Joy to the World

Okay so even though the title of this blog is a Christmas song, this blog is not about Christmas. It is however, about joy; true joy. This has been something that God heavily convicted me of just today. I was spending time with my family and i realised that I was really not joyful at all. Then I realised the sad truth. That is the way I am around them often. It's not that I don't love them and want to be around them. It's just that I don't ever relax with them and just have fun being with them and spending time with them. I realised that they could see it. I realised that they wonder why I am this happy go lucky person only when they are not around. Why I hardly ever smile when I'm with them. I really don't have a simple answer for it. I do know this much; I need the joy of the Lord.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 says this: "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on my high places..."
I read that passage and it is a slap in the face. I never have a reason not to have joy and rejoice in the Lord. No matter what I am going through, no matter how I am feeling at the time; God is good. I realised that people need to see this joy overflowing in my life. All the time too, not just sometimes. So this is just a simple, small, but challenging truth that I ask you to keep me accountable to.

Firmly planted

So lately I have noticed that too many Christians have begun to drift away from the study of God's Word. For some reason that I cannot understand, we no longer esteem knowing doctrine as important. This idea of just "living right" has infiltrated the churches and Christians as individuals. A class that I took on postmodernism opened my eyes to this and I can see that it is a real problem. Before you get me wrong, I do believe we must live lives that are pleaseing to God, and I do agree with the statement "people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care". My problem is, how do you live right if you don't know what that looks like? How do you please God if you don't know what pleases Him. The only way to find those things out is through the study of His Word. "Oh I will just let my pastor tell me what God's Word says about how to live and I will apply it to my life." Really?! We have completely and totally allowed Satan to decieve us when we think like that. Yes the world will not want to listen to our message if we do not live out what we preach, but think about this for a second; you have lived a life pleaseing to God and someone notices, so they come to you with all these questions and you can't answer the because you have been to busy living and your Bible has collected more dust on your shelf than your encyclopedia. Do you think people are going to want to listen to you if you don't know what you are talking about? You have to know what you believe and also live it out, you cannot have one without the other. Doctrine is important and every single word in the Word of God is worth looking into. What we like to do is find the passages that make us feel good. Seriously, what about the rest of the Bible? Don't you think that God gave us the whole Bible because He wants us to study and know the whole Bible? One quote that really bothered me the other day was from Donald Miller: "I won't defend Christianity because it means different things to different people". That was a summary of what he said in his book Blue like Jazz. It sounds good on the outside and I agreed with him at first. But think about it, if we never defend Christianity, then Satan has won. Yes we need to focus on defending Jesus, but whether we accept it or not we are Christians, and we have to defend what that truly means. Miller said he was a Christian and yet would not defend what the term meant? Really? Then he went on to say that he would rather talk about Jesus and how He "likes" us? That blew me away! Jesus does not like us. He loves us! With an incomparable love. I like ice-cream. Do you really want to compare that with how Jesus loves us? I don't. Here is something else that Donald Miller once said - "The problem with the Christian community was that we had ethics, we had rules and laws and principles to judge each other against." I read that and think, DUH! We must have ethics and rules governed by God's Word. No, we shouldn't judge each other by them but we must have a moral standard governed by God's Word. Miller also said this "Trevor is one of my favorite people. He is my Ninendo buddy. We yell profanities at each other while playing NFL Blitz." Shocking right? Well this is what happens when you throw truth out of the window. We have to place knowing God and His Word above everything, because out of that, comes a lifestyle. Let us base our lives on biblical principals. Do not base your biblical principals off of your life, culture, feelings, etc. I am not in any way trying to lessen the importance of how you live. We must live according to His Word if we are to please Him and reach the world. But knowing how to do that comes first with studying God's Word and tryng to find what pleases Him.

Exciting Disapointments

Well, God has tested me greatly so far this year at Word of Life. I began the year early on at R.A. training. I wanted the position of a student leader on campus. So I was accepted to the training and I came. I felt confident after my interviews and handbook exam that I was going to get the job. I didn't get it. However, I didn't let that get me down because I know I can still be a leader and God has even better things planned for me. So I moved on from that experience and tried to focus on the ministry that God had planned for me. Last year I was on the drama team and it was aweome, so I wanted a new ministry this year. As many of you know, I really have a passion and heart for praise and worship. So, I decided to try-out for praise team as my ministry. I also tried out for drama just incase I didn't get praise team. I made drama call-backs that did not go so well. I honestly was kind of relieved at that because I thought well maybe God doesn't want me on drama after all and He is gonna allow me to make the praise team. Well I made drama team before I even got a chance to try out for praise team. God took that away as well. Again, not a big deal for me because I love drama and hope to carry it into future ministries God gives me. So then I interviewed for the student lounge job here on campus as my service assignment. I really wanted this job because of it's atmosphere and experience I would gain in the area of customer service. God didn't give me that despite what I thought was a good interview. Instead, I recieved the job of sweeping ad mopping the dinning room and classroom floors. Once again, I tried to have an attitude of contentment because that is an easy job that isn't time consuming. As I swallowed my pride and moved on from those experiences, I applied to go on a Local Church Ministries Trip for the required missions trip this year. This is the kind of ministry I feel God calling me into, so I felt it was a great opportunity for me. I communicated my passion for reaching youth and my love for youth ministry to those in charge of assigning people to this particular trip. Today, I found out that I didn't get that either and am instead going to Hungary for my missions trip this year. I cannot lie, all of this piling up on me was disapointing and yeah it hurt a little bit. But I found out that the only thing it really hurt was my pride. Of which I am thankful because it is just what I needed. Here is my thinking: I had my plans for what I wanted to do this year. They were prayerfully considered (although not as much as I probably should have) and I thought they all were what God wanted for me. Needless to say when I looked at how I thought this year would fall into place, I was very excited. Now, as I look at the way GOD has articulated this year in ways that I didn't plan, I am overjoyed. I am overjoyed because I now know that God's will for me this year is being accomplished and no longer do I have to be unsure. And here is another thought, if what I wanted to happen this year seems exciting, think about how much more exciting God's plan will turn out to be. So that is why I called this blog exciting disapointments, because although in reality it is in fact a little disapointing, it is exciting because it is God's will and what could be better! So I covet your prayers as this year goes on and God continues to teach me. I truly believe that a part of all this whole situation is a lesson God is teaching me. That lesson is humility. Wanna know something better? That's only the beginning. God is going to shape and mould me this year into what He wants. I am willing to make sacrifices, and live open-handed to His will. My goal is God's will. I am going to start it this year by being open-handed. That is every single little tiny aspect of my life, being placed in God's hands. From relationships, to study, to time, to ministry, to family, to goals, to my future, to my very life. Yeah it is scary because His hands are consuming hands. Hands that will knock off the rough edges and that causes pain, but in the end, if I allow Him, He will shape me into a beautiful masterpiece for His glory, and not because of me, but because of Him! Now that's EXCITING!!!

What is wrong with Christianity?

So I know I havent been sharing in my blog the past few days, I know I have been kind of inconsistent from the start of it. It's not that I haven't been doing my quiet time, I just have forgotten to wrtie my blog because classes have started again and I have alot of other things on my mind. But quiet time has still been awesome recently. So anyways sorry but this blog is not about quiet time either. It is just something that God sparked in my heart through a seminar on biblical principals we started today. Here are just a few things out of the many that struck me. We (yes including myself) have become very legalistic in our thinking and actions. I want you to think about why you do things and please be honest with yourself. Why do you read your bible and pray (if you even do it)? Well I know in my life many times it is done out of duty. I really wish I could say that I have a fervent desire to daily dive into God's Word. That I can't wait to read it and learn and apply from it. But sadly that is not always the case. Yes, I do have those days but I also have many days where I do it out of duty. Now, I should still do it because even when I am doing it out of duty, God still speaks and convicts, but not in the same way because , our hearts are not open. You know what I find to be the case; when we get busy, the first thing to suffer is our time with God. That is the painful reality. Here is another thought for you. Why has Christianity been made into an event rather than a lifestyle? Evangelism, discipleship, worship, all these things should not be what we do, but who we are! We invent all these programs that we set up to evangelize and we never do it any other time. Worship, well that has become something that only happens when the praise band plays. We should have individual lives of worship to God that are so passionate, so real, so fervent that when we come together as a coorporate body of believers, the roof raises and God is honoured. My friends, God is not honoured with Sunday morning worshipers, that is those who only worship Him then. We have got to get serious. We are so legalistic that we continually do ministry, do quiet time, do worship so we can try to earn points with God and get Him to like the way we live our lives, when all He says is "just pick up your Bible and I will show you what I like". Convicting thought that I will leave with you as I close. Let's live our lives based on biblical principals and lets let our Christianity be a lifestyle; a lifesong pleasing to God. Let us live out the lives that Christ has given us in Him!

Psalm 93

Here, we have a little praise prayer type psalm. It is only 5 verses that just praise God for His greatness and how He reigns and creation shouts Hid praise. How often do we just offer up little praise prayers to God throughout our day? We too often think it is enough to just simply do our quiet time and offer our praise to God then. The Bible teaches a continuous spirit of prayer should define our lives. So I just want to thank God right now just for who He is. He is everything we need and so much more, awesome in glory, majestic in all His ways. God is bigger than any problem I have and He is too amazing for words. I wish I could say that I love Him as much as i should, but truthfully, none of us do at all times. God I thank you for your amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. Grace that sustains me and continually amazes me. Thank you for your mercies that are renewed every morning. God you are awesome in all your ways, bring me to my knees in adoration of you and may every moment of my life, every action, every thought of mine be an offering of praise to you. May I live out my purpose of glorifying you in EVERYTHING. Amen.

Psalm 92

So here is sort of a paraphrase in my words of this Psalm: It is good to praise God in every sense of the word at all times. Because His works are great, and no man can understand His works. Even though it seems that the wicked men prosper, it is only for a season and you WILL have your justice. But you have blessed me in ways I cannot imagine. You have set my feet upon a rock that cannot be moved. May my life continue to bear fruit and praise Your name forever.
So thought about this Psalm and I thought about the fact that we do not get excited about the work of God. This Psalmist had no toruble in that, this whole psalm is full of excitement over God's works. So here is the deal. I am not going to fill you with words in today's blog. I want you to read the psalm again for yourself and think about you. Are you going through the motions. Has God's work become just another event? Or do you truly get excited to the point of rejoicing over what God is doing? Here is another tough question: do you only focus on the negative and how the wicked seem to be getting away with their sins, or are you excited about the growth that is occuring and the people that are comming to God? Think about it and read the Psalm again.

A different route

Well I did do my quiet time already this morning. But I thought I would go a different route with my blog today. A new school year is starting for me in a few days and I thought to myself: "Self, what is something that I need to be reminded of as I start this new year?" So I began to search scripture for something that I needed and that I could share here that we all needed to apply more. Almost as soon as my search began, it was over and I knew that this was what I needed. If you want to, turn to Colossians chapter 4. That's in the C's in your Bible by the way. Verse 5 is what I will be focusing on, but read verses 1-5 as well. I think they are great guidelines that we need to be reminded of always. The second part of verse 5 where it says "making the best use of the time is what I want to focus on. So those of you that know anything about me know that my motto is why do today what you can put off til tomorow. Well I did get pretty convicted of that at the beginning of first year. I always thought that was just a joke until I found this verse. Even though I improved on this are of my life alot in a year, there is still alot of room for improvement. I still spent alot of free time doing nothing productive. But as you can see, that is a sin. Why can't we spend more time in God's Word? Or praying, maybe even just meditating on God's greatness. This is such a simple thought that is overlooked way too often. I know so many people at Word of Life that every free moment they have, they are thinking of something they can do for God. Whether it is going out and evangelizing, or just spending time with God. Some people just live this verse out so well because God is the priority in their life. That is what it boils down to, God just isn't my #1 priority many times. I mean if He was, wouldn't I spend every moment that I had free doing something for Him? I'm not saying that you should never relax, or be social, sometimes that is making the best use of your time. Just never be the person labeled as the sleeper, or the person that is always on the computer. Make the best use of the time because God deserves our best, not our leftovers. And for those of you who can, please keep me accountable on this issue because I know it's gonna be a struggle. Pray for me and feel free to send me requests to pray for you as well.

Psalm 89:1-18

This Psalm is built around God's faithfulness. But I think this passage of scripture will help us to see God's faithfulness in a whole new light. It showed me an aspect of His faithfulness that I knew but never really thought about it that much. So the Psalm opens with the writer praising God for His faithfulness and also showing how even the heavens and the angels praise God as they watch His faithfulness displayed. I love the question "For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?" in verse 6. It's one of those questions that doesn't need an answer because there really isn't one. We know that there is no-one like our God. The Psalmist goes on and makes a statement that made me smile when I read it; (God is) "awesome above all those who are around Him". You say of course He is! You know something, I think we put ourselves over God way more than we realise, when in reality we can't even put ourselves above the glory of the angels. And the fact of the matter is, the angels do not even compare to God. As the writer continues, he talks about how God owns the earth, the heavens, and everything in them. He defeats His enemies with ease. "Wait a minute!" you say. "What happened here? I thought we were talking about God's faithfulness." We are! You see, God is faithful to His will and purpose. Everything that happens to us, good or bad is a result of God's faithfulness. How could a storm in our lives be a result of God's faithfulness? Well He promises us hard times for those who follow Him. God is simply being faithful to His promises. We just want God to be faithful to the 'good promises'. Wouldn't you agree that God, in order for us to grow, has to bring hard times our way? So is God not faithful in those times? Of course He still is! Proverbs says "faithful are the wounds of a friend". The point I am trying to make is that God is faithful to give us the good times and the storms and trials that help us grow. And of course an aspect of His faithfulness is that He will carry us through. He never said it would be easy, but He said He will see us through the storms. I believe He is faithful to every word of that statement.
The last verse of this Psalm brings out a profound point. It says that "our shield belongs to the Lord". The Psalmist realised that if they fell to their enemeies it was because God allowed it. But we still see the writer focus on the fact that God is faithful even when He allows things like that to happen. So are you trusting in God's faithfulnes completely? Or do you just want Him to give you all the good and leave the storms for those who can handle it? Well here's a thought: none of us can handle them! That's why God says He will carry us through because He knows we can't do it on our own. He wants us to trust Him. Do you still believe in God's faithfulness?

Psalm 88

Sorry I didn't post anything for yesterday's quiet time. I did it, just I didn't post anything about it. Anyway, today's quiet time was definately there for me. It is supposedly a Psalm of David according to my bible, but it is different from all of his other Psalms. Why? Because it never gives even a small ray of hope to cling to. It begins in despair and it ends in despair, and you guessed it, there is despair inbetween. So what is David's purpose for this? We know that obviously David's trust is in God, we can clearly see that in other Psalms. Perhaps this was a moment in his life where he had pushed God to the side. That can't be true however, because we see that continually he was praying to God through this situation. Why would God put this portion of Scripture in His Word when He wants us to trust Him completely and see the vastness of His mercy, grace and love for us? Well there are a couple reasons I think. And please don't count this as absolute truth, I am simply making observations and opinions. Check it out for yourself. One reason is that maybe this is one of those things like a movie that has a bad ending. you know, the ones where the bad guy wins and the movie ends (don't you hate that!). So now maybe we are supposed to look at that Psalm and let it cause us to think; did God let David down? Has He abandoned him? Of course not! This psalm perhaps is there to challenge our thinking and our perception of God. Does He let His children down? Never! So maybe that's one reason is to get us thinking and for the writer to not just say everything turned out okay, but for us to line it up with God's character. I hope I am making sense because it's hard to explain and to type out the thoughts I'm having. Another reason I think is for us to see the reality that we are not promised an easy life. In fact, God promises hardships to those that are committed to Him. The blessing however, is that we go through trials with God and He carries us through! So maybe it is there as sort of a wake-up call to say, HEY! Life is not always pretty. Maybe this Psalm isn't there for any of those reasons, but it applied to a situation in my life either way. Yesterday I found out that I wasn't chosen for a student leadership position at Word of Life. It was a hard thing for me to deal with at first. But, who am I to question God's sovereignty? I can let this situation end in dissapointment like the psalmist, or I can let God write the happy ending. What about you? Where do you turn in those dark times when there seems no hope? Are you letting God write your happy ending?

Psalm 86

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like you are inbetween a rock and a hard place? Maybe you are there right now. How does your prayer life look in those situations? This Psalm shows us how we need to pray to God in those tough situations. You see, typically in David's Psalms when he is crying out to God, you can feel the utter distress and difficulty that he is facing. Not this time though. So what is the difference here? Well David instead of focusing on his problems and the situation he is in, focuses on God and His character and nature. You see David begins this Psalm with reasons why God should hear him. They include: him being "poor and needy" (v.1), him being "holy" (v.2), because he continually has trusted God (vv.2-3), he has only sought help from God (v.4) and simply because of His character (vv. 5-6). You see David realised that God's character was merciful and gracious. He knew that God's character causes Him to rescue His children and to carry them through the hard times. David however knows that he doesn't deserve for God to listen to Him. We find that in verse 6 where David says "listen to my plea for grace". David's plea is that God would be gracious enough to look down on a sinner like Him and hear his cry for help. 2 Peter 2:9 says "Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials". God will hear us and deliver us as His children from the trials in our life according to His purpose and will. However, it is not because of us or what we deserve. It is because of His grace. So how are you praying through this tough time in your life? Are you praying to God as though you deserve Him to hear and deliver you? Or are you praying with confidence in God's character knowing that He will deliver by His mercy and grace? May our prayers be in harmony with David's as we face trials and difficulties.

Psalm 85:1-13

Today's Quiet Time was so good for me because I was just able to dwell on the faithfulness of God and how He gives us exactly what we need when we need it. When God called me to go to second year at Word of Life, I didn't really give it much thought, I just kind of did it. My thinking was if God calls, I listen. Well as I walked outside my dorm this morning and stepped into what felt like the north pole, I thought to myself; "Oh boy! What am I getting myself into?!" I mean really it's only September and it's already in the 50's! That is as cold as it gets in December and January back home. But then I began to think about Quiet Time and I thought about how in this passage in Psalm 85, the people were praising God for bringing them out of exile in Babylon. I have much to be thankful for because God could have not provided the money needed for me to even be here, but He did! As the Psalm goes on, the people ask God to restore their land to how it used to be. First year at the BI was amazing! Probably the best year of my life and I want God to give me that again, even better than the first time. That is my plea and my cry. But will God do it? Of course He will! I love that the Psalm ends with promises of God's faithfulness and love and mercy towards us that never changes. Even though I may freeze to death this winter, God is enough for me. Even though I will have alot on my plate and times may get difficult, He promises to give me exactly what I need. Praise God for His unchanging character! So what about you? Is it time for you to have your relationship with God restored just like the Israelites and their land? Maybe you need to cry to God for restoration. Don't wait to run back in His arms again, because HE can't wait to embrace you in them again.

Psalm 84

Okay so as my first blog post I am going to say upfront that most of them will be based on a specific passage of scripture. So have your Bibles ready to read the passage so it will be easier to follow what I'm talking about.
Today's Quiet Time was pretty cool. I'm guessing that it is the Psalm referred to in the writing of the song "Better is one day". This was a song or hymn that pilgrims sang on their way to the Temple, at the Temple and on their way back from the Temple. One thing that really struck me was the fact that when they were singing this song in the past, the only place they could go to worship was the Temple. They didn't have the freedom that we have today to worship God. Think about it; the only way that they experienced the prescence of God was in the Temple. So what about us? Where is God's Temple today? You guessed it; us! How amazing is it that the Spirit of God, who is God, makes His dwelling place in us?! And how often do we take that for granted? So do we believe that there is no place we would rather be than experiencing God? So many people have this mindset that we are not priveledged like the Old Testament believers who were able to hear God's voice, or like the early church who experienced Pentecost and healings and works of the Holy Spirit. You think how cool that would be if we saw that today. I used to think the same way until I decided to let God work through me. I saw Him do things beyond my imagination. All I had to do was give Him what is not really mine anway; my life. How lovely is His dwelling place, and we are His dwelling place. God made us beautiful and lovely through the work of Jesus Christ. Our response should be surrender and worship. The last verse in this Psalm says blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. In other words, happy is the man who trusts in the Lord. You want true joy, true happiness, true satisfaction? Then give your life to God. Allow Him to make you that lovely dwelling place. Abide in Him because a day of experiencing God and spending time with Him is better than a thousand in all the other miserable places in this universe.