“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.   Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.  Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.  You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise.” – Psalm 51:10-17

 “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.  But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.  Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  Each one should test his own actions.  Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.”– Galatians 6:1-5

 The process of spiritual restoration is amazing!  On Sunday, April 1^st we welcomed Carl Crooks back into the fellowship of sold-out disciples!  Carl’s journey back to God has inspired us all to appreciate the love and sovereignty of God in spite of the ways that we wander from his guidance and protection.  Carl has lived a challenging life, as the pressure of the world and the enticement of sin sadly led to his incarceration before he began to turn his life around.  Though he was introduced to the truth of God’s Word and baptized into Christ in 1995 in our former fellowship, he sadly returned “to (the) vomit” (2 Peter 2:22) of sin and decided to “fall away” (Luke 8:13) from his relationship with God back in 2001.