My Story of Coming to Faith, Part 2 – The 2017 Version – Searching and Finding

(Continued from Part 1.)

My Story (Written 2017)

The same story in a slightly different way.

Introduction

This is written to give a more complete understanding and more depth to some conversations I have had – maybe with you – the reader now – as time is often too limited in real life conversations to tell the whole story 😊. Hope you enjoy.

As we probably talked about – I come from a background of I would say – just living – and not from a background of growing up with any kind of firm faith influence. So, I’d call myself a pretty normal Western person – not a believing Christian – but a kind of cultural one. This is my story of coming to faith in Jesus.

Before we dive in, I want to be clear and honest – totally up front: I hope, by reading this, that you could catch the fire of understanding of the meaning of life that I have.

I hope, by reading this, that you would dare to hope, then believe, then trust and then know that you are 100% loved by our heavenly Father God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

I hope and pray that as you read and act because you are thirsty for truth, peace, strength, meaning – yes – relationship even – with God Himself – that you would personally experience, touch, and feel the very real and eternal love of God by asking Jesus into your heart to be your friend and God.

That is, I know this beyond a shadow of doubt, what God wants for you. It is the best decision to take in life – ever.

This could be the most important words you will ever read. Know that what I write has been tested by me to still hold true here many years after the events to place – because they are still taking place…

I hope you pay very close attention – because I believe in you – and I have written this for you – in order that you might find the very meaning of life, experience God for yourself, and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are loved by Jesus.

As you read, I want you to know I have given careful attention to each word. They each mean something. Be careful not to quickly jump to old conclusions, and your old thought patterns – especially negative ones about Christians, church and Christianity – I had to be self-conscious of my thoughts and be careful not to be over simple in my mindset and do that myself – and I hope to give you good reasons to go deeper in this area yourself than ever before.

…

The Beginning

These events took place in my life from about October 1991 until February 1994 – and then up until today.

I searched and I found. And, surprise, I actually found that I was the one being searched for. Jesus was and is more passionate about finding me and you than you and I are about finding Him. He proved it – by blood, pain, suffering, tears, and death. He loves us and proved it with the greatest proof attainable – the cross. More about that later.

Before we get into that in depth – that greatest of all hidden mysteries – a mystery which is now no longer hidden and no longer a mystery – but is plain and openly revealed – I want to tell my story.

I grew up an average Dane in terms of faith and religion. I was baptized as a child and confirmed when I was 14, but never gave it serious thought and had no faith in anything but whatever I was taught about science and myself.

I was, however skeptical toward Christianity because of the old dusty traditions I saw which reflected no reality of God – just cultural habits. No relevance, just boredom and a smell of old, outdated and irrelevant.

I was also skeptical because of the reputation of judging and condemning I had seen in movies and the negative reputation in society in terms of a judgmental, sinister attitude of strong Christian believers.

In High School (Gymnasiet) in the town of Ringkøbing in Denmark – I started consciously, deliberately, proactively searching for truth about God and the meaning of life. And I found – after some time.

And I found that I actually let myself be found by the greatest Love known to humanity – the love of Jesus, who was and is God in flesh and blood. It took 2 ½ years for me to find that I actually needed to let myself be found…

And I let myself be found and I allowed myself to believe in and heartily as well as intellectually and physically trust in the purity of the perfect unstoppable river of love of God for me – undeserved – for free and eternal.

Peter Søndergaard and Keith Green

A book that really set me asking, searching, believing to find something was a book lent to me by a guy who became and still is a dear friend to me, Peter Søndergaard. The book was written by Melody Green about the life and ministry of her husband, Keith Green.

Keith Green was a seeker and musician who then became a believer in Jesus and a Christian musician who through his music and sermons influenced hundreds of thousands of Christians and yet to be believers in the 1970’s and 1980’s. His search got me searching. Imagine if…?

Imagine if – uncommon to what most people think and say – that it is possible to know what happens when you die… and that it is possible to know the meaning of life and even encounter God and know truth.

The friendship with Peter Søndergaard, who is a Christian and who also invited me to his Christian gatherings which I sometimes attended got me searching. And I think at the end of the day, God got me searching. Peter and his family and much of my family were praying for me to that end.

As I searched, I found some sentences of truth would build up in me. As I was looking for something which was not just true for me. I didn’t want to believe just anything because I wanted to believe. If it was not true – what is the point? And I found you cannot just say that all things are the same – and whatever you believe is good for you – because they are not. Why?

No – All Faiths Are Not the Same

Muslims cannot accept a God in flesh and blood come to walk the earth. Christians cannot accept any higher prophet than Jesus, as the Muslims believe Muhammed was the final and greatest – because we believe Jesus is not just a prophet – but the very Son of God. It can’t get higher than that.

And Muslims say the Muslim faith is not just a heavenly kingdom of the hearts, but is equally an earthly one complete with government, police, laws and military being under Sharia law.

Christians say what Jesus said: “My Kingdom is not of this earth” but it is a Kingdom of people whose hearts are touched, transformed and shaped by the King of Kings – Jesus.

Some founders of religions, like Muhammed, taught that it was OK to take up weapons and spread the religion through force, through weapons, through terror. Jesus never did that.

He did not say it was wrong to take up weapons – just said you might die from it and that it is the duty of the government to help people to live loving lives.

If people do not live lovingly, the government has been set in place to punish those who do not – those who do wrong are the ones the governments should punish – and it is ok that they carry weapons and use them to that end.

Whatever You Believe Is Great for You Is Not Necessarily So

Hindus and Buddhists generally say whatever is cool for you is cool and true for you. This kind of sounds like western world relativism. But sorry to say – if I think it’s cool to smoke for me and it has no consequences that’s not true. It costs money for society in health care. Then it is not a good thing even though you are free to do it and you think it is cool.

What I do believe we can agree on is that everyone is free to believe what they want. But I do not believe for one second that what you believe is without consequences that are either negative or positive for you and those around and about you.

I looked and studied further – reading philosophic existentialism, the New Testament, books about reincarnation, talked with people – friends who were universalists, Christians, Lutherans and asked God, if he, she it was real – to be revealed etc.

The Sentences of Truths Found While Searching

What I found were some truths that build on each other:

• I know – that I don’t know what is true regarding God, the supernatural and Jesus
• I know – that I want to know
• I know – that I think there is something to know
• I know – that I want to live and not die
• I know – that I am discovering good things as I seek
• I know – that I want answers to the greatest questions ever raised by humanity
• I know – that I want to know
• the meaning of life
• the truth – and that truth should be true independently of me. It should not only be true if I believe it
• true love
• I know – that I want to experience God personally – as a personal revelation to me
• I know – I will seek and seek until I have found because I find that there are plenty of people around who for no personal gain of their own – who seem trustworthy – have genuine experiences of encountering God / Jesus
• I know that I don’t know if God is a he, she or it – or if there is no God at all
• I know that I don’t think there is anything more interesting and important than finding the answers to these questions. What could be bigger than finding out the truth about why we are here and what we are supposed to do? Maths, Money, a Career, having kids, having friends and a great family, achieving big things in life, winning the whole world?

To me the above sentences were truth and they still are – they set me up on a foundation to seek and find. They shaped my life and priorities – and YESSS – I found – I found – I found – the greatest treasure known to man – ever – literally.

Those Truths in Terms of What I Now Believe

Today I believe – and am fully convinced – even to such a degree that I just know that I know at the highest emotional, intellectual and spiritual level – that what I have found is not just true to me – but is the eternal truth. I say this in all humility as it did not come to me because of my goodness and it was not created nor invented by me. Going through the points in the list above the list now reads:

• I know what is true about God, Jesus and the supernatural world generally (not always specifically in all of life’s specific situations)
• I know that I now know that there is something truly absolutely amazing to know
• I know that there is so much I know beyond doubt and even more to learn and understand building on what I know
• I know that whether I live or die I am in a good spot – so I have peace and no fear regarding death
• Still do
• Still do
• I know
• the meaning of life
• the truth that is true independent of me
• true love
• I have experienced and still do at various times – especially in church services – but also at different times apart from that
• I have searched and I have found the greatest, most truthful Lover of my soul – even better than what I had ever hoped to find
• I know Jesus is God and that the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy spirit are in such unity that they are ONE God – yet three persons – and that in that definition of God also lies the inherent need for us all for loving fellowship with others – and primarily with God. Because God IS relationship
• I still think so

The Story – My Story

What Happened Was

I read, I talked, I thought, I wrote my thoughts down, I discussed, I prayed, I went to Christian camps and Christian churches.

I cried out to God – but there seemed to be no answer for a long time. I was honestly struggling with understanding who Jesus was in Christianity. And I was struggling to find out what to believe regarding reincarnation because I thought I had read some stories proving that reincarnation was true.

The stories would be about little children who were born right after someone died. The little child would then be able to say for instance where the dead person and their spouse who would be the only ones to know where, had hidden the money in a house.

Only the person alive should know this. but the child knew. I thought this proved reincarnation as there are many of these stories. I will get back to how I can explain this with other reasons than reincarnation later.

The List Revised as I Am Convinced It Is Today

I could, however, through my thoughts, conversations and going to Taizé in France, an open monastery, and seeking, see how God – the Christian God was love. Why? The truths I found out about true love were:

• True love cannot be forced, but must be freely given
• Free will must be a part of this. If we were all just pre-destined to say: I love you over and over – it would be worthless.
• This life is a test of love. Will we love – despite hate, lies, betrayal, injustice, violence and death done to us. Will I? It’s not about everyone else primarily. You can only decide for yourself.
• If the Christian definition of God is true: God is love, he is a just judge of all wrong (non-love) done on earth, He is almighty and can do anything He wants – then I can see how He does not force anyone to believe in Him. He instead sent His Son to do the most amazing atomic bomb, super nova size display of love that anyone could ever do. (at this point in my story I did not see how the math worked – why He was important – I just found that I believed the Christian God is love).
• For love to truly be true – love must also be truth, light, life, justice, righteousness and action on all of those – the highest concepts of humankind.
• The more free will we have the higher is the value of true love
• The more options and temptations we have – the higher is the value of true love
• I realized that the Christian God – among all God’s, spirits and religions is the only one who lives up to this definition of love.

So, I determined from that point on in my personal story of seeking and finding – to be found – that I would go for discovering more about the Christian God. Because God – the Christian God I believed and understood – is love! I still did not know what Jesus did in that picture. So, I set out to try to understand that.

Keith Green Again

So, I read a book with sermons by Christian Musician Keith Green, I also read through the New Testament and I started going to a series of lectures around interesting subjects relevant to the day and age we live in. This would turn out to be pivotal.

A Series of Lectures – One Quote Stood Right Out

One of the lectures were done by a pastor, who had studied near death experiences, reading about them and interviewing people who had had them. During his lecture, he mentioned a certain book by George G. Ritchie called: Return From Tomorrow.

The small quote he gave from that struck me and I wrote down the title and decided to get it. I found it in Danish and it had been published by a spiritist publishing house – so I was not sure if this would lead me closer to Christianity…

Therefore, I read it while I listened to Keith Greens music. The funny thing was that in the USA – this book is published by a Christian publishing house and as I read the book I found that the sentences I read sometimes would be song by Keith Green right after that…

It was a good God setup!

The Book I Read Where the Penny Finally Dropped

– I Finally Understood the Christian Core Message and Wanted to Receive It, Believe It and Stand on It

A short summery of the book is that George suddenly died. When he died he saw a bright light. The light was as strong as a million suns. So bright that he would have been blinded instantly if he had seen it with his physical eyes.

He then discovered it was not a bright light if was a person of light and he knew immediately that he was standing in front of the Son of God, Jesus. George then saw all of his life and all of the consequences of his life in a matter of seconds.

In the light of Jesus, the love of Jesus for him was as strong as the light! As George felt the love he also knew he had not loved and not lived as he should have and could have. He had been very selfish in terms of ambition, pride and going for money and fame.

He had also been full of lust and immorality. Where the whole story turns for me is when he writes – I then condemned myself – I thought I had to – but there was not condemnation, no pushing away, no faultfinding coming from Jesus.

Jesus simply, only, purely, completely, with the intensity of the light of a million suns – love him. The love was eternal, unstoppable, complete, perfect and with nothing holding it back for him – or for anyone…

When I read that book, while hearing Keith Green’s music, hoping to find out what the Christian God of love was all about – wondering how Jesus fit in – that where the penny finally dropped. I understood and received, I hoped against unbelief, I started hoping this was true.

The book also said clearly that the reason Jesus could love him like that was because of the cross.

I will expand on that later as this is the key to all this raging ocean of true love which Jesus beckons us to jump out into, dive down in and drink – if we are thirsty for it.

I was thirsty for it. I wanted it. I couldn’t understand why no-one had told me about it before. But I desired it. I hoped is was true. Was this really Christianity? Was this really what the Bible said? I bought a stack of the books and lent it to some of my Christian friends and they confirmed that yes, this was in fact the core of the Christian faith.