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--- jn_en_2019_11_30 [2019/11/30 17:35] – potthast
+++ jn_en_2019_11_30 [2019/12/02 08:09] (current) – potthast
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ====== History: Your and My Journey to Faith ... ======
-Saturday, Oct 30, 2019. When I was in school, history seemed very boring to me. I had no interest
+Saturday, Nov 30, 2019. When I was in school, history seemed very boring to me. I had no interest
 in some wars in the past. Why should it be exciting to learn about some emperors who lived 800 years
-ago? I did not have any access to these things. No, history was not my concern.
+ago? I did not have any access to these things. No, history was not my concern. Also, Christian
+faith was not my main concern, though I was part of the Lutheran church. I was interested, yes. But
+I could not see you to make progress, I did not know what to think.
 What is your access to history? And what is your opinion about the Christian faith? Do you
@@ Line 30: / Line 32: @@
 I looked deeper into faith during the last three years of German high-school education, even
 did my final exams in theology. I could repeat the theories of modern theological schools. But I did
-not understand who God should be. I could not grasp the truth or whatever these theories could
+not understand who God should be. I could not grasp his truth or what these theories could really mean.
-mean.
 Looking back, of course I have been in contact with Christianity. And some people had their personal
@@ Line 44: / Line 45: @@
 When I started to study at university, I attended some evenings organized by the Lutheran
 student church. But these events were as critical as the theory I knew from school. Again,
-the concept did not convince me.
+the concept did not convince me. This is my personal history - and probably many people on
+this earth have a similar history in the sense that they do not understand Christian faith
+and that the whole history of mankind is of second or third priority to them.
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 if he exists, I want to get to know him.
-I know that in the weeks after this prayer, I suddenly got to know various Christian house groups.
+In the weeks after this prayer, I suddenly got to know various Christian house groups.
 Before that, I had never attended Christian bible study groups - after confirmation at the age
 of about 14 years. But now, I realized that there are various student groups studying the bible.
@@ Line 60: / Line 63: @@
 study the biblical books and stories.
-Christian faith is more than just being conv
+I have to emphasise the point that Christian faith is more than just listening to some story and
+believing some facts it reports. It is more in the sense that it is about personal decisions. It
+is about what is important to you, how you see yourself and others. It is about the eternal
+God, and how you relate to him.
+I started to listen to Jesus, to all his words and speeches recorded in the New Testament. I was
+fascinated by this guy. He seemed to have a sincere faith. His faith was quite far reaching. If
+you ask me what convinced me to believe, it was Jesus himself. Somehow you can trust this guy.
+You can trust him more than any other human I have ever met or heard about.
+At some point in my life I realized that I cannot succeed to live my life by the standards which
+I thought to be good and justified. I just could not do it, it was impossible to me. At that point
+in time I trusted my life into the hands of Jesus. That is the core of faith: to trust your
+life into his hands. That is much more than theoretical knowledge. It is more than historical
+knowledge, and it is more than experience or truth or facts. You need to know him - how could
+you trust him if you had no knowledge about him, if you did not know him at all. But then,
+this faith step is much more than just an abstract acceptance of some truth. It is a personal
+involvement with God through Jesus.
+My personal journey to faith was characterized by helpful other students, who were ready to
+explain their idea about Christian faith to me. And then the biblical books talked to me directly.
+I started to understand. First, there were only parts here and there, which suddenly made sense
+to me. I continued to read the book, study it chapter by chapter. And more and more if it became
+clear. The whole book did not look gray any more, but it seemed to be full of light, full of
+life. I will tell much more about this, about the experience which followed this time of search
+and study.
+Today I can say that I have been a Christian believer for many years, and also my relationship to
+history as well has completely changed. Reading about God and his journey with mankind has become
+a fascinating daily exercise to me, and the whole history of mankind became extremely exciting
+with my own love to and involvement with her, who is loved so deeply by the eternal God and Saviour.
 (Roland Potthast)