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.

The stuff that holds us together

So today I was watching two different sermons by Louie Gigilio, Indescribable and How Great is our God. If you have not watched them I would encourage you to do so, they are on youtube.com. I warn you it is humbling stuff to think about. Anyways in the middle of the How Great is our God sermon he starts talking about laminin. If you don't know what it is, it is more less the stuff that holds you together. He shows an image of it, and it is the perfect shape of the cross. It's so true though if you think about it the stuff that holds us (those who have put their trust in Christ) together when it seems like life is falling apart. Go watch the videos then marvel at the indescribably great God we serve.

Missions

Matthew 28:19 says to go into all the world and teach the nations. He did not say, "I call you to be a missionary." No He said it to everyone. I was reading on the new this morning that the death toll in China is about 3000, Haiti was in the hundreds of thousands. I can guarantee (that took 4 tries to spell correctly, Mrs. Morris) you that not everyone who died this past year was Christian. Why aren't we being effective, why are we sitting back, twiddling our thumbs thinking, "well maybe tomorrow..." James warns about boasting about tomorrow, as does Proverbs 27:1. The time is now not tomorrow. You don't know what could happen tonight or tomorrow. If you were to die tonight whose fault is it that your unsaved friends do not know about Christ. Maybe you are reading this and thinking, "well I don't have any unsaved friends." Ha! well it sounds like a good idea to go out and make some friends. A few months ago I didn't have any unsaved friends. Guess what I prayed and now I am now working with more unsaved people then I could count. Many of whom are now friends. James 2 states that faith without works is dead. If you claim that Christ changed your life you should be out there proving it.

Freeing captives and light

Has God done a miraculous work and freed you from something? Anything from addiction to depression? If you have seen God work and got you past a "mountain" that was hindering you from God and you have been set free, have you since worked to set other captives free. Whether we admit it or not we have all struggled with some kind of bondage or we are still struggling with bondage, but if we have been set free it only makes sense to go out and set others free by taking Christ to them.

To switch gears a little bit, I was reading in Matthew 5 right after the "blessed be's" (beatitudes) where Jesus talks about us being salt and light. It says that a city on a hill cannot be hidden. When we accept Christ we should be letting his light shine through us and others should see it. The term closet Christian should be an oxymoron. We should be willing to go up on a high hill and let our lights shine. In the words of that church song we all were forced to sing at some point, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine."

Combine the two, let God work, and watch as "mountains are moved"