{"id":1279,"date":"2024-02-16T06:56:28","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T04:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2024-02-16T06:56:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T04:56:55","slug":"i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>During a recent email exchange between one of ATS&#8217; support personnel and a <a href=\"\/academic-programmes\/diploma-in-theology\/\">Diploma<\/a> student, the <a href=\"\/study-at-ats\/student-testimonials\/\">student wrote the following<\/a>. We thought it is a wonderful example of the personal working of the Holy Spirit in a person&#8217;s life, and share it with permission of the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>~<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I need your advice. I need to join a church.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Part of my background is that I grew up in a family that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-am-a-pastor-please-help-me-with-ancestral-worship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">believes in ancestors<\/a>, that consulted sangomas whenever there&#8217;s a problem and performed traditional rituals.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>But I never connected with these believes. <strong>I never stepped inside a church all my life<\/strong>, but one thing that I enjoyed doing, as I grew up, was Bible reading to an extent where I started taking my own notes way before I joined ATS. I always had this <strong>desire to read the Word<\/strong> and I enjoyed although back then I struggled to understand certain things.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After joining ATS in 2023, as I was studying Church History Reader 611, I read about a Bolobedu king named Kgashane who renounced his tradition and eventually he was killed for his faith. Fortunately, I found a book titled Kgashane by S.P.N Makwala (1992 5th edition) wherein this author narrates the story of Kgashane.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The question that arose after reading this book was, <strong>&#8220;if he could renounce his traditional beliefs for Jesus, why can&#8217;t I?&#8221;<\/strong> He was a king!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>So <strong>I also renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus<\/strong>. Now I need to join fellow believers and walk this journey of faith with them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I don&#8217;t know where to start. I feel I need to join a Bible church. Any recommendations?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Thank you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During a recent email exchange between one of ATS&#8217; support personnel and a Diploma student, the student wrote the following. We thought it is a wonderful example of the personal working of the Holy Spirit in a person&#8217;s life, and share it with permission of the student.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revival","category-testimony","tag-holy-spirit","post-preview"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus - Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus - Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During a recent email exchange between one of ATS&#8217; support personnel and a Diploma student, the student wrote the following. We thought it is a wonderful example of the personal working of the Holy Spirit in a person&#8217;s life, and share it with permission of the student.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-16T04:56:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-16T04:56:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The ATS Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The ATS Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/\",\"name\":\"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus - Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-16T04:56:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-16T04:56:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/96af46e9a456e888ad5ad2e879ec6a39\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog\",\"description\":\"Through training and empowerment ATS aims at providing direction, light and hope to people and nations in accordance with God&#039;s will.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/96af46e9a456e888ad5ad2e879ec6a39\",\"name\":\"The ATS Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99c5436fac9d57925e0962cc8e76e85e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99c5436fac9d57925e0962cc8e76e85e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The ATS Team\"},\"description\":\"We have a rich 79 year history of studying, researching and practising Christ-centered, Bible-based Theology. Join us!\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/author\/ats-team\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus - Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus - Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog","og_description":"During a recent email exchange between one of ATS&#8217; support personnel and a Diploma student, the student wrote the following. We thought it is a wonderful example of the personal working of the Holy Spirit in a person&#8217;s life, and share it with permission of the student.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/","og_site_name":"Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog","article_published_time":"2024-02-16T04:56:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-16T04:56:55+00:00","author":"The ATS Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The ATS Team","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/","name":"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus - Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-02-16T04:56:28+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-16T04:56:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/96af46e9a456e888ad5ad2e879ec6a39"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/i-renounced-the-belief-systems-i-grew-up-in-and-fully-followed-jesus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"I renounced the belief systems I grew up in, and fully followed Jesus"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/","name":"Auckland Park Theological Seminary Blog","description":"Through training and empowerment ATS aims at providing direction, light and hope to people and nations in accordance with God&#039;s will.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/96af46e9a456e888ad5ad2e879ec6a39","name":"The ATS Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99c5436fac9d57925e0962cc8e76e85e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99c5436fac9d57925e0962cc8e76e85e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The ATS Team"},"description":"We have a rich 79 year history of studying, researching and practising Christ-centered, Bible-based Theology. Join us!","url":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/author\/ats-team\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1283,"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/1283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ats.ac.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}