Life is a challenge

In today's world, life is a challenge. It is especially challenging as a Christian. I find that there is so many things that are worldly at our disposal. I find myself struggling at times to remain with the thoughts of Godly things on my mind. This fact of life can get me down sometimes. Sometimes, I'd like to take all the T.V's in the house and toss them, all the video games, this computer, the radio, all those things that are there for me to lose my interest in God's Word. But the love of Christ just keeps me pressing on toward the mark. Eventhough I may falter, I rest in knowing that the love of Jesus is there to just pick me up and brush me off and steady me and point me in the right direction.

The events leading up to 9/20/2005

September 20,2005 was a culmination of a lot of terrible decisions made on our part, mostly by me, of our finances. We put ourselves into credit card debt, when credit card debt wasn't cool. It was quite steep, thousands of dollars, just to get the magnitude of the debt conveyed. In 2003-4 a mortgage company sent us a advertisement that gave me a dumb idea of getting out of credit card debt by mortaging the house. We were just a couple who thought we could make it out of debt on our own, a big shock would come soon. The morgage company sold our debt to a cutthroat agency that gave us a $300 a month raise in our payment. So, after making several other dumb decisions, I put us in more credit card debt plus a high mortgage payment. In the midst of all this dumb decision making, I did make the best decision of my life, I asked Jennifer to marry me, she said yes, I was extremely happy! But I did buy her wedding set on credit from JC Penney!As time went on, I looked around for help, there was none for us financially. Suddenly, I found an ad in the Le Roy Pennysaver for just loans to pay off debt, I bit. We got the run around for quite some time then the hook was set, all I needed to do was give a $1500 range downpayment on an insurance policy, we borrowed from family and friends to get this paid. To our shock, we were scammed! As time went on, we were on the verge of losing the house and the wedding. We discussed cancelling the wedding and going bankrupt the day of the 20th of September before I went to work. It was not a good feeling in the house. Jen happened to echo a statement I had made earlier about God not caring about us and looking to destroy us. I went to work, there was only three of us on second shift at the time. I was assigned to be put in a secluded area of the place. I tried one last time to call the scam loan company with no luck. I was down as low as I could go. I heard like a voice come to me and tell me to turn the radio station to 88.3 FLN, which I did. A pstor named Chip Ingram was on teaching about Job ( pronounced with a silent e like Jobe). I related our problems of Job to us. I had lost my parents to cancer in 2002 and 2003, now God dangled happiness in front of my face, and in my mind had yanked it away and ruined me. I heard an evil sounding voice say "NO DON'T LISTEN TO THIS!" it was not nice to say the least. I felt like I was in a tug of war, and I was the rope. Of course as always, God won! I heard the message, and prayed the prayer of salvation given by Chip Ingram at the end of the show. I WAS SAVED BY THE GRACE OF GOD! Needless to say I was extremely overwhelmed and scared at the same time, this tug of war had shook a lot of things in my work area up, as well as my nerves. I raced down to a phone and called Jennifer telling her what had had happened through my whimpering and my tears. Through my miraculous experience, I was saved, and Jennifer was saved through the experience as well. We were married on November 5, 2005 on a tighter budget and help from Jennifer's fabulous parents. During the vows in the ceremony, the clouds parted and rays of sunshine beamed through the Brooks Grove Church in the Genesee Country Museum, we both felt the love of Christ surround us! The Lord has taught us much and continues to do so each day, though we sometimes fall, the love of Christ picks us up and helps us keep pressing on. To God be the Glory!

What a New Beginning 9/20/05 means

Hello to you all!

Thank you for visiting my blog. This title of my new blog commemorates the day of my salvation. I find it amazing, thinking back as to how far downward life was going when God pulled me back from the abyss. This led to my fiancee at the time/now wife to accept Jesus as her Savior that same night hearing my frantic phone call to her when all happened. I was saved by spiritual warfare happening right before my eyes. I was literally the rope in a tug of war between satan and God, of course God won; He always does. I am a stubborn guy, so to be completely broken took a while longer. My next post, I will lay out the happenings of that night. Right now, I have lots of cleaning to do in preparation for my wife's open house for her new business venture.