Regardless of how you’ve landed on this page, I welcome you heartily and trust that through what you read on this and future posts, you’ll sense the Spirit of God at work and in turn, you will be challenged to seek the glorious pathway that He has for you.
I do not take lightly the privilege of sharing these words with you; it’s a privilege that I hold dear. So let me give you a bit of background on the vision of our church, Word Life Christian Fellowship. That way, you will see just how God has put things in place so that through this vision, your life can be transformed for the glory of God.
I have been a Christian since 1992. I grew up in a loving Christian home. My mom was the church organist and my dad, though not ordained, was a preacher. His daily vocation was a school principal but his involvement in the church was one constant that I knew. Still, it wasn’t until my 20s in the early ‘90s that, as a struggling college student, that I recognized the need for a Savior. I knew that, on my own, I was bound to fail. I wanted to experience for myself the reality of Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Without taking you through the entire experience, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to me His omnipotent power and I accepted Him as Savior. It didn’t happen overnight – it took a couple of years, in fact. But the journey led me to give my life to Him completely. I really didn’t know all that I was getting into but I was thoroughly convinced that He long had a desire to walk with me and give me a life worth living. Almost instantaneously, I began to experience a degree of joy I had never known up to that point. It’s not that everything became perfect but life started to make perfect sense.
My life began to have meaning for the first time. The challenges and the obstacles were still there but now I had an advocate in heavenly places to walk with me. Things turned around for me scholastically and I began to achieve consistent success. My grades were simply an indication of something greater that was at work on the inside of me. The Lord Jesus Christ had now entered into my heart and began leading and guiding me, transforming me in the process. My perspectives changed and I had a total revolution in my outlook on life. I was on my way to the path that was laid out for me from before my life even began!
Now this next part that I’ll share with you is the single most important point I can make in this entire post. In late 1993, I got baptized. The week before the baptism, I had just returned home from church and while in the house by myself, I decided to rehearse my testimony that I would share before the congregation the following week during the service. I stood in front of the mirror and began thinking of the entire 23 plus years that I had lived up to that point. I reflected on issues such as my struggles with low self-esteem, low self-worth, loneliness, regretting the fact that I was born and hoping I would have died young. Such struggles that for such a long period were the norm in my life were now simply experiences of the past. I knew there was no turning back.
I reflected on it all. Then, as I looked at my life at that moment, I saw an inflection point beginning in late 1990 when I began a 2 year quest to know this Jesus whom I had always heard about. I desired to know Him for myself. In the few short years between the inception of that quest and that moment in my life, I saw a radical change in my entire outlook on life. I had just graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in May 1993 with a degree in accounting. I had just finished my 2nd month of accounting career. All of this would have been unheard of before the Lord entered into my life; but there I was – living the dream.
As I stood before that mirror and had these many thoughts about the total 180 degree turnaround in my life, with tears streaming down my face, I said, “Lord Jesus, I don’t know why you saved me but I know that you saved me. My life is not my own; it belongs to you; therefore, I hereby relinquish the right to plan my life. It’s entirely in your hands; do with it what you will!”
I still remember the feeling of that moment. I was saved before but in my view, that day, Sunday, October 31, 1993, was when I completely and totally surrendered my life to the Lord. Since then it’s been a journey of a lifetime – many highs and many lows. But through it all God has been and continues to be faithful in all things.
About a year and a half after this experience, in early 1995, I got what I believe to be my life assignment from the Lord. As I received it, I saw the assignment to be somewhat multi-faceted and much of it is beyond the scope of this blog. Still, a significant part of it relates to the words I’m sharing here; so both on this post and on future posts, you’ll see the vision unfold through words and then ultimately through deeds.
The specific assignment that I received that led to the launching of Word Life Christian Fellowship is best stated by our church’s mission statement:
Word Life Christian Fellowship exists to equip people with the transformative Word of God and the tools to empower them to embrace and fulfill their divinely ordained purpose.
That’s it in a nutshell! Empower believers with the Word and when it’s rightly applied, they will have good success in the world. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is simple but practical application of it isn’t always so simple. Still, those words that first came to me, as a young believer over 28 years ago, have proven true in my own life and in the life of everyone who has applied them with consistency.
Since receiving the assignment, I’ve been in training by the Holy Spirit – some formal, some not so formal; some in the church, some in the world at large. But the time was never right to establish this ministry. But in August 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lord said that now is the time to launch this ministry. And so in faith, a group of us believers who heard the voice of God, embarked on this life-changing journey as we serve Him through our church, Word Life Christian Fellowship.
This vision is all about God the His plans and purposes. It’s about how He wants to use you for His glory. My prayer is that you will find inspiration, insight, encouragement, serenity and everything that God desires for you as you engage with our ministry – through reading the blog or through anything that we do a church.
In 1 Corinthians 2: 9-10, we read, “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.” I believe that by His Spirit, God will do wonder for you as you seek Him; we have the privilege of playing a part in the process but it’s ultimately He who is at work. D.L. Moody wrote, “The world is yet to see what God can do through a life that is yielded to Him.” For this reason, I just know deep within that God is going to do great things through you – yes, YOU!
It’s with great joy and excitement that I share these words with you. I believe that in the coming weeks, months and years, you’ll look back at this post and see that this it has been used by God as a catalyst for many great things that He is doing in your life.
To Him be the honor and glory forever and ever!
Have a blessed day today!
Rodrick Walters