New Seasons

It's been a while since my last post, partly because I never knew what to say. A lot was happening in my life and the Lord was teaching me many lessons, but most of them I needed to keep to myself for a while...looking to Jesus and trusting that He knew what He was doing, no matter how much it didn't make sense to me. Once again the seasons are changing, but this time I can share it with the world.

My best friend of almost 2 years and I have decided to embark on a new journey together. After much prayer, waiting on the Lord, wrestling with the Lord, Bible verses, more prayer, "patiently" waiting, more verses, and more prayer, we felt the Lord leading both of us into a relationship with each other. He has been such an encouragement to me over these past couple years, but especially since last summer. I am truly blessed that the Lord has placed him in my life and constantly uses him as a tool to point me to Jesus. As we've grown to get to know each other, our hearts for ministry (as well as many other things) are the same. It's been a privilege to serve alongside him so far and I'm excited to see what else the Lord has in store for us.

Are any of you waiting for something? Does it seem like an answer my never come? Remember, fix your eyes upon Jesus. Trust that He is working behind the scenes in ways you couldn't even imagine. Know that His timing is perfect and continue to seek HIM, not an answer, but Jesus.

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Hebrews 11:6

Outreach

Today some members from my church paired with the Armor of Light ministry to put on a family event day at the Marine base here. We served a grilled lunch, had inflatable games, pony rides, live music, face painting, and an Easter egg hunt. Most of this particular battalion had already been deployed last month so many that attended today were families left behind. It was a wonderful opportunity to serve those who are sacrificing to serve and protect our country. This is a difficult time for their families, so it was a blessing for me to be involved in putting on an event for them to have some fun together. Personally, I didn't get an opportunity to share with any of them in word, but seeing their faces gives me more to pray for, that our actions and countenance of our faces would be emblazoned in their mind, not because of us but because of Who we represent: Jesus Christ. May His name be glorified in all we say and do. Thank you to those who have served or are currently serving our country, sacrificing yourselves to protect our freedom. I pray that you all would be able to experience the greatest freedom that comes through Jesus Christ...freedom from sin and death.

Complaining

Numbers 11:1 "Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused."

Pretty self-explanatory. Why should we complain when we have so much to be thankful for. When we complain, we are saying that we are not satisfied with the way the Lord is providing for us and guiding us, thinking we could do better or that we deserve better. Looking back over my life, I know that God's ways are perfect. He has blessed me abundantly and I have NOTHING to complain about. Blessed be His name.

Appointed Duties

I was reading through Numbers today and something caught my attention. In chapter 4, the duties of the Levites were being defined specifically for each family—Aaron and his sons who were the priests, the sons of Kohath, the sons of Gershon, and the sons of Merari. What I found interested was throughout the chapter, the Lord specifically assigned duties for each family so that everyone had a roll and no job was left undone.

Often as Christians we can become jealous about what the Lord is doing through the life of another believer. We want to have their life and be assigned their duties rather than being faithful with what the Lord has entrusted to us. On the flip side, we can wonder why other Christians aren’t helping us with our work. They seem to only be concerned with what they are doing that they don’t stop to offer to help us.

My friends, the Lord has given us each a specific task for His kingdom…one that we are designed to do, that no one else can do. It would be slighting the Lord if we thought we knew better than He, thinking we would be better suited for a different task or someone else for ours.

Throughout the chapter God says to “appoint each of them to his service and his task,” “appoint to them all their tasks as their duty,” “assign to each man by name the items he must carry,” “each according to his service and according to his task.” Everyone had a job to be performed “to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens” in order that the tabernacle, the place of God’s dwelling, might be taken care of.

We, as Christians, are the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the church His body. If we are too busy striving to be something we’re not, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:14-27, we will be divided as a body and accomplish nothing, which is exactly what the enemy, Satan, wishes to accomplish in the church. Run your race in your lane. Let us stop quarreling and complaining, but be faithful to the end with what the Lord has given us that He might say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Discipleship

I’ve been reading a book by G. Campbell Morgan entitled “Discipleship”. Last night I came across a passage that struck me. The truths and lessons we have been taught as disciples of Jesus should not be mere theories committed to memory, but should be displayed in our lives as principles. “The teaching of Jesus is cumulative and progressive.” We cannot move on to learn other lessons or skip to the end until we have applied what we’ve already been taught. You can’t skip steps because it all builds upon each other. I was reminded of a couple verses as well.

2 Timothy 3:14—“But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of.”

Psalm 11:3—“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

We must continue to persist steadily because the lessons the Lord is teaching us now are for our good and are building the foundation for our future. Though we may not understand it, God knows, and is using it for our advancement in His discipleship program.

Something To Consider

1 Samuel 12:24 – “Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”

In the context of this verse, the nation of Israel was afraid the Lord would destroy them because of their disobedience to Him. However the Lord encouraged the people through the prophet Samuel and pointed them back in the right direction. They were not to go after empty things, but to follow the Lord, to “fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth will all your heart.” What was their motivation to serve the Lord rather than to gain alliances “prosperity” from the people already in the land? Why should they serve Him with all their heart? Simply because of what the Lord had done for them. He had created their nation, delivered them from Egypt, brought them through the desert, given them victory over their enemies, and had shown mercy to the people despite their sin. He had been faithful in the lives of their forefathers and would be faithful forever. Because of this, the least these people could do was to follow the Lord.

But what about me? What about you? Most likely, we have never wandered through a country without stopping at a place we call “home”; have never been made a slave, forced to work in the mud pits and make bricks; have never spent 40 years wandering in a desert, fed daily by miracle bread that dropped from the sky each morning. But maybe, some seasons in your life have felt like that. You don’t know what you’re doing with your life; you seem to be surrounded by impossibilities on every side; you’re stuck in a place where it seems easier to give up and go back to the life you knew before Christ, or worse yet, you only display your faith around other Christians but hide your light when you’re with everyone else at work or school or the stores.

Here, we are given the answer. How can we go on in the face of such difficult circumstances? We look to Jesus and what He did for us…”for consider what great things He has done for you.” When you look, truly look, at all that Jesus went through for us in His life on earth and the intense pain and suffering He experienced on the cross, and you realize that HIS motivation was His love for YOU, how can you do anything else but serve Him with all of your heart? When this Christian life becomes a “bore” or seemingly too difficult to carry on, look back at what Jesus did for you. You will be humbled by His great love and sacrifice, and that will be your motivation. May we all remember what great things He has done for us.

Updating

While I'm here visiting the Cate family in Colorado, Carleigh and I decided to update our blogs with fun new backgrounds. Since I changed the layout, I thought it'd be about time to make a new post as well, considering my last post was 4 months ago. However, it's getting late and my brain can think of nothing better to write at this point in time, I'll conclude this small post and try again when I have something better to say. So long for now.