{"id":2,"date":"2008-02-18T07:12:41","date_gmt":"2008-02-18T15:12:41","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-08-02T13:50:10","modified_gmt":"2008-08-02T19:50:10","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChrisMy name is Chris Edwards, and I am a worship pastor at Hill Country Bible Church, Hutto<\/a> that was planted on Easter Sunday, 2007. I am 35 years old, and have been blessed by God with my lovely wife, Niki, and our two sons: Hayden (4 years old), and Parker (just born in May).<\/p>\n\n

How did I become a Worship Pastor?<\/strong> I am glad you asked! Back in 2003, my wife and I were invited to church by our neighbors and we went. I enjoyed the music a lot…which was not a good reason to go to church, but it got me there. I hadn’t been to a church with contemporary music before. A few weeks later I ended up joining the worship team singing background vocals. Three months after that, the worship leader announced he was leaving (he was only temporary) and I was asked to be the worship leader.<\/p>\n\n

Sounds simple huh? Well, that’s not the whole story. What my pastor didn’t know, nor anyone else in that first church back then, was that I was a drug addict and alcoholic. I was raised in a Christian family and went to church until I moved away from home, but at that point in my life, I hadn’t attended a regular church for 5 years or so. I considered myself a Christian, but in retrospect, I was far from it. I partied hard, I had abused everything from steroids and pharmaceuticals, to street drugs and alcohol. You name it, I had done it, and I took pride in that. Needless to say, I was not the best person for the job of worship leader. However, no one but my wife and I knew it.<\/p>\n\n

I told the pastor that I was unworthy of the position, but the church was so small there was noone else. I told him that I didn’t know much about the bible, but that I would read it “in case someone asked me a question about it”. He told me that as long as I was making progress, that was good. In his defense, he had no idea what kind of person I was at the time.<\/p>\n\n

So I held up my part of the bargain and read the bible. I quickly became consumed with it. I realized that much of the stuff I thought was true about Christianity was wrong! I realized how I was so wrong in how I lived. I couldn’t stop reading the bible. I completely stopped all the drugs and drinking because I couldn’t read the bible when I was high! I know it sounds crazy, but I got more out of reading it than I ever did from the drugs. Its not that I had to make myself stop…I simply didn’t want them anymore. It wasn’t even a struggle. I haven’t missed them since…and I never looked back. I found out later that this is what they call being “born again.” I was a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). God changed my desires. God completely changed my life, and I have been changing ever since to be more and more like Jesus.<\/p>\n\n

I remember looking at the original worship leader thinking “He is such a good person. But I could never live that way…it must be so boring!” Yet here I was just a few months later doing all I could to follow his example, or better yet, follow the example of the one he was following, Jesus…and loving it!<\/p>\n\n

Well, that’s my story. I almost wouldn’t believe it if it hadn’t happened to me. I am happier and more satisfied with my life now than I ever have been. However, that is not the reason to come to Christ… There are difficulties, its not always easy…the difference is that I am at peace because I now have hope.<\/p>\n\n

Because Christ died on the cross to pay for all the sins I have ever committed (and even the ones I continue to commit), I have hope that when this life is over, my sins cannot condemn me. Christ has already paid for them in full. I am therefore given a clean slate…Christ’s clean slate. When God looks at me he sees His perfect son. Not that I am perfect,\u00c2\u00a0 but that Christ is, and I am “clothed with his righteousness”. Since He took all my sins upon himself…I got his righteousness accounted to me in exchange. THAT is what Christianity is all about!<\/p>\n\n

I can’t save myself no matter what I do. No amount of good works can ever get me into heaven. Only through Jesus’ payment for my sin, and my accepting of His clean slate can I get there. And all this is simply by the loving grace and mercy of God! Praise Him for what He has done!<\/p>\n\n

-Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My name is Chris Edwards, and I am a worship pastor at Hill Country Bible Church, Hutto that was planted on Easter Sunday, 2007. I am 35 years old, and have been blessed by God with my lovely wife, Niki, and our two sons: Hayden (4 years old), and Parker (just born in May). How […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.worshippinginthewilderness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}