New Beginnings

Once again, it is a new year! I have gone through this 20 times and hopefully more! As I have said before on countless occasions, I have gone through a lot of changes in just this past year and I like the looks of it. God truly is molding me into His image and more recently I have been conforming to His likeness.

Lately, I have realized that I haven't exactly been communicating with God like I should be and I am currently changing that! Just think, the Creator of this universe and everything we see (including you and me) has revealed Himself, His plan of Salvation, and His commands on how we are to live in Him all in a book! It's the infallible Word of God and, sadly, not many Christians that I have talked to don't regularly get into it (this includes me). I have asked God for the desire to seek Him and His Word on a daily basis and I have been doing just that! It is truly amazing how He communicates with me through His Word.

As I had talked about in my last post, I still am not sure what to do regarding ministry. My heart yearns for sharing the Gospel with people who otherwise would never hear it, yet, God has opened doors to youth ministry. Right now I'm just praying and praying and praying and praying, continuously seeking God's infinite wisdom, guidance, and leading. I'll continue to walk through the doors God opens and trust that His hand is upon the whole matter :) One thing that frustrates me (and it's because of my own foolishness) is that before I decided to pursue youth ministry, I didn't thoroughly pray about it or actively get into the Word on the matter; I basically went with feelings and desires. That wasn't a good thing and now I'm wondering what's up. Even regarding foreign missions, I'm not following feelings, but God. I still need to experience what it's like out of the U.S. (which, fortunately, I might have an opportunity to go to Guatemala on a short term mission trip in a few months; please pray for me about that). I'm really praying about this whole thing and reading the Word. This time I'm doing what I should have done before. I still ask for prayers from all of you as this is more important than anything else.

The sermon I gave at Pathways went great and I got to talk about the story of Joseph and then tied it into the Gospel message, which was awesome! Thanks for the prayers! I hope seeds were planted :)

I hope and pray that 2012 will be a blessed and Christ-centered year for me and all of you! May God's glory be magnified not only in our words, but also in our actions!