Sometime we get setup Because God is getting ready to move in a mighty way and you will be blessed in the process. Maybe He is wanting to make Himself known to others around you but it will take you to be setup in order for Him to show Himself through your trials.
God is always looking for someone to shine through. If asked by God, would you be willing to go through the hardship in order for Him to shine? Is your financial income more important than for God to shine? I believe that God is ready and willing to bless each and everyone of us, if only we will let His light shine through the process!
Ever been at a point in life where everything was just hard? It seems like life is falling apart. Friends are leaving you, you get fired or laid off, money doesn’t easily get around for you, etc… What ever the situation that you went through or are currently going through, I want to challenge you today with a thought!
I want to specifically address the hard time that we are experiencing financially. I was just having a meeting with one of my worship leaders and the subject of trials and persecution came up. Then we went on the subject of the financial state that we are in as a nation. Maybe you are reading this and you have lost your job for what ever reason, I know that this may be hard to believe or to think about. You may say, well that is easy for you to say Phil because you still have a job. Please just try to hear me out.
What if… God is trying to set you up?
Honestly, just take a second and think about it. Wha if God is trying to set you up for a blessing. What if in order to bless you, God had to remove you from where you were? What if He’s got something better for you? What if you dare to believe that God is a good God? What if…?
Let me just start by saying how much i do not appreciate the heat. I am a winter guy and i LOVE my snow. I wish i could move in with my aunt that it a nurse up in Nunavut. If i could, i think i would! I would LOVE for the earth to be in winter mode forever.
Same thing happens so many times in Christianity. People find them self in a season that they really like and complain when the season changes.
We must keep in mind that without season change a few things will happen:
- You will get too comfortable where you are.
- If there is no season change, nothing will grow.
- You will loose respect and greatfulness towards the season you are curently in if you stay there.
Remember when you are all sweaty and have sunburn to thank God for the season you are curently in but also thank him for the next season that is to come!
Wow, i feel like i owe you all an apologie for not blogging in soo long. Things have been crazy around here with Encounter, Events, Fundraisers, Events Planning, Etc… (especially wedding planning haha)
As most of you know, OCC is following the ONE PRAYER series along with Craig Groeschel @ Lifechurch.tv and currently 1872 other churches all across the world in order to become Jesus’ answer to His prayer in John 17:20-24.
This year’s theme for One Prayer is: God is…
We have already looked, together as a church, at the fact that God Is: Able as well as God Is: Moving. On Monday of this week, i was working at the bakery and i was just thinking and meditating on this word of God Is… As i was pondering on this fact, something came to mind that was quite shocking to me, yet very true. I starting to think about how God Is… (in one way) UNable. Let me explain.
Though God IS very able to DO anything, BE anything and BECOME anything we need Him to be, (up to a certain extent of course), in a sense, God is very UNable as well. Numbers 23:19 clearly states that God is not a man that He should lie as well as stating the fact that He is unable to break promises.
In Joshua 9 we clearly see that God cherishes convenants and that He is a God of covenants. God is UNable to break covenant.
All throughout Scriptures we see that God is UNable to be unfaithful.
Here are a few more – God Is Unable:
To Sin
To Be Where Sin Is
To Deceive
To Go Against Free Will
To Be Unjust
To Be Unfair
To Ignore His Children
To Hate His Children
To Break Any Commandments
To Make Mistakes
And that is just to name a few. Let me know your thoughts!
So tonight, i am starting this new message series entitled, “Effective Growth”. I am super excited about this because we are going to be hitting a few different areas in each of our lives in which growth is required.
Growth is required in our spiritual lives.
Growth is required in our social lives.
Growth is required in our relationships.
Growth is required in our professional lives.
Our personal lives are not the only thing that needs growth, we are also going to be look at
How to effectively grow our influence.
How to effectively grow as a ministry.
How to effectively grow as a small group or life group.
Hope you come pumped and ready to receive tonight. All of our messages are all downloadable, streamable and also posted on podcasts which can all be found at www.getagripministries.ca
I was talking to a friend of mine last last, and we got talking about the Old Testament for some odd reason. We were pointing out how the children of Israel were always:
Stumbling
Falling
Failing
Backstabbing God right to His face
Turning to idols
Building themselves some idols
Talking trash about their leaders
Talking trash about God
Rebelling
And the list goes on and on and on.
You know, if you look at all those thing, and that was just to name the very least, it really is no different then what the world is doing today. So many people are saying, “Oh my, the world is so going to hell”, and so many people are commenting about how bad our world has gotten. Take a closer look at the sins, the attitudes and actions that the Israelites dealt with, it is very simular to what we are dealling with today.
What makes it worst is that these people saw God’s hand at work.
They saw the Egyptian army get annihilated right before their eyes
They saw the red sea crack open and were able to walk on dry ground
They saw Moses whack a rock and water randomly came out of it
They were miraculously fed in the desert every day
and they STILL complained and rebelled.
It’s not like they never saw God at work, they did first hand, but they still chose to go their own way and God STILL forgave them. If God forgave them while they were still under law, He can certainly forgive you, that are under GRACE!
There is hope for you and I. No matter how bad we fall and fail, we can get back up, repent and run towards Him. He will always accept you the way you are!
I am finally Done reading this book and quite frankly, I am sad. … see? sad face. haha. Honestly this is one of the best books i’ve read since IT by Craig Groeschel.
Soul Cravings, in a nut shell, is an awesome book if you are searching for truth, if you are seeking for where or who to put your faith in or if you are simply trying to figure out why we are here on earth and would like to understand your purpose in life. Erwin Will take you on a journey that will definitely open your eyes to certain things that you have never thought about before. Even if you have been saved for a long time, this book will definitely open your eyes regarding more then just what our physical eyes can see.
This was one of those books i could barely put down, though i do not like to read, i couldn’t wait to get home and to start reading it again. Erwin will bring up subjects and talk about things that will make you think and ask yourself “What IS the true meaning of life, what AM I here for?” Some of you may think that I’m saying that in a way that it will make you doubt God, but “Au contraire” (this means, “quite the opposite” for you who don’t know french), it will in fact bring you closer to God and make you understand that there is more to life then what most of us think.
I loved how I was SO easily able to relate and to get captivated by his words and his approach towards Christianity and Jesus Christ. Erwin Definitly will take your brain and thoughts towards Religion, Christianity, God, Faith, Purpose, Dreams, Life and Destiny, he will shred them, shake them up a little bit and so beautifly put them back together as they should be. I give this book a big 9.5 because personally I think that He left me hanging a little bit in the end. I believe that there could of been more to it but other then that it was AWESOME and I 100% recommend everyone to read it!
I found this video on YouTube and thought it would be an awesome story to share. One thing i love about this video is that even though they are going through a super rough time, their faith toward God DOESN’T deminish. Enjoy!
That’s all i can say. Wow. The Spirit of God was so present today as we spoke about forgiveness. The story of the adulterous woman accused by the Pharisees and Sadducee’s in Matt 8 was shared. I have never seen these kids pay such attention since Valerie Dionne shared her Testimony. (if you never heard he testimony, take her out for lunch and ask her, it’s worth it!!!) an altar call was made and 6 people gave their life’s to Christ. It was awesome. If there is one thing that will never stop to amaze me, it’s when someone surrenders to Christ! I got a quick chance to speak to them and i invited the whole group back to our Get a Grip Generation Service and our Special Easter Service on Sunday. Many of them took fliers and agreed they would come to both Sunday and Friday service! This is amazing
I started reading this book by Erwin Raphael McManus called “Soul Cravings”, (yes i know I’m awesome at starting books but brutal at finishing them, just look at my “Books I’m Reading” section on the right and you’ll see what i mean) And tell you what, I haven’t gotten into a book like i have into this one for a while now. I love His perspective on so many things.
I am currently reading the first part of the book, (It is divided in three parts, Intimacy, Destiny and Meaning and each part has like 20 ish chapters) and i feel like i need to just share a bit about this part of the book i came a cross. Erwin wrote this, and
I quote
“Strange as it seems, in the midst of our most painful memories, we find our most treasured ones. This is powerfully portrayed in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.Jim Carey and Kate Winslet come together to explore the question, Is a mind free of pain of love filled with eternal sunshine? If you had the chance to erase all the memories of your greatest love to be free of the pain of losing it, would you? I wouldn’t. I don’t think many of us would.
We are addicted to love, and it’s out of our control.
We would give anything and everything to find it.
Here is where I begin to hold a conspiracy theory.
There is more going on here then meets the eye.
It’s as if we’ve been purposefully designed with a factory defect that keeps us searching for…love.
It seems humiliating to say it, but we need to be loved. I need to be loved. I feel like i just walked into a twelve-step program. “Hi, I’m Erwin. I’m a Loveaholic.”
If you try to ignore it, if you think that you can live your life without love, you’re in even worse shape than the person who’s desperate to find it.
To give up on love is to chose a life that is less than human.
To give up on love is to give up on life.”
End of quote.
What i super interesting is the importance that He puts on love. I mean i knew and always did knew that love what important. Even when asked, Jesus answered that the 2 greatest commandments are to love God with everything we’ve got to the best of our ability and to love People as our selves! But He talks about love like this for about a hundred pages or so putting such an importance on being loved and on loving. Like you just read, he goes as far to say that we are addicts because even though being in love is the most dangerous place to be in the world because we are making our selves vulnerable to that other person, giving them the opportunity to ruin us but yet we are still willing to risk it.
After reading up to where i currently am in the book, it really made me think. God’s love truly is the only one that will never fail.
Ever been hurt by someone else? family member, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend. etc… Is that pain and hurt keeping you from surrendering your heart to Jesus? We all need love, we all need to be loved. Jesus will NEVER fail you! Even if you’ve been a Christian, maybe you started a relationship with Christ but not an intimate one. This is your chance! Do not let past experiences with love ruin your relationship with Christ!
Let me just start by saying how much i do not appreciate the heat. I am a winter guy and i LOVE my snow. I wish i could move in with my aunt that it a nurse up in Nunavut. If i could, i think i would! I would LOVE for the earth to be in winter mode forever.
… see? sad face. haha. Honestly this is one of the best books i’ve read since IT by Craig Groeschel.