Many Christians have their own conversion stories to cherish. As I promised Brod Willy earlier, I am sharing my own story piece by piece. This Personal Christian story of mine may not be unique as many people are receiving the same calls I received even before the time of my conversion.
The first message came to me when I was in high school, back in the 1980's. It was in a form of a dream. A dream which only later in my college life that I understood. And only later in my adult life that I took seriously.
I was born a Roman Catholic and raised in Catholic community. My parents are Catholics but seldom did I see them attend mass in fact if I may recall I can count with my fingers the time I saw my father attended mass. Worse, not even a single time I remembered that my mother brought me to church. Well, maybe perhaps she was already tired of going to church at the time when I was young because she had gone through it for eleven (11)other elder siblings of mine. I was the twelfth of a dozen pack and at the time I was born my mother was already 42, yet I found her still active. The only signs I knew she was a Catholic was that she prayed the Rosary regularly.My exposure of the church doctrines was my primary school catechism where we were taught basic prayers and the sacraments. I have never seen or read a Bible by that time. My first encounter of the Bible was when my elder brother let me join a prayer meeting for youth in a society named "Kristohanon Katilingban (Christian Community)or KRISKA" organized by missionary Franciscan brothers in our place. We were made to listen to some verse and share our feeling about the message.
Then in high school I had this very strange dream. It was more than twenty years ago yet I can picture the scene clearly. I saw a man sitting in a big wooden chair in front of me. I was standing behind him. He was wearing a white long gown and I can't figure out his face because it is shining like a sun's glow. In front he was sorting out a multitude of goats and sheep. I could not remember where did he put one from the other but he grouped the sheep in one side and the goats in another. As every animal was sorted out, I felt weary. Although I was neither a sheep nor a goat I asked the man. "Where should you put me?" Then the beam of light from his face turned on me as a voice said. "Wait, your time hasn't come."
This dream kept coming back into my wind until I went to college. To make the long story short I found a friend who gave me a New Testament and in one curious time I read from Matthew Chapter 25 (from verse 33) the same story I dreamed years earlier. What a message for me then yet I hardened my heart and never listened.
And you can't imagine what I became as I gained eduction further. The worst thing, despite the constant reminder and calling, finally I became an ATHEIST believing everything about God as fiction. And even worst I became anti-Christ from then on.
I think this post has become long enough so I promise to tell you next time what I did as an ATHEIST and how I fought God with my "Wisdom."
(Photo is from http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/judge/)