God With Us

Recently, we all celebrated a holiday. This Christmas holiday is well known as a season of Joy, merriment and togetherness but what is the purpose of this season? Where did it all begin? Many Christians will tell you that it began with a little baby in a manger 2,000 years ago and they are absolutely correct, this was the scene of the first Christmas, the scene that we remember and celebrate together. But, I believe the reason for Christmas and the need for it began a long time before that manger; the reason goes back about as far as you can go; to a garden with two inhabitants named Adam and Eve. They fell into the temptation of Satan and sin entered the world. They went from having the ability to commune with God and to walk with him- to hiding from him because they felt naked and exposed in their guilt and transparency of their wrongdoing (Gen 3:8-10). And after this had happened, they were separated from God because of their sins. But even then, in the middle of all that guilt and sorrow that they must have been feeling as they left the garden of Eden, you could see the first hints of a promise: "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." (Gen 3:21) At this point you might be thinking that I chose the wrong verse, after all, there is a much clearer promise in Genesis 3:15 of Christ's victory of Satan. But I chose this verse for a reason, this verse has a very significant promise. Adam and Eve were hiding from God because all of their sins and failures were in plain sight , because they were afraid of what would happen when a Righteous God saw who they had become. They even attempted to clothe themselves to eliminate their shame under their own power (Gen 3:7) but these coverings weren't good enough, they still didn't cover their shame. God still had to dismiss them from the garden but he made his promise by making clothing for them, clothing that was far better than what they had attempted to do on their own, clothing that prevented them from being exposed. He made these clothes out of "skin" to cover Adam and Eve, this meant that he had to take a life, the life of some animal, in order to make sure that Adam and Eve were clothed. This was the promise, but it would take some time before it reached its fulfillment. I can only imagine the loneliness that Adam and Eve felt as they were separated from their creator by their own misdeeds; this loneliness continued throughout the ages. During this time, God gave the people laws so that they could be aware of their own sins and turn to him for deliverance; but instead of turning to God, the people threw their devotion away to idols that they built with their hands, idols that can't even do anything: "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." (Rom 1:21-23) but even in the midst of all of this, the same promise, the same hope remained. Isaiah foretold this: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) Immanuel means: "God with us"; God was promising that we could have a relationship with him, that he would be with us. When you flash forward to that manger, to that first Christmas you see that Christ did come. The Savior that had been promised since the beginning had finally come and the was definitely something to be excited about! This was why the angels sang, the star shone out, the Magi worshiped and the shepherds witnessed to people about what they had seen; this was why Herod was threatened, this was what made faithful people like Ananias and Anna ready to die in peace knowing that they had seen their Salvation. Jesus came to be the sacrifice that covers our guilt and sin, just like that first one in the garden of Eden: "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) Maybe you are a person reading this who had to spend this Christmas alone, or you are a person who has gone through a time of loneliness. As surprising as this may sound, coming from someone like me who has ten siblings, there have been times in the past where I too have felt alone (Not when I'm surrounded by my family but other times); times when even in the midst of a crowd of people I have felt like I was by myself.

Maybe you have felt a loneliness like this or maybe you have felt a longer emptiness, a larger one; a void that cannot be filled with anything, no matter how hard you have tried or what you have tried to fill it with. No matter how hard we try, we simply cannot cover our own sins under our own effort; good works, false gods, and even the old animal sacrifices cannot cover our guilt. The only thing that can is the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf this is how we can have a personal friendship with our creator. The reason that we have Joy at Christmas is that Immanuel came! God can be with us in every aspect of our lives and we never have to be alone again! He will always be with us and nothing can separate us from his love for us! God is with us and with me, this is the reason that I celebrate Christmas! "I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isiah 41:9-10)

Important Anniversary

Today is an important anniversary for me. I'm not dating anyone so it's not that kind of anniversary...and it isn't my parent's anniversary either. Today is an important anniversary because one year ago today I started to read my Bible every single morning.

I should probably start this story at the beginning, with my Journal. Early on in 2010 I got a small Bible Reading Journal, I decided that it would be a good idea to read a chapter of my Bible every day and then write out one of the verses that I came across. And so, in February 2010 my first entry was written. I decided that I would do these devotions in the evening because I didn't think I would have enough time in the morning (I was more of an evening person). As the months went on, I did my devotions sporadically at best. It wasn't that I didn't want to study my Bible, the desire was there; the problem was that I stayed up late and was often too exhausted to read my Bible clearly; like what Jesus had said to the disciples in Gethsemane, my "spirit was willing enough" but my "flesh was weak". Things continued like this for a couple of months that year until I started working at Camp.

While I was working at camp, they encouraged us to really dig into the word and I found a good time in the morning where I could read my Bible almost every day. This worked great for me at camp but after camp was over and on the weekends when I was off, I was still slacking on my reading. I tried and tried for several months to read the Bible like I did when I was working at camp but I was still failing and reading even less than I did before. By December 2010 I was getting pretty desperate and discouraged, I wanted to read the Bible so badly but I still seemed to have trouble finding the time. It was then that I tried doing something I hadn't thought of doing for the entire year, I prayed for God's help in that area so that I could read his word every day like I had longed to for so very long.

On December 10th I woke up like any other normal day, but then I took the time to read my devotion from the book of Romans. The next day amazingly I did the same thing, and the next day and the day after that- I even remembered to read on Christmas! Every day, before I even opened my Bible I would pray for God to open up his word from me so that I could truly understand it and to help me to continue reading every day, then I would read my chapter and write down one verse that I chose from it.

There were several things that I noticed as I began reading my Bible every day, the first thing came at Bible study, in previous years there was a person in my class who would quote many scriptures that were related to the lesson we were studying, but when I sat there in class I simply didn't know what scriptures he was quoting or where they were in the Bible. This year as I read my Bible every day I was able to do the same thing, often quoting related verses from memory. It was an amazing transformation! Aside from being helpful in class, I found that these verses that I remembered from devos were amazingly encouraging to other people, and even to me.

For example, in the spring I went on a trip to Canada to visit some relatives. I had a good time and was in the airport for my return trip when suddenly a huge blizzard came and grounded all outgoing flights. At the back of my mind I knew that the airlines worked very hard to get people on another flight if something happens, but at the time that didn't matter. I desperately wanted to be home and I was worried that I would be stranded at that airport forever. Even with all these fears and anxieties crowding my thoughts, a verse came to mind:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:6-7) This verse was exactly what I needed, it gave me peace to wait and with the help of my Dad, being stranded in Burlington for two days actually wound up being quite fun "mini vacation"!I have learned so many things through my Bible in this short year. I learned that God chose me and has a plan for me and that he will never abandon me. I learned that trials are also a sign of God's love because they exist to bring us closer to him. I learned that things work out a lot better if you turn all the control over to God, that way you don't crash whenever you try to take back control. I learned that God is the one I should lean on for confidence and that he is the strength in my sometimes obvious weaknesses.This year has changed me more than I could be able to figure out and this is all because of the constant influence of God's holy word.When this first started I had to remember to read to Bible and I often had to force myself out of all the distractions of life. While I do still get distracted sometimes, I have found some new priorities in my life. Reading my Bible every morning has become more important to me than a good night's sleep, breakfast or even hygiene. This is not to say that these things aren't important (Or that I don't find the time these important things too) but just that the Bible became even more important to me, like Job says: "I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread." (Job 23:12)I totally recommend that you read your Bible everyday, it is certainly worthwhile and has changed my year (And my life) for the better. It can be really hard and the only way I know to even start reading every day is to pray to God for help. It is a really worthwhile journey and I suggest that you start ASAP, you won't regret it!

My Testimony

In my profile I mentioned that God has changed the course of my life and that he gives everything meaning. And I was thinking that now might be a great time to explain why, to tell you all how God first entered my life and pulled me out of the path of destruction. I'm sure that some of you have more exciting stories to tell and have included all the details of how you were saved including the exact date and time, this is something that I cannot even remember for my tale. However, another thing that I learned at camp a year ago is that everyone's testimony is exciting! A testimony is the story of how God pulled you back from the brink of death and choose to dwell inside you, how you went from feeling alone to having a Savior indwell you who will never abandon you, how you went from being full of empty questions and increasing doubts to getting the most important answer and insight that you will ever need, how you went from being hopeless to hope-filled; what could possibly be more exciting than that!? So, without further delay, here is my testimony, I hope it can be an encouragement to you guys:

My Faith journey started in 1998 when I was four years old. Both my mom and my dad had recently become Christians and the first thing that they were ever called to do was to move out here to Colorado. So me, my parents, my sister Maria and my Three-week-old sister Rachel hopped on a plane and flew here. Maria and I jumped onto the luggage conveyor belt and almost wound up spending the flight down below with the cargo, instead a whole bunch of alarms went off and we were retrieved from the conveyer by some very unhappy airline workers. After we had moved in to our new house in Bailey, one of the first things that we did was to look for a church. We found a church and my parents, who were new believers and very hungry for the word joined us in all sorts of Bible studies. At one point in time we were going to two different Community Bible Studies as well as Awanas and this was in addition to Church and some of the other Bible Studies that my parents went to! On top of all of this, my Mom would read a children’s Bible to us every single morning. I was surrounded by God’s word and I honestly didn’t understand any of it, I loved to play all the games that they had at these studies but all the spiritual elements didn’t even compute for me. One day, when I was five years old. I was at my best friend’s house with my family. While she was setting the table for dinner, my friend, who was also a Christian was talking to my Mom about some of the things that she had learned in her Bible study class. I could tell that they were talking about something important but it all came out sounding like foggy gibberish to me and I simply couldn’t understand it. However, for the first time ever I truly wanted to understand it. I asked my Mom “What are you talking about” as well as a few of the other questions that I had been thinking about. Immediately, my mom took my back to my friend’s bedroom and explained to me who Jesus was and why he had come and I finally understood what it all meant. She then asked me if I wanted to pray with her; I said yes and we both knelt together next to my friend’s bed. And there, in my best friend’s bedroom I accepted Jesus as my own personal Savior. I wish I could remember what the rest of the evening was like after that. What I do know is I left that bedroom with all the answers I could ever need and with an indescribable sense of Joy. I still don’t even know which day it was that this happened, but what I do know is that my life was changed forever that evening, in that bedroom.

I have been through many highs and lows in my life, I have been discouraged by my own weaknesses and limitations, I have climbed mountains and then promptly got lost on the way down, I have danced for joy and sobbed with remorse. What has kept me going from that night all the way until now is the knowledge that God chose me, and that he will be with me through it all.

Let God be your Confidence

“For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.”

– Proverbs 3:26

As I have already said, I am not a very confident person. I hate confronting people and sometimes I look back on previous conversations and wonder if I maybe said the wrong thing. You’re probably chuckling to yourself about this but it’s all true. When I applied to work at camp I was worried (a bit) about how I would be able to do it. What if I said something wrong to the kids and they hated Christianity forever because of me? As staff training progressed, this concern grew. I became nervous when I shared my testimony and when I practiced witnessing to a fellow staff member I felt even more frightened, I didn’t think I could do it. I began to look up verses in the Bible about confidence and put them in my jumping versebook, including Proverbs 3:26. This not only encouraged me but I later learned that it also encouraged the person sitting next to me! Three days before the first campers arrived, I prayed this prayer: “Dear God, please give me your strength and your courage and your confidence because I know mine isn’t good enough. Please help me not to be afraid to represent you or to protect these children from whatever danger may come their way and please help me to glorify you in whatever I do.” Now you are probably wondering if this prayer was answered. Did God give me his strength? Yes, I did more walking in those eight weeks then I had done in a year! I washed more dishes, cleaned more floors and encouraged more people than I ever thought possible! Did God give me his courage? Yes, I made friends, I repelled off a 150 foot cliff, and I challenged myself both physically and spiritually. Did God give me his confidence? Absolutely! There were so many things I wouldn’t have been able to do without God’s help! I definitely did not do this without him. I lead three devotions with the campers, did the motions for worship music and discovered a spiritual gift that up until then I didn’t even realize I had. God can really use you and give you his confidence, the important thing is to ask him!