In the Facebook world everyone has been posting about their goals and agenda's for this new year, but I thought I would do something a bit different and reflect on the previous year, 2010.
This time two years ago the Lord graciously drew me to Himself. By His grace I was born again. I was convicted of my sin and how wretched of a man I really was. I was granted repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, He saved me. It was nothing of my own effort as I had nothing to offer an almighty, perfect, and holy God. It was also my second year to be involved in the proclamation of the Gospel through street evangelism and I can say in all honesty I have learned much and been humbled even more so throughout the year. Please understand that the purpose of this entry is not to draw attention to myself, but that God may be glorified through the work that He has done and I have experienced this past year.
It has been a great year of evangelism and growth for me personally. I have seen some of those close to me be drawn to Christ, which I am so thankful beyond words for. I now have a brother in Christ I am also thankful for that I have learned much from and we serve together under our King for His glory as we go witness to lost souls on an almost weekly basis. I believe I may have possibly been lead to a church home for my family that I have desperately been searching and praying for since the Lord changed my heart. This has also been a great year because my wife and I celebrated our 4 year marriage anniversary together with a new addition to our family, my beautiful daughter Ella Grace who is another blessing beyond words. I am also amazed at how much my family has grown in the Lord this year and how much information a 2-3 year old can retain! We are so thankful and pray that we will raise our son and daughter to be godly, caring, humble, and bold followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can say though that the most change in my life this past year has happened within the last couple of months. By God's providential will one night, while I was out witnessing alone, he established what I believe to be an eternal friendship with two of the most godly people I have ever been privileged to know. In one of my first blog posts concerning my testimony and the Ambassador's Alliance I expressed how beautiful and encouraging it was to be around true brothers and sisters in Christ as we trained, prayed, and served our King together in the streets during that weekend in LA. I also expressed in that post how I was grieved and heart broken that we all had to leave each other. I did not think I would experience that feeling again so soon.
Within these last couple of months I have been encouraged by example and exhortation from these friends and conviction from the Holy Spirit. I believe I have learned and will continue learning from these experiences and future experiences to come. I love my dear brother and sister in Christ and have been reminded how important relationships are and how sweet the fellowship of the brethren really is. This has been a great year. The Lord is awesome, He is sovereign, and He is truly glorious. I am so thankful for His mercy, His grace, and the fellowship He gives through Himself and His bride, the church. I don't mean the building, I mean brothers and sisters in Christ who are truly of Him. I have had many down-falls this year and a few of those being relationships and my prayer life. I am lousy at relationships other than my family and I hope to build them this upcoming year so that the Lord may be glorified in them. I also pray that my prayer life honors God and not my conscience.
My Facebook says I have around 3,000 friends and I receive about 20 friend requests a week on here. So one of my "goals" is going to be to significantly down-size my list to those of people I know either through school, witnessing encounters, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ...in other words, people I actually know. My hope is that I can be more of a committed friend through this venue of communication at least, as I have too often let things in the name of evangelism take priority over things in the name of God-honoring relationships.
So here is to another year. I pray that those of Christ, including myself, would love, honor, and give God the glory in every avenue of their life. To those who do not know Him, I pray that they would repent, turn from their sins and trust alone in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, for He is the only way.
Thank you so much for reading and I pray that everyone has a blessed year.
Soli deo gloria!
In Christ,
Joey Acker
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