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.

Heathens for Halloween

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Since this is Halloween, I thought I'd write about a cool song that came out in the summer and has been on my fall playlist for a while since my graduation from university. That song would be "Heathens" by Twenty One Pilots; this is also the lead single from the Suicide Squad soundtrack, and it perfectly fits with the spookiness that we're used to in October... especially on Halloween. However, that's not the only thing I like about the song.

Basic: Holy Spirit

In continuation with my Basic Series adventure with my college n' careers group, we watched the third video: Holy Spirit. This video talks about who the Holy Spirit is and some thoughts on why the Holy Spirit we read in the New Testament doesn't seem to be present today in our churches. Here are just a small amalgamation of some thoughts my group mates and I after viewing the video.

Is it just me, or have we sort of cheapened the person of the Holy Spirit? What I mean is, why is it that we talk about the Holy Spirit when we're in church, and we have this predictable nature with our services that nothing about it seems to be supernatural, if natural at all. Why doesn't the presence of the Holy Spirit not appear or sound similar to something like what the Apostles experienced in Acts?

Find Rest

Finding rest and peace seems to be a constant theme in my life. What I mean is, I find that I sometimes get myself worked up over many things when all I needed was rest and peace for my soul. I recently finished my fourth fall semester at the Mount before exams get written, and I know that exams, much like paper writing, can be very stressful. I also know that with the Christmas season upon us now, people are also going to be stressed over what to get their loved ones for the holiday. So, in a world full of stress and pain, how do we find rest and peace? Enter Jesus, the son of God. I know this is rather cliché, but Jesus' words in Matthew 11 come about in my head.

Birthday Update - 2014

Today, I thought I'd update about what's been going on over the past month or so.

I recently finished my third year of university, which is a bit of a relief when you think about things like exams and term projects. Now that I'm done with all of those, I can focus on finding a job for the summer and preparing for my fourth year. Unlike most of my friends who started out in the same year as me, I decided to push graduation aside to 2016 and take lower course loads for the next two years.

Today is also my birthday, and I mostly spent it so far by having walked my sister's dog for nearly 50 minutes and going out for supper with the family. I also decided to take a silly selfie (just 'cause I can...why not?) To those of my friends and family who have given me birthday greetings, whether it was done in person, over the phone or online, thank you; it's been a blessing to hear from you.

Who's My Valentine?

Ah, Valentine's Day, a day filled with love, romance, chocolate, cards...

But WAIT! WHO'S GOING TO BE MY DATE? This is something that many of us ask ourselves, and for most guys, this often includes trying to have sex. But what if there's more to love?

Lord, I Need You - A Song of Intimacy

There's something about music that draws me more toward God and exemplifies how he makes me stronger in my faith despite how weak I am without him. To me, music is very much therapeutic as well as expressive; it's often how I feel the Holy Spirit move in me. I also find that music has this way of opening me up more to love and prayer. More often, a set of inspired lyrics just hit me at the core, and I just know it. It’s naturally for me to be singing along when I know that deep down, that is what I feel.

Stirrings in My Heart - January 2014

I find that more and more, I still struggle with this whole concept of love. It’s not that I don’t know what love is, but I find it much more difficult to experience it sometimes in a physical sense. While I know that my parents and sisters would tell me that they love me, I find that I see and experience the love from my parents more easily and readily than I do the latter. Why exactly do I struggle with this? What is it with love that I have a hard time experiencing (feeling) it around me? It’s not like God is not with me, right? Then again, maybe I have forgotten to allow him to fully take over my heart. It’s been in pain before, and I feel confused about quite a few things: how can God love and accept me for being such a wreck? Why is it that I was born with Autism, and how will this be relatable with other people? It’s not easy to live through life where you’re around people who hurt you at times and often don’t forgive you. Oh, how there is such darkness in this dying world.

The Light of Christmas

Ah Christmas, it's a season filled with love, joy and peace...

"WAIT a minute? PEACE?" you say. "What's so peaceful about Christmas? I love Christmas, but it's gone all commercial and retail has made it even more crazy."

Life with God

What exactly does life with God look like? I think that it looks like a life where we are actually listening to God, and understanding that He wants to give us. I also came across this video on the web a few weeks back and thought that it would sum it up better than I could.

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

John 3:16 - The Story of Love

This evening, I was checking through my social news feeds when I found this YouTube video that was shared by a friend. It was rather thought-provoking and a good reminder as to what Christ had done for me. I hope that this will be a blessing to you as well.

God bless,

Alex

Love and Brotherhood

At one point this year, I was talking with my friend, Ryan, over Facebook when I asked him how I could become closer with other Christian guys. I had asked him about his thoughts on this a few months ago as I was questioning if I will ever become close with another guy who also loves God. This past week, he made a response to my question through a long email, and the passages that he recommended me to meditate on were as follows:

• 1 Samuel 20 (David and Jonathan's oath of friendship under the sight of God)
• Proverbs 27 (wise expressions about love, family and friendships)
• 1 Corinthians 13 (Paul explaining about the character of a Godly love)

I found that while 1 Samuel 20 portrays a great example of friendship between two close friends (who were guys), 1 Corinthians 13 seemed to pop out more to me. I still find it a bit hard to explain why, but it seems to be a more heavily focused passage, and that it was something on which I needed to reflect. Another particular thing that came to my attention was Proverbs 27:10 (see below).

"Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,  and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away."

I guess that, based on these readings, I still have trouble with love. I guess it could have something to do with my difficulty to fully accept myself. I don't know why, but I find that as I get older, I feel more of the pressure to be like other guys (typical gender stereotypes). I try to go through life, but you keep hearing that you're supposed to be this or that. The thing is, I'm not so hugely into cars, I'm not a sports super fan, I don't even obsess over sex and girls like guys normally do.

I still tend to question God as to why he allowed me to be born with Autism as it tends to act more like a curse in both the "job world" and the "guy world" (which both co-exist as though they are one and the same; again, this is just my way of explaining things from my point of view). Because the main impairments caused by this disorder are my delayed speech and the fact that I need time to think things through before speaking. But the only thing I have going for me as an advantage is that I am often more focused on some things rather than others. Hopefully, I'll be able to get over this hurdle in my life.

Chances are, I'm not alone in these kinds of struggles: there are probably many Christian guys like me who are having trouble in making and maintaining strong friendships with other Christian guys. I agree that it's not easy, especially since I'm expressing about my thoughts. I think what might work for guys like us in being closer and more trusting with our Christian brothers is what Ryan had said to me in the email message: 

"As for advice? I would say, find a friend you think you can trust, and tell him you want to be a brother in CHRIST for him. Don't be clingy, but just say, 'Let's be there to encourage each other in our walk with God'. From my experience when you consciously make that decision then you focus a lot more on it. Pray, envision, minister with, and confess sin to brothers you can trust. The Bible asks this."

I hope that any of this helps somebody as I am also going through this. I find that expressing these struggles and lessons allows me to remain humble and to remind me, as well as everybody else, that we are all human and need God's love and grace as he conducts his work on us and through us. It's great to be writing about real life rather than some fantasy sometimes.

Peace be with you and keep it real with Jesus!

-Alex

Gifts and Barbecues: Showing How God is Working Through Us

Over the past week or so, I had been doing the following three things: passing a social psychology course, trying to find a job, and continuing to explore more deeply into my relationship with Jesus. Mind you, trying to balance all of this is easier said than done. While I have been continuing to enrich my journey and have passed the psychology course, my job prospects have been very slim. Now, I'm starting to wonder if I'm looking for a job for the right reasons. Is God saying that I am supposed to be getting a "job" (a form of paid employment), or is that what society is pushing me to do? What is it that God wants me to be doing right here, right now? What about in the future? Things like this still plague me, no matter how often I try to wash it off.

However, this past Saturday was more of a lax day for me, especially since I had it in my heart to do something helpful. So when I had heard that my friend, Kayla, was putting on a "Love Halifax" barbecue party as part of celebrating her birthday and to show God's love to the city, I decided to jump on the wagon like many other people who attend Shiloh Youth and Shiloh University Church. It was definitely worth it; we cooked up hot dogs and burgers, we offered water, chips and freezies, all for free while there were people participating in road hockey competitions and the Walk the Walk for Autism around the Halifax Commons. We also had games and worship during those few hours when we were there.

Looking back at this event, as well as some recent venturing into understanding spiritual gifts, I can see how we were rather similar with each other but are also distinct. For instance, I had noticed some similarities between myself and my new friend Garret (pictured left): both of us appear to be very gifted in knowledge and evangelism, but he has more hands-on experience in practicing these gifts as well as his music skills (he was really good at leading worship). All of this had gotten me to reflect on 1 Corinthians 12, which talks a lot about spiritual gifts (among many other passages). I guess the whole point was to explain how God equips us to do certain things that all have a common goal: to bless others, but more importantly, to reveal the One who made us and loved us so much to die in our place.

I find it rather awesome as to how radical this journey with God has been so far. I feel that I learned so much and yet have a long way to go. I pray that as we continue to walk with Him that He will strengthen and equip us to do his work on the earth. Yesterday may be history for now, but there's still today to go through and if allowed, tomorrow will be another day set out for us as well.

Peace be with you all and God bless you!

Alex

The Neighbourly, Spiritual Lifestyle

I find that some of the later chapters in More Ready Than You Realize have a focus on acceptance, exhortation and being neighbourly. I was discussing this with a friend earlier who agreed with this; it seems that God wants us to be showing love and acceptance to everyone, regardless of their status, appearance and behaviours. It isn't because God told us through the Bible that we should do it, but rather, it is because he loves everyone so much to die for them all that as his followers, we should also show this kind of love to everyone among us and beyond (after all, we're now able to love since God gave us his love).

Another big thing that I find is coming up a lot is this whole concept of prayer. It isn't just arising from this book in particular for me, but I am also reminded of passages from the Gospels, especially in Luke, where he writes that Jesus had disciplined himself spiritually through prayer. At one point, He was encouraging his disciples to pray during the night so that they would not fall into temptation. Prayer is very important in the life of a Christian. It allows us to personally connect with God without having to go to a priest (the "middle man" of the old covenant). Since we are living in the new covenant through Jesus, we are able to intercede, that is, come to God on our own behalf or on the behalf of others. It is through prayer and faith that we are able to do God's will for our lives, and help other individuals discover this truth for themselves.

I think that we need to be practicing prayer more, and that we should be more neighbourly with each other; what I mean is, we need to be practicing God's love for the nations. We should be going out into our communities and live our lives the way that Jesus would have lived them, encouraging each other as we move along. However, since God has given us free will, it is ultimately our choice as to whether or not we take on this neighbourly, spiritual lifestyle, a lifestyle that can be achieved through help and commitment to the Spirit.

I believe that we are still learning more about how this kind of lifestyle works in Mount Christian Fellowship at the Mount campus. We're all practicing to love and care for one another, praying and worshipping together, and going out to have spiritual conversations with other friends on campus. It's just so wonderful how God could use us in the university community, which extends itself to all of HRM. I'm really excited for the kinds of beautiful things that we'll get to do in the future.

Until next time,

Alex

Love Has Come for Me (and Everyone Else)

I was checking around through my Facebook news feeds when I stumbled upon a video of Colton Dixon performing live on American Idol. The song he performed was an original called, "Love Has Come for Me," which talks about yielding our lives to Christ. I find this to be a remarkable song, and it has encouraged me to continue in my growing journey with God, despite all of the struggles that I am facing and what is yet to come.

The song reminds me of a few verses in the Bible. 2 Corinthians 5:17, which talks about how we are now a new creation through Christ, rings throughout the song as a major theme. Another theme-ringing verse is found in the book of Romans:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NIV)

As you can see, love, sacrifice and new beginnings are the main themes of the song. I love how it expresses how little we understand of God and our current situation, but since God had first loved us, we are now able to truly love others and life, and more importantly, God himself. Here is the official lyric video for the song. I hope that it rejuvenates and encourages you as it has for me.

-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!