About This Blog
For over a year now I've been considering starting a blog. In my prayer and study of the word of God, I occasionally find myself receiving new light and thinking, "Man, this is so good! Others need to see this too!" Out of my fear of doing anything new out of my own initiation and thus disregarding God's feeling and timing, I prayed earnestly. In my prayer, "The Spirit of Jesus would not allow" (Acts 16:7). I realized that my heart was impure and that much of my desire to start a blog was to get attention. How we need the Lord to shine on us. So, I ditched the idea.
More recently, I received some encouragement from others to start a blog so I revisited the matter in prayer. This time, I felt an Amen in my spirit. And so, here I go embarking on a journey with the only promise being that I'll henceforth be spending more time on Weebly than on Facebook. Admittedly, I'm starting this blog for my own benefit. I anticipate that the prospect of presenting something will motivate me to read more and to be more thorough in my research of certain topics related to the Bible and to the Christian experience. Oh, and I also would like to have a nice place to store the designs that I like to make. Hopefully they'll be an encouragement and reminder to whoever sees them.
I have to confess that I have many hesitations regarding my knowledge of the truth and, quite honestly, my writing skill, but "I believe, therefore I speak..." or in this case write (2 Cor. 4:13). May the Lord cover me in my writing and bless each post and design that it would render help and supply life to the wary souls who would give my blog the time of day.
I chose the name "Vessels of Mercy" because this quote from Romans 9:23 summarizes my experience in my relationship with the Lord Jesus. This phrase, in fact, encapsulates the proper status of every genuine believer in Christ Jesus. It is entirely of God's mercy, not our own merit or doing, that we have been saved from God's righteous judgment and brought into the bliss of His sweet presence. In addition, God created us all as vessels with the intended content being Himself! Everyday we should have a fresh appreciation of His mercy upon us and should be filled to the brim with God! My sincere hope is that this blog would help you to be brought into the experience of both.
More recently, I received some encouragement from others to start a blog so I revisited the matter in prayer. This time, I felt an Amen in my spirit. And so, here I go embarking on a journey with the only promise being that I'll henceforth be spending more time on Weebly than on Facebook. Admittedly, I'm starting this blog for my own benefit. I anticipate that the prospect of presenting something will motivate me to read more and to be more thorough in my research of certain topics related to the Bible and to the Christian experience. Oh, and I also would like to have a nice place to store the designs that I like to make. Hopefully they'll be an encouragement and reminder to whoever sees them.
I have to confess that I have many hesitations regarding my knowledge of the truth and, quite honestly, my writing skill, but "I believe, therefore I speak..." or in this case write (2 Cor. 4:13). May the Lord cover me in my writing and bless each post and design that it would render help and supply life to the wary souls who would give my blog the time of day.
I chose the name "Vessels of Mercy" because this quote from Romans 9:23 summarizes my experience in my relationship with the Lord Jesus. This phrase, in fact, encapsulates the proper status of every genuine believer in Christ Jesus. It is entirely of God's mercy, not our own merit or doing, that we have been saved from God's righteous judgment and brought into the bliss of His sweet presence. In addition, God created us all as vessels with the intended content being Himself! Everyday we should have a fresh appreciation of His mercy upon us and should be filled to the brim with God! My sincere hope is that this blog would help you to be brought into the experience of both.
About Myself
I'm a SoCal kid, even though the first 7 years of my life were spent in Boston, MA. I was blessed to grow up in a family where the Lord Jesus was the center and this no doubt influenced my upbringing. Like many of my peers, I was saved and baptized around the age of 11 years old, but Jesus Christ wasn't real to me. My heart desired many things other than Him.
These other things that my heart longed for fully took over when I went to college and my living was altogether devoid of Christ. I surrounded myself with "Gentiles," myself living as one. No one would have believed that God lived in me. Those were wanton years and nothing I did during that period of my life warranted the Lord's blessing and favor. I suppose that's why it's called mercy and grace. But God had a purpose and for that purpose He stirred up the eternity in my heart (Ecc. 3:11). The final winter break of my 5 years at USC I began to feel inexplicably empty. I had achieved the majority of the goals that I had set going into college, yet I could not deny feeling strangely unsatisfied. This prodigal son's return to his loving Father began with a half-hearted statement: "If my life isn't for these things, maybe it's for the Lord." Truthfully, the fear of my life being a reoccurring cycle of accomplishment followed by emptiness scared the crap out of me. I realized that I needed to change the direction of my life and I needed to do it fast. This fear caused me to do two things: 1) read the Bible and 2) attend a Bible school. The world left me empty and dissatisfied–maybe Jesus wouldn't. In those two years, the Lord brought me through some of the most difficult yet meaningful experiences of my life. In short, reading the Bible with an open heart and building close relationships with others who loved God revolutionized my life. It healed my wounds and altered my course. When you've touched something real, why would you want anything else? The Bible program I was in had an element of campus ministry. For two years I experienced caring for the spiritual upbringing of college students at UC Irvine. That taste never left me and through my prayer and fellowship with older brothers in the Lord I settled within my being that upon graduating from the school I would serve the Lord full-time. The way for me to do so at my alma mater opened up and I returned to my old campus, but altogether a new person. It will soon be 4 years in the Lord's service at USC and in that time He has blessed me with a beautiful wife and a wonderful new family, both of whom can be seen in the adjacent pictures. The Lord has been better to me than I deserve. All I can do is thank and praise Him for His mercy upon me and allow Him to make His home more in my heart (Eph. 3:17) as I endeavor to be a minister and a witness both of the things in which I have seen Him and of the things in which He will appear to me (Acts 26:16). 3.23.14 |