New Ordination

For those of you who are following my education, this week marks a new ordination for me.

I have previously been ordained by the Gift of God Street church to the office of pastor.

Following that, I entered school with the Christian Leaders Institute and have received over a dozen awards, and been ordained as the following

• Deacon Minister

• Licensed Wedding Officiant

• and now Commissioned Minister

While I am proud of the progress I've made so far, completing 68 credit hours and a GPA of 3.884 towards my ultimate goal of getting my Bachelors of Ministry degree and my certified Life Coaching with an emphasis in discipleship, I am often reminded of the following passage at the beginning of 1st Corinthians chapter 8

We know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

The pursuit of knowledge for knowledge sake is, as Solomon describes in Ecclesiastes, vanity, however, the pursuit of knowing God is the greatest pursuit possible. Paul, after writing about his previously futile pursuit of religion, goes on to describe his own zeal for knowing God as, "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

This pursuit is not a knowledge only for myself, but a pursuit of calling others to follow along, to go further, to know deeper, to be holy, and to let the love of God overflow from us into the lives of our family, our church, our workplace, and our communities.

Our salvation is a calling and a blessed opportunity to be representatives of Jesus Christ to this world!