This post is a little more personal than most. On Sunday June 1st I will be ordained as a minister of the gospel. This will be one of those significant milestones in my life. In thinking back on my life I just wanted to share briefly one of the other milestones. A place that was a significant marker of God's work. Isn't it funny how we remember certain things so well and yet others that may even be important events we can barely recall. What do I mean? Well I can't remember the exact time or circumstance surrounding the moment that I recognized that I was a sinner and that sin meant I was spiritually dead , without life. And in realizing my condition, recognizing Jesus to be the savior that I needed who offered life to me and therefore surrendering my life to Him. I can remember though a very clear yet quiet thought that God put in my heart sometime as a teenager. Pastor Ted Paintor said to me one day at his house "Eric you are so smart you will be an engineer or something one day." I was so encouraged by that comment but I remember thinking "No one day I am going to be a pastor"! I had no idea what it meant to be called by God at that time. I also didn't know where that thought came from at the time. I literally would take a zero on an oral book report rather than stand in front of anyone and speak. I never even shared it with anyone until I was 19 years old. Well I would love to say that I answered that call and walked with God in all that He was doing, went off to school and became a pastor and lived happily ever after. That was not true of me. Though I never forgot that thought in my heart, I spent most of my teen years living in rebellion to God. That rebellion cost me a lot of difficulty and pain. Things that even to this day I have to face because of decisions made then. I know God's incredible forgiveness and have been walking with Him for 16 or so years now, yet some things have lasting consequences. With all of that being said here I am 2 days before my ordination having already taken a position as a full time pastor. Well it is obvious that it was not my own human will, determination, and ingenuity that got me to this place. It is a testimony to a sovereign God who birthed that call in my heart and even through my disobedience worked in my life through the years to do in and through me exactly what He made me and called me to do. So as I walk through the ordination service there will only be one thought on my mind "Thank you Lord Jesus you are incredibly faithful!"
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