My Belief Of God Has A Strong

Faith in Christ has given me a unique life filled with optimism and purpose. From a young age, I have been raised in a home where I was taught about the love of Christ. Not only at home did I learn about Christ, but at school and at church. Thus, my life has been filled with experiences that have amplified my faith. For example, when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I found that my relationship with Christ grew. Through all of the difficult circumstances that I have faced, faith in Christ has given me the encouragement that I need to persevere through any situation. Additionally, faith has influenced my decision making, which is why I strive to make all my decisions and live my life according to faith-based principles. This means

Just like him, I did not have much of a relationship with God when I was younger. It took a miracle to make me see that God was really there. He had the miracle of surviving the war, while I had the miracle of my younger brother surviving when all odds were against him. Before my brother went into the hospital, I did not think much of God. I had learned about him in school and was taught how he died so we could live, but my life never seemed very impacted by him in any way. He was someone I knew about, not someone I specifically believe in. However, once my brother got sick that all

In recent years, God has become a very important part of my life. I am determined to learn more about God and look forward to seeing what he has in store for me and my family. At one time God was not a big part of my life, I did not attend church regularly or feel close to him. I have always believed in God and Jesus Christ as our savior, but did not actively seek a closer relationship with him. I feel that much of that changed when I accepted my current job in a church based preschool program. After taking the position in the preschool, I was then offered a position in the church’s nursery on Sunday mornings. I accepted this position also and my son and I started attending Church every Sunday. In the time since, my husband, myself, and our children have all joined the Church, been baptized, and become very active in our Church. I feel that this was God’s plan for us all along. I feel that God guides our decisions each and everyday, and I now use prayer to seek his guidance for our lives.

Faith can ebb and flow through a lifetime, and it is rare for it to remain constant. This was one of the main points in Christian Wiman’s My Bright Abyss. He discusses that just as we grow as individuals; we must also grow in our faith. At this point in my senior year I was going through a particularly hard time, and was having trouble trusting in God and believing everything would be okay. In hindsight this may have been a good thing in the long run, as I was more receptive to the messages I received at NCYC, particularly with respect to what prayer is, and how to pray.

I made friends and started to thrive again. I started attending Emmanuel Episcopal Church in town. I always offered for anyone interested to come with me. Some would come with me, mainly as a way to get off campus and try not to be a Cadet for a little while. The liturgy helped to ground me. The Ritual of the Communion gave me comfort and I continued to heal. I stopped rebelling and started to care about my studies and made friends. My Military Science teacher Norman Smith (aka Big Sarge) asked if I would like to attend his church with him and his wife on a Wednesday night. There was something different about this church, something that I had seen in other churches but never felt. Not even in the Episcopal churches that I had been to. The Church was what they referred to as an Agape church. It was not in a building with grand stained glass windows and gold and silver crosses, priests in clerical garb. It was a hotel conference room with nothing but chairs. All of this was very new to me. I didn’t know anyone other than the couple that I had come with and this was NOT a church. I was thinking that I had been duped and taken to a sayonce. The people were very warm and inviting and treated me as a part of their family. But I had remembered Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

We finally made our way to the auditorium, and there were many people in what looked like the lunchroom for this high school. All sitting around tables just waiting to go be seated in the main auditorium. The band was still working on the sound details so we were not allowed to be seated yet. The pastors would walk around and welcome everyone. As I was told everyone was wearing just what was comfortable nothing to fancy, that make me feel better. Except for the fact that my younger cousin asked me if I was going skiing after church because I was like one of the few wearing Jeans and a cardigan. After a few more laughs it was time to make our way in and find our seats.

For all seventeen years of my life, I have grown up in a Christian home and attended a Seventh Day Adventist church and school. I believe that growing up in a Christian environment has provided me with the foundation of my spiritual life. I 've been taught fundamental aspects and ideas of Christianity and have studied most of the common stories and messages of the Bible. However, even though I am equipped with these study materials and spiritual strengths, I believe that my relationship with God is shaky and not as strong as it has the potential to be. Even though I can proudly acknowledge that there is a God, I often don 't feel His presence and sometimes doubt His existence. I always find myself questioning my spiritual life and relationship with God. If I 've grown up in a Christian environment all of my life, why do I not have a strong relationship with Him? Why is my faith so weak? I believe that the answers to these questions can be found by acknowledging my spiritual weaknesses and using my spiritual strengths to improve them. I believe that acting on some of my spiritual weaknesses, such as an insufficient amount of time devoted to God, unfocused time with spent with Him, and biblical unintelligence, can help me to improve my spiritual life and walk with God.

I attended a Sunday church service and studied the behaviors, body language, music styles, nature, and the atmosphere in music in a Social context. Gospel music has evolved and changed in many ways through out time. There are various types of church music, and it can be played in many ways. By observing Gospel music, I learned that it creates an energy that covers the whole congregation with an essence of unity and togetherness. Gospel music has many features and is a great example of music in a social context.

My journey on to my Christian faith began when I was born so I basically didn’t feel. I had a choice not to be a Christian but I never asked why am I a Christian because I felt as though being a child of god was the right way to go I felt as though that god would always be here for not just me but with everyone that needed him. My journey to Christ probably would have to be in the miracles that he have brought me through and I have seen. A long time ago my uncle basically overdosed and the doctors said that he was brain dead and that we should just cut the cord. I will never forget the hospital room filled with the people from my church praying out loud. As I was sitting in there I could feel the spiritual energy. It felt like my skin was crawling with adrenaline. The doctors took us back there to see him and when I saw him I was honestly scared I didn’t think he was going make it but he made it my mother told me when she went back there she saw a angel over him and she said that his wings filled the room. After that day my uncle began to get better when he got home he didn’t have any memory of any sort he had to start completely over we had to help him step by step. And now today my

When I was a sophmore, I went through a period of time where i stopped going to church as much as i had before. After a while i found myself questioning where i stood in my faith. I would always become angry quickly and shut everyone out, soon i realized that i needed to go back to where i started. That same night i fell to my knees in prayer asking the

My faith journey has been challenged throughout my life. I have had many ups and downs, and many times when I questioned my faith. Although those times were rough, I found comfort in God and knowing that He is always there for me. One of my favorite quotes is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Philippians 4:13. This quote got me through tough times when my faith was shaking.

My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is

My faith began as soon as I was brought into the world as a baby, it didn’t mean much then but that has changed so so much over the last 14 years of my life. My loving parents always raised me in a Christian home, teaching my brother and I to live out the ways of Christ. When I was a baby I obviously didn’t know how important this faith would be as I grew up. I was baptized at our church when I was a baby by my parents. They always knew the best decisions for me as I grew up as a family believing in the one true God. We went to a church that had bible school for the little ones, which my brother and I always went there and met so many new friends that I still hang out with today actually. As schooling became an option my parents knew they were going to send my brother and I to Zeeland Christian School, where their parents sent them when they were young. Once I was four I was attending Zeeland Christian starting in Preschool. I love Zeeland Christian so much, it’s home. I remember that Preschool was so fun and the teachers starting teaching me little by little how to live out faith in God. This school has changed the way I look at the world, my faith in Christ, and my relationship with those struggling in their own faith. I will never ever forget this school. All the teachers have taught me so much about their own faith and how to live out my own. They know the right advice to give us and I couldn’t have done it without them. As I got older my relationship with God got

My personal experience of God is based on my life experiences and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I have experienced God’s presence in my life and I have felt the Holy Spirit guiding me. I first felt God’s call as a teenager and prayed that one day I would become a pastor. But my new Christian faith was not strong enough and I soon succumbed to the desires of this world. I refused to recognize God’s call and it took decades for God’s prevenient grace to bring me back into fellowship with God’s Son. More than a decade ago I felt God’s call again but this time in a completely different way. This time my faith was strong and I had that personal relationship with God’s Son. During my Emmaus Pilgrim Walk in 2007 my teenage prayers came back to me. Calmness overcame me like none I had ever experienced and for the first time in my life I knew that God had set me aside for this purpose. I felt God’s call in a way I had never felt before and I knew that the Spirit had been preparing me all these years to become a pastor. I realize now that God saw me as I could be, not what I was at that time! God never gave up on me and I now believe that God answered my prayers so that everyone else would know that only God could have changed my heart and the direction of my life.