Elevation

I'm supposed to be studying, but I feel like blogging. :)

So it's been.. oh, i lost count, almost a month since i moved to waterloo. I cant say it's the greatest, but i've been doing okay lately. So this sunday i went to church with my ccf group. The church was called "Elevation". Inside the bulletin says something liek this: "Welcome: Getting together like this is a reminder to us all that faith is no something you do on your own. We gather together to build relationships, encourage one another in faith, and position ourselves to be changed in the presesnce of God."

I just found it pretty cool when i first read it that morning. It's a nice church, but i guess im not too used to the way it's ran. So after the sermon, there's this time called 'discussion time' where we gather around tables in groups and have some muffins, etc and share. (there's a list of questions.) I found it pretty coold how they do that because it really does create a sense of unity with the people around. But at the same time, it felt like the service just kinda ended there.. and people just start to leave. It was pretty werid, but hey, i guess they like to do things different. I was nice to experience a different church setting. The sermon was titled 'everything else is trash' and y'know, there's really nothing that can make us any 'better' than each other.But ultimately, everything really does go back to God and what he's done for us on the cross. In phil 3:8-9 it says: What is more, i consider everythign a loss compared to the surpassing greatneess of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake i have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that i may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness tha tcomes from God and is by faith.

I know you guys are doing some hardcore stuffs this coming months. :) Keep working, enjoy each other, and pray for us as well :)

May God give you guys strength to rise up in every aspect of your life :) You can elevate with me ;) (get it...?)

Miss you guys!
--a.

Read me if you got time, I'm a long blog

Oh man, everyone blogging excites me and makes me so happy (so very happy)!

So I've officially done everything off both lists that I posted earlier this month. Am I proud to announce this? Not for everything, but every experience has definitely already helped guide me in certain directions.

Today was the first Sunday service that I have ever attended on my own will. Sure, I've been to Sunday services before at CLBC, but only because we had to be there at that time for wild camp. So I went to Ottawa Chinese Bible Church bright and early. But they were moving buildings, so service actually starts at 11:30. It was kind of strange being there at first in a new environment, and I didn't know any of their singspirations or anything. Then there was a "new song" that someone was introducing- Come Home Running. Oh c'mon, could He have made it any more perfect! Seriously, I was just thinking "thanks for the sign". Anyway, the topic was lighter than I expected. It was about like, giving into Christ vs. Satan. One thing that struck me was that like, you don't go looking for trouble if you know it's there because then you're inviting evil into your life. In other words, look to Christ; don't "go" where you know Satan will be in hopes to evade him- because being human, we'll most likely fall into his traps. It was definitely a nice and well-needed reminder.

So I was looking back on my past blogs to track my progress. I had 2 blogs on people saying stuff like "why are you doing that, I thought you were a Christian!" I was hanging out with some people the other night, and I can't remember what we were talking about, but they noticed the cross necklace I was wearing, so they asked me about it, and I said that I was a Christian. Then some of them said that they were too, and others said that they were Catholic. I swear that the first thing that crossed my mind was "no waaaaay". I really didn't think what some of these people did reflected their "religion". I don't wanna be those people. I wanna reflect and glorify God. I guess it's a matter of keeping myself in check to make sure I'm on the right path. So hey, maybe having a few non-Christ-like friends can help me out on this so I can always say "that's not what I wanna be". Hahaha.

One more thing- I went to a cell group (like a little bible study discussion group) on Friday, and I really liked this example that was used to describe what we need to receive Jesus in our lives:
-We need intellect (knowledge/facts), emotion (to feel/experience God), and will (to do God's will)
-That's like a combination lock. If we only have 1 of the 3 numbers, it's really had to get at the solution. If we have 2 of the numbers, it's easier, but it might take a while. If we have all 3, we'll reach the goal in no time.

BLOG BLOG BLOG!
--Sabrina

Evolution

hey guys, i haven't really blogged this lately even though i've been meaning to, but i keep on forgetting. right now i have tape stuck to my index and my thumb on both hands because of my iaps assignment. and itz not very enjoyable. so maybe now u're wondering why i'm blogging about this.

i'm blogging about this because in iaps class we're learning about evolution. well i know that i'll have to learn about it sometime but i never expected it so soon. everytime i sat in class i go through stuggles to convince myself that evolution never happened. but the way the teacher explains it makes it sound so convincing that evolution really took place (and i guess i get convinced pretty easily), maybe that's also part of the material she needs to teach. even though itz a stuggle i always reminded myself the things i learned from the workshop in one of the fellowship programs. and i guess that not only can i remember the things i learned in the workshop, but also my own life is proof that god exists. when i look back on my life and everything that's happened, it can't just be a coincidence, there's no theory to explain the different things that happened in my life and it wasn't my choice in the first place so definately there has to be a god working in my life. if things turned out differently. and i guess that's also the thing tht i need to remind myself to get through this whole topic on evolution.

(lol, i don't know if i'm making any sense in this blog, i'm not really making any sense today, but i am convinced with creation over evolution. hehe just wanted to share this with u guys)

-sherm

so where are you going?

I;m sitting here in front of my comp and I'm goign thru my emails
and bam! I see all these blogs
so I decided to finally go and look at all of them
some thing I noticed right away was the change
the change in envrionment the change in lifestyle and this is the part where somethign sparked in me
I rmeber a few years ago
just entering into high school
someone told me that highschool is quite unique experience
its sorta a time where your not only finding where you are goign or where you are bound but more of who you are and what you choose to shape yourself to be
sorta all about change

recently I;ve been thinking over about who I;ve become
I dig through photos and see how much I;ve changed
it gives me memories of the good and bad times
but most importantly of all it triggered something I havent asked myself in a while

how have I changed spiritually?

have I drawn closer?
or have I strayed?
have I let God use me to impact others?
or have I impacted others because of my own selfish desires?

I find that as you go on through life, whenever you enter a different stage and you change, you have to ask yourself these questions
sorta liek checkign up on yourself
asking yourself where are you going? is it the right way?
I guess its improtant to so you dont find yourslef going way off and never even get to realize what is happening
quite sad isnt it?

so I guess bottom line is that I just want you guys to kno just how urget it is to make sure you are on track
to be walkign in the light and be sure of it
to be walking TOWARDS Him rather than away

yup my memory sparks are quite long :P
-arth

Remembering How Good is God

Hi everyone! I think i would have blogged earlier but Im a very lazy person so i tell to myself to blog later but now, because of my bro nagging me to blog since he feels so lonely blogging himself(lol), im gonna start my blog

Today while thinking about ideas for homework i was also thinking about how God has helped me throughout my life and i just remembered one interesting story to share.

i think it was in late may of 2009 and all the students have summatives to finish.
At lunch my friend said that he needed some help with his summative cuz he was away for like a few weeks so i said yes. I was very HUNGRY so i decided to eat after i finish helping him. It seems like that it took us the whole lunch period and i didnt have time to eat any of my lunch. In otherwords, i sacrificed my lunch just to help a friend whos in need cuz part of the assignment was due after lunch and he didnt even start. Then i realized i had gym and if i have my facts straight, eating means i get more energy and energy allows me to move or somethin like that. My stomach was growling and then when i entered the gym, i realized we had to do the BEEP TEST. Oh man i hate that test.
and since i didnt eat a thing, i knew i will fail it but then a miracle happened. While running the test, i suddenly felt like i had a lot of energy. In the past i usually get 5 for the test but that day i got 6. I start thinking how com this nvr happens to me bak then but then i remembered God and helping my friend.

I think John 3:16 ties in to this experience. he was one of my closest friends so its almost like God loving the world and i sacrificed my lunch and its like God sacrificing Jesus.

Well i hope u like my first blog. Ill blog more soon

Al

Moving On

Hey, this is Billy again. I have some spare time so i decided that i should use this time to blog since i didn't blog in a few months. Anyways, based on the title, i think you should know what i mean by "Moving On." Well, its about high school (quite obvious).
Ever since high school started, it was a very difficult time for me. I had new teachers, many new classmates, and more things to learn. I had to walk to classrooms that are very far from my locker and other classrooms as well. I barely had any friends in this school since practically all my friends went to ACCI (Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute). I was always late to classes in the first few days of classes since it was pretty hard to find the classrooms when they are practically off the school map(that's how far the classes were). I guess it was pretty tiring and stressing for me in the start of the new school year. All I had to do was adjust to the new school environment and forget what i did at Henry Kelsey. But i just can't, Kelsey was a part of my life which was important to my self-esteem at the time. After realizing that, i even had regrets to go to ACI instead of ACCI.
After going to Sunday service at Church, I realized that through the stress-less faces on everyone there, it made me a little more confident and if they are used to high school then so would I. God lead me through this path for me to learn a lesson, "Don't give up no matter how hard it is."

Secure

So this isn't really a big thing. Apparently, at the end of the school year 2009, my school's guidance schedule for almost 75% of the grade 12 students had difficulties sorting out the courses and such. I'm not exaggerating. At first I was thinking it's another one of those little mistakes where they will fix before school starts and everything would be okay. Anyways, on registration day, I got my time table for semester one and semester two. I checked. I had all the right courses and every course in every semester balanced. Everything worked out fine. Later on, I went over to my group of friends. They were all worrying and panicking because guidance screwed up their schedule. Some didn't have the course they need and some had overlapping courses. Just a reminder, all of my friends including myself are all grade 12s. Obviously, we will go crazy if we don't get the right courses for our last year. In the end, my friends solved their situation by dropping other courses, adjusting to it and stuff.

Yeah. At that moment, I realized that my schedule was just right. I felt so happy and "safe" I don't know what's the word, hm maybe secure? In my head, i was just thinking : God planned this. He did this. Everything was just right.
And I was worrying so much about course selections in March 2009. All this reminded me of the bible study (Jeremiah 29:1-11-14?) Jackie taught a while back ago. Yeah, notice the emphasis on verse 11. haha. But yeah, I prayed for my friends as well because I really do not want to see them suffer in their last year. And now, everything just worked out fine as God planned.

K

Home Sweet Home

So now that i got a personal email from Tina, i will blog. hahaa. i've been meaning to, but i've pushed it back til now.

I guess i'll do a little recap of my first week here: I went to frosh. hahaha that's it, really. We were divided into our faculties, then into small groups and we just played games, walked around campus, talk to upper years... etc. the ususal stuff. It's pretty fun. we went to this conservation area near guelph and played sports there and stuff. it's a campground, and it's pretty nice! haha. so yeah, tha'ts all i did the first week. xP We also had dances and stuff.. seriously, i went to 3 dances in 4 days. it was so crazy. but it was fun, i suppose. Sometimes it's kinda nasty cause there's so many people.

Anyway, so i went to ccf (chinese christian fellowship) today and it seemed pretty nice. the people are nice and there's a lot of them! so i have a feeling it's gonna be a good year! it's kinda different to have fellowship with such a large group, but i guess we'll split off into smaller groups, but yeah, it's different to be the one not speaking rather than the leader :P it's a good change. hahaha.

As for devo.. i've been starting at exodus again because the OT is so much fun. haha. it's very different from reading NT cause it's not as explicit. but it's nice. :)

I dont have much else to add... So i'll see you guys later, hopefully!

This is why we blog (pt.2)

So back in May, I blogged about why we blog and how we do it. It had some stuff about making lists, goals, and doing things like writing a letter to God.

I said back then that I'd do it eventually. This is eventually.

Fyi, this is my second day at Carleton. I've already cried. Ridiculous, huh. Except I thought it'd be weird if i was bawling my eyes out with my roommate here, so I tried to keep it to a minimum. How? I opened up my Bible for the first time in...maybe a year, seriously. Now I didn't know what to turn to (but i must admit, Matthew 6:25 was going through my head- aka. 'Do not worry'), but I remember in a SIC (Sisters in Christ, aka. my group of friends getting together once in a while to fellowship) we were supposed to read the book of Ruth, but i never did. So I read the book of Ruth. Okay, I must admit that I didn't really get what I potentially was supposed to out of it, but just having the Word of God was comfort enough. Actually, this is what I needed for a wake-up call. To be nearly completely alone so that I would look to God. Heck, I didn't even look to God- I SEARCHED for Him.

My to do list (for this week as confirmed by my roomie):
-Get to know people.
-Party.
-Drink.
-Get to know people while partying and drinking.
-Leave our door open so that we can meet more (drunk) people- (we just shook on it)

MY to do list (what God wants me to do):
-Get to know people.
-Get to know people that will be a good influence on me.
-Get to know people that I can fellowship with

Alright, so from those 2 lists, I've kinda done stuff from both. From list 1, we've been leaving our door open, that's all. From list 2, I know a few people that are Christian, but it's still early so it's kind of hard to bring church up right now, but it's frequently at the back of my mind.

So guys, pray for me! I need a ton of strength and courage right now.

P.S. i miss you tons already.

[[edit:: So I was just reading Sept.7's Our Daily Bread entry and it was about unanswered prayers. The bottom line was that some prayers are meant to be unanswered because it's not in God's will because He knows what's best for us. So this is gonna sound super-antisocial, but hey- maybe I wasn't meant to do all of that stuff on List 1 right now. In fact, maybe I'm supposed to be antisocial right now so that I'm not meeting people that will steer me the wrong way.
Dang, I forgot how awesome the God & His Word could be!

--sabrina