How great is our God

Sunday at church we were singing 'How great is our God' and suddenly I looked around the sanctuary at everyone I could see and I was just struck with how amazing it was that each person standing there at that time had somehow and in some way been touched by God -
 even if it was their first time to church or their first time going back in a long time or if they'd been a committed follower of Jesus for most of their lives- 
each of them has a unique story written by God and nobody is left out or forgotten and I was just so joyful about that - about each person's journey and story and how God is just so good and loves each person there so much- I kind of wanted to hug everyone there, because I get to spend eternity with these people! 

Often I'm so wrapped up in my own journey, that I don't ask about other people's - even though they do all have something unique and amazing - It just makes me think of how BIG our God is that He can write a different story (even all the intricate details) for every Christian in the world - and in all of history. 

Wow, how great is our God!!! :D 

Touring

So last week I had the chance to be part of a really unique ministry opportunity touring with The Sky Family. I don't think I've ever mentioned these guys by name but they are the same people who's concert I went to that I shared about in 'My journey' post over a year ago and their ministry was the 'final hurrah' to me deciding to accept Jesus.

So the Sky Family was in my area this past week for the last part of their Spring tour and I asked if I could help out during the four days they were in the area and they said yes! So last Tuesday I went up to where they were playing and as me and my mom were almost at the church to get there a huge van and trailer pulled out right in front of us and lo' and behold it was them! Which was pretty convenient since we didn't know if they would be there yet or not.

After some hugs from everyone, setting up began pronto.  Hauling bins of lights, cords, speakers, tables, CD's, and the dance floor was hard work when you don't know what you're supposed to be doing with anything haha

 After everything was set up we had a prayer time before sound check and then again before the concert. And God brought out someone they had met a concert there the year before and it was just a miracle that he could come out and he had such a powerful testimony, so it was really nice getting to meet him.
And after the concert we had to take everything down and load it back into the trailer! Phew!


The next day the process started just the same except this time I got get the full roadie experience and travel in the 16 passenger van hitched up to the trailer!  We traveled about an hour to the church we were playing at that day - the SAME one that I first met them at 2 years ago so it was really amazing! I felt like I'd really come full circle.
 And that night at least three things ((That I know of)) got answered while we were praying  before the show- it was really amazing to see such specific things get answered!
That night myself and the female member of the band (and now a very good friend of mine) Miriam , got to stay the night at my house while the rest of the band stayed at my adopted families a few minutes away - since the concert the next day was right in my home town.

So in the morning we went over in the morning and had a huge pancake breakfast and then enjoyed a really nice time of worship out on the back deck and the weather was so beautiful and it was just a really nice time!

Now this night was the hardest part of the tour (for me) because my non-Christian family was coming out to the concert that night and we were all praying for them a lot! I was trying to keep away doubts and just trust that God would do something but even still I was on the verge of tears most of the day and during the concert. So needless to say by the end of the concert I was just mentally and spiritually exhausted as well as physically from the three days of doing concerts (though that was much less of an issue than the other two)
I can't really tell you the impact the concert had yet because I don't know what God is starting - but I do know that they didn't react badly, which was what I was most afraid of. And they did ask Miriam more about their family testimony at home which was really neat - since I was praying they'd get to hear it on a more personal level than just what Tom (her dad) said during the message of the concert.

The next morning (Friday) and the last concert myself and Miriam got up and went down to the boardwalk by my house and spent some time chatting (even though we'd chatted every night until 1am- but hey this girl lives across the country so I'm gonna take the chance to chat in person while I can) then we went over to where everyone else was staying and had another worship/ prayer time out on the back deck with lovely weather yet again.

 Concert :Take 4. setting up, singing, and praying. During the concert a really sweet girl won the door prize and was so happy about it that she was crying - that was definitely the sweetest part of the night. The last night the concert seemed to go in a blur, I had a really nice chat and jig time with one of their bible school students who is with them and just really enjoyed the last night of fellowship and spending time together. After the concert we packed everything up and went pack to my place and something amazing happened. My dad who rarely reads for leisure anymore had gone to the library that day and gotten the book 'To Heaven and back' out of the library and was halfway through it. And together with Miriam we prayed for my brother who didn't make it out to the concert at all and that is the first time I've ever prayed with my family and it really meant a lot.


And in the morning they were leaving back to their home in Prince Edward Island.
And I have actually lost my voice because we were all constantly singing worship songs during prayer time, or setting up or..well just because! So that was definitely a great way to lose your voice- along with all the puns and jokes being pulled day and night. I had an official position on the crew as 'Laugh-Support' since I genuinely laugh at even the lamest of jokes.

I really enjoyed getting to serve with this family who truly lives for God, and worship with them, share a lot of laughs and just get to know them better! A very busy but blessed week.



PS. Here's the Sky family website if you want to check them out
http://www.theskys.org/

In the moment

Well.. it's been a couple weeks since I've written anything but the last few weeks I've been learning to just

Stop.
And try to pray in the moment.

 I have this tenancy to go off and seclude myself and have a prayer time in 'perfect conditions', so for me somewhere alone, somewhere quite and with few distractions, (Usually the short walk down to the board walk beside the lake) while this is good for me I've realized that  it might be very beneficial to actual pray myself through something (while it's happening) instead  of before it happens cuz I won't know how to pray about it because... it hasn't happened yet. This task is proving rather difficult but I'm trying to practice it more.

Lately I've been finding myself just stopping and slowing down more to just sing or hum a worship song while I'm on my way somewhere and to just be content in His presence in the mundane things like sweeping the floors or stopped at a red light. :)

 That's it for now!

Need

This has sort of been on my heart and mind the last two weeks is...

How much I really need Jesus... like, everyday. 

GROUND BREAKING statement, I know. 

**I bet nobody has ever thought that before **(end sarcasm)*

No but seriously, I've really noticed it the last couple weeks. I know I'm not the best at keeping consistent with things... for the last little while I'd be (mostly) ok with really getting something out of the Bible or a prayer time one day and then the next couple days skive it off because (my logic at work here) 'well yesterday was good I don't need to get into it quite so much today because yesterday was good' 

That really is not a good mentality to have is it... I think part of the problem is I don't really have anyone to keep me accountable.. actually that's kind of the purpose of the blog the past few months, so I could have something to remind me and keep me more accountable.. and it's working! so HA! 

So with that I've been able to keep myself more on track and I'm starting to (slowly but surely) reeeaaally try to just be with Jesus and keep Him in mind everyday. 

Three weeks ago I was getting away with the old attitude but the last two weeks if I didn't spend REAL time with Jesus that day, I noticed I was just irritable and angrier -both are traits that I'm not proud of when they come out. I don't think the bad mood is a coincidence either - I'm pretty sure it's God's way of making me stick to my guns and to make me love Him more and more.
And I'm joyful about that! :D 

The Gates

Finally figured out how to do an image for this verse I've been wanting to do for quite some time... and here it is! 

The writing in the picture says (from left to right):
For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction...

For the gate is small  and the way is narrow that leads to life. 

Matthew 7:13-14

Now I'm going to ramble on about certain aspects of the drawing and reasoning behind it. 

The gates: I made the broad gates look flashy, showy and extravagant, that's what the world is like - it tries to draw people in by making it look fabulous and enticing, but the actual gates were a yellow, coloured over in roan red, making it look like rust and finally grey . 

The narrow gate is obviously smaller and has a simpler & humbler look to it. Simple - because of the simple power of the gospel to send someone onto the narrow road and humble because Jesus who walked the road was humble. 

The roads: The broad road is drawn in pencil and the lines smudged because I've noticed the world tends to smudge black and white into many shades of grey and you're never too sure one way or the other any more. 

The narrow road has very definite edges and lines and is clear to see when you're off of it. 

 At the end of the broad road is a red/grey blur (the destruction), and at the end of the narrow road is a golden glow, which would be everlasting life. 

And finally before the gates there is a fork in the road symbolizing the decision one must make at some point in their lifetime, to walk the broad or narrow road. 

Any comments? What do you think?? 

Quite the character

The past two weeks I've really been thinking about Jesus's character - which traits He would have had and it's easy to read about in the bible and when you really think about it how sweet and just beautiful those character traits are it's just refreshing and I want to be more like that! 

 I kind of have a hard time seeing those traits in myself  but the last couple weeks I've really taken notice of certain traits in other Christians that I know Jesus has as well- in the past couple weeks I've noticed how sweet it is to be humble, how great it is when others just encourage you when you're down,  how difficult it can sometimes be to be selfless and seen glimpses of real commitment and faith. 

Seeing all these just makes me love Jesus more! :)  So I'd encourage anyone to look around and try to find Jesus in others !

Building

I was thinking earlier this week about Jesus when he was younger -you know before He had disciples and was a carpenter. And I thought 'How appropriate that Jesus was a carpenter - He built things like His kingdom and churches (though He didn't actually physically build churches)' And I just thought that was the coolest thing! I never really took into account much of Jesus's other life experiences and how He was able to use them in His ministry! I guess I didn't think about it much because the Bible doesn't say too much about him as a child/young adult but it's incredibly awesome!

Speaking of how Jesus builds things... I've noticed lately that He's been building my faith in Him! It's something I had been having some trouble with - just being able to trust Him, but I've noticed lately that there's a change with my heart when I'm praying lately I truly trust that He's going to listen and answer( if that thing is what He wants)- just because I asked.

[Ask and you shall receive] - That one I'm especially starting to trust! 

And you know what, He's answering!

That's what He's been teaching me during the last week
So Praise God!  :)

Conferences and realizations

This weekend I was at a youth workers/youth ministry conference; It was interesting, I learned a lot of interesting things so I'm going to share!

So the basic layout was Welcome, introduction and short worship time. Then there were morning and afternoon mini seminar conference groups happening and you had to choose which one to go to. In the morning I chose the one called 'A generation who adore themselves' basically it was all about how my generation (myself included) adore themselves and tend to be in an 'All about me' mindset and there was a couple tips on how to combat that the main one being:

'Teach children to give their lives away in service to others'

That one really struck me, since serving others is what God's been (trying) to teach me and what I'm trying to focus on lately.


The afternoon seminar I went to was 'Nurture your soul'  and I am so glad I went to that one! We ended up having four different 'groups' in each corner of the room those being "prayer' Time in God's word, community, and 'silence and serenity'. We were asked to go to what we thought was our weakest then our strongest and in those groups we just talked about things we can do help out that area or if we'd gone to the group because it was our 'strongest' give some advice. So it was really fantastic and I learned some things from a bunch of different people.



At the end of the day there was a speaker after the afternoon seminars had ended and I felt so convicted about well... a lot of the things he talked about. He talked about how we don't take Jesus seriously enough and if we did we would actually try to do what he said. The speaker followed that up by talking about denying oneself and not getting comfortable.

Those two things together made me think 'guilty, guilty, guilty'. Yikes. He was right... I don't take what Jesus said seriously enough... honestly some of the harder things He said- like 'denying yourself and following Him' I read them and I'm like 'ya I'd like to do that but... nah, that's kinda tough'

Clearly if I'm blowing a point like that off.. well that doesn't just doesn't cut it.  And I do want to live my life for God - really I do and so some things are going to have to change - even though part of me doesn't want it to.

Another question I heard at some point throughout the day is 'What has God taught you this day or this week?' And I didn't have an answer that was different from what I've learned in the last month....
 That was a real kick in the pants! What had I learned from God last week...probably nothing, seeing as I didn't spend much time with Him... (I'm not doing too good am I? Yikes)
So I've been praying about things... trying to figure out where I've let myself become comfortable and get rid of it - I currently a small list and with God's help will be working on it.
And to keep me on track I will be writing at the end of every week in my journal (I may not share everything on here - seeing as some things are more personal than others) about what I've learned or a specific bible verse that I'm been thinking about or just something about God that I thought about and think is really neat.

So I guess this is what I've learned and been thinking about so far this week!

Anything interesting that God's teaching you? Leave a comment!

God bless! :)

Ramble

I'm not sure what this post is going to be about, All I know is that it's 12 in the morning and I feel like writing.
Right now I have time galore, I'm not in school, I don't have a part time job, most of my friends are away at university and I'm single. I know I'll never get a time like this in my life again and I intend to cherish it! So I'm gonna share what I'm up to  and what I'm learning and just ramble.

Since I haven't been having to get up for school I've had a chance to actually read my bible in the morning  when I wake up (I've just finished reading through Luke and want to share some of the things I discovered in another post.
I've decided to take this time I have and just seek His kingdom first (Matt. 6:33) and learn how to be a disciple and totally lean on Jesus - even though I'm not entirely sure how to go about that... I admit it and I'll learn. They didn't call Him 'teacher' for nothing.

One thing that has really been on my heart lately is praying, I know I don't always put my heart into it, but since I've been alone at home most of the day for the last couple weeks, this is my chance! I've just been praying about everything and really enjoying it aaand seeing answers in regards to myself, and a friend! :-D Then there's the ones with a funny story to go with them... I was praying that I would hear from the college I want to go to because colleges are starting to do acceptances and well... I heard from them...telling me they would tell me sometime  in March whether I'm accepted or not. So TECHNICALLY that's an answered prayer too... perhaps I should've been more specific. God does have a sense of humour though doesn't He? lol

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 I walked into a store the other day and learned that it's February. Yes, I could tell by the large red and pink signs and heart shaped boxes and such... yea, THAT day is coming up. I have several mixed feelings towards Valentine's day - yes, it's a little bit lonely - being single all that couple-y stuff like mushy talk and cute dates makes me wish I had someone to share it with but I don't want to focus on that - I'm not going to be single forever (God willing) and I've drawn the conclusion that I may as well bless some couple by taking care of the kids while they go out on a date or making dinner for my parents- I want to do something for someone - otherwise I may find myself watching sappy romantic comedies Thursday night.

But more than wanting to do something nice for someone for one night I want to spend time making Jesus my first love - and I'm not sure how to do that either! You know I find when it comes to our relationship with God nobody really wants to admit that they don't know how to go about because it both is and isn't like a normal relationship with someone on earth. But that's the wonder and beauty of it - there's nothing else like that relationship! :) 

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Another thing I'm doing with my time is getting lots of reading in I just finished 'The case for faith' and it did such a great job of addressing issues that I had with Christianity in general and in the last week has strengthened my faith so much! I also want to read some biographies of famous missionaries if I can get my hands on  some (If any one has any suggestions, please comment because I don't know very many). 

And I think lastly, mostly because I'm getting tired is I've been learning how to really serve God the last few months and I'm taking that knowledge home and serving my family and hoping to get more out there about my faith - something I usually shy away from and hide while at home, but I don't want to do that any more, how am I supposed to be a light if I cover it up? It took me longer than it should've to realize this. Good thing God is patient with us! 

If anyone actually read through this whole thing I applaud you, I hope you got something out of it, but if not well it helped clear my head of all the things I've been thinking about!

Goodnight (ok technically it's morning) and God bless! :) 

Words

Words, we use them everyday, often very casually. I know the bible tells us to use our words to encourage others and not gossip and be wise with what we say and it's something I've been trying to take to heart more lately because I've really started noticing how often people (including myself) jokingly insult their friends or are mean to them, yes it's meant to be a joke but personally I don't think it's all that funny to hear best friends calling each other curse words - (I'm sure you can figure out which ones I'm talking about) and then acting PROUD to be called that? It drives me a little crazy.

But I'm going to share a few of the words that I think are waaaay over used and used to casually in the world around us.

The first is the word HATE.
I do not like this word. Especially when I hear other people using it to describe how they feel about another person.  I didn't start getting annoyed when others did that until about 2 years ago - up until that point I used that word when describing people allllll the time. So what was with the sudden change? A woman named Eva Olsen came to talk at our school, she is a holocaust survivor and she told us her story which was tragic. But she also talked about how she'd raised her children and grand children to NEVER use the word hate, because that's what the Nazi's did. they hated, they murdered, they did horrible things and to feel that towards another human being was a crime. I was in tears at this point when she was talking, it was just sooo true and I was so inspired by that part of her speech that I don't think I've used the word hate to describe a person since. I try to avoid it all together but sometimes it slips out when I'm describing a nasty paper cut. Yes this woman is an inspiration to me - I even got to hug her afterwards - Now -whenever I hear this word used to describe someone I sort of cringe.  But I challenge others not to tell people they hate someone. Even as a joke. Because hate is the complete opposite of love - and the bible commands us to love others, Not hate others.


The second word that is way over used today I think is kill.
You hear the words 'I'm gonna kill you" spoken to a friend after they may or may not have had a prank pulled on them. I know it's said jokingly but again, it's one of those words I try not to use even as a joke. To me, telling someone you're going to kill them as a joke is basically breaking the sixth commandment of 'thou shall not kill' in your mind. Maybe it sounds extreme, but I don't like it when I hear people say they want to kill each other and I'm sure God doesn't like it either.


The third word I find that is thrown around too casually is PERFECT.
When someone says perfect I instantly think - Jesus- He's perfect, what else is? So when people say other people they look up to are 'perfect' I almost snicker, because nobody else is. I often wonder what God thinks of people who think or say that they are perfect people, Does He try to show them otherwise or is He just saddened because they don't realize that there is only one perfect person? Hmm... something to ponder.


Does anybody else have certain words they avoid using (besides swear words)? If so, leave a comment. Tell me what you think of the post and I challenge whoever reads this to think on it!

God bless :)

Baptism Pictures!

The photos from my baptism on December 9th. I'm standing in a tank of water (I swear), it's just very well concealed inside of the stage! (This is just before)

Aaaaannnd, this is just after! It was a wonderful day! :) 

A year in review!

Wow, this time last year I was considering starting up this blog, I'm really glad I did! I have blogger friends from different countries who have the same interests as I do, which is super cool and I never would have 'met' them otherwise. :)

I've been pondering the past year in my mind for the last couple days and I wanted to write a  post about what God's done and what I've learnt from Him over the past year. This may be incredibly long and possibly vague because I don't share every personal detail of my life with the world wide web.

Here it goes:

 This year God's answered some of the smallest of prayers, even though I thought it was silly to pray about something that wasn't a big deal, occasionally I did and God came through on it! Which is really cool and always resulted in me doing a little 'happy dance' that I tend to do when I realize a prayer is answered. Yes it looks kind of silly but I don't care one bit!  Praise God!

                                                                                                                     

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 

~ Matthew 28:19

 I love this verse,  it's quite popular and I've been thinking about it a lot but I think it's sometimes taken too far in context... When Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations most people tend to think, oh I have to go to a foreign country on a mission's trip, that is the obvious thought and it's great that people do go to other countries and share Jesus with people who have never heard it, But to GO as commanded could also mean to go across the street and invite your neighbour to church, or to casually mention something that God's been showing you to a friend- even if they don't really respond because it's 'awkward'  for both parties, So God's really been showing me that I don't have to go to to another country, I'll go where I'm called and right now I think that's right here.

The second part of that verse reminds me of what I haven't yet shared with fellow bloggers...


I got baptized on December 9th! It was really great!!! And there's another answered prayer within the days leading up to it...
I had the slightly terrifying task of telling the rest of my family I was getting baptized about a week before it happened. As I was telling my parents... my dad kind of over reacted and freaked out about me being 'lured' into 'organized religion' as he puts it, even thought it was completely my decision. And of course I was upset that he didn't support me, not that I had expected him to.
 I went for a walk to calm down and I was praying about it, that he wouldn't over react and he'd let me make my own decisions (being the mature, responsible 18 year old I am). I kept on walking feeling a bit better and a little more calm... and it had literally been 2 minutes since I had been praying about my dad when he called me on my cell phone and apologized for over reacting! Again, my little 'happy dance' came out, I was so shocked and so happy that God just changed his heart all of a sudden I almost cried tears of joy! :')

So a week later I was standing in a tank full of nice *warm* water with my pastor, my dad showed towards the end of the service to see it and I was baptized! As I was standing in the tank I was thinking about how far God's brought me in the last two years and when I was being dunked I was just thinking 'whoa, this is so cool'!
 It was a really nice day, surrounded by friends (one who came from university and had an exam the next day) and family (which was mostly unexpected) and surprisingly my family has been better about my faith in general since. My mom came to a Christmas eve service with me and my dad started asking me the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament while we were driving around Christmas shopping! I think it's so cool that they're asking questions - I mean, that's what I did to get to where I am today, I asked my friend questions about God and the bible and stuff I didn't understand, these things I'm only just beginning to understand but God's still using me somehow! Woo hoo!



The major thing I've learned this year though was about love and family. I wrote a post about loving people in August (Love like What?, if you care to look it up) but basically in summary I've been learning to love people selflessly, like Jesus loved us, so God's been teaching me how to love (which makes sense, because He is love! hehe)
 I've also learned a lot about family this year.
I struggle with the question of whether I actually want a family and children of my own someday, yes it's a little early to think about this kind of thing but when ever I see broken families and fighting and hatred within families it just makes me want to give up and never have a family of my own... because what if it turns out like that?
But being part of God's family really changes things up, I see encouragement and all the good things about family even in troubled times. This year I was 'adopted' into a friend's family and well... they really are like family to me, they mean a lot and I get to what a close God loving family is like, something that I'd never experienced before and it means more than I can say.  =D 

I've been learning how to come before God with anything, it's tough, because well sometimes I don't want to feel convicted and guilty, or it's sometimes easier to turn to people, but I've been trying to rely on God in more areas of my life and it's really neat how He cares about the smaller stuff when you actually just go and bring it to Him, remember how I mentioned answers to the smallest of prayers,  stuff like that, I've found that God is really sweet and does care about minor details, which I'd heard people say  before but never really understood.

Lastly, I've been trying to get into a habit of spending way more time getting to know God, I can hear other people list off His character traits until the cows come home but it doesn't usually mean much if I don't experience it myself (like mentioned above), so my new year's resolution is to spend more time reading through bible and making more notes about God's character and seeing it through answered prayers, other people and the things He created, So I want to share what I'm learning with this in the new year, I'm reading through Luke right now and taking notes so perhaps I'll post some of what I've been learning.

Anyway, long enough post???

Merry  (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year! :) 

Hello, my name is Eve

I have never been one to fall into peer pressure or doing what other people think is cool or been tempted by anything that could get me into real trouble, (maybe a little scolding from my parents for staying out later than I should but other than that) my record is pretty clean.

So I've always had a difficult time seeing any similarities between Eve (the first woman) and myself, the similarity usually stopped at the fact that we are both female.
In fact most of the time I think Eve is quite... well stupid, For letting the serpent tempt her, convincing her husband to try it AND THEN trying to hide from God. It doesn't sound like a good thing to do, in fact it could only get worse once you're trying to hide from God.

But if you really think about it that serpent (aka the devil) can be very very tempting and shouldn't be underestimated, everyone's fallen into something of the sort at sometime in their life. Suddenly Eve isn't sounding quite as dumb to me.

THEN, I was thinking about it some more and I know that when I've done something I shouldn't have- like disobeyed my parents, not doing my homework and when I disobey God, I hide from those people (parents, teachers, and shameful as it is to admit- God) because well I don't want to get in trouble, I don't want them to know or find out. And that usually ends up making it worse... Especially when I'm trying to avoid God.

So really I'm not all that different from Eve once I've thought it through...
                                                                                         (Another similarity...I love apples! Weird right?!)

I quite enjoy this mini revelation, because I often find it hard to relate to people in the Old Testament but this has been a huge eye opener.

Has anyone realized lately how much they relate to some characters they didn't think they did? If so... Leave a comment! 

For God so loved the world

I, like most people have often struggled with loving others as God loves us, like commanded. And of course it's natural that no one can love somebody like that because, well... we aren't God.

But with certain people it does seem a lot more difficult. You've met those people who have completely opposite viewpoints than you, get themselves into a load of problems that could quite easily be avoided, they don't seem to have any healthy lifestyle choices and these people just seem to cause chaos in other people's lives and can be just plain rude about the whole thing. Those kind of people (to me anyway) are the ones I find difficult to love but...

I was reading John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." 

Yea, I've read that one before. But I realized that this doesn't say:

 'because we were so loveable God loved us and gave his only Son'


Nor can I think of any other verse off the top of my head that says we are loveable
I think this brings up the point again of how unworthy we really are.
Like I already said, sometimes it can be very difficult to love somebody who seems unlovable, which makes it even more incredible that we are so loved by God,  just as we are!

Who's will?

Sort of going on a theme here, since I haven't written anything in so long. So two posts in one day, woo hoo (actually in 1 hour, impressive right?)!  Again this post is based off verses in Acts.

Acts 21: 10-14

10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

 

I also thought this verse was quite eye opening, because  if you were told that you were going to be tied up by the gentiles for going somewhere and spreading the Good news... you might not want to go, I probably wouldn't, I hear jail isn't a very nice place. I think it's interesting that Paul was willing to do that, to go and to die. But it was the other believer's who were scared for him and didn't want him to go, it didn't mention that they'd be harmed or bound and thrown in jail, but they still didn't want Paul to go. They did eventually say "the Lord's will be done" and I thought that was terribly accurate to how a lot of Christians are today too, often it does take a little while before we submit to God's will, we worry about what might happen or what could go wrong, and yes it's a scary thought but doing things God's way usually makes things work out in the end! :)

Will power and sinful practises

 

Acts 19: 18-19

"Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas."

 

I was reading through my notes I'd made from reading Acts over the summer and remembered writing this one down, mostly out of amazement. To me it just seemed so amazing because these new believers obviously felt convicted by what they were doing and knowing it was sinful and against God, burned it all. Their scrolls and books on sorcery and just stopped doing it. They just did it. I mean I know personally that it's hard to give up the sinful practises, especially when they may not seem like they are. For example there are a couple tv shows that I watch and well... they aren't really something I should be watching, I have given up watching several shows that I know I shouldn't, so I haven't been a complete failure but it is difficult. And I don't think I could do the equivalent of what these new believers did, getting rid of my tv… well it's actually my parent's tv. But I couldn't imagine just burning it or maybe smashing it, like these people in Acts got rid of their things, again, it's quite incredible. And maybe it did take these people a while to do that, but from the text it sounds like they quit it almost right away.

So has this been convicting? (in my case yes)  I just thought it was a really eye opening verse, has anyone else ever thought the same thing while reading it?

Love like what?

Wow, I haven't written anything in what feels like forever. Honestly, I've had no clue what to write. But just now,  I felt compelled to write about how, over the last few months I've begun to realize what it means to really love someone and I've decided to share (And no, this does not mean that there is a 'special guy' in my life right now, because there's not, at least not on earth). 


Firstly, I've realized that loving someone is a  choice.  Just like Jesus chose to die for us. And no that's not always easy, making the choice. Even Jesus had trouble with it when He cried out 

"Your Will, not Mine!" - Mark 14:36

He had to make that choice, and it can't have been easy. 


Secondly, I've realized that if you truly love someone, then you don't just stop loving them, part of you still loves that person no matter what they've done to you or how far apart you've grown. 

Could you imagine if God did that to us? 

'Weeeell, that joke you made about me? that wasn't very nice of you, Plus I haven't really heard from you in a while, we've grown apart, Sorry, but I don't love you anymore...' 

Um, no, that's not how it works. 


Thirdly I've really been running over 1 Corinthians 13 a lot. It's probably my favourite chapter in the bible and it tells us exactly what love is. 

^{4 "}Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

To really love someone, you make the choice to love them, you don't stop loving them and that love should be patient and kind and all of the things above ^ 

It's a beautiful realization and something that  I've been working on with all the people in my life lately :)