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JonoRH

New member
Sep 9, 2022
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#21
The night is always darkest just before dawn. I have a similar story, not quite as extreme as yours. I was born again 50 years ago. Before then, I was a drunk, nearly died from alcohol poisoning twice in two weeks, I was depressed and suicidal. I was not yet 21. My prayer consisted of "There must be more to life than this!"

Our problem is usually that we are focused on what we imagine is reality. Yes, we still suffer from bondages. I got drunk one more time after I was saved. I imagined that I could control my drinking now. I was perversely proud of my ability to drink. My liver was not so happy with me!

We need to know that we are not what we think or feel. This can only happen as the truth gets into our hearts and grows there. The truth is that Jesus is now your life. He is not your new set of rules or just your helper (although He does help). He lives in you to be in you all that God requires of you. One day I quit trying to be a good Christian. I told Jesus that it was all too hard for me. I said that if He wanted me to be victorious as a Christian, He would have to do it. I gave my whole life over to Him, nothing held back. That was hard for me. From that time on, things gradually changed. I am nothing like I used to be, as my fiancee will testify. I've known her for 40 years and she's seen the change.

Satan hates you and wants to render you ineffective as a Christian. He is a liar and destroyer. He accuses you before God. You need to know that you are forgiven and that the blood of Christ has paid for all your sin, including what you did a minute ago. Study God's word! Ask God to show you what His word means in experience. Theology saves no one. The truth sets us free.

I have to go, but I'm happy to help you any way I can.

Thanks for the reply mate i'm glad to read you beat your drinking it encourages me. Alcohol is a bad drug. Most people don't see drink and illicit drugs as the same thing but they absolutely are. Anyway as you say you gave your whole life ovet to Christ and held nothing back how exactly did you do this? I too have told God i cannot do this and need him to take the reigns but instead of becoming closer to Him i have slowly gotten further away. When i first became a believer i felt i was on the path to becoming a faithful servant but eventually it all began to get even harder. I have come to the conclusion that Satan left me to my own devices until i became a believer as i was doing bad things all on my own but when i began to seek God i believe he turned up the heat and my experience of getting worse over the last year or so is a result of spiritual attack. I may be wrong but something has been making it harder to cope than it was prior to finding out Jesus is real and He is the truth. Surely that must be due to spiritual warfare and my being ill equipped?
 
Mar 4, 2020
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#23
Hi all, new here.. i'm also quite new to the truth in Christ Jesus after a lifetime of atheism and mocking and scoffing. I won't write my testimony here as it's quite long and i'm unsure if this is the place to do so but i will say that although i now know Jesus is exactly who He says He is i am still struggling in my walk with God. I have absolutely no fellowship with any believers as my family and friends are all either atheists or simply not interested in being saved so i hope to begin to find fellowship with like minded folks and that is what has led me here. Blessings.
Hello and welcome. May God bless you. You’ll find that there are a number of previous atheists and agnostics here.

So I think you’ll find company in Christ, but also those who understand your background from personal experience. I look forward to reading your testimony by the way.

There is a testimonies forum so if you feel like sharing then that’s a good place for it.
 
Mar 4, 2020
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#24
Thanks for the reply mate i'm glad to read you beat your drinking it encourages me. Alcohol is a bad drug. Most people don't see drink and illicit drugs as the same thing but they absolutely are. Anyway as you say you gave your whole life ovet to Christ and held nothing back how exactly did you do this? I too have told God i cannot do this and need him to take the reigns but instead of becoming closer to Him i have slowly gotten further away. When i first became a believer i felt i was on the path to becoming a faithful servant but eventually it all began to get even harder. I have come to the conclusion that Satan left me to my own devices until i became a believer as i was doing bad things all on my own but when i began to seek God i believe he turned up the heat and my experience of getting worse over the last year or so is a result of spiritual attack. I may be wrong but something has been making it harder to cope than it was prior to finding out Jesus is real and He is the truth. Surely that must be due to spiritual warfare and my being ill equipped?
Yes man, being a Christian isn’t an easy path. It’s literal spiritual warfare and we become viewed as a threat to the “god of this world” who is Satan himself. Having heeded the gospel, we’re on a battlefield that is spiritual, but also often quite physical. There is spillover between physical and spiritual; they are connected.

We’re the boots on the ground, we’re in the trenches, and if we aren’t advancing then we must hold ground.

We can hold ground by living like Jesus did. All easier said than done I know. Don’t worry no Christian is perfectly sinless, but through experience, tests, and trials you’ll incrementally be transformed into a more Christ-like person. God sure does know we need a lot of grace. Without His grace we all couldn’t get very far.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6
3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
59,815
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#25
Always great to hear from someone who has come to believe Jesus.. As a former atheist of the mocking and scoffing variety
you may be well positioned to respond to current atheists when they start their mocking and scoffing at your belief..
I was thinking the same thing :) I was a non-believer until the age of almost 50, and three years into my Christian
walk began speaking online with non-believers of all stripes, which I did for eight years before landing here :)
 

Bingo

Well-known member
Feb 9, 2019
9,166
4,741
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#27
NEW WELCOME REVISED TO SAVE - Copy.jpg
"There are those that sometimes has to really hit bottom before they
are delivered from an addiction, and then again many don't survive to
get a second chance. Thank God I was delivered from alcohol and a second chance.
'
Magenta' gave you a good thread to check out!
 

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
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London
christianchat.com
#28
Thanks for the reply mate i'm glad to read you beat your drinking it encourages me. Alcohol is a bad drug. Most people don't see drink and illicit drugs as the same thing but they absolutely are. Anyway as you say you gave your whole life ovet to Christ and held nothing back how exactly did you do this? I too have told God i cannot do this and need him to take the reigns but instead of becoming closer to Him i have slowly gotten further away. When i first became a believer i felt i was on the path to becoming a faithful servant but eventually it all began to get even harder. I have come to the conclusion that Satan left me to my own devices until i became a believer as i was doing bad things all on my own but when i began to seek God i believe he turned up the heat and my experience of getting worse over the last year or so is a result of spiritual attack. I may be wrong but something has been making it harder to cope than it was prior to finding out Jesus is real and He is the truth. Surely that must be due to spiritual warfare and my being ill equipped?
You are in this sink or swim, God wain't let you sink so you better learn how to swim. Greater is He that is IN YOU than he that is in the world.

Welcomes Jono :)
 

TabinRivCA

Well-known member
Oct 23, 2018
13,052
10,616
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#29
So glad the Lord led you to the fellowship here at CC where you will get some kind and wise advice. Sounds like you could use some spiritual back-up, if you haven't posted in the Prayer Request Forum I would ask for a few prayer partners. God bless & keep you in exciting UK rn😀🙏
 

JonoRH

New member
Sep 9, 2022
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#30
Thanks a lot folks for the replies. I sort of forgot this is an introduction thread, i've gone all out all at once in here forgetting there is an abundance of specific threads for me to read and post in regarding my different issues and concerns so i shall slow down a little.

So many years living on the wrong side of the tracks has naturally surrounded me with negative influences so i really look forward to one day being surrounded with like minded people who believe in and love God. Thanks again and i really would appreciate it if anyone could pray for me.
 

TabinRivCA

Well-known member
Oct 23, 2018
13,052
10,616
113
#31
Thanks a lot folks for the replies. I sort of forgot this is an introduction thread, i've gone all out all at once in here forgetting there is an abundance of specific threads for me to read and post in regarding my different issues and concerns so i shall slow down a little.

So many years living on the wrong side of the tracks has naturally surrounded me with negative influences so i really look forward to one day being surrounded with like minded people who believe in and love God. Thanks again and i really would appreciate it if anyone could pray for me.
I'll be glad to add you to my prayer list and your Intro was fine. Sounds like it would be exciting to live in the UK right now, it's a favorite place of mine. Take care🙏👍.
 

Adstar

Senior Member
Jul 24, 2016
7,581
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#32
Yes i can fully understand how it is an "in your face" attitude but believe it or not, although i am willfully sinning i do actually have remorse for it.
So you reject the message of my post? You attest that you are willfully sinning and preach that you are willfully sinning..

If you are correct in your belief then you are doomed..

Hebrews 10:
26 "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, {27} But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries."

But of course i am sure you are wrong and i am correct.. Wilful sinners never have remorse for their sin.. quite the opposite they Love their sin and are proud of it..


I realise however that actions speak louder than words and common sense would have anyone say that if i really did have any remorse i would simply stop this repetative sin but it actually isn't as simple as that...
Proverbs 14:
12 "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

There are sins that i have stopped since becoming a believer such as blasphemy and fornication but my drug addiction continues despite my wishes to be free from it.
So you never find yourself looking at a woman and lusting (having sexual thoughts about her) ??

Jesus said::

Matthew 5:
27 "¶ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: {28} But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."


common sense says i do really have the power to do so as i am the one in control.. Crazy right?
Well yes i do think your thought is crazy.. If we all have the power to cease sinning. If we really where in control to that level then we could all cease all sinning.. Note sinning is not just the evil one does but we sin when ever we fail to do a good thing we know we should do.. A lot of people don't think about all the good things they could have done but failed to do..

James 4:
17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."


I have cried out and prayed and begged God to remove my desire and need for drugs and replace it with a desire for Him and a desire to constantly seek Him and study His word but the opposite has begun to happen.
Maybe God is allowing you to fall even deeper into this drug habit to give you a message by demonstration.. But i would hope you would avoid going through such trauma and suffering to learn the hard way, The actual way of salvation.. Not by personal effort in achieving sinlessness. But by being forgiven all ones sins..

2 Corinthians 12:
{7} And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. {8} For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. {9} And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."


I was many years into this addiction before i became a believer and have now been using drugs longer than the time i wasn't using drugs so simply stopping isn't gonna happen by my power alone. I lived all my life without God and just look at the mess i made!! Sorry for such a long reply but i hope you can understand that i do have remorse for my sins and do wish to change despite still sinning.
I never said you don't have remorse.. I believe you do.. Therefore you sin is not wilful, that's the message i was delivering..

And your reply is not too long.. Thanks be to God there are people who are not hindered by a short attention spans :) .. At any rate my reply is longer then your post :giggle:
 
Jul 20, 2022
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#33
Hi all, new here.. i'm also quite new to the truth in Christ Jesus after a lifetime of atheism and mocking and scoffing. I won't write my testimony here as it's quite long and i'm unsure if this is the place to do so but i will say that although i now know Jesus is exactly who He says He is i am still struggling in my walk with God. I have absolutely no fellowship with any believers as my family and friends are all either atheists or simply not interested in being saved so i hope to begin to find fellowship with like minded folks and that is what has led me here. Blessings.
What an amazing step of faith, accepting Jesus Christ in the face of atheism which is all around you! I commend you for your courage. Congratulations on your walk with God! I have been a Christian since I was 7 years old. I am 43 now, and I must say that becoming a Christian was the best decision I ever made!