So yesterday Kirstin and I went to the movie theater to watch the new Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian. I throughly enjoyed the movie. It was good not only for entertainment purposes but also for spiritual reasons. There were several lines in the movie that were very convicting. At one point I broke into tears not because of a sad scene or the expression of love between two lovers or the intense joy of character, but because the Lord reminded me of my relationship with Him. He reminded me of truths I so easily forget. Even the character development in each of the four kids portrayed aspects of my self as I have related to Christ. There were displays of ungodly pride and unbelief. There was scene where susan depicts the idea of getting comfortable back in england, just as I am so often comfortable with the worlds way of living. However, there were displays of lessons learned, courage, faith, and focus on the one who really takes helps us win our battles and not our selves. At times these things have been true of me and I long for a day where they are true of me again. Needless to say it was a good movie. I have never read the actual books, so kirstin and I started reading them together last night. I want to have the entire story not just the movie version.
In other information, kirstin has a few people interested in her night shift position so hopefully she will soon be able to move to a day shift. The new person would still have to get trained and all, but it would be nice have someone in place so we can get a date in place. Kirstin is really getting tired of working the night shift and it is really taking a toll on her body. Plus it would be nice to see each other more.
As far as jobs go I have an interview on tomorrow(Tuesday) for a full time CT Technologist position, first shift at the University of Louisville. For several reasons I want to land this job. 1-It is a first shift position. 2- It is full time job. 3- It is in CT (Advanced training). 4- There is probably no better place to learn this modality. However, the hospital is not somewhere I want to work. I do not like the facility at all and it seems really dirty. I am willing to forgo that concern to become a good CT technologist. So I am hoping I land this job.
Kirstin and I are moving on June 21. We are moving to a bigger apartment with-in the same apartment complex. It has a kitchen twice the size and storage as our current kitchen which I am super excited about. Also, it has a fire place and a much bigger deck than I current apt as well. However, the real reason we are moving is because my brother in law is coming to live with us so he can go to school down here. We need more space and we needed rooms on opposite sides of the apartment for privacy sake. Long story short...we are moving. Oh and I getting a grill for my birthday so I can enjoy the large patio with some awesome food!
You know there are so many things I want to blog about and I often tell kirstin that I want to blog about whatever it was we just experienced. However, most of the time I think about the blog in my head, but when it comes to writing it I just don't want to think about it anymore. So there are ALOT of blogs that have been written in my mind that you all never see. oh well. To bad I forget what most of them are or I would give you a snippet for the sake of having a laugh or two, but I just can't think of the anymore. Oh oh, I almost forgot I also this past week sent in my application to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. We will see how that goes. I still have to get one letter sent out for a recommendation as well as request my transcripts to be sent to the school but other than that I have done most of the leg work needed to apply to school. Which by the way my last blog entry was something I had to write for the application. I just though I would make a blog of it just so you could have something to read because I blog so few and far between. Ok I think I am done for now.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Spiritual Autobiography
Spiritual Autobiography
My spiritual autobiography begins with one word: providence. Throughout my Christian life, I have always felt that I have been graciously chosen to serve the Father. It is clear to me that God had my story mapped out before I was born. Even my name, Joseph Martin, demonstrates His providence. Joseph means “increasing faith,” or “God will increase,” and Martin means “from another place or planet,” much like the word “mars” or “Martian.” I do believe that God is constantly increasing my faith—just as he did with Mary’s husband Joseph during the difficult circumstances they had with the Virgin birth. I also firmly believe that I have been made for a different place than this earth and that I am not to conform to the ways of this world but to anticipate the life I will live with with my Father in heaven.
I did not, however, always live with that mindset. From the beginning of my life, it seemed I was headed toward destruction. Born into a drug addict’s home, I had a few years with my biological parents; shortly thereafter, my father divorced and remarried. I continued to live with him and his second wife, but it was not much later until he went to jail for shoplifting and his second wife divorced him.
I was in second grade when I went to go live with my aunt in a small town. Things were going to be okay. I had a cousin my age to play with, and my aunt had a college education and a job to support my cousins and me. That only lasted four years, which took me to sixth grade. I was twelve when my aunt lost her job. She was worsening as an alcoholic and finally went into a mental health rehab facility. My cousins had a father to go to; I had no one left—or so it seemed, but God had a plan.
During the four-year period in which I lived with my aunt, I was introduced to church. A kid I did not like very well asked my cousin and me to go to Sunday school with him. It was a strange experience, but it was a place where my cousin and I found love and attention, so we continued to go. At the church we met a particular teacher and his wife and their three kids. Ironically, the three kids were the same kids my cousin and I used to throw snowballs at when walking home from school. One day, their mom had a talk with us, and she had her kids pray for us. Little did any of them know what God had in mind: it was this family that took me in after I had to leave my aunt’s house. They became my family. And because of their influence in my junior high and high school years, I came into contact with a real God and a real Jesus. I learned what it meant to become a real Christian—however, I did not become a Christian during this time. I wanted nothing but to be a part of the world and its idea of fun: drinking, smoking, sex, and etc. I remember times in which my youth pastor would walk in the front door of the house and I would walk out the back door—all so I did not have to talk to him. I still had much to learn.
During my senior year of high school, I went on a trip with Youth for Christ. After one of the group gatherings, we had a cabin discussion just before bed. At this time I confessed to my group, friends, and youth pastor that I would be willing to go to the lowest place in life if that is what it would take for me to follow Christ. It was the same year that I stayed up at night crying before God because He was calling me to follow Him and I just could not do it. My friends were way too important to me, and I could not give up my lifestyle. I told God, “No.”
My freshman year of college (about a year after the Youth for Christ trip) found me depressed and feeling lost. I had just gotten out of a really bad relationship, I was getting drunk all the time and I was experimenting with marijuana. I was at the lowest place of my life. I remembered that a classmate had invited me to Bible study one particular week and decided that I would go. It was during the closing prayer that I unexpectedly gave over my life to Jesus. I didn’t expect my response to the gospel! My life has been changed from that point on. It is because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection that I was instantly given a new life and new desires. Over the course of the next several years I plunged into the Christian life: leading small groups, attending prayer meetings, going to campus ministry events, sharing my faith with non-Christians, and discipling and encouraging other Christians to seek after God. I am a perfect picture of God’s grace and how He can work through anyone, no matter where they come from.
Since the very beginning of my conversion, I have felt a strong leading to do God’s work. It was about a year after becoming a Christian that God started stirring within me a desire to do full-time ministry. I developed a passion to see adult Christians being continually transformed by God. Seeing people’s lives transformed by the Gospel of Jesus brings abundant joy to my heart; that is why I am pursuing higher education at Seminary. I chose Southern because I learned of the quality of faculty. I feel very strongly that I have much to learn from these leaders. I want to develop deeper disciplines, while also learning ministry essentials. I believe an education at Southern Seminary will aid me as a man of God who will lead others in ministry. I trust God’s providential handiwork to continue to increase my faith as I follow in obedience to His commands, and I anticipate what God will do in and through me at Southern.
My spiritual autobiography begins with one word: providence. Throughout my Christian life, I have always felt that I have been graciously chosen to serve the Father. It is clear to me that God had my story mapped out before I was born. Even my name, Joseph Martin, demonstrates His providence. Joseph means “increasing faith,” or “God will increase,” and Martin means “from another place or planet,” much like the word “mars” or “Martian.” I do believe that God is constantly increasing my faith—just as he did with Mary’s husband Joseph during the difficult circumstances they had with the Virgin birth. I also firmly believe that I have been made for a different place than this earth and that I am not to conform to the ways of this world but to anticipate the life I will live with with my Father in heaven.
I did not, however, always live with that mindset. From the beginning of my life, it seemed I was headed toward destruction. Born into a drug addict’s home, I had a few years with my biological parents; shortly thereafter, my father divorced and remarried. I continued to live with him and his second wife, but it was not much later until he went to jail for shoplifting and his second wife divorced him.
I was in second grade when I went to go live with my aunt in a small town. Things were going to be okay. I had a cousin my age to play with, and my aunt had a college education and a job to support my cousins and me. That only lasted four years, which took me to sixth grade. I was twelve when my aunt lost her job. She was worsening as an alcoholic and finally went into a mental health rehab facility. My cousins had a father to go to; I had no one left—or so it seemed, but God had a plan.
During the four-year period in which I lived with my aunt, I was introduced to church. A kid I did not like very well asked my cousin and me to go to Sunday school with him. It was a strange experience, but it was a place where my cousin and I found love and attention, so we continued to go. At the church we met a particular teacher and his wife and their three kids. Ironically, the three kids were the same kids my cousin and I used to throw snowballs at when walking home from school. One day, their mom had a talk with us, and she had her kids pray for us. Little did any of them know what God had in mind: it was this family that took me in after I had to leave my aunt’s house. They became my family. And because of their influence in my junior high and high school years, I came into contact with a real God and a real Jesus. I learned what it meant to become a real Christian—however, I did not become a Christian during this time. I wanted nothing but to be a part of the world and its idea of fun: drinking, smoking, sex, and etc. I remember times in which my youth pastor would walk in the front door of the house and I would walk out the back door—all so I did not have to talk to him. I still had much to learn.
During my senior year of high school, I went on a trip with Youth for Christ. After one of the group gatherings, we had a cabin discussion just before bed. At this time I confessed to my group, friends, and youth pastor that I would be willing to go to the lowest place in life if that is what it would take for me to follow Christ. It was the same year that I stayed up at night crying before God because He was calling me to follow Him and I just could not do it. My friends were way too important to me, and I could not give up my lifestyle. I told God, “No.”
My freshman year of college (about a year after the Youth for Christ trip) found me depressed and feeling lost. I had just gotten out of a really bad relationship, I was getting drunk all the time and I was experimenting with marijuana. I was at the lowest place of my life. I remembered that a classmate had invited me to Bible study one particular week and decided that I would go. It was during the closing prayer that I unexpectedly gave over my life to Jesus. I didn’t expect my response to the gospel! My life has been changed from that point on. It is because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection that I was instantly given a new life and new desires. Over the course of the next several years I plunged into the Christian life: leading small groups, attending prayer meetings, going to campus ministry events, sharing my faith with non-Christians, and discipling and encouraging other Christians to seek after God. I am a perfect picture of God’s grace and how He can work through anyone, no matter where they come from.
Since the very beginning of my conversion, I have felt a strong leading to do God’s work. It was about a year after becoming a Christian that God started stirring within me a desire to do full-time ministry. I developed a passion to see adult Christians being continually transformed by God. Seeing people’s lives transformed by the Gospel of Jesus brings abundant joy to my heart; that is why I am pursuing higher education at Seminary. I chose Southern because I learned of the quality of faculty. I feel very strongly that I have much to learn from these leaders. I want to develop deeper disciplines, while also learning ministry essentials. I believe an education at Southern Seminary will aid me as a man of God who will lead others in ministry. I trust God’s providential handiwork to continue to increase my faith as I follow in obedience to His commands, and I anticipate what God will do in and through me at Southern.
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