Hi everyone,
I hope you all are fantastic and enjoying the beautiful weather outside! Today is a grand day and it is great to be alive! The Lord has filled us so joyously with His grace. He is good!
I wanted to spend a little bit updating you all as to what I have been up to. Let me tell you - it is a lot! I started seminary a month ago and it has been difficult, time - consuming, and good. I have learned lots in the class I am taking on God's heart for the world through missions and I have been blessed by what I have learned. I pray that I will not be complacent with what I've learned, but use it to bring God glory.
Also, I have traveled a lot over the month with my beautiful girlfriend. We have been to a wedding, my parent's place, and her parent's place all in the matter of three weeks! Wow! But it has been so much fun and we have had some wonderful talks. God is doing some great things in our relationship, and I just wanted to share how wonderful the past four months have been with her! :)
Over the weekend, God opened my eyes to some of the ways I have been unfaithful to him. He has shown me my depravity and how my own personal efforts without Him fail miserably. It was good to be reminded, but it broke my heart to know how I'd hurt the Father. With that, He also showed me how my faithlessness and sin affects so many people around me. I'd always heard that our sins affect others, but never has it been more clearly revealed to me than the other day. And that was hard.
A week ago I read a book by Marilee Pierce Dunker, the daughter of World Vision Founder Bob Pierce, called Man of Vision, and in it she writes how her father began the organization. As he was on a trip to China, he shared the Gospel with a group of girls and then told them to go tell their moms and dads that evening. When he came back in the morning, one of the girls was kicked out of her home and severely beaten by her father for proclaiming Christ. In that, Dr. Pierce wrote about how he had never been responsible for the message he was sharing or the way he was living it out. He had a moment to decide what to do from there, and in it World Vision was born.
I bring this up because I too had never realized the message that I am proclaiming and how it affects my witness. When I don't live like I am proclaiming, I dishonor God, first and foremost, and that message that I send has deep affects. I too had to come to a decision.
God brought this even more clearly before me yesterday in our worship service here at Atonement. Pastor Becky shared about how we can have "one day" moments, such as "one day I'm going to read the Bible." As I sat listening to her, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that what I was doing wasn't going to cut it. I either had to decide to follow hard after him and renounce the ways I was walking, or I was going to be defeated.
I have decided. Christ is worth it. I am in a process of changing the way I'm living and I'm through with being lukewarm. I want the heart of a lion that roars ferociously for the Living God. I want Jesus Christ to always be revealed out of life - in ALL that I say and do. And I want to be concious of what I'm doing, for it has affects on all the people I come into contact with. As a man, desiring to be one of integrity, I have to leave behind the sin that has so easily entangled me and choose the better portion. I am choosing Jesus Christ.
I don't know if this is a struggle for others, but I plead with you to leave it behind, leave it in the ruins, and press hard after God. He is the glorious, worthy One. He is worth. I pray the Scriptures will show you that as you spend time in them.
Today is the Day! A brand new day! It is a day of life and it will glorify God! I will not have it any other way!
Love you all! God's blessings.
Brandon
