Obedience, NOT Results

 

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow."

                                                                   -Paul (1 Cor. 3v6)

     What is our goal in following Christ? Do we want people to notice how "holy" we are? Do we want to help all of our friends with their problems? Do we want to convert everyone we meet? While I'm not saying these are all bad (except for number one), these can't be the goal.

God wants RESULTS OBEDIENCE!

     In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul drops this incredibly profound tidbit to the church. Paul, a well educated follower of the law, knew his role. What was that role? Whatever God told him to do. Paul could have gone around doing what he thought was best for the situation and lots of people would have thought nothing of it. But Paul knew that in order for God's grace to be know that he must do his part and let God do His.

So often we feel the pressure to say the right thing or live in fear of screwing up the opportunity in front of us.

Do we really believe that we have the ability to thwart the work God is trying to do?

     When we get these thoughts it's because we've become concerned with the results instead of obedience. We need to know our role. Paul's role was to "plant seeds".  Apollos' role was to "water" them. God's role was to make them grow.

     Having finished off my school year for the term last week I was enjoying a relaxing afternoon at home. I looked out our living room window and saw our neighbour outside shoveling his driveway. I have met him one time (last winter I pushed him out at midnight when his car got stuck by our place) and, while I have had intentions to meet him again, I have always been hesitant to do such.
     As he was shoveling I felt God place it on my heart to go and talk to him. I ignored him. The thought wouldn't leave. I tried to justify that it was just my thoughts but I thought back to our talk at LDP where we talked about if it's our thoughts or God putting that thought there it doesn't really matter. It's the message, not the messenger. Finally I tossed out a little prayer along the lines of, "God, I don't know what I'm going to say but I'm going to go talk to this guy."
     So off I went. I'd like to say that my presence caused an instant conversion and we became the best of friends, but that didn't happen.. nothing really happened. All that happened was his 1 year old started crying and he had to go inside. So that was it? I was able to talk to my neighbour for 5 whole minutes? What a waste. Or was it? As a matter of fact it was 5 minutes that I am pumped about. We don't always know when God will call our number and take us from the bench and put us in the game. Our job is to be ready and do what He calls us to do. God didn't tell me to go and preach to my neighbour - He told me to go and talk to him. My calling wasn't to convert him, it was simply to do what I was called to do. Would it have been sweet to have had him come to know Christ right there in the street? No doubt, but I know that God is busy doing His part now. 

     With Christmas on the horizon it is very easy to shift our focus towards us. Remember: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! Never has been, never will be. It's all about Christ and what He has done for us. Keep your eyes, ears and hearts open and your feet ready to get in the game when Christ calls your name.

Do your role, let Christ do His and see what He will do!

Merry Christmas from the Wielers!

-CW

Christmas is near

Carols being sung. Snowflakes falling. Cars staling. Malls are crowded. Bank accounts decrease in numbers. The smell of baking when you come through your door after a long day. Christmas is just around the corner.

December is a busy month for everyone. This Christmas season, or what it is called, is often not recognized for what this season really is. CHRISTmas. Where does Christ fit into our christmas seasons? What are we focused on? Is it the commercialism of our culture? Or is it the birth of our Saviour?

I know this is something that I have to remind myself not to get caught up in. For me, it is not as much of the commercialism that is the problem, but it is the busyness. Christmas time for me is to get together with family and friends and reflect on the birth of Jesus. However, through all the busyness, it is easy to forget the reason why I am taking this break and why we have this holiday. Being in a secular culture, the real reason of Christmas often gets left in the dust... that is why we are now seeing Winter concerts or holiday concerts. An encouraging thing for me this Christmas season is that my school that I am teaching at is having a CHRISTMAS concert. Not holiday, not winter; but Christmas. 

Jesus Christ should be our focus for this season. What are you focused on this Christmas season? Is it the gifts you are going to be getting? The gifts you are going to be giving? The people you are going to see? 

I want to encourage you remind yourself daily of what this season is really about!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Michelle

His Love

I feel like I can’t talk about anything but His Love - it’s all I want to talk about. I keep finding satisfaction in it over and over as He gives my heart greater understanding of it, and honestly, it’s all that keeps me together. In fact I am constantly finding out more how dark my heart is. The truth is that I will never know the darkness of my heart as well as God knows it, which is actually good news. Sometimes I come up short and am disappointed in myself. I feel like I have to re-assure myself that God still loves me after whatever instance that I totally blew. Whether it’s falling in an area where i’m constantly fighting or me realizing a new palace where I have come up short of what God has for me, I know that God doesn’t have to renegotiate his grace with me, nor does he have to re-figure how much he loves me. God is driven to love you because that is simply who He is. He does not need you to motivate Him to love you, it’s simply who He is. He know’s exactly who we are, he isn’t surprised by us even though we might be. He knows the extent of our darkness yet we are still lovely to Him. (Song of Songs 1:5) His love is something you will never get over. In a billion years you will still be totally blown away by His love for you!

Here's how it's blowing me away right now:

- Did you know that Jesus loves you in the same way that the Father loves Jesus?

John 15:9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have loved you; abide in my love.” [NASB] As the Father loves Jesus, in the same way Jesus loves you! I can’t get over that! Jesus has the same measure of love and affection towards you that His Father has towards Him! AMAZING!

- John 17:22-23 “I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.” This might be my favourite chunk of scripture! Many things baffle me about those two verses, for starters:

1) The glory which the Father has given to Jesus he has given to us?!?!?!

2) The Father is passionate about YOU like He is passionate about Jesus! God is loves you, as God is loves God!!!!

- Before you took a breath he knew you (Psalm 139)

Rest in his love! Dwell on His Love! Talk with Him, simply be in relationship with Him. Stress, loneliness, dullness of life, lack of hope all disappear, literally fade out as we dwell on His Love. Be confident that even though our love for Him might sometimes be weak, that doesn't make it insincere, it's just that, it's weak. An Immature Love is still sincere and to a sincere lover of Him he promises to be revealing himself to them(John 14:21)! Out of living in relationship and love with Him, everything else he has for you will come! 

We've Stolen Jesus' Birthday!

   

     The Christmas season is upon us! The Halloween decorations are long gone, Black Friday is over, and stores have started playing their Christmas music. If you're anything like me you've probably been in the Christmas spirit for awhile now (how could I not be, I make eggnog lattes all day long!).

      Christmas is such a fun time of year, with all the music, decorations, family time, Christmas parties, yummy baking, presents, Christmas concerts, etc. And this fun can make this a very busy, hectic and full time of year as well. Now before you throw yourself headfirst into all the merriment, just pause for a moment... and really think about what we celebrate at Christmas time.

Yep, it's an easy answer, we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus.

     I know that over the Christmases past, I have always acknowledge that 'Jesus is the reason for the season'. But, I also know that He has not always been the real focus of my heart at this time of year. With all the things to do, people to see, gifts to buy, concerts to practice for, Christmas specials to watch... it can be so easy to push Jesus out of our lives at the very time of year that is supposed to be all about Him.

     A few weeks ago I was looking through a book catalogue and I saw a book with an interesting title. It was called 'Christmas is Not Your Birthday'. And the title struck me as very appropriate for our culture today. Somewhere along the line we have traded a season that was meant to celebrate our Saviour's birthday, for a season that's all about us. 

We've stolen Jesus' birthday! 

     Now we get the presents, we get the party, we get the attention, and we bring Jesus into the whole thing through Grandpa doing the mandatory reading of the Christmas story (which we're not really listening to anyways), and singing some Christmas carols about baby Jesus. We've pushed Jesus out of His own birthday.

     And I know I've been guilty of this too in past Christmases. The season gets so full and busy that quiet time with our Lord and Saviour can be sparse. But this Christmas let's actually make Jesus the centre of it all, not just talk about how He is. Let's make Him our number one priority, and focus on the things that He would have us focus on.

     Over the next few weeks I encourage you to read through the Christmas story, and then keep reading all the way through to the Resurrection. Don't just skim through it because you know the story so well, but really think about what you're reading. The Holy God of the universe had mercy on us, sinners that deserve death. He loved us SO much that He sent His only Son to earth to save us, because we can't save ourselves. 

The Christmas story is the most incredible love story ever written, and it actually happened.

     May God give you fresh eyes to see His incredible love for you as you read the Christmas story this year. And may Jesus be your heart's desire and your focus this Christmas season.

     Join me in asking God to change my heart's desire to desire more of Jesus, and less of all of the distractions.

What sort of things are you doing to make Jesus the centre of your Christmas season? 

Leave a comment below.

Idols Idols Everywhere

Last week Wednesday our church's young adults group got together for a night of singing and teaching. I was given the task of preparing a message so I went to the topic of Idolatry.  Here are some of "highlights" of it:

Simply put idolatry is any time we put something in ahead of God in importance in our life. The question is, what is it that you are putting ahead of God in your life? Maybe it’s money. Education, a relationship, family, health, your physical appearance, stuff. What is it in your life that is so essential that you could not imagine life without it?

Here are 5 things I currently hold as idols in my life: Nadine, health, parents, money, and  comfort. Some of you may be thinking, what’s wrong with those things? And you’d be right  in asking that. The answer is nothing. There is nothing wrong with any of those things. It’s good that I love Nadine. It’s good to want to be healthy. God has blessed me with great parents.  There’s nothing wrong with any of those things. But as you’ll find out, so often the biggest idols aren’t the evil ones.

Most of us know that it’s wrong to bow down to idols of stone  and wood, most of us have no problem sacrificing to acceptance, X-box, cell phones, sports,  friends, food, etc. Now in and of themselves there is nothing wrong with any of these things. But  when they start to take on such weight in our lives that they become vital for our joy it becomes  a problem. You see most of the idols that we have are when good things become God things.

Exodus 20v3-5. God is an incredibly jealous God. He doesn’t want to, nor does He deserve to share. He isn’t content unless He is the ONLY one. God gave us marriage so that we could have an idea of the relationship that He wants with us. Imagine that you were married and one day your spouse told you that you would only get Monday-Thursday, and Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday there were other  people that got those days. That wouldn’t go so well. We would feel cheated. Robbed. We  gave up so much for them and they just turn their backs on us for these other things? Sound familiar?

Too often we sacrifice our time, money, or attention to our idols. 

What are some idols you see North Americans worshiping?

What are some idols that YOU find yourself worshiping? 

 

Finding Joy

As you all read in my last blog, these last few months have been very challenging. Although there has been a lot of pain, there has also been many times where God continues to amaze me. 

When trials, pain and suffering come into your life, it is very easy to just focus on yourself and how you are feeling. It’s hard to think of others during these times of our life. I can speak from experience. It’s easy to get down on yourself, and on everything that is going on around you. During this time, I have really had to put an effort into finding the joy in my day. No matter what kind of situation you are in. God is there and He will reveal himself to you. 

I can think of multiple times that God has been revealing himself to me. During this last month, my friend who is not a believer, has begun to ask questions. This is awesome, and very exciting as I have been friends with them for many years. That day, in that situation I found joy. However, as I went along in my day, I began to focus on my cousins’ passing, and forgetting what God had just done. Looking back, I can see God and I also saw Him in that moment. However, I did not carry that realization through my day. This is something that we need to recognize when we are grieving or going through hard times. God is ALWAYS working, are we choosing to recognize it? 

Another way that God has been working in my life is through my education. I have been accepted to go to Costa Rica for 5 weeks at the end of April to teach. Getting to the point of being accepted was a long stressful process. However, throughout the process, I had peace. I knew that God was in control, and that if I was not meant to go to Costa Rica, I would not get accepted. I am very excited to be accepted and am excited to see how God is going to work in Costa Rica. I have to teach in Spanish... so I know God will most defiantly be helping me through that. 

As we go through hard times we need to choose to find joy in our days. Is this easy? No. It means taking the emphasis off of the pain that you (I) have been feeling. It is not erasing the pain, but it allowing you to look at your life through a different lens. This is something I have to remind myself of daily.

“The Joy of the Lord is our Strength.”- Nehemiah 8:10... This verse has never been so real to me as it is today. Without recognizing the joy that God has placed in our lives everyday, I am weak. I am lonely. I am sad. With recognizing the joy God has placed in our lives, I am stronger. I am secure. I am accepted. When you change your mindset, your day will be changed. 

Michelle

Lost and Found Peace

So many days I have felt like there is so much I want to get done and so little time to do it all! Can anyone relate? It starts getting hard to spend time alone with Jesus, you start going through your day forgetting about his presence completely and isn’t it funny how stress always seems to follow. 

I have come to know that when I am stressing it means that I’m not aware of Jesus’ amazing love. Let me explain:

For a couple of weeks I got really behind on some of my school work. I honestly didn’t really realize it  but I was pretty stressed about it. I started doing tons of studying to try and catch up, I studied and studied and studied, and then studied some more. Where did that leave me? With an A+! Haha nope. Actually still behind and still stressed. When I finally came to Jesus and talked to Him about it I finally came to the realization of how much I was stressing. I thought I could gain my peace by catching up on my school work! I was willing to study every waking moment of my days in order to get that. What I forgot was that peace doesn’t come from having my ducks in a row and being all caught up on school work but, as He told me, from knowing the Truth of who I am in Him.

Trying to be caught up on school work was the way I tried to find peace apart from Jesus. Maybe you are looking for that in hanging out with friends, having money, looking a certain way, playing sports, doing well in school. Living in the revelation of Jesus’ love changes everything. 

Check this out:

2 Cor 4:17-18 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison…

In Paul’s life, part of the momentary light affliction was what he had described earlier in the chapter: 5 times he received brutal whippings almost until death, in danger from his friends, in danger from his enemy, gone hungry, to name a few. Paul could he have feared tons of things but he chose not to. How was he able to keep this mindset? lets continue…

v18 …while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

The bottom line is that when we are looking at Jesus nothing else matters. When you set your mind on Him you will no longer stress about the rest of the world. I Promise! It’s SO freeing and the peace He gives is incredible!

Here’s a couple of ways I’ve been setting my mind on him:

Delighting in Him in the fact that: 

His Spirit, lives within your physical body! (1 Cor 6:19, Eph 2:21-22, Rom 8:9) 

Resting in the Fact that:

No matter what you have done you will be presented spotless before Jesus, he will look at you and declare that you are AMAZING, that He is yours, you are His, and that he wants to spend forever with you! Eph 5:25-27, Jude 1:24-25, 2 Cor 11:2

Finally I want to encourage you all to pray without ceasing. Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” The flesh will want us to look for peace anywhere but in Jesus, but the Spirit says “Aint-nobody-got-time-fo-dat!” I believe that we walk in the Spirit to the degree that we communicate with the Spirit. When it says pray without ceasing, it’s not kidding! You can talk with him everywhere you go! He’s got awesome thing’s to say to you today! Go ahead and listen to Him and trust that what you hear of His character is Him talking to You!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

You guys are awesome! Stoked for the reunion!

-Seth

Save the Date

Hey LDPS!! I have a very special announcement to make! Some of you have been waiting a long time for this one...

REUNION TIME!!!!

That's right! We're working on planning a LDP reunion! A lot of the details have yet to be ironed out but I want you to all mark down April 4-6, 2014 on your calenders. Some of you might be wondering why it's so late in the year. That is simply because WBC is an incredibly popular place so trying to book it is a nightmare. Ideally it would be sooner but we figured it's better late than never. 

Stay tuned to the blog and your email for details as they come in!

When It Feels Too Heavy

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Jesus (Matthew 11:29-30)

      

    I don't know about you, but for me, sometimes the burden that comes with following Christ feels anything but 'light'. No, sometimes it feels very heavy. Sometimes the weight of what I'm called to do and be as a follower of Jesus feels like too much to carry. Loving my enemies, serving my neighbours, living a pure life that glorifies God... the list of burdens goes on and on and the weight of what I 'should do' gets heavier and heavier.

     Sometimes the weight of what I'm called to do and be as a follower of Jesus feels like too much to carry, because I was never meant to carry it. Jesus was.

     If you're in a season in your life right now where the burdens of what you 'should do' are feeling heavy, turn your eyes towards Jesus. He wasn't lying when He said that His “yoke is easy and [His] burden is light.” Jesus is our burden-bearer, and we are to lay every care upon Him. (Phil 4:6, 1 Peter 5:7)

     As many of you know, besides working at camp, I have worked at Starbucks for that last few years. I always had a sense that God had me at Starbucks for a reason and I knew I was doing more than just serving people coffee. I was there to serve people to show them Christ's love. But when I started at Starbucks I had the attitude that I was going to show them Christ's love, and most days I was relying on my own strength to do that. And the weight of that call was heavy. I felt so inadequate and so unprepared to convey how awesome God is to the people around me.

     The burden of showing God's love to people became heavier and heavier until I realized I couldn't do it. Not on my own...

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

     I hung this verse on the inside of my pantry door and every morning, before going to work, I would pray through this verse. I was no longer relying on my own strength to accomplish the things that God had called me to. I was abiding in Christ, and that made all the difference. The burden I felt to reach those at Starbucks for Christ became light. Because I was no longer carrying it on my own. I was able to see that God was and is working at Starbucks and He is just letting me be a part of it. I still feel inadequate for the task of showing God to people, but I know that Jesus is adequate and He equips us through the Holy Spirit.

“The Master-workman surely has a right to use any tool He pleases for His own work, and it is plainly not the business of the tool to decide whether it is the right one to be used or not. He knows; and if He chooses to use us, of course we must be fit. And in truth, if we only knew it, our chief fitness is in our utter helplessness. His strength is made perfect, not in our strength, but in our weakness. Our strength is only a hindrance.”

 -Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911)

     When you feel as though your burden to 'do what you should' is heavy, surrender your control to the Lord. Stop trying to control your life and do everything by your own effort. We were never meant to carry that burden. Christ came and died for us, to put us in right relationship with our Heavenly Father, so that we might accomplish things for His Kingdom by His power. So surrender your will to Christ, saying “Yes!” to everything He calls you to and trust Him to work in you to bring your will and desires into conformity with His perfect will.

     When we do this our burdens do become light, and service to God become exciting and enjoyable. Because God begins to change our desires to His desires, and we want to do the things He calls us to do. It's no longer that we should do them, but that we want to do them. And there is so much freedom and joy in serving our Father God in this way. 

 

This story came to mind as I was writing this post. This woman is an amazing example of someone who has surrendered her will to God, and is humbly serving God and others with JOY! 

Have an awesome week serving our amazing God through the strength that He gives!

Links to check out this week:

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/sermon/godly-contentment/
http://www.thevillagechurch.net/sermon/godly-discontentment/

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/10/10996/

http://thedoghousediaries.com/

Check these out this week! If you've got some good links of your own to share leave them in a comment below!

God, Why?

This last month has been a very challenging month for me. As some of you had heard, my cousin was in a tragic accident and she died on Sept.11. No words can explain the pain that I have felt with this whole situation. There are many days that I just want to cry and not stop, and then there are the days that I do not think about it. Many people would ask, “well why aren’t you focusing on the positive things you have done with her”...it’s a lot easier said then done. During this time of pain and hurt, I have been upset, frustrated and have most defiantly asked God, “why?” Why did my cousin who was only 14 have to die? Why are her sisters left with no older sister to look up too? Why was a girl, who was genuinely such as nice, loving, person have to leave a world that she could have made a much larger impact then what she had already did? God, why? 

I know that God loves and that he is comforting our family. I know that, I believe it. But, as a human, I still have questions, frustrations and am just confused on why things like this happen. I know that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives, and that God has been and will continue to work in this situation. I have seen glimpses of him working in the lives of my family members. You know how it is when you are kinda mad at a friend and you don’t really want to talk to them, but you know you should because it will make things better? That is where I am at right now with God. I do want to talk with Him, as I know he is my support. But my human nature wants to blame something, which I have to constantly remind myself not to do.  I am being completely honest with you guys as I want you to know that I am a person, I have struggles, but God is good. Even as I have struggled to pursue my relationship more with God during this difficult time, I have taken the time to do a devotion every morning. Do I feel like reading it? No, not all the time. But, every time I do, God reminds me of different promises he has given us. I would say within the past week, 3 out of the 5 times I have read something, there is a promise like “God will be your strength”, “God helps us in our struggles”, and so on.

I want you to recognize that it is okay to have struggles and that we all will have them at sometime. The thing I want you to recognize though is how you are dealing with it and are you turning to God or just choosing to blame him? I have cried, I have written my frustrations, I have talked to many people I trust, I have prayed. Whatever struggle, or hardship that you may be going through, God is our provider and he will help us in this time of our life. 

Praying for each of you, and if you have struggles or things you are going through, be sure to email/facebook/get in contact with one of us leaders. We are here for you!

Love you all!

Michelle

I’M ENGAGED!!!!!!!

Woooooo! I’d be pumped to tell you guys all about the proposal and everything when we reunite (which shall be amazing!) and how we met but for now I will just say that I’m just so looking forward to spending our lives together! … wait no, I have to tell you more im just too excited!!!:

We had known each other for a long time and were actually seeing each other during the summer. After camp it has just been amazing! As we have gotten to know each other better and better, we’ve spent more and more time together and my love for my, now fiancé, kept growing I knew that I had to make a move. I had actually known for a long time that we would be together forever. I think some of you figured out I was engaged already while you were at LDP this summer but I just wanted to fill the rest of you in. 

Anyway’s Im really looking forward to being together again cause the next time that’ll happen is our wedding day so it sometimes feels long but it’s gonna be so worth it because I know that my fiancé is perfect for me, like PERFECT. Like He is WAY better than I ever imagined! You guys will love Him!

He? Him?

Yup. 

One name.
Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesus has been blowing my mind lately. I NEED his love and so I plead with him to show me more, and you know what? He does! (as he promises Jer. 29:13-14) As I’ve been talking with Him, He has been giving me some even bigger revelations of how I am His bride, we are His bride. You have got to get this: YOU are the beloved of the God of the universe. YOU, get to marry Jesus! It’s nothing sexual or anything like that at all. God is not a sexual being after all, it’s way better than that! But God chose the image of a marriage because of the picture of intimacy we understand when we think about it that way. God desires to have our love completely - for Him to be our single love - and it becomes so easy when we know how much He loves us. 

As I have been looking at the bible and studying, I found this video which talks about what I’ve been learning. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eOaWb7AIVVc

Crazy right?! The king of kings has proposed to YOU, He paid YOUR bride price for the opportunity for us to say yes to Him. He has sent us His Spirit as our comforter and helper until we meet Jesus face to face!

Every day lately has seemed like there is so much I want to get done and so little time to do it all! Can anyone relate? It starts getting hard to spend time alone with Jesus, you start going through your day forgetting about His presence completely and things get stressful. Isn’t it funny how stress always follows those first two.

Ephesians 1:10-11 [He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages, to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and things on the earth.

In Him we also were made [God’s] heritage (portion) and we obtained an inheritance; for we had been foreordained (chosen and appointed beforehand) in accordance with His purpose,… (AMP)

As I have been finding that God’s love for me is real - that He would want to make ME heritage, that he would want ME to be united with Him in heaven - all of my stresses seriously just fade to nothing and all of my worries are gone! Perfect love truly does cast out all fear! (1 John 4:18) God desired to make YOU heritage, so that YOU would be united with Him in heaven! I’m so excited to make myself totally ready for the wedding day when Jesus comes to get me; and that preparation and growing passion for Jesus is just between you and Him! You don’t have to do anything, you can just sit and BE with Him and fall deeper in love with Him!

It will you blow your mind how many parallels there are to what Jesus did at the ‘last supper’ and the culture of weddings in those days. It sure did for me, there was so many that I didn’t know were there and they are quite significant because it gives us so much better understanding of His love for us! If you want to check out more http://www.wildolive.co.uk/weddings.htm is fantastic!

What Im listening to: Song of the Lamb - Harvest Bashta http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=acxHngMnezQ

She has put up her EP for FREE at http://noisetrade.com/harvestbashta/make-us-ready to spread her own music! (don’t worry it’s a legit site)

-Seth

What I Love More Than God

   Watching the beautiful sunset this evening reminded me of the amazing and creative God that we serve, and my heart began to worship. It's in moments like that, moments of heart surrendered worship, that I can say that I love God above all else. He has the #1 and central position in my heart and life. 

   But, if I'm honest, there are also times when I love things more than God. Over the past few weeks God has been showing me more areas in my life where idolatry has crept in, and slowly pushed Him out. God has been calling me to surrender my control, my fear, my personal space and stuff (our house), and my insecurity in unknown social situations. Let me explain.

  As camp was wrapping up this past summer my mind started to think about moving back to Brandon and all the opportunities that may be waiting. When thinking about how to connect with our coworkers and friends that don't know Jesus, or don't know Him well, an idea came to me. We should start a bible study group (we call them Life Groups at our church) for new Christians and people who want to know more about God. Cody thought the idea was great and we decided to get it started shortly after moving back to Brandon. 

 I was SO excited about the Life Group... until a few days before the first one. Then things got real. That's when the worry began to set in. 

Worry that no one would show up. 

Worry that it would be so awkward if people did show up. 

Worry that they wouldn't like the snack that I made, or the house wouldn't be clean enough. 

Worry that we wouldn't have the answers to the questions that they might ask. 

Worry that we'd fail in communicating who Jesus is to people who have never heard before. 

And the whole time I was worrying I just kept hearing God's gentle voice saying, “I got this. I'm the One leading this Life Group, I'm the One working on these people's hearts. I'm the One in control.”

   And finally I listened. Finally I surrendered control, our house, and my insecurities to Him. I worshipped my God by giving Him the Life Group that was already His in the first place. I finally laid down my idols of control, comfort and security.

So now every Wednesday Cody and I open our home to whoever wants to come and learn more about our great God. We pray, we invite our friends and coworkers, and we wait expectantly for God to move. I'm so excited for what God may do through this Life Group!

    It really isn't easy giving up an idol.  And I'd like to say that that was the last of my idolatry, that I will always love God more than anything else. But I know that my heart is prone to wander and that idolatry will most likely creep in again in my lifetime. But I want God to be the thing I love more than anything else in this life. So I will let God tear down every idol that I place up before Him.  And I want to encourage you guys to do the same.  If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of an idol in your life, give it up to God.  Only God deserves our worship. 

This video is funny, but it holds a lot of truth.  We often love things more than we love God, even if we don't admit it.  

Enjoy!  

 

What is something you love more than God?  

Let us know in the comments below

#betransformed

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."  Romans 12v2

 Over the past weeks I've been following Paul's story through the books of Acts and now Romans. Romans 12 has always been a favorite and over the past week I've spent my daily devotion time reading and re-reading this chapter. 

3 weeks ago God put it on my heart that things weren't right. Something was off. It was revealed to me that my priorities were off. I was spending a lot of time worshiping things that weren't worthy of my worship. Through some prayer I noticed God was challenging me to re-evaluate how I was spending my time. I realized that I was wasting a lot of time reading stuff online. None of it was bad in and of itself but it was still distracting me from where my attention was supposed to be. I decided that, amongst other things, I would give up Facebook for two weeks. The fact that I'm writing this blog post to you is proof that one CAN survive without being notified that someone has had spaghetti for supper or that someone else is #eatinganoreo. I want to share with you some other things that I learned over those two weeks, how it ties into Romans 12v2 and what life is like now. In the passage above Paul tells us 3 things:

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world."

How do you know if you are conforming to the patterns of this world? Do you fit in? Do people look at you funny because of the things you do/don't do? I'm not talking about being a hipster. I'm talking about do your thoughts, actions and words identify your allegiance to the world or to Christ? 

During my two weeks I realized that my actions were becoming more worldy. I was becoming attracted to the "shiny things". These seemingly innocent things were stealing my time and attention from what was important. 

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

How do we change the direction of our actions? By having our minds renewed. The way that we think and view things will affect our actions. If I want to love God with all my heart, soul and mind then I need to believe that He is worth it. A few things to realize about having your mind transformed: 

1) You can't do it on your own. Without giving it over to Christ you will never renew your mind. Your efforts are how you got to where you are in the first place. 

2) You've probably got too much noise in your life to hear God. I knew that Facebook isn't the biggest problem I deal with daily but I also realized that it was a noise that was keeping me from hearing God. By eliminating the noise it was unbelievable how clearly I could hear God. For some it might not happen very quickly. Perhaps you need to relearn what His voice sounds like. Once you silence the white noise in your life and you hear Him you will be on your way to transforming your mind.

3) It doesn't happen overnight. I would love to say that after two weeks life is perfect. It's not. But what has happened is that the desires of my heart have started to change. God is working to complete His work in me and is taking me on a journey. Throughout the two weeks I started to find my priorities and seek God more. The more I sought God the more I found myself wanting to seek Him. Now that I'm allowed back on Facebook I find myself not wanting to go there. It doesn't satisfy. While there are still temptations to waste time I am moving in a God-ward direction and and learning more and more every day.

"Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is."
During the first few days of my Facebook Fast I experienced an unbelievable amount of clarity in my life. It was as if the fog had lifted and I could see what God was doing. When we silence the noise of our life we open up the lines of communication for God to speak His will into our lives. If you feel like God isn't speaking to you, before you blame Him, look at what might be tying up your line.

I am not cured of all my problems. I still daily have to surrender my life and my mind over to Christ and ask Him to renew it for me. I know that there will be more times in my life when I find myself conforming to the world's patterns and I will need Him to help me break the mold. I also know that He is willing and He is constantly pursuing me and will never give up on me.

I struggled to write this post. I almost didn't. Pride didn't want me to show weakness. Pride didn't want me to admit that I have Facebook problems. Why did I write it? Because I know that some of you out there are dealing with things that you are embarrassed to deal with. James 4v10 says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up."

tl;dr: conform, transform!

-----------------------------

What are areas of your life you find yourself conforming to the patterns of the world?

Where have you experienced renewing of your mind? 
Have you tried a Media Fast yet? If yes, how'd it go? If not, what's stopping you?

Leave a comment or a question below! 
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What I'm Listening To

God on the Bus

Well, we are just a few weeks out of summer and life is so crazy and busy! I started school the same week that all of you did, and I was working in my grade 3/4 class. Busy, Busy, Busy! Among all this busyness, I have had to make a conscience effort to spend that personal time with God. Not because I feel like I have too, but because I want too! This summer, like many of you, I saw God work in some really sweet ways. I was in the safe environment of camp all summer, so I was bound to see God work. With moving to the city, I knew God would be working, but I was scared that I would not recognize how he was. For me, I knew that I would have to make a conscience effort to recognize and pick out the ways that I saw God working daily. With that being said, I want to share a little story with you.

On my first day of work, I was driving home and my car began to make weird noises, and I knew it was not safe to drive. I’m no car expert, but those noises were not natural! So I drove my car home and then it was done. It was only the beginning of the week, but I had a long, tiring, stressful day at work, and to say the least, I was not to pumped that my car was not working. Not only did this mean that I would have to find a different way of transportation, but it meant that I would be dishing out quite a bit of money to get it fixed. And on top of that, I had just paid my tuition for the year, so that does not leave too much money in one’s bank account. Being overwhelmed, I made my plan of action. I would be getting up at 6:30 to catch my bus to be at work for 8. (I’m not much of a morning person). The first day I took the bus, it was meh, whatever, a bus ride. However, the next day, I was waiting for my second bus and as I got on, I do my regular routine of showing my transfer ticket and proceeding to find a spot. The Winnipeg Transit has a new system where it is all electronic, so the bus driver thought I looked like the kind of person who wanted to know the tricks to making things more efficient. This bus driver begins to tell me the best way to do things, and we begin to talk. We talk for the rest of my ride which is about 10 minutes on her bus, and I go to school. I was so encouraged by her friendliness so early in the morning, as sometimes there are not very friendly bus drivers. I looked forward to the next day, where I purposely waited for her bus to come on by so we could chat some more. This time it was more of a deep talk discussing divorce rates and how it is affecting our communities.  So far, I have only been on her bus twice, but I can totally see God working in the situation. Have we had any God talks yet? No. But, I know that as I continue to take that bus now, once a week until November, God is going to be doing some pretty sweet things and I am so excited to see what he has in store for this new friendship that has begun!

With that being said, I want to encourage all of you to be intentional and look for those ways to serve and build relationships with others and to recognize how God is working in your life. Our God is a big God! Let’s give him all the Glory!  

One verse that has really stood out to me is Psalm 25:4 & 5, it says “Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.” - This verse reminds me to continue to trust God and put my hope in Him all day long. God is going to lead me to people who he wants me to encounter and to love. 

Let Christ be first in your thoughts in the morning, and last in your thoughts at night.

Forgetful Me

After LDP ended this summer I had the opportunity to go to a 4 day, Power and Love school in Madison, Wisconsin. It was amazing, I saw God, once again, move in amazing ways but I was most impacted by some of the people there who I could tell really knew the Lord. Like I mean really really knew Him well. I could tell because they spoke out what the Holy Spirit had to say, because they loved EVERY person they met without condition or hesitation. It inspired me so much, and I desired to live this out more and more too - to be completely and totally surrendered to the Lords work. It was amazing and incredible what the Lord did as I started stepping out of my comfort zone in ways I never had. Then, as I started university two weeks ago I wanted Christ to rock my University, for people to experience Him undeniably. Every day I was looking for how I could do the Lords work there. As I tried and tried to do this I found that I became stressed out because I knew that I had not done things each day where I knew I could have. I was stoked to do Jesus’ work but I just ended up stressed and worn out.


The other day as I came to the Lord in prayer, Jesus rocked my little world with the truth and reminder that He is pursuing me. It was SO freeing!!! With this reminder, I found out that lies had crept into my mind. Lies that I hand’t realized I was believing: After seeing radical christians live life, I thought that if I didn't live in the same way that they did, God wouldn't love me, because i wasn’t living in all the fullness of life that he had for me. I had forgotten that I am UNCONDITIONALLY loved and pursued by Jesus, and that was making me stressed. After all the times I was trying so a hard to DO God’s will and stressed that I wouldn’t do enough or do it well enough, I came home, and in the secret place, He reminded me of His love.

It’s amazing how often I, and I believe all of us, need those reminders that we are loved. You are loved SOOOOOO incredibly much and we can see it by the price that Jesus paid for us. “His appearance was marred more than any man” (Isaiah 52:14) - basically His face was destroyed more than any persons ever was because of all the beatings -that is the price He paid for YOU!!!

The reminder that we don’t have to earn His love is amazing! You are already loved! The Father said to Jesus “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased” before He even started his final three year ministry (Matt 3:17). Jesus said to the criminal who was hanging with Him “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Surely the criminal hand’t earned that love nor could he earn it - he was about to die! Jesus loved, loves, and will love you, because you are you. Not because of the things you have or haven’t done but because you are His!!!!!! Rest in the peace that you do not have to earn God’s love. Pause, and think of that!!!! He already loves you!

When you seek Him you WILL find Him because He is perusing you with passion. Listen to Him with this question: ‘What do you love about me God?’ You are gonna be blown away! NEVER do we have to live in stress or anxiety, Why? Because Jesus loves His girl, His bride, the church!
It’s so easy to forget that we are loved. It’s so easy to fall back into the thinking that the better we live the more God will love us. That’s what i did. When we know how God sees us we will also know how he sees the people around us, and then it’s so natural to live like Jesus did.


(Also, do yourself a favor and read Psalm 139 again, it’s amazing!!!!)

You guys are all gems!
-Seth

Nothing To Lose

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” -Jesus 

(Mark 8:35)

Do I live differently because I'm a Christian?

This is the question I've been wrestling with lately. Ya, my life does look different because I know Christ. I don't get drunk, I watch my tongue, I go to church, pray, read my bible, I strive to love people, etc. But do I really live as if I have nothing to lose?

I say I believe that God's opinion of me is the only one that matters.

I say I believe that Christ died for my sins and that through Him I have been adopted into God's family.  

I say that I believe that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”(Rom 8:28) 

I say I believe that God is all powerful and completely in control of this world. 

And the truth is, I do believe these things. But sometimes... I forget.

In those real life, everyday storms I sometimes let myself forget these truths. In those moments of stress about what people think of me, anxiety over the obstacles I know I'll face the next day, fear of sharing my faith, or guilt about a temptation I've given in to, I don't always live like I am a chosen child of God.

I think that the reason we sometimes live as if Christ is not our sufficient Saviour is because we let our hearts forget. 

We let our hearts forget how much God loves us (John 3:16), and what Christ did for us on the cross. We forget who God is, and we forget His promises for us. 

We forget that He has chosen us and adopted us, and has a plan for each of us. 

We forget that we can't do things by our own effort, because they always fail (John 15:5). And it's only by God's strength, by letting Christ work in and through us by the Holy Spirit, that we can live as if we have nothing to lose.

This is the life we're called to. Living in complete abandonment to our great God. 

We're called to stop worrying about what people think of us, or what we can and can't do by our own effort. 

We're called to stop striving to be better, but instead rest in what Christ has already done on the cross. 

We're called to give up our selfish 'me-centred' lives and instead live everyday for the glory of God.

Let's not forget whose we are. Let's not forget who God is.

Let's remind our hearts daily of the truths that we say we believe. Because only then will we live like we really believe them. 

What truth do you have to remind yourself of today? Let us know in the comments below.

Remember to Remember

He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’  tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’  For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.  He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”  (Joshua 4v21-24)

 During our prep month in June I challenged the rest of the LDP Leadership Team to start taking note of things that God was doing. Throughout the summer as I would see God moving and working I would simply jot it down on my phone. While I forgot to write them all down I was able to compile a fairly extensive list. To list them all here would take too much time and you'd find yourself waking up in a few hours after a nice little meddachschlop.

Image courtesy of nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

While this list of things may not mean a ton to everyone that would see it it helped to serve as a reminder to me that I serve a living and active God. A God that cares about what's going on in my life. A God that is doing stuff in, through and sometimes in spite of me. Just like the story of Joshua I had something to continually remind me that God was moving. Too often we think that God isn't doing anything. It's not because He isn't it's because we're too busy focusing on ourselves to notice.

As you guys head back to school I want to challenge you with this: Take some time over the next week and reflect back on your summer. Make a list of things that God did. Put this list beside your bed or somewhere where you'll have easy access to it. Throughout your school year continue to add things to this list. Whether it's answers to prayers, desires put on your heart or miracles/blessings of other sorts write them down! During the "dry times" in your life let this list serve as a reminder to you of the great works of our great God. In those times repeat the words of Habakkuk:

Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
    in our time make them known; (Habakkuk 3v2)

tl;dr

- God is alive and active; take note of what He's doing.

- Remember: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! Take your eyes off of yourself and see what God is doing.

What I'm listening to: Speak Now Jesus - Tim Neufeld

- CW