2023-10-24 20:11:58
Stories of faith involving people who initially live as skeptics about the existence of God are usually accompanied by reports of disdain or mockery towards those who have faith.
A man named Mike shared his conversion story in a series about testimonies of faith. Growing up in a secularist family in Australia, which completely rejected religion, he was completely unaware of any Christian references.
“I grew up in a secular home where religion was categorically rejected. It was seen as a crutch, and people of faith were ridiculed as morally deviant hypocrites,” he told the portal Eternity News in the series on testimonies of faith.
When a fellow soldier invited him to church, he accepted out of curiosity, and ended up discovering that his assumptions about Christianity were all wrong: “I started reading the New Testament for myself. The Jesus I encountered was very different from the deluded and radical, even mythical, character who was described to me. This Jesus was real. He touched on things that touched my heart, especially as I reflected on the meaning of human existence,” he described.
As he learned about Christianity from the Bible, he became impressed by what the first Christians faced in the name of their faith in Jesus: “In the death of Christ, God conquered evil and, through his resurrection, brought life and hope to everyone.”
“When I went from unbelief to faith, all the pieces suddenly started to fall into place. I always felt a strange discomfort because of my unbelief. I had a strong suspicion that there might be something more, but I was told not to think about it,” she recalled.
In a subtle way, Mike exposed with his report, to a certain extent, the degree of Existing activism in atheist circleswho not only reject faith and ridicule those who seek a transcendent meaning in life, but act in a militant way to curtail religious freedom.
“As faith grew, I came across a whole new world that, for the first time, really made sense to me. My life changed immediately. I started reading the Bible daily and started studying about theology, to learn about the lives of important men and women in church history,” she added.
The passage from Galatians 2:20 had a strong impact on him: “So it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And this life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
As he gave his life to Jesus, this verse accompanied him through all times, good and bad: “Today, I do not find faith suffocating or restrictive. On the contrary, faith has been liberating and transformative for me. She gave me meaning, beauty, hope and life”, he concluded.
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