:)

Reflecting on the past week, i think my week was a hundred times better than the week before, I could smile on the windy, rainy walks to school, i could laugh genuinely and be joyful. God is good. Im so happy that things picked up. Im in a very content place in my life right now. Although there are still struggles, and hardships i feel like so much has been lifted off. I know God will allow more challenges to come my way, but I'm ready to take them on knowing they will only make me stronger. There isn't much content to the post, but after such an amazing week, i really needed to be thankful for what God has given me, the people, the opportunities and the infinite blessings.

Praise God for an amazing week. He is Good.

¹¹ Light shines on the righteous     and joy on the upright in heart.  

¹² Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,    and praise his holy name.

Psalm 97:11-12 

Road to Calvary (VI)

About to do my devotions today, i realized i forgot to leave a passage here, in between the crucifixion and the resurrection, but i think that i'll use this post to really take some time to think about how God has worked in my life and how i've seen his love displayed.

The past little while has been rather rough. I've said in a previous post that i feel like my WORLD life (meaning academics, university and all) is okay. Im not worried about that, about marks and I'm not stressed about work either. But on the flip side, MY WORLD (meaning friends, relationships, has been quite a mess). The past year i've been able to open up more and share with others about my problems, and i've been blessed to have a few special people in my life whom i can trust, whom i can talk to and be completely honest with without hesitation. I cannot thank them enough. I truly believe that God placed them in my life to help me with this time of struggle and i can say that its through them that i see God's awesome love.

Its because of God's love that I'm here today.

Its because of God's love that I'm still standing.

Its because of God's love that i have hope, a reason to live on and to fight.

Death. I've been thinking about that quite a bit lately. Thinking about how easy it would be to take my life, and then all the problems would disappear immediately. But yet i haven't. Its easy to just walk out into the street and get hit, its easy to step off the balcony and fall, but yet I'm still here, still standing and still fighting. How am i getting through? By remembering the eternal things. God has promised us a spot in heaven if we believe. He has promised us a new life of happiness, of joy, without pain, without suffering, forever. Keep your eyes on this, and keep pushing through. Yes, life will throw you the dumps, Satan will lure and entice you, trying to trip you up, but with Christ, you've been saved. If you have believed, confessed and repented, you have ALREADY been saved. Your spot is secure! Thats the greatest hope!

God sent his son to die for you and for me. Jesus, was born in a manger, lived as a carpenter, walked on this earth, endured and faced every trial, every pain, and every temptation by the devil and stood firm, did not give up, and committed until the very end, until "it is finished". May we follow his footsteps and learn to do the same.

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Well With My Soul

I really loved that song we sang today. It is well with my soul. And I think that i realized something today during the sermon. As Christians, we know that once we believe that we are saved, we have been given salvation and when we are done with our purpose on earth, we will be in heaven, a place without pain, tears or suffering for eternity.

I remember during my baptism interview, i was asked the question, "if you were to die now, would you go to heaven or hell?". I remember answering hell, because I knew of the things i've done, and i was never fully sure of the whole forgiveness idea. How do you know if you're really forgiven?

What I realized today in the sermon is that I really am truly saved. I have believed. My name is written in the book of life, and salvation is already mine! I will be going to heaven to meet with my Lord and Saviour, my spot is secured and he has made a place for me. As long as I continue to have faith in Him, and live my life as a pleasing offering to God and not stray away into the things of this world, im saved.

Finally realizing this and truly embracing it, i couldnt help but smile. Singing that song, i can honestly sing and believe the lyrics, that All is Well With My Soul.

¹³ And now you have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. ¹⁴ The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

Ephesians 1:13-14

Clearing The Air: The Good Life

Ha, wonder if this will turn into a series, but i dont know if anymore will come after this one.

This is also a biggie. We'll just jump right into it.

Becoming A Christian does NOT EQUAL A Good Easy Breezy Life.

Many MANY people think becoming a Christian and accepting God will make life so much better, he'll handle everything, and it'll just be a breeze. No more sadness or suffering, no tears, just joy and happiness.

In FACT, becoming a Christian is probably the opposite. God WILL give you challenges and trials for you to endure, to test your faith in Him. I've learnt that life on earth is a test, a test for eternity. God will throw you questions, obstacles, problems, and scenarios and will test how you react/respond to them. God honouring or not. If you pass the test, he will say,

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!" (Matthew 25:21)

Believe me. The run and the journey is hard, and its rough, but knowing that God is on your side is already relieving. Know that he'll never abandon you, even in the roughest and the toughest times, he's always by your side. Learn to call on Him and he'll be there. Im not saying accepting Christ will lead to a misery and dreary life, in fact it WILL lead to happiness. Yes, there are "rules" that we may find annoying, and restricting, but its for our own good in the long run, and he's protecting us because he loves us oh so much. Having God in my life has changed me, its given me hope, and im happy and proud to call him my Saviour and my God.

⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)

Will you be able to say this at the end of your journey?

Rejoice.

²⁴ The LORD has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.

Rejoice. Its important that we rejoice, firstly, happiness is always better than sadness, its just a better feeling. It promotes optimism and joy in one's life.

I remember reading a verse that states "to rejoice in all circumstances". Whether it may be sad, something horrid, anything that happens try to learn to rejoice because our God is good.

Rejoice can also mean thanksgiving. Look around you and realize how blessed we are. Yesterday someone came in and talked about clean water, how much we use it and it really opened my eyes and reminded me how blessed i truly am. Its so unfair to others and we're just absorbing all these resources, the gap between the rich and the poor is so wide. Be thankful and count your blessings.

Reflect on how powerful God is. He has the power to destroy you in an instant, you may not wake up tomorrow. Who knows. Im not trying to scare you, but really live each moment and make it count. Sometimes i wake up and i think God for just giving me another day to live. We complain about school, about work, but think about the people that dont even have the chance to know how it feels to learn. We're SO blessed and we all take it for granted.

I remember thinking back to my kids, overnight camp, day camp, and just seeing the joy in them, and how carefree they are and how happy they are, its... so freeing i guess you can say. At an age like mine, we stress over school, over friends, but these guys, they're just... free as birds, enjoying life and enjoying what they have. I think we need a bit of that in our lives regularly. To just rejoice, and enjoy what we've been given.

Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice.

Jason

Where to God?

Day 2. First day of 2012 is over. Now what? What does God have in store for me this year?

Last year was one hectic year. Let’s start from the beginning. Dislocating my knee. How else can I describe it? While competing at a track and field meet I was in mid air and SNAP my knee dislocates and I land on the same leg. I didn’t know what to think about. Did I win? Obviously not. Can I walk? Who knows I was still on the floor. All of a sudden I bursted out in tears. Why? I was thinking to God why would you do this to me? What have I done to deserve this? There was no way I could compete for the rest of the year. This was my only way to take out my stress. Through sports and all of a sudden in one jump it’s all gone. As I was going back home I was thinking about what my restrictions were, now that I wasn’t able to walk. I was thinking about Church. We had an event called Acupe coming up and I was one of the main characters in a skit. How was I able to act without walking. It’s just not possible. As the day came closer and closer I prayed harder and harder asking God to just heal my leg. A week before the night I tried walking without my crutches and guess what? He DID answer my prayer! It was such a miracle and I didn’t know what to say.

I thought that this would be the first and last obstacle that I’d face in 2011 but I was wrong. Going to Kenya for a mission’s trip I didn’t expect any big challenges that I’d face (since I went the year before). 5 days into the camp I realized that my breathing pattern wasn’t very stable. I asked the doctor what could it be? He asked if I’m asthmatic and I said that I got it in grade 3 but grew out of it. he quickly got his stethoscope and examined my breathing. In my head I was asking God why me? (again) after dislocating my knee and now this. What is he trying to tell me? I was quickly diagnosed with asthma once again and I had to take my puffer once every 2 hours. It wasn’t easy living a life like this back in grade 3 and nothing would make it better now. There’s no cure for asthma so I knew that I’d have to deal with this my whole life.

After 2 big challenges that I faced I quickly got back up and continued my race. October 30 came along and this meant our annual fall retreat. Retreat is when our fellowship at RHCCC goes to a campsite for the weekend to spend time with God and each other. We were playing games and once was called Spokes. The objective of the game is to pop a balloon that is set in the center of a circle with whatever body part that is called out. So the last round came and I was called. i was about to pop the balloon and before I knew it I got tackled by a counsellor. He’s in his mid 20s and pretty big of a guy. It wasn’t easy to get up. He hit the knee that got dislocated a few months before and I realized that he had dislocated it. my mind went blank. I hit the floor with my head and it all went black. I didn’t know what to say or do. After 15 seconds of being on the floor I realized that my knee wasn’t in place. I quickly popped it back in (I know that sounds gross but its true :s ) and asked for help to get up.

Those were the most intense and scariest moments of 2011 for me. Going into 2012 I honestly don’t know what God will do to me. Getting my knee dislocated twice and being diagnosed with asthma is something that isn’t fun to deal with.

Today’s devos is about missions. (Jason posted it so ya’ll can read it off his so it won’t take up that much space) I wanted to go to Belize and thinking bout the past year I’m a little bit iffy bout it. Getting asthma in Kenya and having a not very stable knee. Where would God send me? What would he do next? Being away from my family may not be the best since I do get hurt a lot :$

I honestly don’t know where my next field will be. Somewhere across the world or back here in my own community. Knowing that God will guide and provide it’s all up to him to decide.

After praying for healing I now know that he answers prayers. I’ve seen it for myself. But the worst part is that it takes time. Patience is key in a relationship. It may be hard to wait but God has a purpose for his every move.

In Isaiah 6:8 it says: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”

We should always be ready for what God has in store for us. No matter how many obstacles he’s given us. He gives us these obstacles and challenges because he knows that we can conquer them one at a time.

I’ve learned to keep an open mind no matter how much I’ve been through. Holding a grudge on God is just a waste of time. He’s provided us with everything and he wants to see us happy.

Be happy with where you get sent because there’s a reason for everything.