OK I know it has been so long since I last posted but I have an excuse: I started bible college! I moved out of the house in early September and moved to York and have been at the Calvary Chapel Bible college here since. It has been crazy busy so far and the adjustment to the student life has been hard but my time here has been amazing so far.

Every semester the college has outreaches to various places. Two trips really stood out to me: The first was to King’s Lynn! I had the chance to go back home and I really wanted to! I was tempted by the thought of my bed and my family and my Mum’s cooking. The second was to Romania. I know now that the only reason Romania was on my heart was because God wanted me there because I never would have picked that on my own. But here is a brief summary of the trip, which one I went on,  and what happened:

“When the outreaches were put out, I had originally planned to go back to my house. I wanted to be able to see my family and have a break but God kept putting Romania on my heart. I had pretty much reserved myself to the fact that there was no way of getting enough money for Romania. A few days before my Grandpa called me and I told him about the outreaches. I very briefly told him about Romania and then went on to talk about other things. That night my Grandpa called my Mom and gave her a talking to saying that Romania was dangerous, and a waste of money, and that she should not allow me to go. This just cemented my plan of going back to King’s Lynn.

The morning of the outreach, I put my name down to go to King’s Lynn but I just felt like it was wrong. I opened my laptop and saw an email from my Grandpa. Opening it, he said he wanted to pay for my trip to Romania. I was blown away! My Grandpa is not a believer and it was crazy seeing God give him a complete change of heart. So I stood up and changed my name from King’s Lynn to Romania.

For the first few days, I was struggling. Outhouses, fleas, and cockroaches are defiantly not my thing and to add onto that, I had the thought of “I could be at my house right now” during the time there. I was praying to the Lord in a place of “Why am I here?” I knew God wanted me there because He clearly opened the door but I just felt lost and alone. In my morning devotions I read 1 Corinthians 1:9: “God is faithful…” and God really just spoke to me that He is faithful to be with me no matter where I go. After reading this it was time to do devotions with the group and the verse we read was Genesis 26:24 “…Do not fear, for I am with you…” and I just felt peace. God spoke to me that even though I was in a foreign country where they don’t speak my language, He was right by my side and He was faithful to never leave me or forsake me.

After this, I had the chance to teach the kids in a gypsy village in a town called Valeni. My group had a day where we were just preparing for the week and so we all broke off to prepare our studies for the week. I wanted to pour out what I had been learning so I put together a study with the disciples in the storm and Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego showing that Jesus is right next to us in our storms. I had been outside and it got cold so I decided to go back in. When I did I saw Kirsten, one of the girls on the team, with a felt board of the ocean. I asked what she was teaching on and she said the disciples in the storm! I was so blessed to know God had given me my study and confirmed that by giving the same to Kirsten. After that I went to the next room and saw Kate surrounded by bits of red and yellow paper. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was putting a craft together for her message which was on Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego! I was so encouraged by the unity God had put in our group.

God really confirmed his faithfulness and goodness to me while I was in Romania. He is beyond faithful to us! Christ was faithful, to the point of death on a cross! He has demonstrated His love for me and I really fell in love with Jesus on the Romania trip.”

I hope to update this blog as often as I can so keep checking back. Please keep praying for the church in King’s Lynn!

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?”

Galatians 3:2

• With this post I want to explore the Spirit and what it means to receive the Spirit.
• There are 3 Greek prepositions concerning the Holy Spirit which are important to know: Para (With), En (In), Epi (Upon). The Holy Spirit is with us before we are saved. We know this because the Spirit convicts us of sin and draws us to God. (But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt [fn] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.- John 16:7-11). When we are saved the Holy Spirit came in us. (And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory.-Ephesians 1:13). Baptism of the Holy Spirit is when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Now there are so many verses where the Holy Spirit comes upon someone, that if I were to write them out this post would be huge so I will write out a few and list the rest. (But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."-Acts 1:8)
• Luke 3:21-22, Acts 2:4, Acts 8:14-17, Acts 9:17, Acts 10:44-46, Acts 19:1-7.
• Some believe you must speak in tongues to be truly baptized by the Holy Spirit.While this is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not all of the verses listed above resulted in that particular gift. Some resulted in no immediate gift at all!
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, and 1 Peter 4:10-11
• Prophecy, Serving, Teaching, Encouraging, Helping Others, Leadership, Mercy, Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miraculous Powers, Distinguishing Spirits, Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, and Boldness.
• I want to share how the Holy Spirit effected my life. When I graduated fifth grade, my Grandpa got me a guitar. After realizing you can’t just pick up a guitar and play it, it sat in the corner of my room being used as something to hang my clothes on. A few years later, a friend taught me my first chord and suddenly I began growing in my knowledge of guitar. The guy leading worship at a men's study moved away so I began playing guitar (The same 1 song every week) but I was terrified of singing so I didn’t. I was then invited to go to a worship leaders conference at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. During the final teaching, the pastor discussed baptism of the Holy Spirit. I knew that was something I want but I felt the Lord tell me to wait until I got back home. The day after coming back, it was the Men’s bible study night. The men laid hands on me and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I must confess I was still scared to sing. My Dad says I turned to him and said “Dad I can’t do this!” and he replied “You don’t have to anymore. The Holy Spirit will.” That was the first night I ever sang in front of a group. Since then the Holy Spirit has been growing my gift of worship.
• 3 Random things about the Holy Spirit:
  The Holy Spirit was present during creation- Genesis 1:2
   The Holy Spirit is the author of prophecy- 2 Peter 1:21
   The Holy Spirit resurrected Jesus- Romans 8:11
 
• What the Spirit’s job description is:
  Our Comforter/Testifies of God-John 15:26
   Convicts us of sin-John 16:8-11
   Intercedes for us-Romans 8:26-27
   Reveals the things of God- 1 Corinthians 2:12-14
 
 
• "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for [fn] a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"- Luke 11:9-13
 
 

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified” Galatians 3:1

· The word Paul uses here for foolish is not “Moros” which means someone who is mentally deficient. He uses “Anoetos” which means someone who can think but fails to use their power of perception. Perception is understanding so basically Paul was saying God had shown Himself to the Galatians through Jesus being crucified before their very eyes, but they were choosing to ignore understanding and believe that they could be saved by the law.

· I think we can take comfort in the fact that living by faith was hard at times, even for those who had seen Christ crucified. Even the people who had been around him and maybe even touched him, they were struggling with their faith when trials came up.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” 1 Peter 1:6-8

The Galatians were having a crisis of faith. It was do or die time. Paul was saying “You can’t live on the fence between God and the Law.” Trials like what the Galatians were going through, a conflict between what they knew was right and what they had know their whole lives, trials like that come to build our faith, not tear it down.

· Throughout the Bible, there are verses that really show how powerful our faith can be.

· “He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

· “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.” Matthew 21:21

· Our faith is powerful! Trials don’t keep us from it, but make it stronger!

· “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1.

· “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

· “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.” –Martin Luther King JR. There are things we won’t know until we stand before God. But we have the word. And that’s the step. And we have faith that this step leads somewhere. It would be foolish of me to NOT believe this. We have all seen God work in our lives and so our faith is acting upon that and taking the first step.

“But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified."But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness [comes] through the law, then Christ died in vain."

Galatians 2:14-21

• So basically Paul is saying “Why are you trying to put the Gentiles under the yoke of bondage, under Judaism, when you yourself have been set free?” “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."-Matthew 11:29-30 A relationship isn’t binding. It’s freeing! His burden is light if you are willing to learn.
• Peter’s problem was pride. He was worried about how the Jews from Jerusalem would view him if he was hanging out with Gentiles. So he separated himself from them and in doing so put the yoke of bondage back onto himself. God is so good that even in the times of us being disobedient (Which Peter was being), He helps us out of it. God sent Paul to stop him from this.
• Paul isn’t saying that the Gentiles are sinners and the Jews are not. That is totally contradictory to what he wrote in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”. No one was perfect not even the Jews. Paul is talking about the eating of foods the law said were sinful like Pork.
• If there was one man on Earth who would know how justifying the law was, it would be Paul because he kept it to a tee. In the sense of the law, he was blameless. But in the sense of the Word, he was to be blamed. The works of the flesh hold no credibility before God. So Paul is saying “Knowing we can’t save ourselves, (Only Jesus can), we believe in HIM, so He can save us and not our works. My deed’s cannot save my flesh.” The gap between man and God cannot be bridged by works and deeds. It can only be bridged by the acceptance of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
• In the first part, Paul says God doesn’t approve of sin. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”- Romans 5:8. God doesn’t love our sin, He loves us. If Paul had tried to rebuild or go back to his former life which he had destroy and crucified with Christ (Will go into that a bit more in the next blog post), he would be a transgressor. The old life has dead.
• While trying to be justified by faith, Paul was dead. The law was unkeepable so he was condemned. “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”- James 2:10. So if you stumble in even the smallest point of the law, you are guilty. And the price is death. So he was dead so he could live for God.
• What a mind blowing concept that we have been crucified with Christ. I can admit that there have been area’s in my life where I have been like “I have this, I give you, POOF it’s gone”. Many other areas are a constant struggle. I did a little research on crucifixion and here's what I found: a crucifixion didn’t instantly kill. It took anywhere between hours to days. The war against the flesh is a constant one, which will be fought your whole life until the day you stand before God.
• The old life is gone. The self-serving, self-centered life is dead. The new life, with God at the head lives.
• This all comes back to God’s unfailing love. Jesus gave himself away so that I might live. Jesus bridged the gap between God and Man by dying for all of mankind. If we could earn our way by good works, well then the Saviour of the world died in vain. But our works cannot save us, only Jesus can. Trust in Him with all your heart!

“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.”

Galatians 2:11-13

• So here, Paul opposes Peter to his face where just a few verses ago he took the disciples aside privately. This is a big change in the way Paul handled two issues. There are two possible reasons for this:

1. To know the first, we have to have a look into what was happening at the time when Paul opposed him. We need to look at the setting. They were having an Agape Feast (Love Feast). Basically everyone brought some food and they had a pot luck. Not only was this one of the only good meals some of the people would have in the week but it was a time of unity among various believers from different backgrounds. This was unifying the Jews and Gentiles. So Peter, by only eating with Jews, is causing a division in a feast that is meant to be filled with love.
2. The second is that Paul saw Peter slipping back into following the law. So when it says “Pail withstood him to his face” it wasn’t like he got all up in his grill. Paul cared enough for his brother to let him know and you can bet money that his response was in love. Peter didn’t want the Jews to see him in a bad way, so fearing them, he ignored the Gentiles.

• “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”-Proverbs 29:25.  Living your life for the approval of man binds you from doing the will of God. To be in His will you need to be sold out! Snares in life will come but we put our trust in God who is our shelter and fortress.
• Peter was allowing the Jews to enforce their gospel that the Gentiles were unclean. “About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."-Acts 10:9-16. God knew that this day at the Agape Feast would come and He was preparing Peter for it. After His time on the roof, Peter joined in fellowship in the house of Cornelius with Gentiles. So Peter began to really enjoy the fellowship of Gentiles until these Jews came and swayed him. And even Barnabas! Its kind of like Acts 17 where there was a victory, then a defeat, then a victory, then a defeat. Satan used the fear of man to attack the work of God, which is a weapon in his arsenal to this day! So watch out and know that the fear of man brings a snare!
• “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”- 2 Timothy 1:7