A New Year

Unfortunately I have not been keeping up with my updates as well as I would like. I have spent a lot of time away from home. First I was in Israel for two weeks and then to Kalispell for another two weeks. Now I am back in Bozeman working with Masters once again.

Our Israel tour was once again amazing. I think that one of the major things that I learned was that sometimes we forget how big God really is. Being around the Jewish culture that highly revolves around tradition allowed me to see that in some way they acknowledge how much bigger God is than they are. Sometimes I find myself forgetting that fact and just relating to God as a Friend and Father, which He is both. But He is also God Almighty. Everything is in His hands and while He lets me draw near I am so much smaller than He is and it is only by His will that I can come to Him.

I had a great time with my parents over Christmas. It was a small Christmas this year with just my parents. But the three of us really felt God's call to all of us to remember the real meanings behind all the excitement. So this year we watched the Nativity story on Christmas eve and read Luke's account of the birth of Jesus on Christmas day. It was very insightful to reflect on all that really happened that day and to remember to be thankful for it.

And now we are in the new year. This week at our church we are taking a time of fasting and prayer to launch us into this new year. It is a time to see what God might do for each of us individually and us corporately. It is a good way to simply say that this year is the Lord's and we give it to Him to with as He sees fit.

I plan to post every week now so please check back for further news.

Masters Update

In less than a week's time we will be headed to Israel. Yes, it will be sunny and warm instead of the 20 degree temperatures that we have had in Bozeman. I cant believe that it is already here, but it is! I am very excited and ready to see what God will do for each of us while we are there.

This will be my 3rd trip to Israel, and it is still just as exciting. I am so very excited to spend three days in Jerusalem!!! If ever there were another place that I loved as much as I love Bozeman it would be Jerusalem. Is it because of the great outdoor opportunities? No, it is in the middle of a desert. Is it because it is a small college town? No , it is one of the larger cities in Israel.

I love it so, because I know. I know what has happened there, and more importantly what will happen there. I think the greatest thing that going to Israel has down for me is help me to more fully realize the future. Sure the past is really cool, but the future is the part that grabs my heart...my spirit. I have realized to some small His heart for His land and His people. I have realized what His heart is leading Him to do. And it is all because He loves us!

He is coming and He is coming to Jerusalem! He will reign from Jerusalem!!! It isnt that He came to Jerusalem but that He will come!

So I am excited to be going, yet again. I will hopefully being updating the blog while I am gone.

Faithfulness

Its a little word but it encompasses something so much bigger than ourselves. What does it really mean to bean faithful? I am sure that all of us have seen unfaithfulness in our lives. And it comes from all sorts and most likely every person we have ever known or will ever know will fail us. Not intentionally to be sure, but it still happens.

And it creates a framework for being disappointed and even expecting people to fail us. And while true how sad it is to walk around with the mindset that people will fail us and so we never try to trust. And as a result we have a hard tim trusting Him. Because we continually project what we see on this earth onto who God is. But that is the biggest fallacy ever created. We cant project onto God.

God is. Period. That is the end of the statement. It doesnt need defined because it cant be defined, at least not in human terms, because He is not human. But that is how we continually look Him. We seem to project our own image of God. It is like covering a chair with a blanket and still thinking that we see a chair. But we dont we are essentially covering up the chair and so we never really see it for what it is.

What if we stopped projecting what we see in this world onto God and started seeing God for who He really is? What might happen in our lives? I think that we would start to see the changes that we long to see in our lives and the lives around us. God will never be totally revealed in this life and indeed we will spend eternity getting to know Him, but we can take steps today that will launch us into knowing Him for who He really is. And the best part is that no one else can completely define who He is to you. Only He can define who He is to you. Others cant tell you because He must be experienced by each and every one of us individually.

We each get to experience different parts of who He is and He is unique to each of us because we each have our own experiences with Him but at the same time He is the same for each of us. He is faithful! The basic point of this whole piece is that He is faithful, but we just have to choose to see that and trust completely independent of anything the world has shown us.

His faithfulness to me means that no matter what He is there! It is not dependent on the situation or the people involved or the powers that be. His faithfulness is the one true thing in a world filled with fallacies and half-truths. It is the one thing that never changes depending on emotion or will. It is the one thing that always say yes to loving me.

What does His faithfulness mean to you?

Opportunities

Lately God has really been speaking to me about opportunities. He has shown me that everyday we have opportunities that many times we simply pass by because we don't even recognize them. Sometimes we recognize them and fail to act on them. And sometimes we do recognize and then we do act, but it seems to be rare that this happens especially when we start to realize all of the opportunities in our lives.

The other night I watched Evan Almighty. if you haven't seen it, it is a movie about a modern day Noah. One part of the movie has stuck with me lately. It is when Morgan Freeman (God) is talking to Evan Baxter's (Noah) wife. Morgan explains that when we ask God for things such as patience or as portrayed in the movie a close family, God doesn't just make it happen. But rather He gives us opportunities to practice patience or grow as a family.

It hit me that that is really true. So many times we ask for things from God and all we see that happens is well nothing in our minds. But really He gives us opportunites to grow. It is our job to respond to those opportunities. It is up to us to see all the difficult situations, hard to love people, or impossible odds as real opportunities for God to do just as we have asked Him to do.

My prayer lately has been that I would see all the opportunities that He gives me each and every day. Ultimately those opportunities will mold my character and my relationship with Him. Some of them might be just to receive the things He is given me that day. Others might be to help others and others might be to simply love Him. Whatever they are they are opportunities for growth.

So I would challenge you to find all the opportunities that exist in your life and embrace and make the most of them. You will be amazed at what He can do with them.

Kalispell Trip Scenery Pictures

I got the opportunity to spend some time with my parents in Kalispell. On the way up I was able to take some pictures of the beautiful fall scenery. Enjoy!