The Renewal

The new year is almost upon us and that means that this year will soon be dead. There are a lot ways that people look at the new year. Some bury the previous years woes in beer and "pleasure", some make new year's resolutions, and some just sleep right through it as if it were another day. I offer a different way of looking at it to you this time around.

When we confess our sins to God, He is faithful to forgive us. He casts our sins as far as the East is from the West. This year as 2009 passes away, lets let our mistakes and wrongs die with it. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says the old has passed away, behold the new has come. God doesn't keep any records of wrongdoing. Why should we?

Don't let what you didn't get done or what shouldn't have done stop you from enjoying life. God wants each and everyone of us to live in prosperity and health. God also watches over His Word to perform it. Take hold of what is rightfully yours this coming year!

1 Chronicles 4:10 (New Living Translation taken from www.biblegateway.com)
10 He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.

God wants to bless you but you have to accept the gift! Just like at Christmas when somebody gave you a gift... It was yours but you couldn't enjoy it till you unwrapped it, opened it, and ACCEPTED IT! God has great things planned for 2010, He has great things planned for YOU! Stand on HIS word and HE will fulfill it!

God Bless and I pray you enjoy your New Year!

Missions

First, I want to say sorry for not posting lately... I was on a sort of "media fast."

As you may know, I am going to Uganda for a month this coming summer on a missions trip. I just wanted to take a minute to share a little bit about it with you.

I will be spending July 2010 various places in Uganda. I'm pretty excited about getting to spend my 17th birthday spreading the Gospel to the hurting children there. They just recently ended civil war there and we will be ministering to a lot of the children that were sold into slavery as soldiers and sex slaves. They are hurting so badly! They need the healing power that only God can give them! I will be God's hands, feet, and mouth as I go with other team members from Global Expeditions to help heal this broken nation. We will be going to schools helping teach the good news and English through drama and small groups.

If you are interested in helping heal the hearts of broken children next summer, children who have seen and had things done to them that no one should ever experience..... Please prayerfully consider partnering with me. You can donate any amount online by going to http://cf.globalexpeditions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.donate click "search by missionary ID" then enter 2394604. Anything you give helps change the life of some desperate child. CAN YOU IMAGINE SEEING THEM IN HEAVEN AND REJOICING WITH THEM... OR NOT...?????

Please feel free to ask me for more information or go to http://www.globalexpeditions.com/index.cfm/PageID/2957/index.html

Thank you so much!

~your brother in Christ

Leave It ALL To God

God has a plan for everything. He uses ALL things for good.

Through trials He makes us stronger and through fire He refines us.

Sometimes, in order to set those trials in place, He allows certain events to take place. We wouldn't go looking to make life hard on ourselves, but it is the best way we grow. He allows events to happen that we would not on our own. Though unpleasant, these "happenings" are crucial in our life's development. Some of life's most important lessons could never be learned otherwise. God loves us and we must assure ourselves that His plan far outweighs our own.

If we surrender ourselves to God, He will bless us more than we can imagine!

The key is SURRENDERING to Him.

Every aspect of life is God's. He created them and He owns them. He lets us be stewards of what he has given us. A surrender is when you give your rights, privileges, and desires away and submit to the other party.

If we are to surrender our lives to God, then we must lay down OUR desires in order to follow HIS desires.

Just remember... God IS in control.

Your brother in Christ,
Tyler

Update

Sorry everyone for not posting recently! Life happens and it just has a way of "happening" to me! lol Ive been very very busy with the holiday STUFF as I am sure we all are. Just a little FYI... I intend to post more today so dont get in a tizzy! lol I have also decided to dedicate this blog soley to missions etc. I will soon be creating a second blog for all things outdoors and primitive. Before I get to caught up in the holidays PLEASE let me know if there is anything you would like to see posted about on either blog!

Praying you have a very merry Christams!

Tyler

Joy... Where Is Yours?

Joy is something that makes or breaks every one's lives. Joy makes each day easier to face and each trial easier to handle. In life if you have joy other people notice. If you do not have joy other people notice that as well. Joy effects your life AND the lives of those around you. Joy allows you to not only face your life with confidence and happiness, but also to engender those same feelings in others.

Joy is necessary in every aspect of life. Depending on where you find your joy determines whether or not your joy is always there when you need it. Where we "find" our joy is extremely important in life. Often we find joy when we get something new, when we get to do something we love, or even in other people. When we find joy in those things, we are only feeling the emotion. The emotion will leave when the item is not new any more, we don't get to do special things, or see special people.

How do we receive joy that is true and constant then? In order to have constant joy we must get our joy from the only thing in life that is always constant. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If we choose to find joy in God our joy will never leave us. We must remember that it is a choice to find joy in God though. If we purposely choose to rejoice in the Lord, the emotion will come.

In everything God gives us He requires effort on our part first. The story of the lady and the oil, Joseph in the prison, and Moses with all of the miracles he preformed... they all had to do something first. God asked them to do something within their power BEFORE He would take care of what they could not. It is the same with joy. God gives us joy, it is our choice to reach out and take hold of it or not. We may not have to ask all of our neighbors for jars to put oil in, but we might have to choose to hold our tongue or praise Him when we are down. However, when we do our part to be joyful, God will give you joy in ways you can't even imagine!

Philippians 4:4 says Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say rejoice! This week let's all work on ALWAYS remembering to rejoice! Because if you believe the Word to be holy and that disobeying His Word is sin... then when we choose not to be joyful... according to this verse we are choosing sin...

Thank you for rejoicing in the Lord with me!

Tyler

Being Content

The Word says in 1 Timothy 6 that we should be content by simply having clothes on our back and a little food to eat. Since I know that almost everyone reading this has food, clothes, and much more, what is keeping us from being content? If we stop and think about what really keeps us from being content in our lives, what do we find? We have cars, we have computers, we have money. We should be more than content with all that! Even though we have these things, we are blinded by the faster car, nicer computer, and more money that our neighbor has! We as Christians need to be content with what we are given. That does not mean you are doomed to poverty if thats where you are right now, but that does mean that we should find the things in life that we do have and be thankful for them!

One of the keys to be content is finding your joy in God. No matter what your situation is, God doesn't change, He is always there! If you are finding your joy in God, then even when all else is crumbling, your joy will be standing right there with you! In life today it is incredibly easy to get caught up in the next big thing and begin to find your joy in that. We have to be careful to not find our joy in getting the next promotion, finally finding the right person, moving away to your dream house, or any other thing we long for! Eventually you will get your promotion, house, spouse, and everything else and you still wont be content! That is because those things can change and falter so if you base you joy on them, your joy will crumble. We need to wake up and realize that God is the only stable thing in life. We should be clinging to Him with all of our might! So as you go through the rest of your day, think about what you are finding your joy in... where you get your fulfilment. Think about being content with what we have, because others have so little! I encourage you to look to God for your joy and I promise He will look back upon you with a smile!

Thanks for reading,

Tyler

Pride vs Humility

Long ago a good friend gave me a several page study on Pride and Humility by an unknown author. Lets stop and take a look the Pride in everyday life. It hides in many shapes and disguises.

Pride cares what people think... Humility cares what God thinks. How often do we make choices or act a certain way because how we want to be thought of?

Pride feels like it has arrived... Humility knows where it is going. How many times do we stop to focus on where we are going? What would our lives be like if we simply thought about where our actions lead us?

Pride creates diloyalty and undermines authority. In our day to day lives... what are we saying about those in authority over us? Our family, our church, our law makers... what do we have to say about them? If we truely stop to think, how many times do we have negative comments about our leaders? Can we do it better? God gifts each of us in a given area. How often do we step into someone elses gifting because we think we are better skilled?

Pride concentrates on what has not been done. In our lives, do we focus more on what has been done for us? Do we focus on what still has yet to be done? If someone does something for us, is the next thing out of our mouth "why haven't you ____?" That is pride speaking. Humility shows when we say "thank you" and might even do something for them!

I think that each of us has pride hiding in our life somewhere. I pray that all of us can discover its foothold and bind it up! I challenge you this week to each day, look at each thing you do. Examine you actions and decide wether it is an action based in Pride or Humility. Think about how you think and why you think it. Ponder the idea that Pride is somewhere... Lets all make an effort to remove it! Please take time to say thank you and humble yourself. If we don't humble ourselves... somebody else will do it for you.

Thanks for thinking deep thoughts with me!
Please feel free to let me know what you think,

Tyler

FYI

Just a quick FYI...

I haven't posted in a couple day and probably won't post much for a few more days because I just had dental surgery done and am COMPLETELY out of it! So If you have any questions or something you would like to see me post about, let me know. Otherwise, I probably will just spend the next few days resting.

Also, A neat thing happened the other day. I got offically accepted to go to Uganda for 1 month this coming summer! It is going to incredible ministering to all those kids there who are orphans and sex slaves! They are so lost and so in need of a Saviour! However, it costs a great deal to be able to go there. I am in need of about $5000. If you are interested in supporting me as a missionary, PLEASE let me know! I also need prayer support too, so if you want to partner with me in any way, just comment and let me know!

Thanks,
Tyler

God's Love

I was reading in 1 Corinthians last night and ended up studying love quite a bit. We all know that chapter 13 says:

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

But how often do we conect this set of verses with the other words of Christ? The Bible also says to love your enemies and to love ALL men. When you look deeply into yoursefl, are we patient and kind towards EVERYONE? How often do we show love to those that society would deem "unlovable"? I know that each and every one of us has someone in our life that we simply do not like to be around or maybe they "rub us the wrong way." Sometimes we get this idea in our head that we don't like that person, because they have done us wrong. Maybe they have done some horrible things, but as I sat meditating on God's love for His people, He reminded me that Christ hung on the cross next to horrible criminals. As the criminal was dying, he asked for forgiveness and Christ showed love and mercy when he said "today you will be with me in paradise." How can we show that same love to everyone? If Christ who was perfect, who DESPISES EVIL, loved a man who had done great evil, then surely you and I can love someone who maybe hurt our feelings, said very hurtful things, or maybe did evil things! All I can tell you today... is that SOMEONE that is in your life needs to be loved... maybe we should all choose to follow God's word and love EVERYONE... not just the ones that don't make us mad.

Feel free to comment,

Tyler

My New Blog

I am new to blogging but I hope to still provide a great deal of knowledge to you about the primitive side of life! I will have pictures, stories, and nifty how-to's posted soon. Also, let me tell you a little about myself. I have spent countless nights in the woods with my flint and steel, my knife, and a determination to spend my time in the comforts of the wilderness. I re-enact the fur trade and make all of my own authentic gear. I am also a scrimshander and even have one of my scrimshawn items on display in the executive office of a fellow fur trapper. Over my life I have enjoyed the privelage of sharing God's love with hurting and lost children in other countries. Just a few summers ago I spent a month living in the Panamanian Jungle with the tribal people there and I am going to Uganda for a month this coming summer! Out of all my travels, backcountry surviving, and my fur trade excursions I hope you can learn something new!

Thanks for reading,
Tyler