Reckless Love at Christmas

Do you know what I love about Christmas? Well, I can list quite a few things: the music, the advent celebrations with the local church, giving gifts to each other out of love, and just getting to be with friends and family over the season. However, I also know that Christmas can be very stressful (I currently work part-time in the retail and wholesale industry, so I can attest to that); it can also be depressing with the loss of loved ones over the years. But I want to focus more on why Christmas is significant to me.

Fall 2015 - So Far

Me with my friend and MSVUSU president, Justin (left)

         I know it's been a few months since the last time I wrote here; I had been a bit occupied over the summer. However, I am already on the journey to see what God has in store. Also, I have come across a few new things and people recently, which is rewarding in and of itself.

Made by God

I'm finding more and more that I am appreciating the life that God has given me over the years. Sure, I've had some struggling moments, but those were where I needed to grow more deeply. I'm also finding a great appreciation for the beauty around me, both in nature and people. I was thinking about this after reading through Psalm 139; in particular, this verse was what has been impacting me this morning:

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful,  I know that full well." -Psalm 139:14 (New International Version, or simply "NIV")

I find that this verse is very powerful; if it could touch me into feeling more intimate with my Creator, how much more could it impact others, people who don't know Jesus yet? By reading this verse, I am reminded that I was born for a reason, a purpose, that I'm not just an accident. It shows that there is someone greater than what this world offers, someone who loves me so much despite my flaws and failures. As the loving father that He is, God will always catch me as I fall so I can be brought back to my feet and try again.

I understand how hard it is to feel that you are beautiful or amazing as I have struggled with this (sometimes, I still do, though not as much). Many teens and young adults have this problem. But I am grateful for friends and family who love Jesus and are filled with His Spirit; many of them have helped in shaping who I am today, a friend of Christ and a warrior for heavenly peace. This also reminds of of Proverbs 27: 17, which says (again, from the NIV): "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Without the people whom God brings into our lives, we probably would be in more turmoil.

If you feel like you cannot see yourself as beautiful, I just want to let you know that God loves you; He made you to be who you are and wants to show you how beautiful you are on the inside. He wants to perfect you more into a diamond out of the rubble of sin and despair. I also want to say that you are not alone. God had promised that he will never leave nor forsake us (Joshua 1:9). We also have friends and family to count on when we are at our lowest points.

I think a song would greatly sum up my point. The song in the video below is called, "Made," which is performed by Hawk Nelson off of their new album of the same name. I hope that this song and what I said brings you encouragement today.

-Alex

Faithfulness and Risk-Taking

Here are some more thoughts as I have been thoroughly studying Chapter One of Simon Guillebaud's More Than Conquerors...

Discussing about faith, I believe that I am rather confident in believing God's faithfulness; nobody can be as faithful as he is. This gives me some assurance that my life is in awesome hands. Though I would admit, it isn't always so easy to put your faith in Jesus. But I had to spend time with him, gradually allowing him to take up more of my heart. I pray that God will be able to mould me more into who he wants me to be, and use me to my best potential.

I’m continuing to learn more about how to handle failure. Failure doesn’t always mean that it’s the end of the line for me; it does however allow me to stop, look back, learn from it and move on to becoming better than how I was in the past. I believe that because of this, I have now become a better person and I am continuing to trust God more when I fall down. Sure, it’s often discouraging to fail and it has often made me question my beliefs and faith, but in the end, I just need to continue learning more about giving Jesus control; after all, he has greater plans set out for me (see Jeremiah 29:11 for context). By focusing more on him, I’ll have a more exciting and intimate relationship with him; I’ll be able to gain a better perception about how my life with Jesus has been an adventure. Speaking of adventure, this whole journey that I’ve been going through with Christ so far has been rather interesting, even though there were some moments that weren’t all too exciting, and some even dark ones; however, God has always managed to get me through it all stronger than before. I’m glad that I am covered by his grace and mercy.

I think God is urging me toward evangelistic and knowledge-based pursuits. This appears to be both appealing and risky to me as it is within my areas of interest and giftedness, and I don’t fully know what kind of outcome will arise from it all. I’m hoping that he will continue to shape and use me as I enter this set of endeavors that he has set out toward me. I also pray that the Spirit will enlighten the path that I am to take next (make it more clear on my next direction to go, as to clarify what I am saying). I know that eventually, things will make sense to me; until then, I’ll have to trust that God is going to be with me every step of the way. I hope that all of this encourages you as you continue on your walk with him everyday.

Take care and God bless you!

Alex

Crazy Love: My Post-Valentine Thoughts

         I thought that today would be a good day to talk about love. No, I'm not referring to being in love with a girl; I'm talking about this crazy, unconditional love that God has for all of us, the same love of which he had reminded me this past Valentine's Day. The past couple of days have been rather empowering for me and my relationship with him.

         The past little while before Valentine's Day, I had been having doubts about Christianity at times: doubts about whether what I am doing is right or in vain, whether or not I fully agree with what people are doing. I think I also resonated a little from the book that I had been reading, asking myself and God, "if there are plenty of Christian students here on campus, why isn't there such a lasting impact of goodness to show it? Are we actually influencing our campus, or has the influence of the campus created our perpetual downfall?" Part of this fit of questioning had arisen from emotional troubles caused by my surrounding environment, namely how people may have treated me. It was with that happening that I started wrestling, started feeling that maybe I had been a fool to believe in all of this.

         I had expressed about all this to a friend, Brian (a staff worker for Power to Change), who helped steer me back in the right direction. He went over a tract with me that discussed about the role of the Holy Spirit. It seemed that I had allowed my emotions to take a stronghold of me, and that had been my downfall. As we went through the tract together, I started to understand better about how the Spirit helps mediate our relationship with God the Father as the "other counsellor" about which Jesus had mentioned to his disciples (John 14: 16-17). I also learned that I had not been so dependent on the Spirit as my guide, and that by faith, I could get back on track and out of the valley. I believe the last time something like this happened (which was last March), I was given help from a couple of Inter-Varsity friends at the Mount, notably Kaleigh and Rachel (the friend with whom I am studying "More Ready Than You Realize"). If it hadn't been for friends like them, I don't know what I would have done next.

         Now that I feel rejuvenated by being filled with the Holy Spirit, I can now grasp more about Christ's love for me, as though I have found the significance of the cross to be deeper than before. I understand that I mustn't let my feelings control me, that I must live in faith in order to be part of God's plan for change in Halifax, as Jesus expressed in John 14: 21, 23-27.

         Love is very mysterious, and no matter what we do, God is always going to love us; this is what we call unconditional love. 1 Corinthians 13 is an entire chapter in which Paul talks about what love looks like. It's quoted often during wedding ceremonies, which are also love-driven. I definitely find it rather suiting. Love and faith truly go hand in hand with each other, as written here: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV)" Hopefully the next time I find myself going downhill, I will cling on to my faith and ask God for strength, and he will continue to pour out his love for me so that I can continue on this journey called life with him.

God bless you all until next time!

Finding Our Identity in Christ: Kristen's Note

Hey!

So, I was browsing through Facebook this morning when I noticed that my friend Kristen wrote a new note about finging our Christian identity. It was a lot of information that sounded so inspiring that I figured that I'd share it with all of you. You can click here to read what she had to say. I hope that this will inspire you all, and don't worry, I'll write another entry about what I am learning through the book sometime soon.

Peace!

Sports, Dance, Jargon and Opening Up

Hey guys,

         I'm feeling up for a sharing mood, so I decided to bring it to your mind. Today, I want to express what was being learned throughout the past two weeks. I hope that this may inspire you or maybe even challenge you a little bit.

         So I read through the first two chapters of "More Ready Than You Realize", and I found it rather interesting. For one thing, it gives me a real life example to read through while explaining how the Bible can be applied to our lives when evangelizing. One of the first things that I thought was rather cool was to think of evangelism like a dance, as the authour explained it. It was a rather different image, but I understand what he means by this. People often bring up this expression during arguments: "it takes two to tango"; this is a very true expression, seeing as you need two people to be talking with each other. Just like dancing, we have to effectively communicate with the person to whom we are witnessing (or in better terms, "reaching out"). So yes, dancing is a great analogy to use if you want to understand about how you can reach out better to other people. Another great one that was used was a football match involving Christians against non-believers about many political and social issues, such as Sunday shopping and homosexuality; each team is trying to win over an argument, but evangelism doesn't need to be a win-lose situation; we need to change our game plan and aim for having everyone winning the real prize (1 Corinthian 9). So reaching out should be a win-win event where everyone will be able to live forever with Jesus.

         Another thing point that was brought up a lot was that we need to allow people to freely about what they are hearing, and let them choose as to whether or not they want to follow God. It's often better to openly express your opinion, but you shouldn't try to force it upon others; that would make them become less open to the topic, or scare them away completely. This often makes me think of another old proverb (not from the book of Proverbs): "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." It also helps that during an Inter-Varsity retreat that I recently went to two weekends ago, we were learning about "being sticky on campus", and what I mean is, learning to be more open and inviting with each other and with the surrounding communities, such as your circle of friends, and your co-workers. The point is to be inviting and give people the choice, not to "kidnap" them and force them to do something against their will.

         I also noticed that we as Christians tend to throw in a lot of vocabulary that can be rather confusing, such as the concept of being "born again" and the doctrine of the Trinity (God being one divine being in "three persons"). What being born again means, as Mr. McLaren was saying in his book, is that we change our mindsets from acting like we know it all to realizing that we have much to learn from God. As for the Christian jargon and doctrines, McLaren proposed that we "re-root" the doctrines into real Christianity, meaning that we try to simplify what is considered to be common in the Church without "watering it down". I really think that he's on to something with this whole idea, so I'm gonna take up on this challenge.

         So to summarize, I'd like to say it like this:

• We should be warm, inviting people, opening up to people through God's love and by aiming towards everyone winning salvation through Jesus Christ and renewing strength and guidance by the Holy Spirit.
• We should try to help our spiritually seeking friends to understand what Christians believe in general without having to water it down or go through all the details from history and controversies.

         I hope that what I'm saying helps you guys see this differently as it has for me. The challenge is out there if you ever want to take it. I hereby leave you with those parting points.

God bless you and thanks for reading.

Alex

A Little Introduction

Hello!

First of all, I'd like to thank you for visiting my new blog. I'm currently in my second year at the Mount, and it is also my second year being involved with Mount Christian Fellowship; my first year was rather a roller coaster ride of experiences and emotions, and I definitely learned a fair bit through it all with God's help. I'm not going to get into details here about everything that has happened, but if you want to learn more about who I am, I made a little note on my Facebook profile, so you can take a look at that.

This academic year has gone off to a good start. I became a frosh leader at the university this year, and I got to meet a few new people and made some closer bonds with some of the fellowship members. We're going through the book of Matthew this term in MCF and we learned about taking risks and about what it means to be truly loved by God. I also recently started studying more about evangelism by reading through a book with my friend, Rachel. The book's called "More Ready Than You Realize: The Power of Everyday Conversations", which was recommended to me by another friend during an Inter-Varsity retreat. I'm planning to use this blog to share my insight as to what I'm learning from these Bible studies and hope that by sharing this information, that other Christians would feel inspired and encouraged by God though me.

I hope that from future readings, that you'd feel inspired, encouraged and maybe even challenged to make an impact in your area. Again, I thank you for reading my blog.

May God always bless you!

Alex