Easter

Due to Christ taking the wrath and justice of God on the cross, I am given abounding grace and mercy. Praise God!

"Finding your Faith in a crisis"

As I sat on the couch last night watching the overflow of status updates, got me thinking. Many of the status said something along the lines of "God is sovereign", "God is in control", and "I am moving to Canada". Many of the "God is sovereign" status where from people I know very well, and and their lives display nothing of the bold statement they posted. They apparently know the God I love and adore and yet they don't live a life that would be pleasing to God, which is describe in His word. Now I am not here to condemn anyone or shun someone or anything negative, their status made me evaluate my own life. How many times do we RUN to God when something bad happens. We have Faith when WE NEED something. That's natural, as weak and pathetic human beings. Again cool, He is our Father and our provider and deserves praise for He is always. Here's the thing, does our Faith in God only consist of, hey what can God DO for me today? Seeing how this guy was elected and from what I hear he is a socialist and that scares me so I will make the super Christian statement that I believe "God is sovereign" just to be safe. So how was mentioning Gods name for the first time in months? Did it make you feel good and sleep easier? God is so much bigger and deserves so much more recognition than relying on Gods sovereignty only when things aren't going the way YOU want them too and trust me I am as guilty as the next person. My life is full of uncertainty right now. Where will my ministry be? What country? Finding a woman who is first willing to marry me and second heres the big one, raise our kids in another country!! What will my undergrad be? Yeah, see I am so far from having this concept of the constant sovereignty of God under control. However, I know God is in control and He is not sovereign just because I need Him to be, and help me in this time of uncertainty, He is sovereign because He is our most high God and Father. I encourage you to look deep inside yourself, just as I did and see if God is sovereign just because you need Him too , or is He sovereign because of who He is and has been since creation? Finding your Faith in a crisis is a great way to find God. I mean I did the same thing. It took me awhile to realize my God wanted my whole life and not just the part I couldn't control. So if you are running to God for His answers and His comfort at this time of distress. Please carry it over to when times are going good.

For those of you who did post that and passionately pursue God, dude awesome continue to let your Faith be known. Matthew 10:32 says "Whoever acknowledges me before man, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. Continue to publicly proclaim the name of our amazing God.

"Life is like a vapor, don't waste a day"

A very common phrase I have said many times and have heard from many friends is "I am still young I will wait till I get older". Growing up it was very common for my mindset to say hey I still have a lot of life in front of me I might as well have fun right now and I will get right with God when I get older and it is more convenient.  In James 4 verse 14 it states "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor is here for a little while and then vanishes away". I do not know what tomorrow holds for me. This summer my sister and her friends were boating on a local lake and when they went to take the boat out they saw a family in distress. Their 7 year old daughter had gone in the water and they hadn't seen her for about twenty minutes. So the guys with her had to walk to search the bottom of the lake for her. They found her, but the ambulance was unable to resuscitate her. She was seven years old and gone from this world. That terrible event was an eye opener for me. We never know how many days we have left so don't waste one day. 1 Timothy 4:12 says "Don't let anyone look down on you because your are, but set an example for the believers in life, in love, in faith and purity". When it says don't let anyone, that literally means anyone, friends, parents, teachers, and yourself. Don't look down on yourself because you are young. Don't be like me and say hey I will wait till I get older. I wasted my high school years simply because I believed the lie, I could wait till later and I used my age as a crutch. I am very sad to say that it happened and I wasted parts of my life, but with Gods grace I able to live a new and redeemed life where I will do my best to never waste a day. So what if you are 12, today is the best day to pursue God and to have a relationship with Him and to live out the life He has planned for you. Set an example for all for people no matter how many years they have been on this earth. Don't use your age as a crutch that is keeping you from God, because your days are number and this life is so short. Seek God with everything.

"Getting Out of God's Way" Part 1

1 Timothy chapter 2 says "I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them." Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time". So I read this verse and it tells me to pray for everyone and to help them and pray for God to make Hs presence known in their lifes. I dont know about yall but sometimes I encounter people in my life that I would and do have a very hard time openly and willingly pray for them and their salvation. I allow my foolish pride get in the way of their salvation. My sinful gets in the way of God allowing Him to do work. So I must say to myself and encourage you to do the same is "Get out of Gods Way". I am so often so quick to judge and put myself before the other person even though I am called as a son of God to accept love and pray and geniunely care about the salvation of this individual. So I as I attempt to pray for the unsaved and those who are not trying to pursue God, I encourage you to do the same. Take the me out the the equation and lay your pride down at the cross for our amazing Savior who has come to set everyone free. So many times I get in a comfort zone around my "Christian Friends" which is great and needed, but we are called to spread the grace, compassion, and love that our Father has poured upon us so abundently. This idea hit me very hard a few weeks ago when a pastor asked the congregation how many unsaved people do you know. My answer was ZERO. Over the weeks that has been eating at me to know I just living in comfort with my Christian brothers and sister but not those who need God most. The ones who have never heard the name of Jesus. The ones who have never expierenced to fullness of God and his amazing love and hope for us such sinful beings. So I pose the same question that pastor asked us, "How many un saved people do you know and are you praying for them"?

"Fear"

So this summer I had an amazing oppurtunity to travel to the Bahamas. I went down there with some close friends who I work with at the church. We were going down there to help teach a vacation bible school to ages ranging from 2-17. Yes, a very diverse group of kids. As soon as I stepped foot on the island, I all but fell in love with the place. From the beautiful sunsets, to the amazing water, the amazing people who lived there, all of this just captured my heart. So, you may ask how does fear work into a place where I have fallen in love with and was in awe of the presence of God on this island? Well one activity I was looking forward to the most (snorkeling) was the event that allowed me to expierence like I never have before. If you are unaware the Bahamas are located in the Caribbean Ocean, which I latered found out is te "Shark Capitol of the World". So now I bet you are begginging to see how fear is going to work in to this trip. My first dive into the great Caribbean was a very interesting event. I was so paranoid about turning around and seeing Jaws coming after my skinny legs. Yeah, exactly Jaws is not real. Needless to say I was out of the water within five minutes of jumping in to the ocean. Now the part I didnt mention was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It was the coral reef and all of the beautiful fish that live on this reef. I was unable to calm down and enjoy the beauty that God has created because, I was to afraid of some horrible creature or fish coming and attacking me. I was distracted by this fear of something I really had no control over. This was something new for me. I always thought I was a big tough man basically. Nothing was supposed to scare me. Yet this amazingly beautiful underwater world was causing me to have anxiety and a consuming feeling of fear. While one day walking on the coral listening to the Ipod and praying Matt Redmans song "You Never Let Go" started playing. If you are unaware of the song the first lines of the song are "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death You perfect love is casting out fear". Which is derived from Psalm 23:4. At that moment it dawned on me if my God is with me what should scare me. The answer is very simple...Nothing. I was so caught up with fear I was unable to calm down and enjoy Gods creation. I was constantly whipping my head around trying to find the "bad thing" that wanted me. I was able to realize fear was trying to creep into my life and I quickly realized my God is with me then what should I fear? If something as beautiful as a coral reef scares me I needed to evaulute what in my every day life scared me and causing me to miss the beauty of God. So what in your life is causing fear making you miss Gods creation?

"Loving Yourself to Love Others"

Matthew 22:36-40 says "Teacher which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied "Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all you soul and with all your mind.' this is the first and greatest commandment. An the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself." all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." So, growing up I was always told to love other people. At a very young age I was always asked and many times forced to share my toys. As I grew older, I was told to be nice to everyone and never exclude or leave anyone out. It is fair to say loving other people was always something my parents always tried to teach me. I was just taught to really love other people and not so much myself. Middle School was a very tough time for me. I was really trying to find out who I was and what I stood for and became my own person. I changed schools my 8th grade year and this provided a great chance to be me and not live in the shadows of other siblings and expectations I had set as a child. Changing schools however was hard for me to try and find acceptance and actually have friends. I really lost who I was and really did not love who I was and in return I was unable to love others. It took me until my senior year in high school to realize that if I ever wanted to pour out the love the God intends us to pour out on others I would have to totally love myself. The greatest tool that can be used to witness is Love. If you want God to witness through you, you will have to look into who you are and really see if you love yourself. If you cant love yourself how can you expect to love others?

"Interests"

Today a very popular network sight is "Facebook". I too have an account on Facebook and really enjoy everything it brings to the table. On your profile it has sections for you put some information as a way to express yourself and allow people to know a little more about you. One of the categories is interest. A common practice among many people today is to put God under their interest. Good, I am really glad that people are standing up for what they believe in for everyone to see. However, recently I have perceived God in a way I never have before. I was meeting with a youth pastor from a church in my home town when he asked me "Is God everything to you", I began to think, does God mean everything to me? I answered him honestly. I said "no", not yet. So, for several days I really thought about that question does God mean everything to me. After a couple days of reflection I realized, God was my everything. So you may ask what does that have to do with Facebook? Shouldn't God be just a little more in our lives than just and interest? I feel as if we are simply limiting our relationship with Christ if we look at Him as merely an interest. So the next time you are updating your profile and see your interest, think, is God simply an, interest or my everything?

Welcome

First and foremost I want to welcome you to my blog. I will try to post pretty frequently, but I won't make any promises. I want this to be just a casaul way for me to express some of my thoughts, so I want to go ahead and apologize in advance for incorrect spelling and grammar. It's not always my strong point. I hope you will gain some information about me and my way of thinking through this blog. I also hope that you will gain some wisdom or knowledge that I have stumbled upon by the grace of the Lord. If it helped me, maybe it can help you. Feel free to comment on my postings, I would be more than happy to hear responses and opinions both good or bad. So, with that said welcome and I hope you enjoy the things to come. Peace.
Patrick