Who Am I?

I suppose before I get too far along in this blog, I should identify myself a bit, and my relationship with God.

PERSONAL

First, who I am: I'm a 50ish (closer to the sixtyish side) married guy with a precious, wonderful wife of 30 years (married years, although she still looks 30 to me!), and two lovely daughters in their late twenties. I'm a writer by craft, although most of my career has been on the marketing and promotions side of the publishing industry (nothing glorious or glamorous, mostly academic and sci-tech publishing).

MUSIC

I'm a semi-pro musician who plays guitar, sings, and performs two or three times a month in local restaurants and taverns, where I am quite gifted as a classic rock, blues, and pop song acoustic cover artist. I mostly play with another guitar-playing partner, along with some separate band work thrown in with some former work colleagues. This will give you an idea of what I do.

I've done some Praise performing, and have written several worship and praise songs, but the Lord hasn't quite opened doors for me to do a lot of this. Here's a recent clip of a solo worship coffeehouse I did in the spring of 2010. I have prayed often for new opportunities to perform praise and worship music, but up to now it is the other music that He is opening doors to. I trust Him. When and if He wants me to minister through praise and worship music, I know He will deliver the opportunities.

MY WALK WITH THE LORD

I've been saved by Jesus Christ since back in the mid 70s, although I can truthfully say that I was more like the prodigal son during the first twenty years or so. But I did have faith in Jesus Christ. I realize now that I just didn't know Him very well.

It wasn't until I hit a bit of a parenting crisis with my adolescent daughter in the early-90s that I truly began to give my life to the Lord, and trust in Him -- and I read the Bible from cover to cover for the first time. At that time, He blessed me with this personal "anchor" verse, which gave me incredible comfort and strength during those troubled times. It's from Psalm 27: 13-14 ...

I am still confident of this:

that I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living;

Wait for the Lord:

Be strong, take heart,

and wait for the Lord.

I have held that verse in my heart, along with Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want ...), which I have memorized.

My faith grew stronger between 2001 - 2002, when I was unemployed for the first time in my life, and I spent just about every day in the Word with the Lord. He truly sustained me and patiently walked with me during that time.

Then, once I was re-employed between 2002 - 2008, I amazingly, amazingly, became a bit of a prodigal son again, somehow walking away from the very God who had sustained me all along. Funny how when you suddenly find no time for studying and meditating on the Word, it's easy to slowly walk off the "righteous path" and simply not realize how deeply lost you are. You get so caught up in "the world" and all its glitter and promise. That happened to me. Compromise after compromise. I'm sure that I grieved the Holy Spirit during that time, just as the Prodigal surely grieved his father.

Then in late 2008, I was again laid off. Looking back on that event, it was the jolt I really needed.  I quickly came back to the Lord, repented everything and asked Him to shine a bright spotlight on my soul so that I could hold back nothing from Him! He graciously and lovingly held me and welcomed me back -- reminding me that He never left me.

Since then my walk with the Lord has never been closer nor more intense. The Lord has delivered to me an incredible opportunity to work from home, in the publishing industry, and He has blessed this endeavor tremendously, way beyond what I expected. The big by-product of this is that I have lots of flexible time, and I get to spend quality time in the Word everyday. I have come to truly understand just how big my God is! And gracious. And kind. And loving. And good. Oh so very good!

In mid 2010, He gave me a new anchor verse to live by, Proverbs 3: 5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will make your paths straight.

Amen. Trusting in Him -- and especially not leaning on my own understanding of things -- is crucial at this time in our culture and in my life. So much is happening in the spiritual realm, and manifesting itself here on earth, that it's easy to misunderstand and misread what we are seeing. Only the Lord can see through this growingly complex maze of life we now live. We need to trust in Him with all our heart!

WHAT I BELIEVE

I believe in the three-person-ed God -- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- and put my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal savior, who died on the cross and took away my sin, allowing me to claim HIS righteousness as my own. He is the ONLY way to the Father. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Jn 14:6). Jesus is God, and through Him all things were made.  

I also believe that the Bible is the living word of God, and that we are to understand it and trust it as it is written. It is 100% truth. There are no "myths" in the Bible. I believe anyone who claims that some or all the accounts in the Bible are myths or legends is in effect revealing that they do not really believe in or have faith in the true God who is described in detail throughout the Bible.

I believe that if you truly know the Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth (and you can't truly know him without reading and studying His Word ... ALL of it), it's impossible to consider for even a nanosecond that He COULDN'T easily and without even breathing hard do everything that is described in the 66 books of the Bible -- from Genesis to Revelation, whether that includes making "them both, male and female," bringing the Flood, putting Jonah in the belly of the fish, raising Christ from the cross, and so much more ...

I look forward to sharing thoughts and inspiration from the Lord in this blog. May it bring Him glory.

-- Paul