Thread: 34-year-old Christian �slowly� coming out of a valley. Interested in meeting new people!
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34-year-old Christian �slowly� coming out of a valley. Interested in meeting new people!
Posted : 11 Feb, 2009 07:25 AM
As A Christian
Like many people, I was not raised in a Christian family. My father was an abusive alcoholic, and my mother was his 6th wife.
When I was 5, my mother says that I began to ask her to take me to church. Evidently I had heard about it some how, so she began to drop me off at a local Baptist church on Sundays, returning to pick me up after the Sunday school classes had ended. She says that I took to religion like a duck to water.
As I got older, my sinful nature took to a lot of other things like a duck to water as well.
In my mind, �God� became something that was in the background. Something that was a good explanation of good and evil, and the rest of the world, and that is all. I accepted the idea of it all as I happily went about my own life. The truth though, was that I neither new God, nor understood His role in my life.
As I got older, and the difficulties of life became increasingly harder to maneuver morally, I returned to the church in hopes that that would make things better. From the age of 19 to 27, I attended church regularly while trying not to fall asleep, attended Bible studies, read my Bible from cover to cover each year like I was supposed to, and never truly felt a thing for Jesus Christ the entire time.
Until the age of 28, my life�s good (main interests) were the pursuit of money, fishing trips, hunting trips, and travel. Not God (even though I called myself a Christian).
A trip that I took in 2003 would prove to be God's calling card in my life, and it was through that experience that the Lord would bring me to a deeper understanding of who He was, and of my complete dependency upon Him. Like the apostle Paul, I would be brought literally to my knees.
In 2006, I gave up the pursuit of money, the trips and my former way of life to pursue an eternal life instead. I lost all of my friends, my family, and even the church that I had attended for 9 years.
Through my attempts to find a new place to worship, I became involved with several churches that began asking me to write for them on the meaning and application of specific passages of scripture.
Since August of 2007, I have been writing for pastors who regularly use my studies of scripture in the preparation of their sermons and church held bible studies.
I have been asked to speak to church counselors concerning the meaning and application of scripture.
I have been invited to speak at numerous men's studies, women's studies, and Bible studies.
I regularly assist the management of several group homes for CPS children where I help identify difficult problems with their kids, and help them to find solutions.
Today, my Christian faith has become the focus of my life.
34-year-old Christian �slowly� coming out of a valley. Interested in meeting new people!
Posted : 11 Feb, 2009 08:14 AM
MDT< PRAISE GOD FOR YOU! WELCOME TO THE CDFF efamily. Sounds like you have heeded the call of God on your life, and the time you have spent in the valley were profitable for you. My prayer is that you will continue to hold steadfast to those life changing experiences you went through and lessons learnt during your valley training by God.
Being in the valley is where God takes us through His college of spiritual training, if we but heed the schooling. I pray you will continue in the call upon your life, and never fight or hold back those valley experiences God has put you through. Valley expereineces, They are but for our good. If a person hasn't been in the valley with the Lord, they usually haven't been in the presence of God. Many don't like the valley, but one can't very well say, they truly know God, unless they HAVE been in the valley. All things work together for the good of those who LOVE the Lord, who are the CALLED according to HIS purposes... Also know, that this will not be your last valley experience, each round gets higher and higher, as God takes you from faith to faith...
May God continue to bless you with His grace and mercy and marvelous favor, as you continue to seek His face and stay in His Word. Hope you have taken up on those speaking engagments that have been offered to you, to share the blessings of the Lord and your learnings of Him with others. Also, hope you will join in the discussions on the board with us, can never have too many expressing their inspirational views to help and assist others who may also be either in the valley, going through the valley, or coming out the valley.:winksmile:
