My personal witness for Jesus

[andromeda1]

This is the 7th anniversary of the only time Jesus spoke to me. I was 47, living in a small town in Ohio, my wife and daughter were crying because I was dying from a heart attack. Jesus told me that everything would be "all right" and that he would be with me until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). He told me that he had lined up all the resources needed to save my life just for this moment and that these kinds of miracles (involving people helping people) were much harder than if he just removed my blockage with a miracle. Then he left me with a question "How much time and effort did I invest in all of these health care workers to keep you alive?" Much later, after I survived my heart attack, I estimated he had over a century of education and tens of millions of dollars invested in me!

At the time I was attending a Nazarene church which had some sort of holiness doctrine I could never line up with scripture.When I read the post on Calvinist philosophy, I understood why this doctrine is illogical.

Fortunately I was raised as an atheist and became a Christian as an adult. This meant that when I read the Bible and prayed I was not hindered by a lot of weird stuff. I pray for all of you raised thinking you have to believe a certain way and pray a certain way, etc.

Personally, I had been accosted several times by people with tracts trying to save me from hell. This always seemed like a bad reason to follow Jesus since taught love and gave himself to save us from our sins. I was convinced by the writings of C.S. Lewis and others that Christianity was real and also intellectually honest.

Clearly, Jesus' sacrifice was for all people across all eternity. Any other teaching cheapens his awful death by torture and cruxifiction. But, since we have free will, we can choose to ignore him. I leave the issues of heaven and hell up to our Creator, but I lean to the views of this site that eventually all of us will choose life with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit over existence with Satan in some other location. I like the book The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis where those in hell can take the bus to heaven whenever they choose to follow Jesus.

All of this hell stuff messes up our witness for Jesus. He only left two instructions, Love one another as he loved us, and witness what he's done for us by our thoughts, words, and deeds. It seems to me that Christians who focus judging others, who's going to hell, which is the worst sin, etc. have missed the main message and mission of our savior. My near death encounter with Jesus focused on his love for me and how we, as Christians, need to love our fellow men by our words and deeds.

Buddha is reported to have said "To know and not to do is to not know."
This is what I believe James meant in his epistle. Our faith in Jesus had better show up in all we do.

[Pierac]

Hi andromeda1,

:welcome: to the Tent!

May you find what your looking for here. Please search the writings on the main site.   :dsunny:

Paul

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I SO apologize for my earlier post, apparently I hit the wrong "thumbs" button......I meant this  :thumbsup:, not this  :thumbdown:.........I sincerely meant WOW, that was an awesome testimony. Please forgive me; when I'm tired and sick, apparently I'm also BLIND  :mblush:

[firstborn888]

Hello and welcome.

Enjoyed your testimony. I too think it's an advantage to be an atheist before hearing directly from God. That way you don't have all that religion to unlearn.   :thumbsup:

blessings,
- Byron

[SeekerSA]

Hi andromeda1

:welcome: to our village.

Nice testimony, be blessed here.

Blessings

[sparrow]

All of this hell stuff messes up our witness for Jesus. He only left two instructions, Love one another as he loved us, and witness what he's done for us by our thoughts, words, and deeds. It seems to me that Christians who focus judging others, who's going to hell, which is the worst sin, etc. have missed the main message and mission of our savior. My near death encounter with Jesus focused on his love for me and how we, as Christians, need to love our fellow men by our words and deeds.

Buddha is reported to have said "To know and not to do is to not know."
This is what I believe James meant in his epistle. Our faith in Jesus had better show up in all we do.

What a beautiful testimony, and I especially love what you wrote above.  :HeartThrob:
Thanks so much for sharing your story.. It touched my heart.
Welcome!!
:HeartThrob:,
sparrow