Stand Strong Warrior

We must not lose courage my brothers and sisters there is a battle for souls surrounding us. It may be because I just watched the Lord of the Rings Two Towers and that is why the idea of battle is most prominent in my mind. Yet at the same time these last couple days God has been making it apparent to me that he wants us to stand strong in Him and trust. Faith is one of those words that I seem to know the least about but yet everyday is a chance to learn more. Trust Him and when He tests you which He most diffentially will that is when you learn about faith. When you have to choose to stand by your King and fight for what He desires and to hope in what He promises.

"because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1:3-4

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

There is something worth fighting for and it is greater than what Frodo and Sam were fighting for. Our hope is in something bigger than a mere good in this world but our hope is in that which is Good, that which is Love, that which is Life and that which is Holy...WE are fighting for our God. That is reason alone to persevere.

"Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God." - Romans 4:20

This is referring to Abraham and because I can't do it justice you must read Romans 4. Let us hope for things that God has promised but seem so hard to have hope in. Let us respect (from NASB version of Romans 4:20) and stand by God's promises for He will never fail!

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 cor. 4:18

Let's not be presuaded to believe in the seen but lets believe and hold true to the unseen. I'm a walking rememberance of God's faithfulness. Seen as one who would never believe in God or be caught in a church. But here I stand as a testiomony of God's Power, he grabbed my heart and softened it for no work of man could have done what he did in my life. He did this for many others and will do it for many more to come and that is a story to come...

Half birthdays are one of my favorites!

This really should have been posted yesterday. 2 and 1/2 years ago yesterday I accepted Christ. Hard to believe the time that has past. I was reading my first journal this morning and I'm amazed at what God did with my life right away. The amount of prayer I had for those around me, the grasp of scripture that I had, the joy and thankfulness I had, the searching to know the deeper meaning of every verse I read, the understanding of God's goodness in struggle, the sacrificing of one's life, and the love I had for God. It is that childlike love and dependence that I desire to have once again. Return to my first love that has been my plea to God for the last couple days. Praying like I haven't in so long and oh it is satisfying and joy filling.

In the first two months of my walk I prayed for others everyday, I went to prayer meetings and found that to pray your words don't have to be perfect and you don't have to worry what others think, prayer is from the heart. I struggled with saying prayers out loud until I realised that it needs to be from the heart and once again I recently found myself in such a state. Here I am being encouraged by myself, what a funny thing.

It's beautiful to look back and thank the Lord for every struggle and question because I can see where it has taken me so far. I can see from the beginning I had a heart for discipleship (I prayed for my first disciple within 7 weeks of accepting Christ) and I had a heart for prayer (I had my first all night prayer by myself shortly after 2 months!) I'm amazed and didn't realize the transformations that were happening. I wrote many journal entries about giving it all up and and laying down everything for God (I took a major faith step when I changed majors from Chemical Engineering to Math Education, a step I knew wouldn't go well with my parents)

So dear friend who asked me why to keep a journal here is a reason why!

Be encouraged brothers and sisters by what God has done in your own life and what He is doing in those around you. For many times my journal has made mention of the things others did around me that was a light and encouragement to me, things I'm sure they didn't realize had an impact. Open your eyes to God and open your heart to his deep, deep, everlasting love towards us.

Resting on a deep love that not even words can describe.

I have a number of topics that I could write about
- old people
- junior high kids at concerts
- teaching junior high kids
- a heart after God
- running by faith

but grr I'm sleep deprived and need to make some phone calls and have to study, oh life how it fills my time up, so watch for a future post love ya and read 1 or 2 Chronicles 29 (I don't remember which!) it's about David's heart

God's Voice

Listen to Elihu's words as he humbly talks about God to Job

"At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from it's place.
Listen closely to the thunder of His voice,
And the rumbling that goes out from His mouth.
Under the whole heaven He lets it loose,
And His lightning to the ends of the earth.
After it, a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice,
And He does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
God thunders with His voice wondrously,
Doing great things which we cannot comprehend."
- Job 37:1-5

Don't forget it is all about God's Glory

Premier Night was last night. The top ten were shown and then judges picked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Part of me really wanted to be first or at least 3rd. But that was the prideful selfish part of me that was seeking the glory of this world. My attitude was off last night I realized after seeing the content and joyful attitude of my fellow directors. Despite what others said I didn't think our movie was that great, excuse for losing, but that is when I wanted to tell Satin to go to hell, for his lies were consuming me. A brother last night after the results were announced told me, that it was 'God's favorite'. A comment that could be said just to comfort but in this case it reminded me that this was God's. He orchestrated it all to perfectly and showed His goodness too often for me to not think that it was for his glory. I don't know what it did but I know that God is pleased and that makes me cry in praise for my God who is beyond all things...