ERICKSON CABINTA:  

How I Became a Christian By Erickson Cabinta In looking back, I believe how I became a Christian started when I was younger. I was born into a Catholic family in the Philippines. We moved to the US when I was seven years old. Sometime during my teenage years, my dad was being witnessed to at his work by a Seventh-Day Adventist. He told my dad to read the Bible. During that time, our family would always celebrate Lent by having three statues, one of them being a statute representing Mary, come to our house for a week. It was our custom to kneel and pray toward these statues every day for a week. We would say a certain number of "Our Fathers", "Hail Marys", and reciting the "Mystery of the Faith" at the end of each day. As my dad was reading the Bible, he realized how it was wrong to bow down to an image. He refused to lead the worship. It was at this time that my dad started to encourage me to read the Bible. Wanting to be in the habit of reading classical books, I decided to start with the most "classical book" of all, which is the Bible. So I read it like one who would read a story or a novel. I started in the New Testament. It was during these times that I took the Bible as only a story and not as the Word of God as it is. Even though I did not understand certain things, I thought to myself that I should at least read the Bible once in my life. I got into the habit of at least reading one chapter a day. Usually, I would read more than one chapter because I found certain portions of Scripture to be interesting. After finishing reading the whole Bible once, I decided to continue to read the Bible at least once a year. I did not get saved (born again) during these times, but the Lord laid the groundwork. It was in college that I met a friend who is a believer in Jesus Christ. He found it convicting that a Catholic would read the B...Expand for more