The Call!!!

I am in a season of preparation, where I am discovering how to strategically and intentionally use my gifts to further the Kingdom, and where I can grow in my weaknesses.
This process is one that is all over the place because I often feel so overwhelmed, and at times small and insignificant. For me this season of preparation, the laying and building onto the foundation if you please has at times been emotional. There is a daily fight, a constant battle with the enemy who is trying oh so desperately to hinder my daily walk with Christ. Yet, yet, I am so joyful because I know that God is refining me in the refiners fire, cleansing me, burring away my inequities in order that I may fully glorify Christ in my walk.

ALSO...The Call is so deeply rooted into my being that I cannot run away from it. Oh I have tried in the past, with such fervor and recklessness. I have tried to out run and out distance God by pot, sex, and of course binge drinking. In the early days of college, my friends affirmed my fear of being a preacher by stating that "I would have to be perfect all the time. A preacher's life is boring, full of reading, and spending time with people telling them they are going to hell if they mess up." And the scary thing is, that is what a lot of us think a preacher's life really is. I knew I needed to rededicate my life to Christ, but the pull of college life seemed oh so strong. I thought that I could run away from God for at least a little while. Ha, but trying to run from God is like chasing the wind, useless. Oh but wait, there in the darkness, a light shined forth giving me hope. Bruised and broken, lost in my sin, I had arrived at a Turing/tipping point in my life. A point where I knew that I had to stop running from this Call, and fully surrender my life to Christ.

As I step forward into 2009, I have looked back lately at my past and I am amazed of how far I have come in my walk with Christ. It was been almost three and a half years since I started the process of "Coming Home" as Pastor Furtick puts it.

As I look around me, I see that over these years I have learned to walk more with Christ, than against Him. I have learned more about what it is to be a man, a real man. A real man is a man who fiercely loves Christ, who passionately pursues Him on a daily basis,and who boldly proclaims the Gospel. Our actions, how we walk, talk, live, those actions are bold. Its more than just telling people about the Love of Christ, its is about being the Love of Christ.

I leave you with this passage from 2nd Timothy which speaks volumes to my soul. I will continue to fight, with more intensity than ever. I will encourage more this year, teach more, share my testimony more with others, and spend more time with Christ. I am finding that as I grow more in Christ, I need to spend more and more time with Him. I love that. That pumps me up!!

2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.