I Believe Jesus Christ Is My Savior

@will999: I attend Calvary Chapel, a non-denominational church that was started back in the 1970s as part of the hippie "Jesus freak" movement.

Hello greenmountaingal. WOW, that is AMAZING, it's really WORKING! I was baptized by full immersion [i]the method used in the new testament because it symbolizes death and burial in Jesus with hope of resurrection to eternal life,[/i] at Calvary Chapel in Greenacre in 1973, one of two [i]Jesus freaks[/i] from Melbourne, Australia who were living with a Christian family in Revesby, New South Wales, who were both baptized that same day. I've never taken hallucinogenic drugs again since that day, more than forty years ago and generally prefer to avoid drinking any alcohol, the number of [i]standard[/i] drinks I have in [i]a year[/i] I could [i]count on one hand[/i] without using every finger. My avoidance of alcohol is a personal preference not a rule, within my own family I've seen much damage done by it. I used to attend Alcoholics Anonymous which is very supportive of people who want to stop drinking alcohol. The last time I went to an AA meeting I was laughed out of it because no one in the room believed that I had a drinking problem. You could say I graduated from the AA program [i]with flying colours, a driver's licence, a Ticket To Ride and a Born Again Mind[/i]. I also decided to quit cigarettes having smoked about twenty a day for two years starting at about 19 years of age. I do not smoke marijuana because it is against the law and in order to obtain it you need to have a connection to an organised criminal gang which may well have unfortunate consequences for a Child of God. To the best of my knowledge there is no medical evidence to support the view that smoking marijuana is addictive or physically harmful but I am not a doctor and it may be wrong to believe that. Make up your own mind about it. My mind is set on Jesus.

@greenmountaingal Hello again. I returned to your original post after about a year because my Notifications told me that someone had hearted it or one of the comments in our lengthy conversation. Before I came to Sydney in about 1972 and happened upon some Christians who took me to Calvary Chapel in Greenacre, my idea of a good time was to go into town where I lived at the time (Melbourne,AU) on a Friday or Saturday night, meet up with friends, go somewhere to hear some live music and smoke some weed. We agreed that it had never been proven to be medically harmful and all those stories in the papers and TV about how "soft drugs lead to hard drugs, etc." would never happen to us, we were too smart for that! When I experienced rebirth I was keen to tell my friends about this new life I had discovered thru faith in Jesus. I felt like a new creature it had changed my life completely. I returned to Melbourne after about a year baptized, born again and eager to tell the good news to all of my friends and family. Most of them were not interested, they'd heard it all before. Other friends thought I had completely lost my mind. Some of them had also undergone a great change during the time I was away in Sydney looking for fellowship in the Spirit three times a week. They had become reclusive and secretive. They were tight-lipped about the nature of their transformation but their demeanor and eyes told me they were doing what we'd always said would never happen to us. I am convinced they had become hardened to the dangerous culture and use of street drugs. Perhaps they had always been that way and I had just not noticed it before. It seemed to me that [i]they[/i] had lost their minds. Obviously friendship can not survive in this environment of mutual suspicion and I no longer see them today. I have seen the damage that drugs and alcohol can do within my own family and circle of friends. I have known people to drink and drug themselves to the poorhouse, the lockup and the grave, all the while thinking that I believe in fairies. That could have been me had I not found Jesus when I did. I did not intend to reject most of my friends and family but actually they had rejected me. I had really changed and they did not like what they saw in me. Turning [i]toward[/i] Jesus I had also turned [i]away[/i] from something which may very well have been the end of me. I know my redeemer lives.