My name is Nathan Brush from the U.S.A. I was born in Taft, California, in 1973. Since 2004, I have been in the construction trade. Currently, I am studying biblically ministry training online at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
My Spiritual Beginning and Challenges
My first knowledge of God was in San Francisco, California. I was about eight years old when my Great Aunt would pick my brother and me up every Sunday for church. We would have lunch at McDonald’s afterward. My Aunt had us in the choir. My brother and I didn’t like choir much, but we did it anyway. Then, one day, she stopped coming to pick us up for church. We never hear about what happened. I didn’t really attend church after that.
From a family of drugs and alcohol, I ran the streets in San Francisco. Mainly, the fisherman’s wharf was where I did what was needed to survive. As I got older, I got into trouble and served time in jail for drugs. In October of 2017, I wrecked my vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty to a DUI, which made that my second offense. I lost everything that year as I was suspended from the union trades and had no place to live.
God Changed and Called Me
I knew I needed to change my life. So, I asked Jesus to come into my heart and teach me how to be a man of God. I’ve had some struggles along the way, mainly my own doing. However, God has been faithful. I was learning to be a Godly man and a warrior for Christ. My wife and I met in March of 2018, and in July 2018, we married. Two weeks later, we packed up the kids and what we could carry and moved to Ohio.
We are currently back in Idaho serving God. God kept putting the word “cornerstone” on my heart. Mainly from Psalm 118:22, “The stone the builder rejected, has now become the cornerstone.” God is my cornerstone. The calling I have on my life is to help men be mighty warriors for God and be the men God has planned us to be.
Yet, I first have to get deeply rooted in the things of God before I can help others like myself. That is why I’m attending the Christian Leaders Institute. I am grateful for the free biblical ministry training they offer online!
Jennifer’s Powerful Story of Redemption
There are many blessings to living in the United States. Yet, like any country, it faces injustice, turmoil, and inequalities. We live in a fallen world full of sin so evil reaches every corner of the world. But God wrote my powerful story of redemption!
Growing up, I truly didn’t have any aspirations because I spent my childhood surviving and raising my younger siblings. On one occasion, when my mom wasn’t home, her boyfriend molested me. When she arrived home, I told her what happened. She didn’t believe me. Instead, she said I was lying and forced me to apologize to the man that had harmed me.
From that moment, I held onto anger and hurt then learned to become what my mom said I was: a liar. I was a 9-year-old when this happened to me. I had the realization at such a young age that maybe if I lied, I could protect myself and avoid pain and hurt. As I grew older, I mastered this skill, and even when I didn’t need to lie, I did it anyway. As an adult, my family labeled me again as a habitual liar. No one trusted what I said because of my past actions. Even when I spoke the truth, no one believed me.
But God
At this point in my life, I had found Christ and accepted Him in my life. However, I continued with my lying habits. I knew I was wrong and needed to change. But every time I tried, I tried with my own strength. That was never enough, and I would fall into the same habits as before. I thought that I could break something that took years to be. How naive to think that.
I hated being labeled a liar. Then, one day during my nightly prayer, I asked God to take it away and help me be a better person. I had suppressed the earlier incident from my memory for so long. But, at that moment during my prayer, God revealed to me the root cause of my struggle.
That night I opened my heart like never before to the Lord and cried until the veins on my face popped. All the hurt, pain, and injustice that I had suppressed flowed from my heart and manifested itself in uncontrollable tears. That night, I was freed from a bondage that had held me captive for many years. The Lord of the impossible began working in me. He fought for me, beside me, and with me.
Changed
Not only did God redeem me from this but he also healed my pain and allowed me to forgive. I now have a great relationship with my mother and by the grace of the Lord, my words have value. Now, I serve as the Youth Pastor at my church. As Joseph said to his brothers, what was meant to harm me, God turned it for good. I can now use my testimony to speak of God’s everlasting love and mercy. With such a privilege to work with the next generation, how better to do it than by sharing the goodness of the Lord.
After finding Christian Leaders Institute online, I chose this course. I needed to equip myself better to further help the teens that attend our church’s youth group. Everyone is faced with wildfires daily and having the knowledge to handle them in the correct manner will determine the outcome. The outcome is not what we seek but what God intends as His will. Thank you, CLI!
Would you like to take Bible classes like Jennifer? Click here for more information and check out our college!
Classes for Ministry Training and on the Bible
I am Jimmy Lee Morgan, the Third from Long Beach, California. I am taking classes for ministry training and on the Bible at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). In CLI’s class on leadership, I’ve learned that leadership is INFLUENCE. John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” God wants us to use our influence to impact the people around us.
By taking this class, I’ve learned that to be an effective leader, one has to have a clear vision. First, one needs a vision of where one is going. That vision comes from God. There are two passages of scripture that stood out for me when this thought came to mind. The first is Proverbs 29:18 18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The second is Psalms 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.” So unless God gives the vision, those who labor without thought, heart, and direction are working from their own desires and not the desire of the Lord.
My Ministry Journey
I am grateful that God has allowed me to work in the ministry of encouragement. He has given me this gift to be able to talk to people and not at people. It opens the door to share the Word of the Lord with them.
The calling to the ministry started in my youth. At the time, I was not aware of it. However, when I became an adult, my Pastor gave me a challenge. That challenge was to oversee the youth department, and then things became clear. I love to help the youth, especially those that are the shunned, the troublemaker, the outcast, the hard to reach, the lonely, the broken-hearted, the mean, and the stubborn ones.
God has given me the gifts to reach them. I’ve seen the gang banger, drug dealer, and even the hardcore turn their life over to Christ. I believe in building strong and bold young Christian leaders to reach other young people for Christ. My heart is for every youth.
Men’s Mentoring Ministry Vision
Recently, God’s given me the vision to start a men’s group. He even gave me a name, M.M.A: Master My Altitude. It’s a mentoring program where men come together. There they talk about life issues and learn how to fight the battles that matter the most. This group is about resetting, restoring, and rebuilding what was destroyed. It’s about teaching young people and men to focus on what is needed to do. They will discover things about themselves by discerning where to focus their attention. They will also learn that one can not do everything. One cannot undo the past, the only thing we can do is face what’s ahead.
One challenge I have seen is people only support you when they believe that you will go somewhere. Then, when you do start to soar, they are quick to try to tear you down. But I know that as long as God gave the vision to me, it does not matter who talks about it. It will be successful.
I am thankful for the classes for ministry training and the Biblical studies at the Christian Leaders Institute. They are preparing me for wherever God leads me to go.