Revolution of a Lifetime: Lost Sinner to Adored Son

Quite recently I have been trying to read through the entire Old Testament just in time for my Old Testament Survey class I'll be taking in the Fall up at Moody. A while ago there was a Psalm I read that really conveys my thankfulness to Yeshua for the salvation he granted me up in the mountains of Colorado in the year of 2007. This is but part of that psalm: "For the choir director. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD..."(Psalm 40:1-3). For three years I was in a "pit" of depression, devoid of any hope whatsoever. For three years I searched for a purpose in life for Nick Romero, only (to recap from the previous blog) to come short of a true answer, even after those 4 guesses I came up with. Salvation came to me in a way I never expected, and that was through a youth retreat in another state I've never been to. I connected quickly with the youth at Cornerstone, their pastors, and a man by the name of Matthew Edwards (at the time, the youth leader of the church). I came back to Texas, not with just a more optimistic feeling in my life, not with a newly found psychological change in that brain of mine, but with salvation and an answer to my purpose...

One passage Pastor John went over with us was Philippians chapter 3. To this day, this chapter is one of my favorate chapters in all the New Testament because Paul explained that even after all the titles he plastered upon his name, he still counted all his fame as nothing in comparison for the sake of Christ (3:8---according to the King James Version, "dung"). This astounded my 16 year old brain at the time...He had fame, friends, prestige among anything else! He never came up short...but here was this man long ago who died writing to this church saying all that he attained in life is pure "dung" when it came to comparing all he had for to the privlege of knowing Christ. All my life I knew about the Law of God and what sin can do, but I never had the grace of God shown more vividly to me during that week...and this man named "Paul" praised God all throughout the New Testament, no matter to what church he was writing to...

I soon found myself back in Texas a new man. Sadly enough, I was never an original kinda dude, because my new purpose in life happens to be Paul's: "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). Readers...to this day I cannot explain the joy I felt sometime that week. As mentioned before, I really did feel like I was in a pit of despair, until the Lord graciously pulled me out. Sometime during that week I experienced grace in a salvivic way...I experienced a revolution of a lifetime, where Christ saved Nick Romero...

Adventures soon followed after that blessed week, along with many new bonds with people and heartbreaks along the road alike. New passions, commitments, and dreams soon arose as I entered 17 years of age, yet my set of adventures did not cease there. I'm currently 19 and God is continually teaching me through new trials what it means to be a son of God...an ADORED son of God. SHALOM EVERYBODY!