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**amberamuletuk** · 12-28-2007, 02:01 AM

Forgive me, Mary, but perhaps you meant that the other way round: that when God convinced you in your heart, your intellect became convinced.

I suppose, everyone is convinced in different ways, by different things. I always gave more weight to my intellect than to my heart. I thought I knew something well if I could articulate it and out-argue everyone else. It was my curiosity that drew me to orthodoxy, so all my questionings were purely intellectual at first, comparing one to the other, applying the same 'test questions' to both, to see with stood the test of logic. My final test was the test of my heart, which for me, was beyond logic, because I was stepping into the unknown, and all of a sudden, I didn't know if I could trust my own reasonings anymore. My own previous logic had crumbled under my own diligent questioning. Freaky as it may seem, the sermons that my previous pastor was preaching around that time, pushed me towards making my choice, not because he was speaking heresy, but because he was speaking the truth!

One night, he spoke on Moses/burning bush, and he marveled at how God had used Moses' curiosity to draw him closer to Himself. Then, there was his sermon about Trust/Faith. He said, our trust in God is based on our experiences with God, how God has helped us, guided us, etc, in the past, which is, in a way, how we get to know God. But faith, is stepping into the unknown, based on my trust, and what I know of God. So, I looked back on my life, saw that God had never abandoned me, even during the times of my life when pleasing Him was the farthest thing from my mind, and I looked ahead, into Orthodoxy, knowing that it was a drastic decision, from which I could not turn back, not knowing with absolute certainty (because of my newfound lack of confidence in my intellect), whether it was 'just another denomination' or Truly the True Church... and I took the plunge, that was based more on trust/faith, than on logic.

So, according to my awareness, my intellect was convinced first, and then my heart. But of course, in spiritual reality, it could've been the other way round, and there's no way I can know.

In Christ,
Mary.

PS - I just realized, the 'unknown' factors are now known, and in that case, you're right, God convinced my heart first, and my intellect followed. So I Know with absolute certainty, that the Orthodox Church is the True Church, and there's no amount of logic or reasoning that can convince me otherwise.

12-28-2007, 02:01 AM	#25
amberamuletuk Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 363 Senior Member	Forgive me, Mary, but perhaps you meant that the other way round: that when God convinced you in your heart, your intellect became convinced. I suppose, everyone is convinced in different ways, by different things. I always gave more weight to my intellect than to my heart. I thought I knew something well if I could articulate it and out-argue everyone else. It was my curiosity that drew me to orthodoxy, so all my questionings were purely intellectual at first, comparing one to the other, applying the same 'test questions' to both, to see with stood the test of logic. My final test was the test of my heart, which for me, was beyond logic, because I was stepping into the unknown, and all of a sudden, I didn't know if I could trust my own reasonings anymore. My own previous logic had crumbled under my own diligent questioning. Freaky as it may seem, the sermons that my previous pastor was preaching around that time, pushed me towards making my choice, not because he was speaking heresy, but because he was speaking the truth! One night, he spoke on Moses/burning bush, and he marveled at how God had used Moses' curiosity to draw him closer to Himself. Then, there was his sermon about Trust/Faith. He said, our trust in God is based on our experiences with God, how God has helped us, guided us, etc, in the past, which is, in a way, how we get to know God. But faith, is stepping into the unknown, based on my trust, and what I know of God. So, I looked back on my life, saw that God had never abandoned me, even during the times of my life when pleasing Him was the farthest thing from my mind, and I looked ahead, into Orthodoxy, knowing that it was a drastic decision, from which I could not turn back, not knowing with absolute certainty (because of my newfound lack of confidence in my intellect), whether it was 'just another denomination' or Truly the True Church... and I took the plunge, that was based more on trust/faith, than on logic. So, according to my awareness, my intellect was convinced first, and then my heart. But of course, in spiritual reality, it could've been the other way round, and there's no way I can know. In Christ, Mary. PS - I just realized, the 'unknown' factors are now known, and in that case, you're right, God convinced my heart first, and my intellect followed. So I Know with absolute certainty, that the Orthodox Church is the True Church, and there's no amount of logic or reasoning that can convince me otherwise.
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