Nut Shell and a Half!

Josiah was born into a Christian loving home. He has parents who have spent hours on their knees praying for Josiah day in and day out. His father is a pastor at a Nazarene church and has been a major role model for him. His mother was a woman of God who cared and loved for him all she ever could. The reality was though that Josiah had not always been a man who always sought God. It was not until middle school that he was really able to comprehend what it meant to seek and yearn after God.

Josiah was always a cool guy in middle school. He wore a lot of the cool clothes and had a lot of the cool friends. He was involved in some pretty terrible things and was very consumed with how he appeared to others but soon he was to see that it was built on a sandy foundation. Josiah had a friend who invited him to bible study really early in the morning before school started on Wednesday. Now, Josiah was not really interested in going to grow in a relationship with God but merely to see a very pretty girl he knew. He walked into the bible study and saw a lot of kids his age who legitimately wanted to know God. Now Josiah had always considered himself a Christian. He grew up in a Godly home and had always had the right vocabulary to sound “real” and of course he was always made to go to church. But here was something different. He went up to the girl who he thought was cute and asked her “Hey do your parents make you come to this?” She merely replied by “no, we all really want to be here”. This was the beginning of a major change in his life as he began to realize the importance of seeking God in a relationship as well as supporting the community of Christians also known as the church. A few years later he would hear God call him to the ministry.

Josiah first heard his call into ministry when he was just a freshman in high school. God continued to tug at him all through his high school days and he would casually accept and decline when it suited him and never made much of a real commitment. He was always involved in the district impact team, preaching and playing his guitar for different churches on the Eastern Kentucky District as well as the West Virginia South District. He was a faithful member of the Youth Group and continually prayed for the youth as well as the youth pastor. As Josiah graduated from high school he felt God leading him to Lexington where he was to work and go to school part time. Josiah works currently at a bread bakery called Great Harvest and is serving as the marketing and catering manager

All along high school as well as college people would always ask Josiah if he was ever called into the ministry like his father and brothers. He was very good at playing off the tense question with a mere joke and therefore side swiping the question as a whole. Then one night Josiah was praying for direction in his life and what he was to do for the coming fall season and God, in a very distinct voice, asked him “Josiah how much longer is my calling going to be a joke to you?” Soon after Josiah told his pastor and accepted the call to do the work the Lord had assigned to him.

I am Josiah and I have a calling on my life to preach the word and full fill God’s will for my life. I have struggled many times in my life but I can honestly say that God has always kept me in his hands as well as in his watch. He has always heard my cries and answered when his timing was at hand. He has never failed me or forsaken me. I want to pursue an education with the Nazarene church because I believe there is a higher calling in life called sanctification and holiness. I believe there is something we can set our sights on higher than this world. I seek to have a servants heart and am ready to do God’s will above all else. I am ready and willing to answer the call. No compromise for righteousness and God’s will above my own. Amen.