I just turned 56 August 29 and have been spiritually renewed for about 40plus years now. I have been a servant of theLord for just about that same amount of time as I felt a calling on my life soon after being spiritually renewed and even before I knew the Biblical facts of a "calling!"
Like most people I have had my "ups and downs" but through it all I have matured past just "believing" into the KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. I love the intimate relationship possible with a loving Redeemer and the fact that each and every day is a totally new day in which to strive to KNOW Him even more! I long for the day that the Apostle Paul talks about:
Philippians 3:
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
(NKJV)
I love the Lord's children, my true brothers and sisters in the Lord, but I also love those that are lost just as our Father in Heaven loves those wayward children and I long that all should come to know the Lord but I also understand that there are those who will perish even as the Lord continues to love them. This brings tears to my eyes and a heavy heart but it makes me to realize that time is of the essence for eternity is very close to all of us and time as we know it will be no more! So, until the Lord either calls us home or comes to take us home, we have a job to do and that job is best accomplished by DEMONSTRATING the Love of our Heavenly Father and then confirming that Love with His Holy Word as inspired by the Holy Spirit and confirmed in the Written Word.
James 1:
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
(NKJV)
Physically I have been on disability for several years now, and that has limited my ability to minister as I used to in the "brick-and-mortar" establishments that I was used to doing when younger, but spiritually it has opened a whole new area of ministry that I was not aware of until a few years ago. It has opened the door to many "home-bound" brothers and sisters who have been "abandoned" by the local ministries. It has led me to realize something that I have believed for a long time, but now I KNOW in a real way and that is what Paul also writes about:
2Corinthians 3:
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
(NKJV)
It is this liberty that I strive for not just for myself, but for my brothers and sisters in the Lord, for that and only that is the source of TRUE liberty!
I am honored to be a part of a couple of MSN groups such as this one and even though I have had my own website in the past and am in the process of starting one back up, I believe that as brothers and sisters we need to fellowship with one another to strive for the unity that the Holy Spirit calls us too.
Ephesians 4:
1 ¶ I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 ¶ with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
(NKJV)
God bless you all abundantly!