Posts Tagged ‘God’s Word’

From Boredom to Excitement!

CarleighBefore I went on the Journey, I was having a hard time reading the Bible. It was really becoming boring, and I was not enjoying it. When I went to the Journey, I learned about not just reading the Bible, but really meditating on it, and asking God to show me what it means.

When I read about having an “enlarged heart” (see Psalm 119:32), I realized that in order to have my heart enlarged I must fill it with things of the Lord, one of them being His Word. When I came home I decided to read the book of John, even though I have read it before. I wanted to get my love for reading the Word back into my heart. I also decided to start memorizing the Psalms, and have actually really enjoyed it. It is a challenge that helps me want to stay in the Bible, and meditate on it!

~ Carleigh
July 2009 Girls’ Journey

A Whole New Level

RebeccaRebecca’s time alone with God each day was nourishing, but dry. She had heard about others who delighted in God’s Word and prayer like “peaches and cream,” but wasn’t really sure if she would ever feel that way. On her recent Journey to the Heart she experienced God’s presence and developed a greater delight in God’s Word than she ever had before. The important truths she discovered took her relationship with God to a whole new level.

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~ Rebecca
July 2009 Girls Journey

One Year After the Turning Point

August 2008 Guys JourneyAugust 19th one year ago marks the largest turning point in my life. It was on that day that, while on a Journey to the Heart, God pulled on my heart and convicted me to call my earthly father about a sin I had been hiding for years. In my journal that day, I wrote two sentences:

“August 19th, 2008: On this day, I begin a new path towards moral freedom.”

“O God who made these trees, let this moment be the title page of a new beginning.”

Little did I know how much God would fulfill those two statements of my heart. His method was simple: take my life, flip it upside down, and shake me out. Then flip me back over and fill my cup with His presence—His continual presence. Here are the three major areas He has affected the most in my life.

God’s Word is Living

Before the Journey I doubted the innerancy of God's WordPrior to Journey to the Heart, I never read my Bible. Never. I didn’t want to. I felt nothing when I did, and seriously doubted its inerrancy. I read many books on why the Bible was reliable, but the more I read, the more I doubted it. I liked Aquinas and Plato better, who gave logical reasons for what they stated, as opposed to the Apostle Paul’s way of stating spiritual matters as facts without any backing but Jesus’ work on the cross.

While as Journey to the heart, I discovered why the Bible is trusted by so many: it speaks to man’s heart. Read the Psalms and the words of Jesus, and one sees a depth that touches the weaknesses of man’s humanity like no psychologist ever could.

God’s Way of Life is Freedom

One year ago, I could have written St. Augustine word for word:

“But I was an unhappy young man, wretched as at the beginning of my adolescence when I prayed you for chastity and said: ‘Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ I was afraid you might hear my prayer quickly, and that you might too rapidly heal me of the disease of lust which I preferred to satisfy rather than suppress.”
(Confessions, VIII. vii)

Yet right now, comparing now to a year ago, I cannot remember the last time I lusted like I had before Journey. I cannot take any credit for this at all. It is an uphill struggle every day, and it takes but a moment to fall. But most of all God has remained faithful to me, in turning my heart towards Him and away from the lusts of the flesh. He has taught me His way of freedom, to live for Him and not for myself.

My father calls this concept the “spit-in-the-face theory” while the Apostle Paul calls it “dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The concept is the same: what I do is not conditioned upon what others do to me or what I want to do, but only upon what Christ has said is best to do. If someone shows me love, I show them love back because Christ commands it. If someone spits in my face, I show them love back because Christ commands it. My identity, and therefore my actions, aren’t circumstantial to this world, because my Master isn’t in this world, only in me.
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Conquering Fear

The first evening of my Journey, I sat down with my Bible to read. The Psalm for that day was number 49 and God knew that was exactly the chapter that I needed.

In previous months I had been convicted that the greatest hindrance in my relationship with God was fear, especially the fear that my brothers might follow in my cousin’s corrupt footsteps, making similar mistakes and thereby sacrificing their wonderful God-given potential to do great things!

Because of that fear, I found myself reacting harshly to my brothers and having a very difficult time loving them. I had surrendered my fears to God and given my brothers to Him in prayer a number of times before, but it was still laying as a heavy burden on my heart.

As I began reading Psalm 49, it was as if I had were reading it for the first time. Portions of the chapter seem to leap off of the page and my eyes filled with tears. “Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil? None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)… But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. Be not thou afraid…”

After this new reminder that He was so lovingly looking over those who are dear to me, I could again freely surrender all of my fears to Him, and trust Him with the future, because I know that He has a bigger purpose in mind than what I can see, and that He will work all things together for good!!

Since coming home, I have had a greater freedom to love my brothers and treat them in a Christ-like manner. I am truly thankful to God the eight younger brothers He has blessed me with, and through God’s grace, I am looking forward to continuing to improve my relationship with them!

~ Sarah
June 2008 Girls Journey

True Words from Two Brothers

Enjoy listening in as the Wilkes brothers recount all that the Lord taught them on their recent Life Focus Journey to the Heart!

Matthew:

I went to Northwoods not sure what to expect on a Journey to the Heart. I had heard testimonies; but what was my experience of it going to be?  While going through the each day, the Lord deeply encouraged me with particular passages of scripture that gave new purpose and, in addition, forged a deeper desire to study and apply Christ’s commands.

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Joshua:

Through embarking upon this Journey, I recognized anew the fruit that results from coming apart to rest a while. (See Mark 6:31.) The usual busyness to which we subject ourselves provides a natural tendency to overlook the needful thing of sitting at the feet of Jesus. For almost an entire week, the team reaped unspeakable joy (see I Peter 1:8) that comes through searching our hearts, acknowledging failure, meditating upon God’s Word, and partaking in one-accord prayer. I returned with a renewed vision, powerful tools, and the life changing principle of Psalms 119:165, “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”

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Discovering the Power of a Living God

I didn’t have any real sense of God’s power. I didn’t read the Bible very much and strongly doubted its infallibility. Dabbles in systematic theology and Christian philosophy had left me cynical toward Christianity—God wasn’t a power in my life, merely something to be put into a logic formula or defined by a set of verses.

At the Journey to the Heart, away from all the noise and distraction of the world, I began to see God’s power through the individuals around me. They could pray with such power! Speaking blessings to each other and crying out to God had real meaning! At first I thought it was showy, extravagant zeal—as if like the priests of Baal, we were dancing and cutting ourselves on an altar for a god who wouldn’t really work the way we asked him to.

But when our group started to talk about secret sins and several of my teammates gave testimonies about how freeing it was to talk to their parents about their struggles, I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit and called my father to repent of something I had hid from him for three years. The freedom I felt was amazing! I couldn’t describe it, yet it was so real.

The next day our team got with another team to pray for a young man who felt he needed to call his parents concerning a secret sin. As we prayed together in one accord, I felt God’s Spirit pour out grace, humility, and strength, not only on the young man in the center of our circle but on all of us. I began to cry as I realized what I had been missing: God was real!

Over the next few days the Word of God became living to me. I now understand how easy it is to trust God: His Word explains the world better than any human reasoning and gives our lives principles to live by that are so true and cannot be found elsewhere.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to discover the power of the God of my Salvation at this journey!

~ Tim
August 2008 Guys Journey