Why I Believe In God

Today you are here to read about my story. You may be here to find an

explanation of sorts, or you were surfing the web and just happened to stumble across

my page. Either way, I’m glad you have found my story, and I hope you proceed to read

my proclamation of why I believe in God.

I grew up in a christian household, and grew up in the faith. I was raised to

believe what I believe. As I grew up, I began to have more questions, but I was always

afraid to ask them, in fear of being judged because my parents were always so strong in

their faith, that I thought I had to be as well. I also thought that being a christian I

shouldn’t be questioning God, and if I was a true christian, I should automatically just

know the answers. But that just isn’t the case. Christianity goes so much deeper than

that. It is a relationship between man and Creator. And like most relationships, they

don’t just happen automatically, you have to work to make a relationship strong. I have

been through many situations in my life where my faith has been challenged, and

caused me to doubt and question God’s existence and love for me. But with questions,

you have to find answers, and I searched to find them. By searching, it actually

strengthened my relationship with God, because I discovered things that I didn’t even

know about Him. And I ended up falling deeper in love with God than before, because I

saw His Love for others and for me. You may be asking now, how do I know that God is

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God? I am going to go over some amazing evidence of Jesus in our history, and some

evidence for creation, and God’s faithfulness through trial, and hopefully this will help

you answer other questions you may have.

Lets start with God as the creator.

I am a firm believer, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,

and I’ll tell you why.

I have been to many museums, and talked to a few evolutionist, and have seen

their way of thinking, and I am always led back to the thought that there still needed to

be a start to everything. Lets say the big bang did happen, something still had to create

the chemical reaction in the atmosphere in order to come together at just the right time

and create the universe.

We as humans have created a human protein, which is self sustaining in the

human body, but for them to successfully create it, it needed to be carefully watched

and sustained. In order to be sustained, we need a sustainer. I believe that God is our

sustainer, and that In the beginning God created us, and the earth, in seven days, and it

was so, and it was good.

Nehemiah 9:21

Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness; They lacked nothing; Their
clothes did not wear out And their feet did not swell.

In these next few pages, I am going to mainly focus on the gospel of John, which
will make more sense if you continue to read. Here are a few verses from the gospel of
John, that also talk about God as our sustainer, and that He was there before time even
began.

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 John 8:58
“Truly, Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.”
John 17:5 (Jesus prayed):
“And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with
You before the world existed.”

I believe that the God of creation, is the same God that came to earth as a man, as we

see in history.

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the

glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 6:38

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of

Him who sent Me.”

This next piece of archaeological evidence confirms Jesus was a real man, and

not just a person someone made up.

A mid first century AD chalk ossuary discovered in 2002 bears the inscription:

“James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” (“Ya’akov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua”)

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 The ossuary has provoked controversy as the inscription was originally suspected

of being a forgery. However, two eminent paleogrophers confirmed it authentic in 2012.

New Testament scholar Ben Witherington states: “If, as seems probable, the ossuary

found in the vicinity of Jerusalem and dated to about AD 63 is indeed the burial box of

James, the brother of Jesus, this inscription is the most important extra-biblical evidence

of its kind.”

Josephus is a trustworthy historian that wrote many accounts on the life of Jesus.

Here are two of Josephus’s accounts of Jesus.

“In Jewish Antiquities, parts of which are included in a mid-17th-century book of

translations, Josephus refers to a James, who is described as “the brother of Jesus-

who-is-called-Messiah.” Josephus’s mention of Jesus to specify which James was being

executed by the high priest Ananus in 62 C.E. confirms the existence of the historical

Jesus.”

“A 15th-century manuscript, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France,

contains a portion of Josephus’s Testimonium Flavianum that refers to Jesus. The first

sentence of the manuscript is in Greek and says: “Around this time there lived Jesus, a

wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.” “The majority of scholars believe the

passage of that Testimonium is based on the original writings of Josephus but has later

additions, made by Christian scribes.”

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This was just some of Josephus’ accounts, but here are verses that confirm what he just

said.

Galatians 1:19

But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.

Matthew 13:55-56

Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers

James, (Joses,) Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where

then did this Man get all these things?”

Papyrus 66 is a near complete codex of the gospel of John, and part of the

collection known as the Bodmer Papyri.

Text contains: John 1:1-6:11; 6:35-14:26,29-30; 15:2-26; 16:2-4,6-7;

16:10-20:20,22-23; 20:25-21:9,12,17

Found: Egypt

Date: about AD 200

The gospel of John is so significant, because John captures the life and ministry of

Jesus, and so many other things that other gospels don’t have. Such as:

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 “The gospel of John speaks of “the son (of God)” twenty-nine times and refers to

God as “Father” over one hundred times. This alone is a clear example of John’s

purpose to help people come to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The way

this is emphasized in the gospel of John makes this gospel unique among the other

gospels. Not only has the gospel of John captured Christ’s earthly ministry, but it strives

to show Him as the preexistent son of God and highlight his divinity while looking

forward to His future reign as God and King.”

I am going to touch on a sensitive point now, which is going through trial and

seeing God’s faithfulness through it.

I recently went through a really rough patch in my walk with God. I was cut very

deeply emotion wise, by someone I thought was a close friend, for seven months. Once

I finally said something to a teacher, I felt a weight come off, and a whole new weight

come back over me. The weight that someone finally knew was lifted, and I could get

help, but I was realizing how many lies from the enemy I was believing, and how little of

a friend this person actually was. One of my roommates was talking about how faithful

the Lord had been to her over the past year, and all I could think, was how the Lord was

being faithful to me by allowing me to go through all this emotional pain and suffering. I

had known this person for four years, and I thought I could trust this person, but this

person had manipulated me so many times, I had become blind to it.

Once spoke us, all those times of manipulation came to my vision. I became angry, and

I felt betrayed, I got to a point of depression, because I just felt so alone and violated.

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On top of that during that time God was silent.(Or so I thought.) I was living in fear and

anger, and I was in a downward spiral.

I wrestled with forgiveness and anger for two months after that, and I wasn’t

praying much during that time. I was separating myself from God, and blaming God for

the distance.

After the span of two months I learned more about myself, and God, than I had

ever known. I started praying again, even if I couldn’t hear His voice.

But He was speaking to me, through other people, my classmates, my parents,

and my teachers. I just didn’t want to hear what He had to say from someone else, in

my own stubbornness, and pride.

You’re probably wondering what I learned through all this? One of the best

movies I could have watched during this time of pain in my life, was the passion of the

Christ. Jesus came with one thing in mind and that was us. He came to live a mortal life

with the temptations of the world. But unlike us, He did not give into them, He lived a

sinless life, and died a horrible death, on the cross, for us to live in eternity with Him. I

thought I was suffering, and I was watching how Jesus suffered so much more. All I

could think of while I watched this movie, was that Jesus loves me so much that He

actually suffered for me, and for the person who hurt me. He bled and died so that I

could live, not in shame, but in the freedom to walk as the daughter of the High King.

Because of the pain I was going through, all the old wounds, and the new ones, were all

being brought back up, so that God could heal them properly. Because in my own

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stubbornness, all i was doing was suppressing my emotions. It was old rotten fruit that

wasn’t pleasing in the eyes of God, and it was effecting my relationships with other

people. But God, being just, and knowing me better than I know myself. He took out all

the dead branches in my life, and was pruning me. He was redeeming old friendships

that had started to fail, and He gave me a heart like His, that was able to forgive, not to

forget, but to let go of all the anger that I had been holding on to. I saw that God was

faithful, He gave me an identity that I had been trying to find in others for so long, and

by God taking all that false identity away I found my true identity in Him, and He called

me loved, accepted, beautiful, special, and kind.

I have discovered trials make us stronger, they cause us to dig deep, and realize

what is truly important. I realized that asking questions are okay, and you can’t grow if

you don’t try. Sometimes the pain we feel, is God taking us out of something. For

example. I see that pain is kind of similar to when you put pressure on your leg by

sitting wrong, and it falls asleep. Once you take the weight off, it kind of hurts, but what

do you do? You shake it off, you move, and stretch it out. I see trials kind of the same

way. God is taking the unwanted pressure off of us, sometimes it hurts, and we were

asleep to the pain until it was taken off. Once He takes the weight off of us, He leaves

the decision up to us, as to what we will do with the new freedom He has given us. We

can choose to go back to what it was like before, because it was comfortable and numb

to pain, or we can shake it off, and discover new ways to live.

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 So the question is why I believe in God? The answer to that question is, I believe

because I have seen Him move in more ways than I can express. I have seen Him

move a hurricane around Fort Lauderdale, I have seen Him heal cancer in my

grandfather, I have seen Him in our history, and all throughout the Bible. I see Him all

around me in creation, and I have seen Him move in my life, and take my broken heart,

and make it whole. He has given me an identity, and a hope, and I wouldn’t have seen

these things if I hadn’t gone through trial first.

James 1:2-8

 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the

testing of your faith produces patience.

Romans 15:13

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you

may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hopefully this has answered a few questions for you, thank you for reading this

proclamation of my faith in God, and why I believe.

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Josephus accounts:

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-

jesus/did-jesus-exist/

Gospel of John

https://www.joshweidmann.com/jesus-son-god-proof-gospel-john/

James’ ossuary

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/is-the-

brother-of-jesus-inscription-on-the-james-ossuary-a-forgery/

Papyrus 66

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_66

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