Not A God of Moments

I am sitting here in "Sanctuary" the regular Sunday night praise and worship chapel led by the chapel interns at my School.
Here's the thing as I sit here with music being played, with eyes closed, hands and voices raising high God leads me to two thoughts.
1) He is not a God of moments
2) we are the same in this as we are any other time.
First we need to understand that God is not a God of moments. He works in moments but He is not a God of feeling, or simply just emotion. Faith in Him is not just a living from one mountain top spiritual high to the next. Of course this is a regular occurrence in Christianity, and I must admit I am so guilty of it as well! But this is a life style of lies created by Satan. Yes we are filled by the Spirit at certain times, the doors in certain occasions are more open then others. But He does not only just work then... I fully believe and know (because there has been life experience and Biblical proof) that God works even more in the "low points" of our lives!
This then goes into my second thought. That we are the same in this "moment" as we were before we walked in, and as we walk out. I find it strange that a lot of times people walk out of Spirit led services, bible studies, and conferences and then go right back into the same sinful retinues, hobbies and habits (again I am so guilty of this as well!). I find it kind of ironic that we stand and sit with arms lifted high, eyes closed, saying "Amen" and all the other Christian responders words and then when we walk away from such an empowering from God just give up once people start noticing we are Christians.
I have worked with youth and in youth ministry for 6 years now, and countless times kids have come to me and said, "Nathan you are so encouraging, I wish I had your faith, I want what you have, how can you do it?".... and here's the thing there is really nothing different from them and me, other then age, and maybe if they are a girl... but I am a human, I struggle, I fail, I screw up (so much!!), I go threw daily battles emotionally, mentally, spiritually and sometimes physically. So what am I doing different? Well I am not doing anything... its God that does something!
You see when we walk away from our "mountiantop" Spirit experiences and go back into the crappy, sinful lost world we live in we have to let God do His thing and have the lead in our life. I think a lot of the "valley" feelings we get and the discouragement that happens is due to not letting God completely in. And also understand that Satan really will never lean you alone. I have said it so many times, but Satan does not care one bit that you are Christian, he could care less. He (Satan) starts caring when you lwt God have complete control! Absolute power. This is when Satan grows afraid and starts doing all he can in his fear.
So heres the thong God will never take away your problems, issues, struggles, pain or sin... what would be the good of that? God is not a magic genie in a bottle that you rub with prayer... He is not a magic wand that you wave over your life to fix all your problems. He is also not a old mean man who leaves you alone also. No God rather walks with you in this life! He walks with you as you go through this world, as you go through your struggles, your problems and sin.
So as I walk away out of this chapel and start a new week of readings, lectures, notes, and Satan's temptation I would challenge not only you but also myself of Moses. You see Moses would spend days even weeks solely with God on Mnt.Sinai, and when he would come down he came back countless times to a people who turned away from God to a golden Calf, who complained, and who ultimately caused him to never reach the promised land himself. Moses litrally came down from a mountain top of God's Spirit into a valley of lost, broken, confused, sinful people. But yet Moses never lost faith in God or His promises, he struggled, he had hard and difficult times... but never lost faith.
So let us all be challenged to make a decision, and a declaration and be a generation from this point on of Moses people who walk away from the mountain top into the valley but no matter what never loose hope or faith in Him!

A Year of Reflection: My 2015 Journey

2016. That my friends is crazy in its self! Remember back in 2011 when everyone thought we were going to all die in 2012? Ha. So that never happened...
Anyways it has been another year, memories have been made and things have happened that all of us wish to forget.
For myself 2015 was a bit of a rollicoster ride, after starting off semi-smoothly I had my girlfriend brake up with me in back in early March it lead me into a very confusing but much needed state. I began to reflect on my choices, decisions and life in general. For the next 4 months I would dive into a self discovery mode. With 2 months in a Pastoral internship, writing sermons every week brought me to a point where I learned a lot about not only God but myself as well as a young theologian going into ministry. I then would go through the next two months as program director of a summer camp.
In these 5 months I learned more about myself, my faith and who I am then I have in the past 20 years of my life. I stopped and asked myself "Who am I, where do I want to go, and who does God call and compel me to be?" With these questions in mind I began to almost restructure, refocus and restart the life I had started to walk down in the past year.
With the turning point being my girlfriend braking up with me I at first went into shock. My life suddenly seemed to stop. I had grown close at first as a friend to this girl over the past 2 years and then finally asked her out at a christian 3 day concert/conference. With regular weekend visits, skype study dates, and late night phone calls, I thought life was all fitting into place. I was going to school for Theology (my dream), I was dating someone I really liked and got along with, and I was regularly going to a huge church every Sunday. Then on a weekend in March she sat me down and over the next 2 hours explained she was braking up with me to deal with some issues in her life she had been ignoring. I didn't know what to do.
For starters I was lost... the church I was going to was the one she had been going to and was 1 1/2hr away, school was unbearable because I was a wreck and I was single again. What was I to do? I stupidly started talking to a girl who I had previously been interested in prior to my relationship, I made the mistake of almost rebounding and dating this girl, but God quickly stopped me and slapped me in the face. The following Sunday after my brake up I was invited by a friend to come to their church which was literally a God sent! This church is now my home church, which I love and regularly attend every week!
After school was over and the stress of exams was slowly wearing off I went back home where I was to start my Pastoral internship for May and June. A couple months prior I had contacted my dad and asked if I could, upon my arrival home from the school year, regularly preach at the evening services my church ran. He suggested, and put forward to the deacons that I do a Pastoral internship and completely take over and remodel the evening services. And so I came back home and began doing this. I preach almost every Sunday night and lead the congregation on a hour-long intensive study of God's word as a whole unit not separate testaments, books, chapters or verses. This brought me to a place where I would spend the entire week preparing not only the sermon but my spiritual state. It gave me a focus to pursue and led me back to my deep love for God and sharing His amazing power and love to others.
For the entire year of 2015 (January-August) I had been preparing for the two months of July and August which I was to be the Program Director at Camp Cherith, a Christian Summer camp outside of Walkerton, ON. In this position I was to lead the entire camp each week in meals, games, and an over arching theme. This job was like none other I had done at camp, in previous years I had worked in kitchen, on maintenance, I had counseled cabins, and been the director of the leadership program. Being the program director however meant I basically ran what the campers experienced at camp, which for me was slightly difficult as it meant being very organized, on point, and administrative. Now if you know me, you know that my personality is that of the B type, meaning I am thinking of and about multiple things, and although I am meticulous for detail, I am not organized (or at least not to most people). I had to work through working with multiple personalities, and letting others help me with things. I did however work along side another staff member who became a good friend and someone who also worked in a stressful and maintenance job. This individual was very different then me but listened to my rants, complaints, annoyances and multiple nerdy references (which she had no clue most of the time what I was talking about!). For this I am very thankful for her throughout the summer!
In sumary, this job, although stressful and difficult was very eye opening to me about myself and showed me a lot about who I am and how I work in certain situations and with certain people.
After all this I began my second year at University, which I was very excited and nervous for as I was going into the student leadership position of RA (Residence Adviser). In this position I was responsible for 15 young men who were attending school along with me. I was to be something who could help them, answer questions and if they wanted mentor them along not only their physical and emotional life journey but spiritual one as well. As I grew used to this I began to love it, and continued to learn more and more about myself and who God has created me to be!
finally we come to today. As I sit here full of popcorn from seeing Star Wars VII and looking back on this year and looking in anticipation for the year to come. I head into this year knowing God will do amazing and great things, I also know it might be hard in the moment but upon reflection I will see His great plan for it all!
And so I would then challenge you to really look back on your year and see what God has done, shown and where He has grown in you life. And I pray that He will continue to work on and in and through all of us!
God bless, and Happy New year friends!