This question is meant to anyone who believes in one god, whether it be allah, hashem, or jesus, but if their is another religion that believes in one god, thats cool too
Allah is not God. Allah is not just another name for God. Allah is a demon or Satan himself.
There is only one God, the God of the Bible. One God who is 3 persons, The Father, The Son Jesus and The Holy Spirit. Three persons yet 1 God.
God brought me to the end of myself where I realized that no matter what I had or what I did that I would never be satisfied. I'm a man of simple pleasures and quite easily entertained so I don't need allot of stuff or things going on to be satisfied. I was in demand in my trade, I had just remarried and had all 3 of my kids living with me, I had my own business and I was happy but there had always been a hole deep down inside me that I knew only God could fill. I had completely rejected God until this point in my life.
There was no doubt in my mind that I was a sinner and that I needed to be reconciled to God. I started reading a Bible that I had been given a couple years earlier and tossed up in a cupboard. I also began to pray and ask God to show me what church I should attend.
After a month or so I noticed a church on a Tuesday I had never seen before although I had driven past it many times and I kinda knew at that moment that it was the church. Two days later on Thursday night 3 men from that church came to my house and invited me to church. I went the next Sunday night and have been going to the same church for nearly 14 years. How I ended up in Los Angeles where I could end up in this church is amazing in itself.
The thing that brought me back the 2nd time to my church was when my pastor yelled at some kid from the pulpit to wake up, sit up and pay attention because there was nothing more important at that moment than the preaching of God's word. I liked that because he didn't care what anyone in the church thought and he was just going to tell it the way he believed it to be.
After about 16 months of sitting under the preaching, reading my Bible and pleading with God to be merciful to me a sinner. I came to Jesus by faith and was saved. I have been serving faithfully in my church ever since.
I cant remember a time that I didn't believe that there was a God. I didn't know who He was, but I knew that He could not be who my friends said He was. For God to be God, He had to be sovereign, all powerful and holy. Not some glorified bellhop waiting to serve me. Beyond that it was the preaching of God's word and reading my Bible.
and what keeps you going when your faith is tested
Knowing that in all things God is in control, faithful and can be trusted even when I don't understand why things are happening the way they are.
man chooses to be good or evil, and god gives us free will, we are not puppets, with him as the string master
Regarding free will. I look at it like this. Either God is in control or He is not. If you put a fish in a bowl, the fish is free to do whatever it is capable of doing inside that bowl however the owner of the bowl decides where the bowl will be placed. Free will to some degree but how much I'm not exactly sure. How I ended up in Los Angeles so that I might be saved and serve in my church proves the point well to me.
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ