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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Living It

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

What do you do when it's over? When the camp, or retreat, or pilgrimage is finished and you go back to the world that is so ridden with lies and sin? What's next? The answer is to live it out. To devote yourself entirely to the truth, the truth that God is good, and God is real, and God loves YOU and wants the best for you! That, my brothers and sisters, is the answer.

It is so hard though! I think of the passage where the Bible talks about the demon who leaves the room, comes back to find it clean, and gets seven more demons to come back with him. Satan doesn't want us to live for Christ! The world doesn't want us to live for Christ. You constantly hear about self service, ranking in society, who has the nicest car, clothes, phone or house. You find yourself falling back into mundanity, into the "flow" of it all. I say "you", I mean me, but I would guess that you have felt it too. When the Jesus high is over, what's next? When you don't feel God in your life, how do you react?

I have good news brothers and sisters, God is more than a feeling! He wants to fill your life in ways that you cannot possibly imagine or comprehend! GOD, the God, the only God, loves you so much and wants what is best for you! All that we have to do is to say "yes". That three letter word, that total life response changes it all. If you say yes to God, He will rock your world!

Imagine, only imagine, if Mary hadn't said yes. She was in the perfect position to say no. She was young, unmarried, simple, and I am sure that she didn't think that she would change the history of the world. "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to Your will." BAM! The face of the Earth was changed forever! Her yes changed humanity! God wants the same thing for us, he wants our yes, he wants to use YOU to change the world! It's true. We were made to be like Christ, to imitate him, and we were made equal. There wasn't anything different about the way that Mother Teresa, or Pope John Paul the second were made. They were human beings, just like you and I, who said yes to God, and God used them. Never underestimate how God wants to work in your life!

I think about Spiderman, "With great power, comes great responsibility". God, who is power and might, is on our side. We are responsible to serve him, and to bring souls to heaven. WE are, His church, His people. We can wait around forever for the world to change, but waiting won't do it, only our yes can. If you say yes to God, the world will be changed. You who know the truth, have the responsibility to spread God and His word to the ends of the Earth. To your family, to your friends, to your neighbors, to your city, country, world. God has given us this world as a gift, it is our job to be good stewards.

I keep on opening the Bible to the parable of the steward who was away when the master of the home came back. He was punished for not being watchful. If God came now, and who's to say he won't, what do you have to show for it? Have you been living for Christ?

I don't want to pretend that I am there yet, that every time God asks me to do anything I say yes, but I do try. And, being a daughter of God and knowing the truth, it is my job to challenge you. Jesus isn't walking around with a beard and sandals anymore. He can't knock on your door and say, "Drop your nets and follow me". He is still saying it though. The whole church is calling you in service to Christ! We, the church, are His hands and feet! What will your answer be? Will you live for Him?

Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse

Friday, July 15, 2011

Faith Camp 2011 More Than a Feeling

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I know I have been posting a lot lately about how excited I have been for Faith Camp 2011! I have a very special place in my heart for Faith Camp because I know that it is the BEST camp out there for junior high kids who want to know Christ. I am not saying this because I am biased, but because the Holy Spirit gives all he can, and Faith Camp receives all that it can. If God is giving all of himself and we are accepting him entirely NOTHING can be better than that! Faith Camp is God's ministry and when you are there you can see how much he LOVES it! God loves Faith Camp and so do I!

The week before Faith Camp is work week, work week is when all of the staff get together and get everything ready for Faith Camp. I am proud to say that I spent hours upon hours working on painting humongous murals that were used for one night, where God's children were drawn closer to Him, and then were torn down after. I spent a few days at work week, helping with all that I could, and prepping for Faith Camp. I had a day break where I came back home, and then I spent Sunday getting ready for Faith Camp. On monday the world began to be changed. Faith Camp 2011 had begun!

Our theme was "More Than a Feeling" and nothing could have been more appropriate! From the first day where kids got oatmeal and shaving cream shoved in their faces, God began planting His seed. Faith Camp has a theme each day. Monday is God's love, Tuesday is sin, Wednesday is Jesus Christ, Thursday is Christian life, and Friday is wrap up. I know that God is more than a feeling. When we are having "Jesus highs" it isn't God, it is our emotional response to God. God is ALWAYS good! Even if we don't FEEL Him, He is there loving us just as much as He always does. His love never falters, never fails, and never falls. God is good all of the time!

I was super blessed to be a cabin leader this year. I was also blessed to be co-cabin leader with one of my childhood friends who I hadn't seen in years. Shaylyn was such a huge blessing to me through her humility, service, love, gentleness, kindness and affirmation! God knew what He was doing giving her to me for that week to bring souls to Him. I had fourteen of the most amazing girls on Earth in my cabin. Go cabin 2! Each and every one of them was sheer joy to my heart! They were so respectful, mature, obedient, loving, giving and wonderful. I never knew that they would call me on to holiness so much! Being their leader and having to guide them was so humbling, there is nothing special about Alyse, only Christ is special. If I allow Him to live in me, then we've got the answer! Thank the good Lord that I wasn't telling them to be like Alyse, but I was telling them to be like Christ who is perfect! Thinking about my girls gives me so much joy in my heart, God blessed me so much through them!

Throughout the week God spoke to me through very unique ways. From acting in a skit that was thrown together in five minutes, to being in charge of all of the slides for the songs, God spoke to ME in a unique way! I felt so special to be able to serve Him with all that I was, and then with all that He gave me, which was SO much more! As I got home today and stood in the shower I realized just how much God was my strength. The joy of the Lord was my strength! Because without Him I would have been a crumpled, crumby, sad mess! Praise Him!

My Uncle is the head coordinator of the camp, and I am so blessed by him. He asked me to be a C.I.T next year, a Coordinator In Training. That means, that in two years I will be helping to coordinate Faith Camp, God willing. That also means that this year was my last and only year as a cabin leader and a team leader. Although it is not something that I "want" necessarily, God let me know that it is what He wants, that means it will be great! It makes this year all the more special, knowing that this was the only year remotely like this that I will have. I am telling you all, because I am afraid that I will want to back out, and I need to be held accountable. Pray that I am able to serve God how He wants me to be used.

Today when I got home and sat down to blog I prayed that God send me a bible verse that would touch my heart and I opened up to Sirach 39: 12-16 and I want to share it with you. It is:
Once more I will set forth my theme to shine like the moon in its fullness!
Listen, my faithful children: open up your petals, like roses planted near running waters;
Send up the sweet odor of incense, break forth in blossoms like the lily. Send up the sweet odor of your hymn of praise; bless the LORD for all he has done!
Proclaim the greatness of his name, loudly sing his praises, With music on the harp and all stringed instruments; sing out with joy as you proclaim:
The works of God are all of them good; in its own time every need is supplied.

The first part in particular struck out to me: "Once more I will set you forth to shine like the moon". I realize how much I have fallen short in the past, and how much I need to stay strong for His kingdom. Building His kingdom is all that matters in life, and I lose that perspective so often. To follow God and make a total life response to Him, that is our call. In the Christian life talk Sarah said, "Being Christian is NOT a life style choice, like being a vegetarian, it is a total life response to a person and that person is Jesus Christ." A total life response. A TOTAL life response! Jesus help us to have a TOTAL LIFE RESPONSE to you! Amen

Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse

Monday, July 4, 2011

Theology of the Body camp

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

First off, happy fourth of July to all of you in the United States, I hope it has been a blessed day for all of you. Last week I was super blessed to be able to attend an Echo camp put on by Dumb Ox productions, the camp was Theology of the Body for Teens. It was so amazing! For those of you who aren't familiar with Theology of the Body, it was put together by Pope John Paul the second and has been adapted since for teens. It is essentially a collection of teachings that relate to our bodies and the marvelous theology behind them. The camp was a few days long and I grew so much in faith and community with everyone there. When people show up for God, God answers in such beautiful ways!

One of the things that stuck out most as a "theology of the body" message to me was this, human beings are the only creatures that God created that have both body and soul. Our bodies and our souls, before the fall of man, were in perfect union with each other. After Adam and Eve transgressed they became disconnected. That is why "I do what I hate" (Romans 7:15) because I am no longer in perfect union with my body. That does not mean that we are not our bodies. When someone punches you in the face you don't say, "You just hurt my body!" you say, "You just hurt me!". We as human beings are both body and soul, and one day after we die our bodies will be raised up and made new. That is one of the beautiful things about Jesus' assumption into heaven, since he was without sin his body was brought into heaven with him. There is so much beauty in who we are, and so there is so much beauty in our bodies.

During the week I really felt God open my mind to so much of his truth. One thing that blessed me SO much during the week was a reminder that God is so big, vast, unimaginable and wondrous! We cannot contain him to a few experiences, or a few memories, because that would be tacking him to time and he is not in time. He is timeless and engulfs time itself. He is so much larger than we could possibly imagine, even if we dive in deep we can always go infinitely deeper! This has little to do with theology of the body, but it stuck with me so much that I wanted to share with you.

I hope to continue posting things in accordance with what I learned at the ECHO camp, but I wanted to share a little with you now. Please pray for me, Faith Camp is fast approaching (you can read a little more about Faith Camp in one of my recent posts) and I am so excited for it! Please pray specifically for good weather for Faith Camp, and for the girls that will be in my cabin. I am getting excited about the beautiful week that God has planned! Faith Camp itself is from July 11th to the 15th if you would remember it in your prayers during that time. I am praying for you and hope that you have a blessed couple of weeks!

Peace and love in Christ,

Alyse