She Pretended God Was Real for 30 Days—Then THIS Happened

Cliff Buell

Download First Light and build a God-first routine by blocking apps until you read your Bible: https://firstlight.onelink.me/tenZ/qtzffd2h   After seeing another atheist try “faithless Christianity,” Sarah decided to spend 30 days living as if God were real to see what would happen. In this video, I react to her journey from Day 1 to Day 21 and the surprising decision she ultimately makes about Jesus.  Are You Going To Heaven OR Hell?👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzmENeLZzb4&t=2s  All Important Links: https://linktr.ee/cliffbuell  Become A Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ap1CNrpXD-O0wWPANhQvw/join  Connect With Me: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CliffBuell Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cliffbuell/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cliffbuell  #christian #jesus #god #bible #reaction #atheist #faith #church #religion #change  FAIR USE DISCLAIMER This video may contain copyrighted material that has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is used for purposes of criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, research, or education, which constitute “fair use” under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. I do not claim ownership of any copyrighted material used in this video. All rights and credit go directly to their respective owners. This content is transformative in nature — adding new meaning, commentary, or context — and does not substitute for the original works. If any copyright owner has concerns or would like material removed, please contact me directly and I will resolve the matter promptly.

Transcript

00:00We got a good one today. I don't know if you remember Brian who did Faithless Christianity,

00:03basically pretending God was real for 30 days. And then he ended up finding Jesus on the 20th

00:07day. And I covered him. I'll leave a link to that video if you're not familiar with it,

00:10because it's important context for what we're about to talk about. Now, I made another video

00:15talking about how he inspired other people to do the same exact thing. Here we have Sarah James,

00:19who again, started to do the same exact thing that Brian was doing. She was already kind of

00:24questioning Christianity. And so she's like, hey, I'm going to pretend to be a Christian for 30 days

00:27and see if I find Jesus along the way. So we're going to look at her day one to get

00:31a good

00:31understanding of where she started from. Then we're going to look at day 18. We'll see a big jump on

00:35where she got to. We'll look a little bit at day 19. And then her most recent upload is day

00:3921. Day

00:4022 will actually be at the time I'm recording this, but I don't know when she's going to drop that

00:43video. So we don't have it, but day 21 will be the most recent to see where she's at. And

00:47it's pretty

00:48cool. It is a cool update that I think you guys know. I think you already know, but let's get

00:52into

00:52it before we do though. My name is Cliff Buell. If you're new here, welcome. If you're not new here,

00:55welcome back. This channel exists to build a believer and reach the lost. If you like

00:58Christian content, make sure to hit that subscribe button, share this video with somebody who would

01:02appreciate it. All right, let's check it out. Day one of pretending if God is real to see if I

01:06feel

01:06more fulfilled, happy and connected to God and Jesus. I've been dipping my toes in and questioning

01:10Christianity more seriously since about January. And I think it's time to dive in and really give this

01:14a full go. This challenge is not my own. It is completely inspired by Brian. I really enjoyed

01:18watching his videos and it motivated me to try the exact same thing. Following his same framework,

01:22it is morning prayer, gratitude, read about God, and then apply his teaching. I've been

01:25inconsistently reading the gospels, starting with the book of John. I'm going to actually read that

01:28later tonight, but I did get this book a little while ago. I actually haven't felt very connected

01:32to it, but I'm still going to try. We are on August 23rd, the author kind of speaking in God's

01:37voice, which I don't know. It just makes me feel a little bit untrusting, but then it is nice to

01:40have

01:41some Bible verses down here. Earlier this morning, I saw someone gave me like a little bit of a sassy

01:44comment on one of my videos. It's not really constructive. It's kind of just giving an attitude for no

01:48reason. I could easily just give a little bit of a sassy remark back. Is it really worth it though?

01:51What is the end result of that? It's probably best just to not say anything. I don't know. I just

01:54thought of this now, but maybe that's the time to send a prayer to open this person's heart up to

01:58a

01:58little more love. I've gotten a lot better at like taking a step back and not always needing to fight

02:02every battle, but I haven't gotten to the point of praying for someone's heart to open for love.

02:06Not a lie, that does make me a little uncomfortable. I don't fully like it, but I think that's what

02:09I

02:09should do. It's been a long day. I've been able to get a lot of administrative stuff done. That has

02:12been

02:12stressing me out a lot recently. So for today's gratitude, I am grateful for the sun, having a sunny day,

02:16getting up and being productive. And overall, I'm grateful for having a loving, supportive husband,

02:20and amazing friends and family. Honestly, finishing off day one, I don't feel too

02:23crazy different. I also didn't have high expectations to feel phenomenally different

02:27on day one. I think it's more of a repetitive thing. And when you get into habitual practice,

02:30I'm still feeling very hopeful for the challenge and I'm curious to see what's to come.

02:34Yeah. I mean, first of all, I love the idea, of course, of praying people who are annoying or

02:37irritating or are literally our enemies as the scripture tells us to do. And so when we can

02:42actually show love and kindness towards people who are in opposition to us, it shows a real maturity

02:46in our spiritual growth. And really we are being Christ-like. We're representing the Lord

02:49in doing that and opening the door to bring people into a salvific relationship with him.

02:54So always recommend that. It's cool. She was doing that on day one, already recognizing that

02:56she could do that. But now we're going to jump to day 18 and see where she's at with this

03:02whole

03:02thing. Like I said, this was only a few days ago when she recorded this one. We'll see what effect

03:06this has had on her. And like she said, the consistency is very important. I mean, one of the

03:09fruits of the spirit is self-control, which is discipline. And so when we have discipline,

03:12when we are consistent in things, that is actually a godly characteristic to maintain consistency

03:16and doing righteous things. So let's just see what happens. While I have you here,

03:19I created an app that blocks your distracting apps until you read your Bible. It's called

03:22First Light Bible in Prayer. And it starts with a prayer. Then you read the Bible. And when you're

03:26finished reading the Bible, you check off which book and chapter that you've read. And then it

03:31unlocks your apps. So you can continue using your phone as normal, but you actually put God first

03:35every day without getting distracted by scrolling or any other apps. This has helped me for over four

03:39months now. If you think that it could help you to click the link in the pink comment below or

03:42scan the QR code.

03:43Today is a little bit more of a social media video editing Sabbath, but today is still day 18 of

03:48pretending slash believing God is real. There's so many exciting things to share, but I'm going to

03:51make it quick for today. Brian, the original creator of this challenge, actually ended up reaching out

03:55to have a one-on-one FaceTime conversation. During that conversation, he asked me where I was in my

03:59face journey. I explained, I don't not believe. I don't really know what the holdup is, whether it's

04:03submission or what that final tipping over point is. What does that mean to them not not believe,

04:07but actually believe? I don't know if that makes any sense, but what stood out to me and what his

04:10response was that sometimes the language you use is really important. And when you start saying you

04:14believe oftentimes before you're ready, language has a lot of power. Something I'm definitely going

04:19to keep sitting with today, start changing the language in my brain and what I'm saying to others

04:22and see what happens there. Wow. Okay. So she's saying like, she's not really sure what's keeping

04:27her from going all the way in, but she basically believes, which is really interesting. And then

04:30talks about language, which I do think language is really important. The example often given is

04:33instead of saying I have anxiety or I am anxious, it's I'm experiencing anxiety right now,

04:38or I'm feeling anxious. And so instead of claiming that as something that we own, we're just

04:42acknowledging how we're feeling in the moment. And then we can deal with that, right? We can

04:45surrender that to God because it's not a part of our identities and a part of who we are,

04:48just something that we're experiencing because we're human and we're going to. So I do think there

04:51is power in language, there's power in the words we speak. And of course, faith comes by hearing and

04:55hearing by the word of God. There is a very clear truth to how your mind is renewed and formed

05:02based on

05:03the words we are speaking. The power of life and death is in the tongue, as it says in Proverbs.

05:07So there's a very realness about this. I think it was good advice by Brian is saying, Hey, like,

05:11I'm not really sure where I stand with this believing, pretending thing, but I'm going to

05:13start changing the terminology to see like where this takes me and how I actually feel about this.

05:17And so as you'll see in day 19 here, she immediately, then the next day does exactly that.

05:22So listen to this.

05:23Questioning Christianity for a while now, longer than just the 19 days of this challenge,

05:27but I have made a lot of strides in the last 19 days of taking it more seriously.

05:30This is day 19 of believing God is real. Not as a physical copy for me to keep,

05:34but for another stranger to find. I think it's overall a really great starting.

05:37Okay. That's cool. That's honestly all I want to talk about in day 19. This is still just kind

05:40of going over her journey, what she's doing every day. She does give that book to one of those free

05:43libraries and she encourages someone in it and then puts her handle on there as well. If anybody

05:48wants to talk to her, but she noticed how she said, believing God is real. So she's question mark,

05:53right? But she's starting to change that language. So she's actually taking the feedback and implementing

05:56it. Now we're going to look at day 21, day 21. God is real. You already know what it is.

06:00So we're going to look at this, see what she has to say. I actually haven't fully watched this video

06:06yet. So this will be my first time fully watching it with you. And I'm excited about that. Let's

06:09take a look at what she said. It says, I am saved right here. Come on. It doesn't get better

06:12than

06:12that. Let's go guys. So anyways, let's just listen to the video. I won't keep dragging this on.

06:16September 17th is when I decide I accept that free gift of salvation and I accept Jesus Christ as my

06:21King, Lord, and Savior. Come on, public profession of faith. And just go, you know what, man,

06:25I am all in. I don't have to have everything figured out. I don't have to have read the whole

06:29Bible, but where do I choose to put my faith? And what is it going to be enough? There can

06:33be so many

06:34things, if, ands, or buts. It is scary to surrender, but I'm just at a point of like, how can

06:38I not give

06:39in this experience and what I've experienced over the last 21 days and beyond? Obviously, I've been

06:43questioning Christianity since before this challenge happened. And there comes a point where you can't keep

06:47humming and hawing and being, oh, I don't know. Well, this, that like I said, I've said everything I've said,

06:52well, I need to understand. I need to be able to recite the historical reliability.

06:55I need to have read the whole Bible. I need to be on board and cosign everything that it means

06:59to be

06:59a Christian or be on this journey. And you don't, there comes a point where you have to choose. And

07:03then when you choose that as the right path to follow, to be saved and believe that Jesus Christ

07:07died on the cross for your sins, the rest will follow. You don't have to like all of the rules

07:11that Christ follows. It doesn't make it not true. You don't have to go through and nitpick every little

07:16thing and say, well, I don't know if I believe about that. That's the point. We were given these laws

07:21and

07:21moral truths to abide by because we are fallible. We make mistakes. It might feel uncomfortable

07:26sometimes to say out loud, but comes a point where you just have to dive in and say, this is

07:30all in.

07:31I might not get it perfect. It might feel awkward at times. There's going to be times where I feel

07:34disconnected and that's okay. But this is the path I choose to walk down and will choose to walk down

07:39every single day. Let's go. Another one. Yep. Come on, man. This is so good. And Brian commented

07:45on there too. And it's so, so cool to see these atheists taking the word of God seriously, taking

07:51history seriously, taking Christianity seriously and diving in to figure out, is this thing real?

07:56And then applying it to their life to see like, does this actually change anything? And I can tell

07:59you my life is completely different as a Christian. I'm not, I'm far from perfect. I am far from perfect.

08:03There's a lot for me to work on. There's a lot for me to improve upon, but man, I am

08:07way better.

08:08I'm a thousand times better than I was even five years ago as a Christian. But when I wasn't living

08:12as a Christian, when I was living in the world, doing whatever I wanted to do, my life is so

08:16much

08:17better. And not that I don't experience pain or suffering or that the real fallen nature of the

08:22world doesn't impact me. Those things are very real and your life doesn't automatically get better

08:26because you follow Jesus. But who I am as a person is better. I become more selfless, more serving,

08:30more caring, more loving, more patient, more kind. Those things are real. And man, when you really

08:36pursue Christ, it just changes your life for the better. And so it is really cool to see this

08:41challenge. I'm excited that another one. So man, God bless Sarah. God bless Brian, man. Pray for them

08:47on their journeys that they would continue to go forth in the Lord and proclaim the good news of

08:51Jesus Christ. If you enjoyed this video, hit that like button, share this with somebody else who would

08:54appreciate it. Remember to hit that subscribe button if you like Christian content. And if you watch the

08:58end, you're an absolute legend. I love you and God bless.

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