So since I basically live in a Christian music bubble called Life 100.3 I have been listening the Owls City's new song Galaxy and I have been dancing to it almost every time. Not only due to the catchy tune but also the lyrics which are somewhat confusing but also rather delightful.
Galaxies
Through the galaxy
Call back the CapCom
Tick off the time bomb
Let felicity fly
Armor the airlock
Blanket the bedrock
And kiss the planet goodbye
Dear God, I was terribly lost when the galaxies crossed and the sun went dark
But dear God, You're the only North Star I would follow this far
Da da da da da dada da
Through the galaxy
Fight back the flight deck
Bring on the breakneck
Cue the solar eclipse
Summit the sunset
Dovetail the dragnet
And blow your backbone to bits
Dear God, I was terribly lost when the galaxies crossed and the sun went dark
But dear God, You're the only North Star I would follow this far
O telescope, keep an eye on my only hope
Lest I blink and get swept off the narrow road
Hercules, you got nothing to say to me
'Cause you're not the blinding light that I need
For He is the saving grace of the galaxies
Dear God, I was terribly lost when the galaxies crossed and the sun went dark
But dear God, You're the only North Star I would follow this far
From what I understand and have heard from interviews this is what he thought it would be like going in space and his reflections on it.
I picture sitting in the seat not really knowing what I am doing yet so excited that the day has finally come. Then as I launch into space I see stars fly past and enter this dark abyss.
Its neat becuase the next line is a direct contrast to this great abyss. God is the North star that is out there that he is willing to go too
the bridge is pretty awesome too! talking about keeping his eyes fixed on the star (Christ) so that he wont step off the narrow road (of salvation)
I like how he makes fun of hercules and says that he is not what he needs rather its the blinding light of the star- the saving grace of the galaxies
This reminds me of my devotions that I was doing this morning as well. In Psalms 19 is says "heavens declare the glory of God the skys proclaim the work of his hand"
Creation around us declares his glory and should bring us to worship him. I was challenged about how to make this Psalm apply to my life but really it was easy. I walked outside and looked up. Then I proceeded to look around, to see grass, tall trees and beautiful flowers. His creation declares his glory and we are to worship him through it.
So I would encourage you to do the same. Its summer! GO OUTSIDE and worship the creator with his creation!
Jul 29, 2011
Jul 22, 2011
This is the End!
So it is offical; I have been home from Cameroon for... 3 weeks and two days now (Megan always tells/corrects me) and have finishd unpacking, done the laundry and have been to camp, Sudbury and back.Its only been this past week were I have actually spent at home. Unfortunately my time at home has mostly been figuring out school next year and preping for camp. My vaccation was in Sudbury which was wonderful.
In the midst of vaccation and busyness at home I have had time to reflect on what God has been teaching me. As I wrote in my last update letter (if you would like to read these comment and I'll post them) I learned that a barrier that was preventing me from developing a closer relationship with God was me constantly comparing myself to others. What I realized is that I need to stop doing this and look to Christ and focus on him alone. This break through has brought me into a closer relationship with him as well as to experience his joy and peace.
Something that I have realized though is that school, work and deadlines are not looming over my head. My prayer is that as these things come that my heart and head will continue to be set on Christ and nothing less. This is also the challenge; to maintain the roots of peace and joy in my heart as I enter school. At the core only Christ power in and through me this will happen!
In the midst of vaccation and busyness at home I have had time to reflect on what God has been teaching me. As I wrote in my last update letter (if you would like to read these comment and I'll post them) I learned that a barrier that was preventing me from developing a closer relationship with God was me constantly comparing myself to others. What I realized is that I need to stop doing this and look to Christ and focus on him alone. This break through has brought me into a closer relationship with him as well as to experience his joy and peace.
Something that I have realized though is that school, work and deadlines are not looming over my head. My prayer is that as these things come that my heart and head will continue to be set on Christ and nothing less. This is also the challenge; to maintain the roots of peace and joy in my heart as I enter school. At the core only Christ power in and through me this will happen!
May 7, 2011
Worry is SIN! Why don't I get that?!
The subject of worry has been one that has come up over and over again in my life so i would like to consider it a theme in my life recently. A theme and a rebuke or conviction. I have heard two pastors tell me that it is a sin. Worrying about people, circumstances and situations is a sin. Yet for some strange reason I still do it. So i did some research on it and these guys ain't lieing. There are SEVERAL passages that talk about worrying being a sin. So lets check it out!
There are 2 main reasons that the bible gives us that I have discovered in my small amount of digging.
Matthew 6:25-34 is a very large passage about worrying but lets focus in on vs. 25
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
When we are worrying our focus is no longer on Christ but on the thing that we are worrying about. We have no longer made Christ our center but instead are focusing on our selves and start to rely on our own strength to make sure that our worry does not come true. Our focus becomes lost when we let worry take control. I have seen and know personally how worry can consume our thoughts and lives and this is because we have lost sight of our first love, Christ the one who knows all, protects all and guides all things.
now look at vs. 30
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
YOU OF LITTLE FAITH? Do you want your love, Christ, almighty God to say to you "you of little faith?" Every time you worry this is what you are causing him to do. Every time you worry you are saying that you do not trust that God has control. You are telling him that you want control and are NOT giving it to him. You are saying that your plans are better then his. Now does this sound like sin? To me it does. To me it sounds like I am bringing shame to my God, to Christ my saviour who gave EVERYTHING for me. He deserves much better then this!
So this is what I am challenging myself and anyone else who struggles with this!
Worry is Sin. Worry is an attitude thus we need an attitude ADJUSTMENT! (it seems that i need a lot of these)
So here is how I am going to tackle it.
When I start to worry I am going to catch my self and rather then continue to worry ask my God to instead help me to increase my trust in him knowing that he has this under control. Consciously making the decision to trust in Him and not worry. Simple... I think
Here is some scripture that can encourage you to know that he indeed has in under control
Colossians 1:15-18 Christ is supreme in ALL things
Philippians 4:6-7 Christ will guard your heart against worry if you ask
Matthew 11:28-30 Christ will give you rest from you worries and give you comfort
Proverbs 3:5-6 If you trust Christ then he will direct in you where he wants and it will be right and glorifying!
Worry is a Sin. It is something that is not glorifying to God. But overcoming this gives much glory to God who deserves all that we are. Soli Deo Gloria!
There are 2 main reasons that the bible gives us that I have discovered in my small amount of digging.
Matthew 6:25-34 is a very large passage about worrying but lets focus in on vs. 25
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
When we are worrying our focus is no longer on Christ but on the thing that we are worrying about. We have no longer made Christ our center but instead are focusing on our selves and start to rely on our own strength to make sure that our worry does not come true. Our focus becomes lost when we let worry take control. I have seen and know personally how worry can consume our thoughts and lives and this is because we have lost sight of our first love, Christ the one who knows all, protects all and guides all things.
now look at vs. 30
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
YOU OF LITTLE FAITH? Do you want your love, Christ, almighty God to say to you "you of little faith?" Every time you worry this is what you are causing him to do. Every time you worry you are saying that you do not trust that God has control. You are telling him that you want control and are NOT giving it to him. You are saying that your plans are better then his. Now does this sound like sin? To me it does. To me it sounds like I am bringing shame to my God, to Christ my saviour who gave EVERYTHING for me. He deserves much better then this!
So this is what I am challenging myself and anyone else who struggles with this!
Worry is Sin. Worry is an attitude thus we need an attitude ADJUSTMENT! (it seems that i need a lot of these)
So here is how I am going to tackle it.
When I start to worry I am going to catch my self and rather then continue to worry ask my God to instead help me to increase my trust in him knowing that he has this under control. Consciously making the decision to trust in Him and not worry. Simple... I think
Here is some scripture that can encourage you to know that he indeed has in under control
Colossians 1:15-18 Christ is supreme in ALL things
Philippians 4:6-7 Christ will guard your heart against worry if you ask
Matthew 11:28-30 Christ will give you rest from you worries and give you comfort
Proverbs 3:5-6 If you trust Christ then he will direct in you where he wants and it will be right and glorifying!
Worry is a Sin. It is something that is not glorifying to God. But overcoming this gives much glory to God who deserves all that we are. Soli Deo Gloria!
May 2, 2011
Heavenward!
Whispers; Some hear them in the beat of a drum, others in the strum of the guitar. I hear the whispers of the heavenly Father sitting in the quietness of my car, in an arm chair in the living room or under the tree with the breeze softly blowing. In the quite I hear my Father’s voice. Through his word he tells me his truths, his promises and his gentle corrections.
Read Psalm 91 before you go any further.
Simple words such as if and will are words that should both catch our attention and give a great promise.
If we make the most high our dwelling-
Even the Lord, who is my refuge-
The not harm will come near you,
No disaster will befall you,
No disaster will come to your tent.
Here it asks us to make us the most high; heaven our dwelling place. When I think about dwelling somewhere I think staying put, a place were I am there all the time. It is where I always come back to. Then it calls us to make my Lord as my refuge; the place of safety, peace and protection. THEN if we do this he protect us and not only us but our tent; our family.
As I read this over and over again all I could this of was heavenward. Our focus most not be on what is around us, the troubles the trials the dangers but we must be looking up, looking heavenward. To look to our king and if we do this he will protect us. I think this should change some perspectives in the way we pray especially those who are praying for this team. Rather then praying that we will be protected pray that I am my team will look heavenward so that God can deliverer his promises to us and our families.
Pray that we will look heavenward; look toward our KING and do what He is calling us to do!
Apr 15, 2011
Praising God anytime anywhere
So Today I was listening to Owl City on deck because I was trying to stay awake cause I was so tired. I was listening to a couple of there lyrics and I have to say that I love when I hear praises to my King that I never noticed before. So today I was listening and I have to say that they got my prayer pretty right
I am not my own
Have been made new
Please don't let me go
I desperately need you
Cause I am so tired trying to stay awake on deck is so challenging let alone trying to have a positive attitude with all this stress building up from school. God is an amazing God by encouraging me through an amazing little song. I have to say that I love when I have the opportunity to praise him while I work. That truly is blessing from my creator. I thank him every time I think of it.
So today is the day where are supposed to hand in what I like to call our supers-size children's book. We had to make them for our exam... Lets just say my gift is not drawing or art of any kind. Therefore this project wants to make me cry! So what have learned from this book
1. How to depend on God for strength and Endurance
2. How to depend on God to help me honour my Authorities
3. God to see answer to prayer that he has kept me awake all day yesterday
God is so good but let me tell you this kind of stuff takes more time then a regular exam... 12-20 hrs is the averaged that each of my team members worked. It was really cool though how this become a team building time. A lot of us did it together and we helped each other, encouraged each other and had some good laughs as well. I honestly think that this book brought out the best and the worst of all of us and taught us. For some of us it let us experience the feeling of completing an all nighter and for others what it feels like for you body to say "nope time for bed"
I pray that these books will somehow be worth it for the kids and that we will able to use them in Cameroon.
Conclusion of this whole experience: I NEVER WANT TO MAKE A CHILDRENS BOOK IN A WEEK AGAIN!!!!!!!!
God is good and gives perseverance and endurance to those who ask---James 1:2-8
Apr 11, 2011
Latching On
So I just came out of Post Exilic Class the last one of the year and my first experience of a pure bible course elective. Conclusion... I got lost alot, learned alot and currently in shock that my year is almost done. Right now I literally wrestling with a paper and trying to get through the last two three major projects so rather then sucoming to my emotional tearful stress i took a walk attempting to listen to Gods nature in the midst of all the car noise. I talked to God and let him to know that I am uber stressed. Conclusion of that... not much other then a small hint of peace that in time will completely fill my heart. 2 Corinthians (mentioned in my early post) was the passage today that I turned to as well as what Korki was talking about in class in John eleven.
This truth that he spoke of today really hit me and surprisingly gave me some comfort
I take comfort that all I am going through will deepen the relationship that I have with my Creator and
I will soar on the wings of Eagles!
This truth that he spoke of today really hit me and surprisingly gave me some comfort
God number one thing that he longs from his children is faith. He allows his children to go through suffering in order to produce a deepened faith in WHO HE IS.
I will soar on the wings of Eagles!
Apr 9, 2011
Looking at Jesus
As you probably already know I was challenged to read the gospels for my devotions. For the longest time I put it off because to try to tackle such big books for me was really challenging especially since there is SO much in there, I had no idea where to start. So about a month ago I decided to read through the book of Mark since it was the shortest it was a good place to start. So I am continuing my adventure through mark reading through it learning about Jesus and who he is and what he done.
A few days ago I was reading Marks version of Jesus walking on water which is actually really different then the other gospels. Mark story places all the focus on Jesus and Peter is not really mentioned. This story for me reminded me and brought to a different light who Jesus is. So first off as everyone knows Jesus is compassionate but here we learn to the extreme. He neglects his own hunger to help people. Jesus loves to be alone and talk to his father. He took specific time out and talked to him. We can learn from that. Jesus is a night hawk. He was out between 3-6am taking a walk on water.....yes Jesus for his evening strolls walks on water. That both made me laugh and I was also amazed. He was walking towards the disciples because they were having great difficulty rowing and he was about to walk passed them when they cried out because they thought it was a ghost. Jesus told them to take faith, courage and to not be afraid. And then the storm and winds were calm. I was kinda confused about why he was going to walk on by and I wonder what Jesus felt like when his best friends thought that he was a ghost. (though the general person doesn't go for a midnight stroll on a lake) so here you see Jesus awesome power. The variety of characteristics that are describe in such a small chapter is incredible and from this small passage I have learned so much about him!
A few days ago I was reading Marks version of Jesus walking on water which is actually really different then the other gospels. Mark story places all the focus on Jesus and Peter is not really mentioned. This story for me reminded me and brought to a different light who Jesus is. So first off as everyone knows Jesus is compassionate but here we learn to the extreme. He neglects his own hunger to help people. Jesus loves to be alone and talk to his father. He took specific time out and talked to him. We can learn from that. Jesus is a night hawk. He was out between 3-6am taking a walk on water.....yes Jesus for his evening strolls walks on water. That both made me laugh and I was also amazed. He was walking towards the disciples because they were having great difficulty rowing and he was about to walk passed them when they cried out because they thought it was a ghost. Jesus told them to take faith, courage and to not be afraid. And then the storm and winds were calm. I was kinda confused about why he was going to walk on by and I wonder what Jesus felt like when his best friends thought that he was a ghost. (though the general person doesn't go for a midnight stroll on a lake) so here you see Jesus awesome power. The variety of characteristics that are describe in such a small chapter is incredible and from this small passage I have learned so much about him!
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