By the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9), I am a Bible believing and practicing Christian. If you are curious, please read the brief statement about my beliefs below.

In Philippians 3:4-8 Paul presents his "bragging rights."

    . . . If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

My own bragging list is similar. In church the first service after my birth, born into a pastor's family, a Christian of the third and more generations; as touching doctrine, a fundamentalist; concerning zeal, at church whenever the doors where open; touching righteousness before men, a good boy.

As Paul points out, these are worthless for salvation. Having made a profession of faith as a child, I grew only in knowledge of the Bible-not in love for God. I thank God that He did not allow me to wander into many deep sins. Nevertheless I was not among the blessed who are poor in spirit and who morn (Matthew 5:3-4) until my last year of undergraduate study. At that point my belief in God, in His holiness, in the necessity of man serving God contrasted with my habits of ignoring His commands broke me.

Being saved, the Godly heritage into which I was born and the years of training which are ineffectual to salvation are now part of a "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1). Unfortunately, rather than "lay[ing] aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us," I have been more like Israel of whom God said, "I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves" (Amos 2:13). But God is faithful (II Timothy 2:11-13).

Through interaction with friends at school, God is teaching me to try to be "all things to all men if by any means I might win some." The lesson to be careful about "every idle word" I speak comes hard, and I thank God, that His work in others lives is not stopped by my mistakes. Also a lesson brought home through my current environment is the necessity of serving the saved and being frequently in their company (Hebrews 3:13). How can I convince myself to abstain from sin, if I do not remind myself of the joys of righteousness (James 1:17)?

Friends, I clearly cannot "count myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).