Testimony

My Testimony

I grew up in a Christian home.  I had parents who loved me.  I went to a Christian grade school, and Christian high school.  We never missed Church, not even evening Church during the World Series.  I went to Sunday school, I went thru our Catachism class. 

None of that made me a Christian.

I knew that Jesus loved everyone. I knew that he died on the cross to save everyone from their sins. I knew that.  And I believed it.  I also believed that he was raised from the dead. 

That didn’t make me a Christian either.

It didn’t make me a Christian having Christian parents, nor was it my infant baptism that gave me my salvation. 

But it all helped.

The summer between my sophomore year and junior year of HS I went on a weeklong Young Peoples convention with a bunch of other kids from my Church, to Nashville TN.  It was great, it was like one long party.  There was games, music, and lots of hot girls.  What more could a 16 year old boy want. There was one girl that really caught my eye. We became quick friends. After the convention we stayed in touch over phone for the next year.

The next year the convention was in LA. And I knew this girl would be there. So I signed up.  Her and I spent most of that whole week together, on the 2^nd to last night we had a big concert event. All the kids were required to go. So my friends and I went.  We sat in the way way back, and didn’t plan on paying to close attention.

The first song they sang, was “Jesus Loves Me” it brought me to tears. There in front of my friends and girlfriend, I started to weep. The Holy Spirit, came down on me in that song and said, CURTIS YOUR MINE. STOP BEING AN IDIOT AND FOLLOW ME ALREADY! I then realized that not only did God love everyone, and die for everyone, but he loves me, and he died for me, me, personally. I got it.

  

I would love to tell you that since then, I have not sinned. I would like to say, I have never done anything intentionally against God. Or that my marriage has been perfect because I am a believer. Nope.

Life isn't going to be perfect as a Christian, so stop reading right here if that is what you thought. :(

I will skip ahead now 10 years or so.

I was comfortable in my faith, in my role as a Christian. I wasn’t sacrificing anything in my life for the Lord, I was sitting nicely on the fence. But my feet were dangling in the right side.

Church had just let out, and I was strolling around the fellowship area looking for someone to talk with. And I wasn’t having much luck.  Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a friend. Curtis and his wife Darcy sitting in a class room with some other people.  I wasn’t sure exactly what the meeting was about, but it appeared to be open to anyone so I went in.  I sat down next to Curtis and asked him what the meeting was about.  This is an informational meeting about a short term missions trip to Brasil. WHAT, oops, wrong room. That was way below my dangling feet. But, it had already started so I thought I would hang out till the end. Let the guy talking know I wasn’t interested afterwards and head home.

Well, after the meeting I remember saying something like this. “I am pretty sure I am going to go on this trip, sign me up. I’ll talk with my wife, but I think I am in.”  So I went home and told Adrian, and well. She didn’t know why I wanted to go. I told her, me neither. But God is telling me to go it seems so I think I should listen. Being an amazing wife, she agreed.

Over the next few months I prepared with the team for the trip, and I was excited, I had never done anything like this before. And I’ll tell you what, God used this trip to change my life, more than he did when we sang “Jesus Loves Me”.  During the training I realized that God was calling me to make sacrifices for him, to lay down my life for him, like he sent his son to do for me. And the first sacrifice was giving up 50% of my vacation for a missions trip. I was also sacrificing time with my family. I was traveling a lot for work at the time, and was home less than 84 hours for that whole month.

Like I said the trip changed my life. I thought for sure that God was calling me to be a missionary in Brasil, I spoke with Adrian about it, and she wasn’t sure that is what God was trying to show me.  But being me, I thought I was right, and with Adrian’s blessing, we started planning a trip for the following year to go back to Brasil together.

So last year, we went, Adrian and I went to Rio and worked with the droogsma’s as a couple. We worked hand in hand, side by side doing some amazing work.  And we learned something. We learned that God isn’t calling us to Brasil, at least, not right now.  But God did show me, that I need to start living a more sacrificial life, to get my lazy butt off the fence, and get on God’s side.  He showed me that I need to live every day for Him. Every day for Him, every day for Him.

So, that is what I am trying to do. Live one day at a time. With my focus on God, praying reading his word, and being prepared in any situation.

Most recently God has challenged me through my men’s group, to begin memorizing scripture, and it is awesome. I challenge anyone who dares to memorize scripture to do it. It is great.  I have also been challenged recently to raise my kids in a way that is pleasing to God. Not just better than I was raised. 

That is what God is doing in my life, what is he doing in yours?