Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/12/84; site aero.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!aero!homeier From: homeier@aero.ARPA (Peter Homeier) Newsgroups: net.religion.christian Subject: Re: Some Personal thoughts on coming to know God Message-ID: <408@aero.ARPA> Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 16:16:21 EDT Article-I.D.: aero.408 Posted: Fri Aug 30 16:16:21 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 07:15:40 EDT References: <88@decwrl.UUCP> Reply-To: homeier@aero.UUCP (Peter Homeier) Distribution: net.religion.christian Organization: The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA Lines: 128 Summary: In article <88@decwrl.UUCP> levasseur@morgan.DEC (Ray EMD & S Admin 223-5027) writes: > I have never posted to tis group before but have been casually reading >it for the past few weeks. I would like to share what I believe God has >become to me. Ray then went on to describe his childhood apart from God, the crisis with his father dying, and the breakdown and recovery he experienced. He then shared with us from his heart things that he had come to out of all of his sufferring. I just felt that this was one of the most heartwarming and open-hearted letters I have read on this board. It reminded me that some of the most appealing things we can say are just what has happened to us, and how in our personal experience God has touched us. In this spirit, I would like to invite the Christians listening here to contribute their individual stories, of how they were saved, or rededicated their lives, or were filled with the Spirit. I would suggest describing the experience mostly, although of course it's fine to state the truths that became foundations in your life. For some people it was a very quiet thing, and for others it was a dramatic moment. But each one has a vitally important story to tell, because it was that way that the Lord Jesus chose to reveal Himself to you, and we can all profit by your sharing. To start things off, I'd like to describe the night that changed my life. I believe that I was a Christian from a very early age, although I cannot point to a specific moment of decision. But it was a very distant thing for me. I believed that there was a God and that He loved me, but I didn't understand exactly who Jesus was, or why He came, but I did love Him. I would call myself a "nominal" Christian at that time, having salvation but not much more, certainly not very interested in God and religion, but nevertheless having a certain hunger for righteousness and truth, which in me expressed itself as a delight in mathematics as a kind of "absolute" truth. I was very skeptical, even cynically suspicious, of those "fundamentalist, Bible-thumping folk trying to scare everyone with stories about Hellfire". I didn't go to church, although I did think that it was probably a good thing. But I was scared of people using the position of religiosity to impose their own man-made thoughts on me. I trusted God, but certainly not men. Actually, I still think that way a lot, having seen both trustworthy men and untrustworthy men, but the difference is that I have found out that you can't live without trusting people to some degree. I believed that the Bible was true, but I had never read beyond Genesis and Exodus very far (I always thought that you were supposed to start at the beginning! and so I never got to the New Testament). I went to CalTech as an undergraduate in 1974, and heard about a Christian fellowship of students there that some of my friends (and my roommate) belonged to. I was suspicious of their motives, and did not go. However, I couldn't help comparing the Christians I knew with the other non-Christians on campus. I saw the Christians at least trying to love people, however ineptly, whereas the non-Christians really didn't care at all. In September 1975, just after the beginning of my sophmore year, a couple of friends of mine came into my dorm room one evening as I was studying. One was my roommate, and the other another Christian I knew. We began to talk about God, and the conversation developed in all kinds of delightful ways as we talked about the Spirit of God, and how He was working in the lives of people today in miraculous ways. They told me about things that I had never heard of, about a baptism in the Spirit, and about miracles of healing, and speaking in other tongues which the speaker did not understand. I was amazed and super interested. After about two hours, the fellows asked me if I was interested in having them pray for me to receive this Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Having known these guys personally, I knew they weren't fooling me, and I just said, "Sure!" If there was something more to God than what I had experienced, I wanted it. They laid their hands on me and we all began to pray. As we prayed, I heard one of the guys begin to speak in another language, and a shiver went down my back. I knew that he didn't know that language, but he was speaking in it fluently. As we continued to pray, I began to feel something inside me, like a warmth in my chest. It grew and grew in intensity, and became more and more powerful, until it was like I was sitting under an invisible waterfall, where all of these hundreds and thousands of gallons of water were splashing down upon me. But instead of splashing around me, it was like it was washing right THROUGH me, inside my head, through my chest, down my legs and out! And instead of water, it was something indescribable, sort of like light, and joy, and peace, and laughter. The best word I can find to describe it is just pure glory. And this glory was washing down through me and through me and I was laughing and crying and I didn't know what on earth was happening to me. After a while the sensation lessened, and it gradually grew less, and faded away. But I was grinning for three days afterwards! If you think that that is an exaggeration, write me and I'll give you the arpanet address of my roommate, who was there that night. I was just walking around with this silly grin on my face. I had been touched by a God who I hadn't known could touch people today. After this I thought, "Boy, there is something REAL here, which I didn't know about before. This was no invention of a man, this happened to ME. And I know I didn't make it up." So I started trying to find out what had happened. It was sort of like I had been feeling my way blindly through a thick fog at night, when suddenly I had brushed up against something hard and solid, something solid you could cling to. I started going to that Christian fellowship on campus, started reading my Bible, started going to church, and learning to love God. It didn't happen overnight, there were plenty of times I said "No!" but God was patient and He always waited for me. I started discovering just what people had meant when they had talked about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I became aware of His presence, and learned to share all of my life with Him. And the result was that I gave my life to Jesus. I learned to acknowledge and confess my sins, and accept the free forgiveness. I learned how that forgiveness was purchased at Calvary. And I learned about the Holy Spirit and what that baptism that I had experienced meant. Now it's been almost ten years since that night of glory. I have gone through some incredible experiences and some horrible calamities since then, but Jesus has never left me, even in the darkest hour. I have learned and grown a lot in Him, but what it all comes down to, in the end, is just "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." That's what happened to me. What was it like for you? In Jesus's name, Peter Homeier ARPANET: homeier@aerospace -- Peter Homeier ______ Arpanet: homeier@aerospace / o \_/ UUCP: ..!ihnp4!trwrb!aero!homeier \__/___/ \