devos day 3 !

heey team !
okay i REALLLLLLLY have to study for my exam thats tomorrow... so im gonna have to make this brief.
today i read a chapter in "the life you've always wanted" again, and this time it was on guidance.
there was a story in the bible that really related well to the chapter in my book.
it was 1 Samuel 3: 4-11

Okay so basically when we guide, we have to use indirect means to guide our thoughts and things like that.
God does not. He can speak to us, and guide our thoughts directly even without us knowing, without the help of things like sound, images etc.

Samuel needed the help of Eli to know that God was calling him, and was guiding Him.
We need to be aware of when God is calling and guiding us.
In the book it says

"The Holy Spirit will lead you to be with people as Jesus would be with them if he were in your place."
and
"God's purpose in guidance is not to get us to perform the right actions. His purpose is to help us become the right kind of people."

I thought that those two phrases were so inspiring, and so TRUE.
God is truly amazing, and He guides us to where He wants to lead us, and guides us to be the right kind of people!

amennnnn!
hahaha that was longer than i thought it would be, but theres so much more to that!
i wish i could explain better, and go into more detail... but ill have to stop there.

whadduppp
so today
i was stuck on campus for hours
bc the stupid rain wouldnt let me go home
it was not cool

anywaysss
i started ephesians today with... obviously chapter 1 haha

the first part was really great. yup. it was about spiritual blessings in christ. when i read through it the first time, it was great but i thought it was simply the usual with god's blessings for his people and how he showed us grace by giving his son and that we are all part of god's will and we were made to praise and bring glory to god. but then i read through it again, hoping to get something more- which i did. yay. i noticed that paul kept repeating in christ, through jesus christ, in him etc. i realized that everything that we are blessed with is only possible through christ. we are blessed in christ. we were predestined to be god's children through christ. his glorious grace was freely given to us through christ. we were saved through christ. we were part of god's plan through christ. we have hope through christ and that we may bring praise of his glory. and believing in christ, we have salvation. so ya. everything we are and have is what it is because of christ. catch my drift? did that even make sense? ...probably not haha but ya

second part wasss about thanksgiving and prayer. paul here says that he prays for the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that we may know him better. also he continues to pray that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened in order that we may know the hope that we are given and that we may believe in the incomparably great power of god. i think this was a heads up for me that i need to pray more- more about my life, missions, family, other people, even greater things in this world. i should perhaps also pray for more wisdom and yearn to know god better. and to have hope and just trust in god. i try to see the positive in all situations and even in the bad, i try to find god's purpose for me. thanking him in everything i do.. and the way i am is i guess only natural because i definitely dont deserve the grace and blessings that i get. i should be grateful for everything. hmmm. ya.

so i just checked the forum
and dang it
grace beat me hahha
but yup thursday tomorrow!!
the weeks almost over yeyeeee

gloomy day today, and adding to that, i got my braces on this morning
who knew how uncomfortable they are..(they suck )

here's my devo:
Isaiah 1:2-4
A Rebellious Nation
"Hear, O Heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: "I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."
I decided to start and go through a whole book, but when I started with Isaiah, the passages confused me a little . I'm guessing that like disobedient children, so are the people in Israel.Israel has proved to God that they are a rebellious nation, and while animals know their master and obey them, Israel does not. Without God in their hearts, chaos is made within their actions and in their minds. In verse four, it talks about how as a sinful nation, the people are filled with guilt, evildoers, and children given to corruption. When they forske the Lord, they in turn are giving themselves to sin.

hope everyone's exams are going well!

I read Jeremiah 29 today.
v. 11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

From this chapter and especially the verse, I realized that it is great to expect great things from God for our lives or whatever we do. God has all the plans set for us- all we have to do is trust and follow. The one part that significantly stuck out for me was the "plans to give you hope and a future". When we are struggling in a situation or feeling as if things cannot be worse, we often forget about God. However, if we turn to God and ask for His help and let Him take over our lives, then we will probably find the hope that we cannot see at the moment.

At the reserve, in some situations, we might feel as if we alone can't bring about change. And, as much as we run the VBS program for a week and get to know the natives a little bit better, in reality, we are only there for a week out of a whole year. From reading this passage and specifically verse 11, I realized that we ALONE really cannot do anything. We need God's help and His plans to guide and lead us to bring hope to the reserve because He's always there with the natives. So, as we train, prepare, and get excited for this missions trip, I hope that we can all remember God in the process and trust in His working in us and the natives.

Hey team, hows everything....good? Good....

So i decided to read Psalm 68, I really like this chapter in this book of Psalm. It talks about how amazing God is. Reading through this passage, from verse 32 to 35 is so amazing. It says,"Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Lord, to him who rides the the ancient skies above who thunders with mighty voice. Proclaim the power of God whos majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the skies. You are awesom, O God in your sanctuary, the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise the Lord". Reading this passage, just makes me feel happy, because i have grown to be a strong christian, and i am in position, where i can help the world. To bring Christ to the people around me. I am a leader for this ministry beacuse Gos has chosen me to be leader. God has created for a reason, and that i am not here by mistake. You know, Pastor sam would always say, "We are all here today for a reason, that God has created us for a reason, that we are not here by mistake". And every time i here that, i feel like im never alone or lost. If i were a lonely person who lost everything, i wouldn't be sad, i would be happy because God is with me. God will always protect me, as it says in this passage, that God is powerful and full of strength. Ask what you need, and the Lord shall grant your prayers. You know, God always tell us to pray, because prayer gives out everything. And when you get what you want, it doesnt mean you should stop praying. I remember sam telling us that if you pray for something, and your prayers come true, he says that we should continue on praying because you will never know what will happen next. Prayer is good, and we should always continue to pray. Prayer is good, it will always bring good things into your life. So keep that in mind. amen.


AMEN.................

Have a good day everyone and may God be with you.....

Denise brings our a good point. We should trust in the Lord, and expect good things happen. Think about the positive and never the negative.....amen

“Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds — his name is the LORD— and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”- Psalm 68:4-5

This is what we are called to do, to praise Jesus and to glorify his name!
Aren't we so honoured to be able to love a God like Him, to be loved by Him. It's siiiiiick.
No matter what we say to him, about him, he really is indescribeable. Have you ever just sat there and thought of how AMAZING God is?
It really blows you away. haha. Let us sing to God, dance for God, praise him like our hearts are filled with love and joy.
There is only joy in God's presence. Just cry otu to God, worship him, don't let pride or other stuff restrict you from reaching him.

reserved for later.

Hebrews 6:


Well looking at this chapter, it is a continuation of chapter 5 and talks about coming of age. My English teacher use to talk about this all the time, and we had to write about this topic every time in order to get 80+.

Coming of age, is there a certain point where we can say that we've become fully mature? When is one able to say to themselves that they are mature? You can't. One can never be fully developed enough to say that they are "mature" because life just keeps on going and never stops till the day we die. We continue to learn and grow throughout daily events and we learn from our mistakes and successes, but that doesn't mean we're "mature." We may grow out of things like Pokemon, Power Rangers (I used to like it as a kid) but because we grew out of that, doesn't mean I'm ready for the business world. It's about the process we take, the steps we take, to grow, better ourselves.

In the same way that I look at life, I don't think anyone can ever REACH a point where they are spiritually mature. Being more mature than others is one thing, but MATURE, nope. We continue to grow, learn from the word and apply it to our daily lives. Step by step, we come to know God's character better through spending time with him. But our fruit will never be fully ripe, or mature, because we are all sinners. That is why we should continue to try and to live out what God has planned for us in our lives, so that we wont' grow sour or rotten, but a sweet tasty ripe fruit that God can harvest when the time comes.


Team, keep up the good work with devotions.
I have a challenge though.
The fruit of the spirit, it's our theme for this year. As we post our devotions, I want everyone to also post ONE fruit of the spirit that they practiced throughout the day and explain. I think its an easy enough challenge.


Self-Control:

Doesn't sound like much, but i'm doing the bad thing alot less now. HAHAHAH

Now it's your turn










started playing tennis today again, not such a great day to start up again...lol

EXAMS ARE OVER!
High School is over...Mwuhahahaha.

I'm gonna go do something crazy and start a new blog. Or a youtube channel. Hahahaha.

Today I read Isaiah 12:2
2 Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.

It's a simple verse, but it reminded me that trusting in God only needs to be that simple, as well! He is our salvation. In a literal sense, that means that He has our backs after our deaths - He's insured that we have eternal life. With that in mind, what is there to fear? I've come to find that fear is often what leads us to falling into the traps of this world so easily, because of a fear of resisting what's "popular", because of a fear of being different, etc. Trust in the One who can grant you everlasting life, and abandon that fear. When we learn to trust Him, I can't help but think that it'll help us to be the best God-like people we can be in and amongst this madness we live in. Whoowhoo!

And in the context of Native Missions, I know that conflicts may come our way and try to hinder us from carrying out His will, but it's at those precise moments that we have to increase our trust and remember who it is that we are doing this for. With Him in charge, there is nothing to fear! We just need to concentrate on bringing nothing short of our best on the missions field!


Good luck with the rest of your exams!



- H

The weather sucked today. I hate the rain, unless you're that mood where you WANT rain to come down and soak everything up. But not today...

Anyway, I read Acts 4-5 today and learned about courage.

Acts 4:19; 5:29
But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God." Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!"

There are times when you're going to hardships and you have absolutely no one to depend on other than yourself or God. Sometimes it's easy to trust yourself more because you feel like you can take control of the situation, but sometimes, you feel so helpless that you just have to go to God. I think that these verses are about courage as well as pride. When you want something to go your way but it doesn't seem to, you do everything in your power to make it go your way, keeping God on the side (well, you can still pray, but you have a very specific purpose). Thus, one thing we need to be praying for is the ability to see the world through God's eyes. I think THAT takes real courage -- being able to put your trust onto God even when you think you can handle it, since you know that God is only going to give you the best.

Have a great Thursday everyone!


Roh

I like what Alex mentioned too!

Let's study what the Fruits of the Spirit are in depth individually and try to work on some that we're not so good at. I mean you don't have to do one daily, but if you can strengthen areas of you that you're not so good at, it would be very practical!

Here's the list:
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Patience
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Gentleness
- Self-control

So, unless you're perfect, you have no excuse from not practising this!

Great point Alex.
______________________________

Also, commenting on Hannah's devos:

What is fear? I think that fear is the lack of trust. She said that it's very simple...and yes, it is indeed. If you trust God, don't fear. You can be nervous and anxious, but if you have that complete trust in Him, you shouldn't fear. Many of you will find that once you get on the reserve, you'll be hit with a lot of fear about different issues. But trust Him. With all your heart, mind, and soul.


Roh

Mark 4 Verse 21

And he was saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?"

Lol I know that what I got out of this probably has no relation to the actual meaning of the verse but here's what I got:

To be able to glow when surrounded by darkness, to shed light upon others who may be lost in the dark. I believe that is why we are going to the native reserve.
To just shine as brightly as we can to those who feel lost. To just light up their day with smiles and warm hugs..even as a team we need to look out for one another when ever one seems to be in need of some light. Like passing on the fire from one candle to another. Just be yourself. Swallow your pride...lol trust me, what ever "image" you're trying to uphold, if it isn't you, its just going to be a burden. Let it go because you weren't meant "to be put under a basket...or under a bed"

: ) step out of your comfort zone, cuzzz in the endd its a lot comfier out thurrr