These next two posts are going to be my last ones for Worldview Warriors. It has been a great 12-year journey, and so I want to use this final post to reflect on these 12 years I have spent with Worldview Warriors and then share what direction I am heading. I am not leaving Worldview Warriors, but my role with the ministry is going to be changing. So how did this start?
When I joined Facebook back in 2011, it wasn’t very long before I started getting into Creation debates. While believing the Bible’s direct account and knowing Evolution was a bunch of hooey, I was exposed to the science aspects by Kent Hovind and then Charles Jackson, from whom I credit much inspiration. And it was during a number of these early conversations that I met Jason DeZurik online, and he took a liking to both what I said and also my attitude of “not caring” what people thought about it. I just plain said the truth to the best of my knowledge. After taking some time to chat and get to know each other through our casual posts and messages, Jason asked me about joining Worldview Warriors. This was in the same time window in which Charles Jackson invited a friend of mine to the Creation Truth Foundation for their Cadre training. I started blogging for Worldview Warriors in January 2014, and I began the four sets of four days over two years of training at the Creation Truth Foundation that same month. This would officially begin a significant transition period in my life.
However, that transition was already starting. The previous summer in 2013, I could sense I was entering a new phase in my life, and I chose to get baptized as an adult (I had already been baptized as a child) to signify this transition. I don’t remember exactly when, but sometime around this, I went through a thorough examination of myself because I had serious doubts if I was actually saved. I was born into a church, I was raised in the church and on the mission field, I knew the Gospel, I knew the Bible, I had made my first profession of faith when I was seven, and yet, I had to examine myself because when it all was boiled down, it wasn’t my faith. It was my parents’ faith. It was my church’s faith. It was the mission’s faith. It wasn’t really mine. In this searching, I came to the conclusion that I was saved and now the faith was actually mine. Was I saved as a child? Possibly, but I cannot say with certainty. I can say with certainty that when I came out of that searching, I was saved then. Had I died before this time, I do not know if I would have gone to heaven or hell. But I do know now.
That sparked this 12-year journey with Worldview Warriors. The Cadre training was completed in November 2015, and I was commissioned with the rest of my group to teach about Biblical worldviews, emphasizing the Creation aspect, and I have not backed down. I have truly become a “warrior” for the faith. I began teaching a Bible study at my previous church, and now I am at another church. It’s a place where I can be challenged and grow, a place where they can keep me in check, even without direct discipline; just the preaching has done that. In my zeal, I was approaching a dangerous position; God pulled me out of where I was before I would unintentionally damage the church I was in, and He reeled me back in. I still have much room to grow, but I love where I am because we have the same vision. It’s far from perfect, but we have a singular goal: to be like Christ and to walk in the paths God intended for us.
Twelve years have passed. I have blogged every single week (except one, when I was out of town and wasn’t aware I could pre-write them) for these twelve years, and the growth I have experienced and the knowledge I have gained to be able to teach others has been beyond what I can describe. I know it has been a blessing for many of you who have followed me because you have said so. When we look at the stats for our blog viewership, I still hold the record for the most-viewed post. Besides the blogs, I began to write several books, and I am currently working on my 6th. I have been busy teaching at my church, teaching physics at my school, still fencing competitively, but now also coaching at my school. And all this activity has been awesome.
What have I written on? The topics are almost endless. In my blogs, I have generally had three major themes: basic Christianity, spiritual warfare, and worldview issues, namely on origins. I have done many lengthy series, including on the Armor of God, spiritual warfare tactics, what sin is, what prayer is, what the Gospel is, multiple creation topics, and my longest one concluded this past month on the life of Jesus at 52 posts. Just go to the blog and click the tag for my name, and you will find my nearly 630 posts all in reverse order. And I kept a OneNote page full of topics and ideas I could cover. If I wrote on just that alone and did not do anything new, I would have material for literally 4-5 years without too much stretching. But many of them were not to be, and that is perfectly fine.
I have five books published with Worldview Warriors, one fiction and four nonfiction. My fiction novel, Call to Arms, is on its third publisher, and some of that is due to learning the system. My second book came out with the Worldview Warriors Publishing arm, and we “bookified” 60 of my blog posts at that time. I suspect a second book of this type is overdue. Then I wrote three others. One flowed out of a Bible study topic I had taught: Ten Reasons to Believe the Bible. Another flowed out of inspiration from a question Paul Washer asked: “When was the last time you heard a sermon on the attributes of God?” And I could not think of one, so I made one. That became The God of the Psalms. And my most recent, The Doctrines of Genesis, was to showcase how Genesis has the foundation of every central and core doctrine of the faith. I used the Apostles and Nicene Creeds as the framework and showcased where each tenet had some shadow or seed form or purpose laid out in Genesis. My sixth book doesn’t have a title yet, but the central theme is Proverbs 3:5 to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” As of this post, the first round of editing, which is not complete, has around 25 chapters and 300 pages, all around this one verse.
All that said, as I have mentioned, my time with the blog with Worldview Warriors needs to come to an end. Next week will be my last post, and in that, I will share what I will be doing and the next step of God’s journey for me, as well as a commission for my faithful readers.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment