E-mail to Ray from former atheist

[SandyFla]

> Dear Ray,
>
> I would like to thank you for your site and the immense help it has been to
> me. I guess I should give you a little background - I'm only 18 years old,
> and grew up the better portion of my life a staunch atheist (I would respond
> to people inviting me to go to church with vulgar phrases and threats and
> accuse them of being hypocrites), then one night in my room God came to me.
> I knew from that moment on (I was 16 at the time) that God was real and had
> no question of doubt in my mind. So this began my (literally) new life, and
> I began going to a Charismatic church in my area.
>
> After about a year and a half of attending church, I just knew inside of me
> there was something wrong. I felt like such a hypocrite, to believe that
> God is love and He is going to condem most of His creation to hell because
> they didn't accept His love. This conc ept just befuddled me, this love that
> I taught and believed God to have seemed so carnal to me, so one-sided - God
> loves you, but if you don't accept His love and love Him back then you're
> going to suffer forever. I came to the point where I struggled to look
> people I knew weren't believers in the eyes, I felt so burdened, so hurt for
> them, that my God was going to cast them into an everlasting furnace for
> their ignorance. It broke my heart.
>
> For a while during this time, I couldn't read my Bible (I loved reading the
> Bible, I'd spend every free moment wrapped up in its pages before this), I
> struggled to pray, and I had no idea what was wrong. All the teaching I had
> received told me that what I needed was a good dose of the fear of the Lord,
> so I began reading every verse I could remember about hell and eternal
> punishment, but it just made me feel more disconnected fro m God. So, I began
> scouring the internet, searching for teaching and scriptures on hell (how
> foolish, to liken the fear of the Lord to the fear of hell and death). In
> searching for scriptures and teaching on hell, I somehow stumbled upon your
> site (it's funny how God works out circumstances).
>
> For the last 2+ months, I have been reading all of your material and
> studying it all out in my Bible and concoordance and dictionaries, and I
> have felt so released. I began by trying to disprove it with Scriptures and
> convince myself that you were wrong, but in the process I have been fully
> persuaded that Jesus Christ truly is the Savior of all mankind (those verses
> always confused me - if God wanted to save all mankind, why couldn't He?). I
> am so happy to have come across your teachings and that God has been
> merciful to me to show me these things while I still had an open mind and
> before my love grew cold and shut off. I feel like the eyes of my
> understanding have truly been enlightened and a veil has been taken off of
> my spiritual eyes and I can now see. There was always so many verses in the
> Bible that didn't make sense to me, I would read them and not understand
> what they meant - not because of the grammar or the words used, but because
> I was trying to interpret them through what I had been taught by men about
> God. Now I can't help but praise God when I read Scripture and not see
> contradictions and confusion, but clarity and understanding! God has truly
> done Hebrews 2:15 in my life.
>
> So I would like to thank you, and I wanted you to know all of this so that
> we could praise God together (I know that if God had used me to have such an
> effect on someone, I'd want to know so I could thank God). Truly, you have
> been a blessing to my life.
>
> Also, I am unfortunately afflicted (and blessed) with a scholarly spirit (1
> Tim. 2:15 is what you could call a life verse of mine), and I am always
> studying and meditating on the Scriptures, and was wondering what you use
> when studying?
>
> Be blessed,
> Timothy


Dear Timothy:
I use a King James Bible as my main study and teaching Bible.
e-Sword
The Englishman's Hebrew and Greek Concordances by Wigram
A dozen translations of different Bibles for comparison
And occasionally a Bible Dictionary. I have several, don't care for any of them.
Several English Language Dictinaries
God be with you,
Ray

I can't tell you how blessed I was to read this e-mail to Ray!

Before I came to Bible Truths, I enjoyed spending a lot of time on atheist forums, arguing with them and trying to show them error of their ways. Never once did I convince a single person to believe in God because, of course, only God can do that, as He did with Timothy.

Then to read how God took him through Babylon and into His marvelous truth ... it just proves that God doesn't need us to spread His gospel for people to be converted. What a weight it takes off our shoulders when we come to that realization!

God bless Timothy ... and God bless Ray.

Sandy

[YellowStone]

Sandy, Thank you so much for taking the time to post this.

This is indeed a wonderful story of God working his will very quickly in a very cold heart.

I was never a non-bliever (in my eyes) but God let me struggle along with untruths and lies for a whole lot longer than Timothy in your post.

I think it is awesome how God works everything in his time, what is there to worry about?

This is the peace and freedom that Christ promised. God is with us always and He and His works are so easy to see.

Thanks Again
Darren

[sansmile]

 All i can say is Amen  Sandy

GBU Sandie x

[rrammfcitktturjsp]

Sandy,

  Thanks for posting this.  It brought up many memories and showed me how far I have come.

  God bless you and yours, including those sweet cats.

  Sincerely,




  Anne C. McGuire

[andrevan]

What a pleasure it was to read this email from Timothy. It was refreshing to be reminded that all is from our mighty God. What a journey and wonderful outcome for Timothy, my heart goes out in thanks to God our Savior! Praise His mighy Name!

Thanks Sandy.
God bless.

Andrevan.