Christians, what is your testimony?

[Patricia92]

I am always encouraged by the testimonies of others of how they came to know Jesus Christ. The Bible says that our testimony shakes the gates of Hell itself. So, how did Jesus Christ make Himself real to you?

[Cosmo]

I don't believe in God so it seems more than slightly patronising to say that I'm "Not saved"..

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

What is the difference between the options, "not saved" and "not Christian"?

[ReluctantPegasister]

Originally Posted by The Man And XX Master

What is the difference between the options, "not saved" and "not Christian"?

I added "not Christian" as write in because I don't feel that I am "not saved".

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by Maeve

I added "not Christian" as write in because I don't feel that I am "not saved".

This hasn't answered my question, what is the difference with being "not Christian" and "not saved".

[ReluctantPegasister]

Originally Posted by The Man And XX Master

This hasn't answered my question, what is the difference with being "not Christian" and "not saved".

I would wager that from the Christian perspective there isn't a difference. But there is a difference to me.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by Maeve

I would wager that from the Christian perspective there isn't a difference. But there is a difference to me.

True, the OP may have a different perspective but for the time being, can you amuse me and state what the difference is for you? Without explaining it, you're just dancing around answering my question, which frankly is useless for me and a waste of your time.

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by The Man And XX Master

True, the OP may have a different perspective but for the time being, can you amuse me and state what the difference is for you? Without explaining it, you're just dancing around answering my question, which frankly is useless for me and a waste of your time.

Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning...


There's no diffference other than in the light cast by the phrasing of the word. Christian sounds fine, Non-Christian sounds fine, "Not saved" sounds patronising and rude.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by Cosmo

Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning...

I asked the same question 3 times because the person kept alluding they had some rationale but refused to state it, thus, useless. On the other hand, you were not useless.

Originally Posted by Cosmo

There's no diffference other than in the light cast by the phrasing of the word. Christian sounds fine, Non-Christian sounds fine, "Not saved" sounds patronising and rude.

Thank you for giving an easily understandable explanation . With this in hand, I voted for non-Christian.

[JKmadu619]

"Saved"? I call bullshit.

I'm Christian, but what am I being saved from? Sin? No, people still sin against me, I still sin. Salvation? No, salvation from hell still requires a good heart. Saved from being ignorant? I rather disagree, both religion and rationality can co-exist, and to be honest, rationalitity has more everyday use.

I also agree that the term "Not saved" is mildly offensive and very patronizing. It implies they believe what you do. If you are totally against politics, and they either classify you as "Liberal, Conservative, or too dumb to vote" would you be offended that you call into the third grouping? It's not that big of a deal, but you shouldn't be suprised that using Christain termonology to describe non-Christians offends some people.

- Justin

[Megan1]

There isn't a difference between "not Christian" and "not saved". Going by the bible, "Christian" and "saved" both have the same meaning.

Anyways, back to the actual point of this thread. Here is my testimony. I ask (I know I can't require this, but I'm requesting) that those of you who aren't Christian don't respond just to debate or try to say that my testimony wasn't actually God. However, please do respond if you are seriously curious about something. Thanks.

I was raised Catholic, and I always believed that there was a god. I usually went to church and prayed, but I was really just going through the motions and doing what I thought I should do. I didn't understand God or who He is. I didn't understand that I needed a Savior (Jesus) to take my sins away so that I could be with God forever. I definietly didn't live to serve God.

I always used to make the wrong things important in my life. Everyone who knew me always saw me as a "good kid" because I didn't do drugs, get in trouble, or date a new guy ever 5 minutes. However, I was living for selfish desires and it was taking a major toll on me. Performing was my life and I traveled a lot for acting auditions. Acting was more important to me than anything else and I became obsessed. You can never be good enough when it comes to Hollywood, so I strived for perfection and worked myself to exhaustion. This eventually led to me developing an eating disorder (which is actually how I found this website), believing that I needed to change my appearance because nobody could love me for who I was, and becoming so ocd about it that I would stress myself out and "cut" myself (I quote that because it was really more like scratching than cutting; I only used my nails). In addition to all of that, I actually was obsessed with dating; I made one particular guy my whole life and put myself through torture when he decided to lead me on and then want nothing to do with me.

I was living for these selfish desires. They were my only stability (Never make something your stability if that thing is able to change. If something can change, it isn't really very stable at all). Sure enough, before long, everything that I relied on came crashing down. I had been homeschooled so that I had more time for acting, but in 10th grade my parents made me go back to public school because I was getting too far behind on my school work with homeschooling. I was devistated, because this would mean that I wouldn't have enough time for auditioning or the Hollywood lifestyle that I lived for and I wouldn't have time to go back and forth to Los Angeles (where most of my friends, including the guy who I liked, were). I developed the worst anxiety/depression/anorexia over that time. I thought that my life was over....and in a way, I was right. I believe that God was breaking me down and getting rid of the things that were distracting me from Him- gettng rid of my old life.

In school, I grew close to a girl named Carly. We had been friends since elementary school, but we had drifted apart when I started homeschooling and now we were getting close again. We had 2 classes together, and both were conveniently classes that didn't require us to do much work (gym and study hall), so we had lots of time to talk. It was in gym class that she started talking to me about God, and eventually invited me to her youth group. She didn't think I would actually come, but I did. At first, I think I only did it because I wanted to meet more friends and have another after school activity. I also really wanted answers about my life; I didn't know it at the time, but I truly was searching for answers that God was about to give me.

I adored youth group and everyone there from day one, so I kept going back. About a month after I started going to the group, I went with them on a camping retreat. During that weekend retreat, we had bible messages, worship services, sled riding, snowball fights, and lots of time to hang out in the lodge and listen to the guys play worship songs on their guitars. On the first night of the retreat, while everyone was in their cabins sleeping, there were 4 of us in my cabin who weren't tired. We got together on Carly's bunk bed and had a bible study. Well, I had never really read the bible before coming to youth group, so I didn't reall know where to look and was mostly just listening to what the other three girls were saying.

That night, something was weighing heavily on my heart. I didn't quite know what it was. Those people were so in love with God and had their whole lives dedicated to Him. I believed in God, went to church, prayed, and tried to be a good person, and had a good life, but I somehow felt like I was missing something important. I went to sleep that night crying, because I didn't know what was happening to me and wasn't even really willing to let my life change any more than it already had. So the next day, I went to my friend desperate for answers about God, and she explained it to me like this:

1. We all have sin in us. None of us can deny that we have done something wrong AT LEAST once (though most people sin every day) such as lying, disobeying your parents, lust (unless you are married), etc. God is perfect, so our sins separate us from God. Heaven is a perfect place, so sin can't get in and our sins separate us from Heaven. This would be bad news for us, because if our sins separate us from Heaven, we would have to go to hell when we die.

2. God loved us even though we had sin. He wanted us to go to Heaven and not be separated from Him. So, He sent Jesus to Earth to suffer, take our sins upon Himself, die to pay for our sins for us, and then rise again three days later- defeating death/sin.

3. In order to recieve this gift and have our sins washed away, we simply have to believe all of this, ask Jesus to be our Lord and take our sins away, and turn away from our sins (which means to vow to live for God insted and not continue in sin...although we will still mess up sometimes).

After I understood that, I realized that was what I had been missing all along. Even though I had always prayed and gone to church, I was separated from God because of my sins. Once I recieved Jesus' gift of having my sins washed away forever, I was saved and began my new life with God. I am His forever. He is my stability now and He is the one thing that never changes. This doesn't mean that you won't still have trials in your life, but it means that you can run to Him whenever you do and find comfort in the fact that He is still there and still loves you despite everything else.