Transmogrification:

To Change in Appearance or Form, especially Strangely or Grotesquely.

Welcome everyone to my blog. I'm not going to sugar coat the subject of this blog, I want you the reader to know what we are delving into together. I am Joshua Pepper. I am a Theology major at the University of Mobile. I am 20 years old, and I am a Junior. I am also a recovering Pornography addict. I have been in a constant struggle day in and day out for the last 6 to 8 years of my life. I have many other sins in my life that I am not proud of and this blog's purpose is to attack them head on and reveal the beauty and power of God's grace in my life. But not just my life, your life too. This is a journey that I want you to be a part of, the journey deeper into the mystery of God, His passionate desire for a relationship with us, and His willingness to forgive us of our deepest, darkest, ugliest sins.

The journey of Transmogrification. My goal being, to change and warp my appearance away from the world's standards and pressures, and to turn toward God and His unstoppable crazy love for each and every one of His children. This is an epic journey. It reminds me of one of my favorite movies of all time, The Lord of the Rings. It maps out the journey of one individual in particular who intrigues me, his name is Aragorn. He is a mere ranger, a lone individual living for himself and struggling to find his place and his identity in Middle Earth. As the movies progress, we not only see him step up and take a leadership role in the struggle between good and evil, but we also see him find his place of belonging. For too long have I lived as a lone ranger, wandering in and out of a direction and meaning to my life. I now know that I am part of something bigger than me and that I do have a place of belonging. My place is in the shadow of Christ, my savior, my redeemer, and my reward. Marching toward His goals for my life even though I don't know what they are yet.

Is this journey going to be easy? I mean it sounds like you already know where you're going and what you have to do right? No. Philippians 1:21: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is Gain." To live IS Christ, to live for Him and more importantly to allow Him to live through you, is not an easy task, nor is it a painless process. It means cutting away things that this world has trained us to think of as needs and requirements for happiness. The answer to the second question hurts just as bad... The thing about giving control of your life to someone else is that you no longer have control. Read that sentence again and think about how much of your day you spent living for you. I can't even begin to think of all the selfish and bratty things I did for me today that had nothing to do with God's will for my life nor did they in any way effect anyone for the Gospel, the one thing we are CALLED to do.

John 3:30 says, "He must become greater and greater, I must less and less." I honestly don't think I have what it takes to complete this journey. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has all the strength, power, abilities, and sources to see accomplish anything He asks me to do.

So then where do we start? We start by confessing our sin and making things right with God. He desires a relationship with each and every one of us. He is a passionate lover, jealous for the hearts of His children. He is the greatest of lovers. All He wants is for us to love Him back, to put Him first and foremost in our lives. If you are having doubts, I understand. It is not wired into us to totally abandon all control of our lives and give it up to someone we have never seen. Faith is not something that comes natural to us at all. It is something that you and I must grow into.

In closing, I would like to say that this is a dangerous conquest. The idea of completely walking out of a sinful lifestyle that comes natural and to abandon control to God is a concept that shakes the principalities of darkness at their core. Embarking on this journey means you will come under direct and relentless attack from the Evil one. But oh the reward! Take heart in this, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." James 4:10.