Why I choose to be a christian and lead my family by listening to God.

I think that my first blog should be about my relationship with God and why I have chosen to not only be a Christian but why I also lead my family to do so as well. Let me begin by saying that at the ripe age of 7 years old I accepted Jesus as my personal savior. That does not mean that for the remainder of the 30 years that I have been living that I never walked away from Him because I did, and even though I regret those times it allowed me the opportunity to know that despite my many mess-ups Jesus still waited on me to come back to Him. It also would be false to say that I knew everything at 7 years old in regards to a relationship with Christ, man I still don’t know everything and I definitely am not perfect. I can say that now that I am married and have a child, I know more about the character of God. The unconditional love He has for us, etc. But that brings an interesting question up, is there anything such as perfect Christian? Absolutely NOT! As I read God’s word I am reminded of all of the non-perfect people that He called, chose, and used for His glory! David was called a man after God’s own heart, however, David lusted after a married woman and had her husband sent to the front lines of war to be killed. WHAT?! Yes, that’s right, he was a man after God’s own heart. This doesn’t mean that he always was after God’s own heart because God detests sin but loves the person. And before anyone throws out the line, “doesn’t the bible say not to judge” let me just say by me saying something is a sin in that it is defined specifically in God’s word as sin is not judging. Would you say that I was judging if I was in your car and you were going 100 mph in a 45 mph zone and I said, ”Hey you might want to slow down there is a cop up there?” Or what if you were driving on a bridge and the bridge had collapsed and I told you it might be best if we turn around. I don’t imagine so. Now some people are very judgy in how they say things, but as long as I say it in love even though it may be hard to hear that we are wrong it should not be viewed as judging. But the best part about this relationship with Christ is that He doesn’t ask or expect you to be perfect, He asks you to be His. So all my life, my father and mother went to church and made sure that I, as well as my brothers, attended church. But it wasn’t just going to church that made the difference, it was also that my parents were faithful to going to church and taking us to church. It was at church that my love for music began and I was able to learn how to play the drums as well as picked up how to harmonize and sing. Most of my family can at least sing a little bit but I just fell in love with gospel music. Most of my fondest memories are those that involve going to church and worshipping. The night that I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior I was singing with my dad and mom. The night before my mother had thought that she was going to die. I cannot remember the specifics of what was going on with her but I remember her testifying that night about how she prayed for Jesus to help her and He did. Then as we sang a song called “Amazing Love” and I was just starting to sing verses to songs by myself in church and so I got the part of the song that says, “Now it was love that brought my heart to thrill the day He took my hand. He said that He’d go with me through my trials and my lifespan. So that’s when I told the Savior I’d do the best I can and now His robe I cling to as I journey through this land.” And it was something about the line I’d do the best I can that hit me right in the heart and it was as if God at that moment said, “All I ask is that you give me your best.” So I went to the altar and I asked Jesus to save my life and take control of my life. This didn’t mean that I was a perfect child or that I never got in trouble for being a kid cause I did but that moment places my life in a trajectory that would find me today leading worship, being the co-youth pastor at the church we attend, and leading a family who loves to go to church. But why? Why would I choose to be a Christian when there are so many other religions in the world? I can only say that I believe that the world and people who profess to be Christian have made it’s true meaning very cloudy. I also do not view my walk with Jesus as religion, as it was a religion that had Christ crucified, it was religious people who pushed for the crucifixion of Jesus but rather this is something more intimate and personal this is a relationship. He knows me inside and out, He knows exactly what I need even before I know it myself, and He has definitely helped me through a lot in my life. His word says in Hebrews 13:5, “5 ….., I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” He has been faithful to me when I was not faithful to Him. He has helped my daughter who had a temperature-related seizure be okay. She has had two now and it is so scary. But at that moment He helped her and she is fine. And even though many people might see my marriage to my wife as perfect and I believe every married couple would say that marriage is hard, but there was about a 6-month span where my wife and I were sped toward divorce. In those moments I prayed hard for my wife and myself that God would help us with what we were facing. However, there was a portion of those 6 months where I was complaining about the wrong I felt as though my wife was doing toward me and I am sure she said the same about me but I remember Jesus asking me if I loved her. My face was probably how your face is right now…I was like, “Duh of course I do.” Then what He said to me changed my mindset as He said, “well I have instructed husbands to love their wives like I love the church and I laid my life down for it.” Yeah…again my face was probably like yours right now. At that moment I prayed harder for us and although I would die for my wife He was more specifically talking about me killing off my pride. I began to pray for myself that God would turn me into the husband that He would have me be and the husband she needed me to be. Now our relationship is not perfect and much like this relationship I have with Christ, marriage is not a sprint but it is a race, so as long as we are running in love together toward the finish line it doesn’t matter about being perfect as long as we finish.