Do you remember your first love?

After reading James 4:14, which speaks about our lives being a mist that appears for a little while then vanishing I started thinking about the past few months and the different things that have been happening in my life and in the lives of those around me. Why do we make every provision for a tomorrow that may not come, yet the ultimate end that awaits each and every human we shrug off and pretend it does not exist? Maybe we missed something. We do not have the excitement that we should. We do not act as people that have been radically transformed by God's grace. Just a reminder if in fact you do claim to be a Christian he has given you a life that does not compare to any dollar amount. Maybe we live in an age where we have become not only desensitized to the world, but desensitized also to the richness of God. Perhaps the time has come for us to examine our heart to see if we need to rediscover this God who saves us.

Extraordinary

Extraordinary is a book by John Bevere. I am working through this book with a friend of mine. Tonight we did our first study, here is a brief summary of chapter one.

We see ourselves as ordinary people. We are drawn to living extraordinary lives, but fell that is quite impossible and therefore we have stopped trying. We have somehow missed that we serve an extraordinary God and are made in His image. That goes for everyone, like the smelly person sitting next to you in church or the jerk who cut you off and every person in between. We are called to love each other and so much more with the realization that they too are made in His image.
We have a limited view of God and which has given us a limited view of our enemy which limits our ability to fight against him.
God doesn't call extraordinary people, he makes people extraordinary.
If we set our hearts and minds on God and seek after Him we will not only find Him, but He will also make us extraordinary.
Before God we were all ordinary after meeting Him, He gives us something extra and makes us extraordinary.

What are we doing?

Ever noticed that when you are at church a lot of people just stand up, kind of roll their eyes, sing and try to clap in time, but that is it? Have you ever asked yourself if you believe what you are singing, or has church become the sing a long that will not end? Last week I found myself asking if I believed what I sang, I cannot tell you how many times I have sung about how our God is mighty to save with absolutely no emotion. If we believe that we have been saved by the grace of God then why is it that we stand around occasionally raise our arms, while we secretly think it is nothing and that we really have not changed? We know that if someone rubs us the wrong way, chances are that the spirit of God doesn't flow out, we wish the wrath would just hurry up and consume them. Have you ever considered that those obnoxious people who cut you off, maybe flip you off, or are just plain obnoxious are the very people we are to love? Love your neighbor, Jesus said, but I can tell you that the words that came out of my mouth earlier today when that jerk cut me off were not exactly full of the spirit. Maybe that God that you "gave your life" to is still waiting for you to surrender your life. When was the last time you felt truly alive?

A biggerr piece of the picture

I have known for a while that God wants me in missions, last year He gave me the where (Nicaragua), then a couple weeks ago He gave me the who, the deaf. If you don't know I am going to school to become a teacher. So I started researching and I found a couple who works at a deaf school in Nicaragua. I am beginning to correspond with them and in a few years hopefully in a few years I will be down there. check out their site
makingadifferenceinnicaragua.org

Let's do this!

I asked someone a while back ago how people witnessed. The more I read the new testament the more I see that people just lost it, that's how they managed to do so much, they took every opportunity to share their faith. As far as early Christians were concerned they lovingly kicked butt and took names. Why are we so defensive? Why are we (myself included) so focused on protecting ourselves and not focused on going into satan's turf and winning this thing. Victory is ours so lets not sit back and wait for it to float down. Last week I heard something during devotions. God is gonna ask us who we took with us to heaven. If our purpose was just to "get saved" then why are we still here? Don't you think there is a good reason that God has you here still and didn't just take you home the instant you accepted Christ? There are people dying every day who don't know Christ there are people who feel rejected, unloved, unwanted, etc... and they have no idea there is someone who wants them, loves them, and accepts them. Live as an example so that people ask for the reason of the hope that is in you then tell them. Don't look like the world. If it sounds like the world, walks like the world, and looks like the world it is probably the world. Don't be afraid to be weird. Be different because God is different and because when you are different (in a good way) people notice and ask.

Pursuing Christ

The theme of the camp this year is one name one pursuit, so i started thinking about it and what God kinda showed me was intense, yet simple, and a much needed reminder. If we are pursuing God we shouldn't be looking back. Think about it for a second. If you are looking back you are going to keep tripping over things because well you can't see where you are going. If you are a Christian and you are focused entirely on who you were and not who God is making you into, it is going to be difficult to pursue God, it is like chasing something and looking the opposite direction, sheer stupidity. Read Hebrews 12:1

Canada

Middle of my trip and I don't think I have been so wiped out in my life. The first week went all right, I had a few old campers and at the end one of my campers came to know Christ. The second week was full of struggles. It started with my toiletries bag going missing and my bottle of wellness (if you dont know what that is it is this terrible tasting stuff that helps your immune system) being dumped and my stuff picked through thankfully nothing else went missing and I got my toiletries bag back. Wednesday evening at the beginning of chapel the camp directors pulled all the cabin leaders into the dining hall and told us that the washroom (aka bathroom) had been messed up by a couple of campers and they did not know who had done it so we had to clean up the poop covered bathroom. While I was scrubbing down one of the toilets I started thinking about well everything and I started laughing because more or less that is exactly what happens when Christ comes and cleans the crap out of our lives (literally). The following evening I got the opportunity to talk to one of my campers and she opened up a lot to me (pray for her). Then we settled into bed with a thunderstorm going on outside. I had thought about telling a scary story, but chickened out because I'm a wimp when it comes to that sort of stuff and the thunder was not helping. Right about the time we were falling asleep another counselor came to our cabin and asked to talk to one of the counselors so I went out and she told me that there were tornado warnings and if we heard the bell we would have to make a run for the basement. Kind of freaky. Oh well.