Sharing is Caring [6/6/12]

Hi everybody!!

Sorry, once again, for not posting for a while... At times I feel like giving up this blog completely, but I made a promise, and I'm planning on keeping it! There has been a lot going on in my life. Last night, I was given the opportunity to share my testimony with the youth at my church! I was super excited and nervous, but I think it went well! (Well, that's what I heard from other people.) It was really great to hear that after I shared my testimony, many of the youth opened up in their small groups... :)

Lately, I have been reading Acts because it is the book we are studying at my bible study. It has quite a bit of material, and there is a lot of heavy stuff involved. There is one story of how a couple lied to the church about how much money they were giving, and after both of them lied, they dropped dead. (Acts 5) But, what I wanted to share with you guys today is a lighter, yet inspiring story. It is found in Acts 4.

Acts 4:32-37

All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt

that what they owned was not their own, so they shared 

everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the

resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's great blessing was upon

them all.  There were no needy people among them, because

those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the

money to the apostles to give to those in need.

For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles

nicknamed Barnabas (which means "Son of Encouragement").

He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus.

He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.

I really enjoyed reading this. This is something I truly, truly desire! To be united in heart and mind with other believers. To understand that the possessions I have in this world are not my own; they have all been given to me by God! They are all things of this world. It would be so wonderful and great if we could all let go of our worldly possessions, and learn to share them amongst ourselves! What I have is what you have. I often find myself being so caught up in my own possessions; I went through a phase when nobody was allowed to touch my stuff! 

But look at what these believers were doing! They were sharing everything God had provided them with; because they were sharing, they were able to say "there were no needy people among them"! How great would it be to say that!? 

I have to admit, I'm not really ready to sell all of my stuff to help everybody else out... But I hope God will one day turn me into somebody who is that loving and generous! But for now, I do know that I want to start sharing what I do have with others... Whatever I have, no matter how small! I have no right to be possessive over clothes, over gadgets, over food, over money... Everything I "own" has been provided to me by God! I can't say I "own" these things, because it wasn't even me who did any work for these things! God was the one who allowed me to put my hands on whatever I have, and I should just as easily let them go! 

I pray that God will help us all realize how little significance our worldly possessions have... That we will not shy away from being generous with these possessions, but we will rejoice when we are able to let go of these possessions! We already have so much more than we need... Yet we keep collecting more and more and seem to give away so little! 

Thanks for reading this post! :D 

- kjoosaurus out!

Open Doors [6/3/12]

Hello everybody!

God has recently been working a whole lot in my life; he's been using me in so many different ways, and it feels great! Today, I just wanted to share how God uses us all in different ways; he opens doors for us, and we should never be afraid to take these opportunities! These open doors are a precious gift he has given us; it gives us a chance to speak of his love and power, and it allows us to love others! As I mentioned yesterday, he is opening the door for me to go on missions! Well, he opened another door for me today!

Lately, I've been having very strong images of speaking to the youth group at my church. Every night, before I fall asleep, all I was able to think about was sharing my testimony with the youth, and telling them about God's love! I guess it was a daydream since I wasn't asleep. Anyways, it was a different kind of image than any other daydream; this time, it was a full speech, and there were words that I said in this daydream that I never would have thought of myself. And also, I had the same daydream every single night. I began to realize that God probably wanted me to actually go and speak to the youth group, but I was too scared to ask.

So, I briefly mentioned it to a close friend of mine, and we briefly mentioned it to the youth pastor. He didn't really react to what I said, so I decided to leave it be and just live without speaking to the youth group. Then, last night, I had this huge wave of desire to speak this coming Tuesday! I decided to ask the youth pastor; I said to myself, "Kristen, tomorrow is the day." So, I got to church today, and I saw the youth pastor, AND I chickened out. Haha. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to ask him...

So I headed home, and that was when I received a text message from a friend. It said, "Kristen, Tim wants to know if you would like to share your testimony on Tuesday." I jumped for joy!! Praise God!! He answered my prayers, and although I failed to make the effort myself, he opened the door wide open for me! :)

2 Corinthians 2:14

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession 

in Christ and through us spreads everywhere 

the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

God is truly using us all to spread the knowledge of him! He uses us in ways we have never even imagined. Let us be full of joy when we are doing the work of God; let us do his work because we love him, and love others! There are so many people who do not know the real and true love of God! Something to remember is that you shouldn't only be teaching about God's love when you go on missions; it should be happening when you are at home too! It doesn't matter where it is, or who it's with. We should always be teaching about God's love, should we not? 

At our workplaces, at school, with friends, and in our communities! If we all did our best - if we all stepped out of our comfort zones a bit; the impact would be tremendous! 

Galatians 6:9

 And let us not grow weary of doing good, 

for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

We must persevere! I know, it's so difficult to talk to non-believers about God... Surrounding us, there are so many people who have heard of him, yet do not believe in him. Our friends, our family, our colleagues.. Some will come to hate us, others will drift away from us, while even more will mock us, but this is no reason to give up! We must continue to love them, and do our best to show them God's love! Don't ever give up. Not the first time, the second time, the third time or any other time! God never gives up on loving us, right? We should never give up on loving others as well! Let us continue to praise God through any times of hardship and through any times of struggling! Let us ask him to help us persevere in doing good; ask him to guide us and let him use us!

Praise God for what he has done for us! Praise God for loving us and forgiving us! We have the most powerful and loving God, and he deserves all the glory! Let us love him just as he loves us; let us love others just as he loves us! Amen? AMEN! 

- kjoosaurus out!

Missions [6/2/12]

Hello!

I hope you have all been well :) I know I haven't posted in too long... I apologize for this. These past few days were full of confusion and extremely busy for me. I recently committed to go to Turkey for missions this summer. It isn't set in stone yet, but I am beginning to train for missions, and a lot has happened in the past little while!

Today, I just wanted to share a bit about the thought process throughout days until today. It all began in Ottawa. A sister of mine was part of an organization called intercp. She is very involved with this organization and she had already gone on missions before; she told us stories of her trip to Iraq, and it made me become more and more curious about missions. She encouraged me to check out intercp when I got back to Vancouver, and she graciously put me in contact with some of the people who were involved!

When I arrived back in Vancouver, I was in contact with some of the leaders of intercp, but only through the phone. It wasn't until last Tuesday when I finally met for coffee with the em leader. It was then when I committed to go to Turkey for missions. I told him, "I will go to Turkey this summer, and I will make sure there is Vision School when I get back to Ottawa."

Wow. Those were big words coming from little old me. I'm not the kind of person who stops out of her comfort zone very much. I like to be in my cozy little bubble, and I have never stepped too far out of it. As soon as I realized what I had committed to, I became very, very scared. I didn't want to do it. There was too much at stake for me. I had so many obstacles to overcome, and I didn't want to put the effort into overcoming them. So, I started to hide from God. I began to go out with my friends a lot, I stopped writing this blog very regularly, and I immersed myself in worldly things. This last week, I rarely prayed, and I only read the bible on several occasions.

All of a sudden, I had gone from a girl who was doing nothing but looking for a job this summer, to a girl who was going to do God's work! Eep! What a change! But it made me begin to think... Is this why God wanted me to come home this summer? Did he want to give me this opportunity? Does he want me to do this? Well, this scared me even more. If God wants me to do something, and I tell him I'm going to do it, then that means I'm doing it. My friends were so excited for me! They were really hyping it up, but that scared me more and more. I didn't want to commit; I wanted to back out! But it wasn't until today, that I finally feel at peace.

You see, I forgot about why I wanted to do missions in the first place!

John 15:12-13

This is my commandment:
Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

There is no greater love than to lay down one's life

for one's friends.

God calls us to love others the way he loves us. To go to the unreached nations to tell them of God's love and bringing light to their darkness... That is showing them how we love them! It doesn't matter if they reject the words we speak; it doesn't matter if they hate us. We must love them; we must want for them to experience the glory and mercy of God! God feels so much sorrow to see them sin; he loves them deeply. He wants us to go out, and tell them how he loves them! He wants us to go out and tell them there is a way! He wants to use us to lead them to the path of righteousness! 

This is why I wanted to do missions. I want God to use me to lead these people to the path of righteousness. I want others to be able to experience the love of God just the way I have experience it! I was so focused on myself, but I pray God will make me selfless! There are people who need to hear the word of God, and we need to tell them the word of God! Oh, how he loves us. Let us love each other just the way he loved us! God's love is the true love. God's love is the greatest love of all! :) 

- kjoosaurus out!