Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: muts@fysaj.fys.ruu.nl (Peter Mutsaers /100000) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: How did you become a Christian? Message-ID: Date: 5 Aug 90 23:21:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 56 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu cedric@fuzzy.corp.sun.com (Cedric Chin) writes: >I'm curious and would like to know how you became a Christian -- or >what's keeping you from becoming one. OK, this is (very short) how I became a christian: I was a shortwave listener, and often then you receive christian stations too. My interest for faith in general was already there because I had been reading in the bible for a while. I liked mythology stories a lot, I just had read the Egyptian and the Nordic ones, and now I had started to read the Jewish/Christian 'mythology'. This, in combination with some radio programs, fascinated me. I was looking for answers that arose to me because of some colleges on quantum mechanics and cosmology (I study physics), and I saw that the Christian faith would answer many of my questions. Besides, I knew that if God exists, that He probably must have a pupose with the earth, so the question was: Which religion is right? I found out that all religions, except for Christianity, are basically the same. Christianity is unique because Jesus does NOT teach that we must make ourselves acceptable for God in some way (offering, going to church, be a nice person, money, rituals) but that it is the other way round: We can only depend on Gods grace first, then He will change us through His Spirit, and make us holy. So I felt that, once you are on the point of choosing one of the religions, you can only choose Christianity. Maybe this is not 100% true if you only use your mind, but of course God was working too at that time. So I decided I wanted to become a Christian, but I had never had any contact with a Christian about the faith. (I live in a part of Holland where people just do not talk about religion, it's a kind of taboo). I was just praying on a day to God that I needed to have contact to Christians. Then I turned around 1 second later and I saw a poster of an IFES Christian student group. This was an answer and confirmation to me that I had made the right decision. I went to this student group and I have been involved there now for 4 years, in the beginning I learned there all the basics of the faith and the Christian life, later it was a place where I could pass on what I had learned and grow further. God can work in wondrous ways, even by radio without other people. Especially Trans World Radio has been a very important factor in the beginning. As you can imagine, for my experience of faith Gods wotd is very central, as I really have experienced what power it has. It was not people, or feelings, or friendship, but Gods word that convinced me. (not to say that in other cases love and friendship of people cannot be very important). -- Peter Mutsaers email: muts@fysaj.fys.ruu.nl Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht nmutsaer@ruunsa.fys.ruu.nl Princetonplein 5 tel: (+31)-(0)30-534504 3584 CG Utrecht, Netherlands