My Light vs. God's Light

Inspiration: Isaiah 50:10, 11

I've been walking through this darkness for quite some time now. Being lead by someone that I don't really know all that well but he seems to know where he's going. What frustrates me though is that we're going so slow. I'm kinda getting tired of it actually. Why is this person moving so slow? Why isn't he moving faster if he knows where he's going?

As I continue walking, I remember that I have been carrying a torch all this time. Why haven't I been using it? I pull it out and light it. The light illuminates a larger area. I can see in front of me now. In fact, I can see so much more now! This is great! I can get to where I am going so much faster. The person who was leading me stops and says, "You should put out your torch." I replied, "Pft, you don't know what your talking about. Look at all I can see! I'm going my own way now. Your way doesn't make any sense." The man looked at me slightly disappointed but said, "Alright, go ahead."

So I venture ahead with my in hand and my path illuminated. I've been walking for about an hour now and things are going great! I think to myself, "This is so easy, I don't know why I didn't do this earlier." As I continue walking, I see something ahead of me. Is that a lake? I come up to it and it was indeed a lake. I raise my torch to see if there is a way around. No such luck, this lake seems to go for quite awhile. So I make a decision and go one way. I continue walking and I eventually find a way around it. Again, I say to myself, "No problem at all. This is easy as long as I have my own torch." Shortly after I said that though, I run into another road block. This time it was a mountain. Well, I guess the only way for me is to climb this. I wonder how big this is? So I begin to climb...

A day has passed since I started the mountain and I still haven't reached the top yet. My torch is still going but I can't seem to see any further than the light from the torch. I'm starting to get pretty hungry and thirsty because I haven't seen water or food during this trek.

It is now nightfall of day 2 and I am feeling so weak from a lack of food and water. I am starving now. I get to the point where I can't go ahead anymore... I collapse from exhaustion. Here I am, lying down in torment, dying from starvation, and no one knows where I am. Is this the end of me?

I begin to think. How in the world did this happen to me when I could clearly see so far with my torch? Then I thought back to when the man was leading me without my torch. I realized that I was never hungry and I never got lost. In fact, I was always satisfied. Even though we were going slow, the path that was taken was never more than I could handle. Did my own torch blind me from the right path?

I think about it some more and I soon realized that the man who lead me knew exactly where I needed to go and wanted to take me there safely and on his time. As soon as I lit the torch, I blinded myself and ventured away from his guidance. Clearly this man was my true light and not this torch I have been carrying. Now here I am, dying, and not able to take care of myself.

There's nothing more I can do now. The torch I have lit has now burnt out and I am now laying in darkness. So with the last ounce of my strength, I cry out for help. I can't do this on my own anymore. After I cried out for help, there was silence. My cry echoed in the darkness...

After the echo faded, I heard the sound of leaves crackle. I spoke with a parched voice, "Who's there?" A voice in the darkness replies, "Hey Justin, it's me, remember?" I lie there speechless. I recognize this voice. It was the voice of the man who was leading me! This man I left and completely disrespected has heard my cry for help and has come to save me. The man walks up to me, and lifts up my head and gives me something to drink. For some weird reason, that one drink has completely rejuvenated me. I get up and the man looks at me and says, "Will you let me lead the way now?" I reply to him, "Yes. I don't know where I am going. You lead the way." I throw my burnt out torch aside and begin to follow the man. The darkness is here but I feel safe and at peace knowing that this man is guiding me in the right direction.

Fear?

Matthew 14:22-33

I was reading this passage about a month ago and something stuck with me. I couldn't bring myself to reading past this and I felt that God did that for a reason. I can't say I really understand the full extent of this passage but here is what I think it means and how it applies in life.

"²²Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray."

After Jesus fed the 5000, he "immediately" made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him while he dismissed the crowd. Why do you think he did this? I think there are two reasons. One, he wanted to have genuine time to pray to his Father and two, he wanted to teach the disciples something which will come later.

The part that sticks out for me in this section is where he went "by himself to pray". I know there are times during my prayer times where I say a quick prayer for meals, and even during my devotion time, but is that really genuine time with God? I look at my life right now, and I see all the time that I have and yet, I am wasting it on stupid pointless things. I don't even take 30 minutes out of my day to spend time with God in prayer and meditation! Where in this passage, we see that Jesus has probably spent a long time praying (into the fourth watch of the night). I think to myself, why can't I just take time alone to spend with God?

"When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

After Jesus spent some time in prayer he saw that the disciples were struggling in the wind/storm. Now, this I see the wind/storm as our own lives. Where we decide to do things on our own and venture into the storm ourselves. Only to find that the storm is too strong for us and we constantly struggle.

²⁵During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear."

At this point in time, we are struggling in the winds of our lives and now Jesus is walking out to us. We actually see him but we don't know who he is (or if it is him). So our natural reaction is fear. When we start seeing Jesus in the storms of our lives, I think we are naturally scared of him because we have become "comfortable" in these storms and are not use to seeing Jesus or being in his presence. We mistake him as something bad instead of good.

²⁷But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

Now this is when Jesus will start talking to us and revealing that it is actually him who is walking out to us. "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." We often will feel God's presence and sometimes hear God saying to us, "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of you." or "I will take you out of this storm you have gotten yourself into." Now this storm can be tough times in your life with family, friends, people, relationship, etc.

²⁸"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."

After we hear God's call, we are very quick to challenge and "test" him a little bit to see if it is actually God calling us to do something. I don't think it's wrong to "test" if it is God. In fact, if we listened to every voice that tells us to do something, that could be dangerous and it could be telling us to do something against God's Will. We need to constantly test what people say with scripture and prayer. This includes what I am writing right now.

²⁹"Come," he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

³⁰But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Now I wonder... when we test God and He responds to us. There are times when we know it's God and we decide to take the first few steps out of the boat. We keep our eyes on Jesus and we continue to walk to him. The storms in our lives don't matter anymore and we are now walking on the water in the storm. However, the storms in our lives are extremely strong we start noticing the winds and tough times in our lives and lose sight of Jesus. We lose focus on Jesus and start worrying about the storms again. Next thing we know, we're in the middle of the lake in a storm and we're sinking.

I think of this next part as a place where it will either make us or break us with our trust in God. Some of us will swim back to the boat and try and fight the storm ourselves but what did Peter do in this situation? Even though he lost sight of Jesus for a second, he still cried out to Jesus to help him. His focus went right back to Jesus when he started sinking. There are times in our lives when we are sinking and are sinking FAST. Nothing is going right for us and it seems like the whole world is against us. It is during that time that we REALLY need to look to Jesus. That being said, we should always be looking to Jesus =).

³¹Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

When we cry out to Jesus, he will ALWAYS be there to catch us. It is then he will ask us and remind us of how little faith we have. Why do we doubt? Why don't we see that if we look to Jesus, we can "walk on water"?

³²And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

It is only when we decide to let Jesus climb into our hearts (boat). Notice that as soon as Jesus climbed into the boat, the wind/storm died down. If we truly let Jesus into our hearts, these winds and storms will no longer mean anything to us. They will be dead.

This passage applies to me in my life because the storms are definitely plentiful in my life. With my decision to go into ministry with IVCF, I have the storm of my family (and some friends) bearing down on me telling me that this isn't such a good idea and that they will not support me in this ministry, fundraising for this internship, the worries of the future and life, how will I take care of a family, etc. These are all storms in my life.

Now, I have heard God call me saying to me, "Justin, you don't need to support yourself or your family. I will take care of all your funds and the funds for your family. The job that you are doing now, you are to NOT support yourself. This is an abundance I have given you and you are to use this to bless others with." I've decided to say "Yes" to this and to keep my eyes on Jesus, but not after sinking a few times (and still quite often do). I have now let Jesus back into my boat (heart) and let him direct me. You know what the outcome of this is? I am now 70% supported for my internship in only a month! My relationship with my family has gotten 100 times better. I have formed new friendships and relationships and strengthened old ones. God has literally made money come out of nowhere and people come out of nowhere to partner with me in this ministry. However during the storms, the worries of the future, relationships, and ministry... That is when fear starts to settle into my heart. I start to focus on the storms and then begin to sink. This will happen... I'm definitely not perfect. But I see the difference between keeping my focus on God and the fear in the storm. I have to say, keeping my focus on God trumps ALL the storms in my life.

I want to encourage you to continue on looking to Jesus. Especially when you take those steps out of the boat. Keep looking to him. When you sink, don't swim back, turn your eyes on Jesus and call for him. Desire him with all your heart and look to him as your only hope. He will come. Invite him back into your hearts and he will calm the storms. Be patient with this and have faith.

Don't lose faith.

You Raise Me Up

For some reason tonight I was feeling really down. So I went out for a jog and had an amazing jog but I still felt really down after my jog. While I was driving home, my iPod shuffled to the song You Raise Me Up by Selah. I've heard this song so many times in the past but this time, it has really hit me. The lyrics spoke to me as if the song was written just for me. I want to share this to everyone who is feeling down, and who's souls are weary. That they may know that God will lift them up. I hope you enjoy this. This is You Raise Me Up.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2sZuJbxi8Y
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When I am down, and oh my soul, so weary.
When troubles come, and my heart burdened be.
Then I am still and wait here in the silence.
Until You come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.

There is no life — no life without its hunger.
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly.
But when you come and I am filled with wonder.
Sometimes I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up — to more than I can be.

The Path

Here I am, walking down the path. I look in the distance and I see a man calling out to me saying, "Justin, Justin. Come to me." I look back and I see the footprints I have made along the path. Multiple times I see my footprints stray from the path only to eventually come back. Why did I venture off the path in the first place?

As I continue walking down the path, I notice, how it is getting narrower, and narrower. It is almost to the point where I am having troubles staying on. It is then I start to look over to the right, and then to the left. I see beautiful sand that looks so nice to walk on. I continue to look and admire this beautiful sand, and then I hear someone calling out my name, "Justin, Justin. Come on out here, the sand is nice on the feet. Don't trouble yourself with that ever decreasing narrow path." The offer seems tempting, then I look up ahead on the path. It looks like it stretches forever yet I still see the man ahead of me calling out to me, "Justin, Justin. Come to me."

I am now torn. What should I do? Where should I go? I start thinking about how nice it would be to walk on the sand, how much easier it would be to not stay on the path. So I decide to take a step. I step into the sand, my oh my, does that ever feel good. The man calling me says, "You see, it's nice isn't it?" I take another step, then another, and then another. I start running around enjoying the nice sand just having a jolly good old time.

As I continue playing and enjoying the sand, a feeling starts to overtake me. What is this feeling? Why is it that something doesn't feel right? I stop to think about it and contemplate what this is. After sometime, I decide, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. So I turn back and make my way back to the path. I walk quickly to make it back but just before I get to it, I get stuck. I see the path right in front of me but I can't reach it. It wasn't until long is when I realize that I am starting to sink. Quick sand?! How did I not see this?! I struggle to get myself free but the more I struggle, the faster I sink. I quickly realize that there is no way for me to get free on my own. I cry out, "Oh why did I stray from this path." Then I look back and I see the footprints that strayed from the path. This has happened to me before yet I keep on forgetting. I keep on straying from the path knowing that the path is the only safe way to get to my destination.

I have now sunk to the point that only my head is above the sand. It is only a matter of time before I am fully covered. I look up ahead of the path and see the man watching. With one last breath, I cry out for help and reach out with my hand as I disappear into the sand. As I continue to sink deeper, I start to think that there is no hope for me to be saved. This is the end.

But then, just before my hand disappears into the sand, I feel something grip onto my hand. Someone has grabbed my hand! I feel this person starting to pull me out of the sand. As the rest of my arm comes to the surface, I feel another set of hands, and then another grab my arm and pull me up. It wasn't until long before I was on the surface. I'm now lying there coughing up sand and trying to get the sand out of my eyes. Then someone says, "Here this will help." and offers me some water to wash out my eyes. After, I look up, and I see the man who was at the end of the path. I look around and see others, my friends who are also on this path. They all helped pull me out. Then I realize that I was back on the path. Wait a minute? Was this path this wide before?

Then one of my friends, says to me, "Here Justin, let me help you up. This man heard you cry for help and told us that you were in trouble. We tried to get here as fast as we could. Sorry it took so long." I look around, and I see all my friends, there smiling and batting the sand off of me. I feel so loved and accepted. I look to the man who first grabbed my hand and thanked him. He smiled and said, "I have been here the whole time and I will always be here watching over you and taking care of you. Take your time Justin and gather yourself again. I'll be waiting for you and your friends at the end of the path." Then he turned around and walked ahead on the path.

I again, look at the path. Why does it look like it has gotten wider? Before, it was so narrow that I had so much trouble staying on it. It was then it hit me, what did the man say? "I'll be waiting for you and your friends..." The path has gotten wider because my friends are here. It is because my friends are here to help and support me and me to support them. I soon realized that it is not just me that is walking down this path but all of us and that we are walking this path together to support and protect each other. To help each of us when we fall and to protect us from straying from the path.

Once I have collected myself and cleaned myself up, my friends and I now walk this path together. It was only because of the support from the man and my friends that I am here today.

All For God's Glory

1 Corinthians 10:31 – “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Galatians 1:10 - "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

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I think it is so easy to forget what our intentions are when we do things. Am I doing this to make myself happy; am I trying to make other people happy; am I doing this for God's glory?

For me, I find that during the times when God has broken me and I am in the process of being shaped and molded, it's easy to say that whatever I am doing, it is for "God's Glory." However, when it gets to the point where everything is all nice and going well, I forget the main reason why I'm doing what I am doing and I start doing it to either please other people or to make myself feel good. I forget that the main reason why everything is going so well is BECAUSE I was doing it for God's glory.

I just recently had another wake-up call. Quite often, when things are going really well, I become so content with what is happening in my life that I start taking it for granted. The things that I do for "The Glory of God" become so routine that I forget that I am doing it for God and only God. So what do I naturally do is that I start seeking other ways to "serve" people and make myself feel good.

So in more than one way, I have been trying to take things into my own hands and try and "plan" larger group gatherings, not even bringing it to prayer to see if that is what God really wants me to do. It wasn't until tonight is when I had such a burden in my heart. I just knew something was wrong. I quoted to myself Galatians 1:10 and that is what did it in for me. If I was trying to serve men, I would not be a servant of God. This verse always seems to smack me across the face when I get out of line.

I am not going to say I'm perfect or am an expert in this subject. In fact, I am most likely the furthest from it. However, I do want to leave you with some encouragements that have really helped me (and is still continuing to help me to this day) to remember that "All for God's Glory".

1. God has blessed us with such an abundance and He will continue to bless us. Don't take these things for granted. If we start to take things for granted, we start trying to control our own lives thus not doing it for God's glory but for our own glory.

2. Pray, pray, and pray even more. I am still trying this out. You'll have to let me know how it goes, but just spend a time in prayer just glorifying God. I have been told that it is absolutely amazing.

3. Galatians 1:10

4. 1 Corinthians 10:31

My prayer is that we can eventually get to the Glorifying God in every aspect of our lives that we can literally sit down and drink our orange juice for God's Glory. Just think how amazing and wonderful that would be that we can Praise our Lord with even the smallest things in life.

Music Inspiration:

All for the Glory of You - Mark Harris

All for God's Glory!

Our Journeys

So it has been awhile since I last blogged. I just came back from a conference called Mark West put on by IVCF (Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship). It is where students from Western Canada come and do intense manuscript studies on half of the book of Mark. I was involved with the Teachers Track for Mark 1. Which is learning how to teach the first half of Mark.

One of the biggest things that really stuck out to me was the Journey Jesus took the disciples on. As you can see, after Jesus fed the 5000, he told the disciples to head to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd. After Jesus went to his usual mountain to pray, he came back on the shore and saw the disciples struggling in the wind. So he decided to walk out to them... on the water. When the disciples saw Jesus, they thought it was a ghost and was terrified. Jesus responded to them by saying, "Take heart, it is I; have no fear." and as soon as he got into the boat, the winds died and it was said that the disciples were utterly astounded.

Now, lets rewind a bit. Jesus fed the 5000 (possibly more) with ONLY 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. It was said that EVERYONE was satisfied and there was 12 basket fulls left over!! Now if you take a look closely, you will notice that the disciples had no reaction to this at all. Lets just keep that in mind for now.

Now, after the miracle of Jesus walking on water, they ended up being turned around. They never did reach Bethsaida (yet). But instead, they went to the vicinity of Tyre where many people were healed and also the removal of an unclean spirit of a little daughter of a Syrophoneician woman.

After the region of Tyre and Sidon, they went back to the Sea of Galilee to the area of the Decapolis where he healed a deaf and mute man (keep in mind that this was Gentile Region). Also, in this area, he fed the 4000 with 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. This also had "leftovers", 7 basket fulls to be exact. Another interesting thing in this was the fact that the disciples again did not react to this miracle.

Now immediately after, they got into a boat and sailed to Dalmutha (aka Magdala in the map). Where Jesus confronts the Pharisees about them asking for a sign and yet again, they got into the boat and headed across the sea. This is now where the disciples were worried about not having bread to summarize, he brings up the miracles of the feedings. In the end, he says to the disciples, "Do you not yet understand?" Then finally they end up in Bethsaida.

Now this is a pretty crazy journey that Jesus took the disciples on. Why do you think Jesus did this? Here's my theory, when Jesus fed the 5000 & 4000, the disciples did not react with the assumption that they "did not understand". However, I don't think that is the case, I think they knew what was happening but choose NOT to understand out of fear for what they might have to do. For example, the feeding of the 5000 symbolizes feeding the people of Israel and the 4000 symbolizes feeding the Gentiles. Jesus was trying to show the disciples that they needed to feed all the people (both Israel and Gentiles) the spiritual food that Jesus had to offer.

So when Jesus fed the 5000 and the disciples "did not understand because their hearts were hardened." Jesus took them on that huge loop of a journey until... they came RIGHT back to exactly where they started off. Where Jesus finally takes them to Bethsaida for I think the reason being that the disciples finally understood.

Now, your probably wondering what does this have to do with you? I was thinking the same thing when I was doing this section of study. I just want to ask you these questions:

What journeys is God taking you on right now?

Is there something that God is trying to talk to you about but your not quite getting?

Do you still not understand?

For those who are still with me, I want to encourage you to spend some time with God in prayer and ask him what is He trying to show you? Pray that He may open your eyes (like the blind man) and open your ears (like the deaf and mute man) so that you may understand.

God Bless!

"Say the Word."

Luke 7:1-10

I have tried everything. My servant has been with me since before I became a centurion and we have become great friends. He's been the best to me, and has always pulled through for me when it comes to getting work done. Now, he's come down with some sort of sickness. I have tried everything, getting the best healers to see if they can heal him but nothing. They say he only has a short while to live too. Life won't be the same without this man. I don't know what to do anymore.

Then I hear some people talking outside. People were saying, "Jesus is coming this way!" I have heard of Jesus healing the sick and raising the dead. I have actually see these people. I believe he can do the same for my servant. I didn't want to leave my servant so I asked some of the elders of the Jews who were near by to go and ask Jesus to come and heal my servant. So they went.

About 15 minutes have passed and I didn't know if Jesus was coming. I was getting pretty nervous. Then some of my friends came by to see how I was doing. I was talking about how I believe that Jesus can heal my servant and the elders are going to ask him to come over here for me. Then one of the elders came back and said, "Jesus was coming!" I looked out the window and I see a crowd of people coming towards the house. I sit down to think... I'm not worthy to be in this man's presence, but I still believe he can heal my servant. I then called my friends over and said to them, I want you to deliver this message to Jesus,

"Lord don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

My friends left quickly. I just sat by my servant's side wondering if Jesus would still heal my servant. He's been asleep for a few days now. I look down at him and I say to myself, "I believe." It was then my servant started to move and then slowly his eyes opened. The fever he had was totally gone. He was healed! Shortly after he woke up, my friends came back and they saw that my servant was healed! I look to my friends and they were just amazed. Jesus has just said the word and he healed my servant.

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Do you believe that Jesus can say the word in your life?

God Bless.

Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

So fearfully and wonderfully made,
How could they say there is no God?
Reminded every breath that I take,
It´s by Your hand I have been formed
So what am I going to do with this life You gave me?
What could I do but live for Your praise?

You gave me this breath,
And You gave me this strength,
And every day I´ll live to obey You.
With all of my heart,
With all of my soul;
Let every breath I´m breathing display You God.

There´s elegance in all you create
Your grand designs leave us amazed.
The wonders of the way we´ve been made
Speak of Your power, tell of Your grace.
So what am I going to do with this life You gave me?
What could I do but live for Your praise?


So what am I going to do with this life You gave me?
What am I going to do with this life?
What I am I going to do in these days You´ve ordained?
What am I going to do with this life?

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Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

Dancing in God's Grace

I don't usually forward emails but this one I got about dancing was just awesome. I've been getting into ballroom dancing lately so I absolutely love this. I hope all of you enjoy this!

Dancing With God

When I meditated on the word "Guidance",

I kept seeing 'dance' at the end of the word

And I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.

The movement doesn't flow with the music,

And everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,

Both bodies begin to flow with the music.

One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back

Or by pressing Lightly in one direction or another.

It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness,

And attentiveness from one person

And gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word Guidance.

When I saw 'G': I thought of God, followed by 'u' and 'i'.

'God, 'u' and 'i' dance.' God, you, and I dance.



As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust

that I would get guidance about my life and once

again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God's blessings

And mercies are upon you on this day and everyday.

May you abide in God, as God abides in you.

Dance together with God,

Trusting God to lead and to guide you through each

season of your life.

God Bless!

Leaving it All Behind

(Luke 5:1-11)

Today was just one of those days. I take a look in our boat... nothing... not a single catch for the whole night. I look at my brother Andrew, the look on his face, the sadness in his eyes. I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking the same thing. Another day without food. The fish that we catch serves multiple purposes. It serves as food for us and our families and it also acts as our wage. The more fish we catch, the more we can sell. Fish are in pretty high demand and people are willing to pay a lot for them. We have never had any problems selling out a big catch.

Lately though, we haven't been able to catch anything and it is beginning to take it's tole on us and our families. I knew that James and John were in the same situation as we were. It was a tough time alright.

I could see over the horizon that the sun was starting to rise. I look at my brother Andrew and say to him, "Lets call it a night." Looking down at his net he responded with a sad voice, "Ok." We pull in our boat to the shore. I look around and I see the other fishermen who were about to call it quits too. I bend down beside the boat to fold up my net when all of a sudden, I hear the sound of someone stepping into my boat. I look up and I could believe my eyes! The man who was sitting in my boat was was Jesus!! I look at him and he looks at me and says with a calm voice, "Lets put out a little from shore." Well, I've heard of so much about Jesus but never in my wildest dreams I thought I would meet him face to face. So I did as he asked. Andrew and I got in our boat and we put out a little from shore. After a few minutes, I could see a crowd gathering at the shoreline. Jesus then started teaching from where he was sitting. I've heard of his great teachings but I never expected to hear him in person. It was absolutely incredible! No wonder he's by himself right now because there is probably no one that is great enough to serve as his disciple.

After about an hour of speaking, he then looked at me and said, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Well, I was shocked at this point. First this great man is sitting in MY boat and he starts teaching from my boat. Now he's asking me to put down my nets? Well, the only thing I could say was, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." I let down my nets. I wait, knowing that I won't catch anything. After a few minutes though, I feel the boat tip to one side, the side towards where I let my net down. It shocked both Andrew and myself and we stumbled over to the side to pull up our nets. They were heavy, we begin pulling them up and to our surprise, fish!! They were full of them! I have never seen this much in my life! We empty out our nets and throw our nets down again. Again, the nets became heavy and in record time. Any nets that we threw down, came up full of fish. Actually, there were such a multitude of fish that all of our nets broke. We signaled all of the others over and when they dropped their nets, they came up full of fish. We got so caught up in the catch that we completely forgot about the a maximum weight our boats can carry. We were starting to sink!

As I was watching all of this, I look at Jesus, I thought to myself, "He did this?" I immediately dropped to my knees, I was frightened. The only thing I could mutter was, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Andrew, James and John stopped and they were astonished at this catch. It was by far the biggest catch we have ever made. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, I look up and it was Jesus. He says in a calm voice, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."

This was incredible, Jesus just called Andrew, James, John, and myself to be HIS disciples!! I was so excited. But then... I looked at the catch that we just made... This is the biggest catch and I start to think about... how much money will this actually make me. Like... this boat is FULL!! I'll make a killing off of this.

It was then I realized that this is THE Jesus calling me. I am not going to pass this up. So as soon as we brought our boats to the shore, we dropped everthing and followed Jesus.

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Sometimes, before God calls us to do something, He will fill our boats and let us have a choice between lets say a wonderful job with lots of money (full boat) or say full-time ministry with Him (following Jesus). I'm not saying that this is what happens for everyone but for me, it did. I have the potential to be very successful in Engineering and possibly also have the opportunity to fight against the water crisis overseas. This life would have been high paying, good security, ideal conditions for me to raise and support a family, etc. However... this isn't what God wanted me to do. God was calling me to something else. Full-time ministry with IVCF. God has called me into student ministry with IVCF and I have decided that I am going to trust and obey this calling and committ my life Him. No looking back now.

The Body of Christ (Part 3)

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

1 Corinthians 12:26

I wanted to leave this one last because it's so important to know that every part of the body suffers and rejoices with each other. As soon as "one part suffers, every part suffers." I want to explain this portion with this analogy.

Say your doing something as simple as walking. It is so easy to walk if all your parts of the body are working. However, say you injure your knee in a sporting accident and can't put any weight on it. Since your knee is out of commission, the rest of your body suffers because you can't walk anymore. So what happens now? You need to still get around but you can't walk. What you would most likely do is get crutches. In order to use these crutches, both your arms need to be used to operate these crutches and more weight needs to be placed on your non-injured leg. Here, the rest of your body is working together to allow the injured knee to heal.

The same thing goes for the Body of Christ. If a part of the body is suffering, the rest of the body needs to be there to support that suffering part so that it can heal. The whole body will suffer if we allow that one part to continue to suffer. It is so important to support each other.

God Bless

The Body of Christ (Part 2)

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

1 Corinthians 12:21-25

I never really took the chance to sit down to think about how important the smaller parts of the body can be. Lets say the big toe. How small and pointless it appears to be, but as a part of the body, it provides us with balance. If we did not have our big toe, we could never run/jog to our full potential. The whole body suffers in the absence of a big toe.

These last couple of days, I had an infection in my right thumb and boy did it ever hurt a lot to put any sort of pressure on it. I never realized how important the thumb was and how restricted I was in doing basic things like writing, driving, even zipping up zippers. Our thumbs are the strongest clamps on our body. Accompanied by four other fingers it assists you in a variety of things such as writing, turning on the tap, picking up items, flipping a page, anything that requires the joining of two fingers.

As part of the Body of Christ, there may be a small part of ministry that you do. For example, lets say your just doing something as simple as setting up chairs for the service. It's small and it seem so insignificant but, if you think about it, if you didn't do it, who would? It would be someone else in possibly ministry. By not setting up chairs, this other person in ministry now has to set up the chairs and that would take time away from their own ministry. They are now not as effective in their ministry. The whole body suffers for it.

I just want to say to not neglect these small but significant parts of the body. Even though they may not seem like they are doing anything. These "little" parts of the body are so important for providing balance and stability.