Resurrected

Resurrected Have you been resurrected like me? No, I didn't have a near death experience and come back to life. No, I'm not saying I was someone else in a past life and was reincarnated as who I am now. I'm saying that a couple of years ago I was a walking deadman! Let's go back several years. Since I was old enough to know what it meant, I've considered myself a Christian. I grew up in a home where there was always a bible sitting on the table in the living room, all of our important documents were stuck in an overfilled family-sized bible in a cabinet, gospel singing was on the television every Sunday morning while mom and dad were cooking a family breakfast, and on rare occasions, we went to a church service. As I grew up, I knew you were to be reverend while in church and toward preachers. I believed in God and Jesus, though I didn't really understand why Jesus was crucified. I knew of the ten commandments and that they weren't to be broken. In my teenage years I would think about God and even talk to him sometimes. When my dad died, I was mad at God for a long time because I selfishly thought he took him away from me. I later realized that maybe God wanted my dad to come home and not suffer this world any longer. So me and God were at peace again. At age 16, I got involved with The Junior Order of United American Mechanics, an organization the owns and operates the American Childrens Home in my hometown of Lexington, NC. I started doing charity fundraisers and stuff for them, God's work even though I didn't know it. Something else I got involved with as a teen was alcohol. I was a drinker from age 16 to age 32. On occasion, I was a binge drinker; meaning I would drink until it was all gone or until I was unconcious. In my late twenty's, I started going to the 'gentlemen's clubs' and wasting my money and my life on shots of Jaegermeister, chased by Heinekein, and strippers. Oh, did I mention the fact that I was fighting depression through all of this and wouldn't let my doctor treat me for it? To put it simply, I was like Lazarus, I was dead in my sins! Not until I was introduced to a blue-eyed, blone-haired, West Virginian, pentecostal holiness Sunday school teacher on April 27th, 2007 did I start to realize how far from God I really was. I had already started to change my life before we met(probably God making me presentable to her). She became a light to me because she was in the middle of a terrible struggle, but she kept her faith in the Lord. Through all the trials we faced together, I ended up being saved that september while praying for God's help in the struggle we were going through at the time. On that day, kneeled down bedside that bed, I was just like Lazarus when Jesus called him out of his tomb. The Lord called me out of my spiritual death to start serving him like I was meant to all along. So, yes, I've been resurrected by Jesus Christ. And yes, God does still work in this world everyday! Your brother in Christ, Pete. Pete 8-26-09