Stepping Out in Faith!

It's official I'm leaving for Mexico on Wednesday, I'll be spending 3 and half weeks down there volunteering at a mission base called Casa de Esperanza, which means House of Hope. You can check it out online at http://www.koenesministries.com.

I am very excited about this opportunity to serve Jesus in another country. To experience another worldview, a different way of life. To learn and grow in my understanding of who Jesus is, and what he is calling me to in my life.

A lot of you will understand that I'm a restless person. I love change, I thrive on it. I need to change something pretty regularly in my life. Even if it's something small. I'm not content to stay the same. I am always changing, always adapting, always learning.

I'm at a place in my life where I want to know Jesus more, and deeper than I've ever wanted to before in my life. I spent many years thinking that I was doing fine on my own. I thought that I didn't need God in order to be successful in my life. I knew the right answers, and I said the right words. (Words are really important to me, I feel as though I articulate my thoughts well.) IT'S NOT ENOUGH! I am not enough. Without God in my life, everything is useless.

I am so afraid of becoming complacent. I want to know Jesus, I want to know the truth, I want to live in that freedom everyday. I cannot do this on my own. God is so big, and I am so small. Who am I to think that he needs to do things my way? Who am I to think that I should be able to figure him out. IMPOSSIBLE. I can do my best to learn his heart, to follow his heart, to put myself last.

I know a lot of great people who strive to know Jesus, and follow him in their daily lives. These people inspire me to try harder, to do more.

If we claim we know Christ, but do not read the Word of God and do what it says, our claim is useless. Some might say, "You say you're a Christian, but you don't even know what your holy book says?" It's not all about knowing the right answers, or having the Bible memorized from cover to cover. It's about knowing Jesus, and following him!

I want to weep for all the people who think that they're doing fine without God, they might have a lot of money, or a nice job, or fancy toys. Where is your purpose? What is the point of all that? I don't have all the answers, in fact, quite often I feel like I have no answers.

If my faith is something that I really believe in, it should change the way I act, feel, think, perceive things. It should shape all aspects of my life. Yet, so many times I fail to measure up. I am thankful to God for his grace and mercy, that it's not because of what I've done that I'm saved. It's through Jesus Christ who died on the Cross and was raised in order to allow me to come before God, and know him like a Father!

If you've made it this far, these are the thoughts tumbling around in my head, I encourage your questions or comments, email me at gerrygiesbrecht@gmail.com if you want to ask me any questions personally, if not, comment on here.

May all praise, glory and honor be God's forever!

Autumn Changes Lives.

I love Autumn, the leaves turning colours, the weather cooling down. It is a fantastic season. Autumn and I get along pretty well. One of the themes of Autumn is change. Everything changes in Autumn. The leaves change colours and fall to the ground, students go back to school, and youth starts up again. I love change. I think it's safe to say that I thrive on change. I am driven to change something in my life almost constantly. I'm not sure if this means that I need to learn contentment, or if I've been given a restlessness for a reason.

This summer has been a summer of growth for me, my relationship with Jesus Christ has become more real to me this summer than it has been in years. Often I feel as though the reality of my relationship with Christ, and the way that I think my relationship with Jesus are and should be are different things. This spring I began to realize that I needed to change something. Ha! Isn't that weird? I always feel like things need to change. The change that I realized I needed was to give up my skepticism, give up my "theologian's pride." Even though when I went to Prov I wasn't really into a lot of the deep theology stuff, I thought that since I was studying the Bible and learning a lot about God and who he was and is, that I was an authority on God. WHO AM I to think that I can know who God is from taking a couple of courses in college? God is so much greater than we can ever hope to know completely. Yet he still wants to know us personally, well, he does know us personally, but wants us to seek him and know him.

In less than TWO WEEKS, I'm going to be heading down to San Carlos, Mexico with Ryan Thiessen, and Juan Carlos. I'm going to be living down there and serving for 3ish weeks, doing whatever they tell me to do I guess. Why am I doing this? Firstly, in order to learn what it's like to see God at work in another country. To feel what it's like to give up my comfort, my safety, my job, my friends, my church, for a time in order to get to know God better. I'm sick of living my life as though I don't believe what I say I believe. It's about time I get real, and put my "money where my mouth is" as it were. I love Jesus Christ, and I want to go where he calls me. The amount of money I have in my bank account does not dictate what I can and cannot do for him. Since he controls so much more than finances.

It is so hard to surrender. It is so hard to think about all the pain and suffering that people endure every day because of Christ. It breaks my heart to think about all the people that live in North America and can't see how it's destroying their spiritual lives. It is SO HARD to realize how much we actually need God when we live with such blessings. We often don't turn to God, until someone we know and love, or we ourselves are in dire trouble. I want what I say and do to line up with what Jesus wants me to say and do. If you're reading this and are comfortable where you are, think about what Jesus would want you to do that's uncomfortable. What can you do in your day to day, that you know you should be doing, but aren't? I know there isn't any scripture in my post. Search scripture yourself. Jesus can speak through his words to you, even if you're not a biblical scholar. He's more powerful than language barriers, his love is more complete than the love you can feel from anyone here on earth.

Stop making excuses, if you think that you should do something, and it lines up with what God says in the Bible, do it! God will do some amazing things.

It's all about Jesus, all of it.

Apathy, Change, and Radical Relationship

Hey readers,


I posted this as my facebook status yesterday:


‎"...From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. From prophets to priests, they are all frauds...Are they ashamed of their disgusting actions? Not at all-they don't even know how to blush!...Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:13-16 (NLT)


Obviously, this is not the passage in its entirety. Facebook only allows a certain amount of characters in a status update. I have been thinking a lot lately about things like, Apathy, Change, and Radical Relationship like the title of this post says. These things arise out of my current state of restlessness about my own relationship with the Creator.


I often have periods of time where I feel really restless about my life, and feel as though I need to change things. Usually this means I think about radically altering the physical space that I am in, for example, thinking about moving to a different country or something extreme like that. I am realizing that this might not solve the thing that is causing me to be anxious or restless. Perhaps it is the Holy Spirit within me rebelling against certain things in my life that are hindering me from putting time and effort into my relationship with Christ, or perhaps God is actually calling me to go somewhere, or perhaps calling me to prepare myself for whatever may come in the next step in the journey we call life.


Apathy:


It seems to me that in this day and age of instantaneous media exposure and constant connectedness that apathy is rising. There are a lot of things the media tells are are fine, good, and acceptable. I'm sure that God would not approve of a lot of these things that we find normal and socially acceptable. I want to take a stab at sexual innuendo, there is so much sexual innuendo woven into dialogs and interactions on television and movies that it seems that saying things that are derogatory towards women are acceptable and even praised. I think that in a previous post I talked about "That's what she said..." jokes. I don't approve of these jokes anymore, even though at one point I prided myself at being "quick-witted" enough to beat my friends to the punch when it came to making these jokes. When we overlook things like the way that we talk, and the way in which we use our speech we ignore the clear warnings in scripture that the tongue is dangerous and we need to be aware of what we are saying and how it affects people around us as well as our own lives. The more we choose to let little things slide, the easier it will be to let bigger things slide. The way we talk is a representation of what's really in our hearts and minds. If we are to be ambassadors of Christ, shouldn't our speech be righteous and honorable and pure? We are all human, and make mistakes, but don't use this as a cop-out to not think about what you say.


Change:


In life, things are constantly changing. You can choose to accept this fact and adapt to what's going on around you, or you can take offense to every change that comes along and do your best to be a stick in the mud. I'll admit that often I have the urge to change things, just for the sake of changing them. This can be beneficial, and other times not so beneficial. I think that in my life, my focus has been distracted from my relationship with God a lot. I want to change that. I want to become a better person, but I've recently been thinking about that desire, and finding that as much as I try to change myself, which works for a time. I need to be focusing on knowing God more, rather than being better at looking like I know God. If I get to know God more, my actions, thoughts, and desires will change, and transformation will occur from the inside out. I want my life to be changed by the real relational knowledge of God, and time spent in his presence. Because, if I'm just changing because I want to be better, and not because I am getting to know God better, then I'm missing something vital. God is love, and he wants to share his love with us, so we can share it with others. God has promised that we will find him when we look for him, if we search with all our heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)


Radical Relationship:


As with a lot of my posts the topics I discuss all kind of overlap. I have been pondering the questions of "Why is Christ important in my life? Why would anyone who is not a believer need to believe in Christ?" These questions come to my mind because of my current job/ministry. I work with students who may or may not believe in Jesus, and may or may not care about knowing him. If being a good person is what Christianity is all about; putting on a mask that says everything is alright, and I love Jesus and am a good person. If bettering ourselves is all Christianity is about, then the message of Christ is irrelevant. Then we can get to heaven by doing good works, and nothing else matters. Jesus is the key, because a relationship with him will transform us. It should transform us. Thinking about this has caused me to realize that I have spent too much time trying to become a better person and do everything on my own strength and understanding. I need to lean on Christ, to spend time with him in prayer, and reading his word so that I can know him better. If I can know his heart, and experience his love, then there is a relationship. In youth a few weeks ago we were discussing the truth of Christ's second coming, and how his coming again will/should affect our lives. Most youth said that it should affect our lives more, but that it really didn't a whole lot right now. We need to spend more time building a relationship with God. If we have a vibrant relationship with him, we will be excited that he'll come back right? I want to be ecstatic at thinking about Christ returning to the Earth. I want to have a relationship with him that is deep, rich, and enduring. A relationship that affects my life and changes me, changes the way that I live and the decisions I make. If busyness is what is hindering your relationship with Christ, you are losing out on the experience of his love and need to unbusy yourself and MAKE TIME for GOD. He sent Jesus to die to save us from our sins so we could be in relationship with him, what have we sacrificed to work at that relationship?


Glory and Praise to the Almighty!