The Testimony!

Looking back over quite a few different blogs on my old blog, I came across this post of my testimony. I have decided to take some time and update it a little to make it even more accurate to the current Month, Day and Year!

Growing up in Wilmington, I was always in the church, I always had a heart for praising and worshiping God, I home schooled for several years, and which I am so thankful for now because it gave me several good years of spending quality time with both my Father and my Mother. My mom would let me work very hard the first couple days of the week so that I could get all of my weekly work done then so that I could get to go to the gym with my Dad or go see my Grandmother, or Great Grandmother, and some times we would even go do a little bit of shopping for one of my Dad's friends (Rollie Zink) who owned a Meat Market, my Dad had a wholesale card before it was the cool thing to do.

Moving on to High School, like most Christian kids in High School I was the minority, and even though I believed in God, and worshiped Him daily, I didn't ever really let it shine through. I was for a lack of better terms, "hiding my light under a bushel!" I had a couple of Christian buddies (one of them is a pastor in northern Michigan now), but even then neither of us really did much with our faith and rarely even discussed it. I really was just going through the motions, and then it got worse for me. My Father had a massive heart attack December 7th, 1991, right smack in the middle of my Senior year. I was devastated to say the least. I closed up tighter than Fort Knox. To make matters worse than that, the people that I relied on to be there for me, just weren't. I had a female friend from my old youth group who I had a falling out with who tried to reach out to me, but I felt her and my relationship with her (as friends) was beyond repair, and quite honestly Satan was working on me in several ways making me feel as though nobody was there for me. I must say some of the relationships I had with some people from my old church may never be the same, and up until about 4 years ago, I was still attending the same church even though these feelings and their actions had not changed much.

A little over a year after my Dad's death, I took a job offered to me by one of the elders in our church who had been very, very good friends with my Dad. I was working at a feed mill lifting very heavy bags of feed all day long. To say the least it was a very physically demanding job. Now I had been having some serious allergy issues which I guess according to my allergist (I am not sure how true this really is) can be dramatically affected by emotional distress. Well I got a little too much dust down into my lungs in the middle of summer, I ended up getting pneumonia from it and missed some work because of it. This gentleman was genuinely concerned for me and he had a business to run, but I was really at a stage where no one could replace my Father and I felt like he was trying when he and I "had a talk". So me being me I let him know it! Many years later I apologized to him for my action, but things have never been the same since then and to say the least he acted as though it was no big deal when I know for a fact it was and is because he still treats me different to this day because of that. At this point I had totally turned my back to God, and wanted no part of Him in my life! Because of that my Mom and I had not been getting along as well. She saw too much of my Dad in me and the more I rebelled from God, the more it reminded her of him from before they were Christians or even when they were "baby Christians".

Moving forward. Over the next 10 years I spent my life looking for love not through God, but through lust! I was sleeping around more than my fair share, met Austin's Bio-Mother, and she got pregnant less than 2 weeks after we started seeing each other, and I was by no means mentally ready to be a Father. Her and I were married less than 2 years. God tried to restore our marriage several times, but I was still not ready to listen to Him. Michele and I had gone to church a little while we were together but then more than ever I was just there!

After her and I had split apart, within 2 months I was with someone else. it was typical of me to have a woman by my side at this point to cure the loneliness and even though I say that I now realize that I was more alone then than ever! A few months after that I met another young lady who would watch Austin for me from time to time, and we ended up sleeping together only a couple of times, and she ended up pregnant. Although I never really did find out for sure that he was my son until the first time I saw him at age 3. This is my son Jarred, I hope that soon there will be some restoration to our relationship. I have not seen him in quite a few years. Mostly because of some issues with his Mother getting him taken from her and they put him with his dying Great Grandmother instead of his Father. Right after this young lady got pregnant (and I did not know until months later) I met another lady with whom I was very physically attracted to. Her and I had an on again off again relationship for several years and in 1998 she got pregnant. We actually planned this pregnancy. I wanted to make things work with her no matter what and I really thought (kind of like how women sometimes do) that us having a child together would create an unbreakable bond. During the pregnancy her and I had some disagreements regarding finances, and some other things and we ended up splitting up yet again. After my 3rd son Jacob was born, a few months went by and we thought we would give it another shot. I wanted to more for Jacob than anything and her and I got a new place together and things had been going pretty well until we found out that I had fathered Jarred, even though it was before her and I had met she had some issues with it, and gave an ultimatum that was just unacceptable and I was forced with a very difficult decision and yet again for the last time, her and I were finished.

I then spent the majority of the next year just focusing on work and achieving things that I wanted to. I stayed single and better yet spent a whole year without the urge to have sex. That was a long year! Almost exactly one year later, I ran into an old flame from High School. Her and I had went to prom together and dated a couple of more months over the summer between my Junior and Senior years, and we had always wondered.....what if? So we wasted no time finding out.... One problem ....she was married! Well to say the least that didn't last long, and now I thank God that it did not destroy her marriage, but it lead me into one of the worst relationships I have ever had. One of her friends and I had gotten very close, and out of convenience we moved in together and this lasted about 20 months......I will cut this story short for the most part. Her and I were together for all the wrong reasons, and neither of us really wanted a future together. Her mother intervened into our relationship one too many times and it became a final straw type of thing, but....

At this time I was driving a Semi to and from California 3 times a month. On my way to Vegas I had taken a route that I was very unfamiliar with and I ended up have to go down this mountain that was literally 12 miles long with a 6% grade, which if you do not know much about mountains, this is one of the 5 worst mountains in the country. Needless to say, I was about half way down this mountain and MY BRAKES WERE GONE. I had nowhere to go but into one of those runaway truck ramps! I hit the 200 yard gravel pit at over 75 MPH and I have never been more terrified in my life! After the smoke from the brakes cleared and the dust from the gravel settled, I got out of the truck grabbed my phone on the way out, and called my cousin Brent who also drove for the same guy I did. He called Joe (the guy I worked for) for me and explained what was going on and I called 911 and went and found me a place to sit down and try to gather myself. I remember saying to God, that if He gave me some peace and helped me through this that I would no longer doubt Him or turn from Him and I literally heard Him tell me that He had His angels with me, and that He still believed in me (and I believed Him). The State Trooper that came out told me that at the speed I was going I should have flown clear out the other side of that truck ramp and died. Little did he know my God had other plans!

So less than 3 months later my relationship with that girl I was staying with came to an abrupt end!

I went to stay with a friend of mine and would occasionally go stay with my cousin Brent and his wife. One evening when I was staying there a young lady came in to drop her daughter off for my cousin Wanda to watch her daughter Julie while she went to school and she was absolutely stunning. I was immediately attracted to her physically, but didn't say anything or even act upon anything. Oh the most important thing...her name was Diana! A few weeks went by, and her and I started talking a little bit and after about 2 months her and I had started hanging out, then dating. We started off very good, by going to church together. She had never been to a church like Dove before but she instantly fell in love with the music and the style of the church. 3 years later we were married by one of my best friends and an elder from Dove.

We had formally announced membership at Dove the first year we were together in 2004. It wasn't until 2008 that we had felt God drawing us elsewhere, and calling us for MORE! In April of 2008 I had not been to church in 6 months mostly because I was not satisfied with the direction of Dove. Diana at that time came to me and said that she too had some issues and asked me if I would go try a couple of new churches with her. The first choice was a church that Diana's friends Dan and Sarah Simpson had been attending. So we decided to go. Diana was absolutely sold....day 1. I on the other hand had some doubts mostly because I had put so much time into Dove and had been there myself since I was 15 more or less (mostly less since age 18) and I was very very VERY skeptical. Ok so she got me to go back, I mean I liked the sermon, the preacher was a little odd, and the worship wasn't quite what I was used to, but man there was something drawing me closer to being there! After just 3 short weeks, Diana and I had made a decision to meet with Ray and Melissa about the church and maybe get some questions that we had answered. Ray and Melissa were very comforting and made our decision that much easier, we found a new home! God put us at Center Pointe to be more involved, He put us there to love members of the church unconditionally, He put us there to help minister to the people there and to people that would be coming in the future, He put us there to see His Kingdom come full circle and to assist this wonderful group of people in furthering His will for the surrounding communities. God did an awesome thing to and for Diana and I.

Diana and I learned so much in our experience at Center Pointe/Axiom Church. We encountered numerous things. We led a Small Group which was a lot of fun. We dealt with some hurt, and overcame it too. We made some friendships that will never die, and others that have already faded. Seriously though, looking back I wouldn't trade a single day of it for anything in the whole world. I have since learned that "God will not protect you from, what He can perfect you through!" Had I known this 2 years ago it would've helped me understand what God was doing a whole lot more (unfortunately I just learned this last month).

I am going to skip a whole bunch of stuff that simple doesn't matter anymore, and get to the good stuff.

In December 2009, Diana and I had all but left Axiom in search of a new church home. Then we went to Florida on "church-cation" (I'll explain, lol). I use that term because we went to refresh ourselves on a beach somewhere, and actually got refreshed in my Mother's church called The Life. We spent nearly the whole week, just absorbing all that God was doing in that awesome place. We got to see Beckah Shae (If you haven't heard of her, download some of her stuff she is AWESOME). We got to witness a New Years Eve baptism which was simply amazing! All in all, we came away seriously refreshed and renewed in the Holy Spirit!

With that said, we called the Pastor of Axiom, and proclaimed that we wanted to mend the broken relationships in our lives and at that church. We came home a week later and quickly begun calling members of the church that we had broken relationships with to have dinner with them and try and patch things up, but none of them were interested. Later that same week, we had been invited to a gathering at one of the leader's houses by a different leader and his wife, only to be told that we weren't welcome. This DEVASTATED my lovely wife to the brink of tears most of the night, which in turn made me angry, because someone had cause her to cry!

With $7 in our checking account (because we had not gotten paid since coming back from church-cation) we went to McDonald's to have a night out before we went insane. This is quickly turned into one of the best nights of our lives. We went in, sat down with the kids, ate our food, and left. As we were getting into our car a lady came over from out of nowhere and asked us if she could pray for us. We were like "heck ya!!! WE NEED IT TONIGHT" After she prayed the perfect prayer for us (I'm THOROUGHLY convinced she was an angel of God) she looked at us both, and said "God has a plan for you both, (then pointed her finger at me) and He is going to use you in Ministry". Since that night I have held those words so near and dear to my heart and try to remember them every day!

Finally, after quite some time Diana and I ended up going back to Axiom long enough to see some of our friends preach over the course of a few weeks and witness the Pastor's last Sunday, then stayed on for a few more months and the closing of the church. Which was honestly kind of bitter sweet for us, because we felt that God was leading us away from there and we just couldn't let go!

We both are very grateful for God leading us to Axiom and through all that we endured while we were there, because "God will not protect you from, what He will perfect you through!"

That was the Fall of 2010.

After visiting many different church's over the course of the nect 6 months we had almost given up on finding a new church.

Then we found Elevation!!!! Although our journey with this church is just beginning stages, God has been blessing us tremendously! We are already building relationships that I know without a doubt will never be broken. We are truly enjoying being a part of this particular body of Christ and we are both looking forward to what God has in store for us in the growth of Elevation.

We have been so blessed and I have been so blessed by everyone of my Christian friends and my family that never gave up praying for me that God would grab my attention and not let go, but I do have news for you, all of you He never once let go of me. Even when I denied Him, even when I screamed to heaven telling Him that I hated Him, He always had His hand on my heart and guided me to where I am today. Our God is good and he as the songs by Matt Redman and David Crowder Band say "He Never Let's Go". I hope you enjoyed my long version of my testimony and I hope this blesses you in some way! God Bless.

15 Random Things about me!

At Small Group we were encourage to write down 2 facts and one ficticious detail about our lives, so this led to me revealing 15 Random Things about myself!

1. For about ten years I turned my back on God and it took me almost dying for me to turn my eyes back to Him, but believe me when I say He has my attention now and I know He is real because He showed me on that mountain side!

2. My mom is one-legged lol. Sorry something silly to put here, she lost her right leg in a corn picker accident 58 years ago! Wow but she can still kick it OLD SCHOOL!

3. I actually have 3 sons and 1 daughter but due to some regretful decisions when I was not walking in Christ I only have Austin and Julie in my life now! Jarrod and Jacob are my other two angels!

4. My father died when I was 17 and in the middle of my Senior year of High School (1992) Yikes that was awhile ago, I took it really bad and blamed God ....see no. 1

5. I currently work for a parts delivery company, but my real love is Sales. I used to work for an Insurance company and I loved it. Wish I could do something similar with a salary!

6. I am a huge Star Wars freak...ok I don't get crazy enough to get all dressed up like a wookie (although having the hair would be nice, you know a little nookie with a wookie!) but I still love Star Wars.

7. My absolute favorite thing to do with my kids is to go swimming.

8. I am a huge BUCKNUT! I love the Buckeyes almost as much as God....ALMOST!! I can't get mad at Him because He wouldn't lose to the stupid SEC! Oh yea I almost forgot to include the wife in this equation too!

9. My biggest secret is that I desire to do somthing like "Dancing With The Stars" Well I want to learn how to dance like that anyways! Shhhh Big secret!

10. I kissed my first girl when I was the ripe ole age of 5. LOL. She and I are still friends and I named my youngest son after her youngest brother! He is like my little brother he is pretty awesome.

11. I have another secret. I love Classical music. You know....Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Tchaiovsky.....Love em to death. I used to listen to it all the time when I was a teenager!

12. I called off mine and Diana's wedding two weeks before the first time it was supposed to happen. She was a little upset, but I knew the timing was off, after about two months of her being very upset with me she realized we had made the right decision and in June 2006 she blew me away in that awesome dress she had!

13. About 95% of the time I am listening to Klove/Air 1/Star 93.3 on the radio and if you are a christian I believe you should be too. I once heard someone say that you might as well practice praising God everyday now because when you get to heaven that's all you are going to be doing!

14. The BEN-GALS Stink!!! I am a Buccaneers fan! HA HA We have a Super Bowl Ring and one of those is better than two Runner Up Rings! Long Story as to how I became a Bucs fan.

15. My biggest pet peeve is having my feet being touched! I accidently, because of my reflexes kicked Austin in the face when he was about 3. Sorry Bub!

Good Soil

Another week, and yet another amazing week with our Elevation family!





All I am going to say is, if you are not in a Small Group. You are truly missing out! This next Tuesday (tomorrow as a matter of fact) is our last Small Group for Summer which saddens me and my wife deeply! We experience so much joy out of going to our Group, hanging out with everyone, and doing our devotionals together that Phil has been so kindly handing out every week! It has blessed us immensely!





Craig when you read this, I have a suggestion that I already took the liberty of mentioning to our gracious host Joel King. One of the old Small Groups that my wife and I were a part of met once a month all summer long for a cookout or dinner or whatever. Just to keep those relationships intact over the summer! I know we have A LOT of other exciting and new events coming this summer, but please consider this! Lol, we are going to miss it too much!!!!





If you missed the sermon Sunday, sorry about your luck! Seriously though you need to go ask for a copy of this message on CD and listen to it. Phil did an outstanding job. I was blown away by how easily he taught the "Parable of the Sower". I had never heard that sermon taught that way. Phil, I am responding to your message, by dwelling in the word more, and by praying and worshipping with my guitar more at home by myself this week. I was truly blessed by the obedient words that you spoke.





I loved the fact that you addressed the topics that can cause division in our church, and that you and Craig both say that our body will not stand for it. I really do commend the honesty of those words, and am grateful that our leadership feels that way.





A BIG shout out to my new buddy Steve Nelson also. Steve was representing on the drums, and looked right at home and as if he didn't miss a beat (pun intended). Diana and I were also blessed to help Steve lead the Youth Group while the Beck's (lucky dogs) were in Florida this week. Steve did an amazing job teaching the youth about the Apostles and the fact that nearly all of the died a martyr's death, and it was amazing to hear him share a little bit of his testimony.

I am not sure that Steve or the Youth Group even realize how closely the 2 messages for Sunday can interact with one another, but I put this together out of both messages I heard.....

Follow me on this. Phil's message talked about us sowing our lives into God's word and that going deeper into God's word was the only way to have a FIRM foundation. Steve's message talked of having a faith in Jesus, a faith up to and even in the face of certain death. I find that it had to have been easier for the Apostles to have that kind of faith in Jesus because that actually witnessed Him performing miracles every single day and they got to love Him first hand "face to face". Whereas we as Christians now have to have a stronger more "blind faith" because we don't see Him everyday on a daily basis. Now, that takes me back to what Phil was saying, IF only IF we are in our Bible everyday, praying everyday, asking God to intercede in us through the Holy Spirit everyday, then we too can also have that same "Day to Day", "Face to Face" relationship the Apostles did. Try it, you will see such amazing results. I am on a daily basis, and trust me if you apply what they are teaching then you will too.

With Brotherly Love, Scott

Open Your Bible

Today on the way home from work I was coming back into Blanchester, and saw a church sign with one of those clever messages on it. You know the ones that I'm talking about the ones that always make you chuckle when you drive by and see them.

First I am going to post some pics of some funny pics I have seen before.

Ok, so now back to the one I saw today. This sign read "Open your mind, open your heart, open your Bible." A great message, but as a Christian I would say that they have this a little out of order, since I am assuming that is who this is meant for since most Non-Christians wouldn't have a Bible.

Shouldn't this sign read "Open your Bible, Open your heart, Open your mind?" Isn't that the order it would have the greatest impact in your life?

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:23
The steps of a man are established by the LORD,when he delights in his way
Psalm 40:8
I delight to do your will, O my God;your law is within my heart."
Psalm 111:2
Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them
Psalm 119:16
I will delight in your statutes;I will not forget your word
Psalm 119:24
Your testimonies are my delight;they are my counselors

All of these verses speak of delighting in God, or His law which is the Bible. If we spend our time reading His word and dwelling on His word we will know His law. If we do this and we make this a part of our daily life, it will not only be a delight to Him, but to us as well!" It would indeed open our hearts, and our minds to all that God has to offer us.

I know for Diana and I, we had not been spending much time in the word before attending Elevation. We read maybe once or twice a week, and NEVER together! Since then, and after attending our Small Group we have been spending a lot more time in the word, and wonderfully reaping the benefits of it. God has been blessing us in so many ways. Most of it starting right here at home. It truly is changing the foundation of our lives because we are living and breathing everything we are learning instead of just getting fat in our faith (as Craig like to put it).

I wanted to share one of my top 5 favorites Bible verses in closing. This verse is so true, and can really help you learn to overcome so much! Use it apply it, and own the words of it and allow it to work in your life as I have in mine!

Hebrews 4:12 (English Standard Version)
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We were made to SERVE!

This is pretty crazy, in the few weeks that we have been attending Elevation I have had several topics that God has laid on my mind and heart to blog about and Craig has beat me to both of them from the pulpit! Lol. I asked him via text if he was hacking into my phone (I put all of these ideas when they come to me in my notepad on my phone) for my ideas.

It really isn't a coincidence, but I believe a God given confirmation of what Craig is preaching on and what God has been laying on my heart, and on the hearts of the people I love dearly in my life.

Diana and I love to serve. We will serve in just about any capacity that is needed. She will works with the kids, me NOT so much. We both enjoy helping with the Youth, and so we volunteered to help out with the Lazer Kraze event this last weekend.

As many of you know I have been a bit under the weather. Saturday we got up around 9 got ready and headed out for a day of outdoor sporting events. First my niece Celia's softball game, which they won 6-5 in the bottom of the 7th! Then my daughter Julie's soccer game which they won 3-2!! Julie was not feeling well either, but bless her heart, she didn't want to let her team and more importantly Coach Angie down by not being able to play. So she stuck it out!!! Very proud of her!

So after all of that we headed straight over to Lazer Kraze, and by the time we got there I was wiped out! I also started having some abdominal pain. It wasn't very pleasant. We decided we too were going to stick it out as long as we could. We made it over to the room, and the kids all sat at their table, and Brent was out arranging some things for the games, and Candy was talking to us about the upcoming Youth Camp. As we were talking we noticed that the kids were sitting there with their pizza's in front of them, patiently waiting to pounce on them. Candy quickly said to Brent "Let's pray so these guys can eat".

The funny part is I really felt God telling me that is exactly how we act sometimes with our faith or more importantly with attitude to serve. We can have all these talents and all these abilities that God has given us to use to serve His kingdom, and we just patiently wait to use them (usually when someone asks us, or tells us to) instead of actually getting off our (as Craig put it) sanctified behinds and putting them to use ourselves.

Craig's message on serving yesterday was phenomenal. I truly enjoy listening to him bring us God's word. Quite frankly he was right on about his message.

In case you missed it he taught on Ephesians 1:3-11

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.[b] 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,[c] for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

This passage has one of my favorite topics in it. I love the topic of us being predestined. I actually had this conversation with a previous Pastor who shared different views of the definition of predestination, and of how God has predestined us. I totally agree with how Craig defined and explained predestination and how God has (way before we even born, conceived a purposeful destiny in and through us). God chose me to be a part of Elevation, God chose me to be in Blanchester, God chose me to lead this family, God chose me to write this blog for you to read. Bottom line is GOD CHOSE ME, and guess what HE CHOSE YOU TOO!!

As I was preparing this blog and doing my typical prep, I was reading in Hebrews 12, and came accross this verse...

Hebrews 12:28-29

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

I love the definition of Reverence... "a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe"

Isn't this how we should be in our attitude of serving the One who created us?

A Journey in Ministry!

Where to start?

I want to tell everyone of this Journey. This journey that my wife and I have been on together this last couple of years! A journey towards ministry! Incorrect, a journey OF ministry!

You might want to grab a snack and a drink, this is going to be a long one!

Let's start with around Christmas of 2007. My wife and I had grown very stagnant at the church we were attending quite frankly so much that I had quit going altogether. I know really, me not at church. It even seems weird to me now that I look back at it. Anyways, I had quit going and Diana had been attending off and on at Dove, and some with her Dad at Northeast as well. I was not interested in any of it, but was still wanting to go to church.

At Easter of 2008 our friends Danny and Sarah Simpson invited us to Center Pointe Church in Goshen. So we went. It seemed like the pastor was talking right to us, we immediately felt like we were called to at least hear the messages. So we decided to meet with Ray and Melissa and move towards becoming members of the church. We dove into serving, Men's group, hanging out with people, serving in any area we could. It was going great. Had been for quite awhile an in the summer of 2009 I stepped down from serving full time for a multitude of reasons, none of which really make much sense now, because in doing so I only let the devil get a small victory! Well, you live and you learn! By Christmas of 2009 we were once again feeling very stagnant at church! Then comes our 1st family vacation to Florida to see my Momma. We had all these plans of spending everyday at the beach, and visiting the zoo and all kinds of other crazy things, but God had a different plan. As we went to visit my mother, we obviously went and checked out her church with her. They had a special guest in to lead their Christmas worship service (you may have heard of Beckah Shae on Klove or Star 93.3, she is amazing!!!!!!) and man was the Spirit of God every hopping in this place, and we needed it. Needless to say, we ended up spending about 90% of our "vacation" with my Mom's church family! We had an awesome time and came back from Florida so refreshed in the Holy Spirit! It was much needed to!

We came back and since we had withdrawn from several roles at our church we had in the process offended some people which was never the intent! So we wanted to mend some fences, but this was not accepted very well.

The night I will never forget is when Diana and I had been asked by someone in leadership to come out for a little get together and hang out, we were asked by the couple hosting it not to come! This devastated Diana! She was really upset and in tears for quite awhile. I mean how could we be coming of this high of the Holy Spirit coming back from Florida, and things turn out the way they were turning out? It just didn't really add up to either of us! So that evening with like $8 in our checking account (we were broke when coming back from vacation LOL) we went to McDonald's (hence the Golden Arches in the pic above).

We had went up, ordered some food for us and the kids, sat down and discussed how we were going to handle things in our life regarding church, and moving on. We both had felt very rejected and both had mentioned never stepping foot in another church at that point, but as we were packing up to leave the most MIRACULOUS thing occurred! Out of nowhere, this Man and Woman came up to us, and asked if they could pray for us! Weird!!!! We were already in the car! Diana and I didn't even notice these people inside, so we aren't really sure where they came from, but this lady prayed for us. She prayed specifically that we were going to be used to Minister! For God's ministry! We thought, how can that be after tonight? Is this lady nuts? She then pointed to me, and said God has a specific plan for you in a ministry role!! At that point all I could think was, Did my Mom send you here to mess with me? LOL, or am I on Candid Camera? LOL.

That was January of 2010. We spent most of last year looking for a church! We visited between 15-25 church's during that time, praying that God would put us where we cold SERVE AGAIN!! I love serving, my wife loves serving, and the best thing of all MY KIDS LOVE SERVING! I have a 15 year old and an 8 year old that would give you the shirt off their own back. How amazing is that! They both have such BIG hearts for God, and for advancing His Kingdom through servitude! I love it!!!

So for those of you who read my blog or my are just my Facebook friends, if you haven't noticed or seen it, my wife and I have found a new Church home! More importantly a phenomenal church family! Our Small Group is amazing! The Youth Group is amazing! The Children's Minister is amazing! I LOVE our Pastor! I LOVE our Worship Pastor (even though he and his brother are not Buckeye fans)! We are quickly making tons of new friends. God is doing amazing things at Elevation Community Church! AMAZING THINGS!!! 11 people were baptized yesterday, one of which was my Mother-in-Law. Which was an amazing blessing to be able to be there and support her in that decision, and to be able to get up and announce it to the church for her! God is soooooooooo GOOD!!!

After all that is said! I will close with this. I may not be an actual minister, BUT I have had many people the last couple of weeks come up to me and tell me that my blog is uplifting to them in the middle of their tough weeks, or people are just coming up to me and saying that they love my blog and it is blessing them.

I love the feedback people, I really do. I speak TOTALLY from a souled out, surrendered, and humbled heart that only happens because of the Grace of God!

I believe this is my Ministry! I will continue to use this tool and many of my other attributes to advance the Kingdom of God.

If life is a game of Chess than I am glad that I have the most powerful piece in the Universe, The King of Kings (and yes Craig, you can quote me on that!) ;-)

Oh yea and I hope I don't get sued for using their logo like this!

The Art of Marriage

What a powerful and moving weekend, so far! Last night my wife and I had made plans to attend "The Art of Marriage" video conference being held at our church and hosted by Warren & Mary Bistline (Big thanks to them, and for their prayers this week).

Looking back over the past week there have been many spiritual attacks that could have made me just say "I'm not going to make it to this conference." It could have been so easy to just stay home an recuperate.

I had a few days of dizzy spells, followed by nausea, and then horrible headaches in the top of my neck/bottom of my head! Yesterday, they finally let up, but today before the conference was over THEY WERE BACK!!

Other attacks! Diana and I had both had a couple of long and grinding days leading up to this weekend, and both had kind of short fuses due to being stressed out! Her by work, me by work and not feeling well. Needless to say, we had a couple of not too pleasant arguments over some of the dumbest things imaginable. (She did forgive me for it by the end of the session on Saturday!)

I am so glad that we attended this conference. I am glad that we persevered and was able to attend.

I was also impressed with the fact that Mike and Carol were able to stay and the commitment they showed not only to their marriage and each other, but to God by sticking it out through the conference with all they were dealing with. They were a true inspiration! God will continue to bless them, and will use them in great ways.

This last two days has already helped our marriage out in several ways. Here are a few ways!

1. Diana and I have in the past said a lot of mean and hurtful things to each other (what married couple hasn't). That finally has closure! We both asked each other for forgiveness for the first time ever, and when it happened it was like a HUUUUUUUGE weight was lifted off of my heart! A much needed relinquishment of burdens that had been held onto for far too long.

2. I had never looked at our marriage as anything but for Diana and I. Never had I even thought of how it really affects my children, grandchildren (don't have any yet, thank God!), great grandchildren, and future generations on down the road! At the end of the conference it talked a lot about leaving a legacy! I want that for my kids! I want them to see Diana and I as an example of how their marriage is supposed to be! My parents were together for 19 years before my Dad died, and I want my marriage with Diana to go above and beyond what theirs was. They fought over the same things Diana and I do now, I want to end that with my legacy!

3. I never had looked at sex, as being a way to show God my Oneness with my wife! I always looked at it as a way of us pleasing each other, not as a way of pleasing God too! I thought that was an awesome example. These are things that I have never in my life even heard of!

4. RESOLVING CONFLICT! I learned a lot about how Diana and I would both like to be able to resolve conflict now, and in the future! That is probably the single most important thing that had to change out of this weekend. Both of us grew up in different family backgrounds and both of did not really have the greatest examples in our life on how to resolve conflict, so some of these exercises will really end up being very valuable to our marriage and to our family!

5. Realizing our Roles. Diana and I have heard Ephesians 5 many, many times! It has seemed like a broken record! I remember the first time we heard it together, she was like submit....HA!! I was like, I do love her like Christ loves the Church. Little did we know that we were far from it! This weekend, during our get away sessions we used some of our time to discuss this verse, and how it reflected upon us, and what would happen if we both did more to "step up" into these roles! Me as the leader (which quite frankly, I have been slacking in) and her as the "helper". I think this conversation has made us both see, that 1 we are willing to do what it is that is God's intentional will for us, and 2 that we care enough about each other that we are willing to to exactly what it takes to be committed to each other, and to God at the same time!

Most of all, above everything else I want to thank Jesus Christ for sacrificing himself on the cross for my sins. Without His grace none of this would have been possible! He truly is worthy of all our love! I can not love my wife without Him, because without Him there is no such thing as love! God is love!

This conference, and Elevation Church have been such a Godsend to us, to our family, to this community! It has truly been an abundant blessing from God. We couldn't be happier with how things are moving along, and we are continually looking forward to what new and exciting things that God will be doing in and through this church and community!

I would encourage you that no matter how strong your marriage is or isn't.... this conference will help you in many areas and I highly recommend it!

Thanks again, Warren and Mary!!