Monday, December 28, 2009

love

First off sorry it took so long for me to write another blog. Final exam time got a little crazy.

Love. Its what gives us the opertunity to live, through Gods love and grace for us.God's love is unconditional, no matter how many times we fool up, screw up, or mess up, it doesn't matter. He loves us so much that he can forgive and forget, forever loving us.Imagine if we could learn to love eachother in this way. The world would be such a different place...

As a young girl, well I guess young, almost 19, I have found myself afraid to let myself fall for a guy and therefore miss out on LOVE because I was to take a step into the unknown. My life would change, things would be different, and sometimes we think this is going to be for the worse, but that is so wrong. Taking a chance on the feeling in your heart, love, you'll never be the same.. For the better. We make mistakes, and sometimes miss the greatest opertunity to share something with a certain person, and we regret it and regret it over and over again because of the stupid fear we had. I'm there. I know what its like. And you never know if you'll get a third fourth chance.. So we must love, love fearlessly. Times in life we may mess it up with a guy, loose it, but sometimes we might be lucky enough to find it again. But one love I can assure you will always be there, no matter what, through thick and thin, no matter what we do or say, is the love of God. So when you find yourself heartbroken, or empty .. Focus on the love thats always constant in your life, the love of God. Don't find yourself afraid to take a step in Gods direction, his love never fails.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJQJI2uElI

Check out those two links.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

I wonder...

We often wonder a lot about the future. Where we'll be next year, and in five years. We wonder waht our first "real" job will be, who and when we will marry and start a family. We wonder about these things. Theres no way of telling what tomorrow will bring, or the next day, or the next day. No matter how many times we write it all out in our planners, plans change, things change, people change. The only constant we can count on is God. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow he is the same and will never change. The great thing to reassure ourselves in is that if we obey God in the small things, and keep our steps in his path, GODS big picture for our lives will unfold before us. As Christains, we don't need to worry ! We need to stop trying to plan out every minute of our lives and relax, trust and obey. We will enjoy life a lot more....

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

salt... shake things up.

Philippians 2:1-4 ( message version )

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart,if you care - then do me a favor. Agree with eachother, love eachother, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front, don't sweet talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

I read this in my deovtions today and really thought about how Pastor Matt has been sharing on the church as a body of believers, working together, and living out our faith together. If we could simply apply this to our everyday lives, this scripture would transform the way we live.

We used to sing a song in Kidz Inc. " First Jesus , then others, and then theres you. The secret for a joyful attitude". I'll never forget that , and it is so true. Lets not be so caught up in ourselves and our own situations to the point where we become oblivious to the situations around us that we could be influencing for the better. Our purpose is to know Jesus and make him known.

I read the quote this week, " Many people say .. ' what has happened to the world'.. but a better question to ask is what happened to the salt.. We need to stop living for ourselves and live to be Gods hands and feet, being affective each day. Because if we were in the perfect will of God, he wouldn't let a day go by without being affective through us. Lets not let this world loose all its saltiness... shake things up. the salt isn't going to come out of the shaker unless it is moved. Let yourself be moved to make a difference. And if a salt shaker is not constantly refilled , then eventually it will run out... Remember to refill your salt shaker. yes, pour out to others as much as possible, but make sure you let God pour back into you having a constant overflowing supply of his spirit. Try and be a useful salt shaker this week.

Matthew 5:13 ( the message version)

Let me tell you why you are here. you're here to be salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. If you loose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? you've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Christianity VS. Hegemonic Culture : Communications Paper.

A subculture is the refusal and resistance to conform to the hegemonic culture. This refusal is based upon a personal experience that one encounters, which does not match the presented naturalized experiences of the dominant culture. (Hebdige) The Christian movement is a subculture within the world that has been successful in its survival because of its strong backbone. Nonconformity seems to be a common theme amongst most spectacular subcultures. Christianity is a unique subculture where its resistance and refusal of the hegemonic culture, is not out of frustration or a selfish desire of recognition, however a desire for others to experience a higher calling in their lives; a greater purpose. It is one of the few subcultures that have no selfish goals, but a mission to let others know they can all share the experience of a high power no matter what their life situation. It is an experience available for all, and an experience that has been miss-represented, defused and diffused by the hegemonic culture because of its potential power to change the worlds dominant culture. (Healy, 2000) If everyone started to encounter an experience with a high power, then the world would no longer look for its satisfaction within material things that make the rich richer and the poor poorer. The selfish hegemonic culture driven by financial greed would be out of business. The world population would return to focusing on the immaterial things of life; things of true eternal value that do not rely on the latest technology to develop. People wouldn’t need to watch shows like Opera to learn how to live, they could simply pray to the creator of all things. If the hegemonic culture allowed the church to dominate, the world would change dramatically. Populations would begin going to church Sunday mornings, instead of watching television. Sundays would become a day of rest again, a day where there would be no shopping consumers, or workers. Subcultures usually have a selfish mission to become dominant. Christians see the world as their mission field, as the bible says, “Go and be fishers of men”. This phrase implying that the church’s role in today’s society is to spread the gospel news and to fish not for food for themselves and their own hunger, but to search for men who are lost and present them with the one thing that will satisfy their starvation and desperation in a world that has left them simply wanting more. Christians do their work, and live the way they do, not for personal gain, but out of compassion for the lost. As Williams has said,
“Culture is a particular way of life which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning, but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour. The analysis of culture, from such a definition, is the clarification of the meanings and values implicit and explicit in a particular way of life, a particular culture” (Williams)
Christianity brings forth their core values such as love, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, grace, and mercy, which are very counter to the hegemonic cultures disillusioned selfish values and norms.
Christianity has created volumes of noise against the hegemonic culture. Noise by definition is known to be an interruptive message sent against the hegemonic culture, by a subculture. (Hebdige) Christianity creates its noise by focusing on unselfishness. The world constantly promotes investing in material items for your selfish wants and needs. The church focuses on putting others before yourself. The church proclaims various diverse messages. If you have food on your table, clothing, and shelter, those are the necessities. You will receive more satisfaction in providing these basic needs to the rest of the world than you would buying yourself a new sports car, or participating in the latest fashion trends. Christianity, unlike the dominant culture, keeps its focus on inner values. These values existed on a higher scale throughout the human population before the technology boom. However these values still exist, and do not need technology advancements to grow or ‘get better’. They are created from within one’s heart and your inner person; and grow as your actions and thoughts and morals become based upon these values. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, and self control are just a few. The fact that these life long virtues, priceless in value, do not rely on anything of the worlds own man made creation is very unique. It presents a major challenge to the norms of the dominant cultures theory of selfishness. “Buy more, spend more, follow us and our popular trends are you will be happy”. The values Christianity present are the secrets to happiness in life, and this is why the hegemonic culture fears the power of this subculture. If the market ever took hold of these truths, they would no longer invest in selfish desires. They would no longer seek to be like Paris Hilton, but seek to be Christ-like, devoting themselves in scriptures, not the lines of cosmopolitan magazines. We would become a world focused on inner beauty rather than outward appearance. That’s a multi-billion dollar industry gone down the drain there. What about if people listened to what the Church had to say about the fashion industry. They would proclaim that you don’t have to show skin in order to attract a partner. However, focusing on the inside will opt for a much more successful relationship in the end. The fashion industry would crash. How about waiting to have sex before marriage? The sex industry makes billions of dollars a year. What would happen to the economy! This noise that Christianity puts forth on so many different playing fields recognizes the struggle for signification in the human population. The hegemonic culture offers no personal individual meaning behind a certain lifestyle, it simply becomes the normal way to live; investing in the popular clothing, music, food, technology and cars. However Christianity shouts against this offering an authentic experience with God from which will stem a purpose and meaning in life that isn’t determined by the richest greedy people in the world, but is determined by a God who is in full control. For example, there is a “Teen Challenge Choir” that will testify to this struggle of signification. They travel North America giving personal testimonies of their past drug addictions and alcohol addictions that where created by the unending ‘want’ in their lives that was created by the hegemonic culture. Then when they turned to Christianity, they had a meaning and purpose and satisfaction in something was true and genuine, and as a result changed their entire lifestyle. They will testify to say that society has a pre-conceived notion that a church is about rules and there is no freedom, but in fact that is where true freedom is found; because if anyone is enslaved, it’s those who have been tricked into living the life the hegemonic culture desires you to live. That’s a life that will make them money and leave you unsatisfied.
Christianity’s noise is a certain discourse, a way of life. It is not a product of a prayer, but a process, and way of living. Christianity’s discourse and way of life is totally counter to the hegemonic culture and thus creates more noise, and has a greater affect on the world. Christianity encourages seeking God’s route for your life, the influence on your life being a higher power, above all other powers, even above the control of the hegemonic culture. The relationship you develop with God will be more powerful than any other, even one with Donald Trump. The dominant culture encourages you to pursue a selfish route that they control by determining your wants and needs for you. This is a form of slavery, being brainwashed to not think for yourself, but to follow whatever the latest issue of 17 magazine says. You are always left wanting something else in the world, and will live a hopeless life of disappointments. There are two complete different ideologies within the Hegemonic culture and the subculture of Christianity. The ideology within the hegemonic culture has no meaning beneath peoples habits because they are simply robots of the dominant culture, the rich wealthy and famous holding the remotes. They simply adapt to what they are directed to want, need, think, and feel. Whereas within the subculture of Christianity, the ideology includes a purpose and meaning behind the lifestyle of living by the Ten Commandments, it is a higher calling. They do not accept man made hegemonic rules, norms and interests.
Style has always been a way of expressing a subculture. Christianity has a unique and diverse style where it is not all about physical appearance. In reality, the only focus on physical appearance in their style is being conserved and not revealing. They do not want men focusing on lust, but love. That is their style. Style is usually based on what you wear, and Christians strive to “wear” Jesus. They try and reflect as much of Christ as possible through their lives. Style is behaviours, forms, and rituals, Christians strive to live their lives as Christ lived his. The Ten Commandments vs. The ten must haves of 2009. The difference in the hegemonic style and the style of Christianity is another example of noise. Christians have a style that focuses on the heart, and the condition of your heart, not the condition of your sports car. How the world would be a more peaceful place with more beautiful people on the inside like Mother Teresa, rather than Super Models Beautiful on the outside like Paris Hilton? Who accomplished more good for the world? Christianity represents a style of honesty, kindness, loyalty, understanding, and forgiveness. Whereas the hegemonic culture tends to base their style upon terms such as; sexy, selfish, dominant, competitive, wealthy and famous.
Bricolage is a term that describes the juxtaposition of two apparently incompatible realities on an apparently unsuitable scale and as a result delivers a powerful message to society. (106, Hebdige) It is also important to note that Bricolage is an intentional term. Christianity has taken the two most incompatible things, “good” and “evil” and has joined these two distinct notions. We have “Jesus Christ” who lived a perfect life, wanting to be best friends with anyone who will simply ask for forgiveness, no matter what sin was involved in their past. This is taking a murderer, or a thief, and sticking them together in the same sentence with the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ. This form of Bricolage proclaims Christianity’s message of God’s grace, love, and mercy. This becomes one of the main discourses of the church today. A discourse breaches our expectancies. A particular discourse is a development which is both dramatic and “meaningless” within the consensually validated norms, pose a challenge to the normative world. They render problematic not only how the world is defined, but how it ought to be. (Hall, Stuart) Christians present this discourse through their aim to be pure and holy through their thoughts actions and motives; this being a very powerful discourse. Christians aim to live as Christ lived. Christ sat and ate with the robbers and the criminals and befriended them. He offered friendship, love, and grace to anyone who asked. Thus in today’s society Christians are still proclaiming this message of redemption that takes the most retched sinner and the holy one, and makes them best friends, through forgiveness. Christianity welcomes drug attics, prostitutes and connects them with a pure God. This type of juxtaposition of allowing “evil” to become friends with “good” results in a very powerful message of the church. Bricolage is supposed to promote awareness of the naturalization that the hegemonic culture is creating. Christianity points out that the hegemonic culture is trying to make the quest for satisfaction in material things, the natural, and common sense thing to do. When in reality, they just want to make money, they want to make you think you will be satisfied, but in the end leave you wanting something else. When people begin to understand this, they will turn to the church, turn to a higher purpose, a higher calling, a higher meaning in life; the discourse and culture, the church represents.
Pastiche is a term that describes the unintentional blurring of history. (Jameson)Christianity as a subculture does not act within this term, however always focuses on doing things intentionally. It is the hegemonic culture that tries to take the church and its history, and secretly mix it in with other forms of culture to try and make a distorted allusion of Christianity. Yes, the hegemonic culture does this intentionally, however they present it in such a way that society will perceive it as something that was just naturalized, and has always existed in such a manner, that it is simply, “pastiche”. For example, the hegemonic culture takes the cross and makes it a world wide symbol that anyone can wear, whether you believe in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ or not. The hegemonic culture has taken the most powerful symbol in Christianity that originally proclaimed a message of Christ’s death and resurrection thus creating grace mercy and forgiveness, and has naturalized it to a symbol of fashion. It is now known as “just the type of pendants people are wearing these days”. The hegemonic culture also has celebrity representatives mashing together their secular promotions as well as proclaiming themselves to be apart of the Christian church simultaneously. This act of pastiche and mixing of the church’s history has become a defusion.
Defusion is found in the hegemonic culture’s efforts in neutralizing Christianity by integrating bits and pieces of it into the dominate order (Hebdige) thus activating Barthes theory of a “privation of history”. (Barthes) The historic values and truths of Christianity are stripped away when celebrities and people in power convey hypocritical messages. As Britney spears accepts a music award for the most absurd sexually music video, she thanks God. This creates a culture of hypocrites thinking that they can have a little bit of Christianity in their lives, and still continue living as a robot obeying the commands of Vogue magazine rather than the world of God. The dominate culture tries to create a mashed version of Christianity which allows people to have “The best of both worlds”. When in fact, the hegemonic culture, is simply distorting the truth, watering it down so it becomes convenient for them to prosper in it as well. It gives people the allusion that they can still participate fully in the selfish material desires of the culture that they offer, and still share the experience of Christians. This mixed history of worldly claims and spiritual claims has distorted the church and divided its power. This is a form of pastiche in the fact that the hegemonic culture has made it common sense for anyone to relate anything to Christianity. It doesn’t matter what you do or think, you can put any lifestyle, hobby, or person and simply put it in their under Christianity even if it makes absolutely no sense. The dominate culture likes to transform the distinct lifestyle of Christianity, and its desire for holiness into a gray area where anything is accepted and lawlessness is the norm. The hegemonic culture likes to present grace as something that requires no discipline. You can have a Friday night of sex alcohol and drugs and then a Sunday morning of salvation. They have neutralized Christianity down to an hour in a building on Sundays, when it is how you conduct your whole life according to the biblical scriptures. Christianity is about love mercy and grace, but equally about discipline in thoughts motives and actions. The dominant Culture has also tried to diffuse the church. Diffusion is when the dominant culture tries to spread out, “divide and conquer” a subculture. (Hebdige) They have done so to Christianity by focusing on the differences in different branches; Protestant vs. Catholic. However the subculture of Christianity is recuperating by creating inter-denominational events such as a local event, “YC”. This is a youth convention that brings together Christians to encounter the experience they all share with God as their common ground, as well as their common desire to know him and make him known. The hegemonic culture’s efforts in defusion, and diffusion as well as making Christianity simply a pastiche, where anything goes, is their reaction to the Christianity’s success and “noise” that is counter to the culture they wish to control and enforce. This is the dominant cultures way to recuperate from the subcultures impact. (Hebdige) In some ways the hegemonic culture has had some success in doing so. Their brainwashing creation of church being a pastiche has caused some Church’s to neutralize their doctrine and meaning because of the influence of the dominant culture. However there are still Christian Church’s that stay strong in their subculture, not watering down their faith or conforming it to make people comfortable, but are taking it on as a challenge to live out the lifestyle of a Christian that is constantly going against the flow and norms of society . Strong Christians will not conform to the world, but believe the world will conform to Christianity.

Christianity is a subculture that is very prevalent in the world today. Whether the hegemonic culture likes it or not, it is the one subculture that has existed from the very beginning. It once was dominant, and got pushed to the wayside through technology shifts and the movement of society into a robotic selfish world. However Christianity is still rising up against it’s obstacles continuing to create noise and strive against what has become the ‘cultural norms’ and disillusions of society. The church is a subculture that isn’t about to conform to the views of the dominate culture.





Bibliography
Barthes, R. Operation Margarine; Myth today. In mediaand cultural studies (pp. 99-107). Blackwell Publishing.
Healy, N. M. (2000). Church, World and the Christian Life. In N. M. Healy. Cambridge University Press.
Hebdige, D. Subculture : the unnatural break. In media and cultural studies (pp. 144-163). Blacksmith Publishing.
Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The meaning of Style. In D. Hebdige. Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Williams, R. Base and Superstructure in marxist Cultural Theory. In R. Williams, Media and cultural studies (pp. 130-144). Blackwell publishing.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

www.facebook.com

facebook and technology in general have become such a distraction to the christians today. I learned in communications today that technological advancments have cause the world to loose its "allure". Meaning its deeper meaning. We are a population based around television shows, hockey games, facebook, and blackberry messaging. Before the technological revolution people had eachother, and the gospel. We need to keep a balance in our lives. Faith is one thing that doesn't need technology to grow or advance. It needs dedicated christians focused on reflecting Christ.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Just another Manic Monday

* Never let the noise, and business of life plug your ears to God's voice*
If you feel distant from God, maybe your priorities on Monday morning are a little off. Maybe your plunging into a busy week not leaving time for your best friend Jesus... Things that take up our time begin to be the noise in our lives, when we focus our hearts and mind on God in everything we do, keeping him the center, the noise becomes Gods Melody in our lives.


Things to think about...

We need to be selfless in a selfish society.
We must die to our worldy ways and begin a new life in christ.
You can gain the world and loose your soul.
It is as hard for a rich man to enter heaven as it is a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Don't fix your eyes on material items, or worldly power or acclaim, rather focus on the heart of your heavenly father. The fruits of the spirit. These are the most valuable things your life can attain.

" For what do I have, If I don't have you Jesus, What in this life could mean anymore? You are my rock, you are my glory, you are the lifter of my head".

Saturday, November 14, 2009

24/7 Worship.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;bring an offering and come before him!Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
1 Chronicles 16:29

OUR GOAL: Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.

Think of a hero you have in life. Could be anyone you look up too. If you were asked to give a speech to the entire world on how we should all honor this particular person you would probably jump at the opertunity . For example, Mother Tearsea. Who could not love her? It would be easy to talk about the wonderful things she has done. Or a modern day popular love, taylor swift. But How about the one and only , Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? We need to give glory to his name and we cannot do this being afraid, we need to start standing up for our faith, not just talk about it , but do it. The sooner we realize that only one opinion in our lives really matters, is when we will start living to our full potential. God's opinion in our lives is all that matters. What he thinks about what we are doing. So in realizing this, it should be easy to forget about being made fun of, and maybe not being the most popular.. because in the end, this life is but a breathe compared to an eternity will we spend with our heavenly father. But telling the world about Jesus doesn’t really mean much if our lives don’t replicate that honour that he is due. So how do we make sure that our lives match what we proclaim?

WORSHIP, giving worth to god 24/7 ..Every word, every thought, every action, every motive, every step, every breathe, is worship. That is hard to wrap our heads around.. and is no doubt going to be difficult. But worship should most definitely involve sacrifice. 1 Chronicals 16:29 says, “ bring an offering and come before him”. That offering is our lives. Thats not a one time offering where we say “ heres my life” and then we go on and live the life we just "gave away" our own way... Thats not offering our lives as a sacrifice at all. When we offer our lives as a sacrifice we really die in and of ourselves and live a new and purposeful life through the will of god. Our lives are no longer our own, but vessels for the lord to work through. We become his hands and feet.
24/7 worship means 24/7 sacrifice and offering. We constantly must sacrifice ourselves against conforming to the popular society and living counter to our culture. We have to be the ones not listening to the crap on the radio...thats an act of worship. We can’t talk about eachother , we have to build each other up. Thats worship. Help eachother out where you are weak, but while helping your friend with the splinter in their eye, don't forget the plank in your own. No one is perfect, and we must keep outselves accountable to Gods word. Keeping Gods 10 commandments in every moment of our lives is worship. And worship is sacrifice. We have to sacrifice watching certain movies or shows. How does shows like the hills and the city or the newest “ peak season”affect your values and how you want to live your life. Or how you perceive “relationships” ... its something to think about. Your attitude when you get up in the morning... are you cranky? Or do you greet the day knowing that you can decide to take on the day to further the kingdom of god and to live out God’s purpose. Whens the last time you got up early on a Saturday morning to say “ i can’t wait to get started today, I ‘ve got so much work to do for the lord”. .. .whens the last time? ... has that ever happened?
The next part of the verse says worship the lord in the splendour of holiness.
Holiness: Specified or set apart for a religious purpose: a holy place. For example, churches should be holy, they are considered holy places. But we must be the holiest of all places, because it is in us the holy spirit dwells and does its work through us, so we must make our hearts and minds pure and holy.

Living according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system; saintly: a holy person.
-our generation has become so lenient.. at this rate it will be totally okay to work downtown and lead worship . totally cool.... there must be a discipline and a desire for discipline. We cannot truely love the lord without wanting to please him.wanting to please him comes from the fear of the lord. This fear is simply a fear of being away from him a fear of him being displeased , it is a fear that will bring us closer to him by our passion and discipline to please him and fuffill his plan !
When you have a decision to make that falls into the gray area of right and wrong, ask yourself, " Would God look down and smile, thinking ' well done son', or 'well done my daughter'"... Lets not be the generation that lives as close to the line seperating right and wrong, our desire should be to stay as far away from sin as possible. Not so close that we can smell it, but not taste it..

We must proclaim the news by how we live our lives.
We must live our lives with discipline and purpose.
We must try and reflect as much of Christ as possible.
We must live holy lives.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Sunny Mornings

The past two mornings I have woke up to the sunshine pouring into my window. I like the fact that it forces me to get up, but I had a thought as my reluctant feet hit the cold floor. We need an attitude check. Waking up to God's beautiful sunshine should help remind us of all his blessings. No matter how many things are going wrong in your life, God, the most powerful, is on your side. The bible says we have already won! We need to be thankful for that! So just a short challenge; Next time you get out of bed, try greeting the day with an attitude replicating something of this sort, " I cannot wait to begin my day, I've got a lot of work to do for the lord". Start your day off with a mission statement, and reflect at the end of the day how you fufilled your mission.

Mission Complete? Mission fail majorly?

* And just something to think about*
I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan <3 and one of her songs, "Cold as you" is about her most inconsiderate, cold, passionless, unloving partner. One of the lines in her song says, "You wouldn't have even told no body, if I died for you... DIED for you".

That hit me over the head the other day... Sometimes we are that cold passionless "lover" of christ. . . Whens the last time you told somebody he died for the world. for you and I? Lets not be cold christians.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Still just a little girl . . .

So I'm sitting in my random spot I always sit in at MUN while I wait for business class to start, and I'm listening to RK. (Relient K) <-- MY LOVE. Check out there new song, " Forget and Not Slow Down", you will not be disappointed. Anyway, I'm sitting here and I realize, why do we worry. Its so silly, Its the last thing the Lord wants us to do. He is in control. If we make sure that our thoughts,actions, words and motives are all steering us down God's path, everything will fall into place. So if we are going to concern ourselves with anything, we should concern ourselves with trying to reflect as much of Christ as possible. Making every thought, action, word, and motive, a step forward in his purposeful path. We need to focus on that, not trying to figure the details of tomorrow out ourselves. If we focus on being Christ-like, and delighting ourselves in him daily, his desires for our lives will become our own desires. He will give us all we need for today, and when tomorrow comes, he will give us all we need to know for tomorrow. It is kind of like this. If you asked me for directions to drive to BC, I could tell you all in one big conversation how to get there and that could be that. But, don't you think, you'd be on your journey and maybe get lost, not being able to remember each right turn to take, or when to go straight... It would be so much easier if I said, "Well I'm leaving tomorrow, Why don't you just follow me". I know how to get there, so if you just keep my tail lights in view, everything will be okay. Now I know some points on our journey you will have no idea where you are, and you will have no idea where we are going next, but if you trust me and keep an eye on my indicators, you'll know just where to turn, and which direction to go. Just trust me.... Thats a lot like our relationship with God. Sometimes We have no idea where we are in life, and no idea where we are going next, but if we keep ourselves close to him, and focus on him, we will pick up on his indicators, and know which direction to go, even if it is only a second before the decision has to be made to go either left or right, we will know. Just let yourself be A CHILD OF GOD. Children don't understand everything, they are just learning how to live, and what their needs are for survival. They are learning the basics; rest, hunger, food, thirst,water, and love. Lets go back to the basics with God and let ourselves simply be a child of God, not his mature adult. Resting in him, having a hunger and thirst for his presence in our lives, and love. Love God, and love each other. Children are in awe of their parents and the things their parents teach them. Everyday they learn something new and discover something they never knew before. Lets get back to that place of awe and wonder in God. Mathew 18:1 says "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter my kingdom" .

Just be his child today.