nm devosssss

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torontooo
i love being home

today i read ephesians 3

here paul talked about his calling. God called him to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and share everyone that through the gospel all people are members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Lastly he says "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." so reading this, a lot of thoughts went through my head. first thing was that any kind of relationship we have with God right now was possible through christ. we are able to approach God through faith as well. second thing was that just as paul had a calling to preach the grace of God and his purpose for his people to the gentiles, we are on this missions team because we were called to build a relationship with the natives and spread the word of God. Just as paul says in this chapter that despite his incompetence and failures, God gave him grace to preach the word and plan of God, we were not called because we are such special people (although we are quite cool haha) but God's grace allowed us to do his will for his glory.

then paul prays for the ephesians in the next section. he prays that God may strengthen us with power through his Spirit in us, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. also he prays that we may be rooted and established in love and have the power to grasp how great (wide and long and high and deep) the love of Christ is- that we may be filled with the full measure of God. lastly he ends by saying that everything will be for his glory throughout all generations forever and ever. after reading this i thought that this should be the prayer that we should be praying. we should pray for strength that God may dwell in our hearts and for faith. we should also pray for full comprehension of the greatness of God- although i dont think we'll ever be able to fully fully grasp the vastness of Christ. . and lastly of course that everything we do is for God's glory.

yay im excited to see all your faces tomorrow!!
kudos to all you guys for keeping up with devos

we love to have you home, crystal!! barf. i'm never that nice to you. it's okay. neighbourino...hehehe. hahahaha.

today i looked up a verse on missions, because it's occurred to me how quick it's coming up!

2 timothy 4:2

2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

it's really 'in your face' and very direct, but i love it. in layman terms, it says to preach the word of God and to always be prepared, because opportunities to evangelize won't always come when it's most convenient for you, necessarily.

now, when i read things on evangelism, i always interpret it in two ways.

1. literally, you could take it as preaching the gospel, so bringing the word of the Bible to people's sights. for this to happen, we need to carry a good understanding for the Bible and have healthy spiritual walks, with regular devotions. that's why i'm super proud of this team for being committed to doing our daily devos, because it will not only allow us to personally grow, but serve as nothing short of super beneficial if we are ever faced with an opportunity to share the gospel with the people on the reserve (or anywhere else in our lives), and we can speak from our own experiences of exploring the Word.

2. "preaching" the word of God can also be interpreted as how we demonstrate God's truth by way of our actions. I think this is almost more important in some contexts, because you'll probably have a lot more opportunities for people to see how you act than for people to hear you share the gospel. if you call yourself a Christian, every time you act, you are preaching the word of God. so we need to ask ourselves whether we are doing the word justice because if we act not in accordance with how God wants us to, then we're giving the world a false example. especially as "missionaries", going to a reserve and worshiping our God, our actions 24/7 can have an impact on the Natives' perspective on our faith. we are ambassadors for His word, so let's always be on the ready.


SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW!!
EXCITED.

- H

ps. crystal, i really like your point about how it was never like our "right" to be called to serve, but that it's by His grace that we get to do this.

Hey guys~ how r u?

So this is my second devotion in one day haha...

This time, I read 1 Corinthians 6:17 and this verse is about unity.

17. But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

If we talk about unity, we would unity with the teammates are most important. However, it is useless when we are not united with God. Paul tells us that he who UNITES himself with God is also one in spirit with him, meaning that if we unite with God, we are also united in spirit with him. He is all possible God and if we unite with him in truth and have faith in him, we are going to see great changes in this mission trip and not only in mission trip, but also in our lives.

I read Ephesians 4 today. It talked about unity in Christ and sorry Crystal cause I know you're reading this tomorrow, so I'm just going to talk about this one point that I got, which is pretty much a continuation from yours. Yes, we get to serve. But how do we serve efficiently? After we've been called by God, how do we work with one another in unity?

"Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God
Always be humble and gentle.
Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all."

It talks about the different qualities of a servant. One who is humble, gentle, patient, forgiving...sounds familiar? The fruits of the Spirit! Remember that as a team, you are always practising these traits with one another. Who are we to evangelize when we can't even follow God's orders among ourselves? Like Alex said a couple of days ago, let's try to practise at least one a day.

We also need to unite ourselves in the Spirit. What does that mean? It could mean a plethora of things but I would say that mainly, it means to stay focused on God at all times. Remembering what and who we're doing this for. Remember who the one is that allows us to do this for.

See you all tomorrow!

Hey guys, sry for posintg my devotions let today.........so today i decided to do my devotions on James chapter 1. As i read through this passage, i found a verse that really stood up to me. From verse 2-4 it says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 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.

So in this passage, it basically talks about perseverance. What is perseverance? Well to me, i think perseverance means finding out who you are. Finding out why God has created you to be here today. If you guys like to add anything, please do. So what i learned today from this verse was that, as christians, we should never give up and always work are way up to God. Meaning, if people think that doing good things to others doesnt mean that we will be saved. I believe that in order to have a full relationship with God is to love him. When we love him, it is also meaning to love others. God says if you want to love me, you must also love one another. What are some ways how we can love God? Well what you can do, is read the bible. It tells so many things about the christian life about God and Jesus Christ. Its a message from God telling us how amazing god is. And that is perseverance. Perseverance is pure joy, as it says in verse 2. Consider it as pure joy. So keep this in your mind. We need perseverance in order to have connection with God. AMEN.

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

have a good day everyone and cya tomorrow.....

hey team !
sorry im late, i was so busy, but im here now !
so today i read 1Peter chapter 1, and verse 8 really stood out to me.
it says
"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you beleive in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."
That i think is what i call unbreakable faith.
When you do not need scientific facts, or proof by seeing it done with your own eyes. When you know and beleive that God is real, and that Jesus died on the cross for us even if we did not witness it ourselves.
Its the kind of faith that we may have ,or are striving to have. One where we KNOW and do not doubt God's existence. We do not question whether he is real or not, but rather BE SURE that He is, and there is NO doubt about it!
I feel blessed to have that kind of faith, where i do not question christianity, but always thank for it, and know that God is with me every step of the way.
Each and every one of us should always, continuously be thankful for that kind of faith, and for being hand chosen by God.
I have friends who do not know God and tell me that they feel like something is missing. Something that money, clothes, or other possesions cant fill. I think thats why we are the happiest people in the world. Because that faith, and having God in our lives gives us that heart filld with inexpressible and glorious joy. In our lives, that spot is filled.

ill see you all at one o'clock

sorry, i've been doing devotions but i didnt post it on

Submission to Rulers and Masters
1 Peter 2:13-22
"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
We should be committed to God of whatever race, rank, or standard we live in. By honouring God we should act the part in helping others and living in servanthood of him. In the passage above, God has committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth <-- God is perfect and is has done no wrong or ever will. With this standard, we are no match for him and is seen as unworthy of him. We are put as servants of God and should obey/listen to him because he's God.Because God has done nothing wrong and only does good, he's not at the same level as us and we must not think of him as a equal. We shouldn't view his words so lightly.