Will You Dine With Him?

"I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me." Revelation 3:20 (NIV)

This was the main passage that was preached upon on Sunday. I decided to try out a different church that day with one of my roommates, and it was actually pretty good. It was a very small congregation of maybe 20 people. The main thing I took away from this sermon is that we should treat our relationship with God like He is the King. As part of respect, as He is our creator, and because it is rude not to focus on someone we are dining with. We are so distracted by television, internet, our cell phones, that we don't pray or read the Bible often enough, and we just leave God to when we're in times of need, or when we've hit rock bottom. What kind of relationship is this? God, our King and Creator wants to spend time with us, wants to develop us, wants to bless us and love us... and in return, we ignore Him until we need something? This verse says that God is always present and waiting for us to let Him in to eat with us. The privilege of eating with the King is not something we should take lightly. Remember why we are on Earth. Remember who it is that we will be standing before when the world ends. Are the things of this world really more important than God's mission? Than serving Him and making use of the gifts He has blessed us with?


http://youtu.be/7G4dCKzT7jg - Shining, by Jesus Culture

Shelter

http://youtu.be/Bcgj-Jbl2RY - Jars of Clay

I love the lyrics, the music, not so much...

To all who are looking down

Holding onto hearts still wounding

For those who’ve yet to find it

The places near where love is moving

Cast off the robes you’re wearing

Set aside the names that you’ve been given

May this place of rest in the fold of your journey

Bind you to hope, you will never walk alone

In the shelter of each other, we will live, we will live

In the shelter of each other, we will live, we will live

Your arms are all around us

If our hearts have turned to stone

There is hope, we know the rocks will cry out

And the tears aren’t ours alone

Let them fall into the hands that hold us

Come away from where you’re hiding

Set aside the lies that you’ve been living

May this place of rest in the fold of your journey

Bind you to hope that we will never walk alone

If there is any peace, if there is any hope

We must all believe, our lives are not our own

We all belong

God has given us each other

And we will never walk alone

© 2010 Bridge Building / Pogostick Music (BMI). All rights for the world on behalf of Pogostick Music administered by Bridge Building. 

40 Days of Lent

So Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent - the period of time between this day and Good Friday where one fasts, or "gives something up", in order to become closer to God. But for me, I couldn't think of anything to give up this season, so I didn't do anything until today. I thought of what I could do instead.

Since this period of time is dedicated to giving something up so that we have more time to pray, or to do devotions, I have decided to take a chunk of time out of my day to meditate upon a verse, or a worship song and to blog about it. I have decided to do this because when I meditate upon a verse or the lyrics of a worship song, I find myself connecting to God more, and I am more aware of His presence.

I know that I am almost a week late in beginning my lent, but I am glad that I didn't just ignore it and not do anything. Prayer and devotions should be part of my day, but it truthfully hasn't been lately. I am hoping that through this time, I will develop a habit of making this a part of my life, as the point of me being on Earth isn't to please others, but to please God and do His will. If I am not trying to get closer to God and be able to follow Him, then everything else I am doing is not important, and I pretty much will have no purpose on Earth.  In the end, I will be standing before the Almighty One, and He will be the one to judge me. Not society. Not the media. No one but Him.

This is the verse that I meditated on today:

" Do not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done."

It comes from Philippians 4:6, and I especially like it in the NLT version. If you look at the NIV version, it says, " do not be anxious in anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." I stumbled upon this verse today, as I was walking to work. It is a 15 minute walk on a cold, snowy day, and I was just thinking about how I was stressed out about arranging my accommodations for next term, some problems my friends are having, and then thinking about how I'm going to survive the work day. Don't get me wrong; I like my work, it's just that I'm still getting used to it. I also need to get more sleep. I wasn't able to sleep last night because I kept thinking about many things, and I had a headache, and then I worried about not being able to fall asleep even though I was so exhausted. But somehow, I managed to fall asleep and when I woke up in the morning I was still so tired and groggy.

The funny thing is; that after I read this verse, I thought to myself that I although I have heard many messages about not worrying and giving it up to God before, I had never read this verse in particular. When I read it, it felt so simple. Why worry? Does worrying do anything to improve my situation? No. But prayer does. When I pray and tell God about everything that's going on in my mind, I feel like a burden is being lifted off my shoulders, and then everything just comes pouring out of me. I tell God how I am feeling, I tell Him why, even though He already knows, I let it all out. And it feels good. It's just like talking to a best friend. At first, you might not want to tell them because they might judge you, or they might not understand. But once you start talking, it feels lighter. Relief enters the body and then comes rest. You don't have to hold it in anymore. But what's even better about praying your worries to God is that He can help. When you don't think anyone can help - He can. God works in such miraculous ways, that when you don't expect it - something even more awesome than what you could hope for happens, and it just blows you away. God is someone who cares so much about me that when He hears me pray and ask for something, when I lift up my worries and burdens to Him, He will take them and help me get through it. And through Him helping me, I experience more of God's splendor and love. This is what my relationship with God should be like; trusting that He will take care of me, following His ways and commands, and then falling more and more in love with Him as I experience more of His unconditional love.

But just as you ask for something from God, we must thank Him. In the last part of the verse, it says "... and thank Him for all that He has done." God has done so many things for me. Sometimes I probably don't even notice it, or recognize it. In so many ways, God has taken care of me, provided for me, comforted me, taught me, and loved me - that I wouldn't be here the way I am if it wasn't for His saving grace. It is very important to thank Him. It's just manners, and respect. When I thank God, I find that I realize more of what He has done for me and how He has worked in my life. I find that a lot of things just start popping up in my mind, recognizing that it was God here, and it was God there. And then I can only think, "Wow. He has done a lot for me."



http://youtu.be/CvHMjILrSJ0  - The Valley Song, by Jars of Clay

"I will sing of your mercy that leads me through valleys of sorrow to rivers of joy."

Set a Fire

http://youtu.be/3kLoSplwz3Y

No Place I'd rather be
No Place I'd rather be
No place I'd rather be
Here in your Love,
Here in your love

Set a Fire Down in my Soul
That I cant contain that I cant control
I want more of you God
I want more of you God

- United Pursuit


Such a simple song, with so much depth.

We are all His people

It has been such a long time since I last posted, and so much has happened already. Since in my last post, I talked about my winter break, and how much God had blessed me with a job and giving me time to rest and be with my family, it only seems to make sense that I start my update from there.

I have been working for about 6 weeks now, and I have learned so much. I went into my job knowing nothing, and half the term isn't over yet but I already feel like I belong as an employee at my company, and am comfortable talking with my coworkers. The work they give me isn't too difficult or too easy, and there is always something new to learn or discover. I usually wake up an hour before I have to take the bus but lately I have been sleeping late and feeling so exhausted that I pretty much snooze until 30 minutes before the bus comes. At first it seemed like perhaps I wasn't adapting well to my new environment (I moved into a house) and new to work,  but it's been almost two months now and I still feel so exhausted. Although this may seem like a bad thing, I think this is actually helping me to sleep at night. I pretty much just wipe out when my head touches the pillow.

I went to a winter retreat with my Christian fellowship at school a couple weeks ago (when it was much colder and there was more snow around) and although I wasn't even thinking about going at first, I am glad I did. Since the theme of the retreat was about finding your identity in Christ through your culture, I thought that it wasn't really important, and I just assumed it was about how to love other cultures - which was something that I thought I was already fine with (as in not racist). But what I ended up learning was that God always has a purpose for me where ever I am. During the last night there, I experienced something that is hard for me to explain in words, but I will try my best. To give a bit of background, we were split up in to little groups with people from different campuses as well as our own (this was a retreat across many university fellowships), and there was a girl in my group that was having a hard time with something, but she refused to share what was bothering her. This was totally fine - no one is forced to share, but when I looked at her I could feel the sadness flowing from her. That night, we had worship and something called "overflow" - which was just extended worship and prayer time. During this time, I felt God tugging at my heart for the girl, and I was filled with so much sadness for her that I went over to her and we cried together. This was the strangest feeling for me because I didn't know why I was crying, or why she was so sad. I think that God was trying to teach me that I could show love to people even if I have no idea what their situation is, and that sometimes, the most you can do for someone is to pray for them, and that I could help someone feel better just by crying with them. I know this sounds really vague but I still can't comprehend everything that happened that night. I can only quote this verse from Romans 12:15:

 "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."

I felt God's presence that night, and although I was scared to obey His tugging at my heart - as I am a shy person and she was a stranger - I am glad that I obeyed. God didn't need me to comfort her, but He to give me the opportunity to learn more about His love, and to understand through experience what He means in Romans 12:15. God works in such awesome and complex ways, that I can only look back in amazement and admire His ways.

God, you are all knowing, and so loving. I can barely start to comprehend what it means to love unconditionally and to love your neighbour. Sometimes it feels like I'm so detached from everyone else, but You always remind me that You have a plan for me and I just need to let go of my worries and obey. Thank you for teaching me about community at the retreat, thank you for including me in Your plans for her and for giving me the opportunity to comfort someone in need. Thank you for giving me the strength and courage to overcome my shyness and fear of rejection to go over to her during overflow. God, I want to know more about Your love, and I want you to show me how I can love others just as You love me. I pray that my friend from the retreat is doing well now, and that You heal her heart. Thank you for being who You are God, and may Your will be done, for it is good. Amen.


http://youtu.be/SKy5WXEu8lY
Promise of a Lifetime - Kutless