My Journey of Faith Part 16
My Defining Moments
1967 was the most defining moment in my life, as I went from a sinner lost in his rebellion, pride, and selfishness to a forgiven saint elevated to the position of adopted son in the family of God by His grace.
For years, I slept without God's light, separated from His word and the fellowship of His children. Once I began receiving His word and fellowship with fellow kingdom heirs, I started to understand things that had remained hidden.
My Defining Moments Have Been Many
Learning the names of God has been a great rock that has shown me the way to God. His names reveal His character, and because we are being made into the same image, His Names show us how we ought to behave. Jesus, by becoming a man, also lit the way to faith, which must be exercised if we are to grow in Christ-like behavior through building a trusting relationship. We are told the just shall live by faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Every time we exercise faith, it is a defining moment.
Learning to hear God's voice in time eventually taught me to discern the devil's voice. Many have been the lies I have believed over the years, everything from lies about my wife to lies about the church, the brethren, my goals, and especially the condition of my heart.
So slick is Satan that one of the most beneficial books, The Calvary Road, by Roy Hession, became a stumbling block to me through his deceptive tactics. Sin is an ongoing problem in the believer's life, it is true. However, breaking sin's hold upon us must also be a substantial experience if we are to live an overcoming life. Sinning and repetitive repenting is not how Christians should live out their experience in this life.
The Christian will either live out a repetitive cycle of defeat or overcome sin by faith, which creates a victorious cycle of overcoming sin. Space does not permit me to go into the details, but only a correct understanding of Romans 4 through 8 can give Christians what they need to overcome sin and defeat the devil's deceptive lies.
The Memorable of My Defining Moments
I can remember standing in the laundry room like it was yesterday, even though it has been more than 35 years now, and bogged down by defeat, depression, anxiety, weariness, and yearning for more of God. The words seem to gush out of my mouth, "Lord, I can't go on like this anymore, what ever it is you want of me, I'll do it. Just no more chastening. I just want to be obedient."
The words just remembered marked the beginning of a most substantial change. There can be no substitute for humility, which is always ready to admit wrong and sinfulness and repent with transparency and speed. Nonetheless, living without a constant need for repentance is far better. I am not speaking of some perfection, but rather the faith that walks in Christ relies upon the promises of Christ's words and expects a change in our behavior by God's grace. The alternative is to expect that we go on sinning when the Bible says, "...neither fornicators, nor idolaters, ... will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified..." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Sanctified or set apart to God for a holy purpose. Such people get victory over repeating the same sins.
My Defining Moments of Circumstance
Leading up to my memorable defining moment was the death of my father. He was not special to me because he was my father, but because he was not like any other man I have met. He did not have a competitive spirit, was not proud like other men, and was broken because of World War II, in which he participated. He was kind to a fault and understood loss when he referred to the buddies he saw butchered during the war. His death crippled me for a year. No one has taught me the meaning of family like my father.
My mom lost her mother to the Spanish flu before she was four years old and her oldest brother at the same time. Her dad said there was only one woman for him, and he never remarried, even though she died when she was 38. He was the father of six children. He died six months before I was born in 1953. I have heard relatives say all my life, "Margaret, Joseph looks just like your father." I have been told he was a very loving and caring father. In that way, I saw him in my mother.
God's love reaches us in an extraordinary way through God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, God's blessings come to us in all of life's circumstances if we see them as such and if we can become thankful through it all as a gift from God. In this way, we can also experience defining moments.
My defining moments as a godly Christian have always been deciding to follow Christ despite significant opposition to do so from the world, the flesh, or the devil.
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