A Day of Thanks

So this past Thursday was the much loved holiday of Thanksgiving! I was originally not going to go home because of work and the such but I decided that I needed to spend some quality time with my grandmother because my mom was traveling to Ohio to see her family. Well I woke up at about 9:30 and got on the road at about 10:30, traffic wasn't bad at all. The drive went well and I saved some gas by using cruise control. I got in at about 1 and my friend Ben joined my grandma and I because his parents were out of town as well. It was absolutely delicious!! After wards Ben and I decided to go fire off some ammunition and I took one of my Mosin-Nagants with us. That thing is a beast. The bullet went straight through and 1 1/2 ft. diameter log. Then I decided that I really wanted to go offroading since my truck has 4WD. BIG MISTAKE!! I went on a trail I never had seen before and was just winging it. I was almost through and with 200 ft to the next road over I suddenly fell into a hidden irrigation ditch. That thing was covered with brush, weeds, and grass so it came out of no where! My first reaction was just pure shock. I couldn't believe what just happened. It was good and stuck too, I had no weight on the rear anymore so I had no traction to reverse it out. I had to leave it there overnight in the middle of practically nowhere. It was actually hard for me to sleep that night because I was worried for my truck. The next morning, I headed out there to try and get it out again and luckily some hunters saw me and helped pull me out with their truck. The whole situation just had me really upset, especially since my truck was fairly new to me. But out of all my frustration, the Holy Spirit made me realize, HOLD UP! I should be thankful for getting it out and I should be thankful for even having a vehicle in the first place. Then that thought led to all kinds of other thoughts. I should be thankful that I have a friend who is dumb enough to go with me off roading, I have a grandmother with whom I got to enjoy an awesome meal with, I have a job which put the gas in my truck to get me home, and most of all I have a loving Savior who cared enough to die on a cross so that I could live with Him for an eternity. So often we don't give proper thanks for all the good things in life. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17 There are a lot of amazing things in my life that I fail to give thanks to God for and I'm sure everyone can say the same. A lot of times God takes horrible situations and uses them to humble us so that we can worship Him with fearful reverence. He deserves everything we have to offer because He already gave His life for us...

B90X

So, these past couple of weeks have been pretty exhausting with a lot going on! This blog would have came earlier but better late than never right? Well, on Oct. 30th I finally finished reading the entire Bible from cover to cover. It was amazing! I have wanted to do it but never had enough motivation before. It all started when I saw on Twitter that a pastor in Charlotte was challenging his staff to read the Bible through B90X. NOT P but B! As you can imagine, the B stands for Bible. When I first came across this I was very interested and thought it would be extremely cool to do but then immediately dismissed the idea because I knew it would take a lot of time daily and I did not think that I was capable of it. Later that day, my friend handed me a printed off B90X guide and said your doing this. He had no clue that I was considering it just earlier that day. I definitely took that as God wanting me to step up to the challenge and just as encouragement that I could do it. Let me tell you, at some times it was rough! Some books were just so informative that I had to drag myself through them but I learned a lot. But I really enjoyed reading a lot of the Old Testament and re-familiarizing myself with the storied and learning some for the first time. I had never read much of the prophetic books and just being able to see some of those prophecies play out through time. The most important one being the coming of the Messiah, JESUS CHRIST for the redemption of Israel and the rest of the nations!

Then diving into the New Testament was very refreshing. You can never read the Gospels enough, or any part of the Bible for that matter. But the Gospels are all about Jesus, from who He is to what He did and what He taught. As a Christian, we are called to imitate Christ, we can't do a very good job if we are not very familiar with Jesus in the first place. Particularly though, I really enjoy the writings of Paul, the Holy Spirit gave him much inspiration and intellect and I just love reading his letter because they tackle every issue of the Church and the individual Christian. They are just so thick with knowledge that you can re-read them the rest of your life and learn something new everyday! And finally, Revelation. I love that book. We have such a great promise and hope to look forward to. I can't wait for heaven and earth to be one and for God to live with man! It will be absolutely amazing. Christ tells all the churches to conquer in His name and that has definitely left an impression on me. When my final days near, I want to say that I did the best I could at conquering in the name of Christ for His glory and kingdom. I want everything I am to be for the Lord's service. I want to change the world by His salvation!