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Is there a God?
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Is God real?


What's a relationship with God all about.
and what's Jesus Christ got to do with it.

Perhaps you've had friends who seem to discover this reality, they'd love to introduce you to this experience?
Perhaps you're not ready, but deep down you'd like to know more. This site identifies some of the resources that detail the issues and beliefs, a chance to discover faith for yourself.


MY SEARCH FOR REALITY
How God became real for me
(The site webmaster's testimony)

During my childhood years in England I had a brother and pleasant home and family. I occasionally visited a church with my mother or Grandparents when we stayed with them. Such visits to church although not actively unpleasant were, no more than something that "good" people ought to do... and should do to retain senior adult approval. Once beyond the early school years, my brother and I preferred not to attend, as we had more attractive options for energetic leisure time.
As I grew up my interests moved toward non religious areas and I developed ability in art, and psychology, and my perspective on the world took shape.

In my teen years I considered myself "agnostic" in that I did not know if I believed that God existed, and generally hoped that he did not. I rarely thought that God had any relevance to my life, or specific interest in me. God was only as real as the people in history or as characters in a book.

I was not naturally empathetic and in my early teens endeavoured to understand the hidden side of people. I thought that I could find out some of the answers by reading astrology books, unaware of the deception I had embraced. Although I was independently minded, I did not step out of line any more than typical teenagers, bored with the interests and life of their parents... I was searching for reality.

Uncertain about a future career path, I was invited to a church based career discussion, where various professional people i.e. policeman and teacher etc. provided an insider introduction to their work for a small group of teenagers, I had the chance to ask questions. Weeks later I had an opportunity to talk with an older Christian man, who was a family friend. Peter, was old enough to be my dad, but was a very warm and open person. The first thing that struck me about Peter was he was interested and listened to what I had to say. When he spoke about his own faith I was struck that this was not a stuffy history lesson, but something that was very real to him personally.

He explained that Jesus, was God's son and that the reason he came to earth was to save us from our sins.
When Jesus died on the cross, his crime "claiming to be the son of God", it was a way God used of paying for the wrong doing in all of us and opening the way to heaven to all who would believe in him.

The sense that God was real to him made me realise that God, who I had shut out of my life view, might just be for real. If he was real then I did not feel prepared to meet God, but these were my silent thoughts. He explained further that we all need to come to a point in our lives where we were prepared to:

Honestly confess our guilt and wrong doing to God remembering particular events.
Acknowledge our need for God's forgiveness for all our sin.
Believe in Jesus who died to take the punishment we justly deserved.
Ask Jesus to forgive me personally for my own sin and invite Jesus to come into my life.

Peter said that the moment that he had done this himself God had come into his life and he knew that he was different… had been "saved"..

This sounded like a real experience of God was on offer, I had prayed prayers as a child, but never got through to God, so wondered if praying this way would make any difference.
"OK I'll try it" I said thinking that there's no harm to try it, but feeling exposed and embarrassed to admit the possibility of a need of God and forgiveness for my sin. My pride took a knock.

I realised that having prayed as a child that it would be hard to concentrate and might be unlikely to work, so I set an appointment time 2:30pm to make the prayer more definite, I had expected that there would be a need to pray for over half an hour for anything to occur.

As I sat at the desk table in my room doing homework, I was aware that I sensed a deep sense of anticipation building, it was only 2pm, in my heart I felt that what was about to occur was going to be the decisive moment of my life. The feelings grew stronger, this was no longer an experiment to test whether God is real, it was a sense that God was calling me to my knees in surrender and repentance. It was not yet "my" chosen time, but I could resist these feelings no longer, and I got down on my knees and began to pray. I confessed every memory that I felt guilty about and asked for God to forgive all the sins I could not remember. I then asked Jesus to come into my life and forgive my sin, acknowledging his sacrifice and the pain he went through on my behalf and in my place. Jesus come into my life I receive you and your forgiveness.

From the feeling of deep conviction came a warm breeze of love and sense of beautiful lightness and deep peace. I could not believe that in just a few minutes God had broken my pride and come into my life, and was totally there. This sense of God's love stayed with me for days, I felt incredibly free. The feelings were so deep I could not talk about it, it was far too personal.

Further contact with a Church where people were really alive and happy in their relationship with God,and shared similar experiences with God, helped me work out and continue to discover more about the Christian Life.

Being part of church mean't deeper friendships. The Bible became really interesting, prayers got answers and the Holy Spirit brought me a deep sense of peace and new brighter outlook on life.


http://www.ourchurch.com/member/p/propheticwords/