Living the Journey

With hearts full of thanksgiving to the Lord for His great goodness and abounding mercies, we our excited to share with you the next set of beautiful desktop backgrounds from Living the Journey! (following Series I, Series II, Series III, Series IV, Series V, and Series VI).

These were all designed by Emily Schuurmans and highlight the words of various hymns. We hope they encourage you to sing praise to our Lord!

Living the Journey Desktop Backgrounds

Click on a screen size below to open up a desktop background image. Then right-click on the picture and select “Set as Background” or “Set as Desktop Background.”

Do you have an inspiring picture of God’s magnificent creation from the beautiful Northwoods of Michigan? Send it in, along with a fitting verse of Scripture, and we’ll consider sharing it on this website to encourage others who are also living the journey!

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This is the newest venture of the Journey to the Heart office: keeping you updated on a regular basis! Every month we’ll be sending out this colorful email newsletter with updates, testimonies, prayer requests, words of life from some personal perspectives, and even some exciting reviews on things to read and listen to. We pray that this will become an encouragement and a blessing to you!

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Congratulations! Ellen Lawrence, who attended a Journey to the Heart in September of 2007, won 3rd place in the Senior division of first-ever National Bible Bee!

“As Christians, there is nothing more important than studying God’s Word and memorizing it,” Ellen said.

Over 17,000 students from around the nation learned the importance of hiding God’s Word in their hearts as they competed for the prize. In the Senior division, this meant memorizing over 1,500 verses!

It wasn’t easy, and the competition was intense. “I’m very competitive, so I get very, very nervous,” Ellen said. “But I kept remembering Philippians 4:6-7: ‘Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’”

Ellen was educated at home in the ATI program and is looking to attend the Verity Institute next year as she continues to structure her life around the principles of God’s Word.

Daniel Staddon, who captured 1st place in the Senior division, is also a homeschooled student in the ATI program who plans to attend a Journey to the Heart in the near future. Though winning the $100,000 grand prize was pretty incredible, it really only underscored the inestimable value of God’s Word. Daniel wrote, “Studying God’s Word and getting to know Him on a deeper personal level will yield a lifetime of rewards and benefits far more valuable and precious than any amount of money!”

Though memorizing huge portions of Scripture is certainly a formidable undertaking, the biggest challenge for everyone involved in the Bible Bee is only just beginning. “Now my biggest challenge is to just start to apply this to my life,” Ellen shared in an interview with the Huntsville Times Living. “I have to try and take it and really apply it to my life, to make sure it’s heart knowledge, not just head knowledge.”

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View the Photo Gallery

Do you have more pictures from the Journey? Please send them to us!

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God did an amazing work in Stephen’s life on a Journey to the Heart this summer. Following is the abridged version of a speech that he has recently written about competing affections.

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Could you imagine a young teenager spending $8,000 and devoting an average of 8 hours a day for three years on a particular activity? This adds up to 3 months a year, day and night!

Today I would like to talk about what I’ll refer to as competing affections. A competing affection is when your love and desire for anything or anyone is greater than your love and desire for God.

Matthew 6:13 says that “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Last summer, money was a competing affection in my life. I was giving out business cards and doing any type of work no matter how hard it was. I made over $1,000 dollars over the summer. This was a competing affection in my life because I was putting so much time into my work that I was neglecting my relationship with the Lord. I was being fearful over having enough money for my future needs. When I realized this, I asked God to help me set my priorities straight. I gave my money to the Lord and He has blessed me and took the burden of my future off my back. I still work because I love to work, but it is not motivated by fear of the future.

My friend Vince who had such an extraordinary devotion to video games explained to me his story. “Back when I was a young teenager I would play about eight hours of video game a day. Believe it or not, I actually spent about eight thousand dollars in video games. The reason why I don’t do this any more is because God has opened my eyes and shown me how much it had become a competing affection. I was putting God on the side and my own will on the throne of my life.”

What freedom there is when you give your affections to God and live for Him instead of money, relationships, idols, or even video games!

~ Stephen
July 2009 Guys Journey

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The beautiful and tranquil setting of the Northwoods  removed all distractions and enabled me to wholeheartedly focus on God. I had not expected Him to work as powerfully as He did. There are just so many ways He touched and changed my life.

In the middle of the week I felt discontent, restless, and frustrated. My team had completed all the ungodly heart conditions, but my own cold and distant one had not broken yet. My guilty conscience tried to tell me that I’d already been changed and broken. However, I was to meet God in a powerful way later that night.

After dinner, we watched a video called Father’s Love Letter. God revealed Himself to me in such a loving way and showed me how needy I was spiritually. Consequently, there wasn’t one moment where I was not crying! Two particular verses stuck out to me: Ephesians 3:14-15 and John 1:12-13. These can be paraphrased: “I have always been Father, and will always be Father. My question is . . . Will you be my child?” Sadly, they spoke of my own spiritual condition.

I realized that I had been seeking God’s love from everything else except Him. I sought people’s acceptance over God’s, and had developed fears of rejection and man as a result. I looked to people for approval and guidance, while ignoring God my Father who loved me more than anyone else. This understanding broke my heart and filled me with shame and grief.

After the video ended, I got on my knees to pray, overwhelmed with the truth of the above verses. I cried out “Father God” and suddenly His love flooded my heart like never before. The rest of the week, I experienced such closeness with Him as I had never felt in the past. Only now do I understand how incomparable God’s love is. I love this paraphrase of Romans 8:31-32: “I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love.”

Through the encouragement and direction of my team leader, I developed a habit of daily devotions and journaling. At the beginning of the week, she instructed us to have an hour of quiet time—something I was unaccustomed to—and I groaned inwardly at the thought of losing one whole hour of sleep. However, through the example set by the other girls and God’s grace, I instilled this precious habit. This alone has been more of a blessing than I ever could have imagined, as God has given me new eyes to see His Word and a fresh love for the Bible.

He also blessed me with godly friendships with my teammates. I came home with precious memories, a contrite heart, a yearning for God, and a joyous excitement to follow Him. God has truly changed my heart and given me a stronger desire for Him.

~ Annalise
September 2009 Girls’ Journey

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