February 1^st, 2018

1 Corinthians 16: 14

“and do everything with love.”

Throughout Corinthians Paul always goes back to the concept that love is the most important thing. He says earlier in the book that “three things will last forever - faith, hope and love – and that the greatest of these is love.” Paul really does recognize that love is the most important aspect of life. It was after all the love of God that sent his son down to save us (Jesus). Love was the very reason why were created. God wanted us to love and worship Him in his glory and in return we would love Him. In the old testament the Lord made what looks to us like a lot of rules, but really, they were all put in place to keep the Jews safe.

              I recently read a book called A shepherd looks at Psalm 23. In it the author talks about all the rigorous routines that shepherds must go through to keep his flock in prime shape. Through out the book he continues to compare us, the children of God, to the sheep. How God really is our good shepherd and he is constantly taking care of us. He points us in the direction we should go, keeps us close to himself and protects us the way a shepherd would.

For a long time, I thought that love was the one thing that I was quite good at. I was almost prideful about it. I would think to myself sure they can do this and this, but I am better at loving those around me. The issue is when ever I got to this point I would always be smacked in the face with an evil thought about some one around me. Obviously, I wasn’t as amazing at loving everyone around me like I thought I was. This year has been a time where you are forced to be with people that you normally might not associate with. You can’t just run away and hide from your team or classmates. You are constantly surrounded by people, so you can’t just ignore them. There has been a lot of learning to love certain individuals that I have met, and I am still more often than not really bad at it. But I am really trying to keep this verse do everything with love in my heart so that I don’t get caught up in emotion or blindly agree with what other people are saying 

January 24^th, 2018

1 Corinthians 1: 8-9

“He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

Right now, we are in the middle of a week that is draining on our bodies, more times then not I feel as though I want to just go lie down and sleep instead of pursuing God in the word. Last night I came to a point where I was crying out to God begging Him to show himself, telling Him how tired I was of searching and searching and me not seeing Him appear. I prayed “God I don’t even care at this point about seeing your hand but please just show me that you’re there, show me that I am not actually crazy. Remind me of my first love, remind me of how much you love me.” So, after praying all this I ended the prayer with “God at least just comfort me, help me to have peace.” After going to bed I woke up this morning and during my devotion this verse came up, I was already expecting not to hear anything life altering but what I was hit with changed the course of my day. God will be your source of strength and He is faithful to do what He says. You see at this point I was hoping for some answers to questions I had been praying about for a while. And when this verse came up and mentions that he is faithful to do what He says it reminded me of another verse where God encourages us to pray for things that are of Him and to seek him and we will find him. Well I had trying to seek him more than I normally do this week and He had yet to be revealed to me. When reading this I thought yes, it is true, He is faithful especially when we are faithless. I remembered a saying, God has three responses to requests; no, yes, and not yet. A lot of the prayers I have being praying relate to my future and I believe that most of them are not yet answers. He doesn’t think that this is the right time for me to know the answer. With that in mind I am set to pray the Lord’s will be done not my own.

January 10^th, 2018

2 Corinthians 4: 16-17

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”

              As January had hit I started to feel as if I was okay, yes, I had made it through the holidays without them being too hard. It was all okay and going to be fine, the next three months should be a breeze if Christmas wasn’t too hard. But immediately the feeling hit of not wanting to really be here because I was tired. My mind would often wander to what would I be doing if I was back home? But I would always have concluded no matter where or what I would be doing it wouldn’t be right.  I wouldn’t have been following God’s will for my life. So “that is why we never give up”, because we ought to follow the plan that God has for our life. We need to press forward and press on when our flesh says no. Our bodies really are dying and getting closer to the point of destruction even if our spirits are being renewed daily. Even if we are seeking God and depending on Him our bodies are still going to die, because our bodies are not in their perfected state that God intended for us.

For our fleshly desires right now won’t last, they are like the wind always changing. So, it is important to remember that those desires of things that aren’t of Him that won’t last. The troubles and worries that you may be facing will not last and are small in comparison in this life. But the trials prepare us for the future and shape us to be God fearing women that he intended for us to be. He is bringing us a heavenly glory that will outweigh everything we may be facing now.

Application:

Write down the fears and troubles you are facing right now with God and see the transformation of giving those to him.

January 5^th, 2018

Genesis 37-50

I know that this isn’t a verse, but it is what God has been teaching me over a period of time, it is about the life of Joseph. There is so much packed into this story. But one of the main themes that really stood out to me is that continuously seemingly bad things are happening to Joseph. Starting off with his brothers trading him into slavery then Potiphar’s wife accusing him of something he never did landing him into prison. At the time he would ask God why are you doing this to me? Is this really all you have for my life?

Right now, Ali and I are working a home for patients needing medical care that is supported by the church. We had been working with this boy named Sok Chea, he has a skin disease where he can’t produce enough skin and he becomes injured easily. Right now, though there are four other kids staying at the home which have touched our hearts so deeply. They are most likely going to end up going to an orphanage soon and there is nothing we can do to better their situation. I find myself asking God, “why is this allowed to happen? They are, after all, children. I do believe that you love children, so why is it that they got handed this life of no choice and pain? Is this just something that I am not seeing clearly? Am I just missing the point, the whole picture, like Joseph was? I know that God is good and yes, he does work all things together for your good. Yet even still I question, and I struggle with this fact. How so badly I want to see the whole picture not just the little slice I was given. Don’t their lives amount to more than just kids that heard the gospel through white people and then never saw them again? But then I think about Sok Chea and how because of his condition he and his parents have becoming followers and probably some of his other family members. So, wouldn’t it then be worth it? Would it be worth is for just the one? I am not God after all so who is to say that those kids won’t spread the gospel where ever it is that they may go.

Application:

Pray for those kids every day this week

December 27^th, 2017

Acts 2:37

“Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’”

Finally, at this point when Jesus had come and gone their hearts finally began to soften. Until this point of Peter being filled with the spirit those around him had hardened hearts. Nothing entering in and nothing going out. But then suddenly the power of the holy spirit comes in and all their hearts are softened. It pierced straight through their hearts, it didn’t tear through one layer at a time but straight through not needing to take time to sink in or marvel at a later revelation.

Like the people that listened to Peter speak at Pentecost sometimes God speaks and makes himself known in that moment exactly what needs to be known and what he is trying to teach you so that you don’t waste any time. I unfortunately was not like the crowd this past week. My heart was not soft, and the words of God were not being let in. I wasn’t wanting to let God in because it was more work than shutting Him out was.  I have a lot of head knowledge in my life what is hard for me is getting it to go to my heart too. I have a hard time believing the promises of God and what He wants for my life. It is hard for me to believe how much He actually loves me. I make it hard for God’s truths to pierce my heart. Often, I find myself asking “what should I do”, just like the disciples but for a different reason.  For me it is more of a what should I do, tell me God what should I do to love you more, know you more, abide in you more. I know that sounds super works based but still I do ask myself God I just need one thing to cling to, I need new revelations of who you are. This race is hard and tiring please remind me why I am doing this. Remind me why it is all worth it.

Application:

Look for the promises of God found in Genesis.

December 20^th, 2017

Genesis 26:24 “… Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you. I will multiply you descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will do this because of my promise to Abraham, my servant.”

While reading through Genesis verses like this one keep showing up. Abraham is constantly reminded of the promise that God has for his life regardless of the times he messes up. Over and over God is saying because of your faithfulness, or because of Abrahams faithfulness, I will bless you. And you will have descendants as numerous as the stars.

This shows two things, one, that God has promises for everyone and with those promises he plans to keep his word, reminding you about those promises every time you doubt or fear. The truth is, that we often forget who God is and what he is capable of. This sounds trivial, but the fact is we spend more time doubting God than believing what says over our lives. I don’t know why it is so harder for me to keep and believe the promises I think God is giving me.  The truth is, it is easier to doubt because you can control your doubt, you can tangibly hold the doubt in your heart, there is no need for trust, no way to get hurt.  It is hard letting God keep control over your future, whether that be school, moving, your future spouse, or even what church to go to. How do you do it? How do you give up every area of your life? How does one completely trust some one they’ve never physically met to make all the right choices for them in their life?  But the even bigger question I suppose is, how some one sends their only child out; to the drug addicts, the prideful, the workaholics, the abusers, the abused, the liars, the cheaters, the vain? How could you do that? That would be like sending your kid whom you love very much onto the streets in the middle of a pedophilic neighbourhood, where they can use him and abuse him. Where their only concern is themselves, their wellbeing with out any concern for the consequences. God how do you have this love for us? How is it that you even concern yourself with us?

Second it shows us that God is a God of grace. The verse that says, his mercies are new every day is true. God forgives and moves on. He does not condemn you for your past. God will still use your brokenness, and your mistakes, no clay is thrown away from the pot (Jerimiah 18:4). So even though Abraham and his descendants would screw up He still gave them what He had promised. This should be comforting because it proves that God isn’t finished the work he is beginning but it also shows that God means what he says. So, when he says that he will see it through you ought to also believe all other things he says, for example what he says about loving you.

God is good, that much I know. How he continues to love us daily, that I may never know.

Applications: Pray over yourself the song “You’re Not Finished Yet” –The Belonging CO Ft. Maggie

December 12th, 2017

Ephesians 5:21-22

“submitting to one another out of reverence of Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”

              This past week I listened to a sermon on “figuring out life: as a wife”. In the sermon he spoke from Ephesians 5:21-33.  It was crazy because I had listened to this message back in March from my home church but at the time I was still living a split life between God and the world and my heart was so hard that it really was just me sitting in the service not taking anything being said to heart. But after listening to it again I took in so much and it really ministered to me. It is especially relevant in this season right now, the practice of submitting and serving.

God has really been teaching me what it means to submit and serve with a pure heart since July in Guatemala. I remember when I got there, to Guatemala, I was so confused and upset because I really didn’t understand true submission and what that biblically should look like. Since I am from Vancouver, Canada it is quite liberal, women are told that they should have dreams and aspirations of becoming CEO’s, lawyers, women of power. It is an insult to think that a mom should stay home with their kid after having it, the man can get maternity leave instead, so the women can go back to work and provide for the family.  So naturally growing up with that all around me (my parents didn’t teach me this but schools, and society did.) I was in a bit of a shock. But as I learned what the role of a women is biblically I started to see how natural it felt and how freeing it was. I didn’t realize that submission isn’t inequality. You can still battle for your rights and you can still be equal, but submission is truly just putting others before yourself. It is important for me to remind myself that Jesus came to serve not be served, so by serving I am becoming more like Him. These concepts are ones that I am getting to act out with my team mates here, even when I am tired and drained from the day still I want to serve, still I want to press on and show them respect by putting them before myself. I pray that God would use this time to refine me and prepare me to be a woman of Him and prepare me for marriage one day so that I can serve my husband well.

Application: Do the breakfast dishes every morning this week.