GRAMEL77

Looking back my childhood seems like the typical kid of the 70s. I didn't grow up in the church in fact grew up with very little or no church but I always viewed myself as a good guy. My mom was Jewish and my dad a Methodist. From an early age music was my god. I played in bands since I was 16 notably DFWs first thrash band Rotting Corpse in the 80s and Dallas alternative rock band the bat mastersons in the early 90s.

After playing music, I got into computers and eventually owned my own company that outsourced IT/programming support to small companies. At this point in my life my job and money became my god.

By 2002 I was tired of looking to money, music, possessions and sexual desires to satisfy me. In fact, they weren't working anymore and I was miserable, I had lost my sense of purpose and wanted a change. For the first time in my life I realized that I had broken God's perfect law, the 10 commandments. I knew that just one lie, made me liar. I knew that stealing just one thing (even small) made me thief. I knew that I had taken the Lord's name in vain and that made me a blasphemer. I knew that I had looked with lust and Jesus said in Matthew 5 just looking made me an adulterer. But I learned that God didn't want me to go to hell although I deserved it. Jesus Christ suffered and died on the Cross so that we could escape our punishment of Hell. God loves us so much that He sent His son to take the punishment for our sins. He died on the cross for our sins and then He rose from the grave, defeating death!

Everything changed the night I prayed a prayer with a preacher on the television. I repented of my sins the best I could and made Jesus Christ my lord and savior. With that prayer, I started down a different road in my life. And it hasn't been easy, I've struggled with the sin in my life but the Lord has blessed me in ways I never would have imagined. After years struggling to find the perfect woman and never being satisfied, I am now married to a beautiful girl from China and we have two amazing daughters.

My 2nd daughter, Hope, was born on my dad's birthday Dec 5th (two months early) right before the first Texas Revival Series with Mark Cahill in 2008. That friday night, December 5th, I was driving back from getting ice cream with my mom and my daughter, Kat. We were doing what my dad loved to do best as we celebrated his birthday (he's now in Heaven). My wife who had been at work called to say that she was being taken to the hospital because she was bleeding. I dropped off my daughter at my mom's house and sped to the hospital. By 10:30 pm I had a new little baby, Hope. She was under 4 lbs and spent 7 weeks in Parklands NNICU. Today she's doing great now weighing over 20 pounds and just had her first birthday.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

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