Living the Journey

This newest series of beautiful “Inspiration for the Journey” desktop backgrounds were designed by Emily Schuurmans. The photographs were taken in the Northwoods by Sarah Stezl and Hannah Burnett. They are a worthy addition to the many desktop backgrounds we have featured in the past: Series I, Series II, Series III, Series IV, Series V, Series VI, Series VII, and Series VIII. Enjoy!

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

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In April of 2010 I went on a Journey to the Heart, where I dealt with many issues of the heart and learned a lot about who I am in Christ. One of the things I learned about, was that God wants us to share our faith with others instead of keeping it to ourselves. Since a very young age, I kept my faith to myself—mainly because of my reserved nature. In fact, I used that as an excuse. When I went on the Journey, I realized how weak that excuse was. I was basically blaming God for making me “shy” and telling Him that’s why I couldn’t share the Gospel with others. The truth of the matter was that I was scared to take a chance; scared to do something in faith.

After the Journey to the Heart, when I came back home, I started seeking to reverse my past weakness and start sharing the Gospel with others. When that didn’t happen as soon and as easily as I had expected, I was tempted to get discouraged. But instead, I remembered that God will only use us when we’re “hot”. Last week, I was asked by a leader at our church to lead devotions at our weekly staff meeting. I felt led to talk about Revelation 3:15,16 and I was making the point that God will only use us as long as we are spiritually “hot”. So in order to practice what I preach, I made an effort the rest of the week to remain usable and “hot” for God.

The very next day, I was at my church when I saw four kids, around 8-10, playing around in the fountain. It turns out that they were from nearby apartments and had never heard about God’s plan for salvation. When I asked them to get out of the fountain, they asked me what the empty tomb (a replica of the tomb Jesus was supposedly buried in) was for. So I had the amazing opportunity to share the story of Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection with them. And after I finished telling them about the way to be saved, they all wanted to ask Jesus to be their Savior! It blew me away that God could use me to impact those kids’ lives!

What also blew me away is that I did none of this on my own. When I put aside my weakness in speaking to others about God, I was able to be used by God to advance His Kingdom! God says in Exodus 4:12 “I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” Regardless of the fact that I did not know what to say, God spoke through my mouth to those boys. When I rendered myself usable for God, only then was I able to share with those boys.

~ Luke
April 2010 Guys Journey

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Pray for this team of young men as they seek the Lord in the Northwoods this week!

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10).

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Luke didn’t think that he was believing any lies of Satan. But after he watched Paul and Jenny Speed’s video on Exposing the Lies of the Enemy during his Journey in April, he suddenly realized that there was a lie that he had been believing ever since he was young that was holding him back from being an effective warrior in God’s Kingdom.

He briefly shares this testimony in the following audio clip.

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~ Luke
April 2010 Journey

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What am I going to do with my life? This may be a question going through your mind right now. It had been ringing in my head since before I was 12!

I wanted to do what God wanted me to do, but I let God know that there were a few things I’d never do, even if He asked me! Not surprisingly, for the next 5 years I didn’t hear a thing from God about what I should do.

Then, sitting at the 2005 Sacramento ATI Conference, “Total Surrender for Total Success,” I finally did what God had wanted me to do all along—surrender everything to Him. Walking out of that auditorium, I could feel God’s pleasure.

Then I just “happened” to walk right up to the Oak Brook College of Law booth. The person handed me some information. I said, “Thanks”, and kept on going. Later that same night, I just “happened” to meet two awesome Christian guys who just “happened” to be Oak Brook College students. On the 35-hour drive home, God revealed to me that He had given me a dream: Law and Government Policy.

I was so excited to start that first year! After some initial challenges, I figured I had it cased with a few A’s on midterms. I was glad God had led me into Oak Brook, but I figured I could take it from there. That pride deadened me to God’s conviction in my life. By the time I got to finals, I was one very (over)confident law student. But when the grades came back, my pride was crushed. I began to hear God’s gentle convictions again, and I began to obey.

I had limited my relationship with God to “finding God’s will” instead of actually finding God Himself. Realizing how much I’d missed out on, I now wanted to seek and know God Himself. So after taking the First-Year-Law-Students-Exam (a mini bar exam), I came to the Journey. And I met with God! Continuing in my relationship with Him, God directed me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Strange things happened. I got a full-time job and my grades improved, big time!

So God has used Oak Brook College of Law in my life already. Now, getting set to take the bar exam in less than a year, I look out and see that God continues to use OBCL in the lives of the graduates, as they practice in many different fields in jurisdictions across America and even in Canada.

So what are you going to do with your life? Have you totally surrendered yourself to God, allowing Him to reveal all the blessings He has for you? If you have, check out Oak Brook College and talk to God about it. OBCL may be in His plan for you!

~ Marty
November 2007 Journey

For more information on the Oak Brook College of Law, check out this post on the Family Support Link.

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