PART 04: Moving Forward

6 minute listen or read
 

Up until this point in time in mylife – and journey in Christ – I had witnessed/experienced the following:

1. Dead, dull, dry & boring church services.
2. Lively, exciting & adventurous church services (where sometimes we had a “normal” service, and other times we ended up praying and/or worshipping, without a sermon, for 2 hours or more)! Have you ever been to a church service like this?
3. Hypocrisy within the church.
4. I’d searched for and found Christ, not religion.
5. I’d spoken in tongues ( Acts 2:4, I Corinthians 14:18 ).
6. I’d experienced God’s Spirit, numerous times.
7. I’d had my life changed for the positive, from the inside out.
8. I’d had several private/important prayers answered.
9. I’d witnessed/experienced a several REAL LIFE miracles.
10. I’d attended and been kicked out of Bible College.
11. I’d been disowned by my parents.
12. I’d been homeless and lived on the street.

Moving forward, what came next? Here’s a glimpse of a few things that happened to me:

A. One evening, in my apartment, I was hungry. I went to the cupboard in the kitchen to get something to eat. All I found was a nearly empty box of Cream of Wheat and one can of green beans. I then went to my living room, got down on my knees and began to pray for food – because I had recently lost my job and was short on funds. While praying, there came a knock on the door. I got up, walked over to the door and opened it. Sitting there on my front porch were two bags of groceries – and no one standing around. So, within 15-20 seconds of beginning to pray, my prayer had been answered! This was miracle #4 for me.

B. One day, I was thinking about attending a conference in a faraway city. At the time, I didn’t have much money but I chose to go anyway. At the end of the first day of the conference, a man came up to chat with me (someone from a different church; someone I had never met before). We talked about the conference, music and a variety of other topics. Then, to my surprise, he reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, and handed me a wad of twenty dollar bills – $420 to be precise! This man knew nothing about my life circumstances (nor did anyone else) but yet there he was handing me money. When I asked him why he was doing it he said, “I feel led of the Lord to do it.” Then he gave me a hug, turned and walked away…and I never saw him again! This was miracle #5 for me.

C. Having been taught the importance of reading and studying God’s Word, the Bible, I struggled with doing it consistently. So, I prayed earnestly one night and asked the Lord to help me. The very next day, I was given a voracious appetite to read God’s Word – so much so that I read the entire New Testament in seven days. Then, I read it again in ten days. Next, I began to read other books as well (e.g., Bible commentaries, Bible Lexicons, Greek and Hebrew Concordances, Bible Handbooks, The Quran, Book of Mormon, Word of Wisdom, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrines & Covenants, Bhagavad Gita, etc…). This was miracle #3 for me.

D. One day, I decided to go back to church and try this Christian thing all over again. Shortly thereafter, the pastor of that church pulled me into his office to have a serious talk. He told me many personal things about my life (things he had witnessed as well as things the Lord brought to his attention) and then encouraged me to stop focusing so much on the horizontal – people and their flaws – and instead to focus on the vertical – my relationship with Christ! Thank you Pastor Alexander!!

I could go on, but I think you’re starting to see a pattern. God was using different events in my life to help me to re-focus my thoughts, actions and energies on Him rather thanmy past experiences and the flawed people around me.

Later, I would be humbled by the Lord (numerous times) and learn to see my own flaws, quirks, idiosyncrasies, and sin!!!

To describe this period of time in my life – as compared to the last chapter – let me say it like this:

• In the last chapter (PART 03), it felt like I was driving 70 MPH down a country road on a motorcycle on a warm sunny day. Out of nowhere, an animal unexpectedly crosses the road in front of me. I swerve to miss it, fall off the bike, tumble and skid across the pavement as my hands, forearms and knees scrape the asphalt for nearly one-hundred feet.

• In this chapter, I feel like I’m in the emergency room after the accident and a nurse is performing debridement on the skin of my hands, forearms and knees. Piece by piece, she pulls out 100+ small chards of glass, metal and asphalt from my skin. Then, she scrubs my skin with an abrasive sponge and antiseptic solution. Finally, she applies an antibacterial salve to my skin, wraps the exposed wounds in gauze and tape, gives me two Tylenol, and sends me home.

While I am thankful for this period of time in my life (because I learned a lot), I am also thankful it is over!

Next, the real journey begins. And trust me when I say this: I failed spectacularly…because I had some more lessons to learn!

If you have questions or comments, email me here.

Roy

• My Journey Part 01: Where I Started

• My Journey Part 02: New Beginnings

• My Journey Part 03: An Adventurous & Atrocious Period

• My Journey Part 05: Personal Jonah Experience

• My Journey Part 06: Finding My Calling and Ministry

• My Journey Part 07: Where Am I Today…