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[Poll]
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How were you led to Christ?
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| A friend or family member gave you the gospel or invited you to church |
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| A total stranger gave you the gospel or invited you to church |
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| You found or somebody gave you a tract which motivated you to go to ch |
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| A Television or radio evangelist |
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| Some other way (describe) |
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Total Votes : 48
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(last vote on : 9/24/2008 8:17:24 PM)
(Poll will run till: -- )
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/14/2008 6:55:45 AM
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Covaan_Meshuga
Posts: 3642
Joined: 6/8/2005
From: a mother who let me live
Status: offline
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I have enjoyed reading this thread. Thank you.
quote:
Some other way
By the time I was a toddler, I hated G-d, hated church, and severely disliked the major ones in my life who called themselves "His." As a result, I did everything to make G-d feel about me as I did about Him. However, by the time I was 14, I knew my life was on a fast down-hill slide, and I thought He could save me from that, so I sought for Him. After some attempts to find Him, He found me in the back seat of a car and became important in my life. I hardly understood what was going on, but at that point, I gave Him somewhat of a chance.
At 22, very pregnant with my first child, the thought of rearing her made me know that I needed Him in order to rear her differently than I had been reared. That day, I made a deeper commitment and asked for help.
At 36, I sought a far closer relationship with Him, praying earnestly for hours, until I got to a point I cannot describe, but it changed my life completely -- so profoundly that the people I knew were making comments! It was really odd. A few of them even told me I looked different! 
At 42, there was another major spiritual upheaval for the better -- things turned upside-down all for good. A severe life-long depression was healed at that time, and I learned how to really laugh!! All of this was because of G-d! -- Who has been so good to me in spite of me!!
But all this time, I stayed in the church that was continually damaging me and my children. Thank G-d, He got me out of it when I was 50, and on the same day, He freed my son and his family. About 1.5 year later, He got my husband out, and in another year, He got my daughter and her family out.
Praise G-d! He is So Good! When I think about this saga, my heart swells with love for Him! He is more than I ever dreamed He could be to me back when I was fourteen. Praise G-d!!!
< Message edited by Covaan_Meshuga -- 8/14/2008 8:22:51 AM >
_____________________________
Abiyah
"Ladies and gentlemen, there are things that you will only be able to learn by the weakest among us, and when you snuff them out, you are the one that loses." ~~Gianna Jesson, 1977 LA, CA, saline abortion survivor
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/14/2008 8:02:37 AM
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SonInMe1
Posts: 3397
Joined: 4/16/2005
From: my mom by God
Status: offline
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I hated God for a long time.
My first experience of even tolerance toward Him was when my sister got married and she told of how much she loved God at the wedding. I told her later I would stop harrassing her about God because of what she had said.
A little crack.
Years later, I was hired for the best job I had ever had. I was getting married and expecting my first child, my team had won the Super Bowl and I had won the Pool League individual championship....it was a good time.
So I was at work and the other shift guys knew I liked talk radio so they suggested this new guy for me to listen to. So I did. I wondered, what did this guy base his phillosophy on, since I did not consider myself conservative and what he was saying made a lot of sence to me.
It wasn't more than a few days after I wondered this when a caller asked the same thing. He said....it was based on his relationship with God, essentially. That day God was made "real" to me. The radio personality...love him or hate him..was Rush Limbaugh.
Now, it took more years and the loss of that job, and another...and my marriage....and a whole buncha stuff...for me to bend the knee, but in all of it as I look back, God was there...doin' His thing.
So, I was at church. I knew the "deal". The pastor would ask us to bow our heads and close our eyes and those who wanted to accept Jesus would raise their hands...and then he would ask those who raised their hands to come forward so he could pray for them.
That...scared me to death...but I did it...and it was the only time in the three years I went there they did it differently. Instead of going up for prayer ushers came around with...a book and info. Tailor fit.
_____________________________
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James 4:4
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/14/2008 6:06:01 PM
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shondasu
Posts: 8
Joined: 8/7/2008
Status: offline
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# 5 for me... Over the years, some things have pointed me toward God and his son Jesus. Radio programs, something someone said here or there, a book I was reading, etc. Then last December I stepped into a church for the first time in 15 years, and it seemed the man leading the service that day was looking at me with scolding eyes as though he'd known I was "not on board" yet. Since then, I haven't stopped looking for God and the signs that he is real. I had never denied him, but I had never "felt" him in my own life and heart. It wasn't until last Friday on 8/8/08 that I heard him knocking again and finally opened the door and felt the love and peace of God enter into my heart. So far, since that day, my spirit has felt "full" with his presence. I feel eager to do all of the catching up I owe. Now I know there is no question as to whether someone has God and Jesus in their heart--if they don't feel it without a doubt, then I don't think it has happened for that person yet.
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/15/2008 9:12:46 PM
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ladyichigo
Posts: 562
Joined: 10/23/2007
From: Honolulu
Status: offline
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Too bad I can't choose 2 options. Mine are sort of both #1 and #5
My mom presented the Gospel to me in 4th grade and lead me to pray the Sinner's Prayer...BUT it wasn't until I was in 7th grade that I truly realized in my heart what Christ actually did for me after I had listened to a message at a week long youth retreat and I truly felt His grace. I re-dedicated my life to Christ then.
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Mari
I'm not cool enough to come up with a witty quote, but God is still good.
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/16/2008 12:47:59 PM
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RJR_fan
Posts: 716
Joined: 4/12/2005
From: RTP, in sunny NC USA
Status: online
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It's interesting to note how little value mass evangelism has. Only 6% of those responding to this poll credit a mass evangelist with catalyzing their conversions.
Billy Graham's own statistics concluded that only 4% of those who "go forward" at his crusades actually demonstrated the normal results of true conversion. Apparently, this form of "evangelism" is a form of stage hypnosis, that induces temporary alterations of consciousness in susceptible audience members.
Those who encounter the presence and power of God up close and personal, in the lives, and character, of people they actually know, appear to be most likely to experience true, genuine, and lasting conversions.
_____________________________
The future has never been shaped by majorities but rather by dedicated minorities. And free men do not wait for the future; they create it. RJR
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/16/2008 3:24:13 PM
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gmc4Jesus
Posts: 227
Joined: 5/21/2006
From: Torrance, California
Status: offline
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I was very fortunate in being born and raised going to Church. My earliest childhood memory was going to church with mom & dad and seeing a pickup truck in the parking lot with my initials on it 0 GMC.
When I was 11 years and about 6 months, I was sittingn in church one SONday and realized that I had not made a public declaration of Jesus as my Lord. During the invitation hymn, I walked to the front of the church and confessed my faith. I was baptized by immersion the following SONday.
My parents took me to church with them and tried to model Christ-like living. That's how I was brought to Christ.
_____________________________
Let's talk about Jesus, His life and teachings at the www.gettingtoknowjesus.org Gospel Study Forum.
Home of "Getting To Know Jesus", a complete Bible study on the life and teachings of Jesus.
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/17/2008 6:29:57 PM
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HisFish
Posts: 612
Joined: 8/3/2005
From: Rocky mountain way
Status: offline
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Im 46 and nobody led me to Christ. I come from a family of heavy drinkers and drug users and growers of weed for extra income. No one in my family had any use for God then or today, and i was quite happy to follow in their footsteps. A complete stranger asked if he could pray for me after i had asked him to buy some beer for me, i don't really know why i said yes because i never thought too much of christians (he never did buy that beer).
I cant really explain it but i felt a change at that moment, even though i continued on in the stoner life for some time after that. for some the salvation experience happens in a split second, heaven opens with a hallelujah chorus and all that, for me it was like a rock rolling down hill that becomes a boulder and then a mountain. So for me i would say Christ came for me because i was never looking for Him. No one before that time had ever given me the gospel, and i had never been in a church or had much care to read the bible, so it was all of God and not of any man.
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The theology of the present aims at the deification of man, but the truth of all time
magnifies God . C. H. Spurgeon
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/17/2008 9:36:24 PM
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beachcooky
Posts: 893
Joined: 6/21/2008
Status: offline
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I backslid when I was 13 or 14 (not sure...but I was in 8th grade)
and I wasn't following Jesus for a bit.
then I met a guy...and he led me back to God.
and i am quite thankful for andrew.
he's been my best friend ever since then!
_____________________________
www.myspace.com/xsweetheartforux
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/20/2008 7:05:08 PM
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dpaholak
Posts: 1
Joined: 8/20/2008
Status: offline
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After 49 years of abuse by father, mother and husband, I was at my last rope. I looked out the window not aware of what I was looking for. In a strong voice I heard the Holy Spirit. He said "Go immediately and buy an American Standard Bible with studies." It sounded so urgent I went to the store immediately. They had one American Standard study Bibles so I bought it. I consumed that Bible in 2 months and when I got to Luke I believed and was filled with the Holy Spirit. For the first time in my life I knew what it was to be loved. My whole existance is now Christ centered and I'll never be alone again. Praise God!
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/22/2008 12:55:13 AM
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Thessa
Posts: 811
Status: offline
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Ive believed in God and Jesus my whole life.
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 8/22/2008 6:26:42 AM
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Annie64
Posts: 927
Joined: 6/4/2007
From: Indianapolis, IN
Status: offline
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I chose the first option, because what really made me understand and believe the Gospel was the way my parents lived it in front of me all my life. But in my case, mass evangelism had something to do with it. I tried to do everything right, and I really did believe, but I didn't really "get it" until I was 17 and my family attended a city-wide crusade put on by someone who was and is relatively unknown. I can see what the other poster said about a sort of hypnosis, though. I'm certain that the evangelist had no intention of doing anything like that, but it probably wouldn't have had a lasting effect on me if 1) I hadn't had that foundation already built by my parents teaching me by precept and example in the home and having me in church every Sunday and more importantly 2) that hadn't been the time the Lord chose to get hold of me.
Sometime after that night, I prayed that I would someday meet that evangelist in person so I could tell him, because there was no other way for him to know that I had come to the Lord in one of his meetings. I was naive enough to think that since he had come to my city and preached in the civic center to approximately 3,000 people every night for a week, he must be famous and get tons of fan mail and if I wrote him a letter he'd never get it. (I really did think that!) So I prayed to meet him, in this life, before heaven, so I could encourage him. A few years later, I did, and I count giving testimony to that man one of the precious experiences of my life.
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On Christ the solid rock I stand
ALL other ground is sinking sand.
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 9/15/2008 1:52:50 AM
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diz71266
Posts: 26
Joined: 6/20/2007
From: NJ
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: RJR_fan
It's interesting to note how little value mass evangelism has. Only 6% of those responding to this poll credit a mass evangelist with catalyzing their conversions.
Billy Graham's own statistics concluded that only 4% of those who "go forward" at his crusades actually demonstrated the normal results of true conversion. Apparently, this form of "evangelism" is a form of stage hypnosis, that induces temporary alterations of consciousness in susceptible audience members.
Those who encounter the presence and power of God up close and personal, in the lives, and character, of people they actually know, appear to be most likely to experience true, genuine, and lasting conversions.
You have hit on the exact point I was trying to "research" when creating this poll.
I really believe that for some reason in recent Church history God has been using relationships to bring people to Christ. I mean Im sure there have to be some people who pick up a tract and get saved or have a conversation with a total stranger that leads to salvation,I really do believe that God does not work in a box,but the statistics seem to show that in this particular era of the Church Age The Lord is using a caring ,loving, relationship to bring people to him.This brings up 2 questions..1, Why in the first century did God say "If the people will not recieve you, wipe off the dust on your feet and move on"?
and 2, Why dont Christians today focus on relationship building to win people to Christ instead of tracts and books and door to door methods?
I think the answers are as follows (just my opinions,Id love to hear others)...1, In the first century we didnt have the internet or telephones or television to spread the word when something of historical signifigance had occurred.Their method of spreading news was on foot mostly (probably a horse or camel here and there) and the focus was to get this news out as quickly as possible and start setting up churches,writing down scripture,and getting people saved. Nowadays, in this country anyway,I believe most adults have at least heard of Jesus Christ,but its what they think of Him that counts.Some say prophet, some say teacher, some say a good guy,and some say God in the flesh, born of a virgin, died on the cross for the sins of all those who believe in Him,and ascended back to heaven to sit at the right hand of God untill He returns again to judge the world.
Our job today is to try and change the faulty opinions of non believers, and to reflect the Love of Christ to a lost world,that they might be saved, and the first descriptor of Love according to Corinthians 13:4 is patience. If we are not patient with people, are we really loving them? By all means tell people the good news as soon as you can, but let your life and love be a testimony to others that Christ is who He says He is!
This is probably a lot more complicated than just handing someone a tract,and it requires more dedication.
And I believe that is the answer to the 2nd question.Tracts and bumper stickers and the like dont have the personal element that someone sharing their life with you will, or someone who you know is a Christian helps you when you are needy, without judging you or shoving rules an regulations down your throat.Love is hard sometimes,but its the narrow path,(to borrow a phrase from our Lord), few are doing it.
Im sorry I didnt intend on writing a sermon but to those of you who read this far I thank you for your ear (actually eyes)
Oh, and one more thing; I really was disappointed that over 1100 people viewed this but only so few responded,its not like you had to write something ,just click the dot.Maybe not all are believers? Or maybe all those hits arent unique?
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RE: How were you led to Christ? - 9/15/2008 7:02:06 AM
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conrack50
Posts: 804
Joined: 4/23/2005
From: 200 N. Bryan Ave. Shawnee, Ok 74801
Status: offline
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I went to a Baptist church as a child, attended VBS, etc.
I really had no knowledge of The Lord, or being saved at that time.
In '83 I enrolled in a Cosmetology school that was 99% Christian.
I was the 1 per cent. In one week I was led to The Lord in a manicure session and have been "free" ever since.
I was literally "set free in '83."
I went to a conference in Tulsa and gave my life to The Lord the next day.
Best thing that ever happened to me.
Without God, I am nothing!
We give You ALL the honor, praise & glory for the things you do Lord.
Connie Lou
_____________________________
It's ALL about God, without Him I am nothing!
Want to make some extra money?
No quotas. Fire your Boss!
Come take a look
http://www.connieloubarnes.info
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