Debating and arguing have their place. No "man" could have ever convinced me that Christianity was valid. One thing that maybe has not been touched on enough in this debate is the supernatural aspect of what I have come to believe. I "know" that there is a power behind what we have been arguing about. And I have confidence that anyone who is truly searching for that power will find it. If I could be so bold as to share how I came to know this. I do not come from a Christian home. I have no Christian relatives. My parents never went to Church. I was never "indoctrinated" into anything. And I have tried everything. My dad was in the mining industry. We lived as far south as Peru, as far north as Labrador and every place in between. No complaints here, I led a privileged life, went to private schools, made more in allowance than some 3rd world families earned in a week. My mom died of cancer when I was 13, which led us back to Canada. Smoked drugs, partied, bought things, did things. I was pretty bad. I liked trouble. I looked for it. I was the guy that would steal your parents 2nd car if you invited me to a party at your house just to watch you get kicked out the next day. In my 20's, I met this guy at work that I was supposed to train. I didn't like him. He was way too happy. Didn't swear, would look at me funny when I denigrated women and generally made me feel uncomfortable. Actually the guy was a hockey fan (liked the rangers if you can call that a hockey fan.) Everybody would take breaks together including this guy, so I got to know (tolerate) him after a while. He liked to babble on about religion, so I would avoid sitting near him if possible, but eventually heard enough of his audacious claims about Jesus and Christianity, that It piqued my interest. I figured that maybe I should study this religious stuff so I could at least refute the drivel that he espoused on a daily basis. I don't like being miss-informed. So I started checking out bibles and stuff at Garage sales and antique stores when my wife wasn't looking.(It definitely was not cool to talk about Jesus around people that I knew.)I started reading it and actually got a pretty good historic grasp on things that I had ignored all my life. Current event things such as the Jewish/Muslim conflict really do take on greater significance when you study the Talmud and Qumran's from that aspect alone reading the bible was/is beneficial. It's almost disturbing that every day we are bombarded by Middle East headlines and most people are unaware of the root causes of this conflict, but that's another story. Anyways I started fancying myself a "Christian". There was wisdom in the Psalms and proverbs that appealed to my intellect and reasoning, and I gained a historic appreciation for Christianity so in my mind, I was just as much a Christian as anyone. I started debating the dude at work. Sort of hitting him with some surprise know- how, If you will. I would purposely antagonize him with leading questions to try to make his life miserable. I would usually be the one who got frustrated because this dude didn't have a button. He never got mad. I kind of grew to respect that to the point that I wondered how he did it? I make way more money than this guy and he is happier than me! Doesn't he know that he is supposed to be jealous of me? One day I was ragging on this guy about some God stuff and in the heat of this debate I snapped at him and said "How do you know that I am not a Christian?" He responded: "Can you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior right here and now in front of all these people?" I looked around and about twenty people that I intimately knew were quiet and staring at me, waiting for my response. It was as If something had grabbed my tongue. I physically could not say that! Right at that moment I new with certainty that I was not a Christian and that there was something that he had that I did not. A few days later I got in to a terrible fight with my boss and came to blows with him. My world was changing. After a reprimand, it was decided that I would be terminated or accept a position at a different branch 200 miles away. This was not good. I did not really like my job and had been actively looking elsewhere in my community for about 6 months. I had numerous interviews but there was nothing in my field of work available, Period. I did not want to move. Correct that I COULDNT move and my employer knew that.(Mortgage, debt ect.) That day I went home reeling. I did not know what to do. I was alone so I pulled out this Gideon bible I bought at a Garage sale. In the back it had this "Steps to Salvation" message that was almost like a fill in questionnaire. I went on to talk about listing all of my "sins of commission" that I could remember. It explained that to be things that I did that were wrong. Then it talked about "sins of omission". Which were described as things that I should have done but never did. Th

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