Hello everybody, As my post count will show, I'm not at all new here... but I am a new man, thanks be to God. Several years ago, as "Consular", I was very fractious in my speech and angry about many issues, and saying many things which I regret. If any people here remember me and took offense at me, I apologize. During the last 9 years I've been on a great, unexpected journey of faith. What began as an agnostic upbringing turned into Deism, then Roman Catholicism, then Anglicanism, then back to Rome, then a crisis of faith regarding the textual fidelity and historicity of the Scriptures (thanks to so-called "Higher Criticism"). I became an atheist for two years. Just about three weeks ago, a dear old Christian friend (who is active on these very forums) urged me to rethink all the presuppositions the critics and modernist philosophers had implanted in me. The resulting conversations worked in such a way that after just two weeks or so, I was an almost entirely changed man. At 2:12am on October 5, I knelt and begged for God's grace, mercy, and peace, then gave my life back to Christ, and invited him back in. It is difficult to have faith, but on that Friday, I realized for the first time that I was actually praying, not just filling up the imagination of my own heart, or desiring to please any men. So, in a sense, I'm a New Member, hopefully a better, more mature, and more charitable one. Cheers.
Glad to hear you navigated the turbulent waters of doubt and have come through valiantly to the land where you can enjoy the fruits of Christs' labour. Thank you also friend. Any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine. .
They are deep waters, and they sometimes seem too deep, too stormy, to navigate with one's health and sanity intact. Yes, it really is just about accepting his bountiful offering: the first-fruits of choicest wheat and honey from the rock, his very own flesh and blood, by faith. The free gift. Nothing to boast about here, just coming in to receive what is offered. The tactic of the critics and skeptics and philosophers is to always make us doubt, never to trust or to love. It takes a faithful Christian to help someone out of that mindset. Never give up on friends or family who are lost. You never know what a single word may do.
Thank you friend. Home indeed. Today I went to my first celebration of the Lord's Supper since Oct. 2015, to that of a rector who is very dear to my heart, and a man of the Gospel. It was my old parish, in fact, still as beautiful and venerable as always.