What is Your Life Defining Moment?

Title: What Is Your Life Defining Moment?Devotional music suggestion:
None But Jesus – Hillsong Unitedhttp://www.imeem.com/cj102087/music/MYCr7o2t/hillsong_none_but_jesusmp3/

Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”

What is the “defining moment” for your life? Most Christians would say it is the moment they accept Christ as their Savior. It is that moment in time they see their true sinful nature and character, and ask that it be changed forever. But, could it be another moment in time well before then? A moment less pronounced, when they were in willful control of their own path and made a decision on their own will, that put them on the collision glide path to salvation?While the main definition and use of the phase “defining moment” is related to our response to a life-changing event like accepting Christ as our Savior.

A far less popular definition of “defining moment” is that it is a “turning point” that determines or typifies all related events that follow. The turning point event could be as simple as a feeling that makes you make a decision a certain way, or perhaps simply making a new friend that led to …; or the death of a pet or loved one that caused you to …, or an accident that made you … . All these kinds of events and our response to them are far more centered on our own self-determined and direct will, and as such could be more significant as a defining moment.

My defining moment happened when I was 13 years old, at the intersection of Parker Avenue and Howell Place in Aurora, Illinois on a cool Saturday night on September 26th, 1964 at 6:50pm. John Marks, a public swimming pool friend from the summer, had invited me to a youth group hayride at a church he was invited to only days before! After walking almost 30 minutes from my house to his house, where we were to meet and then walk the final mile to the church together, I was greeted at the door by his mother. She said in sadness that John could not go because he had the flu. Frustrated and in total disappointment I left his small home and started my two and a half mile walk back home through the cool shadows of dusk, in the opposite direction from the church. I walked about a city block then slowed and stopped at the corner of Parker Avenue and Howell Place feeling “the nudge”, as Pastor Troy Gramling calls it. I reasoned to myself why I should go to the church alone and then reasoned why I shouldn’t. The “turning point” was a nervous right-foot back-step that turned me towards the church and the rest of my life. They welcomed me that night; it placed me onto a fast moving fatal glide-path collision coarse several months later where my own plan died on impact at God’s plan for my life. I met my future wife, my life friend Bill, my career and many other things on this new vector of life.

Again I ask, what is the “defining moment” in your life? Was it when you accepted Christ as your Savior or was it well before then when you did something that put you on a glide path impact to Christ?If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior yet, are you at least on the glide path yet? God knew you and crafted a God size-plan for you before you were born and this moment may be your defining moment for your life.

All my delight is in You Lord
All of my hope, all of my strength
All my delight is in You Lord Forevermore!
None But Jesus lyricsHillsong United

Friday - "Walk and Not Faint"
at 2:51 AM
Written by Internet Campus member: Jess ReyesIsaiah 40:31 - But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.Isaiah 40:31 has always been one of my favorite Bible verses, especially as a youth because of the phrase "…with wings as eagles…". This phrase always makes me visualize myself flying through the air with chest pumped up like Superman, wearing new blue and white striped Nike running shoes; eagle wings extending out from both sides; with legs in a sprinter's stride. Later in life in university as a business major and having learned enough about business writing to be dangerous, I often wondered why the verse ended with "…shall walk and not faint." I had been taught to end writings with a big bang! The sharp hook! The huge buildup to a climax! Certainly this preferred writing style should have been used in this wonderful Bible verse. Doing so would have reversed the order of the words… faint to walk, weary to run, then end with the all powerful statement of "... with WINGS AS EAGLES!"God in His infinite wisdom knows us inside out. He knows our hearts, soles, minds and needs, as large or small as they may be. And He knows all this at every stage of our lives and in every life experience. The strength I needed from the Lord as a youth for the problems, issues and opportunities before me then, made me feel I had "wings as eagles" in so many early life experiences. Strength needed leading a young friend to Christ was always like that, praying for help to teach a children's Sunday school class was always like that, standing up for fairness for a young friend was always like that too. But once I married, raised children, worked at ever more difficult jobs, all of this put heavy weights on my 'eagle wings' where running was all I could do; but the Lord was there to give me the added strength needed. As my wife and I aged, we have faced family and severe health issues that have changed our lives completely, adding more weight to our shoulders where 'running' became 'walking'; our Lord has still been there to give us even more strength to keep on going and not "faint.To some extent the writing style mentioned at the start is really not in error. While the words mentioned …wings to run to walk to faint, in such a regression are all about me, each regressive word requires progressive units of the Lord's strength and power to overcome and keep us on the path to His glory.The big bang, the sharp hook, the huge buildup to the end of Isaiah 40:31 really isn't about me or us, instead it is about Him and the maximum strength He gives us when we are at our very weakest. What more of a climax can we have as Christians than to be fully experiencing his power and strength when we have our greatest needs!Thank you Lord for being with us regardless of our level of need and strength.