How Did You Come to Know God?

I was in my early twenties and staying at a cousin's home because I was having terrible panic attacks. Some friends of hers came over and they talked about God. I had always feared him before that night. I finally realized that he loved me. It was such a great feeling.

The Love of God, the Friendship of Jesus and the Power of the Holy Spirit

I Prayed to God to give me a sign and straight away
with a roar of wind he wrote his name in the air
in the patterns of the curtains - GOD repeated all over my view
Until they billowed the message that had lain in the fabric
for twenty years could not be read and I knew with certainty
that the artist who designed the fabric had not seen the message
that God had him write there for me all those years before, and I believed.

I can't help you on this one.

John – Our forefathers were converted to Christianity (Roman Catholic) after the arrival of St.Thomas, who set foot in India around 52 A.D. Thus we were the early Christians who had the privilege of being blessed by God to partake of the divine privilege of being followers of Jesus Christ Himself who said “I am the way, the truth and the life”.

Christianity is believed to have spread to India in the first century itself through St. Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. The traditional belief is that St. Thomas came to India from Persia (Parthia) by sea route in 52 A.D, baptized many, established seven Christian settlements in Kerala and after baptising many in Mylapore died in 72 AD.

Perhaps, one reason for selecting the southern coast by St.Thomas was on account of the flourishing Jewish settlements all along the coast in Kodungallur, Cochin, madras etc., which date back to the Jewish Diaspora or even back to King Solomon's trading centers. Another reason was the flourishing Roman trade links.

Incidentally, Kerala being the primary state in India where Christianity took root has, as of today, nearly 50% Christians although the percentage of Christians in India is hardly 5% against the Indian population of 1,027,015,247 as on 1st March 2001). The population figure should be much higher as of today.

John:

What a profound question. My parsers are firing. You get the dump.

First I could say that the question makes no sense. God is unknowable. What we want God to be contains internal inconsistencies. We want God to be creator and at the same time someone some person just beyond perception who has time to pay attention to us. To be our friend. To listen. That didn’t used to be so difficult, but just recently we have discovered how big is creation and how complex. If you train your telescope on even a bare patch of sky and hold it there long enough, capturing photons and recording them, you find that the sky if filled with galaxies. Creation is huge and on going. If we think of God out there forming planets out of stardust, igniting off new stars, and pushing evolution on those distant planets, not to mention being God to people on those distant planets, it is hard to imagine that God is also a person, just beyond perception, who listens and is creating me.

That on a big scale. On a small scale, I mean on the scale of interacting with human beings on this planet, which is how we normally think of God, the problem is just as bad. God prefers to remain hidden. God cannot be detected with the senses. At least not the normal five. We get to God by inference. Through the mind. Through trying to make sense of things. Through beauty or through love.
So there is my parsing of the question. Now for my answer.

Actually, since I have had time to think of it, and since I already done some parsing and it’s hard to get those darn parsers turned off, I would say that the process of getting to know God is ongoing. I am still working on it. And maybe God is too. It is a work in process. A work in progress.

But the answer. In the spirit of how the question was ask. I do remember one occasion when I felt God’s presence. It was late in the evening. I was on retreat with a couple dozen other men. We were scattered around the altar in a darkened chapel. We were there to pray. And one by one, each of us, or many of us, talked to God out loud. Interspersed with silence. It was incredibly moving. God was palpable.

But was that the first time? Was that my conversion? What about the influence of my parents and my teachers. What about the Bible stories and the religion that I learned as a youth? The priests and nuns. What about the witness of all those people going to church every Sunday. I grew up in a religious culture. And one filled with love and affirmation.

And was that the last or best time? Haven’t I experienced more peace and love and beauty since then? Why yes I have. Yes I do. In some kind of way, I am surrounded by love and beauty. All I need is the eyes to see it. The special 6th or 7th sense to detect it.

Mostly, God resides in us. In people. And if you look, you will see a lot of good there. A lot of beauty. I know the tradition of Christians is to declare ourselves sinners. And to declare others sinners too. To think of sin as the explanation of why things are going to pot. Wars and rumors of wars. Plagues. But hey, there is good too. There is loveliness. There is young people falling in love and begetting children and raising them as best they can. It’s going on all around us. God is here present in us. We each have divinity. Which is why a church experience works. We bring God through the door when we enter. And all the separate dollops of divinity add up. It’s symbiotic. God becomes palpable. It’s a wonder singing and dancing don’t break out spontaneously.

And that’s it. The whole dump. Which is probably more than you and others care to read. But there it is.

Thanks for asking that wonderful question.

Cheers.

Jim

To be clear, God found me. I am not sure I was looking for him but he sent people into my life who reflected His presence. I saw the difference in their lives and mine and began to question what it was.

When I found that the difference was God, I reached out and He met me more than half way in my ignorance. I invited God into my life not knowing fully what it meant but He responded and I became aware of His indwelling presence immediately. He has never left me and that was 58 years ago.

I have been learning to live with Him ever since.

I had struggled with whether God existed or not for many years. One night I had been fighting with my wife and found myself sitting in the middle of a vast wheat field looking at the stars and yelling at God to either give me proof of his existence or strike me dead. Otherwise I would have to assume there was no God and the we humans simply lived and died and that was it. Eventually I fell asleep and when I woke up I had an epiphany. And that was, what was our conscience for? You know that instinct most of us posses that makes us feel bad if we hurt someone or do something like cheat someone or steal something. Why would evolution choose a mutation like a conscience for survival. The only conclusion I could come up with was that natural selection would not favor such a mutation. In the natural world feeling bad about stealing or killing would be a significant obstacle to survival.

Therefore, although I don't claim to "know" God or whatever being or beings are responsible for humanities existence. I firmly believe there is something about human beings that sets us apart. We humans have binocular vision and meat eating canines indicating we are predators. I know of no other predator on this planet that feels bad about killing. What it exactly is that's different about humans I don't know fro sure. But there is something.

I was raised Catholic and accomanied my parents to church every Sunday. I went to Catholic schools, where I was taught theology. So I've always believed God exists. But I can't say I started to know Him till I was in my late teens.

"You can't see light without dark." Bob Ross used to say that about painting, but it's kind of how my journey started. My cousin had convinced herself that she was a medium and that her Ouija board helped her communicate with the dead. I was in her room participating in one of these sessions when I felt the tangible presence of a malign entity (aka demon) and was terrified. Almost immediately, my mind flashed on the ending scene of The Greatest Story Ever Told, where it shows the 3 empty crosses on Golgotha, backlighted by the sunset. I clung to the image (and what it represents) and the demon vanished never to return.

My faith is still a work in progress. More and more I'm coming to know and revere God and to understand His plan for me. To put my personal faith in a nutshell: "It's not about me".

I woke up dead. He wasn't there. Instantly, I knew the heart of trickster God... and died.

You don't have to be Christian to know Her grace
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977867388#

Correct, His or Her but english uses His as a standard for all of mankind.

At age 7, I was baptised in water at my local church, Christian Chapel, in Walnut, CA. I have been a Christian since then. Being a Christian is not easy, but it so worth it. For, to live is Christ, to lie is gain. Phil 1:21