carlos.c304
July 5th, 2008, 01:58 PM
I just wanted to say hi to all :wave and introduce myself. My name is Carlos. I live in the hills of good old West Virginia (plz no hillbilly jokes). I was raised in church and even though I went my own way for a time, the Lord never let me stray too far (thank goodness) from His ways. This year has been a time of renewal for me, seeing Jesus for who He is and not just what He can do for me. I had heard people talk about His goodness and grace, but this past five months now have been the absolute best five months of my life. What has made them so great is not because of the good things God has been doing in my life ( don't get me wrong, Jesus has litterally been blessing my socks off, so to speak) but that I have enjoyed a new closeness with Jesus that I had never experienced before. He has been revealing Himself to me in a way I have never known before. I can see more clearly how much He loves us and wants to be our everything, if we will just open ourselves up to Him and give control of our lives to Him. For me, my life is of no consequence to me. If I live, I live for His glory. If I die, then I have lost nothing, but gained, as the Bible says, to be absent from the flesh is to be present with the Lord. I am learning to let go and really trust Jesus with everything. For a lot of years, I tried to do what was right. I tried to serve Him as best as I could and pray for the best. The only problem was that no matter how hard I tried, things still seemed to turn out wrong. I just could not understand why. Despite my best efforts, my best intentions, things still didn't come out right. It wasn't until I said "Lord, here are the reins to my life, take me where you want me to go." that things started to go right. Now I understand, if Jesus says go here, I go. If He says say this, I say whatever it is He wants me to say. It was not until I gave my life over to Him completely that things began to change for me.
I also have been learning to give my sins to Him. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do is to go to the Lord in prayer, ashamed of the sin I commited, and say Lord forgive me and make me strong enough to overcome this. He already knows it is there, but it wasn't until I brought my sins to His light that that too began to change. To keep any sin to yourself, even our little "pet" sins means we are withholding a part of ourselves from Him, making ourselves unusable to Him. God forbid that I ever keep any part of myself from the Lord.
Boy, didn't mean to be so long-winded. I just wanted to say hello to all here, and a big God Bless You to my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I also have been learning to give my sins to Him. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do is to go to the Lord in prayer, ashamed of the sin I commited, and say Lord forgive me and make me strong enough to overcome this. He already knows it is there, but it wasn't until I brought my sins to His light that that too began to change. To keep any sin to yourself, even our little "pet" sins means we are withholding a part of ourselves from Him, making ourselves unusable to Him. God forbid that I ever keep any part of myself from the Lord.
Boy, didn't mean to be so long-winded. I just wanted to say hello to all here, and a big God Bless You to my brothers and sisters in Christ.