The Gift of Love

Sitting there, hands folded together, bent over, tears running down my face. Sitting there completely broken for a child that has never been loved, never been given a fair chance and cared for. A child that has not only never been loved but never been loved by God. Maybe never even heard of God or felt his presence. I sit there wrecked for God's children and
not only that but for everyone that has never been given the opportunity to know God's amazing love. I try so hard to not let tears shed, I try so hard to be strong, but I am so weak and can't hold anything back. I cry out to Jehovah-Shalom, "Please God, wreck my heart, do what you need to do, but please God, reveal yourself to this child, your child. God use me, somehow, to show this child you love him and that's all he needs is your love."

I can't stop praying for this child of God's and I can't stop thinking about all the children in Ellensburg, in the United States, and in the world that need to know that they are loved, that someone cares about them.

Remember a bright Christmas morning, you wake up and it's snowing and your family is all around you. You go downstairs to a beautiful tree with gifts showering the ground. You open them up and even though they are all great you always have a favorite. That favorite gift is a 12 on a scale from 1 to 10. You love that gift and the first thing you do when you see people is tell them all about it and how great it is. That sounds great but what we are forgetting is that we have been given an even better gift and we are given it every day of our lives. We are given the gift of Christ and His everlasting love. God, being the unselfish God He is, gave us His only son and then sacrificed Him for us. This is the greatest gift anyone could ever receive and we all receive it. The gift of God's love comes at only the cost of His own son and no one is left out of the receival of this gift. But now I think back to how excited we are when we receive a great gift at Christmas or a birthday or any other celebration. It makes me wonder how I can receive an insignificant gift on a holiday and tell everyone and get super excited yet get the greatest gift ever and hold onto it without sharing it. I think that so often we take the gift or gift from God and hold onto them, but what we need to do is exactly what are instincts tell us to do when we receive something so wonderful. We need to get excited and share it with everyone. We need to let people know that we have this special gift and that they can have it to. This is what God wants. He just wants us to receive His love and then share that love with others.

That child my heart is broken for needs to know that God loves Him and God's love is all around him. He needs to know that even though through his life things may have not been all that great, it's okay because God has never left his side, He has always been there and whether He accepts the gift or not, God will still be there.

If you are reading this I encourage you to take some form of action. Take some time and pray for God's children, that they may find someone that cares for them and someone that shows God's love to them. Pray that God will wreck your heart for the lost and that you may find courage to spread the joy you have from the gift you've received.

"Beware of going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been."

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

John 15:12-15 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have
heard from my Father I have made known to you."

The Seasoned Life

I’ve finally started writing my first book. It is titled, “The Seasoned Life”, A Story about an Imperfect Christian. The book is inspired by another book, “Blue Like Jazz”. I recently listened to an audio reading of “Blue Like Jazz” and was compelled to write my own book. I am not writing a cheapened version or even a like version of it, but after listening to the book it made me realize my life, so unique yet original, so tragic yet blessed, so hard yet fun could not go without sharing. I feel that through experiences, opportunities and encounters as an imperfect Christian I can relate and encourage all people from every direction.

The title of the book “The Seasoned Life” came about from a discussion I was having awhile ago with a close friend of mine. We were discussing how we both were notorious for reading a chunk of a book and not finishing it. My friend, who is very wise, shared with me how people might read part of a book and not finish it because it is not the right season for it. That seemed a little philosophical for me, so I just blamed it on my laziness and amazingly slow reading ability. The more I thought about that though the more I realized how true that is. There have been books in my life that I start reading and I absolutely cannot put them down and it is not because they were better than all the other books, it is because it was the right season. Also, I’ve started reading some amazing books before, but for some reason, never finished them. It was not the right season.

Just as there is a right season for reading books, I believe that it is similar in our lives. My thoughts are that we go through different seasons in our lives. Not necessarily like fall, winter, spring and summer but at the same time just like that, but metaphorically. I think that in the seasons of our lives we go through change, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Realizing the change is important though, because what we don’t realize most of the time is that through the seasons of our lives, we tend to set aside common things in our lives, things that are important, but through the specific season aren’t so apparent anymore. Just like how we do not go swimming at the lake in the middle of winter even though that is something we love to do. Just like how we do not wear heavy wool coats, and big colorful poofy hats in summer time because it’s not the right season. Yet we still have those things, they don’t just go away, they will eventually come back to us when the season is right. . . . .

There is so much more to the seasons of life and I hope to continue writing chapter after chapter about how my seasons of life led me to God and how imperfect I am, yet still loved more than I could ever know. I hope to explain more about how I see life and its trials and joys as seasons and how they relate to the seasons we go through four times a year. It will be fun and I know that I have many stories of people, places and just stuff in my life that have led me to where I am at right now. Stay tuned for an up and coming chapter I will share from my book.

Treasures

36 degrees outside and I am walking to class early in the morning. I can see my breath as I am walking and I notice the frost on the trees. I am walking through the shade and all the sudden a beam of sunshine lights up the scenery as the sun shines over the trees and mountains in the distant. I hear birds start singing, some better than others. I take a second to stop and look around me. I am completely awestruck at all the beauty around me that God has created.

We live such busy and on the go lives that all of God’s treasures and beauties are passed by and go unnoticed. We are in such a hurry sometimes that we don’t even notice that in the morning God sings to us and all day long he tells us we’re beautiful. The birds in the morning are God’s way of singing to us and the beauty of His creation is His way of showing us that we are beautiful to Him. God has given us the opportunity to live in total happiness. He is constantly giving us treasures through words and sight and noises. Too often though we miss out on God’s treasure because we are too busy focusing on our own lives.

The other day I was walking around and saw two young children playing outside together. I noticed the huge smiles on their faces and it instantly made me smile. It made me wish that I could have the heart of a child. Where everything is cool and everyone is my friend. Where throwing a leave in the air and just watching is float to the ground is fun and makes me happy. Children are the best example of how to enjoy and see God’s treasures and beauty. Everything is a treasure from God to a child and there is no reason to not be happy and smile. I wonder what the world would look like if everyone had the heart of a child, where everyone enjoyed everything around them, loved everyone they met and took nothing for granted.

I remember awhile ago, hearing a story about the “Slow Club”. It was a story about a young girl and her father. They were walking together and the father was in a big hurry and the little girl was in no hurry, she kept stopping and was being really slow. The father asked his daughter if she would hurry up because he needed to be somewhere. The little girl looked up at her father and told him that she was not in a hurry because she was in the slow club. The dad looked at her a little confused, “What is the slow club?”. She told him the slow club is where you don’t have to be in a hurry or feel rushed, you can be slow and look around and enjoy everything around you. The father smiled at her and they keep on their way, noticing the beauty around them and having fun enjoying each other’s company.

I know that I want to join the slow club. I have already missed so many of God’s treasures from being in such a hurry all the time. God wants us to have full lives, but not so full that He is no longer noticed. Everyday God makes and places and comes up with treasures for us to see. God loves us so much and He wants us to be happy. It is time to start loving Him back by simply noticing things like the birds singing, a child’s smile or even just a sunny day.


Have you ever watched kids
on a merry-go-round
Or listened to the rain
slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last.
Do you run through each day?
When you ask, “How are you?”
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last.
Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Because you never had time
To call and say “Hi”?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away...
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Hope

The other day someone asked me why I believed in God?, why I was a Christian?, what makes my belief the right one?

It is not everyday someone brings that up, as a matter in fact I think that sometimes Christians avoid those questions because they don't really know how to answer them. I thought about it for a second and my answer was simple really. But along with the simple answer comes the background and basis for my answer.
When I am asked the question why?, my initial answer comes in the form of one word: HOPE.

Everything I believe in, stand for and live out is because of hope. When I first think of how I can explain this I think back to when someone once gave me their answer to the question of why? Someone once told me that the reason they believed what they did and the reason they lived for God was because they had not found anything else that they felt was true or better. They told me that they had read and researched other religions and had found nothing better, they had sought out other truths and found none. This of course is the shortened version of what I was told. I remember that day specifically though and I remember leaving my talk with that person with a different perspective. I didn't feel like that was the answer I wanted though, so I prayed about it and the answer God gave me was hope. But what does that mean? How can one word describe what I believe in, what I stand for, what I live for? So I continued to seek more to better understand, what God was showing.

If you look at any other religion or belief you will not find hope. I heard a sermon awhile ago and in it the pastor talked about "isms". There are lots of them and he brought up some of the more known ones. Knowing these helped me understand that hope is why I believe what I do. Here is a basic description of the “isms” from the talk I heard.

Atheism - the belief that there is no God. There is certainly no hope in that, you are just living on your own and whatever happens, happens.
Deism - this is the belief that there is a God and that he created everything but then he just left. An example I've heard is that deism is like God as a bad father; he left for good, doesn't write you and doesn't care about you. Again, there is no hope in this; I mean this is practically a version of atheism.
Pantheism - This belief is that there is a general energy that connects all people. That God is in everything. Well with that there is no separation between good and evil, which doesn't really make much sense. How can there be hope if God is everything.
Theism - This is the belief that there is a God, but you reach heaven by deeds. The harder you try, the more you do, the closer you come to reaching heaven. Everyone fails in life at some point, so how can there be hope if every time you fail you feel distant from God and must do more to get closer.

That is my brief explanation of those "isms". I am not a perfect writer or researcher, but with what I know, it is very clear that there is no hope in anything but the God I believe in. The God that sent His son, DOWN to us, to die for us. When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, He was giving everyone hope. Hope for a better life, and hope for an eternal life. Without the crucifixion, the bible means nothing. If Jesus had not died for us, then we would all be under the old laws and have no hope. But HE DID and that is what I believe. I believe that when something goes wrong in my life, it is okay, because I know that I have a father that forgives and a father that gives me hope through everything. And until I find something else that has truth and hope and a God that would sacrifice His son for me and everyone else, that is my belief; what I live for.

I thought about this some more and I came up with a challenge for someone that would question this. I would challenge someone to plan their life. To make out a schedule of what they were going to do, when they were going to do it and basically make a life plan or even a 2-week plan/schedule. Then after a certain amount of time I would see how it went, see if everything was perfect and to plan. It wouldn't be, because even when we plan our lives things happen; tragedies, turns in the road, success and failure, and all kinds of things can mess up our plans. And without the belief of Jesus Christ and the hope He gives us, when something goes wrong, it can feel like the end of the world. But God, the God I believe in, He doesn't disappoint. When you surrender your life to God and live for him, there is always hope and never disappointment. God may bring things in our lives that are painful, saddening, and not understandable, but if you continue to walk with him, He will lead you to things that are joyful, exciting and in hindsight, understandable. That is hope. Lots of things happen in life but I believe God is always in control and through everything, there is God's great promise of hope in our lives.

I also looked up what hope is defined as and this is what it is. Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

So far all I have mentioned is hope, but there is so much more to my beliefs and to Christianity, but when I am asked the question why?, that is my answer: HOPE. But don't take my word for it, search out your answer and see what God tells you, because even though a lot of us believe the same thing, God impacts us and meets us in different ways and places.

Faith

Faith is exactly what it takes to get through uncertainty. Faith is not necessary when you know how things are going to work out, - that's knowledge. It's in the time of unknowing that having faith is what sees you through to the other side. Faith is what gives you strength. Faith is that light in your heart that keeps on shining even when it's all darkness outside. Now is the time to keep that faith alive!

I Will Not Be Shaken!

My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
How long will you assault a man?
Would all of you throw him down--
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
They fully intend to topple him
from his lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our refuge.

Lowborn men are but a breath,
the highborn are but a lie;
if weighted on a balance, they are nothing;
together they are only a breath.
Do not trust in extortion
or take pride in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.

One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
and that you, O Lord, are loving.
Surely you will reward each person
according to what he has done.

Psalm 62

The Supernatural

This is a sermon I heard at a church in Kona, Hawaii while I was there visiting Mica. I thought it was really good and that I should post it and share it with everyone. There is many good points and it really challenged me and opened me up to new ideas and thoughts. I recommend you take the time to listen to it.

It is the last sermon on a series done by Bill Barley called, "The Supernatural". If you want to see more of the sermons and learn more about the Living Stone church in Kona, go to www.livingstones.us.

Jared Allen

At the End of Slavery

Earlier tonight I went to see a short movie about slavery and the battle for justice.  The video is good to watch but hard to hear.  We live such comfortable lives and are so immune to our surroundings that seeing these things is hard to believe.  But believe it, it's happening.  In a small group discussion I had recently we were going through 1 Thessalonians, and in 2:2 it says "We had previously suffered and been insulted. . . .".  The verse continues but after reading it the question we asked ourselves was, "How have we suffered in our lives?" 
How have I suffered?  Well to be honest and this is what I shared with our group, I have not suffered.  I really thought about this too and the more I thought about it the more I realized I have not suffered.  But it doesn't just end there.  I thought to myself what suffering really is.

Websters New World Dictionary says Suffering means - the bearing of pain, distress, etc.
And to further explain Distress is defined as - pain, suffering, etc.  & a state of danger or trouble

Wow?!  And all my life I thought suffering was a bad day, a friend or family dieing, not being able to pay bills, and anything else that goes wrong in my life.  Well this is exactly why I said I have not suffered for the Lord.  I have never been beaten for proclaiming His name, I have never been threatened for believing in Him, I have never had to chose life or death because of my faith.  As comfortable, selfish and ignorant people in America, we think we suffer all the time.  Wrong!

So what does this all mean.  To me it made me realize that God has given me this comfortable environment, He has given me all these opportunities and He has given me all the things I have.  But He has not just given me these things so I can be happy and live comfortably.  He has given me everything I have so that I can be better equipped to live out His word.  He has given me health and wealth so that I can help those in need and bring them out of there suffering through Christ.  For me to sit back and think that I am suffering and to just worry about myself is to be rebellious against the Lord.  He has equipped me to serve Him, and right now that is in Ellensburg and maybe someday somewhere else.  But for me to really surrender and love God I need to understand that I have not had a gun to my head because of what I believe because I have been chosen to spread the word and tell those who don't know Him.

I have a short trailer to the film I watched and a couple websites that you can go to, to learn more about child slavery and suffering in the world.


At The End Of Slavery - Extended Trailer from International Justice Mission on Vimeo.


http://www.ijm.org/
http://www.persecution.com/
www.photogenx.net/sexandmoney

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Dreams of a Better Day