Today is My Re-Birthday!

This is a day that I have secretly celebrated for the past 19 years; my re-birthday. I don't do anything special. It's really not about me, but what God has done for me. Let me explain what a re-birthday is. It is the day I was reborn. It is the day that I turned my life over to Christ. It is the day that ended the question, "Who am I, and why am I here?' It is the day that Jesus became my Lord and Savior.

Before this day, Nov. 1, 1987, I was living for myself. I really had no direction, ambition or hope. It's not that I was a lonely, pitiful soul. I had lots of friends and a family who loved me, but I had no hope. I didn't really know what I was supposed to do with my life and who I was supposed to be. There had always been that "hole" that I tried filling with various things to bring comfort.

Then one day I got a phone call. A person had a dream about me they really felt I should hear. I had a feeling it would have something to do with God, and I wasn't really interested in hearing, but I promised I would come over and listen. As I listened to this dream that so vividly described my life and future, I knew it was God's call to my soul. It was literally as if the "blinders" were taken off my eyes. I got on my knees that night, asked for God's forgiveness, and invited Him to be Lord of my life.

My life now and forever has meaning. I live for Him. Since that day, He has given me direction, wisdom, grace, mercy, everlasting love and a hope for a future. I love my life in Him. I am truly blessed.

One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 139,

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
Too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them,
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.