I set out on a great adventure!

Psalms 43:3,4
3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your tabernacle.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And on the harp I will praise You,
O God, my God.

I know many of you know the story of how Stream of life ministry got started, but for those of you that haven't, I wanted to revisit just how we got where we are now.

On March 10th of this year, it had been four years since my Dad passed away. He was the reason this email ministry was started. In July of 2009 he was taken to the hospital where they found a spot on his lung. After all the testing, and an operation, which we thought had cured him, we were told it was terminal. I knew my Dad had been saved after a bad truck wreck in 1969, but I didn't think he understood, nor did I at the time, what God's grace was all about.

I thought, he thought the way I had, you see even though I was saved in 1991, I thought if I messed up after confessing my sins and opening my heart to the Holy Spirit, I had blown it. Religious society has taught much of the world in a wrong manner. A lot of churches do not teach the grace of God, but instead, teach that you have to earn your way into heaven. They have done more damage to the hearts and minds of seeking believers than you can imagine.

At the time that my Dad was diagnosed, we had just started attending Discovery Church, a church that believed in teaching about God's love and grace, not just God's wrath and punishment, that I had been taught while growing up.

I owe a lot to the pastors at Discovery as I wouldn't be in the place I am today, without being taught about grace by Pastor Mark, and then an even deeper understanding, by Pastor Kevin.

Looking back on the last four years and how far God has brought me, reminds me of a song by Steven Curtis Chapman called Long Way Home, that refers to God's calling in our lives, as a great adventure that we all get to go on. I would have never thought of this adventure 5 years ago, but now am looking forward to seeing just where He will lead me.

Stay tuned because like the song says in the bridge, And even on our best days remember were not home yet, So don't get too comfortable 'Cause really all we are is just pilgrims passing through.

I set out on a great adventure
The day my Father started leading me home
He said there's gonna be some mountains to climb
and some valleys we're gonna go throughBut I had no way of knowing
just how hard this journey could be
Cause the valleys are deeper and the mountains are steeper
Than I ever would've dreamed

I know we're gonna make it
I know we're gonna get there soon
I know sometimes it feels like we are going the wrong way
It's just a long way home

I got some rocks in my shoes, fears I wish I could lose
It makes the mountains so hard to climb
And my heart gets so heavy with the weight of the world sometimes

And there's a bag of regrets
My should've beens and not yets
I keep on dragging around
And I can hardly wait for the day I get to lay it all down

Well I know that day is coming
I know its gonna to be here soon
And I won't turn back even if the whole world says I'm going the wrong way
'Cause it's just a long way home

And when we can't take another step
Our Father will pick us up and carry us in His arms
And even on the best days He says to remember we're not home yet
So don't get too comfortable
'Cause really all we are is just pilgrims passing through

Well I know we're gonna make it
And I know we're gonna get there soon
So I'll keep on singing and believing
What all of my songs say
'Cause our God has made a promise
And i know that everything He says is true
And I know wherever we go
He will never leave us
'Cause He's gonna lead us home
Every single step of the long way home

Keep on we're gonna make it
I know we're gonna make it
We're just taking the long way home