User:Lee.Ries

=About Me= From Lockhart, Texas, I live in Central Texas with Deann: the love of my life, my wife of 23 years, my best friend, the one who believes most in me.

Christian Life
I became a Christian in the Summer of 1995.

Justification
I did a lot of things in my younger years of life that at times make for good stories. But those early years -- until 1995 -- I was lost in sin and did not know it, though I regularly attended church. I was caught up in religion but did not have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I lived a worldly life, with worldly concerns about what I thought I wanted to do and who I thought I wanted to be. In 1995, I came to know that I was lost in my sin and needed a savior. More than that, I came to know that the only savior for my sins is Jesus Christ, whom God sent to be the full and complete sacrifice for my sins. Praise God!

Sanctification
As a Christian, I have desired to honor God, to bring Him glory in all that would do in thought, word and deed. Over and again, I struggled and struggled with the reality of my sins that plague me even after coming to know Christ. I heard the phrase, "Please be patient with me; God isn't finished with me yet!" This gave me some encouragement, but I didn't fully understand it. I used to try to be better. I would do my best to give what I thought God wanted from me -- righteousness. Then God led me to read Philippians 3:9, which says, "...not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." That verse let me know that I was doing it wrong, but I still didn't know how to go about doing it right! God later led me to Galatians 5:22-25 -- "22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." This passage has meant so much to me in learning that all I need to walk according to God's will is from Him, so I need to ask Him for that which I lack to produce righteousness: i.e. love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So I prayed that God, with His soveriegn will and infinite power and matchless grace, would remove my sin from me as far as the East is from the West. After all, He promised in Philippians 1:6 that He will be faithful to complete the good work that He began in me. Praise God!

Glorification
One day, Jesus Christ will return as promised. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. We will all be held accountable for our sins, but thanks to the work Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary, my sins have been forgiven -- all of them. Praise God!

School Years

 * Attended school from pre-school through high school graduation in Lockhart, Texas.
 * Attended Texas A&M University 1985-1986, 1998-2000.

Military Years

 * Served in the US Marine Corps as a machinegunner and in the Army as both a non-commissioned and commissioned officer.
 * Assignments included
 * Presidio of Monterey, Monterey, California
 * Hahn Air Base, Germeny
 * Fort Hood, Texas
 * Fort Huachuca, Arizona
 * Fort Knox, Kentucky
 * Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
 * Bad Aibling Station, Germany
 * Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas