WITH Jesus

I was reflecting the other day on the beginning of Luke when the angel appears to Mary and tells her that she is going to become pregnant with the Savior of the world. This news is sure to change her life completely. Not once does Mary object or seem dismayed or do anything except submit. Yes, she has a few obvious questions, but her response is to reply with complete submission, knowing that God is the one in control and He will get His will done.

The part that really stuck out to me though was what the angle told her about how she would become pregnant. Yes, he says the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and also lets her know that her very aging cousin Elizabeth has miraculously become pregnant. And then follows it up by saying, "For nothing will be impossible with God." (Luke 1:37). Something that I think God kind of made jump out at me was that is says with God, not For God. Many already know that God has complete control and that everything is possible for Him. But here it says that nothing is impossible WITH Him. Now perhaps I am reading too much into this, but I actually find this really significant. In the one word "with" we see that God, who has nothing impossible for Him, says to us (who have so many limitations), that With Him, nothing will be impossible. Yes, when we try on our own, we have limitations galore. But when we walk with Him and are seeking Him and His will, there are no impossibilities. Yes, there will be things that our flesh wants to do that God will not allow to happen, but with Him, He can make anything happen. He invites us to travel with Him in this journey called life.

So our lives do contain mountains and valleys. Sometimes there are times when we feel we will never reach the top of the mountain, and it can get discouraging at times. But what we need to realize, is that nothing absolutely nothing is impossible when we are walking with our Savior and LORD, Jesus Christ. Also, we can be assured that He IS with us.

Another thing I think is really cool about this is that sometimes what seems impossible to me is getting rid of habits that are not healthy but that I slip into from time to time. I often instead of trusting God to begin with, find myself worrying instead. And some people know this about me and perhaps now just come to expect it of me. But the thing is, even though it seems kind of impossible for me to change that about myself to change myself into someone who rather trusts God first, with God, it is POSSIBLE to change that. With Him, not by myself. It is also really neat that even though I some might label me as a "worrier", in Jesus, I am confident. In my lack of confidence, He IS Confidence. In whatever it is that you are lacking right now, don't remain in it. Know today that with Jesus, everything is possible. On your own you lack a lot, but with Jesus, you have everything. Lets know this today. Know that he is with us. Know that not only is everything possible FOR God, but for us, everything is possible when we are walking WITH Him.

Beloved

So I've been going over some things that God's been trying to get through to me my whole life. Last year was very significant for this. The fact is that Jesus loves me (and you too whoever reads this). He LOVES me. He LOVES you. This is something that is so simple, yet so utterly significant in how we live each and every day. I've often had a distorted view of God. I've had the thought in my mind so many times; What if I'm the one exception to Jesus' love? It actually is a question that I've had cross my mind every so often for many years. And I used to think that I was the only one who had ever had that doubt too. Last year, Jesus really showed me that He loved me. He brought me through a storm and He brought me to a place where I not only felt loved by Him, but I also saw His control in my life and His presence in my life in such a real way and it was awesome!

Jesus loved each and every one of us SO much that He took nails in His wrists, nails in His feet, thick thorns stuck into His head and endured this until His last breath. He did that for YOU and He's done it for me. And also, He rose from the dead too!! Jesus beat death. He is the victor over death! So what I've been thinking is that if one thinks they are the exception to Christ's blood, they are kind of saying that they don't believe Jesus' blood is powerful enough to save them. They don't believe that His blood was enough. And this is incredibly false. If anyone is reading this and thinks that Jesus Christ does not love them, think again! Jesus loves you! His blood is enough. He desires us to realize this love that He has for us; that He proved to us. He wants us to run to Him with absolutely everything. He wants us to walk in Him. He loves us and this love doesn't dwindle. It lasts forever! May we believe this friends! May we believe, truly believe that He loves us today! May we see this for real, and may we seek His face!

There is a chorus I learned at Capernwray last year that was written by a student at Capernwray. It was very significant for me and still is. Sometimes even when I listen to it, I get tears in my eyes. The tune really is so great, but I hope Jesus encourages your heart with these words to see how very real His love is.

"I love you
Nothing will ever change my mind.
You are mine.

I love you
would you let it sink into your heart this time?
You are mine
You are mine."

Romans 8: 35-39 "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,
'For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered sheep to be slaughtered.'
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Praise Him name!

Now I will get back to studying. Press on to KNOW Him!

Desert Song

So, a very good friend of mine just played me this song, and now its been in my head a lot the last few days. Here are the lyrics and if I figure out how to post a link to the song I will, but I'm kind of doubting my computer skills at this moment in time.

Verse 1:
This is my prayer in the desert
And all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is a God who provides

Verse 2:
And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

Chorus:
And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

Verse 3:
And this is my prayer in the battle
And triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

Chorus:
And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here


Bridge:
All of my lifeIn every season
You are still GodI have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

Chorus:
And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here


Verse 4:
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be empited again
The seed I've recieved I will sow

So I don't know if it was obvious what my favorite line of the song is, but right now its, "no weapon formed against me shall remain". Something that God has been teaching me, a lot this past year but now too, is that I am free from the worries and thoughts that have held me back from seeing Him in the past. There are things that I am tempted to again sometimes make me feel trapped, but the thing is, Christ has made me free and so I am free indeed! (Gal. 5:1 and theres another verse that I love but can't think of right now.) But the point is, Jesus makes us free, so again and again we need to lay aside our worries and the things we let hold us back. We to lay them at His feet and continue to have faith that He keeps them there and He has the victory in our lives as well as in this entire universe!! So lets bring our praise to Him!!

Its Reality Time

Okay, so God really brought me to working in the inner city this summer. So far it has been amazing! I worked one week as a cabin leader for the overnight camp and now this past week has been our first week of day camp. So far this summer, it has been an adventure to say the least! I have been challenged with how I view prayer a lot. During these weeks (especially at the overnight camp) I've been put in some hard and stressful situations. So God has been teaching me so much abouot what it means to depend on Him, like for real, depend on Him for absolutely everything. And part of that everything is these situations that seem impossible to deal with. There have been quite a few times where I've prayed something that I really actually don't know if God will say "yes" to. But He has shown immediate answers which He used to teach me something really cool. I think I often have viewed my prayers as things that God will answer either long term or not at all. And that very well could be. But that doesn't mean we should expect that it won't happen right aways. We need to be praying in expectation that He is working and He will get His will done. Also, a wise friend of mine also said, don't forget that "no" is also an answer. So that is something I've been keeping in mind too. I just have felt so blessed. If you want to hear an awesome story about God answering some crazy prayers, please ask me. To get your interest, some ways God has answered prayers for me is by:

-providing a turtle (thus restoring a friendship)
-finding a small earring in a large pool
-letting a kid and I get lost in the zoo (yes, you read that right)
-providing back up plan after back up plan
-a late night prayer time with a whole bunch of 8-12 yr old girls!
-etc. please ask me for the stories! God is so cool!!!

As for other things, I am the counselor coordinator for day camps. So I am responsible for finding the counselors, checking their references and then encouraging them and helping them when they are at camp. This is so cool! I especially like the encouraging part because in the mornings, I get to lead a devotion and this is a really important time for me. I love leading devotions because it makes it really neat during my time of reading God's word to ask Jesus, what He wants me to share with the group. One thing I talked about is one of the stories that I wrote about earlier in my study project. In Luke 8 it talks about the demon possessed man who was naked and living in the tombs before he met Jesus. After He met Jesus, It says he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. There is so much symbolism in that story. This man passed from death to life in a dramatic way when He met Jesus. So I talked about how I liked this story and the symbolism but then it was really cool, because I hadn't really thought about what else I would say except that Jesus is powerful. But then I hear myself saying, and I think its so important to keep on reflecting and going back to what Jesus is doing in your lives and what He has done. I talked about how we want to proclaim Jesus but to do this right we need to be real. We need to constantly be going to Him and remembering what He has done and identifying what He is doing right now. Because powerful testimony of Jesus in you is only found by Jesus Himself if that makes sense. Like, we can't produce a powerful testimony without Him. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. So I don't know, it was just really cool how God just gave me words to say and I need to keep going back to Him for these ideas. Its really neat. We always need to realize how dependent we are on Jesus! He is Life!

Hmm.. I thought I'd end off with a story about testimonies and sharing them that I heard from a speaker at school this year (so this is not my own material). This is a story to encourage you that when God wants you to share the testimony of Him in your life, and you are obediant to share, He will use your story even if you feel like it doesn't say much. He can use whatever He wants to break into peoples hearts. So hear it is, I hope I don't butcher it too much:

There was a youth group going on a missions trip to another country (I believe). While they were there, they went to this rehabilitation centre (I believe) and they talked with people there who had had some amazingly rough experiences in life from drug addictions to sex addictions and so on and so forth. The youth pastor told this one girl in the group that he wanted her to share her testimony with this group of people. However, she was from a family that went to church every sunday since she was a baby and so she could not see any way her small little story would be able to say anything to these people. So she told her youth pastor this very thing. She said, "I don't have anything to say to tehse people that would matter to them." But her youth pastor insisted that she needed to share her testimony. So the time came for her to do so.

She got up to the front and shared with this group of people her testimony; of how she grew up with loving parents. Of how she went to church her whole life. Of how she had followed the rules of her parents while growing up. She said things how they had happened and for her, what she had said seemed so insignificant. But she looked up to see the reaction of the group. When she did, she realized the whole room was crying and in tears at what she had said. They said, they were amazed at how God could keep someone so innocent.


This girls testimony of what Jesus had done in her life was straight forward. But God used it to reveal Himself to this group of people. I encourage us to press on to know Christ. To seek Him first in everything we do during the day. Jesus is our Life and He is so very real. Lets let Him be real in us. He loves revealing Himself so let us be open to Him using us!! Believe that He will.

We really need Jesus

Sometimes I look at parts of our world and the only feeling I get is one of my heart breaking. Sometimes I look at parts of our world and the only thought I get is "Why?"
I will now go on to say a bit more about these first two ideas. Not to worry, this was only my captivating intro...

So I work in a part of town where I see people that look broken. This last year I feel like I do know in part some of what it means to be broken. I know that God often brings people to a place of brokenness so that we see how completely dependent we are on Him and nothing besides Him. Yes, this year I feel like God brought me to a place where I had to deal with some things that weren't fun to deal with but He showed me so much more of His heart through that which was awesome.

But then there are times where I see people and I think, "How could I even think I know what its like to be broken?" What's really on my heart now are the women who don't know any other way of life than waiting on the streets to be picked up by some man. It breaks my heart that they are there and it makes me angry that there are people who think that that is a fine way of treating another person. I don't understand why this has to be in our world, yet I can't ignore it either. I want people to see how valuable they are to Jesus. I want people to see how much they are loved. I want people to not hurt. And then there are other people that I want God to slap in the face and show them that they need to change! That they are to treat people with respect.

I want women to see that they are not objects made to be used. But this is a vicious cycle in our society. Women are being objectified in pretty much every commercial and in so many movies. Its starting to just become the mindset of so many girls that this is how they are to dress and this is how they are to act. And it becomes the mindset of boys that this is how they are to treat girls and this is how they can live. But it needs to change. This isn't how God wants the world to be. I want people to know that they are precious to their maker who loves them so unconditionally.

And then I wonder where I come in? Why was I born to parents that loved me and brought me up in a family that loves Jesus? Why do I have privilages that so much of our world doesn't have?

I don't have answers to these questions. But what I do have is the knowledge that Jesus knows what is on my heart. He also knows what is happening and I now that it breaks His heart even more than mine. I know that He is coming back and I know that He will make things right. I know there is hope and I know it is found in Jesus Christ alone. Also, I know that He wants to work through us and that He sometimes breaks our hearts for what breaks His for the reason that He wants to do something about it through us. So I want to be open to Him continuing to lead me in what I can do. For now I will continue to seek His face. Because He knows whats going on and He is where my hope is ground. The only one that has the right to rule is Jesus! And there is hope in His name! Praise God that there is hope.

"My Hope is Built on Nothing Less"
by Edward Mote, 1797-1874

1. My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

3. His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Jehovah Study Project: Part 3

Luke 8: 26 - 39 v. 26-27, 29 "Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He came out onto the land, He was met by a man from the city who was posessed with demons; and who ahd not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house but in the tombs... For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had seized him many times; and he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the deom into the desert."

v. 35, 38-39 "The people went out to see what had happened; and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they became frightened... But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him; but He sent him away, saying, 'Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.' So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him."

This is the story of when Jesus and His disciples sailed to the land of the Gerasenes ( I encourage you to read the whole thing. I love this story!). When they get off the boat, the man with many demons, wearing no clothes and who has been running around the tombs comes up to Him. He has been "living" among the dead. I think the idea of him being naked and being around dead people just really demonstrates how this man has no life in him and has been stripped of everything good. Also, the demon would drive him into the desert which again shows how his life is a wasteland or as Anne of Green Gables would say, "a perfect graveyard of buried hopes." I personally would be completely freaked out if this kind of man was coming up to me. Actually, even if he wasn't approaching me I'd still be frightened out of my mind. When Jesus commands the demons out of him, they cry out for him to rather send them into the pigs. As you know, when Jesus lets them, the whole herd of pigs goes off the cliff and drowns in the lake. This news all got around and everyone obviously wanted to see what had happened. I love how in v. 35, we see how the man who had the demons cast out is now sitting at Jesus' feet, clothed and in his right mind. This is so cool!

One, he's sitting at the feet of Jesus. This is often showing physically how people are higher and lower than each other in reputation. In Luke 7:38, the woman falls at Jesus' feet crying and perfuming His feet, this is another picture of what it means to sit at someone's feet. This man immediately shows that he knows Jesus' place and His right to rule. This man knew Jesus was His Savior.

Two, he's clothed and an added bonus, he's in his right mind. So I'm guessing he's not taking anymore vacations to the desert. I think clothing on him really vividly shows he now has life symbolically too. When we are baptized into Christ, we are now clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27). I think its amazing the contrast here of light and darkness and Life and death. Jesus has given this man life. He now has peace with God (Rom. 5:1) and this must have been such a great feeling of release for him! No wonder he wanted to go with Jesus. Jesus is Life and He has given Himself for this man, so this guy now has abundant life. So when Jesus told him to tell his house about what Jesus had done for him, no wonder he instead spread it through the entire city!

I think we see here how being a witness of Jesus' life is so important. We need to allow people to see this difference in our lives too; the contrast between life we have now and the darkness we were in before. We need to be real, this man didn't pretend nothing had every been wrong with him, he spread the truth about Jesus' Life. Jesus transforms lives by becoming Life and this shouldn't be something we need to do, but rather somthing we're excited to do because Jesus is our Life! Christ is in us, our hope of glory! Jesus transforms lives. This is exciting and we should allow Him to share through us His Life. I know this year, Jesus has showed Himself to me by how He has carried me through some dark times. But this time before Christmas compared to now really does seem like a drastic change between Life and death, darkness and life. But this time was so very important for me to understand both myself better and this made me see my complete dependancy of Jesus which is what we always need to be coming back to; Jesus! Life because of Jesus, how exciting! This is our Jehovah!

This year I've often had the question of what is the meaning of life? Or, why did God make me? But I don't even have to get hung up on these questions. The point is, Jesus made me and He is my Life! He is my Jehovah and He can be my capital L-O-R-D of my life. So why don't I rather realize that I'm here and He has given me Life to share with others. Praise Him!!

Jehovah Study Project: Part 2

Psalm 16 v. 1-3 "Preserve me, O God, for I take reguge in You. I said to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.' As for the saints who are in the earth, They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight."

v. 10-11 "For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."

This Psalm to me has been full of God revealing Himself as Life in many different ways. The very first verse David asks God to preserve his life and he asks God because God is the giver and sustainer of life because He is Life. In v. 2, David says to God that he has no good besides God. He has no good and he is no good apart from God. This is because God is Life and as we see in John 15:5, apart from God we can do nothing. Then in v. 3, David refers to the saints, which are us who believe in Him. And our God who is Life, we are His majestic ones and He delights in us because He is Life in us when we allow Him. It makes Him overjoyed when we allow Him to give us Life to the fullest (John 10:10). In v.4 it says that people who seek out other gods will have many sorrows and God will not take their names on His lips. I think this just solidifies that when we look to God, we can be satisfied because He gives us and is real, fulfilling life in us. So it makes sense that if we look anywhere else we will not find what we are looking for. This is becuase Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

In v. 6, David says his heritage is beautiful and because God is Life, He can make beautiful any situation. We know that David was chased by Saul, was in many battles, he killed his 10 000s and he was called a man after God's own heart. We see that in every way David was open to God, God was Life through him by all his victories.

In v. 7, it is God's Life that instructs David in the day and it says his mind instructs him by night. I imagine God being the life-giving fluid that is going through David's brain even at night. I remember a night this year that afterwards when I woke up, I just somehow felt like God made it make more sense why Jesus died for us. This was a really awesome feeling and it came at a time that I really needed to see God tangibly work in my life.

In v. 8-9, we see because God is life in us, we never need to be shaken and we are always secure and we can rejoice and be glad in this (Php. 4:11-13). In any and every circumstance, Christ is our life; the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

I love v.10 when David says God does not abandon our souls to Sheol and we won't undergo decay. This so clearly shows His Life with that eternal quality in us; our souls are not in jeopardy. As 1 Thess. 5:9-10 says that whether we live or die physically, we are always alive in Jesus. 1 Cor. 15:22 says that we all die in Adam (our sinful nature and flesh) but we are made alive in Christ. 2 Cor. 5:4 talks about Jesus' life completely covering us; what is mortal will be swallowed up by His life.

And v. 11 is also great. God is Life and makes known the choices He wants for su. Because of who He is, in His presence is fullness of joy. He is life abundant and He's holding onto us. This verse really helps me a lot for thinking about the future and plans. He makes known the path of life and He lives in me. So I believe if I keep seeking Him and being completely open to Him, I don't have to worry because He will guide my decisions. And as we heard in Nehemiah classes this week; God puts ideas in our minds and hearts and He is perfectly able to affirm His plans for us in our hearts. Praise Jehovah!