Isaiah

I have been reading through the book of Isaiah the last couple of weeks. 

I have been told my whole life that Jesus loves me, we all know the song "Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells us so." But do we actually know, have we read in  the bible were He specifically tells us so?

I used to avoid the book of Isaiah, it was to long to really get in to. 

But as I have been reading through it I have be struck with just how much I am like Israel, God's chosen people continually turn their backs on God and reject Him. Yet God continually comes through for them and speaks blessed promises and words of grace and mercy calling them His own.

As I started to read it in this light I have been astonished by the great love with which He loves me. 

I am His chosen and these promises and words of love are also spoken to me.

Let me share some of the key verse that I've read the last few days that God brought to my attention and continues to bring to my mind through out the day as I walk with Him.

Fear not, for I am with you. be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;I have called you by name, you are mind." Isaiah 43:1b

"Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you." Isaiah 43:4

"I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." Isaiah 43:6-7

"Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:19

"Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from he womb and will help you." Isaiah 44:2a

"I have blotted out your transgressions like  cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you." Isaiah 44:22

"I called you by name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other besides me there is not God; I equip you though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other I form light and  create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord who does all these things." Isaiah 45:4a-7

"Because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." Isaiah 49:7b

Community of Christ

1 Thessalonians 5:12-25 does a very good job of laying it out for us when it says, "We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work, be at peace among yourselves and we urge you brothers admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient  with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. rejoice always. Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good. abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls is faithful, he will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us."

There is so much in this passage, so many direct clearly stated does and don'ts. Do this, do not do this, there isn't much room left for us to get confused but some how we still manage to misunderstand so much of what is written for us.

This passage begins with a request asking us to respect each other, to respect those who work with you for the same purpose and for those who are over your in leadership. Whether they are over your or not their is a call for respect, but we are not only called to respect one anther but it goes further and calls us to esteem each other very highly in love. The word respect is used to commonly today, every one in this world wants respect and many demand it through aggression and force because they want it so badly. We are taught that it is a good thing to have respect but that it doesn't matter how you get it just as long as you have it. If that means lowering your standards or smashing someone else we'll do it. But being of Christ doesn't ask for this type of respect, it is asking for a respect given not based on who the person is or what they can do but based on what Christ as done for them, and yet it doesn't stop there either. As Christians we are called to an even higher level, we are told to esteem others very highly in love. It can be easy to give mutual respect to others, but that is not what Christs asks of us. He asks us to give respect even if its not returned and to esteem others. It goes much further and deeper then what we would do or even want to do. Think quickly of your own Christian Community, I'm am sure it will not take you long to think of just one person that you don't want to respect and definitely don't want to esteem very highly but yet this is the very first thing Paul says for us to do in his final instructions to the Thessalonians. I think its the first thing he tells us for us reasons, because without this kind of respect for each other the following instructions are impossible.

The texts moves from respect to explain the kind of relationship we should have with one another. From verse 14 through 16 we are told to do some very great things on before and for one another all of which are not possible if first you do not have a relationship with the other person so that you know them and their situations in life. It says first to admonish, to call one another out in love but this is not something you do unless you know person well enough to know their faults and what and where they need to be called out on. This is followed with the urge to encourage the fainthearted. Admonishing cannot be done without encouragement and here Paul calls us to be in such a relationship with one another that these things are what resemble our lives as a community of Christ. We are to help each other, to be patient with and for each other. We are to repay no one evil but should always be seeking to do good to everyone. This is no light thing, how often do we grow jealous of others wishing what happened to them didn't or that we had gotten the promotion instead. Envy, jealousy have no choice but to be destroyed by this command. We are to desire the very best for another, to rejoice always in every circumstance and to help each other find reasons to rejoice. Our relationships should be governed by such respect, esteem and care for each other that everything, admonishing, encouraging, helping, being patient and good to one another is an out flowing of our love for our King.

Pray without ceasing. We are to pray for one another, we are to be without ceasing, to continually be holding each other in pray. We are to be interceding on behalf of one another, praying against the power of the devil in our lives and praying that God would continue to over take our lives. We are to know each other well enough to know how to pray for each other, to be in close contact and communication able to ask each other to pray for us when times do get difficult. This passed weekend I was so blessed to be able to pray for particularly three of my brothers and sisters in Christ who's lives hit a rough patch. They were able because of our relationship to come and ask for prayer and later when I was not with them I was burdened for them and continued to hold them in prayer only to be blessed further by them being burdened and praying for me in times when they didn't even know what was going on in my mind and life. I was able to experience this type of community were it didn't matter where we were or who was around it only matter that we took everything going on to our heavenly Father. We are to be fighting for each other through prayer in the times of  trouble and temptation and we are to be giving thanks for and with each other in the times that are good.

From prayer the text moves to do not quench the Spirit. Paul reminds us to pray for each other and then reminds us that we are not to quench the Spirit because these two co-reside together. If we quench the Spirit we will not pray, we will not be moved to pray. We are to listen to the Spirit we are also not to despise prophecies but instead we are to test everything. It is easy to kick the Spirit out of our lives, to ignore His promptings or to reason away His moving in our lives by things in this world. But if we do that we will be unable to do what we are called to and will miss out on so much blessing. I've quenched the Spirit, I've reasoned away His voice and I have experienced being unable to do the things I am called to as a Christian because of this. We are called to listen, but are also called to test everything. It is also easy on the other side of things to almost blame everything on the Spirit or to forget that we have an army of the devil trying to break us down and so we are called to test, to hold everything before God and to abstain from evil. Quenching the Spirit puts a huge halt on our lives as Christians and so does partaking in evil. Nothing hinders us more, tears us down more, deceives us more then the devil grabbing hold of a tiny insignificant part of your life and making it his. Except we are called to have our whole lives surrendered to God, every single part of our lives and so then there is no insignificant part that we have secretly have under the control of the devil and still expect our lives to be filled in every part with God. We deceive ourselves with this lie and with every piece the devil grabs a hold of we are taken further and further from where we are suppose to be. Don't quench the Spirit let it convict, let it move in your life, don't be help captive by sin, abstain from every form of evil.

It is laid out plainly for us what we are called to do and what we are to keep away from. The good news is though that we are not left just with a long list of does and don'ts, Paul finished this amazing passage with "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it! Brothers pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you" We are not left alone to do this we have the hope of our Savior who give us His peace who sanctifies us that we may be blameless in our whole being at the coming of our Lord! And then it says, He who calls you is faithful and will surely do it. Our God is faithful and He will complete this work in us. It is only through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are able to try to live our lives in a way that is in community with Christ with our brothers and sisters. But I urge you as Paul urged the Thessalonians to do these things, to respect and esteem others to grow in relationship as you walk this short life together and to pray without ceasing for and with each other until the return of our Lord "And I am sure of this that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ!" Phil 1:6

Knowing You more!

"Knowing you more is wanting to know you more".

Stop and consider for a moment what these lyrics mean. Knowing God more is simply

 wanting to know Him even more.

This is so simple, exciting, convicting and reassuring. It's simple in the way that we can so often over complicate phases like "knowing God more" with our own resolves and agendas on how to achieve this. We think if we read our bible more, go to church more, serve more that we will know Him better and although these things have their place and defiantly can play a role in doing so it is also as simple as just having a deeper desire to "know" God. 

It's exciting because the more we grow in knowing God the more we should want to. There is always more we can know about Him and more intimate ways for us to know Him. We never have to stop, not in this life on earth and defiantly not when we get to heaven. We know God is far greater then us and above all things we can imagine but do we understand what it means that we should never stop desiring to know Him more?

Psalms 113:5-7 says "Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 

who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from 

the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heaps."

It's convicting in the way that so often our lives of wanting to know God more doesn't bring about this reaction or desire. We far to easily think we have reach or already obtained what we are yet so so very far away from. It's convicting when we think that perhaps we don't actually want to know God because we aren't really feeling like we want to know Him more then we already do. Or perhaps its when we realize that we have stopped wanting to know God all together or the thought of wanting to know God personally is completely foreign to us. 

David sings out in desire for God when he says "How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes even faints for the courts of the Lord. For a day in your courts is better then a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a door keeper in the house of my God than dwell in tents of wickedness." Psalm 84:1,10

And finally it is reassuring! Our God is so great and so mighty, so complex that we cannot ever know Him complete and this God is the one who is in complete control of every aspect of our lives, this reality should be of great comfort and assurance to us. The more we know God and the more intimate we become with our God and Savior should prob us desire to know and be even more intimate with Him. And the more we know God and continue to seek to know God more we will be far more effective, loving and God glorifying in our lives as a representative of Gods grace. May we also be able to say;

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire 

besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:25-26

Stuff: Noun; Matter, material, articles, or activities of a specified or indeterminate kind that are being referred to, indicated, or implied.

 

I found a lot of stuff when I moved back to my parents for a couple days, I found many things that I had left behind when I moved out last summer, many things that I have lived without for the past year. 

My poor brother has had to bear with his new room {my old room} being cluttered with my stuff for the past year. Since I am not planning on moving home anytime soon I figured it was about time to clean the cluttered mess up.

I worked on it for most of the day yesterday, I haven't finished yet.

Books, cards, letters, décor items, photos; lots of photos, blankets, cloths, sport equipment, craft supplies, magazines, nic naks from years gone by.

 

So much stuff that I have but I haven't used or need for an entire year.  

 

The easy thing would be to throw it all into a bag and get rid of it but we all know it doesn't work like that.

 

So it began the sorting, reading, remembering, recalling, which turning into packing, tossing, burning, and giving away.

When I was finished and done with three boxes, I had one tiny box remaining full of precious photos of family and friends, funeral bulletins and hand written letters that I couldn't toss.

Memories are sweet, things that remind me of those times are precious and worth keeping.
As for the rest of the stuff, it is going, I didn't need it this year and if it doesn't fit into my two trunks I'm not holding on to it.
Goodbye stuff that doesn't matter.
Life doesn't need to be cluttered, its far more enjoyable when it's simple!

You are called to be His

It's all His, every breath, moment, every step you take, every move you make... it's all His. That is something that sounds normal, we know we are to be completely His but stop for just a second and think about what that means. Think over every single one of your breaths, moments, steps, thoughts and actions. If some one was watching you would they be able to see by the way you live that all these things you do are in fact dedicated and wholly His?

We've all heard that Christ is to live in us or that all the good in us is actually Him in us. But think about what it means that He actually dwells in you, the God of everything, who created everything we can see, feel or imagine, this one and only God dwells within You. This is in sane, this thought should completely blow you away in awe and wonder, We cannot even understand what this means. But take it lets take it even further. So the God above all is dwelling within you...now think about yourself, your failings, sins, every wicked, hateful or dirty thought all of this also dwells within us. How can this amazing God dwell in us when we are so polluted, stained, and dirty. The bible explains it in Isaiah 64:6 as our righteous deeds being nothing more then filthy rags. But in all of this dirt, filthy gross garbage bin we want the God of heaven and earth to dwell and reign.

Our lives will until the Lord returns be always stained with sin, but we can not be content or okay with this. We cannot except life as it is in a garbage can, we cannot expect the King of the universe to live in our filthy hearts with which we are content with.

Our lives are to turn from the filthy rags, they are to be washed in His blood and our garbage bin is to be transformed into a glistering temple of God.

You are called to be His, to be full of Him, to learn from Him, and to remain with Him. Let His grace clean you, let His blood wash you, let His love amaze you and let your life be completely changed through Him.

 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. Romans 6:8-14

Easy verses hard!

Early evening and I am sitting in my apartment alone listening to the sound of acoustic guitar and the pump in the fish tank. I'm not even sure what to write about but am bored and want to get some thoughts out.

 I am currently on day 4 of my break before gearing up for summer program with Urban Promise and I am already restless. I didn't have much planned for the day and spent it mostly cleaning up around the apartment and skyping family, then was convinced by a room mate to get out of the apartment and go for a walk in the park and just my luck it started raining, like heavy raining but since we were already soaked we stayed and ended up having a good time and got to watch some deer wondering around for a bit.

So even looking back over this day it was fun and productive but during everything I felt bored and frustrated with the fact that I had nothing to do, not purpose and nothing pushing me to do anything. I woke up stared at the ceiling and thought there is no reason to get out of bed because I have nothing to do. Now this could be because I have been so busy all year with things to do and places to be and never really having that chance to be bored or the fact that I often get so caught up in needed a very evident reason for everything I do. I need a goal to work towards, a bar to reach and if there isn't anything that it seems pointless in my mind.

I'm not sure yet how to fix this about me, I mean its not all bad but it defiantly can be negative! I think about of it has to do with what I view a purpose being, God has a lot of purposes for me each and every day but either they don't seem important enough for me or I refuse to see them for what they are.

I hate breaks, I like to be busy doing what I love and I really dislike not being able to do them. But I also know that breaks are needed and that Jesus talked a lot about taking a break and stopping to be with God, but some times it is far easier to work hard for God then to spend a lot of time with God. Working for Him doesn't always shove honest truth into our faces or make us go really deep and intimate with God. It is so much easier to stay on the surface but God want us to go deep. He wants to know us, personally, individually and intimately well!

A walk in the community

It is easy to get tired in ministry, to get discouraged when seeing results from your work are limited and to be less energetic about the ministry you do because of this.
The last couple weeks have been tough ones for me personally. I have been sick, welcome family back into the country and say bye to others who were leaving, been weighted down with concern for my nephew in sick kids and tired from not sleeping well. This all makes ministry a little bit hard and running camp its self had been a little difficult the last couple weeks.

Then today happened. I had been praying for energy and joy and God provided both in today. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Urban Promise Mom Workers visiting my camp when i arrived today. After chatting with them we all decided to go do some home visits to drop off fliers.

Every year for a weekend in June Urban Promise takes the mom's up for a retreat in Muskoka to pore into them and to build deeper relationships. I was the first time I really went door to door through the Mount Olive community but it was such a blessing talking to the mom's, it was so amazing seeing them get excited about a weekend trip for them and how much it meant to them.

We spend a good twenty minutes talking to one mother who I had never met before about life and how she was doing. It impacted me a lot because of her perspective on your environment  community, fears, joys and everything else. I came back from that walk in the community so excited about the lasting impact this ministry does have on not only the kids but on their families. This woman's children are to old for the program and she had not spoken to anyone from Urban Promise in a year and a half and she was thrilled to see us and shared a peak into her life in that short period.

This also showed me the huge need for a consist mom's program in the Rexdale area as well as a senior high ministry. I am thrilled with what Urban Promise has done, is doing and will do in the future. Please continue to pray for all the staff, leaders, kids and families of Urban Promise.