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StoveBolts said:
Just to throw it out there, but if we look at how Jesus made disciples, you see this pattern.

1. Belong
2. Believe
3. Behave

We often try to get people to believe first. But that's not what Jesus did. He got them to belong, and through that experience, they believed. As a result, their behavior changed.

If we want to make disciples, we have to make them feel as though they belong, because they do.
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Great point!
 
wondering said:
Oh. Professor Google is so nice.
It's called Paschal's Wager and it came right up.
I love it. Here it is:

"Why not believe in God? If you believe and you turn out to be wrong, you haven't lost anything. But if you don't believe and you turn out to be wrong, you lose everything. Isn't believing the safer bet?"
In debates about religion, this argument keeps coming up. Over, and over, and over again. In almost any debate about religion, if the debate lasts long enough, someone is almost guaranteed to bring it up. The argument even has a name: Pascal's Wager, after Blaise Pascal, the philosopher who most famously formulated it.
And it makes atheists want to tear our hair out.
Not because it's a great argument... but because it's such a manifestly lousy one. It doesn't make logical sense. It doesn't make practical sense. It trivializes the whole idea of both belief and non-belief. It trivializes reality. In fact, it concedes
etc.....


Source: https://www.alternet.org/story/149920/why_it's_not_a_'safe_bet'_to_believe_in_god/
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No, that is not why I believe. I want to follow the Lord out of love, loyalty, and dedication. Not out of fear for being wrong.
 
wondering said:
I'm on another thread and someone is speaking about witnessing.
What works and what doesn't.

I like to tell persons I witness to WHY I believe. It doesn't seem sufficient to tell
them what happened to me or that God revealed Himself to me.

So, considering you're witnessing to someone ... or for ANY reason,

WHY would you say you believe? What makes you believe that Jesus is true?
That the resurrection is true?

I was taught that we have a REASONABLE faith. Why is it reasonable?
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I would say that I believe because my life experiences have shown me that the Bible is true, and then I would cite examples.

Scripture says that only the Holy Spirit can reveal to a person that Jesus is Gods son, and our savior. I know it sounds cliche, but I believe Jesus is real because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to me.

I believe the resurection is true, because the Bible has satisfied me in that it is reliable and true.

We plant, God waters. :)
 
me, yet again.

I'm 5 years into my Walk with The Lord. At this point...I think I can say I believe because of His work in my life and my parents' lives. I got saved by a miracle (maybe that's how it is for everyone?), and His work in my life since then has been...incredible. More than enough to build and sustain faith, even though I fall into doubt more often than I'd like.
 
StoveBolts said:
Yes, but not everyone thinks like you, or are moved by the things that move you.

It all has it's place in Gods very unique world. :)
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I know. I just stated that I believe very strongly that are there are very good atheists out there. In fact I know somebody on here who is a friend of mine. I like them for who they are and I don't try to convert them because I also believe in the saying to each their own. I just worry about my own relationship with the Lord. After all I'm the one concerned about making it stronger and better and my own eternity. If other people don't care about that, we'll then there's not much I can do about it but pray for them. It is ultimately God's choice where they wind up not mine.
 
It's pancake Tuesday today and a local church held a free pancake afternoon on Saturday afternoon. A friend invited me. I went along and so did a lot of people who are not Christians. Some of them brought their children who attended the play group there, although their families were not believers.

The table I was on was a mixture of believers and non-believers. They already felt they belonged, they were totally at ease. We began talking about belief and they didn't join in but they listened.
 
Tessa said:
It's pancake Tuesday today and a local church held a free pancake afternoon on Saturday afternoon. A friend invited me. I went along and so did a lot of people who are not Christians. Some of them brought their children who attended the play group there, although their families were not believers.

The table I was on was a mixture of believers and non-believers. They already felt they belonged, they were totally at ease. We began talking about belief and they didn't join in but they listened.
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It could have been worse. That's the trouble with most non-believers. They don't even want to listen.
 
I believe because Jesus has been revealing himself to since I was a child. I was the only one to be dedicated to the Lord shortly after I was born, my brother sister were not.

There many different ways God chooses to reveal himself to us, whether it be thru his word, a confirmation (everyone should know what that is, I assume I’m not the only who gets confirmations) dreams that I had a child would come to pass (I do not have these anymore now that I’m an adult) as well as life scenarios that you just know weren’t a coincidence.

Last but not least, thru prayer and worship. When you pray and God answers or provides something you desire and he blesses you with that and then some! I’ve learned that God loves it when we come to him like little children. It may sound ridiculous at first, adults acting like children?
No, God loves it when we have child-like faith. There are so many different ways that God reveals himself to us. I believe too that some are more spiritual intuned and very sensitive to God’s spirit. Like when I listen to songs that are about God and not us, I usually cry. Same with certain biblical passages tend to pull on my heart strings that produce tears that God puts into bottles!!! So I make sure to pour out my heart as often as possible.

I probably have more than 10,000 reasons why I believe. I believe because God has proved himself to me countless times. I would have to be a delusional fool to believe otherwise.
 
By the way Tatilina I owe you an apology. There were times on here that I thought that you were just plum crazy and now I realize it only seemed that way because you were crazy about the Lord.
 
Me too and there's just something about that name Jesus. The devil just has to learn that he can't have me because I belong to Him now.
 
HeIsRisen2018 said:
I know. I just stated that I believe very strongly that are there are very good atheists out there. In fact I know somebody on here who is a friend of mine. I like them for who they are and I don't try to convert them because I also believe in the saying to each their own. I just worry about my own relationship with the Lord. After all I'm the one concerned about making it stronger and better and my own eternity. If other people don't care about that, we'll then there's not much I can do about it but pray for them. It is ultimately God's choice where they wind up not mine.
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This is a very important point and one that StoveBolts also brought up.
We can only go so far in witnessing, and then we have to leave it up to the Holy Spirit.
We can only say the words, but God and the other person have to do the action of actually coming to belief.
 
Tessa said:
It's pancake Tuesday today and a local church held a free pancake afternoon on Saturday afternoon. A friend invited me. I went along and so did a lot of people who are not Christians. Some of them brought their children who attended the play group there, although their families were not believers.

The table I was on was a mixture of believers and non-believers. They already felt they belonged, they were totally at ease. We began talking about belief and they didn't join in but they listened.
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Listening is good. Faith comes by hearing the word of God.
 
Allen Wynne said:
Jesus
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Jesus is not enough. Believing in Jesus is circular reasoning.
You believe in Jesus because of Jesus?

OK. So here's what makes me believe.
Leaving aside the fact that Jesus presented Himself to me.
This won't help unbelievers - they might even resent it.

How about the Apostles?
Our faith could rest on the fact that the Apostles were honest and courageous men.
We could believe what they've written down for us.
1 John 1:1-4

The Apostles were all hiding when Jesus went to the Cross. Only John was at the foot of the cross. The others were afraid that they would be next and had no power to fight their fear. So they hid in the house of their friends, Mary, Matha and Lazarus.

Some days later, maybe a week or so, they were walking the streets of Jerusalem and proclaiming the word of God and saying what they saw?

What happened to change them? What did they see?
They saw a man who was dead come back to life.
They attested to this with their courage. They all died terrible deaths except for John. By coincidence, the one that was at the foot of the cross. Not that this means to much.

So, yes. We could rest our faith on the Apostles. They saw what they say they saw. It changed them from cowards to true Apostles. We could believe what they saw because we could believe them. We could trust what they told us and believe it to be true.

We could believe everything we're taught about Jesus. His life, His miracles, His teachings. We could believe that He died on a cross and came back to life. Thus we could believe in the resurrection and that He is truly the Son of God.

This is what my faith is based on.
I believe because Jesus is real to me because He presented Himself to me and for all the reasons everyone else here has stated --- that all He told me was true and that Christianity really works.

But my faith is based on the Apostles.
And thus it become a "reasonable" faith.

And this is what I love to tell unbelievers.
 
Ok, sorry if I am speaking out of turn here but does it really matter why we believe what we do? Jesus died on the cross for all of us. He paid for all of our sins so that we can go to Heaven to be with Him. That's why I believe. It's the only sure way of seeing my grandparents again. I love Jesus so much and I am so appreciative of what He's done for me that the devil is putting up one hell of a fight to make me lose faith in Him but thanks to you and the rest of the good people on this forum I have learned to stand my ground and fight back because Jesus is worth it to me. He is worth everything to me and so is going to Heaven. How I long for the day when I will get to be with Him forever more into all of eternity where God will wipe every tear away from my eye and all of the pain and suffering that I ever suffered upon this earth will be no more. Now I ask everybody here reading this right now...isn't that a good enough reason in itself to be a believer?
 
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