Into the glorious unknown...: December 2009

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Oh Holy Night

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." ~Luke 2:12-14

O Holy Night

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the wise men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our friend!

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy Name!

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

So I thought I would give a little update on what is happening with me. I have just decided that I am going to be going to the Onething conference in Kansas City! To say that I'm excited just doesn't seem to give this feeling the justice it deserves.

God is and has and will continue be so good to me. I praise Him for the things he has done in my life and the good gifts like this conference that he has given. To say thank you for His goodness, His deep love, His wondrous riches isn't saying enough.

"And when .......they saw the young child.......and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh." Matthew 2:11

Christmas is a great time to reflect on these things in a deeper way, and when you do, don't be surprised if you begin to weep as you come to the realization of what He has done for us. He truly loves you in the deepest way, in a way you have never felt from human kindness. He has done what none of us could do, and that is make a way to our Heavenly Father. When you think about what he went through on the cross, bearing ALL of our sin, how retched, lonely and miserable that must have been. It is incomprehensible.

I love to think about the story of Jesus' coming and how Herod was looking for a strong, rich leader as the Messiah, but as it says in 1Corinthians 1:27, "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." God came to this world in the flesh of an infant born to two young people who didn't have many material possessions. Its just like God to do something like that, come as a baby so that He could truly understand our sufferings and our human condition, becuase he lived through the stages that you and I go through. Granted he didn't fall prey to the sins that you and I do, but he is not a stranger of the temptation to do so. I am so thankful that my Lord and Savior came to this earth as a little baby and grew into a bold man and died unselfishly for my sins, because if he hadn't I would be completely hopeless.

Blessings of Peace and Joy to your family this Christmas Season and throughout the year.

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Greetings from Minneapolis

Wow, it's been quite awhile since I last blogged about what I'm doing and what I've been doing, so I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.

I've been home for a little over a month now and have not been lacking in things to do with my time. God has blessed me with work in abundance! Praise the Lord! I'm back at both of the jobs I was working at before I left for Mexico. One has been full-time work and the other is a part time job so I have been quite busy as you can see. I have also had the chance to catch up with my dear friends and family while I've been home. Thanks to all of you for making my time home so much fun and enjoyable. I will be home until January 8th and then will return to Mexico for a couple more months of school and short term mission trips. I'm looking forward to returning and really making use of the time I have left in Mexico. I can already tell that leaving is going to be hard, my friends are already asking me about it and if I will come back to visit. I hate talking about it because it makes it that much more real, but I know my time will be up sooner than I realize.

Before I left to come home I had opportunities to have good God talks with some of my friends. One of my friends, Mari, I've known for over a year now and up until the week before I left we hadn't had any really good God talks, but then one day it happened, out of the blue at cooking class. Honestly, I don't have good Spanish and I don't know many of the complex "christianese" words that you should know when talking about God, but on that day the Holy Spirit gave me the words to speak and I'm so excited to go back and continue to have conversations about God and Jesus with her.

As far as I know I'm not called to Mexico longterm, but its hard for me not to leave a piece of my heart as I move into a new chapter, whatever that may be. I love those people, and I'm going to miss them terribly, but I know that God has people there, good people that will tend His flock and I feel perfectly comfortable leaving the work in their capable hands.

As always I'm sending all of you my love.

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Brother Yun = One Amazing Man of God

While I've been home I've been slowly reading through Brother Yun's "Living Water" book. I have to say that this man is a man on fire for the Lord and says it like it is and it is so very refreshing! I hate it when authors sugar coat things when people's eternity is at stake! We must preach the gospel in FULL no ommission, and no additions. As it is. is enough. Read the following excerpt from the book. I hope it challenges you in your faith as much as it has challenged me. If you want to talk further about this I would be more than happy to have a conversation with you, email or call me.

The will of God should be the primary focus of all Christians. To glorify Him should be our greatest honor and privilege. All else is a waste of time, and this world is perishing while too many Christians live out fleshly lives full of compromise and selfishness.

The good news is that our Lord is loving and merciful, and He will forgive all who come to Him in humility and meekness, He can take your life and make you bold as a lion and bring your days as a timid Christian to an end. Are you willing to submit to this process of being daily shaped and molded by the Holy Spirit?

Reflect on this passage this week.