Committed to maintaining a growing and vibrant relationship

As someone that is single and trying to live for Jesus the challenge for me is knowing what things to do to continue to build a growing/vibrant relationship with Christ. I am realizing that it takes a certain amount of creativity and effort in order to grow a relationship. It can be so easy to get stuck in doing the same mundane things that are familiar to me. Before I got saved I was creative and spontaneous when it came to me expressing my feelings for the opposite sex. The challenge for me is making sure that I remain creative and spontaneous in my relationship with Christ. The same way that I strived to remain innovative in regards to how I displayed my affection before I got saved, has to be displayed on an even greater level now that I am saved. If I am able to build a strong and vibrant relationship with someone that I cannot physically see, than how much more prosperous shall my relationship with my wife be in whom I will be able to see once I step into that arena of my life? With so many distractions and temptations pulling and tugging at my time and energy how do I maintain a relationship with the one whom first loved me? What boundaries do I draw in my life to make sure that no other relationship(s) is stealing time away from me and Jesus? I just want to encourage those of you who are in this dilemma to take your creativity, intimacy, spontaneity, and energy to another level when it comes to entreating Jesus who is the only mate that should currently matter.

At a crossroads in my life: with nothing to lose

Many times I reminisce on what led to me getting saved. I was tired of wasting my time, money, and energy on things that did not add to my character or the quality of my life. A year before I got saved I had suffered through an abortion process. Before the abortion I had survived a car collision that could have been more devastating then it ended up being. I walked away from that car collision with no injuries. God was speaking to me through these situations, but I still had not finished satisfying my fleshly desires. I had gone through some things where Satan could have tried to spiritually blackmail me. None of my family members knew about the abortion, but my soul was crying out for more. I didn't know for "more of what." The emptiness that I felt was a "lack of God" in my life. I was determined not to let what I had gone through stop me from taking a different direction in life. The most important decision that I ever made in my life was to seek after God. . He came and met me where I was at in my life, and the decision was up to me as to whether to seek more of Him. I was at a crossroads in my life and I had nothing to lose. I am thankful and grateful that God extended his grace to allow me to have a relationship with Him.

A priceless perspective

As I get older I am beginning to see one constant thing wherever I go. I have worked at the statehouse in the presence of state representatives and senators and I currently work with low income families. From the senators all the way down to the low income families I see that “morality” is on the decline. No matter what level I find myself at or what level of education the people have, moral decline seems to be a constant. I used to think before I got saved that I could clean my own self up. This is one of the biggest weapons of Satan, which is to get us to think that we can clean our own selves up. We did not create ourselves so why would we think that we can fix what we did not create? This spoke volumes to my ignorance before I got saved. I understand now looking back how foolish I was. I was prideful and in denial. I would have to say that one of the best benefits of being saved is having a “new perspective” on life. This perspective is priceless. I am realizing that no matter how much money or power someone has, they can not buy morality or integrity. I have seen people from the top to the bottom struggle with these issues and there is only one God that can change their spiritual condition.

Hope: in the midst of a broken situation

In 1981 I was born out of wedlock and grew up in a single parent home with no father. Some would classify this as a broken family, but in April of 2003 I entered into a new family when I was baptized and saved from my old lifestyle. The Bible states "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God". We all have natural families, but the new birth process allows us to enter into a spiritual family. God is the father of this family and his children are those who have also entered into His kingdom. Are you just a creation of God or also a child of God? There are prerequisites (pre-conditions) that come with being considered a child of God. I just can't go to someone's house and tell another family that I want to be part of their family. There is a process that one must go through to enter into a family whether it is through the process of adoption or through the birth process. My question for you today is "Whose kingdom are you living in?" We have all experienced the shortcomings of our natural families, but it is not God's intention for us to remain ignorant of the kingdom of God. Satan has blinded many people's minds so that they do not know what to expect out of a family. The father of this family does not lack joy, peace, righteousness, integrity, or wisdom. If you are already a part of this kingdom I congratulate you. If you are not a part of this kingdom than I just want to encourage you to consider this question "What am I looking for in a family?"