Balmy December

Spring

Transitioning

Today is an unexpected day off, so I'm taking the opportunity to post. I have a certain amount of banked days after being so busy in the winter. Long weekends are a nice way to use those banked days. Andrea and I have been enjoying our time out here at camp. It's been 2 years since we moved here and it will be a little over 2 months until we get something to call a home. There is much anticipation for this moment when we will have a house that is actually meant to be our house.

Also we have been enjoying fellowship with a different community of believers for the last several months.We now attend church in Portage, which is a 40 minute drive from our house. The travel is no big deal, but we do have to limit how much we get involved because of it. Also having a little boy that goes to sleep at 7 limits our evening activities.

So, to clarify to myself and to any other readers I will give some of the reasons as to why we changed churches. There was no one our age in the church we previously attended that we could relate to or consider of like minded. We had not been challenged to grow or been convicted since attending there.
Also we seemed to be under the umbrella of my family church, which makes things difficult. As a preacher once said, " family relationships are fading if they are not in Christ, true fellowship is found in our relation with brothers and sisters in Christ". I'm not saying that my family is not believers, but I will say that when we are together that fact is taken for granted.

Actually I won't peg that on my family, that is the case for too many christians. Sure we are christians but that is not a fact to accept and then ignore. It's not a prerequisite for friendship that is addressed and then considered trivial in comparison to day to day small talk. I do long for the day when Christ comes back and he will be the center of our attention. Yes, I do believe he is coming back like it says in Luke 21:27-28,And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”


Maybe the Church we were attending was not providing for us because our own hearts were far from trying to accept that place. Were we hyper cynical and pushing the our expectations too far, I will say no. The move was necessary,and we have been ministered to by the community we now attend. It is good to go to a place where people challenge us personally. This Christian life cannot be done solo. Meeting together to study God's word and to intercede for the sinful world around us are irreplaceable things. I'm so thankful that we have the freedom to meet in this country without fear of persecution. Although some persecution might do us good, like a refinery, burning off the impurities.

Well I'm going to close this one off, it's getting kind of rambly. I haven't written in a long while.

Prayer

Recently I found myself at a loss for words before the Lord. I wish I could say it was because I was in awe of our creator and his mercy for a sinner like me, but the cause was quite the opposite. The reason for my stagnant state was a cold heart and an indifference towards my saviour. I had lost the passion, Jesus was not my satisfaction. Instead I had allowed myself to beieve that my pattern, my well oiled regiment of getting up early and reading His word was enough. It was like a correspondent that consistently wrote me letters but I never cared to return any. To me the word seemed dead and unresponsive.

I give all credit to to the Spirit working in to bring me back to my knees before Jesus, but i will let you know where he led me on the way. Good friends of mine referred me to a Lou Sutera prayer seminar at their church. I was hungry for more knowledge and was able to make it to two of the three meetings. Through these meeting I was deeply convicted on my attitude and failure to bring things to my Savior. Since this initial motivation the joy that can only be found in the Lord is slowly returning to me. There are many other factors and influences that have helped me along but I will not go into them at this time.

Simply put: To believe is to pray
Without prayer I deny that God exists by refusing to acknowledge him. When I say that I am a christian yet do not communicate that first of all to Christ it is hypocrisy. How can I lead a household without the Lord? How can I be a missionary to children and the community if I deny Christ's work in my own heart?

⁵ You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
   who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
   you were angry.
   How then can we be saved?
⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean,
   and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
   and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
⁷ No one calls on your name
   or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
   and have given us over to^[a] our sins. Isaiah 64:5-7


They did not call on the Lord and were given over to their sins... 


Call on Jesus, bring everything before him.

Returning

I'll admit I've been absent from posting in the last little while. It is not without good reason that I have remained in this state of silence. I try to make this blog a place where the way I can communicate the truth's of God's word, warnings of this deceptive world and perhaps a few verbal and literal pictures of the beautiful world we live in. There now that I have stated the purpose of this space it is more clearly communicated to you and as well to myself. As it is too late in the evening for me to formulate proper thoughts here are some pictures.

Lecrae-Background Ft. C-Lite Video

This is a pretty weak rebirth into blogging but at least its something. Check out the video, listen to the words let them pierce you. I may or may not resemble C-lite you can decide for yourself. Enjoy.

you can keep all that junk to yourself

Alright I wouldn't recommend you actually keep junk to yourself, I would recommend you get rid of it and please don't give it to any other poor person. If you haven't read my dear wife's blog you will find that our family is currently a resounding gong(with love). It has come to our attention, or rather we have been convicted by God on our use and view of our one precious life. I like to call it, "inhaling properly". We live on air, we expect and need to breathe in clean air or we will die. As Christians we need to make sure the air we breathe is clean and frequent enough to actually sustain. Watching an awful movie or indulging in that one television series is like putting your mouth to a tailpipe only once and a while. The negative effects of a little bit of sin is much more devastating than you would expect. Through prolonged exhaust inhalation your lungs and lips become calloused, so does the discernment and desires of your heart. Instead of recoiling and sputtering the filth becomes attractive and even delicious. The majority of the world is in this state, greenhouse gases are better named Sin.

Thanks be to God for saving us from this plight, for giving us eyes to see and ears to hear. For those who are chosen this cancer is cured and they are renewed. Stop ignoring this sin in your life come to Christ and find life in him! Examine what you're allowing into yourself, and pray for the strength to do it with God.