I have smart friends.

I don't know if any one has started to notice my pattern. I try and make about two posts a month. It forces me to think and some people would suggest that thinking is a good thing. I tend to disagree, thinking can be painful.

Here are my thoughts:

So the other day I was having a chat with a friend the other day talking about God's will for our lives, seems to be a popular topic for me lately, we got to a point in the conversation where I said something along the lines about having a fear that I really hoped God doesn't have THIS planned for me, because that would suck. To which my friend replied with something like this...

One thing that I have been praying a lot lately is that God knows me completely. He knows my fears,  my flaws, my downfalls, my struggles, and my weaknesses. He also knows my strengths, my likes, my goals, my desires, and my needs. The beautiful thing about God is that while we can only really live in and see the here and now, he knows and can see everything.  He knows what he has planned for us and he's taken into account everything He knows about us. He wouldn't force someone into something if that is truly not something that they want. But if that is his plan, Then he would make us okay with it.

Like I said in my previous post, and something that I seemed to have forgotten since then, is that If I follow after God with everything I have in me. Then our desires will be His desires. We won't have to worry about living a life where we are going to be unhappy or discontented with our situations. God is a God who wants us to be happy and He wants to Bless us! We are going to want to please Him and what ever he gives us will make us beyond happy!

Psalms 37:4 "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Nolan out! 

A battle of wills.

Every wonder what Gods plan is for your life?

I think we all have been.

Here is another situation. Ever think you know what God wants you to do, then somethings happen and you think that what you are doing or what you want to do is the complete opposite of His will.

I have been and am currently in these types of situations. Sometimes I just want to know what to do next, where to go, or what decisions to make. And if you are searching for a perfect formula to figure out Gods will you are better off searching somewhere else, and if you find it let me know.

Here is a verse I have found Helpful in these situations:

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

I have been thinking about this verse LOTS lately and I think it can be a help in trying to figure out God will. This verse makes it kinda simple, and I really like simple! It gives us three things to do and one thing God will do. Its a conditional promise, If we do these things(Trust God, Don't rely on ourselves,  and acknowledge God in Everything) then God is going to make our path straight.

I'd also like to point out that it doesn't say that God will SHOW us the straight path. It says He will MAKE straight our path. I believe that if we are trusting and acknowledging God in everything then we are already doing His will, our desires will be the same as Gods. If everything we do, we do it to give glory to Jesus then I don't think we have to worry about straying to far.

So here it is one last time. Trust God, Don't rely on yourselves, and live to bring Glory to Jesus!

If we do those three things then we won't have to worry about if we are doing God's will or not!

Hope this verse helped you as much as it helped me!

Nolan Out!


P.S. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

Open Letters.

New Favorite Song. (Shout out to Silas for digging this up)
Now normally I'm not one to listen to Christian Rap. Franky 90% of the time the Lyrics are cheesy and the beats suck and its just all around lame. But I guess there are always exceptions to the rules.

The album "Weights and Glory" by KB is just fantastic. I would promote it to any one! But the one song that was just so good is "Open Letters(Battlefield)" the lyrics are so intense and the beat isn't half bad.

Now if you don't like rap I have posted the lyrics below so now you don't have to listen to it and have no excuses to not check out this powerful message...

Nolan Out!

Obligation and Desire

Good News!

I've been keeping up with reading my Bible every night before I go to bed. I haven't missed a day for about two months. This is a BIG deal! I am happy and learning lots.

But there is always bad news to go along with good news it seems. I have this issue, and it doesn't even seem like a big issue, just something I wish was different in my attitude towards reading. There are times I go to bed around 2am and I just don't feel like reading, times I would rather just go to sleep instead of taking the time to read God's word and let Him show me his will. I force my self to read anyways. Which is better then not reading I guess.



I wish that I always had the desire to read. I wish it  was some thing I wanted to do every night, something I wouldn't even consider to skip out on. Something I looked forward all day. Why is it that we struggle so hard with this. Shouldn't it be easy to read what the creator of the entire universe has written to us? Isn't that something that should take the most important place in our lives?

I feel that I am obligated to. I have to because it is the right thing. I'm not saying this is wrong, just something I am trying to work on. I want to get to a point in my life where this is something I can't live with out. Where I thirst to find out what God wants to tell me. Instead of this need to force myself to read his word.



I guess this is something that is common in lots of aspects of our Christian lives. Going to church being at the top of the list as well, shouldn't we want to be there? Is there anywhere else that we find better? There shouldn't be. Why would we not want to be where the Christians are? I know I have struggle with this. Yes, I go to church every Sunday, haven't missed one in a long time. That doesn't mean that is where I want to be. I feel Obligated to go because my parents want me to go or because I know that is what I am supposed to do as a Christian. I want my attitude towards it to change. I want to desire to go to Church because there is nothing better to do on a Sunday or Wednesday night.

I'm sure there are many other areas in our Christian lives that we struggle with this same thing, Desire or Obligation. Think about it. Pray for me!

Nolan Out!

Ruts

Ever been trapped in a rut and you can't get out. I think we all have, both metaphorically and in reality.

It just feels like you can't do anything right and every time you try and push through and finally get out you just fall down again? Sometimes even feeling like you are out. Then it all comes crashing down days, or even moments later?

Yeah me too. But I'm glad that God forgives us no matter what we do. The Bible says he forgets our sins, as far as the est is from the west. That's intense to think about. Some times I lose sight of this. I think I forget because it just doesn't seem normal for our God who is perfectly holy, that he can just clean us from our huge pile of sins that easily? Well the simple answer is that it wasn't easy for Him to clean our huge piles of sin.

He had to give His ONLY son, Jesus. He became man. Another mind blowing topic for some other time. He WILLINGLY suffered and died on the cross for ME, and YOU. I think that is pretty awesome and I am thankful for that. Because of this amazing act of love we have someone to help get us out of those ruts in our lives.

"1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Cool right? Now this doesn't mean that it won't be a challenge to get out. It is going to take hard work and determination. We might even feel some pain, either physical or emotional. But  when it comes right down to it the old saying rings true, no pain no gain. And really who can stand against us if God is for us, right?

The sacrifices you make for God will be the best thing you can do. Actually if you aren't making sacrifices in your Christian life I think you are missing out by not missing out. Weird but true.

Hope this pushes you to go on strong for God. I'm praying for everyone who reads this post.

Nolan Out!

Sudbury Youth Conference

Hey guys, Kevin here, just thought I would make my first post.

So as you can guess the Sudbury Youth Conference is coming up very quickly, the dates are November 8, 9 and 10th. The speaker this year is Steve Price, if you haven't heard this guy before I welcome and encourage you to come just for the ministry. Now as for activities and what not those are currently up in the air and in the planning process, if you have an idea or something you would like to see happen feel free to suggest it in the comments.

Let me leave you off with a encouragement.

Many Christians go through hardships, trials, and temptation and sometimes we might not see why God has allowed it, or even brought them on (in regards to trials, God does not tempt us to sin). But we need to realize God's plan is for us to be "conformed (made) into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29)." We know God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deut 31:6), and because of these two facts we can take heart in knowing God is building us up, what a joy to be able to be more like Christ! 

Knowing these things, great as they are, sometimes we can still feel helpless and powerless, but let us take a look at 1 Cor 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." Take heart! you are not the first to go through this, God has brought somebody through it before! You have the strength to endure it, and there is always a way out. So if you are stuck in a certain sin that you cannot break, or are suffering through a loss of a loved one, or whatever the circumstances may be, look to God, he has the way out, and will give your strength to finish to the end. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

And We're Back... Sort of?!

So we are back!

After stumbling upon this old blog and realizing how much I enjoy blogging I decided to ditch tumblr. I'm sure I'll still be on tumblr from time to time. But I will be posting a majority of my stuff here instead of on there from now on. Some of the other bloggers might even start posting here again. Nothing as awesome as before but still something you can read if you get REALLY bored.

On to my actual post.

I have been thinking a lot lately about why do we as Christians feel that we need security? Job security, financial security? You know what I am talking about that feeling where we can do it ourselves.

And I know any good Christian, including myself, have this intellectual idea of dependency down pat and we know what to say and when to say it to make it sound like we rely on God. But by the way we live you can see that we still feel the need to try and fix stuff ourselves. I've messed up on this more then once in my life. HECK! More then once in the the day.

We always feel the need to be in control. I guess handing over the throne of our lives isn't an easy job. I've been reading through Acts lately. Yesterday was Acts 21. The verses that got me yesterday were 12-14 

"When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

Paul didn't seem to care to much about anything. He gave his whole life to God. It is crazy to think about what he went through and above all of the suffering still have such an amazing attitude.

He didn't care that he might die, or get beat, or have some emotional pain, he just wanted to do Gods will. He lost a lot when it came to serving God. What are we sacrificing to serve God? I can honestly say that my list is pretty short. I'd rather feel good and be happy then serve God, I wouldn't say that I do this and my thoughts wouldn't even think this, but if you looked at my life it would be true. This is my attitude about 90% of my life. Something I need to work on for sure. I have a feeling there are others that need to work on this as well.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:16 "I urge you, then, be imitators of me." And after reading a bunch of the book of Acts this has become a bigger task then I originally thought it was going to be. I think it is something we can all work on.

Nolan Out!

“These men who have turned the world upside down…”

“These men who have turned the world upside down…”


I want people to think this about me. I want to be the person who when people look at me think “Man, that guy is weird.” I mean some already do. I just want them to think that because I am a Christian and they see Jesus in me.

This is my challenge for any one who reads this for the next couple months. Live in a way where people think you are the strangest person.

Do the right thing when it isn't easy.



Don’t watch that movie even if all your friends want to. Don’t listen to that music even if it’s what everyone says is cool. Don’t go to that party even if you get mocked for not going. Read your Bible in public. Do something Crazy like this.

If you take the challenge I’ll support you and pray for you!


Nolan Out!

Spiritual Beings!

No I don’t believe in Aliens. But Demons yes.

As I was doing my reading last night at 1:45am in the morning and the lights were dim and I was all by myself and I think there was a thunder storm. Just setting the scene…

Acts 19:13-16
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

That is what I read. Terrifying isn’t it? It kinda just hit me last night, we live in a world and so do these spiritual beings. I think I’ve always really believed this in my head but not practically living like I believing it

The thing is that I’ve seen some horror movies and other movies where people speak to the demons and stuff and the demons speak back. What I didn’t really believe is that they CAN ACTUALLY speak back. Now I’m not trying to scare anyone. More of just a warn Christians that we need to be praying about these things.

Now another thing I believe is that where we live and in the time we live in seeing or hearing demons likely isn’t Satan’s best weapon to send us astray. If someone says they saw a demon or even an angel, we normally call them crazy or something and move on with our lives. Satan’s best way to detour us North Americans from being a good Christian is convincing us to waste time doing useless things. Personally if I saw a daemon it would push me closer to God. But that is just me.

Now maybe it’s because on the whole North America has really just pushed God and everything Spiritual off to the side and even considered it more of a fairy tail and myths then Truth. Even Christians are guilty of this. We just have explanations for everything because of how “smart” we are. Basically we just explain away things. It was a bad dream, maybe you got high, or possibly you were hallucinating. We are really good at keeping spirituality out of the picture.

Something I’ve heard is that in remote places where technology may not be very wide spread and the knowledge that we have access to in North America isn’t accessible as easily or at all. I’ve heard that there are tons of these demon stories that come from these places. Basically These people would stray away from God if they saw a demon or something. They might even start worshiping it.

Now I don’t really know where I am going with this. But what I do know is that Demons and Angels are as real as God is. And if you say you believe that the Bible is the word of God then you have to believe that these beings are real and are fighting a war around us all the time.

We need to pray for protection. And remember to stay close to God because…

“if God is for us who can be against us”

or…

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Those are Romans 8.


I just think is one more reason we need to rely on God and stay close to him and talk to Him all the time and spend time in his word daily.


Nolan Out.

MY Favorite Song

Yo!

So here is the Dilemma I have been facing lately. My taste in music.

I enjoy a good catchy song as much as the next guy. My taste in music is quite a wide variety. I also enjoy a “gayer” taste in music, at least according to Sam Des.

Another thing is that I really don’t like that much Christian music. I feel as though lots of it is boring and over done. And when something “New” comes out it sounds just like everything else, and isn’t new. Now don’t get me wrong, one of my favorite bands is a Christian band. But on the whole I’m not a huge fan of the Christian music industry. And it is not the lyrics, most of the time they are VERY solid.

This is the Dilemma. I find my music on my phone being mostly secular. Now I’m not saying that all secular music is sinful and wrong. I enjoy jamming out to Taylor Swift just as much as the next girl. But lets be real when it comes right down to it, even her lyrics aren’t that impressive and don’t carry much importance, like 90% of the secular music industry. Actually if the only problem with secular music was that its lyrics were kinda lame I wouldn’t even have a dilemma.

Lately I’ve been listening to the music on my phone and I have found that there are some songs I just can’t listen to anymore. And its not that I don’t love the tunes or anything, its just that the stuff they are singing about isn’t something I think a Christian should be listening to. Now it isn’t going to make me go out and do drugs, get drunk, and have sex. But it certainly isn’t encouraging me to do the opposite.

And who knows where one stray thought can take you. I’ve certainly been dragged down a river of sin because of one stupid thought. So if I can help it, I have been trying to reduce the amount of garbage that goes in, in hopes that the amount of garbage that comes out will be less then it is now.

So in short I have been slowly deleting songs off my phone. Songs I once loved, to my shame, and replacing them with some more meaningful content filled music.

Which brings me to the subject of this post. My current favorite song. Now it certainly makes me feel old to post this but here it is. At least one version of it. Yes its a hymn. Get over it:



"O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above!"

Nolan Out