued to talk about assurance and how there is no way you can lose you salvation, because it's not based on what WE do but what CHRIST does for us. How his grace is perfect and how Satan will try to use situations to confuse us so we aren't of any use to the kingdom (sound familiar?) Then he said "Satan can do whatever he wants to confuse our heads, but our faith lies in our heart and Satan can't break that."
That is just too cool to be a coincidence if you ask me. 2 women, both praying for their friend even though they didn't know the circumstances... and 2 men, hundreds of miles apart, both with the same message and encouragement at just the right time to convince this doubting girl that what she has is real because the God who gave it to her is realer than real.
I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it. My peace is back and I'm ready to continue moving forward.
What about you? Are you having doubts? Do you need God to reveal the truth of Himself and His Word to you? He will if you ask Him to :) I believe that because He did it for me!
John 14:21
"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
Live...Laugh...Love
Until Next Time,
Racheal <3
No comments:
Post a Comment