"Point of Power" - To

 "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;" (Ecclesiastes 12:1 KJV)

  "Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously." (Isaiah 55:6-7 NLT)

 Another thing I remember about those first days of my new life, I couldn't stop sharing about the Lord and what He had done in my life. It was as if there was a powerful voice inside me that needed to come out; if I tried to contain it, I just didn't feel right, as if I was doing something wrong, by not sharing the things that were gathering up in my heart.

 I made it my first priority to get together with a few other believers, just so we could study the word together, pray together, and have at least two or three of us together to witness to others. I remember asking the Chaplin about how I could be a disciple of Jesus. It was probably my very first let-down of my new life experience; but I really didn't let it get me down.

 After a month or so, maybe it was sooner, I was sent back to the compound that actually had a church building, with a bell, and it had services almost every day. Having a place to fellowship, that was made for worship, really did make a difference; especially since I had never wanted to step inside a church again, before I accepted Jesus into my heart. As a matter of fact, I was in that church almost every day. I was even the one who rang the bell when it was time for services. 

 All of that said, evil days did come! Yes, it is really not something I like to talk about, but there were times when my work came before God's work, when sharing the Lord became less important than making a sale or trying not to offend anyone. When you are in the business of being in the service industry, you sometimes need to respect that you are in someone else's home. Not that I didn't try, but it wasn't my company, so I had to be respectable and honor the customers that choose to call for our services. After all, my boss spent quite a bit of money for those adds. 

 There were times when my wife and I served in the children's ministry at church; but as soon as we applied to actually be a part, we were not allowed to because we were not actually married. So, we set on the path to make things right, starting with Marriage Counseling. 

 The very first day of counseling, my wife and I meet with Paster Jeff and Pastor Jack, to discuss the type of wedding and what it might look like. I told them that I just wanted a simple wedding, but I also wanted there to be an alter call at the wedding. Both Jeff and Jack looked at each other, as if that was something weird or uncalled for; but Pastor Mike and Pastor Dan happened to be walking by, coming back from lunch. 

 Pastor Jeff called out, "Mike, please come in here!'" As Mike stepped into through the door, Jeff said to me, "Tell Mike what you just told us about your wedding," so I said, "We want to have an alter call at our wedding." Mike instantly said, "Wow, that's cool!" So, Jeff pointed to Miks and said, "There is the Pastor to perform your wedding." And then Dan spoke out, and said, "And I will perform the music!" 

 I need you to know, no matter what you might be lacking, whether it is the desire to serve the Lord, or the ability to keep yourself from sinning; God does not stop being willing to help you, He never will stop forgiving you, and He is always going to honor your desire to give Him the glory... 

"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT)