How Did THAT Happen?!!

Here's a warning...thormoo's gonna talk about JESUS again so all you folks that hate God like I used to or are too intelligent to discuss such fairy-tale mumbo jumbo like I was or just don't care for it 'cause you got it figured out for yourself...again, just like I used too...can tune it all out. Perhaps there is some other reason...it's OK, it is a rather controversial subject and folks are going to have opinions about it.


As most readers know, I just became a Christian in January. Though I was raised in the Episcopal Church, I wasn't a practicing Christian as a  matter of fact I hated the very thought of him and hated freaking Christians  as well and what I thought was their phony sense of piety. I took issue with the notion that they could stand in judgment of me and others? How utterly ridiculous...


So how in the world does a person like me become a Christian. Fair enough...It's a good question. It had nothing to do with wanting to belong. I didn't feel left out and sought fellowship through belonging in a church. It certainly was not for a church membership or the "need" to belong to a church. No it was none of these. It is actually quite simple...


I was at the end of my rope. I wanted to die...I hated myself and saw NOTHING good at all in this world or in me. I sought a way out through suicide and failed. I threw myself on the mercy of GOD...and shockingly, he responded by giving me sobriety starting June 6, 2006 and one day at time I have been sober ever since.


After that I opened my mind then my heart toward GOD...I was just plain afraid about life and living...so I didn't know what else to do, I didn't trust it (Spirituality or faith) at all but slowly I continued to open myself up and I started to live for helping other people, focusing on being of service to whoever needed me.


Finally in January of this year it all made sense....I discovered a critical scripture passage for me in LUKE 9:23 to paraphrase it says: "For those who want to be disciples of Christ must deny themselves DAILY, pick up their Cross and Follow HIM"... Hearing that changed everything for me. I wanted redemption, I needed salvation...I was in desperate straights.. I have looked EVIL in the face in my lifetime...trust me I am NO stranger to EVIL...the Devil was a buddy of mine. I desperately wanted to be SAVED...I could not live like I had been living. That is why I did it.


Not for friends, not for a church, not to look good or be a big shot. NOPE..I became a Christian because I needed saving...and Jesus Christ SAVED ME by what he did on the CROSS. My life was won at the CROSS on Golgotha that day...no doubt about it.


I now believe in a GOD that so loves me that he took a part of himself...his DIVINE self in the form of his SON and had him pay the price for ALL MANKIND on the CROSS. That is what was done for me...I am SHATTERED by the recognition that JESUS did that for this pitiful human being.


So for me this was very serious, live saving shit...redemption and salvation. It was not a game or some show..no I knew I was damned...I knew it from a very early age and then...I didn't have to be damned anymore, I was saved.


And so I became a FOLLOWER of JESUS..he set the perfect example of how to live and on a day to day basis I struggle to live for him by serving others...not to "earn" anything...there is NOTHING to be earned. Jesus already saved us if we just accept it....


So that is the very short version of how I got to be a Christian...