Check out this testimony from a Navy grunt who started attending our church. It’s amazing…
\nI am an astronaut.
\nFrom space I am an ideal. On paper you can bring me home to your mother and
\nI won\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t try to bed her and your sister when you\u0082\u00c4\u00f4re not looking. Working
\nclass poet\/hard charging corpsman makes a handsome accessory to a handsome
\nman.
\nI\u0082\u00c4\u00f4ve got a face you can trust. I don\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t have much to say to you, so I
\nmake a great listener. I spend insomnia stricken nights watching NC-17
\n\u0082\u00c4\u00facouples porn”. I practice what they teach. I may be one of the world\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s
\ngreatest kissers. I read poetry; drink scotch and red wine, raise enormous
\npints of fine Irish Guinness with my closest friends. I write from my heart.
\nYou will love me for one of these reasons or more. I will hate us both.
\nEspecially you.
\nI feel Christ\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s tears crushing my heart when I didn\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t have enough,
\nbooze, hatred, or sex released endorphins pumping thorough me. They are so
\nheavy with sadness, I won\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t answer His calls, I hate His children, indulge
\nevery vice I can afford. I drown each and every bloody tear searching every
\nbottle for an answer like some bullshit crackerjack prize. I pour over
\nHemingway and Bukowski mining for inspiration. I roam every street looking
\nfor death or glory. I am terrified of dying so I careen at break neck speed
\nfor that very destination. Still He calls me. At my weakest most desperate
\nmoments He calls me with a gentle screaming.
\n
\nI have never been an Atheist, but I have not always loved God, in
\ntruth, I hated God. Along with most of the other things I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4ve hated in my
\nlife I didn\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t have much reason to hate Him. I was just angry and drunk and
\nvery stupid. I wanted to go so far from God that one day he would either
\njust snuff me out of existence or appear to me in a blinding light on some
\nroad and I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4d be miracled away from my wickedness.
\nMy blinding light came in the form of a very bloody very pink little
\nboy. The day he was born I hit my knees and attempted to settle all debts
\nwith the One who settled all debts for me. There was no epiphany there; I
\nspent the next year still a drunken adulterer, but I could feel God working
\nin my heart hammering away at the parts of me that were choking the fruits
\nof his work. By September of 2004 after nearly losing my wife and son, not
\nto mention dodging a dishonorable discharge from the Navy, I found myself at
\nKaleo in church for the first time in 8 years. Before I was even welcomed by
\nthe fellowship, I felt welcomed by God. I have now been sober for 7 months
\nwith only God\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s grace to keep my thirst at bay. I am compelled to bible
\nstudy, in fact here at sea it\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s the only thing other than e-mails from my
\nwife that I look forward to. I am still given to the thoughts and darkness
\nthat nearly destroyed my family and I, but I am not alone. God knows I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4m a
\nfool, a drunk and totally lost without him so he takes care of me now. I see
\nhim working constantly in my life. Our bible study group has grown from 3 to
\n6 or 10 depending on the day in just a month, and that excites me. The Jason
\nin the first three paragraphs would spit warm beer all over that excitement,
\nif it weren\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t for God breaking his blackened teeth in.
\nI am strengthened in Christ. My heart is new, washed clean with the
\nblood he shed for my madness and sin on the cross. Sometimes I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4m even
\nsurprised at my self I can\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t believe the words leaving my mouth. I tried to
\nfill the holes in me with everything I could pour, abuse, or bed, only
\nbecause I need to learn the hard way. My Sensi used to say, \u0082\u00c4\u00fapain makes a
\nbeliever\u0082\u00c4\u00f9 he could not be more right. If I hadn\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t suffered though all the
\npain I caused all around me I may have never truly known how great and
\nglorious God truly is. I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4m not sure what my whole point in this haphazard
\nassembly of emotion and confession is, I can only say this: I was truly,
\ntruly, lost, dead and only waiting to rot; in 5 months of truly opening my
\nheart to Christ I have seen and felt changes in my life that could not have
\ncome by any other labor. That almost sounds like an ad for 60-second abs
\n\u0082\u00c4\u00faResults in just 5 months!!\u0082\u00c4\u00f9 but I guess I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4m advertising for Jesus so it\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s
\nok.
\nI want to close to keep this short, but I want to write more about Jesus and how he\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s working in me and around me to make me a Jason shaped tool for the service of his kingdom. I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4ve already gone over the page I promised David so I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4ll eave you with this I was once given to all things but Christ, now I give all things to Christ.
\nYours In Christ,
\nJason S. Bowe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Check out this testimony from a Navy grunt who started attending our church. It’s amazing… I am an astronaut. From space I am an ideal. On paper you can bring me home to your mother and I won\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t try to bed her and your sister when you\u0082\u00c4\u00f4re not looking. Working class poet\/hard charging corpsman makes a handsome accessory to a handsome man. I\u0082\u00c4\u00f4ve got a face you can trust. I don\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t have much to say to you, so I make a great listener. I spend insomnia stricken nights watching NC-17 \u0082\u00c4\u00facouples porn”. I practice what they teach. I may be one of the world\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s greatest kissers. I read poetry; drink scotch and red wine, raise enormous pints of fine Irish Guinness with my closest friends. I write from my heart. You will love me for one of these reasons or more. I will hate us both. Especially you. I feel Christ\u0082\u00c4\u00f4s tears crushing my heart when I didn\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t have enough, booze, hatred, or sex released endorphins pumping thorough me. They are so heavy with sadness, I won\u0082\u00c4\u00f4t answer His calls, I hate His children, indulge every vice I can afford. I drown each and every bloody tear searching every bottle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodmanson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}