Living in the Present and Group Talk.

Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6:34 Holman CSB

This verse in Matthew is very real to me at this time in my life. It is absolutely crazy how God is moving in my life. First He has brought me out of a dark semester, last semester and brought me to a new school and new friends. The relationships that i have built, here at EBC are absolutely incredible. He has brought many people in my life to be there as support. I have made some friends at EBC that i know will last a lifetime. I have found a variety of friends to fit every different interest that i have. Each relationship is precious to me, and each one is necessary for the building of my character, and i praise God for them. As soon as i arrived in Kitchener from Camrose Alberta, i had found a great home church to attend. I made a contact with the pastor and He has been a wonderful blessing to me since. From day one, their was a need for my spiritual gifts at the church, and i was able to apply them in just a couple of weeks attending. The church has definitely been a place where have been able to connect my spirit with God's spirit, in a corporate setting. The corporate services magnify my daily walk with Christ, a place where i have been able to worship YAHWEY without concern for what people think. In the past month or so, i have been praying about a job for the summer. I had mentioned the need for a job to my pastor and He was able to land a job for me, completely based on referral at the Waterloo airport. I needed a car for the job. My cousin living in Waterford, Ontario is selling his Grand am for a wonderful price. God provides. From there it has been blessing after blessing, all of which i don't deserve. I have been offered a few leadership roles, some in which i will accept for next semester. This semester really has been a time in which I have felt God's hand of blessing. The Matthew 6:34 verse is so real to me because; the car, job, and the leadership role are all things of the future. Now, with exams creeping up, I catch myself stressed and sometimes living in the future, making plans about these things. God calls us to plan, but He wants us to live in the here and now. It is hard to find God when your living in the future. Like CS. Lewis says that the past brings about disappointment, future apprehension, but the present is where we can experience God. The whole premise of the Matthew 6:34 verse is that we need to store-up treasures in heaven and not on earth where moths can eat and destroy. My goal today, is to not ignore God in the present, when I am so focused on an agenda or future blessings that He has given me. Those things are all things of this earth, that can just as easily be taken away as they were given.

Our group time was also a blessing. We all agreed that the topic of sex falls into the topic of honoring God with our intimate relationships. We all stressed the importance of setting relationship boundaries. We described a bit, what a healthy relationship looks like. We said it is important to have a sense of identity before entering into relationships, because then you will be able to respect each others boundaries. We began to think what our own personal boundaries looked like. We expressed and slightly debated what we thought a healthy physical dating relationship would look like. A relationship that honors God.

What about me?

I know that I was not supposed to talk about money, but in part I decided to. Money is such a large part of our everyday life, and we interact with it all the time. We buy things with it, pay bills, give it away, save it, and so on. We manage and value money so much, it is a large part of our identity.
Just because much of Canada is blessed with an abundance of money, I am not saying that they should be ashamed of it, but I'm not saying that they should covet it either. Overall, life is not about money, and everything we do should not always be centred around the stuff. Many times I find that when I want to help people, my automatic response is to give away money, which is great! But that is not the main point!
Paul has alot to say about generosity and giving generously. In 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 he talks about people and how they should give. First he stresses that giving is very important to life. For "he who sows sparingly reaps sparingly" (verse 6). He also states however that everyone must not give reluctantly or under pressure in the next verse. People must only give what they have decided to, not what they feel they should. The main thing to stress is that God is not poor, and he does not need money for Himself. He wants the hearts of His people to be generous and naturally inclined to give to others. Paul also states that God is able to bless those who are giving from their hearts, and there is no need to worry about running out. Naturally, people are inclined to hold onto what they have instead of giving it to help others. It is a very supernatural thing for people to desire to use their physical and non-physical resources to help others from the heart.
Money plays such a large role in this because we have so much of it! Our culture is so richly blessed with money that there seems to be almost no end to the good that can be done in Jesus name, and that is a truly glorious idea.
Later in verse 10 Paul says that the goodness that is manifested in the act of true generosity (that is, from the heart) will multiply how much that person really has to give to others. Therefore, because they will be blessed with so much more, they are able to give more, and more and more.
The trap that many may fall into may be that they plan to be generous so that they will be blessed and given more. The only problem with this is that God is able to both give to people as well as take away from them. He is the one that is really in control, and should not be "used", if that were really possible, for material or non-material gain. But in love, people should give and provide, because we are so blessed and loved by God Himself.

Steves thoughts for the group

Today in my group we talked about reading our bibles, when we should do it and how we should do it. I’m starting to find reading in the mornings is becoming harder. And the same for reading at nights. My new plan is working out well though. My plan is, just read a little bit whenever I can throughout the day. It’s good when you think about it like eating food, you need a few good portions throughout the day, and maybe a few snacks. So maybe a good time of prayer at a certain point throughout the day can be my snack. I took that thought a bit farther. Sometimes we treat ourselves to deserts. Well how about replacing deserts with another discipline like meditating every now and then, or even fasting.
We talked about the dangers of going through our days without prayer. We concluded it is a scary thing. Going through your day without prayer is a car that is driving without lubricant. That was our analogy. I don’t really know the whole science about a car driving without lubricant for a day, but I have gone days when I haven’t prayed. Who I am doesn’t change, I still like helping people, and I still love my neighbour as myself. So it is still manageable. It’s stupid to go without prayer, but it’s not like you’re going to turn into a sinner, or the antichrist or anything. I think prayer just helps you walk closer with God
I tried to write my own lament psalm for the first time a while ago, and it went pretty well because instead of my mind going everywhere in my thoughts, at had to put some focus on what I was writing. It turned out good because I have been doing it successfully for few weeks. It’s not always a lament psalm, sometimes it’s a thanksgiving psalm, or another one.
I wanted to address the comment we had in class about why we always do musical worship in church instead of other kinds of worship. My thoughts are, I think musical worship should definitely be part of our church service because that is the time we return our praises to God. I’m not saying that we don’t praise God when we are doing our homework, or eating lunch together. But we don’t verbally say how we love God when we do that stuff. Our bodies may say that, but our words don’t. I know that its extremely important to say that we love God with our actions, but I think neglecting saying that with our words is dangerous. Our words are important too. There is power in our words. When God created the world, he actually said “let there be light”. It’s obvious that there is some value in our words. I don’t know if that’s a good example but I still think the idea of using more than just our actions should be addressed.

How do I hear the Word?/ Class Discussion

This past class discussion was a great group discussion. The main thing that we focussed on was how we should be praying before the day starts, and at the end. The gift of waking up with God on your mind, is one that most Christians would wish to have. I personally find it extremely hard to do this, because there are so many things that you need to do in the morning, and they usually take over. Our prayer life is like a car's engine, in the way that the engine needs to be lubricated to start with, and with prayer we should start our day with it. Also we should really pray before bed, because this is a time to thank God for the day, and bring up prayer requests that came up that day. I personally find that praying before bed is much easier for me, because at night I am usually still in thinking mode.

In Nouwens book, there is a short story right at the beginning about wisdom. I think that it shows us that we do not always have to talk to people to try and get them saved, at least for the first stepping stone. The first thing that we should do is act like Jesus would, show them hospitality, and if you can go somewhere from there, that is great. It doesn't always work in our time, the way we want it too, it is all in God's time, and even though we may not like it, that is the way it is. There is a couple at my church, named John and Nancy, and the Nancy's mom, who was not a Christian for her whole life, was starting to go downhill. This became a great concern for them. The youth center that I was going to, decided that we should go there in the spring and clean the yard completely, plant new flowers, wash the house, and things like that. After we left, Nancy was talking to her mom, and her mom started crying asking, " Why would a bunch of Christians do something like that for a non-Christian?" I believe that this act that we did, really helped to plant the seed, because she became a Christian on her death bed, and I am so thankful that she did, and it was a great experience for me too.

It shows that another way to learn the word is to read the word. This sounds so easy, but it is so easy to forget to do, or stop doing it altogether. To start reading the bible, you need to know where to start. If you start in the wrong book, that could make you not want to read the bible anymore. My youth pastor once told me to start reading in Matthew. I started reading the beginning of Matthew, and lost interest in reading it right away. I also think that it is very important that you read the bible, because temptation will be there, and having the wisdom not to do it, is a great way to face it. My pastor once told me, the difference between wisdom, and intelligence, is "Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put it into a fruit salad."

Celebration is like a chocolate ice cream cone on a hot summer day, if you must eat it, because if you don't it well melt.-Dan Dorcy.

Our last group meeting was a corporate celebration. We thought that the best way to learn about celebration was to experience it. Although at first we didn't what to celebrate. We were soon reminded, that our significance was nothing compared to God and that we can celebrate our lives because of this. We celebrated fellowship with each other. We celebrated the end of a long hard week. We decided to try to come up with as many parallels as we could about celebration. Some of them made no sense, others were supremely funny, and while some were an articulate description of celebration, that of which Dan Dorcy suggested. Although with the ones that made no sense we were able to not judge, but laugh at them, because we were celebrating the reuniting of our group. As things began to die down, somebody expressed there need for a spiritual guider. We all agreed with there statement. Those who had a spiritual guider, and those who didn't all concurred with the necessity. Then Dan Dorcy piped up and declared, "a spiritual guider is like a music directors, in a sense they add unity and order, to life." His tone and attitude to the phrase had a hint of a philosophical absolute truth to it, that we all broke out in laughter again.

I would like to say that I am not facing any spiritual struggles right now in my life. However, this phrase in itself, is a spiritual struggle. I believe God uses spiritual struggles to help us grow. I want to grow. So this is my struggle, because I don't feel like I'm wrestling with God about anything. However, I have notice in the past that this wrestle is a lack of prayer. A lack of asking God at night, lying on my bed, in reflection of our day, search me O, God and known my heart, test me and know me anxious thoughts see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting. We need to pray that God will convict us of our sins. We need to pray to receive wisdom from the all mighty sage. Wisdom and observation so that we can learn in life what God is trying to teach us. Another possibility of this "non-wrestling" time with God, could be a gift. Some may call it a feeling of peace with God. I'm not saying that I am in perfect harmony with God, I am saying that God is giving me a break. This sense of peace could be reaffirming my decision about coming to EBC, and studying what I am studying. Where as I wrestled with God about this issue of vocation throughout last semester and most of the year before.

Right now in my life, I feel like I'm not learning anything about God, I'm experiencing him. I feel like I'm just dwelling with him. Like when your dancing with a beautiful girl, sometimes you just don't want to learn about her, you just want to experience that moment with her. However this just dwelling with God creates an ultimate dilemma. It is hard to write a blog about this topic. It is hard to put such "living" into words, and honestly i would rather not. I just hope that next time, there is something to say.

(Class 5) Worship... Just a musical endeavor??

To be completely honest, I am a little annoyed. I am annoyed and unsatisfied with the way that most people worship. I began to question myself because I knew that it is excellent to adore God and sing to Him worshipfully, but is that what worship is through and through? If not, then what is it?
Yes, worship is an expression of reverence to God, but there must be so much more to the heart of worship than noise. Don't get me wrong! I am not opposed to musical forms of worship, I encourage it. At the same time however, it is only a part of what worship actually is.
Worship demands more than just our voices. It demands our hands, our feet, our eyes, our minds, our hearts, our lives, our everything. To neglect even one part of worship is selling short of what we are called not only to do, but also to be in the name of Christ. If we think that just by singing at church we are doing good and fulfilling our quota for the week, then we are dead wrong. Worship is a lifestyle, and the whole reason for man to exist.
Even as I write this blog I know that the words I type need to bring Glory to God as an act of worship, otherwise I may have gotten the mark, but have failed in my duty to God.
Our group discussed that art of worship and decided to focus on it specifically because we know that it falls in line with all of the spiritual disciplines. We expressed the need to do everything worshipfully, otherwise why are we doing it in the first place?
Practicing spiritual disciplines such as meditation, fasting, confession, submission, service, etc. are nice and all, but they only truly gain their beauty when they are coupled with a heart of worship. We cannot please God unless we worship with our whole existence.
To end on a high and happy note, God loves us no matter what! Sure, we may stumble and fall when trying to worship God, but that will not make Him love us any less. That only is grounds for us to get back on the horse and try that much harder. He loves us, we need to love Him back, and worship is how.

Class #4

At first when I thought of the fact my residence floor was going to have a group fast. I’m not sure if the group fast is encouraged, or if they we are supposed to be doing it because it’s forced. After thinking about that for a minute, I thought the idea of doing a fast for the reason that you are forced in to it, is just terrible. Fasts shouldn’t be forced, it’s like forcing someone to pray or meditate, and it just doesn’t work unless you have a willing heart. One of my group members commented on this though, he said “We are not in control of our lives all the time… if everything is depended on what we want to do… it’s about us”. In the context of fasting or doing a spiritual discipline I disagree.
I find it strange how fasting helps you make your choices though. I always thought the purpose of fasting was for helping you know that God is the provider, that he can provide you strength. Something that confuses me is that if we fast for whatever reason. Why would we be hungry if God is sustaining us. In Fosters book about spiritual disciplines he goes on explaining how in a few days you hunger pains come, and in by the later days you begin to feel dizzy. But how does this work, how do we get dizzy if we rely on God for strength, does this mean that his strength isn’t working in us, or is he not giving strength? Shouldn’t we be at full strength if God is giving us strength?
I like how in the Nouwen book how the author tells that we are Gods beloved. The book tells us in the reflection part of the chapter that we should just sit, and meditate on the fact that we are God’s beloved, the author tells us to keep repeating it to ourselves over and over again. I tried that, but instead of saying, ‘I am your beloved’ I thought of a praise I can say to the Father as if I was standing in front of him. I may have been shown a vision of the father very close up. I also saw what seemed to be someone of darkness, maybe the enemy or just a demon. I saw them in a standoff and it was strange.
I believe God’s will doesn’t change. I think he will either say, ‘Yes’, ‘no’ or ‘just wait’. It obviously means we have to wait a while but I think God wants us to wait until he feels we are ready.
I am looking forward to reading about the other disciplines, and my goal is to start applying some of these in my life. I just don’t know whether I should practice a few of them at a time, or if I should go over all of them and then when I’m done one cycle, to try going through them again.

Where Do I Begin?

In this week's chapter entitled "Where Do I Begin?, I learned about God's calling for me in my life. First with the story of the man with the marble slab, and the boy. That shows that we have no idea what God has in store for us, it's actually really exciting. I think that this story shows a great example of this. It also speaks a lot about us fearing the voice of God because we are scared to go out of our comfort zone. I think this is true for most people in today's society, and in today's church. People come up with multiple excuses to why they don't want to leave there comfort zone and do God's calling, or they think God has the wrong person for the job. I know when I decided to come to a bible college, I couldn't believe what I was doing. I had planned my life to be an electrician, and suddenly my entire life changed, and so far everything has been working out, so God must be behind this.

I really enjoyed the lesson on prayer, fasting, and meditation. I feel that I lack in doing all of these things often. I feel like since I'm at a Christian college, that I would be praying more, and in some cases I do, but I feel like I'm lacking in that area. I'm often too tired to pray, or I forget to pray before meals. The one thing I have started to pray a lot more for is the small things, things I would have never prayed for before. I have only ever Fasted once, and that was for the wrong reason. Not that it was for a bad reason, but it wasn't for the sake of God, it was more so I could say that I have done a fast. During that fast, we had around 4 bible studies, but nothing too intense. For the most part I really didn't even thing about God at all, I just wanted to have fun. For Meditation I feel that it is something a lot of people miss out on, including me. People lead such busy lifestyles, that there is no time for doing this. I think it should be done every day, for at least a little bit, because when were so busy, we're going to miss what God has to say to us. With these three things in my life, I think that I would be much better off. I really think that Christians today, either don't spend enough time with God, or when they do, they do it for the wrong reasons. Truly, we need these things go grow in our relationship with God, and without them, it's a one way conversation. God gave us life, so why can't we seem to take such a little amount out of it to talk to him, and praise him.

Post 1 (Who will answer my questions?)

Spiritual formation is extremely important as disciples of Christ and part of the spiritual formation process is asking honest questions that we have no idea how to answer.
The first thing that must be realized is that God is not a God of questions; He is a God of answers. This does not mean that He will automatically answer all of our questions right off the bat, but if we seek Him we may find that sometimes He does lead us to the answers or the questions may simply disappear. It is not always a bad thing for a question to disappear. Maybe we find that the problem no longer matters in our life, or realize that God is much bigger than our question, and we let it go.
We must also realize that in order to find answers, we must live out the questions of our lives. This means that we cannot just ask the questions, but to seek out the answers in such a way that will lead to the solutions. However, to simply seek out an answer is not always enough, so living out the question is not to just find the answer, but to realize the truth in it. For example, if someone asks the question "Does God love me?" one may turn to the Gospels and find John 3:16. To read the words "For God so loved the world..." obviously suggests that God loves everyone, but that may not be enough. For the person to realize the truth in the answer, they must live out the question in order to have a unique experience with the love of God. This may manifest itself through baptism (which is always a very personal commitment), or even helping others. The answer to the question being lived out in a persons' life leads to an experience where they may wholly understand the underlying truth.
It is always very important to remember that the start of all answers is God Himself. It is good to talk to others, but all wisdom comes from God, and God must be sought out while others may be secondary support. Think of it like God is the coach of your life, and others are like the cheerleaders. One would not ask the cheerleaders for play advice before they ask the coach.
Primarily, as disciples we must meet God in various ways to seek out a healthy relationship with Him. We must also bring our troubles and questions to Him, and He will walk with us to the answers, or the questions and problems may simply just fade. Either way, our life is not just about finding answers to our questions, it is about growing close to God, and to make disciples of all nations, just as we were made disciples ourselves.
We may seek God in nature, in solitude, in loving others, and in so many other ways, but the effort must be made. It is important to realize that without God we are lost, and we may not find Him if we do not spiritually discipline ourselves. We are in the dark without God, with only our questions to keep us company.