Father, give me grace to forgive them.

So this post is inspired from what was preached at church yesterday as well as from what is happening in my life. Currently there is a series being done at church on 2 Peter and how to live to be a strong Christian or something. I honestly missed the beginning of the series as I was at another church. The main passage is:

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection(Brotherly kindness); and to mutual affection (Brotherly kindness), love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins." - 2 Peter 1:5-9 (NIV).

The text I bolded is what yesterday's message was on. The concept of how, as Christians, we should exhibit a brotherly affection or kindness to one another. Other passages used were:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loves us, we also out to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us." - 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited (Do not be wise in your own opinion). Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with everyone." - Romans 12:9-17 (NIV)

Now after all the verses I've given, I don't think I will have a verse of the post as I usually do. Now it is time to say what I have been thinking regarding all this. Clearly, a part of being Christian is being filled with the Spirit and having the love of God in us to give to others. God commands us (and tells us that our faith is evident through) to love one another. Now when we all agree on topics and all share common interests and goals, this loving one another comes pretty easy wouldn't you say? Well while I was sitting in church listening to the message, I kept thinking of how other people treat me and not so much of how I treat others. It may be a pride thing but I thought shortly on how I treat others and made a mental note to try and be aware when I'm not being loving and try to do better. Back to what I was thinking though in regards to how I am treated, in particular, by certain Christian friends.
This is something I have been talking to God about today while I was praywalking (praying while walking). I was talking to him about how after relationships or friendships end, people purposely remove people from their lives, for example when people break up, typically they go separate ways and friends of the people involved stick to their respective sides.
Now in my situation, I went through a break up, and SM decided to remove me from her life and friends of hers that I became friends with also began to ignore me for sometime. Now in a worldly view, this kind of makes sense since what would be the point of being friends. But when I think about this, and how in this situation we are all Christians, we should all be united in Christ and love each other as brothers and sisters should we not?
This is something I talked to God about today and hopefully everything will work out in his due time. In my eyes, no matter what happens between people, no matter what the circumstances, we need to put our pride aside and love one another. Sure it may be hard but to think it isn't possible would totally diminish the power of God's love. If we cannot put our pride aside and love one another and continue to purposely alienate people or remove people from our lives, than what makes us as Christians different than the world? If we don't follow God's commandments and forgive others of their mistakes and allow them into our lives in some capacity so that we may show them God's love to help build them up, than what kind of witness is that? We need to come together as the body of Christ and live in harmony and not let the mistakes or sins in our lives hinder our witness to the world. In my situation, I continue to pray for SM and hope she will someday allow me to be her brother in Christ instead of trying to pretend I don't exist.
It is also interesting to think that we can control who is and is not a part of our lives as if our lives are not interconnected. This world is both huge and small all at the same time. God has set up the connections of people in our lives for a reason and uses everyone in some capacity for our benefit. Sometimes the effect is negative and sometimes it is positive but ultimately God uses them to help us grow. I understand also that sometimes people can come and go in our lives and that is out of our control. But my point is as Christians, we should not force other Christians out of our lives no matter what the situation. Allow God to fill us with grace and love to overcome the hurt that we may be united in Christ.
I know someday God may have us meet to talk about how great his guidance and blessings truly are in our lives and He will be glorified then as I try to glorify him now.

SONGS OF THE POST: Yes there is 2!

Tenth Avenue North - Losing

Last fall during tough times and even now when things seem unfair, I am reminded by God to continue to love them and forgive them because God gives me the love and grace to do so. 

Starfield - Light of the World

We are the light of the world. When we put our pride aside and come together we can change this world. Beautiful song by Starfield.

All the best and God bless!

John

Fluid 2013 Conference!

Hey everyone!
So today I had the opportunity to go to a young adults conference called Fluid 2013 at the Church on the Queensway. It was an amazing day with sessions starting at 9am running all the way to 830pm. It was a long day of messages and worship but it honestly flew by. I hung out with people from different circle of friends which was fun. I mainly hung out with my buddy RW and we went out to lunch with the young adults group from Bayview Glen and then went out to supper with people from Creekside Church. One of the fun part of the day was that after we ate lunch, we still had some time on our break so RW and I went to Golf Town on our way back and we hit a few balls in the driving range. It was such a beautiful day today and I thought: A) I can't wait to start golfing again after I learned how last Summer and B) If I was home in New Brunswick, days like today would have had me playing ball hockey with the neighbours. Oh the good old days where life was all fun and games haha.
Well as I said, today was the Fluid 2013 young adults conference and it was awesome! I took notes for future references and I will share some of the highlights of the messages today with some quotes and concepts that I noted from each Speaker.

Speaker 1: Donald Miller: - Story of Joseph in Genesis.
- "Bad things are going to happen in your life; that's a given. There are two reactions you can have, either 1) You will get bitter or 2) You will get better."
- He discussed the story of Joseph and how God uses the highs and lows in his life to prepare him for the life he was to have. So the highs and lows in our lives all lead us to where God wants us / needs us.
- Challenge question: "Are the goals you set for life meangingful?"
- "If God is going to use you, you will experience pain. Pain is part of the journey."
Pain / tough times in our lives are meant for reflection and growth and without these times in our life, we cannot truly reach our potential.
- He also talked about changing from an external locus of control to an internal locus of control because once we do that, we can change and start living life.

Speaker 2: Sundar Krishnan - Theme was pride and looked at Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4.
- Pride is good at hiding itself on us and we can easily be blind to the pride in our lives since it can be, on the one hand, seen in boasting, or in the other hand seen in self-pity.
- "When we refuse to forgive someone God has forgiven, we're saying the sin against us was greater than the sin against God."
- Pride cheats us out of many things in life because it deceives us on who we are and what we can do.
- Important way to prevent pride is to stay in God's word or have regular exposure to it and community with God's people. They will help keep you accountable. Try this exercise with a friend or spouse: Ask them to tell you where Pride is in your life. The trick is to only ask questions back to them for clarification and you are not allowed to argue with then about what they say. Sundar says this has helped their church leaders realize the pride in their lives. It is a great exercise to keep us accountable.

Speaker 3: Bruxy Cavey - Daniel 5
- The difference between knowledge and application of the Word = Hypocrisy Gap. You want to balance the intake of Gods word with the output of application of Gods word in your life. That way you don't become "spiritually obese" and unhealthy. We need to shorten the gap between all the knowledge we gain with all we do with it in service and loving others. I loved the analogy!
- Repent means "change of mind" which leads to a change in action. the challenge was "what is holding you back from allowing your mind to be changed?"
- Printed Word vs Spoken Word. God gives us the scripture to be interpreted by the Spirit of God through God's people. Ex. Daniel and words on the wall. God could have made everything plain and simple but that wouldn't be good because we would take that and go off alone and be content but God loves to use His people and work together. Thus we need community to interpret the Word.
- "The Scriptures are not God, they are the place to go to learn the truth of who God is. Don't follow the Bible, READ the Bible and Follow Jesus."
- Sometimes repentance means choosing to not quit in the battle against sin. You may stumble but stumble forward if you have to.

Speaker 4: Eugene Cho - Daniel 6
- Daniel excelled. So we should excel because by doing so, people will notice us and notice that there is something else in us driving us to excel. That something else is Jesus that they will hopefully notice. Daniel was in refuge and in the lowest of lows of the Babylon society but he excelled and rose up through society. God used him greatly. Same can be seen in the life of Joseph in Genesis. Obviously God can use anyone and we don't have to be awesome for God to use us. But it is important to know that God has blessed us with skills and talents that we can use for him. Be all we can be and the Lord will do great things through us.
- "When the grass looks greener on the other side, that's a sign you need to start watering the grace you're standing on!" This is a great quote. Such a simple example of how when we thing other lives or situations are better than ours that we need to buckle down and do something about. The Spirit is telling us to start pouring ourselves into our lives, into our jobs, into our relationships. Water the grass you're standing on and MAKE it greener!
- Story of Jesus and the disciples getting caught in the storm on the water. Often the take home message is Jesus calms the storm but it is important to note that in the story, the storm appeared even though Jesus was present. So the storms of this life will happen, the important thing is how we deal with them with Jesus.

Then the worship music with Tim Neufield from Starfield was awesome!
Clearly there was a lot shared today and there are so much more notes to share but I tried to highlight and summarize them. It was a Spirit filled day and I praise God for the great things he has done and will do with this generation of young adults and all those who attended today.
Thanks for reading this long post and please comment.
All the best and God bless,
John

"Keep my eyes to serve, and my hands to learn"

Sorry for the absence readers. I will try to keep this relatively short even though a lot has happened this past couple of weeks. Here is what has been happening in my life:

1. On Tuesday last week I donated blood for the second time in my life! This is something I want to do more often in my life because it is something that can save lives. Unfortunately for me I fainted. It was the strangest thing. I was finished donating and I was lay in the chair holding the gauze in place while my body recovers and they can give me my bandage and I felt fine. I was even on my blackberry reading some of Joshua (side note: Yes I am in Joshua! So stoked that I have kept up with my readings and am making my way through the Old Testament). Next thing I knew, I looked over and an older woman had fainted giving blood or something and I felt concerned for her. I wasn't scared for myself or anything, just hoping she was alright which she eventually was. But then as I was watching the people tend to the lady, tunnel vision started setting and apparently I fainted! Next thing I knew I realized I was sleeping and woke up wondering what happened. Funny thing was that the lady caused a domino effect and I was one of 3 people who fainted in response to her fainting. Long story short, I spent an extra hour at the clinic recovering and eating tons of juice and cookies. Lesson learned is to drink more food and water the day before and day of donating to ensure my body is truly ready for duty.

2.  Ball hockey intramurals were last week at school and it was a blast. I got to showcase some skill on the court which I was complimented on by my classmates. It does make me feel good to hear people think I'm good at hockey. We lost in the final on Friday which sucked but I played good and made some good plays. One of which resulted in a goal so I have nothing to be ashamed of. Ball hockey may have been the reason I fainted too since I may have been a tad dehydrated from the 2 games I played on Monday.

3. I've started playing guitar for the music portion of worship of one of the young adult groups I attend. I am happy to know that I have the ability to do this since I have always had doubts in my guitar and singing ability. I have helped out twice and it is going well. Really feel good about this and I think it will open up doors for me to continue doing this with the other young adults group I attend at a different Church.

4. I also got a summer job on a travel team to help run events that raise money for Cancer. Pretty excited for that since I will be in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary this summer working. Should be a great time but a lot of work.

5. Participated in "Coldest Night of the Year" as well on February 23rd! It's a walk-a-thon to raise funds for Yonge Street Missions which look after the homeless. It was a great experience that I will do again. It was nice to walk around Downtown Toronto and take in the sights, share the walk with others and have some laughs, and show the community that we care!

VERSE OF THE POST:
"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be alert and of self control (have self control). Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." - 1 Peter 5:7,8

This verse was written on the first page of my Dad's bible given to him by his parents when he went away to the military. I think this verse is wonderful! The Lord loves us and we can just heave our problems and worries for Him to take care of. Also, it is a reminder for us to be on guard since it is easy to fall into sin because the devil is always ready to help trip us up (which happened this week. Argh so dumb! God is so good to me though so I will keep living off his victory over sin!). This verse was a great choice by grandma and grandpa Neal for Dad. Hopefully someday Dad will realize this and I can give him back his bible when he is ready to use it! haha :)

SONG OF THE POST:
It was either "I will wait" or "Below my feet" both by Mumford & Sons. Going to see them in the August and I am so excited for it! "I will wait" was an unofficial theme for our team this week in Ball hockey and these two songs are favorites of mine. I will wait, I will wait for you!

Thanks for reading and please comment or message me and let me know what you think!
All the best and God bless!
John