Good Morning, Gents!

When I was a kid, I planted a maple tree in our backyard. It sprouted & grew tall, about my height, then died, over wintered, & sprouted again. The second grew into a huge, beautiful tree that's still there.

That's kinda what happened to me as a Christian. Today is the 18th year of my second attempt. (Old enough to vote.)

I was baptized at 11. And I have come to the opinion that children shouldn't be baptized for a couple of reasons. First is that there is no evidence in Scripture that this was a thing. Second is that kids aren't playing with a full deck. How can you rely on God when you're relying on Mom & Dad? How can you count the cost when you are not fully developed yet? A person's needs at 11 are radically different than at say 15. The cost varies greatly from 11 to 15 to 20.

What happened to me is what Matthew says happened to the seed that fell among the thorns. The worries & pleasures of this life choke the seed & make it unfruitful. I felt like God was keeping the things that I wanted from me & so I abandoned Him to seek these things on my own (part of a plan).
18 years ago today, having spent a decade or more seeking those things & having attained most of them in some manner, I found myself on my couch watching TV & praying, which I hadn't done in a while, a prayer I had never prayed before. I told God that I had sought all these things wholeheartedly, & I was left wanting. I had never really given Him a shot. 

The first thing to understand about God is that He isn't fake or fluffy or safe or toothless or absent. It's not like sitting in your living room & telling your vacant recliner that you feel like some ice cream. Rather it's like telling your friend sitting in your recliner that you feel like some ice cream & he says that sounds good, grabs the keys to his car, & says, "Let’s go." God is real, present, has a mind, a will, an agenda, & the power to make things happen.

He brought me to a church with some wonderfully strong Christian men. But He held me back & didn't let me get fully immersed in it (I worked nights for another year), because He wanted to be the one to train me. (This is what I'm talking about when I say He has an agenda.) He asked me to read my Bible, but I didn't really want to, so He asked how could I give this a shot if I didn't read my Bible? Good point. Then He asked if I could give Him 5 minutes a day? I can do that, sure.

What does God sound like? He sounds like me (my voice), but what He says sounds nothing like what I would say. How could you know that as a child? How could you not know that unless you've spent time with yourself? I know me (who I am, how I am), so when He shows up, it's noticeably different.

Something else to understand about God is that He's addictive. I started reading my Bible 5 minutes a day & soon I was spending hours in it. This is why He held me back from full immersion in church. They had their own yearly reading plan, which everyone was doing & which they would've pushed on me, which I rejected, because I had a tour guide. "With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you & even more."

You will most likely start this in calm water, wading in to ankle deep, maybe knee deep. Crystal clear. The next thing you know, you'll be in the middle of the ocean, can't see the bottom, waves crashing over you, praying & making promises to God if He'll save you. Again, this is all part of a plan, but I would encourage you not to make promises if you can avoid it. Because He collects. I have made promises to Him that I cannot break. I would rather die than break them. Not because I'm afraid of what He'll do, "but [because] I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own." I have bound myself to Him & cannot abandon Him. That was the point. "Indeed, I count EVERYTHING as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things & count them as garbage in order that I might gain Christ"

If you have ever thought about having a relationship with Christ & if you have genuine questions, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer them. I'm certainly not perfect, nor do I have all the answers, but I do have 18 years today!