My Conversion Story

Well, it all started when I was young. I believed in Santa Claus really hard—not being sardonic, this will go somewhere, so stick with it—and I got into a fight with another student at school because I believed in him. And my mom wasn’t very religious, so I guess I was brought up in American Paganism—I believed in Tooth Fairies, Easter Bunnies, Leprechauns, George Washington and the Cherry Tree, Abraham Lincoln Never Told a Lie, Santa Claus and Unquestioning Patriotism. Well, they had to tell me that Santa wasn’t real, and I really believed in it. It gave me such an optimistic view on life, how there was magic and all this other stuff. I lived in such a magical world until about eight years old. And that was a heart break, when I was sitting on the stoop of my stairs and listening to my dad tell me these things weren’t real. But, then I asked, “Is God real?” And my dad said, “Yes, and if you don’t believe in Him, you won’t go to heaven.” And my dad told me about Jesus. He told me that I had to love God above all other things, and that conflicted with my values, because my mom told me that you could love your family more than God. So, I was quite conflicted there. I had the Sunday School and all that other stuff, and learned “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And I also had an illustrated children’s Bible, which I read. It was called “The Beginner’s Bible: TImeless Children’s Classics.” And I also learned about tall tales and legends.

So, I didn’t really believe, and I kind of was a warped little brat. I did a lot of messed up things between the ages of 8 and 15, and so the next step was Vacation Bible School and Sunday School lessons, where they taught me Jesus’ Parables, and the Sermon on the Mount. And I knew I liked Jesus. That much was certain, Jesus was the best story teller, and had the best morals, so I liked Him a lot. I think that’s generally why I’m a Christian to this day, is Jesus and His Sermon on the Mount. They reinforced in Church, “Build your foundation upon the rock.” So I did. I think that’s what saved me, more than anything else, was walking with Jesus at that time, and listening to Him above all others. And really laying the groundwork for the true principles of the faith. I was still a bratty, snot nosed little kid… but I liked Jesus.

Then I went to Youth Group, around 15 or 16, and had a really positive experience. We played, it gave me a good friend’s group, which taught me how to socialize. My older cousin was the leader of the group, and was an excellent organizer. And I went to the beach, and had a BLAST. And someone did that Ray Comfort thing with me, and so I believed a little more, but not quite.

Then around 17 or 18 I was messing around with my ex girlfriend, but was hungry for a better morality, as backtrack, I knew a lot of Atheists—more than Christian—and even my adult sunday school teachers weren’t really Christian, but were kind of looking for a social club. And backtrack a little more, I was at catechism, and they had to bring in a older Pastor to do my Catechism, because I wanted the true faith, not the “God is Santa Claus” thing that most churches were doing. And so, backtrack a little more, I actually prayed to God to get Saturday Morning detention if I skipped class—which was not the usual punishment—and I got Saturday Morning Detention… God’s disciplined me my whole life, and I’m thankful for that, but that gets to a little further down the line. But around 17 and 18 I was getting tired of my licentious ways, and was craving for a better way. My Ex’s family were kind of a little cold, and so was she, and I craved for the love of Jesus. And my friends also were kind of cold, and a little backward in their thinking, and I grew up my whole life hearing the other philosophy—the Atheist philosophy—and I just didn’t like it. I didn’t like the idea that truth is subjective, or morals are a choice, or the fact that love was disposable and kind of like nitre, just something chemical that when it ran out, so did you.

And then I did something very bad, and I was confronted with my need for a Savior, and then confronted again at a little older age, and realized even more I needed a savior. Like in the Bathtub I was crying out to the LORD to save me. I recognized I was a sinner. So, I stopped Masterbating, Watching Porn, Cussing, Blaspheming, and I actually shut off my phone from being able to look at the internet. And on that time, I kind of swung into a Hebrew Roots movement, and followed the Torah’s law—which was a huge mistake, I just went from licentiousness to Judaizing—and I went to jail for confessing crimes I committed at 14, and while there the Chaplain told me to read Galatians. So I did, and I realized I didn’t have to follow the Torah anymore—although I hadn’t been following it for a while, it was more like a fast.

Before that, I went to about 7 churches, and heard a lot of sermons on the Radio, and studied the evidence for scripture, read the major Evangelists, had good sunday school at a Baptist church, and a grounded teaching in the Old Testament. And I searched out the evidence for the Bible, and I found it all true. At least I’m satisfied that it’s true.

But, generally, the reason I’m a Christian, and what converted me, was the Lawlessness of friends who thought there was no right or wrong, and just being around them I saw something ugly, and it was transforming me and I didn’t like it. So, I wanted Jesus to make me a better person than what I was, so I asked Him to transform me, and I’ve searched for Him and found Him faithful in all things.