format_quote Originally Posted by
greenhill
Welcome to the forum.
Perhaps you can share your story . .:p
Have a great stay.
:peace:
Hi, thanks for all the replies! Here's what I put on my blog which gives a brief outline of my spiritual journey so far!
There are many hard choices to be made in our daily lives, some harder than others. One of the hardest decisions (and daily struggles) that I have had to make in my life is the choice I have made about my faith. You see, just over a year ago I chose to become a Muslim. In the time since then I have had so many difficult problems arise that I have often thought why did I bother!
I was raised in a non religious household, with the only religious activity being when one of the three sprinkles occurred (baptism, marriage and death). But I have always felt a draw to religion and have always had a belief in God. It wasn't until I was in my late teen years that I felt Christianity may be the faith for me, I gained a knowledge of the faith and a personal belief in Jesus Christ as Saviour. I attended several Churches before eventually going to Bible College to train to be a minister in the Baptist Church.
This was one of the most rewarding times of my life, the time I spent at Bible college was full of joy and faith promoting experiences. I really felt that God had called me to be there and into further service when I had completed my study. I completed my study and found the perfect place at a Baptist Church in the North East and thought I had the world at my feet!
This however was short lived as the reality of ministry is not all a bed of roses. I soon found that the spiritual bubble I had been living in at Bible college was not real life, and that real life soon came crashing down onto my parade. I found that when surrounded by those who are inspired to live a Christian life (like those at Bible college) the road is a lot easier to travel. The reality was that many in the church were not there for a relationship with God but as a social activity that they did once a week as a tradition. Outside of the Sunday morning, it was hard or nigh on impossible to get members to participate in any Christian activity. Even stepping outside the norm in a worship service was a step to far outside their comfort zone. I lasted six months before I could take no more and left with my faith in tatters. I returned home and married my long time girlfriend and we both soon drifted from the church.
I however still had my belief in God, though now I was open to other view points. I began to read and expand my knowledge of early Christian history and found that it often didn't match up to the perfect story I was fed at bible college. It would seem that my faith was taking a battering.
Then I began to read the bible again, I began to compare what Jesus said and what others in the New Testament writing were saying and they just didn't seem to fit right. It would seem that the teachings of Paul and a few other New Testament writers took precedent over the teachings of Jesus himself. That many of the plain truths of Jesus were being left behind in the new theology of Paul and the apostles. I thought that maybe Judaism was the right path, but they reject Jesus, which was one thing that I could not do. So my search continued.
A few years past and nothing really happened to me spiritually, I was still seeking after God but not finding any answers. I thought about returning to Church but then those nagging doubts about how the plain message of Jesus seemed to be lost under the teachings of other early church leaders.
It was then that I happened upon a website that compared the teachings of Christianity to the teachings of Islam. I found that what I had been taught at Bible college wasn't a true representation of Islam at all. I began to devour information of Islam and it's teachings, and was surprised at what they had to say about Jesus. It would seem that in Islam what Jesus taught was actually believed! After a period of study I approached a local mosque and spoke to a few of the members. On that night I said my Shahadah and became a Muslim.
Since then I have struggled to live up to the calling of being one who has submitted themselves to God, I even tried to return to church at one point to try and fit in with my families wishes. But that was to no avail. I could not bring myself to fall back into my old ways just to make others happy. Islam is a simple faith which can be a hard life to follow. It's one of life's hard decisions!