In Love [2/24/2014]

I have fallen helplessly in love.

In love with the one who cares for me.

In love with the one who pursues me.

In love with the one who comforts me.

In love with the one who loved me first.

In January and half of February, I had become very busy with school, church, work and meeting people. I’m not sure if it’s normal or if it’s because I have a weak body, but by mid-February, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I was at a point where I was so tired but incapable of falling asleep at night because of all the thoughts of different things happening in my life. On top of all this, I was supposed to leave for Toronto to spend another week filled with plans! Just the thought of it made my body feel weak.

I was to leave for Toronto on Friday February 14^th, but as I was flying standby, I wasn’t completely sure I would make it. I was at the gate at the airport when the desk agent told me I wouldn’t make it on the plane because it was full but that I could wait until the end of boarding just in case. Oh brother, I just wanted to leave so I could hop into bed and sleep for days… But I waited anyways.

Everybody had already boarded the plane and I was getting ready to leave when the lady called the entire standby up to the desk. We went up, expecting to be told we would have to go home tonight. Instead, she handed each of us a ticket. It turns out a party of three had checked into the airport but weren’t able to make it through security. I did feel bad for them… But I got on the plane! This has never happened to me in all of my years of flying standby. It was a miracle.

Finally, I arrived at the Toronto airport, but still had a long way to go. I had to take a couple of different busses before I would arrive at my final destination. The bus came once every hour, and I missed the bus by five minutes. Frustrated again, I called my Mom because I hadn’t had a chance to tell her I actually got on the plane. Of course she was shocked, but in a hurry she told me to hang up the phone and call my Dad. It turns out that he had arrived at the airport minutes after I did because the flight he was supposed to get on had been delayed by several hours! Lucky me. I got to see my Dad that night and his friend also gave me a ride instead of me having to bus. Imagine if I hadn’t missed that bus by 5 minutes!

This is how my trip began. In every moment, I felt as if God was watching over me and giving me opportunities to rest since he knew how tired I was. How thankful I was!

I was able to spend my Saturday at home with my cousins. I can’t remember what we did that day, but I’m pretty sure the majority of it was spent sleeping. Oh, and I wrote a song about how much I love Jesus. Heehee.

Then, on Sunday, it began. I started to feel sickness creeping into my body. It began with constant sneezing and sniffling. Then a headache. On Monday, it was exhaustion, a fever and nausea. Not just me, but my cousins as well! For two days, we just slept, woke up for an hour or so, and then slept again.

I’m sure most people would say, “Wow, that really sucks. Going to Toronto and being sick for the whole trip.” But I meant it when I say this. It was an amazing trip. I did feel terrible for having to cancel plans, but my body had been pleading for rest! After so long without proper sleep and rest, my body was ready for recovery. My sickness lasted until last night when my headache, nausea and fatigue finally left me. But I found that it was a blessing in disguise. Forced rest haha. I felt as if God was saying to me, “My daughter, lay down your head and rest. I am here with you.”

He not only showed me love through his silent whispers, but also through the people who took care of me. My cousins, aunt and uncle were so hospitable, so loving and so caring. The night when our fevers were the highest, I remember my aunt and uncle checking up on me every few hours to check my temperature and give me medication. I would check the time. 11pm, 2am, 5am. Then even in Ottawa, my beloved friends would check up on me to make sure I was okay. They would offer to be there if I ever needed anything. And although I was much better, it was still a comfort to know they were there.

Through all of these little moments and what seemed to be small acts of love, I saw God’s love and hand working in every moment and to conclude my whole week, I read the perfect chapter of a book called “Just Like Jesus” by Max Lucado.

It spoke of a constant communion with God - an awareness of his presence. For God is always with us. There are moments when he feels further away, but the reality of it is that he is never far from us. Everything we do, he is doing it with us. He never leaves us.

As I was reminded of this and challenged to partake in unceasing communion with him, I felt joy. Joy knowing that I am able to be able to have this intimate relationship with my creator.

So this is where I am now. I want to put 1 Thessalonians 5:17 into action. I want to “pray without ceasing” and aim to engage in constant communion with my Father who loves me. I hope to blog about some of the special moments and journeys we go through together, and I hope that you will join me in this. J

With love,

Kristen

Seasons of Change [12/16/2013]

Thinking back to my past used to be painful and embarrassing for me. I was a very different person before I met Christ and as I look back, I'm amazed at how much God has changed me. I'm amazed only because it's something I never could have accomplished on my own, no matter how hard I tried.

Thinking back to my past now isn't as painful for me (although I still shudder at the thought at times) because I can now see a certain joy and blessing through my past and my present - a joy that is only visible because of the works of my creator and saviour.

I really enjoy 2 Corinthians 5:17:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is made a new creation: The old is gone, the new has come!"

God promises us that after we accept Christ into our life and earn salvation, it is not the end of the road. Instead, he begins to lead us through the process of sanctification - to become more like him every day we live on this earth. I was reading an article and it said that hagiasmos means sanctification in Greek, and it is the same as hagios, which is the Greek word for holy. Therefore, to be sanctified means to be made more holy!

Brothers and sisters, we are all going through this process of sanctification. God is working in all of our hearts so that we may become more like Him! As we continue to pursue Christ, we become more and more like Christ, but this doesn't come without a few aches and pains.

Last night, I was reading "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis, and I came across this wonderful parable (that he got from George MacDonald) of how it is when God is working in him to become more like Christ.

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."

When God works in us, it is not always easy and very often it is painful, but He is building us to become something greater and much more beautiful - He is changing us into the masterpiece he intended for us to be. So I want to encourage you to hold on tightly to the Lord through the aches and the pains you feel as he is working on you. It isn't always easy and it may feel like you have been abandoned, or life is really difficult to handle, but trust in the Lord because he is always working on you. He never stops.

On that note, don't forget to trust in the Lord when you fall and stumble. Our God is a forgiving, merciful and loving God. When you make mistakes - which you most likely will - God is waiting there right beside you to help you back up. As I write this I think of King David, a man who was always after God's own heart, but who made mistakes on several different occasions. It is David's softened heart towards the Lord that really speaks to me. When he is rebuked by Nathan (2 Samuel 12:7) his immediate response is to repent for his sins and then he humbly accepts the discipline of the Lord (2 Samuel 12:20).

I desire for my heart to be as soft towards the Lord just like King David. I desire to have a heart that is soft enough for God to mould with ease so that daily, I become more and more like Him.

I trust that we are always changing for God is always working, and as a body, we really need to work together in encouraging one another. If people hadn't accepted that I was changing, it would have been much more difficult for me to change. I was a certain way for a very long time, and if people hadn't let go of that idea of me, I would have been so discouraged. In the same way, there are people in our lives that we have known for such a long time and because we believe we know them so well, we have a difficult time realizing they are changing and being made new. But we must open our eyes and see how God is working! And encourage our brothers and sisters by taking note of how God is changing them!

It isn't always easy, but I believe we can do this! We can support one another and encourage one another to become more like Christ! So let's continue to walk down this path together. Let's encourage each other to hold on tightly to our Saviour, let's help each other up when we stumble, and let's grow together as one body!

With love,

kjoosaurus.

Always and Forever [5/24/13]

Hello hello hello!

So lately, I have been falling deeper and deeper in love with my beautiful saviour and wonderful creator. It's so nice to be able to spend time with him daily, rejoicing and thanking him for how he has blessed me! When I was still in Sunday School, I can remember thinking "how is it possible that people talk about God all the time? Aren't we going to run out of things to talk about? We talk about him every week... I DON'T UNDERSTAND."

What a silly little girl I was! As I dive into the word, I'm not only discovering more about God, but also discovering how little I know about God. It's a chain reaction. When one question is answered, two more pop up! As I've been seeking him more, one of God's many characteristics has been sticking out to me and challenging me in new ways.

Psalm 16:8
I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Matthew 28:20
...And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Deuteronomy 31:8
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

These verses are only the tiniest examples of God's persistence and consistence in our lives! I'm sure all of you have experienced similar ups and downs in your faith and lives to my own. We have our good days and our bad days, we have our struggles and our joys, our trials and tribulations. But we have a God who always remains the same! There's no such thing as a bad day for him. He doesn't go through the same roller coaster rides that we go through - he is constant in our lives and persistently showing us his beauty and love no matter how hard we try to push it away.

This brings me great comfort knowing how reliable, dependable and consistent our father is! When everything in this world falls away, we will still have our father - he does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17)

When I see verses that say "surely I am with you always" and "he will never leave you or forsake you" it reminds me of multiple choice questions on exam. Before you get super confused, question how God reminds me of a multiple choice question and then call me crazy, hear me out.

In the beginning of first year, I went to the Academic Success Center to get some advice because I was absolutely terrible at multiple choice questions (I mean seriously, who tells you to pick the better answer of two right answers?!) Anyways, one piece of advice they gave me was to try avoiding answers that contain the words "always" or "never" because nothing is consistent enough to be always or never.

What great advice! It's so very true! Things in this world will not go on forever and ever. Things on this earth are simply temporary and will one day cease to exist, but God is the one constant in all of our lives! Always loving and guiding us as we journey through this world. This love and persistence he has shown us has brought up a desire in my heart to be just like him in this way! Persistently loving my fellow brothers and sisters in all situations and at all times! I know there will always be people in this world we struggle with - people who manage to push all the right buttons at all the right times. I have people in my life who seem to just cause so much trouble for themselves and then complain about it endlessly - asking me for love and attention that I eventually become reluctant to give. It's easy to stop paying attention to these people and spending the time we used to because we don't want to hear about how they made the exact same mistake as the last ten mistakes.

Yet this is one of the many ways our father loves us. We are constantly making the exact same mistakes over and over again! We try to learn from our mistakes but we so often end up making the same ones. But thankfully, God is persistent and patient with us. He loves us and is there for us despite the situation and I hope to love my fellow brothers and sisters just as he loves me. How eternally grateful I am to my saviour! I am grateful for him loving me despite all of my silly mistakes and mountains of complaints! I hope to imitate my wonderful maker and learn to love even those who push those buttons! Join me in this journey of learning to love as God first loved us :)

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
- Ephesians 5:1

- kjoosaurus out! 

Faithful to the End [01/22/13]

Hello everybody!

Wow, I can't believe it's almost the end of January and this is only my first post of 2013! The past two months have been incredibly busy but God has definitely been working in my life and in the lives of others around me. He has revealed so much to me and I wanted to share a bit of what has been revealed to me with all of you~

What are some things people of this world highly value? Money? Love? Objects? Food? Those answers are definitely all correct! Personally, I believe one of the things we value the most is comfort. In general, people want to live comfortably. They want to have a stable job that provides them with a stable income which provides them with gadgets, plenty of food, a comfortable home and room for even more spending. In fact, the goals many people set for themselves are often made to lead to a comfortable life! Get into the good school so that I can get that good job that has good pay.

People also seek comfort in other aspects of their lives such as the emotional part of their life. We don't want to live a life where we are constantly stressed out. We don't want to live a life where we are being persecuted, ridiculed and hated. We want to be loved, adored and admired. But is this what being a Christian is about? Is this what we should be seeking and pursuing?

In 2 Corinthians 11 and 12, Paul talks about the sufferings he has gone through. He mentions how he was constantly abused, how he was often hungry and often in danger. He then says at one point, when Satan had put a thorn in his flesh, he pleaded three times with God to take it away from him, but God said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (Chap. 12:9) In this verse, Paul is talking about how God is glorified through our own weaknesses and sufferings. He is able to reveal himself to others through our own struggles. Reading this verse made me wonder... When I'm struggling and when I'm weak, will I be glorifying God?

I want to share about a couple of martyrs I learned about recently. Their names are Perpetua and Felicity and their story takes place in Carthage. These two girls became Christians in a time when it was dangerous to become a Christian as Christians were being persecuted. It was more common to see the lower class (slaves) becoming Christians, but it was extremely rare to see anybody who was noble to become a Christian. Perpetua was one of those rare cases. Perpetua had everything she needed to live comfortably. Her father provided her with everything she needed, she was married and pregnant! But through Felicity, her slave, Perpetua became a Christian.

The story of Perpetua and Felicity is complex, but what happens in the end is that the two of them were killed in front of thousands of people. They were killed because they were Christians, but right until the end, they were faithful to God and glorified him even through their sufferings. They gave absolutely everything up to him and they were completely faithful to him from the beginning to the end.

When I learned about their story, I began to question my own faith. Am I faithful enough to God that I would give up everything I have just to glorify him? Do I have so much joy in glorifying him that I would go through a great deal of pain and suffering just for him to be glorified? The answers to those questions were no, but to be a faithful servant to God is what I desire. I want to live a life that glorifies him. I want to persist through my sufferings with joy just by knowing how my weakness is glorifying God! Instead of complaining to God about my struggles, I want to rejoice!

Wouldn't it be great to be as faithful as Paul, Perpetua and Felicity? I'll be praying that every one of us becomes as faithful as they are!

Thanks for reading~~

- 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!

Discernment [5/31/12]

Hello!

Today, I would like to talk a bit about discernment. In all honesty, I don't know very much, so I'm hoping you guys will be able to help me out a bit. These past few weeks, I've really been needing answers from God, and although I'm getting answers, I'm not always sure if it's from God or from something else. Some answers seem more obvious, while others I have a very hard time discerning.

The reason why I do become confused is because there is one thing I do know.

2 Corinthians 11:14

But I am not surprised!

Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 

1 John 4:1

Dear friends, do not believe everyone

who claims to speak by the Spirit.

You must test them to see if the spirit

they have comes from God.

For there are many false prophets in the world.

Signs we see and words we hear are not always going to be from God. Many times, Satan will communicate to us in ways that are extremely similar to God; so similar in fact, that we may believe it is God! I also know, as children of God, we must learn to discern between good and evil. As we grow closer and closer to God, we are able to discern more and more! 

1 John also says to test them... At first I was confused. I wasn't sure how to test them, but that's because I didn't read on. 

1 John 4:2

This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God:

If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges

that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.

But if someone claims to be a prophet

and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, 

that person is not from God.

Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist,

which you hear is coming into the world

and indeed is already here. 

Okay, I'm not sure if I'm insanely simple-minded or something, but it looks like the way we must know is if they: a) Acknowledge Jesus Christ came in a real body, or b) Doesn't acknowledge the truth about Jesus Christ. Once again, I'm a little confused. Is this really that simple? Is it really just as black and white as it appears? The reason why I'm a bit perplexed this is because of one of my friends. She is a dear friend to me, and I've known her for a very long time. She falls in the category of option a, but at times, I feel as if something is amiss. At times, she gives me advice on what to do spiritually, yet I feel like her advice is extremely far from what God wants. 

This is what is confusing me quite a bit right now. It would be great if you guys could help with this! 

I pray we will be able to easily discern between good and evil! I'm having a hard time with it right now... There are many different events in my life that require major decisions, yet I'm not sure what God wants. It is said that God will always answer with a yes, no, or maybe. But how do we learn to discern when he is answering? Because God doesn't always answer right away... 

I feel it may have a lot to do with drawing closer to God. The closer we are to him, the easier it will be to tell between what is from him and what isn't, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong, because for this blog, I'm not too sure. I hope you guys are thinking about this too! We definitely need to be seeking the ability to discern what is from God and what isn't from God! 

Thanks for reading this post :) I'm sorry I haven't been posting every single day... I've been so busy. But I know that's no excuse hehe. I will do my very post to continue posting every day! But thank you for the continuous love, support and encouragement. 

- kjoosaurus out!

Broken Down Walls [5/28/12]

Hello there!

Tonight, I was able to experience a beautiful moment with my own mother. For a few days, we have been  talking about how we want to pray with each other, but it didn't happen until tonight! Of course, I was feeling lazy once again, so I almost backed out of it. I didn't feel like getting out my bible and discussing it with her. For some reason, while we were reading the bible, I kept getting annoyed of her as well. It was extremely odd because I had absolutely no reason to be annoyed by her, and it was really distracting me from reading God's word!

Either way, I just prayed to God that he would help me. I prayed for him to cast away all of the distractions, and right away, they disappeared! I was able to focus on the word of God, and I was able to freely discuss the book with my Mom! :)

Then, as we were praying, an even more amazing thing happened.

To explain a bit, lately, God has been asking me to call out to him while I'm in prayer. I often pray at night when everybody is sleeping, so my prayers happen to be whispers. Yet, every time I prayed, God kept asking me to call out to him. He just wanted me to yell out his name! Although I knew this, I used the excuse of it being too late at night to stop myself from calling out his name. But tonight, as I was praying with my Mom, she was praying for me when she started to say, "Lord, cast out this spirit of heaviness. Kristen, just call out to God. He wants you to call out to him! Kristen! Call out to him!"

Of course, I realized then how much there is blocking the path between me and God. He has been wanting to get closer to me recently, but I've been allowing myself to be brought down and distracted... Before my Mom even said this, I was wanting so badly to call out his name! I wanted to yell out! "JESUS! JESUS!" But there was something in my way... God definitely wanted me to pray with my Mom tonight, because tonight, I finally called out to him. Slowly, very slowly, I'm getting closer and closer to God.

I can still feel the clutter of stuff that's in the way, but I felt so much freer tonight! I want to be able to love God with all my heart, and with everything I have!

Mark 12:30

And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,

all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. 

He really does want us to love him with every thing we have. He wants us to give everything up to him, and just love him! I desperately want to be able to love him with all that I have! I hope you do too! There are so many things that can keep us from loving him completely. This world is filled with distractions and doubts, but God does want us to be close with him. He wants us to draw closer and closer to him every single day. We need to break down these walls! We need to throw away our pride! We need to seek him in every thing we do. We need to pray and pray and pray!

Our God is a beautiful, wonderful God. Tonight, he brought me so much joy! I feel so much happier and freer as I draw closer to him! I want to love him completely! One day, I hope to love him as much as he loves us. :) 

- kjoosaurus out!

One on One [5/27/12]

Hi everybody!

I hope you're all doing well. A lot has been happening in my life in these past few days, and I hope I can share about them sometime soon! I've been learning a lot in the past while, but I just wanted to share with you all something God has been asking me to do.

My life has always been prone to becoming very hectic. I've always been terrible at staying at home, and being without people. Therefore, I'm almost always out and I'm almost always surrounded by many people. As I've mentioned before, I have recently gotten to know God a bit more and he has really motivated me to reach out to others and tell them the good news! With this new vision, I've been going out and meeting up with more and more people! It has definitely been great and all, but it has caused me to forget something very important.

In this busy life, I have forgotten that I need to spend some time with God too. No, not in a crowd of people, but time where it's just me and God.

As Jesus spent his time on earth, he preached, healed and performed miracles! But, he always found time to spend with God.

Matthew 26:39

He went on a little farther and bowed

with his face to the ground, praying

"My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of

suffering be taken away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."

He prays a similar prayer to God three separate times. I really love to see this from Jesus. To see how he really does have a relationship with God, and how he tells God what is going on and how he is feeling. It's also very encouraging to see Jesus say, "I want your will to be done, not mine." Jesus sets us a perfect example. He knows what is to come, and he takes the time to pray to God about it. I mean, when I think about it, this is huge. A lot of times, when something really bad is happening to me, I don't pray about it. I'm so consumed in my worries and my sorrows, that I forgot to lift them all up to God. 

Jesus finds the time to lift everything up to God. He finds the time to be alone with God. 

Luke 5:16

But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. 

Jesus was doing quite a bit. He was a very busy man, and he was doing huge things! But, he still found time to spend with God! When I read this, I realized how much junk I need to cut out of my life. I have so many distractions that surround me, and I'm letting them distract me quite a bit! Sometimes, I'm not even busy. Sometimes, I just find a whole bunch of nothing to do, and I call myself "busy." Because of this, I've been spending less and less time with God... But recently, he's been calling me back to him. He wants me to spend time with him! He wants you to spend time with him! 

I actually deleted my Facebook account for a while... Just to get used to not having it around. It's terrible, but I really let Facebook distract me. Of course, there are tons of other things that distract me, but Facebook is the biggest. It's silly because I don't really do anything on Facebook anyways! God doesn't want these things to keep us from him. I mean, they're a great way for me to connect with people, but I definitely cannot let it consume so much time as I've already let it! I'm sure we all have something that is distracting us from spending time with God. I hope we will all realize what that is, and figure out a way to stop it from being a distraction! 

Let's all get to know our God even better! :) Thanks for reading this post!

- kjoosaurus out!

Cry for Attention [5/25/12]

Hello there!

Today, I had a friend ask me how I was doing spiritually... Although I did not have the time to express my joy, I can say now, I am extremely joyful that he asked me this! Just with that one question, a whole conversation about God came up! Isn't that wonderful? I'm getting excited right now as I realize how simple it is to bring God into our lives. So, I hope we will all ask each other how our spiritual lives are! 

Now, today, I'm going to quickly share about something I learned in Matthew. I was reading Matthew chapter 6, and I noticed a very obvious recurring theme. This chapter was teaching about giving to the needy, prayer, fasting and money. Here, I'll show you some of the verses I read. 

Matthew 6:1-2

Watch out! 

Don't do your good deeds publicly,

 to be admired by others, 

for you will lose the reward 

from your Father in heaven.

When you give to someone in need, don't do

as the hypocrites do-blowing 

trumpets in the synagogues and streets

to call attention to their acts of charity!

I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. 

Then I read:

Matthew 6:5-6

When you pray, 

don't be like the hypocrites

who love to pray publicly on street corners and in

the synagogues where everyone can see them. 

I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.

But when you pray, go away by yourself, 

shut the door behind you, and pray

to your Father in private.

Then your Father, who sees everything,

will reward you. 

And the final example:

Matthew 6:16

And when you fast, don't make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, 

for they try to look miserable and dishevelled 

so people will admire them for their fasting. 

I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. 

So, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but in every single passage, there is one common theme. We must not boast to others. We must not do the things we do for the fame of it! This is something I am definitely guilty of. I've always struggled with seeking the attention of others, and I would do things to get people to notice me. I wanted people to like me, and to look up to me. But, because of this, I was just falling more and more. 

As humans, we often seem to seek the attention from others. We crave it. We want to know people care about us and look up to us, so we try to put ourselves out there for them to see. But is this the reward we should be seeking? Are we going to be satisfied when we get some attention from people? The answer is no. Nothing of this world will ever completely satisfy us. The best and most fulfilling reward comes from God! 

So, let's do good deeds to honour our father, and not to be admired by others! The rewards from our father are the best rewards! They are the only rewards we should be seeking. It will be tough, but together, we can all overcome this need for worldly rewards! Hooray~ :) 

Sorry, it was a bit shorter tonight... But, we will meet again tomorrow! Hehe. 

Good night everybody!

- kjoosaurus out!

Encouraging One Another [5/24/12]

Hello there!

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday... Lately, I've been struggling with reading the word, and I've been putting it off for a long time, but last night, I finally decided to throw all laziness aside, and I spent some time with God. Of course, it was worth it! For the past few days, I've been staying home and watching movies and dramas. I've been doing absolutely nothing. I always had a feeling that I should be reading his word, but I just couldn't shake the laziness off!

So, yesterday, while I was spending some time with God, he told me a little something that I would love to share with you all today! As I was praying, God was reminding me of something I had heard a while ago. It's something many of us know, but fewer of us do. He told me we should be holding each other accountable and encouraging each other to spend time with God, and to keep up our relationship with him! This is something I had needed in the past week. I needed people to ask me how I was doing spiritually, I needed people to ask me about my relationship with God.

Hebrews 3:12-14

Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. 

Make sure that your own hearts

are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.

You must warn each other every day, while it is still "today," so that

none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened

against God.

For if we are faithful to the end, 

trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, 

we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 

As my days without God went by, what I noticed was how I was slowly turning away from God. I had very few thoughts about him, and I was immersing myself into worldly things. I was becoming more and more obsessed with whatever drama or movie I was watching, and I chose to do worldly things instead of godly things. It is incredibly easy to fall into this trap! That's why the bible says, "You must warn each other every day." Do you guys see how important it is to keep God in our conversation and actions every single day? 

So... How should we go about doing this? Well, something I have personally decided to work on, is asking people how they're doing spiritually, or asking them how their relationship is going with God. Is it not important to check up with our brothers and sisters in Christ? I was trying to think of why I had never done this before, and I realized... It's because many people will act uncomfortable when we ask them this question. I never want to make people feel uncomfortable, so I think I've been avoiding this question. But, we need to be asking this question! We need to talk about God! 

Conversations about God should not only take place at church, or at bible studies. They should take place anywhere and everywhere! I hope you will begin to ask your brothers and sisters in Christ how they are doing spiritually. I'm going to do my best to talk about it too. Also, if anybody ever asks you, please don't say, "Oh, it's good." or "It's fine." Yes, it may be good, but we need to elaborate! Go in depth about it! Open up to others about your relationship with Christ! Tell your brothers and sisters in Christ what he is doing for you, so together we can grow! Honestly, I learn so much every time I have a christ based conversation with my brothers and sisters. So, what's stopping us!? Why aren't we talking about this with each other?! 

Another thing we should start doing, is meeting up with one another to read the bible together, to grow together and to pray together. I'm really eager to start doing this with my brothers and sisters in Christ! Just reading the word and praying together... How much growth and changes there will be in both of our lives! I'm not saying this should be a one time thing. Oh no, this should be continuous! We should do this as often as we can! For it says in Matthew 18:20:

For where two or three gather together 

as my followers, I am there among them.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. So, if two or three of us meet, and study the word and pray with one another, then that means Jesus is in that place with them! And if Jesus is there, then wonderful things MUST be happening! So, once again I say, why aren't we doing this!? Of course, we will always find excuses to why we aren't able to do this. We might say, "There's nobody interested" or "I don't have time." There are millions of excuses we could come up with, but none of them are good enough! There is not a single reason on earth that can justify not having fellowship! So, if you say you don't have time, well, make time! If you have time to be on Facebook, if you have time to watch tv, if you have time to sit there and do absolutely nothing, then you definitely have time to meet up with your brothers and sisters in Christ to read the word and pray together! 

Don't let laziness overcome you. Don't let it even take a part in your life! Don't let those lazy thoughts get into your head like they did in mine... I will pray for you! I will pray that we will all meet up together to learn more about God. That we will seek to do his will! That we will never ever turn away from him! So together, let us be faithful till the end! 

- kjoosaurus out!

The Perfect Person [5/22/12]

Hello! kjoosaurus is now checking in =P

I had quite a blessed night tonight! I was able to attend the youth group at my church, and the message that was spoken was great! Once again, we spoke about love.

Love, love, love. Such a vast topic. We could talk about it for days and days and days. So, I will be talking about it again today and I would like to share a bit more about what I learned about love. I got the amazing opportunity to lead a small group today, and I hope the girls in this group learned something from what I said, because I definitely learned a lot from what they said.

The message told today was very interesting, and perfectly relatable to my life. There was something that was said, and it just meant so much to me.

I find that something we worry about a lot is who we're going to end up with. We're always searching for our life partner, and I'm sure many feel like the search will never end! But why do we put so much energy into this? Why must we find that life partner right now? I mean, I'm only 19. I'm still young, but I find myself searching for people that could be potential candidates. Not everybody is like this, but I think I could safely say that many of us are.

Because of this eagerness to find our life partner, I find many of us jumping into relationships too quickly. We don't always consider why we're going into a relationship. We don't think about whether it is love, or lust. We just want that person who will always be there for us; that person who will be by our side! In many cases, I know we can become very lonely. In our loneliness, we don't think before we jump into a relationship, because we are craving love so badly. But shouldn't God's love be enough for us?

I always forget about that. God's love is enough, and when the time is right, he will provide me with the perfect man.

Today, in our small groups, the other leader and I asked the girls why they choose to jump into relationships so quickly. The answers I got were varying, interesting and a bit shocking for me to hear.

One girl said, "I use relationships to make other people jealous."

Another girl said, "I think you need to date around to make sure you know what your type is. You need to know what boys are like before you settle down with one of them."

And finally, another girl said, "I think relationships are something we should be careful about. Think about it like a chocolate bar. Every time you're in a relationship, you're giving a part of yourself to that person. Therefore, it's like they're taking a bite from your chocolate bar. The more times you let people have a bite of your chocolate bar, the less you will have. So, if you give too many people a bite, your husband will only have a little piece of the chocolate bar left!"

This last answer really made me think. Wow. Once I finally get married, I want to be able to give my husband everything. I want him to have that complete chocolate bar, and not just a piece of it. Therefore, I should wait for the person God has set aside for me, shouldn't I? I put so much time and energy into looking for a relationship. But I should be waiting until God tells me I am ready. Because, to be completely honest, I know I'm not ready right now.

On God's time, we will get this relationship we are all searching for, but it will be the perfect time and the perfect person for us!

Genesis 2:18

The Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 

God is getting somebody ready for us! We will find this person when the time is right. We will find this person once we are ready and once they are ready. So, while we wait, we should invest our energy into our relationship with God! I'm definitely no relationship expert, but I do know that the most beautiful relationships ever are the Christ based relationships. And to have this Christ based relationship, we must get to know Christ first! 

Have a lovely night :)

- kjoosaurus out!

Complete Trust [5/21/12]

Hello!

So, for the first time in my life, I had God speak to me through a sermon! There's been a lot on my mind recently, and I have been stressing out way too much because of it. I let myself get overly stressed out and very distracted. All I could think about was how to fix my problems, and how to resolve things. I was not at peace, and I was having a very difficult time focusing on God.

But God reached out to me and provided me with words of comfort and guidance! The topic of the sermon on Sunday was called "Trust God and Do the Next Thing." It was extremely helpful to me, and I was very excited to share it with you all!

I'm not going to share every part of the sermon... Just the part that meant a lot to me! Otherwise, this post would be a very long one.

Psalm 121

I look up to the mountains-

does my help come from there?

My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth!

He will not let you stumble; 

the one who watches over you will not 

slumber.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel 

never slumbers or sleeps. 

The Lord himself watches over you!

The Lord stands beside you as your

protective shade.

The sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon at night.

The Lord keeps you from all harm 

and watches over your life.

The Lord keeps watch over you as you come 

and go, 

both now and forever. 

God is always watching over us, and keeping us from harm. It is God himself who is standing beside us! So, there should be no need at all for us to stress out over our problems. God is always watching, and he is guiding us! One of the most important points I learned was that we must live our life for Christ, and we must entrust our whole life to Him! There is absolutely no need to worry. There's no need to cause ourselves harm by thinking we are alone in our problems, for God is with us! He is by our side, and he is helping us!

Isn't it great to know God is keeping us from harm? This passage really comforts me because it helps me realize that I am never alone, and that God cares so much about us! I love the last bit, "The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever."

He is with us right now, and forever. How great he is!

Whatever might be stressing you out right now, whatever obstacles you may be facing... Just give everything up to God! Let's just focus on obeying God, and everything else will fall into place! He will always provide for us. :)

Thank you for reading this post! Here's the song I listened to while writing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvTg2WFTHyE

- kjoosaurus out! 

Armor of God [5/20/12]

Good evening everybody!

Is there anything you are afraid of? I've noticed that most people are afraid of spiders, the dark, roller coasters, dying, etc. Well, to be honest, I just listed most of the things I am afraid of. It used to be impossible for people to tell me scary stories, because if they did, I would spend the rest of the week in fear. I couldn't watch any scary movies, because I would start being very paranoid, and check behind all the doors, etc.

You see, I am a person who is very easily scared. But, why do I let these things scare me?

This has been on my mind for a while because of a conversation I once had with a friend. I admire this friend very much because she does not seem to fear very many things. But, as I've been thinking, I've come to realize how I as well should live a life without fear of such things. What do we have to fear, when the Lord is on our side?

Psalm 27:1 

The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? 

The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? 

Why do we let so many things strike fear in us? I find that many of us try to ignore the fact that Satan is truly alive and scheming things to make us fall, and the reason why we try to ignore this is because we are scared. Satan does many different things that may make us feel scared. He may send demons our way to strike fear in us, but there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of! The Lord is on our side, and yes, there is always a spiritual battle going on, but we have the armour of God that allows us to stand firm! 

A few days ago, a friend told me, the Devil can bark, but he cannot bite. He can try to scare us all he wants, but because we have God on our side, he can't do any real harm to us! Praise the Lord for this!

^{Ephesians 6:10-17}

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

We are given the armor of God so that we may fight this spiritual warfare! When we have fear in our hearts, we are also doubting the strength of our God, and this gives Satan an advantage. We must never doubt our God, and we must always keep in mind that Satan is continuously trying his best to attack us. He will try many different things to strike fear in our hearts, but we must continue to rely on the strength of our God!

A commentary I was reading online said this, "Resist him, and he will flee."

Isn't it wonderful how powerful God is? What we must do is resist what Satan throws at us, and he will flee. The power of God helps us with this! We really aren't alone; God is always watching over us, guiding us, and protecting us! How great he is! Let us stand together with God! Let us not be afraid of Satan's tricks, for the Lord is with us! Amen? AMEN!

Thank you for reading my blog today! Hope you had a very lovely night :) 

 

- kjoosaurus out! 

One Way [5/15/12]

Hello my friends!

How are you all doing? I hope you are living beautiful Christ-filled lives :) I went to my church's youth group tonight, and it was absolutely wonderful! It is so great to see these young people filled with so much joy. Truly a blessing! I pray they will continue to become more and more passionate for God; I pray  their hearts would really open up to God!

As I was praying about what to write tonight, God told me to go straight to illbehonest.com to watch some videos. The first video I saw was this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8X8dYCfKk_g. The video speaks of how Jesus Christ is the one and only way.

The reason why this immediately caught my interest was because of how I have recently been in the presence of many, many Catholics. It began a couple of months ago. I was discussing with a fellow sister in Christ of the differences between Catholicism and Christianity. I truly could not think of any difference other than the processes of things, and how Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary. Then, this sister began to explain how Catholics also believe they are able to go to Heaven by more ways than just Jesus. She told me they believed doing good deeds would also allow them to go to Heaven. This surprised me very much!

After I talked about this with her, I noticed an increase of Catholics in my life. I met people on the greyhound who were Catholic, I discovered I have family that is Catholic, and I recently met many Catholic people on my trip to Korea! Now, I know Catholicism is not a rare religion, but I was still surprised at how I have only recently noticed how many Catholics are around me!

Then, I began to think... Is there a reason why God is placing them in my life? Is there something He wants me to do? I'm still not completely sure of what it is He wants, but it has started to get me thinking.

There must be so many people in this world who are SO close to being saved, but they are thinking they are able to be perfect in God's eyes if they do good deeds, good things, etc. Yet, the truth is, Jesus Christ is the only way! It is only through Jesus Christ that we are able to be with our perfect God in heaven above. As the video says, we must trust in Jesus Christ. We must truly believe Christ died for us; it is the biggest proof of His great love for us! Nothing we ourselves do will make us perfect in God's eyes. Only when we accept Jesus Christ and accept the beautiful and true story of how he died for us, all of us sinners, will we become perfect in the eyes of our God.

It would be great if God would use us all to show others how Jesus Christ is the one and only way! May He speak through us and use us to tell the truth to all the nations!

John 14:6

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I wasn't listening to this song while I was writing this post, but I remembered it as I was finishing up! We always used to sing this song at VBS :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPuUIUWE8h8

Thank you so much for reading this post! Every single one of you is such a special blessing in my life. You are all God's beautiful children, and He loves every single one of us so much! May you continue to trust in Him through every second of your day. May His presence be very obvious in your life!


- kjoosaurus out! 

God's will, not ours. [5/14/12]

Hello Hello!

kjoosaurus is back in business. I would like to thank all the mysterious authors who have been posting for me while I was in Korea. I think they did a fantastic job, and I hope God revealed things to them as they wrote :) My trip to Korea was a whole lot of fun! I went to learn Korean, and that didn't work out very well, but I had a very good time while I was there! The only thing I was shocked about was the vanity and materialism that consumes the country... But that is a story for another day!

Today, I would like to talk about something God has been teaching and showing me.

Hmmm. Where should I start. Okay, so I became friends with this one person a few years ago, called R (I'm using this since mysterious single-lettered names seem to have become a trend on this blog), and the two of us became very, very close. The only thing is, R is not a believer.

I didn't really care about R not being a believer because I was not at all focused on God at that time of my life. So, we had a very ungodly relationship, and other than coming to church with me sometimes, R had no experiences with God. But, as you know, I became very close to Christ while I was in Ottawa, and I actually came to realize how R was distracting me very much from building a relationship with Christ. So, at that time, I stopped talking to R very much, and I continued to build an amazing relationship with Christ.

Well, everything was going quite fine and dandy... Until I got home. R knew I was home, so R made a couple of visits to my home and things went downhill from there. You see, R is a very lonely person, and it hurt me to see my close friend be so alone. I wanted to be close with R again, but one thing R made very clear to me, was that there was no religion and no God to be a part of our relationship. R has never wanted to hear anything about God, but in the time we've been apart... This has become worse. Every time I mention anything about my wonderful God, R tunes out. So, just to please R, I stopped directly talking about God. Instead, I tried more subtle tactics (I am absolutely terrible at being subtle.) I prayed for R, and I tried to make R have a different perspective about God.

But, do you notice how I keep saying I? It was ME trying to do all the work. I was not at all letting God do the work. I was relying on my own power and knowledge to bring this dear friend to Christ.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

You see, because of my desperation to help R find Christ, I forgot something very important. I forgot to trust God, and allow God to do all of the work with His power. I often find myself doing these things... It brings me so much sadness to see R be living life without Christ. To see somebody I love so much be living in such loneliness, and so much pain... It brings me quite a bit of heartache. But! I know God is working, and I'm most likely a distraction to R. God doesn't want me to try to take control... He doesn't want me to try to do any of the work. He wants me to hand R over to Him, and in time, R will be able to know the glory and mercy of God as well.

This isn't the only time I have tried to rely on my own knowledge and power. I often forget to rely solely on God. God has the most knowledge, and the most power. He knows exactly what is going on, and exactly what is going to happen. He just wants us to put our matters into His hands, and He will deal with them in His time. We just need to learn to let go of our habit of controlling things. It's definitely hard, but God hears our prayers. He's not sitting in Heaven with His ears plugged! He's listening to us, and he's always going to answer us! May we learn to trust the Lord, and not lean on our own understanding. :)

Thanks for reading my post tonight! I hope you are all doing well! God bless!

Here's the song I listened to while writing this post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp5PZuuB3Pg

Also, I wanted to share the video of my baptism with you all! Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2ZAgSYH8oI

- kjoosaurus out! :)