Saturday, May 21, 2011

My Story

Wretched man that I am!  I have determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.  He did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  The Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.  Though I am free from all people, I choose to be a slave so that I can win more people.  My boast is in Jesus Christ alone.

Okay, for those of you who read your Bibles, that first paragraph was just a string of verses:  Romans 7:24, 1 Corinthians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 2:5, 1 Corinthians 1:17, 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 1:27, 1 Corinthians 9:19, and the last sentence refers to Jeremiah 9:23-24.  I think it fits my testimony quite well now.  I wrote an introductory post, but I thought I'd give you my testimony so that you will know where I'm coming from as I continue to write on this blog.


I was born August 23, 1985 to two Christian parents.  I was raised in a Christian home.  I attended Community Bible Church.  I attended Kindergarten through 8th grade at Community Christian Academy.  I was a Bible whiz kid.  I accepted Christ when I was 3 years old, in the bathtub (yay baptism!).  My mother led me through the prayer.  I knew Jesus loved me, and that I wanted to go to Heaven when I died.  So, as I grew and was educated, I learned what God wanted me to do, and what He didn't want me to do.  I had no clue about sin, or my own sinfulness.  I was a great guy.  I was always a loner, but adults loved me and I had a good reputation.  I knew about God and Jesus, and all other head knowledge, and I thought it would be credited to me for righteousness.  In 7th grade, my mentor asked me to be his manager for the Boys and Girls Basketball teams.  I was happy.  It help me be more social and involved.  I did that through 8th grade as well.  I still was a loner, but I had more status.  When I got to public high school, I realized not everyone believed the way I did.  However, I still went to church and my youth group (Powerplay) so I stayed on the correct path.  "I don't drink, smoke, chew or date girls who do." defined me pretty well.  As life went on around me, I was safe inside my bubble.  I became more social in high school and I wasn't "popular" in the sense that I was at parties every weekend and everyone tried to sit with me at lunch, but I was extremely well-known.  I was liked by every clique while belonging to none in particular.  From 9th-12th grade I was the Football manager and the Baseball manager.  As a Freshman, the Senior athletes took me under their wing and I gained status.  At Honors Night at the end of the year, I received an Academic Letter for straight A's (I also had a Varsity Football and a Varsity Baseball letter).  Everyone was instructed to wait until everyone had been called before they clapped and I was the first name called in the second set of names.  As I walked across the stage, the Seniors gave me a standing ovation.  It was an honor.  I already mentioned GHP 2003 in my first post, and that was a great honor as well.  God really did bless me, and I began to own my faith.

Toward the end of my high school career Community Bible Church decided it was a good idea to fire my youth pastor.  I, and most of the youth, left the church with him.  I took it personally, and since I was going to college anyway it was a perfect excuse to just drop the church.  I lost faith in the institution of church altogether.  I stepped onto the University of Georgia campus in 2004 and joined the Football team as a manager.  I knew I had to determine if I truly believed what I believed.  I had left the church and my parents, so I had nobody to keep me accountable spiritually.  I was still in a sort of works-based mindset, but not totally.  I knew I had to make my faith my own, or leave it altogether.  Now, most students quit religion when they get to college.  My friend wrote an article in the "Red and Black" that summer and mentioned that "Sunday was the day Stuart Kingsley used to cleanse his soul...now he cleanses his clothes."  I had become part of the statistic that quit church when they got to college.  I did not quit on God, however.  All through my 5 years of college, I did not go to a church building.  My only spiritual input was Team United (FCA + AIA + GAO) at UGA, and that was only once a week.  I had no real fellowship or accountability, largely by my own choosing.  I got jaded around other believers.  I didn't take them seriously.  I had been wounded by my home church, and the people in it.  "Christians" had treated me like crap growing up.  Nobody really cared about me, so why should I care about them.  I was going to make Christ mine and follow Him on my own.  I set myself up for failure.  Now, during my 5 years I spent a lot of time in the world, and I heard their objections to religion, God, etc. and I was able to seek the answers out.  Because of that, I'm a lot more experienced, and I'm able to answer a lot of questions that unbelievers ask.  I'll post my thoughts on those later.

In 2006, I turned 21 and I started my Junior year at UGA.  I started running from God.  I had put my trust in Him, and He lived in me, and He pulled me back from the edge even though I was running at it full tilt.  At the beginning of 2007 my prayer to Him was "use me or kill me because I've reached the end of myself."  Blessedly, He chose to use me.  In 2000-2002 I had attended FCA Camp at St. Simons Island, and I felt God calling me back there to be a Huddle Leader.  I knew I totally wasn't worthy to lead, but I felt God telling me to go.  I ended up going to the Middle School Leadership Camp in Shocco Springs, AL, but that was after a week with my old youth pastor at Myrtle Beach.  When I started the Myrtle Beach camp, I was still dark and rough, but over the course of the week God brought me back around.  God capped off His redemption with a week of FCA Camp.  So, at the start of my 4th year of college I was back in the spiritual game.  I was back in the fight and fighting for the right team.  2007 turned out to be a great year, and gave me great momentum going into 2008.

I consider 2008 to be my favorite year this past decade.  I bridged my 4th and 5th years at UGA with a Maymester and 2 Junemester classes.  I had a confidence and swagger I cannot describe.  I have no idea to this day where the swag came from, I just had it.  But, God destroyed me at the end of the year.  I don't really want to re-hash the details.  At the end of 2008 everything I had built my life around was gone...except God.

At the beginning of 2009 I didn't want to be alive.  I did my Practicum in the UGA Ticket Office and that was it.  I just floated.  God was all I had left to hold on to, so I began following Him.  I knew I could no longer forsake the fellowship, and God led me to Athens Church.  That was a huge blessing because it got me back into corporate worship.  In May 2009 my good friend got married to an amazing girl, and their wedding was a pure testament to God's holiness.  Normally, I hate weddings, but this one really lifted me up and encouraged me.  In June 2009 I went to FCA Camp in Shocco Springs again and I was a counselor at Camp Icthus the following week.  Through those 2 weeks of camps God built me up stronger than I ever knew I could be.  He became real, my sinful nature became real, for the first time in my life I felt saved from something.  I truly felt like a Christian not because I went to church, knew the Bible, or sang the songs but because I was dead and He brought me to life!  I had no rhyme, reason or purpose to live into 2009, but He had a plan.  I came back to Athens after the summer completely sold out and fearless.  Not because I was some spiritual superhero, but because the Spirit was alive in me.  In August 2009 I started attending a group at Watkinsville First Baptist Church called Fight Club.  I will write more about Fight Club later, but God used it to literally save my life.  At the end of 2009 I was a leader at Fontana camp with my old youth pastor, and on New Years Eve I looked back on how far God had brought me in 2009 and fell on the floor weeping.

Through 2010 God grew me even more.  In the summer I worked 4 camps, 3 of which in back to back weeks.  (Daytona with my old youth pastor, Icthus/Rock Haven in Arkansas/Icthus).  The Spirit in me was firing on all cylinders.  I grew in my awareness of my own depravity as well as my awareness of God's holiness.  In that growing awareness I became more aware of the Gospel's importance in my life.  In Fight Club we did the Gospel-Centered Life study.  I highly recommend it!  I started attending Watkinsville First Baptist Church full time in August 2010.  The youth pastor asked college students to volunteer to lead middle schoolers and high schoolers for that school year, so I volunteered for middle school.  I had 2 weeks of FCA Middle School Leadership Camp experience, and God has really given me a heart for Middle Schoolers.  I became the small group leader for the 7th grade boys, and this past year was a blast.  I'm sad it's over :(

Now it's 2011, and I'm anxious to see what else God has in store for me.  Many other things happened to me along my road to today, but this is just an overview.  If you read this and have any questions, my e-mail address is:  stuartlkingsley@gmail.com just reference this blog in the subject line.  I do not write this blog to glorify UGA Football even though I have many stories.  I do not write this blog to get a girl.  "I don't do this for money, I don't do this for fame, I don't do this so the industry can know my name..." - Lecrae!  I write these things so that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  I was dead in sin, but His death brought me to life, and now I am alive.  It's all about Him.  Whatever He chooses to do with me is to His glory.

Sorry it was so long-winded, but thank you for reading!
-Stuart

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