What are you afraid of?
Recently I went on a tour of an abandoned sanatorium consisting of five buildings. The old site is one of my favorites and I was excited to get to finally go inside. My cousin and I were the only people there and the guide left us to tour the other four buildings on our own and only stayed with us through the first one, which of course everyone says is haunted. Several times the woman stopped and asked us if we were troubled by spirits, because we are about to enter areas that were known to have heavy Spirit activity. My cousin and I informed her that we were Christians so they didn’t bother us, she kind of rolled her eyes at that. She let us go up into a super condemned area of the building, and challenged us to see if we would go all the way to the end of the ‘Haunted Hall,’ my cousin and I looked at each other and grinned of course we would go to the haunted floor with the haunted hall, sounds like fun. We joked with each other a little bit about the ghosts, went to the end of the hall, we’re slightly terrified at the thought of falling through the floorboards, and then returned totally fine. The scariest part was when we got back home and I showed the photos to my father, who has worked in construction for a lot of years, he informed us that the ankle-deep fluffy stuff we were walking through was falling asbestos from the ceiling. As we toured around more there was one-room known for its activity, where people had left a bowl of garlic that had apparently been there for several years. All of this made me think, what are you really afraid of? Isn’t it vampires that garlic keeps away? As Christians we know that evil spirits do exist, and by no means should we take them lightly, but we also need to remember that God gave us Authority in these situations. I don’t know if ghosts actually bother hunting people, I know that coming from a family of pastors that my grandparents and my parents have seen evil spirits be driven out of people, and I am very sure that if there were evil spirits around us they didn’t bother us solely because we are Christians and they knew to avoid placew Jesus is present. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to rebuke any ghosts in the name of Jesus. The fact of the matter is that people give over to these beliefs and then they let these beliefs control them. People say would you stay in a haunted building for $100,000? And I’m like, absolutely, because as Christians there is no reason for us to fear ghosts or spirits. To be honest, with how run-down parts of the buildings were, and the fact that we very easily could have run into some kind of large animal, I did get a little jumpy on that thought, especially when we found a random staircase hidden under another staircase that led down into a basement that had seemingly been untouched for a very long time, because even the owner had admitted to not going into those buildings in several years. But my point was, it’s fun to let yourself be afraid in a silly way, where you’re joking about things that go bump in the night; however we shouldn’t give too much thought or power to these things, because you don’t want to let any opening where the devil could poke through. If I’m being fully truthful there are a lot of children’s ghost stories that when you read them as a Christian you can tell that these aren’t ghosts, or something silly to laugh at but that these are encounters with evil spirits that are real and you should not give that room in your life, and certainly should not let your children be giving room to such things in their minds, which are easily influenced. If you’re wondering why we decided to explore an abandoned sanatorium when we have no interest or fear of ghosts, we did it because the old buildings have an incredible history that lends to our province, and that history makes the building’s interesting. The thing I love the most is that youth for Christ had taken these buildings over at one time, and though Ghost Hunters had broken in and graffitied things on the walls to make it seem like the building was cursed, there were still banners up with scripture verses, there were still Bibles and devotionals in the rooms, pieces of the love of Christ fill those buildings, so I doubt they’re haunted, because what ghost wants to deal with all of that😉
Category: Blog
Better than yesterday
You can’t give God more than your best
Your best needs to be your absolute best, and that will cause your best to grow and some day you will look back and see how much better you have become by always giving your absolute best. To quote an old TV show, we are always getting better when you aim to improve, better than yesterday, better than today, better than 5 minutes ago. When you aim to give your best you will improve and get better. Say you want to learn how to swim five miles, but you can only swim a single lap in the pool before getting tired, what do you do? You aim to swim two laps, until that is easy and then you swim three until that becomes easy. I once heard it said that to be great you don’t practice until you get it right, you practice until you can’t get it wrong. So many say that they are trying to serve God but they fear that they are doing it wrong, if you are trying then you are doing it right, you just have to keep trying and then one day you will look and see that you have improved. Where before you read your Bible and prayed once a week now you read your Bible and pray twice a week, or three times a week, or four or many times a day. You start small and then you increase. Wait for the day when you open your Bible because you want to and not because it’s a requirement, that will be a wonderful day and you will realize that trying even when you feel like it wasn’t good enough, helped grow you into who you are now. God is patient, don’t rush, go forward at your own pace… but keep going forward.Â
To live is Christ- Paul
I have seen a lot of pain, mostly caused by people, I have seen a lot of tears, I have heard a lot of cries, I know that pain and suffering fill this earth and I know that many say, “then how can there be a loving God who could prevent all this?”
I get it, it’s hard to see how good He is when the news shows so much evil in this world, but we must remember, He gives us a free will and people have dark hearts at times, evil lives here on earth and the devil is constantly causing people to sin. We are selfish at times, we are uncaring at times, so there is pain. People want to claim that God doesn’t exist and then when bad things happen blame everything on Him because that’s the easiest solution it seems at times.
So why in a world so racked with pain do I believe in a loving God? Because there os still laughter, there is still healing that the doctors can’t explain, there is still hope in the eyes of the persecuted, those who are dying because they believe in Jesus so how dare I, how dare any of us who believe in Christ be willing to give up the fight because people want to laugh at us, or call us names, or wrongly accuse us? If people who are being killed still have hope in Jesus and do not deny or doubt Him in the midst of all they suffer then shouldn’t we?
To live is Christ Paul said. To live is to live for Jesus, nothing matters in this world but Him. If He is all that matters to you, then the opinions of this world won’t harm you.
Right now the persecuted Church needs extra prayer, and so do the people going back to school, those people who like to cause pain are out there, but God sends Warrior Angels to protect His children, just ask for them and look to see the difference that God makes. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength- Phillipians 4:13
Dear Jesus,
Send your warrior angels to protect your people this moment and every moment ahead of them. This world is full of pain and hate so helps us to be love through your healing to this hurting world. Help us to be different in a good way and to be so full of you that those around us can’t hurt us. I ask this in Jesus name, amen.
Fear
Fear
Today I want to discuss fear. Why? Because today I was afraid. What I hate is that I had just listened to an amazing sermon on being happy and still my fear took me over. What happened next, I was condescending and rude to the person I was afraid for. I was not at risk of anything but they were and I care about them a lot, so I reacted to my fear for them and have felt sick about it all day. I needed to trust that Jesus had it covered, but instead I rose up and was unkind while trying to protect the person I care about. Love shows itself in many different forms, aggression and anger sometimes being those forms, which actually doesn’t make a lot of sense. When you are afraid you react, and that reaction can cause bad things to occur. What are causes of fear?
Being human.
We know that God has things covered and yet fear grabs us and destroys our rational thinking. Some say of you fear you aren’t a true Christian because it means you don’t trust God. I disagree. Fear can hit us even when we are trusting God because we are still human, yes we should take our fear to God but we should also know that He isn’t angry at us for being afraid. David criticized his own soul for it’s fear and told it to have courage in God, but the fear was still there. Fear is not a sin, how we respond to that fear can be. But God understands, He isn’t angry that you are afraid, He simply wants you to give your fear to Him and to trust Him.
Gift giver
We as people always want to give back. We want to give back to our neighbors, our co-workers, our family, our friends. So of course we want to give back to God. But we can’t. We can repay a cup of coffee with a cup of coffee, or having our grass mowed by baking some cookies or so on… but how do we give back to God?
In giving fully of ourselves. But is that enough? It is to God.
But say In full measurement of the ‘equal gift calculator’ do they add up to the same? No.
Think of it like this.
Your dad buys you a new CD. You’re eight years old and super excited and want to give him something in return, so you run to your room and grab your second favorite Super Star doll and give it to him as a present, what is a grown man going to do with that doll? From anyone else he would probably tell you politely that he doesn’t want it and you should keep it, but you are his child and thus are special, so what does he do? He takes it to work, puts it on his desk and when people ask about it he says with a smile, “my daughter gave it to me”.
We want to give back to God because He gives us so much, we have nothing to give Him that He wants except our hearts, but we still dish out things that we think will make God happy, even though it’s like a little girl giving her dad a doll, God still smiles seeing us trying so hard to give to Him. Our gift will never equal His, it can’t, but the giving we try to do makes Him smile because He loves us.
God values YOU
One person does not define you.
Five people don’t define you.
People don’t define you, God does.
Jesus defines who you are, He directs who you are.
Look at your life through the eyes of the man on the cross, the man walking out of the tomb, God sitting on His throne. If He was willing to die for you, the you who you are right now, then what person has earned the right to try and judge you? If God loves you enough to give up everything for you, then isn’t that enough to show you your value? Because you do have value! You right now reading this, God wants you to know that you have value and are valued by Him.
People don’t define you, God does.
Listening or just hearing?
I want to live like I have been listening.
Do we live like we have been listening? I know that I don’t always. There will be things I say or do or don’t do and I realize after that it was not Christian. I know that sounds ridiculous to some, or maybe it sounds familiar others but it is still true. I used to always wear a WWJD bracelet to school so that I would remember that I was to live like Christ, yet it is so easy to forget who we are supposed to be following. The world says ‘If it makes you happy, then do it.’ But God says to do all things that are pleasing to Him (Romans 21:1). Do people ask us why we are different? Do they see Jesus in us? Do we live like we pay attention to our pastors, to our Bible, to Jesus? Do we live like we have been listening? I know that I don’t always, and I ask Jesus and The Holy Spirit to help me do better, all you have to do is ask and they will guide and help you. Trust Jesus, listen to Jesus and live like Christ the best you can. You won’t be perfect, you can’t be, but God looks at the effort of us doing our absolute best and that is all we need to strive for, because only He is perfect.
But he was God’s man, so he succeeded.
But he was God’s man, so he succeeded.
How often do we see this in the Bible? How often do we watch as something unbelievable happens simply because the person is God’s.
Today my dad spoke on Genesis 14, he told is many great things to remember but the thing that stuck out to me the most was what he said about Abraham. If Abraham hadn’t been God’s man, if you hadn’t had had the angels of heaven, the armies of God coming with him you never would have been able to defeat the Kings and save lot. That is so true in so much that we go through. There are so many times when I feel like I should fail because I am inadequate to the task, but because I call on God and have him with me somehow I succeed. There is no way we can survive or succeed on our own, yes there are people who have made a success of themselves even though they are not Christians but it’s not the same, it’s not the kind of success that’s fulfilling. If you have Jesus you have everything, if you don’t have Jesus you have nothing. I know there will be times when Jesus doesn’t feel like he is enough to sustain you but he will always be enough and eventually you will see it. Keep pushing through and fighting forward, because somehow Jesus will do the impossible.
A dry flower
Today I was watering my grandpa’s flowers and when I came around the corner, in the far back away from every other plant, I saw this small and dehydrated pansy. Obviously I poured some water on it and watched it spring back up. I felt happy as I watched the flower regain it’s zuberince. Then I realized how like us that flower is, we have dry moments, sometimes even dry years, where we feel like we are separated from everyone else and that nobody notices Us and nobody cares. Suddenly, just as we feel we are about to fade away, God delivers us from our drought and pours his healing water on us, and we are able to stand once again. Jesus never looks away, and he always sees us, Even in our times of testing in trial, Even in our times of dryness, he is taking care of us and he never lets us fade away. Right when we don’t think we can take anymore he pours his healing water on us and we come alive again. Don’t let your times of drought make you feel like the father doesn’t care or isn’t watching, sometimes we have to become dry so we can grow in him. Even if you can’t feel his presence today, he is watching and caring for you, and loves you.
Somehow
Jesus is the God of somehow.
Somehow the disease vanished, somehow the pain is gone, somehow they got the job, somehow they survived it, somehow it was all okay.
Jesus is the God of the amazing and unexplainable, the things that happen that don’t make sense- the impossible. When the doctor says, “I don’t know how, but the colitis is gone” -that’s God. When the police say, “there is no reason they should have survived that accident” -that’s God. When the addict says, “I don’t know how but I managed to turn away from my addiction”- that’s God.
God is the God of the unexplained.
He doesn’t prevent suffering all the time, sometimes He let’s us go through something that we need Him to help us through or rescue us from so that we acknowledge His wonders. You may say, “what about when God doesn’t heal or rescue?” That is a painful but fair question, sometimes God’s miracle is simply being sustained through suffering or trial. I know that for some that isn’t good enough, but when you have God the burden is lifted. That doesn’t mean that it is gone, that means that it is raised so that you can keep walking. Someday, somehow God will end the pain, and when He does you will probably say, “somehow, I’m still okay.”
Somehow she kept her faith.
Somehow she persevered.
Somehow she held on to Jesus so tight that she feared at times her hands would give up, but she kept on and saw her redemption.
I know many of you are in the pain moments right now and I would like to take a minute to pray for your somehow moment.
Dear Jesus we ask in your name that you will touch every person who is in pain right now oh, that you will touch them and heal them from there pain and suffering whether it is physical and emotional, psychological, whether it is an outside suffering that is plaguing them or an internal suffering. In their families or in their bodies or in their daily lives. Jesus whatever the painful is help please we ask, and give these people who you love their somehow moments, their moment of ‘somehow I made it through’, ‘somehow I was delivered’, ‘somehow it’s all okay’ because somehow you always manage to work things out for our good even if we can’t see it from where we stand now, we ask these things in your name of Jesus, Amen.
Carried in the cross 