Ephesians 1:15-23

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.



Thanks Giving. A holiday where people family's come to together in a meal in which we are celebrating our thankfulness. In this passage in Paul is giving his thanks to the Ephesians for their love in the Lord. He has them in his prayers that the Lord might work and move in them. He prays that's God would give them the eyes and hearts to live as they are called to live. He preaches that our Lord is the Lord of all, the he'd of all church's, our savior.
This thanks giving I also give my praise and thanks giving for my friends and silly and everybody else. Often times our holidays are spent with people slaving over a meal, fighting, and awkward moments. But this year I challenge you sand back and appreciate all that God has given us. Look at our families. Our friends. Our jobs and everything in-between. James tells us that we are to be thankful for the good times and bad and that God uses even the worst moments in our life to make His glory known to the world.
This year I am thankful for all that he has done for me. I am thankful for Sammy yelling at the tv playing football. I am thankful for awesome his from Ellie. I am thankful for stupid jokes and B rate movies with Sarah. Thankful for worship with Rachel. Heart to hearts with Uncle Tony. Reality checks with Aunt Karen. Awkward moments with Anna. Loving parents. Amazing new friends from church. My brothers in Christ at Tim's House. Teasing Kris and gets joked back. Lunches with Tim. Spending Fridays with my awesome 1st-5th graders from Kids Klub. And my friends back in Colorado.
This year I got the opportunity to share in a thanks giving meal with my friends from Timothy Ministry. Some of these men have no family's to go home to or anybody to share the holiday with but we're still thankful for all that God has given them. Over the past four months these men became good friends who I look forward to sharing in the Gospel with each Friday morning. I then spend 2 hours cleaning the kitchen, and I would have to say that this has been the best thanks giving yet, worry less about myself and more about my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
As Thanks Giving comes to an end I give my praise and thanks to God for each of your lives. I hope that God bless you with abundance and with burden. I pay that you open your heart up to Gods will and his blessing. Give thanks to our God for he is good. He is all we need and will always provide.


I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Genesis 22:1-19

Genesis 22

Abraham Tested

1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.

2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”

19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.


I don't know about you but something my faith in God is not the greatest. It is an act that is easier said then done. Often times I have conversation with people about how life is going and tell them that if they put their faith in God he will always come through, then with some events in life try to go about them without God in mind. And often times, when we do things on our own we are just setting our selves up to fail. God instructs all of us to put our lives into His hands and He will protect and watch over us. He has a funny way of coming through and can see the bigger picture long before we could even imagine it.
During the past week and a half I have been in a bad emotional, physical, and spiritual state. I had gotten in an argument with everybody from my roommate to my family, thinking that what I was doing was right. (See where the I comes into place). I had gotten into a fight with my younger cousin. I was spending less time in Gods word and "just getting by" with my faith. All of these things helped to jump start my underlying depressive syptomns. On top of all of these things I was scheduled to work on Friday which was my times serving God and I was not happy about having to work. With all of these things happening I was putting less and less faith into Gods plan for my life.
God knew from the start that my spiritual life and relationship with Him was being effected on a deeper level and that I needed to be drawn back closer to him. As I sit here on this Friday where I should have been at Kids Klub, I instead was given the opprotunity to emirs myself in the Lord. God has planned my "retreat" away from my duties at church and home months before I could have imagined. Having spent the last six hours reading the bible, listening to sermons, worshiping and praying I realized God was calling me back to Him and used my job to bring me back to Him. If I had been putting my entire faith into Gods plan this revelation would not have come as such a shock to my life.
In this passage in Genesis we see one of the greatest acts of faith in the Old Testament, maybe one of the greatest in the entire bible. Abraham being a man of God yet fully human has his test of faith and even his own rocks of faith. Not thinking that he was going to be able to have a son of his own, his son Isaac was the joy of his life. God has given Abraham the ultimate test of faith, coming to Abraham he commanded that he take Isaac his beloved son and use him as a burnt offering to God. Not being a parent yet I can not imagine the amount of faith Abraham had to even contemplate this command. The next morning, being the man of faith that Abraham is, he prepared his donkeys, two servants and his son Isaac and set out to the region of Moriah. Upon arrival Abraham and Isaac left the servants and went up the mountain God had showed them and began to prepare the alter for the sacrifice. As Isaac helped in the preparation he began to notice that they had forgotten to bring the lamb for the offering and he began to inquire on the situation. His father explained that God would provide an offering for the alter and they continued their preparation of the alter, Isaac caring the wood and knife for this own death.
After the alter was completed Abraham bound and tied Isaac up and placed him on the alter. Now the bible dosnt state this but can you imagine the fear, the thoughts that were swirling in Isaac mind as this was all going on! I can almost guarantee that Isaac was scared out of his mind. As Abraham was just about sacrifice his son and angel of the Lord called out to him commanding him to stop! He acknowledged Abraham for his fear in the Lord and his strong faith in the Lord because he did not withhold his son from the Lord. Abraham then saw a ram caught in the thistle and he caught the ram and used it as a burnt offering to the Lord. Because of Abrahams faith in the Lord the Lord promised him that God would bless him and his decadents would be as nurmous as the stars.
Can you imagine having the faith strong enough to sacrifice a loved one to God? Sure at times our kids, siblings and loved ones bug us to the point we wouldn't mind it but at the end of the day that is a huge leap of faith. This is why Abraham is labeled the Father of Faith, he trusted in Gods plan for Him to such a extent that he would even sacrifice his one true son to the Lord. Luckily for us the Lord has made a promise to us that he will never ask of that magnitude again. Or does He? God sent his one and only son to be a sacrifice for each and everyone us so that our sins would be forgiven and we can have eternal life in the Lord. And although we are not called to physical "die" we are called to die of ourselves and be born again into the Lord. Giving our own lives entirely to Him, who gave up His life for ourselves and our sins. This passage in Genesis is an amazing example of the type of faith we are to be living on a daily bases. Give all of your trust to the Lord.
This evening I was supposed to teach at Kids and had to switch lessons with another leader. This is where God was working even more in my life that is beyond amazing. As I began to prepare for my lesson I will be teaching in two weeks this passage was the one that I will be teaching on. This lesson: one faith in the Lord, the one I was to be teaching, was a lesson that I had to learn on my own first hand. Had I gotten the Friday off I would have had a different lesson to teach and not been impacted like I was tonight. God has a plan for each and every aspect of our lives we just need to trust in Him and His plan. We wants control of every aspect of our lives. Give it to Him! My God is a God of understand, forgiveness, Love, joy and grace. And He wants that for our lives! How crazy is that? That such a powerful God wants to provide for us, who are unworthy of such a love!
Next week...no starting now, I want you to look at your life! Are you putting your faith in God? Do you have somebody who you can talk to about your walk with Christ? Somebody who can hold you accountable? I challenge you to re-read this passage and pray on it, study it, learn from it just like I am. Abraham is a amazing example of the faith we should all have. Try to have faith like his for one week, if it dosnt effect you, email me and we will go get coffee, my treat!

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Matthew 7:7-11

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who ask will receive, he who seeks finds and he who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, gives him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish gives him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask?"



Here in Matthew we see and invitation to seek after God. He wants us to call out for him, but if we never ask we will never receive. God promises to provide for His children, all we have to do is simply ask for His help. Is that not something simply incredible? The God of the universe is willing to provide for us, to help us out throughout life? We must remember though that when asking for things that we are open to Gods will for what he has planned for us in our lives. Often times we pray for things of great material value: better house, better job, more money, etc. When we do not receive the things that we are asking for we get discouraged, often thinking: "God tells us to ask and he will give us what we want, yet here I am still poor and in need.". Instead of focusing on thing like this we need to step back and think: are the things we are praying for going to take us further away from God? God wants to provide for us, to lead us toward Himself, he has a plan for us we just need to be 100% willing to except what that plan may be. We need to ask GOD for it though, the one true God!
Do me a favor say a prayer:
Dear:__insert what ever you make a false idol today (money, possessions, job, family) here____,
please help me I need you more then ever.
Amen

Now give it a week.....were your prayers answered? Is whatever we are putting before God helping you, leading you, answering your prayers? We need to start putting God in control of our lives. Often times we want to be in control of everything, we want full control over our lives, but God tells us he wants us to trust in Him ALWAYS! We will always be there for us, and yes when we are at the very lows of lows He welcomes us with loving embrace but we also wants to to long for him even in the best of times. God is not a pain killer that we take to get the pain to go away every so often, He is our Father. He is the one who died for our sins. Long for him! Search for Him! Discover him! Love Him!

Often times I find myself trying to do things on my own. I have this trust in God that others seem to look down upon, but at the same it is a trust that can been depend 1000 times more. God continuously tells us to trust in Him, and long for Him. Often times now I find myself deep inside my thoughts calling out to the Lord for help. Between trying to figure out the transition into adulthood, home life, work life, bills and everything else that falls in-between Christ tells us that he is the answer to any and all problems. I challenge you, just as I challenge myself to long after God. To have a genuine relationship with him. To trust in him. He is our father.....do we not run to our parents to help us out in any situation that we are thrown into? I know I sure do, I can't tell you the number of times I have gone to my mom and dad or aunt and uncle to help bail me out of a situation, or lead me to where I should be going. Should we not do the same with our Heavenly Father? He are to run to him. He wants us....he loves us....he cares for us. I challenge you this week to look at your relationship with him. Is it what you want it to be. Are you knocking at the door? Are you running toward God? He's waiting for you....

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Philippians 4:12-13

I know what it is to be in need, and I known what it is to have plenty, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, weather living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.



In this passage we see the answer to all of our problems. Often time I find myself saying "Life sucks", "I can never to do this!", "I just don't have enough!". But here we see the answer to all of life's many problems. Through Christ we can have all the strength that we may need. Wether we are hungry, stressed, depressed, worried about money, Christ will help us through all of our problems.
I have gotten to a point of learning that the Lord will always provide when we just put our trust in Him. Out of the 1000 of life lessons that I have learned at living at home with my aunt, uncle and cousins one of the most important ones is: God provides in every aspect of our lives. Granted we are to be proactive in our lives but through Christ we have all the strength that we need to preserver!
As I begin to transfer into that "adult" phase of life I have had to worry about everything from work, bills, rent, money, and the list goes on and on. One of the biggest problems when growing up and moving away from home is money. I got to have to opportunity to help a friend start a new life and get an apartment with my best friends. The problem is that we are on to totally different sides of the spectrum when it comes to trusting in the Lord. As we got two weeks out to the big move, we didn't have an apartment (we thought ours had been offered to somebody else), had $500 between the two of us, her jobs had not gone through, and things were not looking good. Daily phones conversation tended to go like this: "Dude just trust in God it will all work out." "How can I not freak out?!". Although life is stressful for time to time the Lord has a plan, we got the apartment we wanted, acquired more then enough money, she got both jobs she needed and life worked itself out....correction GOD WORKED EVERYTHING OUT!
Although countless times God has provided for all of us, we still have the doubt in our hearts. This week I challenge you, and this may be my hardest challenge, to just trust in the Lord and see where He takes you in life. You may be quit surprised in how much happier you will be in life when you are not stressing over the simple things in life. God will always provide for those who trust in him! Go to him! Run to him! Trust in him!

I pray for you and your walk in Christ

James 2:14-25

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does noting about physical needs, what good is it? The same way, faith by itself is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone who says, "You have faith, I have deeds." show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not out ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the alter? Yuo see that his faith and actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rehab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to spies and sent them off in different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.


In this passage we see yet another call to living out our faith physically. We are all called to serve God's people in one form or another. How do we study and preach about feeding poor yet do nothing about it? Faith without deeds is dead. The passage tells us that even the demons believe there is only one God and fear him so what makes us different from them? Christ gives us specific directions on serving His children just as He served us. But just as faith without deeds is dead, so is deeds without faith. Do not atheist perform acts of community service to help their fellow man? We should be doing all of our actions through Christ and to serve Christ.
We are all called to serve Christ and his people. Each of us have a unique calling and need to just stop for a few minutes and listening to what God is calling us to do. People always ask, well how do you know where Christ wants me to go? For me God speaks to me and gives me plans of actions, I know they are God callings because they eat away at me, I know they need to be done, they way on me, like Christ telling me that He gave me these plans for a reason, why have I not began to fulfill them? Stop and take a minute to listen to God and see where He is calling you. There are a lot of people out there who are already living out Christ calling and serving other people! Awesome! Then this post might just serve as a reminder, for others maybe it is a call to arms, to pick up your cross and fulfill your duties. Being Christian isn't just sitting in a building and saying you believe in the Christ Jesus. Being Christian is living a life as Christ lived. It is dying to yourself and your sinful nature and living a life through Him and for Him. Being Christian is serving His people. Christ said "The least you did onto my people the least you did onto me." so go out and serve, finding your calling, obey God and goes where he wants you without hesitation,
I challenge you to take some time out of your week for the next month and find a way to serve Gods people. I will invite you again to help serve at Tims House at Mt Olive on Fridays. It is a great place that mirrors the early churches. It is just one of the many, many, many ways you can give back and serve Gods people. What deeds are you going to preform? Will your faith here on here make Christ except or deny you before our heavenly Father? Just food for thought, we do not know the minute nor the hour that we will be called up, there is not perfect time to start serving, the time is now. Are you ready for it?

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18-7:1

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of the living God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." Therefor come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."

In this passage we see our call to stand out amongst the crowd. We are not to be conformers to the society of sin. It ask us a simple question: how can you clump God in with sin? These are not two things that go hand in hand, God hates sin. This fact is plain and simple and is repeated numerous times through out the bible. We are called to purify out lives and our hearts. We are told that we, not a building, not an object, but us are temples of the Lord. If we are to have Christ the Lord in us, should be no be free from sin, would we not want only the best for our God?
We also see other very important, amazing facts in this passage. God tells us that by freeing out lives from our sinful nature we will become His children! We are God children and He is our father, how amazing is that fact alone. So we must therefor rid ourselves of our sinful nature and live in the Spirit.
Our call to live a holy, clean, untainted life free of sin is no easy task. As mere humans this task is impossible. But through the power of Christ nothing is impossible. He guides us, gives us direction on how to follow him and live a life free of sin. We are told though that we need to live a life 100% free from sin, we can not have God up front and a little bit of sin in the back. A great example I heard was while I was a camp counselor at Urban Camp. They preformed a skit where a father made their child brownies that they loved. There was a special ingredient the dad had added and the children guessed and guessed but couldn't figure out what it was, and eventually dad told them there there was just a little bit of dog poop in the brownies. The children were grossed out that there was even just a little bit of poop in the brownies. Now this story might not make sense to the context of the blog just yet but let me explain. Our lives are like the brownies and the dog poop is the sin. (silly I know haha). But just look, just like it is not ok to have even the smallest bit of dog poop in the brownies it is not ok to have even the smallest amount sin in our lives. Just like we would spit those brownies out Christ tells us that He will spit us out of his mouth and disown us before God the father. We are called to die to sin and be born again in Christ. Small things and a few big things I still strongly struggle with. There is still poop in my brownies, and as I grow closer with understanding of Christ and his call for man, I also understand that to have eternal salvation I need to rid my life of these sinful things, so I ask for you prayers.
Is there poop in your brownies? Are you partaking in sinful activities that you know you shouldn't. We are told to always be on the watch for Christ, we do not know how long we have left on earth. We can not wait till tomorrow to stop our sinful deeds we need to act now. I challenge you to challenge yourself with this serious topic. Are you living the life you know you should be? I know I am not and need a seriously spiritual reality check. Do you?

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and good, they gave anyone as they had need. Everyday they meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.

In this passage in Acts we see an example of some of the first Churches. These churches consisted of Christ followers all meeting and devoting themselves to their callings. They all held each other accountable. They were there for each other. They prayed together, they ate together, there was not a single person amongst them who was in need it says. They would meet daily to celebrate Christ, to break the bread together and to pray. These are great examples of what Church should look like.
Often times when we hear the word church we think of the big, pretty building that we attend every Sunday for service. We forget that the church is not the building, the Church is the body of Christ, his people. We need to dig back to the original roots of the church that our brothers and sisters started after Christ death. This past Friday I had the opprotunity to serve the people of Timothy Ministry at: "Tims House". The meeting that I was given the privillage to attend was a great example to me of what church is.
Tims House takes place every Friday and is a place where those who are homeless or in need can come for help. They can come for a meal. They can get help filling out job applications. Most importantly the come together to share the gosple and pray together and for each other. As I sat there watching my new friends talk about their past, and their lives you would think that they would be bitter and angry towards God, but they weren't. They had a sense of joy and understand for Christ that was remarkable. The way they were sharing with each other was great. Although I have only been to one meeting, and know only a glimps of their lives I could sense Christ was amongst them. I continued to hear different stories of how different people were inviting different people to Tims House and that through these invitions people were coming to Christ. God was adding to their numbers daily. Everything that was mentioned in the passage above happened. Let me explain.
As the day progressed people shared the gospel with each other, giving their own interpretation of how that passage applied to their life. We shared a meal together and over that meal their was praise and glory to God and Mrs. Pilar for taking such care and love in preparing their meal. As we prayed the Lord was providing left and right, small miracles were happening. One person got a interview, another person got a call and received the gas money needed to get through their work week. People don't say miracles happen anymore, but just because the seas are parting dosnt mean it's not a miracle and a gracious act of God.
Helping with Tims House was a humbling experience, making me look at my own relationship with God, my life, and Gods people. I challenge you to really read is passage and see what it means to you. Find someone and call or meet with them as often as you can, find out how their doing and if there was anything you could pray for them. I also invite you to come spend some time at Tims House of Fridays. It is at Mt Olive and starts at 10. I know they would love for you to come and hang out!


I pray for you and your walk in Christ.