Guatemala video

Trials part 2... why trials?

WHY TRIALS?

So we covered what trials are, but why are we faced with trials! After this study, I hope that you will look at trials differently. They’re not as bad as they really seem. And looking at them differently, through God’s eyes they become bearable.  The verses referenced in this study are James1:1-10, Psalms 27:13, and Job 23:10.

Trials are not meant for us to suffer for the sake of suffering. Their sole purpose is to teach us to reach out to God, and to become dependent on him. Through Him our weakness will be made strong, the unimaginable will become imaginable, the impossible will become possible. 

CONSIDER THIS IN YOUR TRIALS:

  Consider your trials JOY (James 1:2). Joy isn’t something you have in your self. You are unable to be joyful on your own account. (Joy and happiness are 2 complete different things.) Joy can happen in all situations. Joy is a supernatural delight in the person, purpose and people of God. Happiness is circumstantial. For a Christian Life is about displaying the superiority of a life lived in God. When you are facing a trial I pray that you will ask yourselves these 4 questions. I know it will cause you to look at life differently. It has helped me look at the trials I’m currently facing in a whole new way. And it will further advance the kingdom of God!!!

1. What is happening to me? Is it a trial or a consequence? With out determining the difference you will never be able to grow through a trial or repent and get out of the consequence.
2. Why am I here on earth?
3. How can this trial advance that purpose?
4. What can I do this moment to display the superiority of God?

WHAT DO YOUR TRIALS PRODUCE?

Trials produce staying power (or steadfastness) James 1:3.

If faith were to have a final exam, imagine these three questions:

1. Do you believe God is in control?
2. Do you believe God is good, and that his purpose is good (Psalms 27:13)
3. Will you wait on God by faith until the darkness becomes light?

These questions may be easy head answers. But when it comes down to practicing them on a daily basis it’s really hard. In my head I know that God is good, and his purpose is good, but I have a hard time living in wait for God to show me his plan and purpose. The original translation of steadfastness, endurance, perseverance and patience literally means to remain under. There are 4 alternatives that we can choose instead of demonstrating steadfastness. 

1. We can complain against God
2. We can lash out at others
3. We can bail, declaring “I didn’t sign up for this!”
4. We can fold, collapsing without benefiting from the trial. 

Let’s face it. We’ve all done this at some point in our life. (Even if it is in hiding. On the outside making it looks as though we are dealing with the trial but mentally and spiritually we have given up.) HOW CAN YOU EVER EXPECT TO GROW FROM TRIALS BY GIVING UP!!!  God would not have put us through this trial if we could not handle it. Granted we are not meant to handle it alone. We are meant to rely on God, lean on his shoulder for strength to complete this, and through the trial he will complete the good work he has started in you!!! Job 23:10 says: He knows the way I take and when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold!... But how are we going to come forth as gold without being put through the fire and with standing it! We will come out on the other side pure and holy! Just as God wants us to be! That’s encouragement enough to stand firm!

Trials also produce life transformation! (James 1:5-6)

We will become perfect and complete lacking nothing!!! When it comes to wisdom:

1. Ask God. Ask and you shall receive. 
2. Make sure you really want to know, without having any conditions. God isn’t going to give you wisdom if it’s not what you really want. Imagine this… I want to know the answer to a certain situation only if the out come goes like this… God loves us unconditionally, when we ask him for something it should be asked without doubting and without conditions, and we should really want to know the answer. 
3. When pursuing wisdom, beware of double-mindedness. (James 1:8)

If you lack wisdom in the trial, God will answer the personal why. But this requires TOTAL SUBMISSION TO GOD!!! When we are stubborn, doubting, or placing the blame elsewhere we are just prolonging the process. 

I know this is helping me get through my trials, and I know that by looking at them this way God will help you over come your trials too. I don’t feel strong enough to handle my trials; I’m moving to a different country, living on my own away from my parents and all that makes me feel safe. This is something I have never done. Not even when I went away to school. I stayed close enough to home that I could come home every weekend, work, have home cooked meal, see my family and do laundry. I won’t have that in Guatemala and it terrifies me. But I also know that this is right where God wants me and he will help me endure it! I’ll be living with a family I never met, and if this isn’t hard enough we won’t even speak the same language. I’ll be leaving my grandpa who might not even remember me when I get back. He has advanced stages of dementia and barely remembers who I am now. Although I get caught up in all of this and it causes me to be emotionally and mentally exhausted and ready to give up, I know that God is in control and the only way I will get through this is through his help! That is why I am confident these couple posts on trials will help you, because they have helped and are helping me cope with these terrifying hard times in my life!

My first trip to Guatemala was spent doing construction at a local school, The trench was hand dug, the rebar was hand twisted.. Tough work!

The cement was hand mixed on the ground, from one pile to the next and back again until it was fully mixed. 

Then the water was added.. My favorite part because you stood around until enough water had been added, then into the trench it went. 

Then it was play time with the kids. They love clowns so anything to do with clowns was the best thing that could possibly happen. 

I hope your all enjoying these!

Trials part 1

TRIALS:

Good day all!!!   This has been weighing heavily on my heart the past couple months so I thought I would share it with you all!  People tend to give up the second anything challenging comes along. But the bible gives us fair warning that life will not be easy. Jesus suffered what makes us think that we will get off easy. Jesus gave his life to the trial, what makes me think that my life is more important than His to not give Him my all. Our lives on earth are so short compared to the rest of eternity, and it is not even my life to live. Without God’s grace I wouldn’t even have this life. The very least that I can do is give it all to Him. So after doing some in-depth studies from Pastor James Macdonald of Harvest Bible Chapel, here are some thoughts on trials that I want to share. 

WHAT ARE TRIALS: (Hebrews 12:5-12, Phil 1:6, Titus 2:11-12)

Trails are extremely common! Every one has them. 

There are many kinds of trials. Some small, big, short, long, irritating, devastating, stretching and shattering. 

A trial is a painful circumstance that is allowed by God to change your conduct and your character! Trials are showing what God is doing thru me and in me! Allowed by God, not caused by God. God allows these trials in your life to strengthen and grow you. 

Everyone is going through a trial right now! If you are one of Gods children you are going thru a trial right now. If you life is easy, no complaints, no hard spots maybe your not one of God’s children. Chilling isn’t it. If you’re not going through a trial, you are NOT a son/daughter of God.  It really causes you to stop and think. God’s word tells us that we are going to face trials of various kinds (James 1); God gives us a heads up, why should we be shocked when we face a hard time. God doesn’t want our lives to be miserable, he wants to grow us, He wants for us to become more Christ like, He wants us to deepen our faith and dependence on Him!

BUT YOU’RE NOT ALONE!! Look at the great cloud of witnesses that has gone on before you! Abraham, Noah, and Moses, David: these patriarchs of the Old Testament as well as many prophets of the New Testament faced trials including: suffering, hardship, difficulty, chastening and discipline. Doubt me… look up Hebrews 11-12!

WHAT IS THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD?

Proverbs 3:11-12: “my son do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father the son in whom he delights!”

The whole point of trials is so that we come to God broken, and He is taking us to a new level of devotion and dependence!

Our acknowledging that we don’t have the resources needed to see us through the Lord’s discipline is exactly what God is going for when we face trials. 

WHY DOES THE LORD DISCIPLINE HIS CHILDREN?

  The Lord disciplines the ones he LOVES!!! The purpose is to restore the perfect relationship we had with God. John 1:12 says he loves us and we became Children Of God!!! Coheirs with Jesus! I’ll take that discipline any day!

There is a difference between consequences and trials. You go and rob a bank, and get put in prison… Consequence, not a trial. 

The way out of a consequence is repentance, a trial is completely different. God disciplines us because he LOVES us! God is treating us as sons. 

HOW SHOULD I RESPOND TO THE LORDS DISCIPLINE?

 We must ADMIT that “YOU ARE RIGHT GOD” and we must SUBMIT to God. 

Now humans do a lot of admitting, or maybe its blame placing right? We will never grow in our trials if we do any of these 3 things: 1) we don’t admit God’s right, we say there is no problem or we place the blame. 2) We recognize that there is a problem but it’s not our fault. Or 3) There is a problem but it’s not me. 

WHAT RESULTS FROM THE LORDS DISCIPLINE?

 When God disciplines us, HE HAS A GOOD PURPOSE in mind! Hebrews 12:9-10. 

God’s purposes in our discipline are very specific, not at all like Satan, who continuously condemns us with generalities. He is causing us to strive to become holy!!! Now I know what you’re thinking. Holy, that’s it. Well let me tell you this. The definition of Holy is this: dedicated or devoted to the service of God! Holiness is the absence of everything that causes turmoil, pain, restlessness, and fear. Holiness is the complete state of God centeredness, Holiness should by a synonym of happiness. So yeah, Holiness that’s it!! But isn’t that great! That’s what all Christians should be striving towards.   

HOW DO I MAKE THE MOST FROM THE LORDS DISCIPLINE?

Focus on these 3 things!

1. The pain is momentary. It’s not going to last forever, and then we will enter into eternal life with God forever!
2. The profit is immense. Holiness!
3. The promise is conditional! To those only who have been trained by God’s discipline, by becoming a Child of God and using the trials in your life as a tool to deepen your faith and dependence in God!

This was taken in 2010 right after a volcano erupted and a tropical storm hit. Huge slabs of concrete were knocked out of houses, and people patched them up with aluminum siding. 

This is volcano fuego. Every once in a while it puffs a little bit of smoke, still very active and just outside Antigua, Guatemala

This is Celeste. She teaches kindergarten at the christian school (Escuela vida y esperanza, the school of life and hope), she is my prayer partner for the past 2 years.

These are 4 adorable kids that live really close to the school, they were so generous. They have an avocado farm!

More to come, this stuff is pretty intense. I hope it helps you all as much as it helped me!

The Journey Begins

My journey begins with my home church, Christ Community Church. CCC has a rich heritage focused strongly on missions. I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel on many short term mission trips, to various parts of the world. Yet the trip that touched my heart the most occurred in 2010 to a little country located in Central America, Guatemala. Here is how my journey to Guatemala began...

January 2010  found me in my last semester of college at Carroll University months away from having a degree in Biology and no hope of finding a job. After sending in numerous applications and resumes to various ecological employees, and hearing no response I was feeling hopeless. God used that to break me and help me realize that without total submission to His will for my life I was going nowhere.

 That is when the opportunity to join my church on a short term trip to Guatemala appeared. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God wanted me on that trip. So I signed up, payed my application fee and started writing support letters. Three weeks before the trip was scheduled to take place I graduated from Carroll and in turn was forced off my parents insurance. So There I was getting ready to leave the country with nothing but excitement and no insurance. BUT... God is bigger then all the meaningless problems humans tend to get so caught up in. The night before we were supposed to leave a volcano erupted in Guatemala covering the city with a layer of ash, closing roads and airports. While we tried to make other plans to get to Guatemala, (via El Salvador) God showed us that only in His timing were we going to accomplish His will. Days after the volcano erupted the country was hit with a tropical storm. We had no choice but to post-pone our trip (mostly due to the fact that the airport had canceled our flight). While all this was going on I got hired on full time (with health benefits) at a local retail store where I had been working part time for the better part of 4 years. The health benefits were for full time employees and you had to be working there for a 30 day "trial" period before the benefits could kick in.

Well the storms finally ceased and the roads and airports started opening back up so we rescheduled our flight. We rescheduled it for the week of July 4th. The busiest week of the year at work. I knew that it would be only by the power of God that I would be able to take that week off. Monday morning I went to talk to my boss, feeling antsy and nervous the whole morning. Yet God went before me and before I could even finish my practiced speech my boss was telling me that I could have whatever time I needed off for this trip. But wait it gets better. The day before we left for Guatemala was the day my health insurance kicked in! God's timing is perfect. We may question it, and try to box it in to our understanding, but why limit God's power to the pathetic level of our comprehension.

Finally after months of planning and rescheduling the team and I made it to Guatemala. I knew the first day we were there that God's will for me in Guatemala was not going to be completed in 1 week. Although that week was fantastic, we bonded with the Guatemalans and helped out where we could it  still wasn't enough. A month after we returned to the States I knew that I needed to go back. And that is just the beginning of the journey.