Why We Believe

March 20, 2024

Why we believe in God, Jesus, and the Bible, and why I write essays to make that fact known:

I was raised in the denominational Presbyterian Church, and having Jesus in my life was way, far, radically different — better different.

My friends, co-workers, and acquaintances added to my life in beneficial ways, and I feel like I owe them. For example, when off work due to my heart attack, my coworkers in our low wage jobs at Home Depot collected a gift for me which paid our month’s mortgage.

What I used to believe was more like empty hoping, more like wishing and occasionally passively wondering about “things.”

Now, the religion I was taught as a child is totally different from the experience of the personal relationship I have now with God in my life.

For instance, while I was listening to the Christian record I had just bought, and in the tub before work, I verbally complained about the woman’s voice, saying I had wasted my money, because I didn’t like her tremolo. Then, to my alarm, God literally “troubled the waters,” shaking me quite significantly both inside and out. Then an almost audible voice said, “Well, I like her!” So, I reconsidered… That certainly was not a natural phenomenon! No one taught me about such events in Sunday School!

If your interested here is a link to that album:

https://www.google.com/search?q=christian+vocalist+kerner

Never ever, did I hear the slightest peep in that Presbyterian Church about that kind of extraordinary event happening in any ordinary person’s life. They taught that that kind of event was all over and done with way back when. In fact, there were a whole lot of things that were left out of my Religious Education. For example, Jesus saying, “You must be born again,” being the most absolutely essential requisite!

I could write pages and pages of my real life experiences with God, and Jesus, and the Bible — this being around my 400th essay about them!

Now, my wife, Patty, was raised in a Roman Catholic family, and her life with Jesus has been revealing the tremendous lack in her Religious Education, as had been the case with mine.

Here is her testimony:

Hi. I’m Patty, a born again Christian. I start with that sentence, because that is what I want to emphasize. You see, being brought up in the Catholic Religion did not change or make any difference in my life… and I will go even further, no denominational religion or philosophy or any form of so-called spiritual or mystical awareness changed me or could change me to give me the true life I now have.

There is only one true and living God. And that is God who reveals Himself in the Bible.

So, let me share with you what God has done for me — what no religion could ever do…

Simply put, I was searching — something within me was out of sorts — like there was something I needed. So, I went to my nearby Catholic Church and talked with the Priest. I really don’t remember everything said. However, he told me that the Nuns gathered at the Chapel to pray. I did go. I don’t remember how long I stayed. They were praying, I believe in Latin… So, sitting there confused, I left confused.

A while later, I became friends with a girl from HIgh School. We hung out and talked a lot. One day, we had a conversation — the most relevant conversation — that was the onset of my new life which I was going to have.

Both of us coming from Roman Catholic backgrounds, I asked her what was the difference between us, because I had sensed a difference I couldn’t define. She said she “had a relationship with the Lord, not just religion.”

That conversation profoundly provoked my thinking.

It wasn’t long after she invited me to her Church Service. I went. The people were singing to the Lord. It was heartfelt and sincere. I thought to myself, “They know and love God.”

There was a part of me that wanted to head for the door, but a bigger part wanting so much what they had…

When I got home, I walked to the Bar where my friends were. Actually, it was the last night of the Bar being open. I walked in and found my friends seated and drinking at a table. I sat down and excitedly tried to explain what I had just experienced. As I was trying to explain it, I didn’t think they understood or weren’t that interested. I remember feeling like I didn’t belong there anymore. So, I went home.

It wasn’t long after that that I knew I needed this same Jesus that I saw people worshiping and praising God with affection with the love they had for HIm.

I cried out to Jesus, asking Him to forgive me for my sins, that I was not doing too well with my life, and asking Him to come in to my life.

He did.

My life changed. I changed. I had met Him and now was walking with my Savior, Jesus.

I became so hungry for the Word, the Bible. I started going to a Thursday night Bible Study held at my friend’s home. This was truly new to me, having the Bible opened up and read, hearing and listening to the many of Jesus’ teachings…*

I got a Bible and started reading more and more in the Gospels of many things Jesus talked about.

I was 19 years old, and I marveled at the things Jesus said and taught. His words were personal and lifegiving, actually powerful in changing me.

I am 65 years old now, even still, even marveling more how He is patient and kind in leading and teaching me each day.

Now, I have, being a Christian, tripped up, fallen short, and sinned while walking with God, along with many struggles, disappointments, and doubts. However, I can truly testify that every single time I have earnestly turned to Jesus, He has helped, forgiven, and picked me up with a new start.

Yes, God made the way through Jesus for all of us to be reconciled, receiving a new nature within which enables us to have real life and a vital relationship with Him.

I will leave with this one question: How and why in the world would anyone not want a relationship with the One whose depth of love and care for you is so beyond what anyone else could give you? To love the One that loved you first, what could be better and more wonderful?

Love,

Patty

* — Please reread the underlined sentence I wrote above and be willing to give Jesus a try.

Like Patty, nothing nor any person, friend or foe, has actually changed my life, my thinking and my situations, except Jesus. No person, church, book, philosophy, religion, hallucinogen, whiskey, nor any other episode in my pursuits had any transcendent wisdom, extraordinary knowledge, or earthshaking insight and power to change our lives that exceeded nor even came close to God’s and Jesus’ — nor could they come close to the Bible’s effects in beneficial application and real life improvements — that is, again, since we turned to Jesus.

We can both point to the specific times when God intervened and changed the direction of our lives, delivering us from multiple counterproductive directions. He actually saved my very life several times that I know of. Further, Jesus added to our lives in multiple fruitful ways — from jobs to having a family to having a place in the Family of God, and from receiving internal peace and joy and gaining purpose with an interactive prayer life.

(N.B. — There exists the philosophy, “We are all God’s children;” but if you think about that — even briefly — in any context of World History, you will realize that that viewpoint is simply bogus.)

Consider us nuts, if you choose, but God and Patty and I, we talk in conversation together — not like in a psychotic break, not like a person wandering the streets and talking incoherently to himself, or when someone is hearing discordant voices in their heads… Neither does it happen at all times, nor continually, certainly not audibly. But when we call on His Name… Through these subtle intimate conversations God demonstrates that He cares, He corrects, He comforts, and He helps in understanding Bible verses and enables how they should be applied to living. He speaks to real situations and answers sincere questions, basically saying “Here is the way; walk in it,” and His advice works out — always.

We need to walk in His footsteps…

We need to calm ourselves long enough to calmly listen for God’s gentle soft voice. Jesus came to bridge the ravine that separates us from the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Come and walk across that bridge… one step at a time.

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” — James 4:8