Welcome, friends and fellow believers!
I am honored to share my faith journey with you and deeply appreciate your presence, support, and intercessory prayers.
Believers sharpen each other's spiritual lives when they share their subjective experiences and insights. With that in mind I pray our time together in this forum is always encouraging, uplifting, and edifying that each of us might grow in Christian faith, fervor, and fellowship.
That said, I must confess that if you were hoping to meet a person of religious fame or exegetical renown, you may be in for a letdown. In fact, prior to my calling, my life was characterized by decades of discontent, disillusionment, and disenchantment with the Church.
I wasn't exactly the poster child for Christianity either. I had a bad habit of spiritually running away, often withdrawing to sulk and distract myself with temporal pleasures, and only returning to the Christian fold when my circumstances or guilt became unbearable.
Thus, despite faith and deep spiritual and theological convictions, I found it difficult to label myself a 'Christian' and opted to use the term 'Believer'. This allowed me to air my grievances with the Church without identifying too closely with Christ in event I were to become further disheartened and disgruntled and decide to go off gallivanting again.
Given this history of doublemindedness, when the Holy Spirit urged me to create a Christian website and write a blog about my faith journey my response was, 'Who am I, Lord?' Fortunately, we worship a God who responds to those who seek His guidance with fervor and humility. Through His divine wisdom, God led me to the powerful verses of 1 Corinthians 1:27-31:
"For ye see your calling, brethren, how not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written: “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
If you hold the belief that an evangelist cannot be effective without formal theological training and extensive exegetical experience, then this site may not be for you. You may consider this author's credentials to be, in the words of the prophet Daniel, 'Tekel' - weighed on the scales and found lacking. However, if you subscribe to the scripture's teachings that God chooses the foolish, weak, base, and despised things of this world and uses them to reveal His Wisdom, Strength, Truth, and Glory...
Then sit down, buckle up, and hold on!
While reviewing an email draft sharing my personal testimony with a Christian university dean, I was suddenly struck by the miraculous ways in which God had provided for me, even during trials and tragedies. I marveled at the extent of God's goodness and grace towards me, a wretched perpetually backsliding sinner teetering on the brink of apostasy.
Then it happened:
All at once, a whooshing sound filled the room as if a great gust of wind were entering yet no physical things like papers were blown around. Audibly, in my head not through my ears, a voice said:
"I was faithful with those things because you gave them over to me, and to show you that the things you have not yet surrendered I will be just as faithful with if you do."
I was blown away! Left sitting there, dumbfounded. After I regained composure (I had been bawling), I reflected on this astounding manifestation of God's Spirit in my life, and I was humbled.
That's when it dawned on me, this revelation was not solely for my personal edification, but for others too. At once I was overcome by both awe and trepidation. For somehow, I knew, in my heart, that every facet of my spiritual journey - even the most unsavory and unmentionable aspects - would all eventually be laid bare before the world.
This wasn't just a supernatural experience; it was a higher calling. To not just create this site and write these blogs, but to bear witness to the truth. Expose the damage caused by the hypocrisy and false piety that have long plagued the Christian community.
Too many believers have been deceived by a dangerous misperception, that accepting Jesus into one's heart immediately frees them from all temptation and sin. But I cannot be complicit in this deception. Instead, I am compelled to share my spiritual journey with the world, regardless of the ridicule, rebuke, or condemnation that comes.
For the world must know that the narrow road is far from easy - it is fraught with pitfalls that require vigilance and every ounce of our resolve. Yet, it is a struggle worth enduring, for it is in this fiery crucible that we are refined and sanctified, drawing ever closer to the Divine.
So come, sup with me here, and together let us taste and see that the Lord is indeed real, the Lord is indeed good, and the Lord will be faithful with everything we wholly give over to Him.
"Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus - Philippians 3:13,14"
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