A Little Self Reflection Never Hurt

As we ended our last discussion we looked at how we are using prayer. Are you only approaching God when it benefits you? Are you only praying when you have a need, and forgetting God after you’ve received it? Or, are you using this blessing as an opportunity to grow your relationship with the big guy upstairs? The theme to this discussion is why our prayers seemed to go unanswered at times. Today we are going to look in the mirror and ask ourselves why are we worthy of our prayers being answered, are we deserving of what we ask for?

I ask this because at times we forget that God has laid out his desires for mankind, and asks for only one thing in life…obedience. There is nothing in this world we can give God that he doesn’t have or hasn’t created. The only things that bring him joy are obedience, love, and respect. As parents isn’t this our true hearts desire. We crave for them to listen to our rules, respect our authority in their lives, and grow up to live a lifestyle reflecting the morals we’ve tried to instill in their hearts.

When our children listen, do we not crave to reward them in life? When my son eats like a good boy and decides not to throw his food like a boomerang around the dinning room I often find myself looking on with joy, thinking of how much I love him and how cute he looks. On the other hand when I look over and see spaghetti on our walls I tend to feel like punting him like a football, not that I would…wink..wink.

I challenge you to reflect on your personal walk with God and ask yourself…what kind of child have I been for him? Have you been the kind of child that brings him joy, the kind of child that when hearing your voice his heart is filled with excitement? On the other hand, are you the child that refuses to listen to what he asks? Or….have you chosen to worship God ala cart style, picking and choosing what to listen to according to what best fits your desires. Now not every child is perfect and even the best will fall short of their parents expectations every once in a while, but where do you fit?

"I will go to church, I will read my bible, I will pray every night….BUT…I will still choose to sleep around, maybe catch a little buzz once in a while…But I’m doing my best....don’t judge me…God knows my heart, he knows how hard it is out here".

Once again, we have to put our feet in God’s shoes once in a while. How willing would you be to granting your child’s wish if they only listened to you according to what they desired, or flat out didn’t listen at all? I will clean my room, do the dishes, and finish my homework…BUT…I’m going to sneak out at night, smoke a little of the green stuff, and so on and so forth.

Obedience, love, respect: those are the only things God asks from us.. In all honesty, there isn’t a desire on this Earth that God couldn’t satisfy with the blink of eye. Healing your loved one from an ailing condition, he gave us life he can restore it without a thought. Helping you get a job, people were placed as Kings because of him. Helping you save your home, he made King Solomon the wealthiest man to ever live. Helping you over come a sin you battle with, he gave Paul the grace necessary to overcome a thorn in his flesh he equated to a messenger from Satan, (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

God doesn’t avoid us we tend to avoid him, and imagine how insulted he must be when we refuse to acknowledge him, never think of him, constantly disobey him, and only remember him when it benefits us. Here’s the good news, God is a loving God, never holds grudges, and is always willing to give a person a new start no matter what skeletons are hiding in your closet. All it takes is for you to approach him as your Heavenly Father in sincere repentance. He loves us so much that at times he is willing to step aside and allow us to live as we desire, even if it comes against what we asks of us.

If you get anything out of this series I hope its encouragement to look at the possibilities as to why your prayers may seem unanswered. Let’s not be so fast to blame God or lash out against him because we pray…pray…pray and nothing happens. It may be that God is giving you what your lifestyle has reflected, a life without him.

What if you’re living according to what God asks, what if you are that child that brings him joy, that spiritual honor role student…why are your prayers sitting there unfulfilled. We’ll touch on this next so stay tuned.

How Are We Using Prayer

In an era of so much hardship I have come across more and more people opening their hearts to prayer then ever before. As a result I am starting to talk to more individuals starting to loose faith because they feel as if their pleads are falling upon deaf ears. If there’s a God, why am I still suffering? I fall to my knees every night in tears and pain, I beg you God and I know you can feel my pain, and yet my situation is still te same. Where are you God? Before we look into this deeper I want to warn you that you will be challenged to reflect on yourself, your walk with God, and some of this info may be hard to take in. On this note I ask you a question, what is prayer…what purpose does it serve in your life….and how have you been using it?

I ask this question because it seems like society has turned prayer into a 1-800 help line. It’s only used as a request channel to God when a need arises and nothing more. It seems like this is the only time people actually speak to God or reach out to him. Prayer is one of the greatest privileges ever handed down to mankind, the gift of openly speaking to God one on one.

Think about it as your own one on one phone line to God himself, our creator willing to set side time for you, the one whose hand is responsible for your very existence, the God who hand picked you to be created on this Earth. Prayer is meant to allow you to bond with God, talk to him, pour your heart to him, simply put…communicate with him as your heavenly father. This gift was handed down to us as a way to fall in love with him. I wish I could put into words how much I appreciate talking to God, thanking him for opening my eyes and heart to him, helping me to understand his word, the wife he has blessed me with, the son he’s allowed me to raise on his behalf, our new child on the way. There are times when I am approaching him for forgiveness, and thanking him for never giving up on me. There are times where I need his help. There are times when I just talk to him as if he was sitting right next to me.

I encourage you to look at your prayer life. Are you using this gift as an opportunity to develop your relationship, or do you only use this privilege when it benefits you? Imagine if your marriage was only based on demands. Imagine if the only time your spouse spoke to you is when they needed something and nothing more. Honey can you get me some coffee, Honey can you get me something to eat, Honey I need some money, Honey this and Honey that. Imagine if your significant other never called to say hello, tell you they loved you, complimented how wonderful you look, how they appreciate you, or if there’s anything they can do for you. How would this make you feel?

Imagine if as a parent the only time your child ever acknowledged you is when there was a need that you could fulfill. They come home, walk past you, turn on the TV. They sit at the dinner table, talk to their siblings, and call their friends. They walk right past you at bed time, never to say a word. All of a sudden their favorite video game is on sale and now you’re the light in their life. The hug you, bat their eye’s, and tell you how much they love you and can you get this game from them. Afterwards, you become a shadow in their life again until the next desire you can satisfy for them. Sadly, there are marriages that can relate to this example and children who treat their parents in this manner. If you can relate I challenge you to be honest in how this makes you feel? Are you motivated to fulfill the requests of your spouse, or give your child what they asked based on the illustration above?

This is where I challenge you, how are you using prayer? Are you only approaching God when it benefits you? Are you only praying when you have a need, and forget about God after you have received it? Or, are you using this blessing as an opportunity to grow your relationship with the big guy upstairs? God looks down on us as an Earth filled with his children and yearns to develop a parent like relationship with us. You have to put yourself in God’s shoes once in a while and ask yourself what kind of child have I been? Do I bring him joy? Am I the child that calls him everyday to tell him how much I love him, and how appreciative I am of him? Do I come to him just to talk and build that father, son / father, daughter type of relationship, or am I the child that only shows up on the scene with my hand always out?

In our next Blog we will continue on this question what kind of child have you been for God in relation to prayers. Understanding that there are those who are truly trying their hardest to follow God in obedience and yet feel as if their prayers are unheard, we will look into this a little later.

I'm Praying, Is There Anyone Listening

This is a question that I hear quite often, and at times I catch myself asking the same question. Is there really someone listening or am I going mad talking to myself, pouring out my heart to someone, or something imaginary? If there is a God listening to me then why hasn’t my request been fulfilled, why am I still suffering from the same ailment….what am I still jobless….why is my marriage still going south…why am I still suffering from this sin…Why, Why, Why!

I have a good friend I met a year and a half ago. I was his sales support as an agent with my company. I would call on him monthly to see where we could establish a business relationship, and in turn we would develop a wonderful friendship even though we have never met outside of talking on the phone. One day I called on him and during our conversation I learned his son was suffering from Leukemia. The first thing I could think of was praying for his son with him. I would call him back on my cell and asked if I could pray for his son, and learned he was a pastor of a smaller church and worked on the side.

We sat on the phone and prayed for his son’s healing, and everyday he would keep people informed of his progress. In private I would continue to pray for his son and we would talk once a month. Eventually, we could start to see God’s hand of healing in his son’s cancer. A year later his son would fall into remission and life seemed good, until less then a month went by and he learned his wife was diagnosed with early stages of breast Cancer. Just recently I found out his son’s leukemia has come back and now both the mother and the son battle cancer together.

Everyday people are praying for them and pleading with God to heal them as his word promises. Everyday people reach out to God and ask for his mercy on their lives, and strength for them to make it through. My friend has had to deal with these struggles for over a year and a half now, and you would think a man of God would have first dibs on a miracle for his family.

So why hasn’t God answered his prayers, why isn’t his son walking out of the hospital a healed young man showing the world the power of God? That I can not answer, but I can tell you if you were to talk to him today he is a man whose heart experiences fears, pain, doubts, and questions like any ordinary man…..but he still has his faith in God, and trust he is being heard.

You see god promises us so many times that he hears our prayers, and urns to answer our prayers. Take a look at a very small example:

Matthew 21:22: 22 - If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Mark 11:24: 24 - Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Philippians 4:6 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God

Colossians 4:2 -  2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Hebrews: 5:7 -  During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

In fact if you were to go to biblegateway.com and look up prayer in their keyword search of the bible you would find dozen’s of pages of reference.

Truth be told there are many different reasons and factors that can lead to an unanswered prayer, and this can be hard to accept because sometimes it takes honesty on our part when it comes to our walk with God. Over the next couple of Blogs we will focus on a couple of these factors such as our obedience, do we truly have faith in God to answer our questions, have we forgiven those who have caused us pain. That’s right; did you know that refusing to forgive those who have transgressed us could hinder God from answering your prayers? We will also look at another factor: our time line vs. God’s timeline and the truth that not all prayers get answered. But before we can look into these we will first start with what is truly something that is prayer worthy. You have to understand what prayer is before one can truly use participate in it. This should be fun.

Winning the World to Christ One Loving Act at a Time

When I read through the scriptures and see how Christ interacted with the different people of the lands and how accepting he was I often sit back and reflect on how I act with others I come across. He was so open to accepting people no matter what their status or race was in life. One of my favorite stories is of him eating with the tax collectors and how the Pharisee’s were ridiculing him. In that day tax collectors were not nice men and inflicted much pain and grief on the people they collected from.

If a person couldn’t pay they would take their possessions or at times their children as a payment. I love his comment back to the Pharisee’s, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Mathew 9:10-12 NIV). He didn’t come just to hang out with the righteous; he came to hang out with the people who needed to hear from him the most. You see Jesus knew the one personality trait of God that would shine the brightest out of all of them. The one personality trait which all others would revolve around, even discipline: love.

He showed how we should love one another as the Son of God sent from Heaven by God himself knelt down and washed the feet of his apostles as an example of love. I want you to take a moment and think of the power this word holds, and how much of an impact one can have by looking for an opportunity to share it freely. I love Paul’s explanation of love in Romans 12:9-20; I encourage you to read this passage.

I don’t care how busy your life is, there are abundant ways to allow God’s light to shine through you with one loving act at a time. My wife impressed me the other day when she told me how she was trying to show the love of god to others. She has a huge fear of getting in front of other to minister but wanted to show a little God love. Her ministry was every pay day when she treated herself to a little Mickey D’s she would simply ask the cashier if she could pay for the person’s meal behind her in the drive thru. Almost every time she has to repeat herself because the cashiers were always blown away by her simple act of kindness.

My wife only request that when the person asks why their meal was paid for the cashier reply, because God loves you. I myself have experienced a loving act that had an impact on me. We bought a house not to long ago and didn’t have all of the items needed for a house, like a lawn mower. Our grass grew pretty long and one day I came home and it was cut. I thought my wife got fed up and bought a lawn mower. I later learn my neighbor had cut it. He never mentioned anything about it; in fact he cut it again later on that month. I was so touched that when I bought a mower I made sure to pay him back with some good lawn care myself.

This would become contagious and more neighbors began to help others out because of the kindness my neighbor had started with me. My wife and I are always on the lookout for different ways to help bring back the culture of brotherly love to those around us. I encourage you to do the same. If you see a neighbor that could use a hand why not extend yours. If you here of a co-worker going through a hard time, why not lend a shoulder to lean on? If you see family going through a hard time financially and you have some cash to spare, why not leave an envelope in their mail box with a couple bucks to help brighten their day.

Maybe you know of a neighbor whose been laid off, why not bring them over dinner? Mathew sums this up beautifully for us in Chapter 6:1-4

1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

We all have the capability to show a little love throughout our community and by being consistent, our impact can be great. God Bless

We Are Truly Blessed

It has been a while since my last blog because I have wanted to make sure what I write had a purpose and my blog didn’t turn into another boring religious blog. Recently I had the opportunity to teach an evangelism class at church. The goal of this class was to help people see through the eyes of their demographic and practice the approach Jesus took.

If you follow Jesus foot steps and how he interacted with people, he was very laid back and showed interest in them whole heartily, looking to build relationships with his people. It was through these relationships he was able to show them how God fit into their lives. He ate with tax collectors, talked with prostitutes, walked through towns no Jew of his time would walk through, and talked with people others turned their faces to. His heart was open to anyone who had a listening ear, and he made sure he understood his audience before he spoke.

The class is a four week course and in week four the class goes out and helps out a ministry to put what they learned to the test. We choose to help out City on A Hill, and it was here that I realized how lucky and unworthy I really am. You see City on A Hill is a ministry that helps the homeless and financially hurting on the North Side of Milwaukee. They touch all aspects of helping these individuals from holding medical clinics, handing out food, hosting great meals, clothes, and so much more.

Our job was to sit down at the tables of those eating, chat with them and see where we could pray for them. I was so excited because as most know I’m a yapper, but most of all I love bringing a little light into the lives of those that could use a good laugh. The first thing that hurt my heart was seeing a cafeteria filled to the brim of people without jobs and shelter waiting for the best meal they will have for the month. I choose to sit down at a table with two older gentlemen and asked if I could join them, they agreed.

My goal isn’t to hit them with scripture, or bible beat them, I wanted to get to know them on a personal level and understand what they were going through. The first gentleman had a smile on his face and I asked him what was making him so chipper, His reply was he was blessed. When I asked how he was blessed he said he knows God loves him because he has his health, a place to sleep, a set of clean clothes, and a place to go for a warm meal. He looked at me and whispered, “Do you know there are people in other countries so poor they are forced to eat mud mixed with sugar called mud pies, I haven’t been that poor before”.

Here’s a man who is experiencing greater poverty then I have ever had to go through considering himself blessed and through the simplest items seeing the love of God in his life. I felt so unworthy to even sit down and pray for this man. Here I am driving in my car, going back to my house filled with food and material items with a closet full of clean clothes, with the ability to wash them with my washer and dryer, money in the bank, and food we waste on a daily basis. It was then I realized how much I take for granted in life.

As the day progressed I had the privilege to chat with many awesome people and hear the pains they were facing. The theme to the message put in my heart was never give up on God, he hears your prayers, and feels your pain.

Mathew 6:25-34 – a scripture I live by

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?


28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

You may have prayed the same prayer 100 times with no answer, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I was shocked how none I talked to spoke out against God with their situation and most still believed in the power of prayer, and still had their faith.

I must admit I ended up leaving 20 minutes early, because my heart couldn’t bare seeing all this pain while I was taking for granted how blessed I really was. My whole car ride home I prayed out for the individuals I talked to who needed a job, homes, health coverage, etc…and I ended it by thanking him for what Hannah and I have been blessed with and so unworthy to have.

It was such a humbling experience, and I think I will be back volunteering at City on A Hill next month. I encourage all reading this to think about your life and take an opportunity to thank God for how good you have it, for the food in your stomach, for the roof over your head, for the money you may be receiving, for the job you may have in this hard economy, for the interview you have lined up, for your health you may have, or the car you may be driving, for the family you may be blessed with, or for how far he has taken you from your old self, for the relief of any addictions, or the reuniting of your marriage, what ever God has done in your life don’t take it for granted and don’t be selfish with it either. Give to those who need it the most. God bless

Tests of a Lion, Struggles of a Man

In my last couple of blogs I have touched on my experience as a Christian and what led me to believe in the bible. It has been a little over a year since I decided to buckle down and give it my all. It hasn’t been an easy ride, and on the way I have lost some friends and family.

The hardest part has been biblical accountability. You see it is very easy to pull the wool over the eyes of those around you, and have them think you are a wonderful Christian when in reality you are living a live outside of its creeds. That’s what kind of life I was living for a long time before December 2, 2009. My struggle is knowing that God sees all, and when I purposely go against his word he is watching me, and inside I know it is breaking his heart.

The bible says the devil’s sole purpose on earth is to continuously bombard us with trails, tribulations, temptations, and so on in an effort to cause us to turn back to our old ways, question our beliefs, and in turn become his again. The hard part is he never sleeps, grows tired, and has millenniums of experience through trail and testing on how to stop our walk with God, and knows more about us then we know about ourselves.

1 Peter 5:8 sums this up best, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Throughout this year I have had my fair shake of temptations and battles that some may find trivial, but to me they seemed like warfare. One was smoking. I came across a scripture in 1 Corinthians that kind of put me in a battle between my hearts desires and what I knew what was right.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20: 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

My body does not belong to me? I am not my own? What does this mean? As I thought back to my prior readings I would think about the person that brought me to God, Jesus Christ. He had given his life in sacrifice so we all could be washed clean from the sin of our ancestors, our sins, and so we could have that one on one relationship with God. This would be the sacrifice of all sacrifices and would be for all of mankind both past present and future.

That sacrifice also sealed us as his children and they very life we have was given to us by God, therefore my body isn’t mine its God’s. By smoking I knew I was slowly destroying it, I could feel the effects of smoking with each puff I took. But I liked to smoke, it was a big part of my life and that’s where my battle stirred. Once again I had biblical accountability, I could fake out others into believing I had quit but I knew God knew the truth. My main concern was my relationship with God, and how could our relationship grow if I was willfully destroying the very body he blessed me with, a body he watched his son Jesus endure torture for?

So I prayed out to God and asked him to change my heart from desiring cigarettes. I would find myself going a couple of days without cigarettes to buying them, throwing away the pack after a couple out of guilt, to buying some again the next day and totally becoming frustrated. But the whole time I kept praying for strength and finally omitted I couldn’t do it on my own anymore. I literally needed super natural strength not to smoke again. Then one day I woke up and my body didn’t desire a cigarette anymore, poof it was gone. I could be around others who smoked and it didn’t bother me, and for the last six months I have been smoke free.

You see I was learning that my relationship with God had to be pure if I wanted this relationship to grow. I couldn’t pick and choose what I wanted to follow, or try to customize my walk with God according to what fit and what didn’t and that’s hard. It has been a hard year because as I continued my bible reading I would learn that certain lifestyles I was living or partaking of interfered with my walk with God, and with each one I struggled because I knew I had to either change it, or in some cases remove it all together.

But none of these changes or choices no matter how hard are regrettable to me, they have only made my life better in the long run, or helped me become a better person. Sure I have received some ridicule from some friends and family. I have lost some friendships, and at times I feel as if I don’t quite fit in certain circumstances, but the bible tells us that this is something that will happen. My number one concern in this life is my relationship with God. I look at him as my literal father in Heaven who has been there for me and my family more then words could ever explain.

I know some people think that’s a bunch of squat, and I wish I could allow people to experience what I have since I have decided to give God my all. It is an experience no one will ever understand until they themselves go through it. I can honestly say I now feel like I understand life and have found a purpose and I challenge anyone reading this to pick up a bible and start with Mathew and give God a chance. Listen to what you read and try to implement the scriptures into your life and you come across them.

I guarantee by the time you hit Revelation your life will be 180 degree’s different then what it was when you started. Your eyes will have a new purpose and life will mean so much more then it did before. For those reading this that may already be on their journey with God I encourage you to never give up your walk and always put God first in everything you do. Husbands lean on God for an example of how to be a humble and loving leader, parents never tire of training up your children according to God’s word so they to will raise their children accordingly, neighbors always look for an opportunity to let God shine through your loving acts towards one another so people can see how much God loves them through you.

Thanks for reading my blog and please let me know your thoughts, or questions

Why Christianity Part III

Why Christianity Part III – So here I am in the beginning of a journey that has truly changed my life. All my life I had been around God, going to church here and there, being a Sunday Christian. My choices always seemed to lead to pain, and my heart was only focused on me. I knew something had to change and I knew I had to give this God thing a chance.

Instead of looking for a new religion, or a new doctrine that catered to what I was looking for, I decided to start this new adventure at the source by reading the bible. One thing that has always bothered me is how people only base their faith on what they hear from family, friends, or from the pulpit, never looking into the bible to make sure what they were learning was correct. I was guilty of this all my life. I wanted to start from the source and work my way out.

I asked my pastor for any suggestions on a good study bible and he pointed me to the “Life in the Spirit Study Bible”, edited by Donald C Stamps and Wesly Adams, and published by Zondervan. I started with the Book of Mathew since the New Testament relates most to our day today. I would hear sermons from Jerry Brooks Pastor of Oak Creek Assembly of God, as he would always encourage people to do their own personal study of the bible and how God tends to speak to us through his scripture.

As I started to begin my studies I could see this happening in my life. In the beginning my readings seemed boring to me, then they turned into interesting stories, and morphed into poetic words starting to grab a hold of my heart in a way I still can’t put into words today. The story of Jesus started to cause a battle with in my heart, a battle that was starting to consume me on a daily basis. The first battle was over true repentance.

Repentance – The act of a person seeking forgiveness from God because of a sin committed against the word of God. Act’s 17:30 lays this out nicely, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” Many religions teach that all you have to do is confess you sins to someone, do some prayers and bam a person is forgiven. That is not the case, true repentance is followed by a sincere desire to never repeat the sin you are seeking forgiveness for.

That’s what I was battling, some of the actions I knew I need forgiveness for were actions I was having a hard time giving up. But I had a desire in my heart not to repeat this actions again so at night I got on my hands and knees and confessed everything I had done against him and asked him to forgive me and help me to never repeat the actions that were causing me to sin against him. I tell you after I was done I felt like I had 1,000 lbs lifted off of my shoulders.

The problem I was facing as I continued with my readings is I was really starting to feel this new love for God in a way I never had before. It was a feeling that I don’t think anyone can really put in words or appreciate until you feel it for yourself. I would read how God was a loving God whose only desire was to have an Earth full of his children who he could love, and in term love him back. I would read that satan had ruined that for mankind and God had a plan to get us back to where he had us. I would read how God wasn’t this all terrible being who desired to cause destruction upon the world but was in fact quiet the opposite. I began to see God through a different set of eye’s and understand why this world was turning into what it is. I started to understand why there is so much pain, suffering, hatred, poverty, and plain out chaos in this world today. The bible addressed this all.

I knew I had come to a cross roads in my new adventure. At this point I was still one foot in church and one foot in the world. I knew that if I was going to continue reading on that I had a choice to make, a choice…the biggest choice I would ever make.

Some people call this choice the prayer of salvation, or the choice to dedicate your life to God. It’s a serious choice because when you choose this route you are telling God that from this point onward you are going to live life according to his word, your life will be dedicated to him. It almost like asking your girlfriend to marry you. There’s a difference between dating and marriage and a huge difference in the comment level of the two.

I struggled with this because there were some things about this world that I was still attracted to and I didn’t think I could live a life in which I wouldn’t make mistakes, and I….well I didn’t want to fail God. Then I read the book of Romans, my favorite book of the bible, a book that helped me to understand where I stood with God a lot better. Why you may ask, because Paul goes on to show how every person in this world both past, present, and future has and will fall short of the Glory of God. He also went on to show that it is not through our actions that allows us our relationship with God, because in reality we all sin against God everyday most times without even knowing it.

Jesus died for our sins which covered all mankind, and it is through Christ that all mankind is redeemed. What does that mean? First read Romans 5:1-10. That means that we will always mess up in life because were not perfect, and that’s what repentance is for. Because Christ died for you, God now openly forgives those that earnestly seek him in true repentance. Go on to read Romans 6:1-23 compliments this discussion perfectly..

After I realized that my relationship with God was far less stressful then I was torturing myself with I new I had to do the next step. On December 3, 2008 at 7:00pm at church I privately prayed out to God first asking him to forgive me for all the things I have done against him, second I told him I believed Jesus lived and died for our sins, and thirdly I told him that my life was his and from this day onward I would do my best to live according to his scriptures and asked him for the strength to represent him in the best manner I could.

That was a year ago and this last year of my life has been the best ever. I haven’t touched an alcoholic drink since then, God helped me quit smoking, my marriage is the best it ever has been, I was blessed with a baby boy, I was promoted to wonderful job, we bought a house, I watch my mother’s life change dramatically as she not only starting coming to church but three months ago she gave her life to God, I watched my little sister follow in her foot steps, and my other sister go on to get baptized as well.

For all those reading this that are not sure about my testimony, by a good study bible and give God a try. It will be a life altering experience. God bless.