Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

    I remember my brother sharing the gospel with me sometime in October of
    1979.  I said, "Ohhhhh, now I get it!  Yes, I believe that", and then
    went on from there.  
    
    Funny thing is I don't remember a specific time falling on my knees and
    asking Jesus Christ to come into my life.  I just remember one night
    believing it...and growing from that point on with a few vacations in
    between then and now!  
    
    The vacations weren't good though!
    
    -Jack

    	An excellent question, Richard, that I ask myself too.  I've
    	seen other discussions about this.  Lots of people can pinpoint
    	an exact day -- even an exact moment -- but I cannot.  I'm in
    	the "imperceptible process" camp, and I'm not sure that the
    	process is complete yet, nor ever will be while I am alive.

    I celebrate it as sort of a birthday.  It's important to me because it
    marks the date of my salvation and acceptance as Jesus Christ as Lord
    and Saviour.
    
    Mike

I do have a date inscribed in the Bible I keep at work:

	    On this the 26th day of March 1969, I gave up my old way of
	life.
	    I surrendered my self to Jesus Christ as my Saviour & Lord.
	I am His forever,
	    And by word & by life I will show Him to others.

			Signed,

			Robert Duncan Messenger

			Witnessed,

			E. Stanley Jones

I changed my mind later, though. :-)

Ten years old is a little young to be signing life-long contracts.

				-- Bob

    	Addendum to .2
    
    	I should note that the official date of my spiritual birth was the
    	day I was baptized.

    hello-
    
      I am not sure if tyhe date is the important thing here. My spiritual
    "birthday" means quite a lot to me, because it reminds me of the time
    frame of my life and what had happened prior to Jesus in my heart, and
    I can relate the time frame to the wonderful changes He has affected
    in my life. 
      But the important thing is as long as you know beyond a doubt that
    you have surrendered your life to him. And continually asking him for
    forgiveness is the best way to assure that. I've got hundreds of
    spiritual birthdays, because over the years my sin seems to add up and
    start to overwhelm me, and Christ cleans my heart and soul spotlessly.
    
    
    God bless you all,
    
    
    Joe M.
    

    >Ten years old is a little young to be signing life-long contracts.
    
    Bob, I was 9 when I was saved.
    
    Mike

Re: .7 Mike

>    >Ten years old is a little young to be signing life-long contracts.
>    
>    Bob, I was 9 when I was saved.
    
If your parents had been Satanists you might have committed your life to
Satan instead of Jesus.

But seriously, what I should have said was that ten years old was too young
for *me* to be signing a life-long contract.  Maybe some other people see
the world the same way when they are ten, forty, seventy and a hundred.

Anyway, I was sincere at the time.  I knew what I wanted to be when I grew
up: a missionary, like my father and the glamorous evangelist E. Stanley
Jones.

				-- Bob

    I had my spiritual awakening as part of two BYOT classes(build your own
    theology)  I had been divorced for about a year before the first class
    in the Fall.  The second class was in the Spring.  On the last session
    of each of these classes the participants prepare and share their
    personal credo.
    
    During the first class I was intensely aware of the stories of
    spiritual journeys that the other participants were sharing and I
    became very aware that I did not know what spirituality was.
    
    I wrote a spiritual autobiography instead of a credo for that first
    session.  I wrote it really quickly and figured I copped out because I
    really did not have a credo at the time.
    
    I waited until everyone had shared their credo's and then tried to read
    my autobiography.  I started to cry and the minister finished reading
    my statement for me.  I basically wrote that my church and my
    relationship with God had been very important to me as a child growing
    up in a chaotic home.  I drifted from that relationship, became
    comfortable as a humanist, existencialist, agnostic.  I acknowledged
    that I was miserable without a sense of the Holy.
    
    After the first class, I began doing 12 step work and asked in the ACOA
    notes conference here what spirituality was all about.  I got some
    wonderful responses.  After the fourth session of the Spring Course, I
    began to prepare my credo. I found a beatiful garden, sat and admired
    the garden and wrote a brief Credo.  As I was leaving the garden I
    heard a very faint sound of bells. 
    
    That was the beginning of my relationship with God, as I understand
    God.  It has been and continues to be a wonderful journey.
    
    
                                 Patricia