Monthly Archives: January 2012

Across the Universe

January 30, 2012 |

As I sit here and write this there are tears in my eyes. I’m not not one to cry, it usually only happens a handful of times a year, but the past few days have been crazy. I’m so overwhelmed right now, but not in a bad way. I’m overwhelmed with God’s love for me. I don’t understand how He can love me this much, how He can care so much about the little details in my life. Everything from the basic necessities of life to friendships that touch my inmost being, He has taken care of it all in the most amazing ways. I wanted/needed to find a job (I’m currently a student), there were a few different reasons why but I just knew that it was what I should do. So I prayed that God would provide me with an opportunity, a job where I could be a…    read more 

Porn-What’s God got to do with it?

January 25, 2012 |

I’ve been thinking about the topic of pornography and so I thought I’d do a write up on it. Although I don’t like to admit it, it’s something that’s killing the Church. Stats are that 99% of guys have looked at or have been addicted to pornography at sometime in their life. Not only that but a large percentage of marriages (I can’t remember the exact number) end up in ruins because of it. But it’s not something we like to talk about because it’s awkward and personal. But showing love for someone is acting in their best interest, not doing what is comfortable for them but doing what will actually help them. It sometimes means saying the hard things or bringing up the taboo subjects. My question to you is this, if there was some guy who called himself a “Christian” and just slept around with different women all…    read more 

Idolatry: Tearing at the Heart of God

January 23, 2012 |

Hosea begins with a love story; a painful, personal love story, the prophet’s very own. Hosea had married a woman who acted like a prostitute. Yet the more she went out on him, the more Hosea loved her. He gave her everything a good wife deserved: his love, his home, his name, his reputation. She responded by sleeping around with other men. He warned her, he pleaded with her, he punished her. She humiliated him until he wanted to cry, yet still he clung to her. Why did Hosea begin with his personal life? Because God had expressly told him to relate it to another, more tragic love story: the painful love of God for his people. God could have simply declared, “Israel is like a wife to me, an adulterous wife.” Instead, he used Hosea to act out the treachery in real life and to show in living color…    read more 

Let Love In

January 20, 2012 |

I’m once again at a loss for words. I’m often frustrated with life, I sit here in North America blessed with so much and yet it doesn’t bring any satisfaction. I know that there is so much more to life, all this “stuff” we have just gets in the way of what really matters. Perhaps it’s my circumstances, perhaps I’m just going through a dry spell. I want to be able to find the people who are hurting and help them. Tell them it’s okay to not have things figured out, I sure don’t. I want to tell them that in our brokenness that we can become something better. When we come to the place where we have nothing else there is a way out. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. You’re an amazing person. Perhaps you don’t see that right now, maybe you don’t think…    read more 

Idolatry, Why The Big Fuss?

Idolatry, Why The Big Fuss?

January 18, 2012 |

Idolatry, Why The Big Fuss? A few months ago before a test I saw a classmate holding the cross that hung around his neck and was praying in preparation for the test. Later I e-mailed him asking if he was a Christian and if it was OK with him to add his e-mail to my “Christian forwards/messages” list. He replied to my e-mail saying that he was not a Christian: he simply had the cross for “good luck”. “And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ‘You shall have no other gods before me. ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD…    read more 

To Stand

January 16, 2012 |

I’m sure we’ve all heard, read, or otherwise been made aware of this verse at least half a million times, but something caught me as we were reading through it in class a couple weeks ago. Anytime I’ve heard this exposited, used as an example or even just read it myself I always came away with the thought.. “Yes, build your life on Christ, the rock, the solid foundation and then your house, your life, won’t fall down when things get tough. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” Matthew 7:24-25 ” The only problem with this is that it isn’t quite what…    read more 

Genesis creation narrative

Genesis Creation Narrative by Hidetsugu Murakami

January 13, 2012 |

The Genesis Creation Narrative by Hidetsugu Murakami is a brilliant animation sequence that chronicles the Genesis account of Creation. The smooth animation and transitions are mesmorizing and effective in taking a long story and breaking it down in a short and beautiful composition. Only issue i found with this video is the fact that the small text is very hard to read, but if you know the Genesis story, then you won’t miss a beat, check it out!    

The Narrow Road and Gate

January 11, 2012 |

Deep snow is hard to walk in because it requires extra energy from us to move our feet in it, but it is very safe, snow is not slippery, and so it won’t cause you to fall and break your bones. Some pathways looks clear and safe, but if you examine it,  you will find that the clear path you see is not so “clear” because so many people walked on it, the snow has melted and been compressed to a thin sheet of ice that’s muddy so it rarely looks dangerous to the naked eye. But everyone knows how dangerous those paths can be, even though they require no extra effort to walk on them and in theory they are much faster to take. That’s why I took this photo because whenever I see a scene like this one it reminds me of Mathew 7:13-14. Interestingly enough, I believe…    read more 

Elements

January 9, 2012 |

Last weekend we, a somewhat random group, went to Hourglass Lake. Hourglass Lake is actually two different lakes and they’re not the one (singular) you see in the shot. That’s Lower Hourglass Lake and this shot was taken near Upper Hourglass Lake. It’s named Hourglass because the top lake flows into the bottom via a waterfall. It also seems like it could be called Hourglass because Lower Hourglass Lake looks like an hourglass. I know, sort of confusing 😛 I sometimes hear things like, “You should do this, and then we’ll really see how good you are!” And I’m like, “Ummmmmmm?” I think at this point it’s time that I introduce myself. My name is Brandon Peters and I have issues. I’m full of jealousy, quick to anger, lustful, prideful, greedy, and lack self-control. And that list is not exhaustive, those are just some of the bigger issues. I never…    read more 

My Worst “Nightmare”

January 6, 2012 |

Two Thousand Seven was an extremely stressful year for me because I lost the friendship of someone I dearly loved with all my heart. I found myself depressed for a long time, and my eyes teared for no reason, I cried almost daily, and wrestled with God daily. To make things worse I started university in September of that year and the stress level just shot up! So I became not only emotionally and spiritually tired but also physically and mentally tired and very sleep deprived. One day in early January of 2008 I went to sleep around 3:30 AM (because of school work I had to stay late), so I laid with my back flat on the bed looking at the ceiling and because I was so exhausted as soon as I put my head on the pillow I fell asleep. Suddenly (what seemed like a second after I…    read more 

Tear Down The Walls

January 4, 2012 |

Today I wanted to talk about the idea of relationship. If there is one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that Christians really do want a relationship with God. I think that we see the fire that others have and we see how happy they are and we crave that. But we want it in some easy form, we want to swallow a pill and get on with our day. I hate to break it to you but that’s not how a relationship works. How close would you be with your friends or family if you never spent time with them? You want a fire for God? You want to experience Him more deeply? Then you have to make time for Him. Read your Bible and spend time in prayer. I know it’s sickeningly simple, but that’s just how it is. It might mean that you have to say “no” to other…    read more 

A-NEW-CREATION-IN-CHRIST-3

A New Creation in Christ

January 2, 2012 |

When I took this photo of the white flower I remembered how in Christ we are new creation. But here I would like to just talk about the joy of being new creation in Christ, because it seems that joy is the first gift Christ gives us through the Holy Spirit when we surrender our lives to Him. Here is a little story… In the summer of 2003, I had just graduated from high school and by then I was in Canada for 4 years, I decided to find Christian chat rooms online. I had never been to a chat room before (or since) but I really wanted to join one because I needed spiritual advice on how to overcome lust, and I didn’t have any other source of help. So I went to MSN chat rooms (been closed for a while now) and I looked through few Christian chat…    read more 

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