Born again...one year later

It as been one year to the day since my born again date. I grew up thinking that I was a Christian my whole life, and then 5 years ago when I we joined Celebration Church, I realized that just because I was going to church, didn’t make me a Christian. For the next 4 years I was living a lukewarm Christian life, going through the motions if you will. But than one year ago today I attended a men’s even at church and I realized that by living the lukewarm Christian life that I was, I was destined for a one way ticket to Hell.

If I was to die today, I can absolutely say without a doubt that I would be making a trip to a planet far out into the universe called Heaven. I am living everyday for the day that I am greeted by God in Heaven and he says to me well done my good and faithful servant.

I don’t recall myself changing much from day to day, but as I look at were I am today versus where I was a year ago, I realized that I have come a long way. The biggest sacrifice that I have made was giving up TV and video games. TV is filled with nothing but garbage, and video games were an idle. Looking back at it, I don’t miss TV at all, and I only miss video games a little bit. Understand, these are things that I had to give up in my own life to become the Christian that I want to be, I am not at all saying that everyone needs to do this to get to Heaven.

I have leaned to stop reading the Bible, and start studying the Bible. Over the last year I have purchased 3 study bibles (including the Dake Anointed Reference Bible (KJV)), Strong’s Concordance, Vine’s Expository Dictionary, as well as 2 versions of the bible in audio form. I have also ready quite a few books on Christian living, and I am now reading God’s Plan For Man.

My biggest accomplishment and the thing that I am most proud of over the past year is a goal that I made for myself shortly after my born again date that I thought would take a few years to get to, but I was wrong. In less than a year, I have successfully been able to give 10% (2 hours and 20 minutes a day) of each day to God, through bible study and prayer.

I am still learning, and I always will be. Before I conclude I want to take a moment to give some thanks where is it owed. First and foremost, I was to thank God, for putting my life on a path that got me to where I am today. God is always good. I also want to thank Celebration Church for providing the training that I needed, as well as Pure Life Ministries for putting on the men’s event at church that saved my life. And lastly I cannot leave out Jane, my amazing wife, who has been nothing but supportive in my last year. She has bared all my burdens, as well as been affected directly from all of the decisions that I have made as the spiritual head of the household. She has told me that there were a few things in the beginning that she was unsure of, but now tells me that she couldn’t be happier with the outcome. As a result of this past year, I have seen Jane grow in her faith more in the last year than since we met, and we have seen our kids, praising and worshiping God, on countless occasions outside of church.

I am still not where I want to be, but I have come a long way from where I was. I want to be an example for people, and model a perfect life for others to see. I am not talking about a perfect life where there are never any problems, and there is no debt or pain, hurts or struggles, those things are inevitable. But I am talking about a perfect life in Christ, where when the pain hurts and struggles do arise, they are not a big deal because the Lord will always provide. I want to be a person that people can come to because they can trust me, and I can be there for them as a brother in Christ.

Friends, I love you all as my brothers and sisters in Christ. Unconditional love is not something that in mastered in a year, or even over a lifetime. But this is something that I will continue to practice to the best of my ability as long as I live. In closing, I am looking forward to another year, as well as encouraging everyone that I can though love, and living a good Christian life, and if I have to, I may even choose to use words. I want to take one more moment to send out one more thank you, and that is to you. If you are reading this blog entry, it is only because you are choosing to follow my blogs, and I want to thank you personally for taking the time to follow my journey, and friend, I pray that I have been able to encourage you and been able to have a positive effect in your life.