Walking in the way of....

Have you ever consider in whose ways your walk in? Are you walking in the ways of your mom? your dad? David? Jeroboam? Jesus? God? Satan? Your lovable but slightly off center student minister?

If you have never read 1 Kings I would encourage to do so. I have learned a great deal about what it means to follow in the footsteps of others and how important it is to chose wisely whom we follow. Of course, all Christians are supposed to follow in Christ footsteps but for many of us that is a hard concept to wrap our minds around so we seek out fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to emulate. I think this can be a good practice so long as we always remember that no person is perfect and that we must always look at Scripture to see if our actions and thoughts are correct.

I believe God places people in our lives that we can look up to. People that we can look at and say I want to be where they are at some day. I also believe that while He gives us those people He also uses as like that in the lives of others. So who is it that is looking up to you? Who are those people who are looking at you and saying I want to be like them when I get older (or more mature)? Is your life really worth imitating? What needs to be removed to make it better? I do not know what this all means for you but I would love to hear about it.

Taking Responsibility-1 King 14

God gives each us opportunities to follow after Him. It makes no difference what your family background or history is. Many times we use these as excuses for the things we do wrong. We talk about how my parents did this so it really isn't my fault if I do the same thing. The fact of the matter is that we are responsible for our own choices and actions. There is a price to be paid for those things we do wrong no matter the reason.

The ultimate punishment for the things we do wrong (sin) is Hell. We deserve this death. Thankful Christ sacrificial death allows us to avoid this punishment. His blood protects us from this but only if we accept the gift. He died for us all but only those who accept this fact and confess Him as Lord are afford the protection. Beyond this there is punishment for sin. When we stray from the path that God has for us we suffer and sadly people around us will suffer. David sinned with his affair with Bathsheba. The result of this sin was intense suffering on both of their parts and the death of an innocent man. There are consequences to our actions yet we know that God does forgive us and that we can be fully restored if we follow His path for us.

God has many great things in store for each us. He wants to bless us. He wants to use you and me in awesome and incredible ways. Do you seem Him doing this in your life? If not you need to be asking why not and be completely ready for whatever answer may come from Him.

Getting an Answer You Don't Like

Today was one of those days when I got an answer to prayer that I did not like. It is not like the answer was bad it was just not one that I wanted. I know that God knows what He is doing and He always knows best but that does not mean I am always going to like what He says to me.

Basically, I have been begging God to give some answers to 2 major prayers. Today He showed me the answered to one. In that answer it was, "You are going to have to wait and be patient, just trust Me and keep doing what you are doing. Keep coming after Me and I will take care of it!" I wanted to hear "I have heard your prayer and I am going to change this right now!" This was hard to accept at first. I knew the answer was from him but it took me a little while to accept its truth. Now, I am still not happy but I am at peace about the situation.

God is so much bigger and beyond us that we can scarcely understand Him and His plans. I am not exactly sure where He is going with the ministries here at UBC but I know He is leading them to a better place. I desire to be on His plan for all of it. I desire to be a part of the great and mighty things He will be doing through this church.

So is God looking to use you some how? Is there something He wants you to do? Is there something more He wants from you? Do you need to ask His forgiveness of sin in your life? Do you need to be humbled by Him? Do you want to know Him more? What do you want from God? What do want to hear from Him? If you want to hear from God simply ask and be ready to hear what He says no matter what it is.

New You Tube Video

Hey if you get a chance check out this cool new video from the Youth Transition Network.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G06GX1TfRGs

Let me know what you think about it and if you think it has some value send the link on to as many people as you can!

Thanks!

Do You Fear God?

Well do you?

If you don't you should!

God is to be feared. We do not like to say or hear these kinds of things nowadays but He should be. He is holy and we should fear ever coming into His presence. He is the ultimate judge. He is the one who holds the very fate of lives and nations in His hands. Why is it that we tend to not fear God?

First of all Christians in many ways have less to fear from God. For those of us who have accepted Christ as Savior (for more on that click here) we know beyond a shadow of doubt that our eternal destiny is secure. We know that we will spend the rest of eternity with god in Heaven. Yet we should also have a healthy dose of fear when we deal with God. He is still holy after all. For the non-Christian this fear is even more magnified. They lack assurance on their eternal destiny. They do not really know for sure what will happen when they die. Many have some confidence but there is always some lingering doubt.

Second, I think, because we live in a fallen (not perfect) world, our natural tendency is to only fear those things which can hurt us in the immediate future. We are not alone in this inclination. The Israelites struggled with their fear of God(despite his numerous acts of judgment) yet after only one act/pronouncement of judgment they feared Solomon (1 Kings 3:16-28). How is it that God's people could so easily stray from fearing the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth yet fear one of God's creation? How is it that we can easily not fear God but fear other people? How is it that we can avoid fearing God but be afraid of our teachers, our bosses and the government?

Something to ponder. :)

What Could Have Been

Saul could could have been the greatest King in the history of Israel.

I have never really thought much about Saul and why he had been chosen to be the 1st King of Israel. Scripture tells us that he was tall and good looking. In essence he had th outward makes of a great king. I also believe that he had the inward potential to become a great king. If he did not have the potential then God would not have chosen him. Unfortunately for Saul he also had the potential for great failure.

When Saul was anointed king he was supposed to be the one to deliver God's people from the Philistines (1 Samuel 9:16). Saul could see this and quickly gathered a great army (1 Samuel 13:2). Unfortunately Saul was not patient in waiting on Samuel(1 Samuel 13:8-13) and because of his lack of obedience he would never full end the Philistine threat. In fact, we read that the two nations where in conflict all of the days of Saul's reign (1 Samuel 14:52).

The brief synopsis of Saul is in great contrast to the story of David. David had none of the outward markings of a great king yet he was a man that was after God's own heart. David made his mistakes no doubt about it but in the end he was able to accomplish that which Saul could not, he permanently ended the war with the Philistines (2 Samuel 5:17-25). In essence, David took over the wonderful legacy that could have been Saul's.

I think many times we see this same pattern in the church today. Many people are being called by God to do many different task yet few respond. God's tasks are still getting accomplished though except many of us are missing out on the blessings that come from fully obeying God. Saul and his family were to be the ones to rule the land for generations to come instead they died on a battle field.

So the choice is yours. Are you going to be someone who unnecessarily dies on some battlefield or are you going to be the one who follows after God no matter what He calls you to do?

Faith Beyond Us

Some of you have heard this story before but for those of you who have not I hope you enjoy hearing a story about how God stretch our faith and trust in Him beyond that which we could ever imagine.

In August of 2006 my son Colin was stillborn. This was one of those moments in life that where you become so unsure of so many things. I was never unsure about God or that He was with me. I was unsure as to why he had allowed this to happen. Since then I have questioned nearly every thought or action I ever had with the pregnancy. In the end though I came to truly realize it was all out of my hands. One might have thought after this I would have been better at remembering that God holds life in His hands and that with His words He created all that we know as creation but some times I can be a slow learner.

Angie and I found out in September that we were once again pregnant. We had been hoping for this yet we were so scared of losing another child. Once we found out we immediately called the doctors office and they confirmed it all with some blood tests. All of the test came back normal and so we scheduled and ultrasound. According to our best guess on a conception date we figured the date of the ultrasound to be at about 6.5 weeks into the pregnancy. It was hoped that by this point we could see a heartbeat.

We were not able to see much of anything at the ultrasound so for some reassurance the doctor ordered some additional blood work to check the HCG levels. Based on the initial blood work the doctor figured the new hcg levels would be about 9,000. Needless to say the numbers were not nearly that high. The new hcg levels were only 3,000. This did give us or the doctor a lot of hope. In fact, Angie and I both felt like we had or would soon lose the baby. We were devastated. (This all happened on a Friday afternoon).

That night God really started to work on Angie's heart. He began to show her that we had started to rely to much on the medical tests and equipment and not enough on Him. We had taken the miracle of birth and life and made it into a science experiment. This idea was rather convicting for both she and I since we had always wanted to avoid this. We have seen this kind of perspective in so many Christians and we did not want to fall into that same trap. Unfortunately, we had.

Along with conviction came some insight in to what it really means for God to have life in the palm of His hands. He is truly the giver of life. Jesus is the one raised Lazarus from the dead. God is the one who created life to begin with and nothing is impossible for Him. Angie and I talked and prayed, prayed and talked until finally we came to the point where we knew that we had to simply trust God to give us a healthy baby no matter what the tests were saying. Along with this we did some research on hcg levels and we found out that it was possible that the 3,000 was not as bad of a number as we first thought. We also found out that if in 48 hrs that number increased to 4800 then we would be within normal levels for a healthy pregnancy.

Well Angie had a follow-up blood test on Sunday afternoon. So we began praying. We asked others to pray. Angie asked the elders (deacons) of our church to come and pray over her and annoint her with oil. For me I struggled with having the faith to simply trust God to give the baby life. I wanted to trust without reservation more than anything but I just could not seem to do it. No matter how hard I prayed I could never seem to do it. I guess I felt like I needed some sort of proof of how God was going to work in the life of this baby. This proof (or lack thereof) would come from the Sunday tests results.

Well Sunday afternoon finally came and we waited and waited and waited. We finally called the doctor to see if the results were in and they were having to recalibrate (or something like that) the machines. Well, the numbers finally came back and low and behold the new hcg level was 4800. The exact number Angie and I had been praying for. The doctor was not as encouraged as us but we felt like we were on cloud 9. God has proven faithful once again.

I have no idea if I will get to hold a perfectly healthy baby in my arms in May or not. What I do know is that God is forever faithful. I know that He does not will for us to have a miscarriage or stillbirth. I also know that since those Sunday numbers came back I have had no worries about what the future holds for this baby. God gave me the proof that I needed to be able to follow Him without reservation.

We have another ultrasound scheduled for a little over a week from now and we are looking forward to seeing some wonderful pictures of our youngest child. I look forward to posting a picture of two of the baby here soon.

Please feel free to leave your comments, stories, etc...