March

So March is right around the corner already. It is hard to believe.

I was driving home from picking up my wife's purse because she left it at a friends house tonight and I realized that March is kind of a significant month for me.

There are two event in the month of March that have altered the coarse of my life forever.

5 years ago I told my wife that I interested in her. I was not going to do it, however circumstances developed that kind of led/cornered me into expressing my interest.

Those that know me, know that I cry at just about anything that involves emotions to any degree.

haha.

It kind of makes me feel ridiculous.

Anyways, I was practically sobbing as I tried to spit out to Kirstin how I felt about her. I look back and I just laugh at my self with a sort of regret in my stupidity of emotions.



March 7 years ago is when I became a Christian. By far the greatest and most life changing event of my life.

My life was in just one instant changed from my old self to a new self. Which for many was an answer to prayer.

I am thankful for those prayers.

A friend used to say, "Joe is the only person I've know who led himself salvation!" A joke of coarse, stemming from how I became a Christian. I showed up to this bible study and not one person knew who I was until the person who invited me showed up late.

Very uncomfortable by the way.

For some reason at the end of bible study during our prayer time God saw fit to change my life. It was emotional and authentic and I could say that I really was a new man.

What a great event in my life.

In the 7 years I have been a Christian I have been through a lot. There were a couple of years of unhindered growth. Those days were a real amazing time in my life. There have been many more years of struggle.

The struggles have varied and they have come in different intensities.

In my darkest hours I have experienced deep depression with a gnawing relentless hopelessness. There has been some deep moments of ruthless temptation and often I buckled under its weight.

I have been plagued with sin

Yet, there has been moments of victory. Some small and fewer big, none the less they were victories.

Through some of it I had friends that helped me along and many times I was alone left to fend for my self.

I have also had moments of deep hurt from the church, and yet also moments of deep love for her as well.

There has been moments of great doubt and belief that God cares or will have any thing to do with me. But, there has also been moments where revelation/illumination of the scriptures have given great hope.

I have seen some come to faith in Christ, I have seen others fall deeper in love with Jesus. Sadly I have also experienced and seen friends believe in a christianity that is not taught in Scripture. Burned by the church, so they say. So they let go of truth for social justice and cultural relevance

Even more devastating, some of those friends deny Christ his Kingship and Deity. They have lost all faith in Him.

One of those friends was quoted(paraphrased) above.

Reflecting back on 7 years of Christendom I see many struggles and I continue in the same battles. I am certain I will continue to know these struggles, but one thing I can say more confidently than ever before, Christ is King! There is but one God and He exist as three distinct persons with different roles, but all three are equally one God. I stand confident of this, that the work that has been started in me will be completed when Christ returns. I know that there will be many who deny Christ and they will know His wrath and judgement someday, for that I am met with sorrow. And so I urge those who can not claim Christ as their one and only Savior to take heed to Scriptures warning; Christ is Coming Back!

Please be ready for His return! If you are unsure, you better make sure. Please ask me about if you are unsure.

----March----

PINK VACUUM!

Lately it has been really cold on KY. More cold than I would have liked, however, the huge ice and snow storm we had not to long ago was wonderful! It brought me back to a winter in MI! Many lost power in the storm and I certainly don't wish that on anyone, but I was fortunate to not have lost power thus allowing me to enjoy it more.

The semester started recently and glad to be learning at a seminary where the truth is sought for and held to the highest standard. What a blessing it has been in my life. The class I am taking isn't what I thought it was going to be, or at least not to this point it isn't. However, it is still a great class to take; Biblical Hermeneutics. Just by pure science, I am learning, that we can rely on and know that many of the good modern text of scripture are accurate to what the original authors wrote.

My new job is kind of crazy, my facility is really busy. I am enjoying learning a new Computed Tomography(CT) scanner. As well as developing my skills as a CT technologist. I am gearing up to and working toward taking a test that would certify my in CT. It will be some grueling studying after I get all my competencies fulfilled. I will have to re-learn my physic and math portion plus learn new physics and math portion specific to CT scanners. As well all the other things I will need to refresh on. That stuff should be easier since I use it all the time in my day to day working environment.

I have been losing weight! which is a wonderful thing. I am trying to get my life into healthy limits again. This is my second attempt this school year to lose weight, the first time I was around 255-260. I dropped down to 245ish and then the holidays hit. I went back up to 250. Now I am down(as of this am) to 235.5. This time though I have a commitment to getting healthy that I have not had in along time. The realities of my life are hitting me harder as I get older. I don't want to be an unhealthy father or husband.

This semester I am all going to start going to biblical counseling. There are alot of issue in my life that I think come from my life growing up. My issues are negatively affecting how I view my family(the hills)/my wife/my birth family/God/friends/fellowship of Believers. Anyways, I am both super excited to start dealing with this stuff and very much nervous and afraid of what is ahead of me.

Our vacuum died a couple of weeks ago. So I took some pieces off it to discover that our belt had broke. So like a responsible husband I went on-line and ordered a new belt for it. When they came in I put the new belt on and tried it out. Just seconds after turning it on we were again smelling burnt rubber. I looked again at the belt, it too was broken. I ventured to touch the motor the belt was connected to and it was HOT. All this to say, we got a new Vacuum this past weekend. It is a DYSON! We had been research them for awhile and have been keeping out eyes peeled for a good deal on one for quite some time. Although we did not expect to buy a new one for awhile. needless to say, we did find a great deal on one at target and bought it. the bad part about it....it is pink. That is why we got a good deal on it. It is a special addition for breast cancer. Anyways, they seemed to have an over abundance of them, thus the really good sale. Needless to say, it is a great vacuum! Far greater sucktion power than our previous vacuum. I wont mention the brand we previously had, **cough, cough, bissell, cough, cough** as we were not happy with it at all as far as it's cleaning abilities.

how about that for a new blog.