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any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
1 Timothy 6:19
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
I used to think I had a grasp on what obtaining a good life was all about.
It began with finding a job that offered steady pay and benefits as well as an opportunity to advance up the ladder of success. Then, it was a matter of working hard each and every day, trying to become better and better at my vocation so to obtain promotion and even more money. A person who continually did this, committed and dedicated to excellence, would eventually be able to reach the pinnacle of their profession, gain the associated income, and be able to afford everything they had dreamed about.
I believed this and actually achieved it but along the way, my viewpoint changed. Because the striving for what the world offered only left my life empty of what was really important. I was rich by the world’s standards but really broke in regard to what really matters. I was void of what I now have learned is the true life, a life I have grabbed fully a hold of.
You see, while I was working so hard to gain greatness and pursue greater wealth, I lost focus on anything and everything else. Like my family and, even worse, my Lord. It was a selfish, self-centered quest to gain personal glorification and recognition and in the end, it led to me by myself to celebrate it.
My marriage of nearly ten years ended in divorce, a product of my self interest. I expected my wife to just support me because I was doing everything for her and the kids, or at least that’s the way I floated it. But my family didn’t need a successful Navy Sailor. They needed a husband and father who was as committed to them as he was his career. They needed a husband and father who saw them as a rich gift from the Lord, a gift that he needed to put first in life, a gift he needed to cherish and love deeply.
But that didn’t happen because my eyes were on a different target, the target set by the world and as I strived to meet the mark, I traveled on a path that only brought pain and destruction, not the joy and satisfaction I expected. The good life I thought I knew was just a ruse.
I was adrift for several years after my divorce, playing the blame game that so often happens when relationships break apart. It was easier to do that than look in the mirror at myself and take accountability. In 1991, my ship was looking for some volunteer opportunities in the community and decided to participate in Norfolk’s Adopt A School program, getting paired with an elementary school. Needing something to do, I decided to participate and got paired up with a couple third grade classes which I worked with weekly.
I had done this work at the elementary school for around three months when I ran into the school’s assistant principal, Ms. White, on my way out of the building. She was a beautiful woman, one who I immediately thought was way out of my league, and we had a nice conversation that ended with her telling me she was seeing someone who “didn’t know what direction he was going”. Not knowing what she meant by that, I sent her flowers and asked her to go out with me...and she accepted.
We began dating and on one such get together, I remember letting a curse word come out of my mouth. Remember, I was a Sailor who knew all those words, a man who wasn’t giving any attention to the spiritual part of his life. Needless to say, my beautiful new girlfriend did not like the ugliness of my language and promptly let me know that it was unacceptable to her. She then said these words that would alter the course of my life forever:
“If we’re going to have a relationship, the Lord has to be first in everything.”
That was almost 31 years ago.
You see, I thought I was seeing a woman who was gorgeous on the outside but God had brought someone to me who was far more than that. He brought me a woman who was just as attractive on the inside, frankly even more so. He brought me a woman who would point me in the direction of true life, a life I grabbed a hold of from the moment she told me the Lord needed to be first.
I started going back to church, terrified inside as to how the Lord might feel about me after living absent from Him for so long. He calmed my fears and embraced me with His love for another prodigal had returned to Him and this was reason for great rejoicing.
I felt on fire every time I read the Bible as the Holy Spirit began to disassemble the man I was to make me the man I needed to become. And day by day, week by week, and month by month, I grew in righteousness and holiness. My life began to mimic Jesus and it was evident to others immediately.
My wife and I would marry later in 1992 and begin what has been the most incredible thirty years of my life, thirty years where we have walked alongside and worshiped the Lord in our relationship. Over this time, I went from a mere new disciple, to a Bible teacher, then elder and deacon, to managing an online ministry where the Lord has blessed me with writing nearly 3,800 messages from His word, to singing Christian music publicly and offering free concerts, and to even preaching sermons on a dozen or more occasions. The more and more I invested myself in the Word and the Lord who called me to serve Him and others more than myself, the more I discovered the real way of life, the life of Christ who told us that He IS the Life (John 14:6).
In yesterday’s message, we found the call to “do good” and be “rich in good deeds” while being “generous and willing to share” with others (1 Timothy 6:18). This is a life that takes us outside of ourselves to selflessly invest in others, being rich in the goodness of our Lord and then extending His goodness to others.
For when we do this, in obedience to the God who calls us to model the life of His Son as Christians, then we will indeed “lay up treasure” for ourselves “as a firm foundation for the coming age”, the age when we move from this temporary worldly existence into the eternal Kingdom promised by our Lord and in doing so, “take hold of the life that is truly life”.
I share my life testimony with you today as living proof that Jesus can and will change you if you let Him. I would encourage you to follow my lead and grab a hold of the true life only found in Him, a life that will alter the course of your life, now and forever more.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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