Written and Shared by Matt at Almaden Neighborhood Church

Connecticut Shooting 
On Friday I was finalizing my thoughts for today's sharing about Joy.  Then I heard the news about the shooting in Connecticut. Our hearts go out to the community there. At first the news dampened my mood but upon deeper reflection I realized that the tragedy show a stark contrast between what God had intended for us and what we as a society have fallen to.  To me it is clear that through His Grace, God wants us to feel pure Joy as any loving Father would want for his children.  But we have stubbornly remain in our sinful nature.

I just accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior a month ago. Yes.  And it has been a life changer for me.
All the negative things in my life has become positive! It's not my doing.  I'm still the same guy.  It's that once I accepted, God has taken charge of me.  Jesus is walking with me everyday.   I tell you.  Jesus is the solution to all my problems.  Because it's a perspective change that makes a huge difference.  Impossible for me before but with God anything is possible. It took me more than 40 years to realize it but God loves humanity.  God loves his creation.
God provided a user's manual.  He even gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us. It's a gift.  All we have to do is take a leap of faith and accept it.  


Once we have accepted, boy a whole new world is opened to us.  Then it is just a matter of maintaining our faith keeping it strong and staying close to God.  If you feel excessive anger, or sadness, or worries, then I humbly suggest that you read His Word everyday, pray, and go to church regularly and just walk with Jesus. God is so loving, He wants us all to have joy in our hearts.  With so much joy in our hearts, there's no room left for negativity.  Let me tell you about what Joy means to me. With joy in your heart, all the stimuli that caused you stress in the past.  The edge is taken off of them.  They are still there but you don't feel the full force of them any longer. They are muted and blunted.  It's like Neo in the Matrix.  You can see it coming and just take your time and say stop.  It's amazing.


You let go and let God.  You get your worth from God.  A song I heard the Asante Choir sing this summer.  Says it all for me.  I'm trading my sorrows, I'm trading my shame.  I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord. The visual is this.  Take all your anger, your shame, your worries, your negativity and box it all up in a huge UPS box.  One of those wardrobe ones you know. Then just lay it down.  Say bye bye I don't need you and I don't want you no more.  Then just hold hands with Jesus and walk. You'll never look back.  Well actually you'll look back but with a knowing smile and just to share what you've been through.

I'll leave you with a verse: Romans 8:5 Don't live under control of your sinful nature.  If you do, you will think about what your sinful nature wants.  Live under the control of the Holy Spirit.  If you do, you will think about what the Spirit wants. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide.

I was lost, blind, deaf and dumb before coming to Christ.

I relied on my sinful nature to lead me through life. I cheated in college. I gambled in the stock market. I played power games with my wife. I was a failed leader in my family to my wife and children.

It took me 46 years to hit bottom. In my forties I napped often so as to fast forward my life. I was depressed without knowing. If I had a taste for alcohol I would have been an alcoholic by now. But God had mercy on me.

He led me to church. He revealed to me His love and what he had done for me and for all of humanity. He created the world. He created Adam and Eve my ancestors. But they sinned and had to be separated from Him. So God sent His only son Jesus down to die and rise again to wash away our sins Through Jesus Christ there is a bridge for us to get back to God. No matter how pure we make ourself we are not pure enough to be with God. But with Jesus Christ we can come as we are. God revealed to me his unconditional love and my heart felt it finally.

Hallelujah! I took that leap of faith and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit filled my heart. My eyes are open! I can read and understand His Word! He tells me clearly to love my neighbor to love my in-laws yes my in-laws. God does wonders for relationships. He tells me to give to the pan handlers at freeway exits. I said but what if they use it for drugs, what if they are just faking it. He said just give dummy. It's not just for them. It is more a test of your obedience.

How I was before I came to Christ
To sum it up in one word, I was proud. In middle school, I was at the top of my class, so my fellow classmates and teachers praised me as one of their brightest, which felt good at the time, but it built my ego, until I began to shun those had lower academic success than I did, and this irrational pride brought about my downfall when I was in high school, because I really wanted to take this class, AP Biology, in sophomore year, even though the administrators and the teacher herself told me I should wait until junior year. But I took their admonishments as more like a challenge, because I said I was super smart, so I could do well in this class and prove them all wrong. But, in the end, I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped, and I got a B+. Most people laugh when they hear that I was sad about a B+, but they don’t understand that I based my self-worth off what I got as a grade, and to know that I went below my own standards made me feel as if I had failed.

How I came to Christ
So, I came to Christ after my dad was baptized. After he was baptized, I felt completely alone, because when I was little, I used to tell my dad about everything that happened at school, and I had come to rely on him for advice. So after he was baptized, whenever I came to ask him for help, he would always tell me to lift my worries up to God—which to me, felt more like an excuse not to help me. But I had seen how his worldview had changed for the better, after he was baptized. He was more optimistic about life. So, I believed that something that could make him so joyful couldn’t be bad. So, one night, I opened up the possibility of accepting Christ, myself. And immediately, I was filled with immense joy. So, I was like, “Ok, I’ll accept you God, as my Lord and Savior.”