CANADIANS ARE CRAZY!

FRIENDS. HOWDY!

Sorry I have been so M.I.A. I promise I will do my ABSOLUTE best to update you on my life since I haven’t really told yall much since…well about a month ago. So, today starts Thanksgiving break, which I am incredibly thankful for the chance to go home and see my family. However, I am also realizing how hard it is going to be to be away from my institute family for a whole week. You don’t realize how close you have become with people until you won’t be around them anymore.

So, as we walk into this break I can’t help but to look back on the time I have had here thus far. The word I continually land on is REFINING.

Daily we are faced with truth that we have to wrestle with. Constantly taking everything we hear, read, or say to scripture to evaluate what the Word of God truly says. It is completely tiring and refreshing all at the same time. I have been flooded with the fact that I don’t know nearly as much as I THOUGHT I knew. However, through it all God still amazes me with his sovereignty over time.

Two weeks ago we presented our big projects for this semester. We had 30 minutes each to teach the entire story of the bible from Genesis to Revelation. (side note: totally need more than 30 minutes to adequately teach it, but it was SOO fun to be able to sit and teach people the story that God has so purposefully put together) With that project, I was able to so clearly see God’s hand in EVERY part of the story, including the 400 years between the Old and New Testament. I wish more than anything I could tell you the whole story right here and now, and show you God’s sovereignty from beginning to end, but it would take me forever. (maybe stop by my house during break and I will tell ya it ;) ) But in all seriousness, I was and am still being blown away at how God has knit the story together with Jesus and the Redemption of His people. Yall he is GOOD!

But 2 and ½ months with 70 other people hasn’t been all cupcakes and flowers (totally wish it had been, cause I love me some flowers). It has been hard. Class has been challenging, community has been sharpening, comparison has been creeping up, spiritual warfare is real & trying to break our bonds as community.

REFINING - remove impurities or unwanted elements from (a substance), typically as part of an industrial process.

I didn’t choose the word refining because of all the incredible things I’ve learned or the amazing family I have made, but because God has been so clearly chipping away at the little unwanted elements of me. How thankful I am that our Savior doesn’t just swoop in, save us, and then run out.
PRAISE THE SHEPHERD FOR REFINING US ALL!

This week in class we studied church history. I didn’t love history in high school, but when I got to college it caught my attention and I started to like it, but only when the teacher is passionate about what they are teaching. Chad Hampsch taught us this week and boy was he on fire when he was teaching us about the history of the Christian Church. From the Roman Catholic Church, to the Puritans bringing the church to America, and to now as we continue to take gospel and church to places it hasn’t been before. I loved hearing the story come together since the Church began in Acts. I think there is so much value in being able to know our history so we can better defend our faith and beliefs. I don’t know if I could tell you everything because it was a lot for three days, but it excites me to learn more about the Churches history.

As, I head home, I ask that yall pray that I don’t get comfortable with home. That what I have learned here, the disciplines I’ve put into practice, and the relationships I have built to stop as I am home for a week. But I also ask that you pray that my time at home be a good time of fellowship and community with my family.

And in the words of Matt Rau: Church chicken is good with waffles.

recap:
BEING REFINED & THANKFUL

Where are you God?

Prophets are cool. They still apply today. Two weeks ago we had the opportunity to be taught about the prophets of the Old Testament by Blake Holmes from Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas. It was incredible how he was able to show us the big picture of each prophet and make it so applicable to today’s time. The prophet that stuck out most to me was Habakkuk.

Habakkuk is a prophet that is frustrated because he feels like the Lord is not there in the midst of all the violence and evil in this time. I think the reason it stuck out most to me was because there has been times in my life when I have asked those questions that Habakkuk is asking.

                                  “Where are you God?” “Are you just?” “Are you good?”

After his conversation with the Lord Habakkuk comes to the conclusion that regardless of circumstance God is still good and God is still sovereign.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 “Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”

My prayer is that even when we all hit those moments where we are shattered and broken and asking the question “Where are you God?” that we turn back to God. Who we know God to be.

                                               

                                                                     Good & Sovereign.