weekend family visit

Mom and Mack were visiting from PEI the last couple of days. Too bad I don't have my laptop yet cause I got some sweet pictures from Niagra Falls from friday night; twas pretty sweet. But we spent much time just hanging out and cruisin around St Catharines. It was good to have some of the family up for a visit.

Not much has been happening the last week. School is school, and all that. I'm still looking for work, and doing lots of studying, etc. Same old, same old. I'm startin to get to know a few of the students better, and am forging some relationships that will likely last a while, God willing.

After church today, 8 of us went to the Mandarin restaurant for an all-u-can-eat Chinese buffet, with every other thing you could think of, to eat. We were under the impression that it was gonna be $10 each, but on sunday's it's $18.50!!! Are u jokin?!! Good thing one of the other students paid for mine, cause I'm just about tapped. Jobs are good. Anyways...............later.

Having it all, but wanting more!?

In my last post, I related the story of a guest speaker coming to CBC and totally firing me up. I became hungry, hungry, hungry, for God in a way that I didn't know had died off a bit. It was a day of intense Holy Spirit Presence. Anyway, that prompted a response by "anonymous" (by the way "anonymous", I'm fairly confident I know who you are) requesting an explanation of how someone could be full of God, yet want more!? It's a valid question, I guess, for anyone who doesn't know the answer. A fairly foolish one though, for anyone reading this who already knows the answer.

The main gist of it all can be summed up as "More of You and less of me". We are never to behold more of God in us than we already possess. He lives inside us and we can drink from that river at all times. Yet there are times when we don't see all that He has provided for us. We believe He took our sickness, yet sometimes we are sick. We believe that through His poverty we became rich, yet sometimes we are without a penny. We believe that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, but often we live so far below that. Jesus has provided EVERYTHING for us, yet none of us live to even a thousandeth of what He purchased for us. I don't deny the finished work of Christ, but I'm unwilling to live the normal 'Christian' life I see the Church trudging through. It makes me sick. Salvation is enough, but Jesus wants us to live wih more, with all that He died to give us. That included experience with Him, intimate time in His manifest Presence. Why not?

Whether or not His Presence gets stronger at times, or we just are more aware of His Presence in us, it makes no difference. The presence is stronger at some times than others, bottom line. Being hungry for 'more' of God means I want to be so much more aware, so much closer to Him, and farther from me. "More of Him" means to see more of what He purchased for me manifest in My life.

I know "anonymous" probably has a hundred little arguments floating around, but I care little about them. In fact, I'm done. I'm through with this subject right now. The feelings are too inward to be accurately described anyway. My attempts at it would only prove to be vain. In closing........ Salvation is enough, but it's not all Jesus paid the price for. If others don't want the rest, then I'll take it

feed me

Since Wynne Goss taught us, I have gotten very hungry for a slamming in the Holy Spirit. I realize (again and again) that what I recieved from God is but the tip of the iceberg, and I can't settle for it. It's not enough. Jesus died so that we could experience so much more. We never even experience 1/1000th of what He purchased for us.

I was in prayer a couple of days ago when I disinctly heard the Spirit say, "Don't settle!! Don't settle...... for what I've already done.
It's all you need, but it'not all I want to give you."

That is crazy. In the natural, when you are hungry, there is a feeling of emptiness inside, a kind of raw, gnawing pain, that needs to be remedied before any kind of satisfaction can be realized.
So it is when you are hungry for more of God; there is an emptiness inside you that can only be filled by an encounter with Him, and Him alone. Needless to say, I've been spending a bit more time in prayer; seeking God's direction in a number of areas.

He is faithful, and eager to meet our need.........

5 yrs!!!

5 yrs ago on this day, I became sober. I was saved from a whole lot of things I was held in bondage by. I realized mercy and I realized grace; I realized love, unconditional and abundant. An old man died, and a new man was born...........and here I am

another week gone by.....

Yes indeed, another week HAS gone by. A lot of the past week was me brooding over Heidi's message last friday, and thoughts of Iris Ministries, and the foreign field in general. I'd leave school tomorrow and go back, if that was an option; but it's not. So I decided to call up a dear friendie who is in Mozambique working with Iris, and that did NOT quench the desire to go back at all!! On the contrary........etc etc. 7 more months will slip quickly by, then I can put all my efforts into returning to Mozambique! Things are already in the workings........

CBC is going well. Today we had a guest speaker (Wynne Goss) all day. If you don't know who he is, find out! It was an awesome day of teaching and the Holy Spirit showed up in a big way. And most of the students have cruised to their hometowns for Thanksgiving, so the remaining few are staying here debating what to do. Tomorrow I volunteer at a 'leadership breakfast' at NCC. Should be fun. Then I think I will work most of the rest of the day. Money is still fairly scarce, but God is good. "Lack' is simply NOT part of my life!!

So yeah, thats about all thats goin on with me. Hope you're all doing as well as I am!

Oh yeah, about that Poll to the right: If 2+2=5, what does 4+4=? Well, since I made up the question, it logically would make sense that I make the answer as well, right? So, the answer is 10. Congrats to all who got it right. The new poll asks if you think I will recieve a job at one of the places I have applied to. I applied to 8 places, so the odds are good, if your a betting man/woman.

back from an evening at TACF

Last night was awesome!! If I had my laptop, I would post some pictures. But I don't :(. Anyways, we landed at TACF about 6:30pm, and Ruth Fazal got the worship started about 7pm. After lots of formalities(?), and more awesome worship, Heidi took the stage and laid on her face for another 50 minutes(!) before speaking from John 15:1-11. I love how Heidi completely takes God's agenda (and His alone) when she speaks. It was 10 to 10 before she even preached a word! It was a truly awesome message. We didn't get back to St Catharines till 2am.

I'm kinda choked today, cause the NCC bus failed to come over to the residence to pick us up to head to Toronto for the Truth Conference at TICC. Oh well, I've got things to do anyway, but it wouldve been a good teachings. I guess I could always buy the cd's?

So I started working at an apartment complex about 5 minutes away from Celebration Bible College. I'm not sure for how long, but I'll have work for at least this week, maybe longer, it's hard to say. Money is good though. Hopefully I'll make enough to stay in school hahaha!!!

Everyone looking for some good books to read should have a go at: Eternity In Their Hearts; Kingdom Principles Of Financial Increase (the best book on the doctrine of biblical prosperity that I've come across); and Total Forgiveness. Those are some of the required reading for the courses of World Religions, Biblical Economics, and Christian Family, respectively.

So thats my update, for today. Hope you're all doing well.

Matthew 20:28

Ok, so I promised a more exciting post this time, but it's not gonna happen, I have nothing prepeared. Actually, I just blogged a pretty good one, but the computer crashed and now I have to do it over again >:(. Anyways, I'll get over it. But here's a good tidbit from the "Heart of s Leader course we are doing: "JESUS LED BY SERVING". Get it? Leaders serve. It's crucial. And on and on and on.....

So I havent found a job yet but my applications are in at 8 different locations. A job would be nice, considering that if I want to stay for my second semester, money would be good. I really don't want to have to come back to PEI to work for a ticket to Africa without completing my associate degree first. That wouldnt be cool. But, whatever, its all good.

Speaking of good, this weekend a carload of student are going to TACF to see Heidi Baker preach at a conference. Then early saturday morning, a busload of us are cruisin from St Catharines to Toronto to take part in the Truth Conference at TICC (Peter Karl Youngren's church). That conference deals specifacally with apologetics, which is a sweet subject to study.

So, thats whats happenin. I am also looking for another apartment cause the resdience is not the greatest place to reside. So there you go, some things to pray about for sure, if you feel so inclined. Have a good week.

Looking for a job, I am. I went to a few different nursing homes the last couple days, but no luck as of yet. I should know better, having been in the nursing system for a long while. It often takes a while to get guaranteed hours in that line of work, so I may have to go for something else. We'll see, we'll see.

Classes have been good. Same ole. Been volunteering a few extra hours at NCC, just helping out in the kitchen, or getting all their newsletters (55000 of them!!) enveloped and ready for mailing. There is lots to do. I would like to have some amazing crazy revelation to share with you all today, but the teaching the last few days has stayed pretty consistent with the totality of the finished work of Christ, which is a mighty revelation in itself, I guess. It's a rock solid concept.

In other events, I walk for at least an hour everyday, going to and fro, here and there. The public transit system here is not so great, and rather pricey, so I have chosen to just walk everywhere I need to go. Not to bad, exercise is good, or so I've heard. The weather has been great, at least, yesterday, it was 29!! OK thats it. No more; my next post will be more interesting, I promise.

DESTINY (& predestination)

Mark 4:3-8
1. Your destiny exists as a seed
2. When you are born again, that seed must grow,
a. by praying
b. by seeking God

Currently I am involved in a 'Fulfilling Your Destiny' course. It has touched on the ever-misunderstood concept of 'predestination'. Here is some notes from the course, so far:

God has a perfect plan and destiny for your life, predetermined and predecided before time began.
There is a doctrine of predestination that essentially says, "Whatever will be, will be." Expanded, this means that those who will be saved - will, and those who won't be saved - won't. The theory goes that the choices we make cannot change the course of this 'predestination' because God knew before time began who would be saved and who would not. Further, this 'predestination' offers more than salvation and so life becomes a matter of "whatever will be, will be". This teaching is a perversion of Scripture.
Predestination does indeed involve the concept of a fixed destiny that exists for each person, but as to whether or not a person recieves that destiny is dependant on the individuals life, and upon the choices they make.

A big problem with the english word 'predestination' is with how the english translators translated that word from the original Greek language in which it was written. Don't get me started! Many of the false doctrines that, as a whole, confuse Christians world-wide, are confusing because of imperfect translations of the Hebrew or Greek texts. So much too say, but sooo little time.

To end this post on the topic I planned to start--> Destiny! Here are 6 points that refer to your destiny, in Christ:

1. Destiny is specific and individualized.
2. Religion says, "Die from your destiny and vision!"
3. Jesus says, " Die from your self effort." If we think we can accomplish what God has ordained for us, on our own, we will fail desperately. This is the true meaning of 'repentance'.
4. We are not to wait for our destiny to be fulfilled. We are to discover, and walk in it.
5. Abandon the idea that it is hard to know the destiny that God has for you.
6. Throw away the thought that you must fast & pray for days, and maybe, if you do enough, God will grudgingly let you know His plan for you.

So there you go. Some tidbits from Celebration Bible College, and from Pastor George Woodward.

life at CBC

Things are well; busy. So far I'm enjoying life in St Catharines. The school is going well. Sunday night they had a commissioning service for the outgoing missionaries to Indonesia, what an awesome time that was. When I get better prepared, I'll write these posts out beforehand, then blog them. Anyways, the service was awesome, the missionaries just preached about all the excuses we have for not going onto the field, and they tore those excuses apart!! T'was a thing of beauty.

So today, in the a.m. I was doing a course called Youth Ministry, then in the afternoon I was doing World Religions (today focused on Hinduism, very interesting. My student duty is duplicating all the video correspondance tapes, as well as duplicating the school sessions onto cd. I also recieved my student ministry, which will be helping out with the overseas ministry area. HALLELUJAH!! Thats fairly sweet. So I'll be learning about what is involved in organizing, putting on, etc etc etc a crusade (festival, as we call them) in a foreign country. Nice!

The school is quite diverse, student wise, I mean. Fitting in may be my big challenge. I'm not too worried about it though. My sense of direction has been super strengthened in the brief time I've been here, and it appears it is not going to abate in the least!!

So yeah, next few posts, I'll try to relate a few of the more exciting things that have come up in my class and study time. 5 of us students are on a weeklong hunt to really discover the meaning and importance of New Covenant fasting. What do all you think about it? Why, as New Covenant believers, do we fast? Why? Don't answer too quickly now, the answer is much more in depth than you think. Study it out, then let me know. Blessings all.