There's no support like my father's support

I love this video. This shows the love of God in a more understandable way for our tiny human minds to comprehend. This video was shown to me this past summer at the camp I worked at. It was so touching. God won't leave us hanging in the dark in life's struggles with out help. When our dreams around us are shattered and we don't think we will be able to finish the race, God is right there to pick us up and help us to the finish line. He will carry us.

The More The Merrier

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

Ephesians 1:3

Last night was one of the most amazing night I've experienced in my Christian walk.  Evidence of God's work was every where I turned.  If you have read my blog before you know my mom and family's testimony. Last night my guys accountability/bible study group came by house along with my parent's Sunday school class to pray for my mom and my family.  There were approximately 30-40 people circling the inside of my house, some prayed for my mom's healing, some prayed that mom's pain would be more tolerable, some thanked God for my dad being there for my  mom, and other related things.  It was one of the coolest experiences.  At the end my brother Mitchell felt a call from God to anoint my mom with oil it was one of the many cherries on top of an awesome evening. 

It was so cool to see my friends from my church come together with my parents friends from there church and become one body under Christ. 

The other night God gave an analogy and it really got me to thinking about how special and important Christian brothers and sisters really are.  I got and image some one running a race and when they are doing good Satan throws in a surprise attack, he puts a ball and chain on the runners ankle making it harder to get through the race.  As though a ball and chain isn't enough to deal with Satan throws a back pack filled with bricks on the runner's back and keeps putting bricks in.  Then he might throw some heavy rocks in your hands to carry all while the runner is trying to finish the race.  Just when things are getting excruciatingly exhausting God throws in another runner beside the man to carry his ball and chain, a couple more guys come along to carry the bricks and backpack, and a few more come together to carry the rocks.  Now the pressure is lifted off of just one person and they can cross the finish line together, while all along each one of them is becoming a stronger and building up endurance.  God will put people in our lives to help us along and He will build up both people's endurance.  He doesn't leave you hanging.  One thing that I realized recently is I don't have to carry the weight of my mom's cancer on my own, my brothers and sisters in Christ are right there running with me to carry the burden a little at a time.  

I loved seeing the unity I saw last night and God does not ignore that.  God is doing AMAZING THINGS in my life.  Just as the scripture says above we are blessed with blessings of God because we are united in Him. It is so cool to know that in life you don't have to carry the world's weight on your shoulders, God will provide the runners to come beside you and pick up your baggage and continue to run with him.  Don't give up because about that time you want to is when God is working the most, continue in Him and He will take care of you.   

God Given Confidence

The Lord is my light and my salvation-

so why should I be afraid?

 The Lord is my fortress protecting me from danger, 

so why should I tremble?

When evil people come to devour me, 

when my enemies and foes attack me, 

they will stumble and fall.

Though a mighty army surrounds me,

my heart will not me afraid.

Even if I am attacked,

I will remain confident. 

Psalms 27: 1-3

All I can say when I read this is "PRAISE GOD AND THANK YOU FATHER!!!"  Earlier tonight I was being attacked, and I began to feel down.  Today was the first day of the school year.  After coming home I felt discouraged, I was alone I didn't know anyone on campus and I felt like I was the only light for God in darkness, and then I began to get discouraged about my mom's health situation.  So through all that, I knew what the best solution would be... to seek encouragement from the Lord and those were the verses He gave me.  I began to look back on my life and I realized how much God had and has actually provided for and blessed me.  If he has taken care of me for 19 years of life in bigger storms He will take care of me in this one! God new exactly when I would need it and what kind of encouragement I would need and He gave it to me... I am sooo glad I have the privilege and honor of having a personal relationship with the Lord. 

Why doesn't God always come when invited?

Why is it that Christians will pray, sing, read their Bible, etc.? What is the point of worshiping?   Do people worship for themselves or for God?  Personally I can tell you, up until very recently, I misunderstood worship.  I would go to church, I'd listen to worship music in the car, pray, read my bible and when times seemed to get harder I would up the level on my worship meter.  I worshiped, and still sometimes catch myself in the mind set of "What do I get out of worshiping." When it really isn't about me at all.  I worshiped so that I can feel better, so that I can have that emotional high.  What happens when you do all the right things, the things a good christian does to worship, and you don't feel that high, you don't feel God's presence?
What I recently came across while reading the book Shattered Dreams, is that worship is not for us it never was made for us,  worship is an invitation, an invitation for God to come an move.  God doesn't owe anything to us, he doesn't have to make himself present in our life, to make us feel good in the hard times in life.  It is our privilege that we can even send God an invitation.  Most Christians, including myself, are guilty of expecting God to show up and make us feel better and when He doesn't we get upset with him.   The question is,  How can God come work in our life if there is not room for him in our life? 
I see now that worship is not about making me feel good at all.  What I've realized is that in order for God to come work in my life I have to push aside the things of this world that are constantly trying to fill my God size hole.  Once I have made the space for God and send the invite God has the choice come and show up and if He does, as a result, sometimes I do feel happier and sometimes I do feel an emotional high, but an emotional High is not the reasoning for worship it is just one of the many results of Worshiping God and having him in your life. 

My Father always takes care of me.

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.  We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.  We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.  Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.  
2 Corinthians 4: 8-10

 In August 2004 my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, in January of 2005 the cancer went into remission.  Spring of 2009 the cancer returned in her bones, making my mom's cancer terminal. It would be nice to say that today my mom is cancer free by some awesome miracle, but I can't. My mom's cancer has slowly progressed the past two years and now seems to be taking a turn for the worse.  She is still fighting, but the cancer has caused her excruciating pain.  In the past six months she has been put on hospice and is now using oxygen. 
The other morning when I read 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in my quiet time, I began to think of my family's journey these past seven years.  Spring of my Junior year of high school when my mom's cancer returned I went through a phase where I blamed God, I asked "why, why me, why my family?"  I slowly left that phase as I gained some understanding of God's word.  My senior year of high school I fully gave my life to Christ and decided to really live for him. I am now going to be a sophomore in College and it's taken me this long to understand why God would allow for my mom to have a disease that is killing her.
Last summer I began to read the book Shattered Dreams by Larry Crab.  I stopped reading it half way through and picked it back up this summer.  The words on the cover read "God's unexpected pathway to Joy."  The book talks about how God will allow our dreams to shatter, to crumble, to be demolished right in front of our eyes so that we will then discover a deeper dream we possess, a desire to know Him more.  Through reading this book and digging deeper into God's word then ever before, I have began to understand the reasoning behind my mom's cancer, God is using her cancer to glorify him.  
Through this journey I have grown closer to God, I have fully trusted him with my life and everything in it.  Yes there "dreams" I had in my life that probably won't happen now such as:  sending my kids to Mimi's house so she can spoil them (like all grandma's do) or introducing my future wife to my mom for the very first time, or it can simply be that when I look at my youngest brother who is thirteen I realize that our mom won't get to see him graduate high school. These are things I think about daily, but I don't want you guys to read this and feel sorry for my family, I want you guys to know that God has never left me through this, He has been by my side the whole time, there are times he has even carried me and will carry me in the future.  Although He may take my mom home soon, my Lord NEVER leaves me behind, with Him I can stand strong and fight off Satan's attacks.
My Father always takes care of me, no matter what. 

Art is one of my passions, I love to draw and paint. Through this whole experience came the inspiration for this piece.  When everything around you falls and is destroyed our job is to look beneath the rubble and discover our deepest desire that's breaking through, which is to strive to know God more. 

The Hiker

One day a man decides to go on a hike.  As the man is on his hike he falls into a hole, after he gets up he realizes that the whole he fell into is a cave.  After getting up the hiker dusts himself off and begins to try to find his way in this pitch black cave.  This guy has a flashlight in his hand but he refuses to use it, he wants to make it out on his own.  After tripping and falling over rocks the hiker finally makes his way out through a small hole injured and in pain.  What the hiker did not know is that if he would have used his flashlight; first of all he would have seen the easiest and safest way out second of all he would have realized that the cave he had fallen into was in fact a diamond mine. If he would have used his flashlight he would have seen the diamonds lining his path, but instead he barely made it out and he was injured.
So much of the time we are the hiker and the Lord is the flashlight.  We fall into darkness but refuse to use our flashlight (God).  We walk through dark times and struggles with God at our finger tips but refuse to use his light.  We can, sometimes, make it out of our dark times on our own, but we squeeze our way out injured and in pain.  When we turn to the Lord during hard times His light will show us the safest and most rewarding way out.  With his light we see the value of our journey, we realize that our dark and scary cave is really a diamond mine, and we God will show us were the diamonds are.  When we let the Lord guide us instead of relying on our own senses, we make it out of our dark and hard times healthy and better off then before.  When we turn to God for our comfort we see things in a different perspective, our dark and dangerous cave can in fact be a very valuable diamond mine.  When we follow God's plan we don't end up hurting and aching but stronger and richer than ever. 

In fact, we expected to die.  But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.  And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again.  We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. 
2 Corinthians 1:9-10 (NLT)