Perspective.

Readers!

It has been too long, I am now out of Arizona and in Texas, one week until I am home in Canada.

Anyway, a couple things that I have missed, and it has made me realize how blessed and fortunate we are to have these things.

1) Time alone, "our time" where we can be calm, and breathe, and surrender to God, by ourselves.

2) Reading my bible freely and openly - no hiding, without criticism or questioning. Do we realize how fortunate you are to have a wonderfully supportive family? And if you don't, I realize what that's like now, and my heart goes out to you. Keep going, don't let anything stop you.

3) Blogging Everyday! I miss it so much, but, sense I haven't got the opportunity lately I have been writing to myself every day in on my ipod, and Today I am going to share some of things that God has put in my heart.

So... a few thing that I have read and that have been on my heart,

Romans 8. Check it out, the amount of knowledge that God has put into this guy is massive. Listen to every word that is written in that book, after all, these are God's words to you! This is how He does it.

^22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

^26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

^29-30God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

^31-39So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.

We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

There it is! Nothing, NOTHING, can come between us and the love God has for us. No location, no changes in our daily patterns, nobody, no words, no unsupportive family members, or friends, or roommates, or SIN, Nothing! And that is a promise!

God has shown me so much already on this trip about what I want in life, and how I work, but also has given me a glance at the life of not having a supportive Christian family around you, or maybe you don't have the opportunities to be as free as you want to just surrender to him constantly. Keep holding on. Pray for that time, you will get it. Last night I pray for some kind of peace to just be able to blog and write you my thoughts, and look what I have been given, this is a massive blog. Thanks God.

Okay, so one last thought. It is not our job to go out there and deliver our family or roommates or friends. That is God's job, it is our job to be constantly open to what God wants us to do, and to be a light to the people who we are with while we are waiting for God to do His stuff at the perfect time.

Wow, I have missed this, time to go lay in the sun,

Colton