Vacation.

Would you ever believe that you would need a vacation from vacation?

Well Hello Bloggers,

I am back, this will be the third time I have been home in almost a month, making that the third time I've gotten a chance to blog. In a way, it's been relaxing, in a way, it feels like I am missing my child, this blog was my baby for so long.

I have to be honest and say that this summer has not exactly felt like a vacation so far. I really want a week to shut everything down and, well... "let it be..."

I've tried to explain to people how they need to take time for themselves, I really think so many of us don't realize how important it is that we give God our FULL attention daily.

I'm reminded of that story about Martin Luther. He spent each morning in prayer before He would get to work, and when He was extremely busy, instead of rushing and getting everything done, He would take even more time out of his day to pray. I think that is so wise, and most of us would do the opposite.

I don't know about you, but I am about ready to throw my cell phone into an ocean somewhere. I feel like God sometimes cries for that to happen. Lately, I feel like I haven't been giving my FULL honest attention towards God, and when life gets busy I don't give Him even more time then regular, which really is how it should be. I am about to change that.

I was in church this evening, and I just felt... peaceful. My mind was growing, and I was thinking, just as an overall thought... God has to be so real, so big, so powerful, He puts upon everyone a different "feeling", he hugs the ones that needs to be held, covers those who need to be protected. As I glanced across the sanctuary I thought about how everyone has a different story, and God wants to hear about every single story. He wants to hear your story, and mine.

So why don't we tell Him?

I have to go back to think of a couple of summers ago when I made the connection that God could be whomever you needed Him to be, a father, hero, saviour? For me, a best friend.

I have to laugh, as I semi-re-read this, I am thinking back to when I started blogging, my thoughts in no particular order, absolutely absurd and almost impossible to decipher... God finds joy in putting the pieces together and knowing what I'm saying. Which I am thankful for.

I'm not an overly patient person, which makes me in the need for time to cool down and chill out. Does that make sense? I think I need to go back to some silence, except this time, some real personal silence, and restore passion, restore purpose, restore.

Isn't that what vacation is really for?

Oh come on, You know I love you. :)

-Colton

Can I have more of you?

Howdy Folks!

Well, it has been close to two weeks! Insane.

My family and I returned from the Island of Prince Edward and went straight to another campground closer to home, this has been the first time I've been home in almost two weeks. Trust me, it feels so weird not to blog every night before I go to bed, you'd think I was on vacation or something.

And now I am running away to work. Let me leave you with this...

I give up trying to earn Your love,

I just look above, up to You.

My desire is to see Your fire,

Growing even higher than before.

Because You are good, beyond measure,

My heart longs to give You pleasure.

You fulfill all my longing,

And all my life I will sing:

God I love You and all You do,

Your joy lives inside and does me good,

Can I have more of You?

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

Oh, my God, You never let me down,

Can I have more of You?

God I need You right next to me,

For my heart to be satisfied.

I decide how I live my life,

I've made up my mind, I'm livin' for You

- Kim Walker

You know I love you,

-Colton

A Free Life?

'Allo Blog Readers.

Well, tonight will be the last blog for almost a week, I am headed out of the province for a family vacation. I feel "poopy", this month is starting out poor for my blogging participation.

However, tonight I can blog, and that I will, but about what?

What consumes your life?

Examine your life, as I examine mine, what do you spend the majority of your time thinking about, or doing or wanting? Is that healthy? Is it a good given thought or passion?

Do you feel free?

Check it out...

Romans 6:15-21 ----

What Is True Freedom?

^15-18So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!

¹⁹I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?

^20-21As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.

Think about a part in your life where you don't walk in freedom but continue to struggle with sin. When do you easily give into temptation? Why? What pain or discomfort does it bring? What do you fear you would lose if you gave up the sin?

Read the passage from Romans again with a specific sin in mind. Think Paul is accurate with his description of living, "any old way we want" to be accurate? What about living in "obedience"?

Pray to God about the things that He is showing you in your life that might be sin, or may not be real freedom. Get my drift? Maybe I am making no sense... If you're frustrated, express it to Him. I honestly think sometimes I forget that God likes to hear EVERYTHING from us. Not just us when we are happy or want something, He wants us to admit, when we hurt, or are sad, or confused, that is the beauty of it... You can say anything, and this Dad will listen. Challenge God to show you a freedom.

Live, off yourself to the ways of God and the freedom that never quits. Rest in His Freedom. Rest.

Teach with your Life

HEY HEY HEY!

Well Hello my friends, this has been a horrid week for blogging, I have been staying at my camp all week and I am finally home for a few days, to be honest, it feels like a part of me is missing when I don't blog. Anyway, how are you?

The run of "Grease" is now over, it was an incredible journey that I will not forget, and the people I have become close with over this journey are really gifts from God. I couldn't be happier.

Well, it is coming on bed time for me, but I don't think I would be able to sleep without blogging, however, before I jet off, I want to leave you with something that I read yesterday morning, and I really like it, check it out.

1 Timothy 4:11-14 (The Message)

^11-14Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don't let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.

In fact, I recommend checking out 1 Timothy 4, the entire chapter, all about teaching with your life, anyway, I can't wait to get back to writing more, have a blessed day, sleep, whatever it is you find yourself about to do when you read this, and you shall hear from me soon!

-Colton

Passion

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Well, first off I have to apologize for missing the past couple of nights blogging, I've been staying at my camp, and I will be again tonight, however I have stolen a laptop just for you! Feeling loved yet?
Well, I want to say "Hi!" and re-introduce myself to this blog, the segment of thirty days of silence is over, and it is time for me to spew my thoughts through my finger tips onto a keyboard into your heads again, excited yet?

So, what has been new?
For me... I am in the show, "Grease", playing Danny Zuko, we have three more shows left and I am having the time of my life. It is such a fun show to do, and I don't know... I don't think I can explain the joy that I get from it. It's funny, today I was driving from the beach to go eat breakfast (Pretty Peaceful) and I was listening to Jesus Cultures' new EP "My Passion." It got me thinking, what is my passion? What is your passion? What is passion? According to Urban Dictionary, Passion is...

"Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to put as much heart, mind, body and soul, into something as is possible."

What do you think about that?

My strength in life, is I am yours.

My soul delights, because I am yours.

Your will on earth is all I'm living for.

Light that breaks the darkness, showing what true love is.

Always full of goodness, You are my passion.

Well, I am being called to go do a show.

Think about that, ask God to throw passion into your life.

You are my passion.

-Colton

Psalm 100:1-5 ----

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

² Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Hey, what's shakin'? Well, I find it perfectly timed, of course, that this is the last night of the segment "30 days of Silence", as it was the opening night for "Grease!" Anyway, let's get into this silence! :)

Imagine you are in a great cathedral. Consider how incredibly beautiful it is. Massive ceilings, architecture, stained glassed windows. This is an incredible place, full of depth and mystery.

Now imagine you're still seated in the same sanctuary, this time not in the pews but in the choir loft at the very front of the church, and sitting there in the pews in front of you is God himself. In this worship service you have an audience of One! Your order of worship is Psalm 100. Pause, pray, write, reflect, and listen as you meet with God in this special place. "

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth."

Begin with this thought today as you worship God in this "choir loft", or wherever you are right now... You are joining a chorus of brothers and sisters in Christ all over the globe! A choir of all ages and ethnic groups. A chorus including not only human voices, but all creation really. How crazy is it to think you're a part of such a vast creation chorus?

² Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Why don't you, right now, sing your favourite worship song? Write one! If you don't like singing, pray, or dance... worship. :)

Know that the LORD is God.

Take time not to meditate on one aspect of God's character you've come to appreciate over the past 30 days, or over the past year. Faithfulness? Power? Grace? Mercy? Wisdom? Worship for what you know of Him.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

We worship God because we belong to God. We are His. Ponder that for a few minutes as you consider what it means for you to be His. What does it mean for your life at home, at school, with friends, at church, on the street? What does it mean for you to be "the sheep of his pasture"?

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

There was only one reason for sheep to be brought into the temple courts; to be offered as sacrifices to God. As you look out from your choir loft today and into the face of God, does it feel like He is worthy of your sacrifice? What might your sacrifice look like? Is it an attitude, a habit, a relationship, a possession? Imagine yourself stepping down from your loft and taking that offering to the feet of God.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Close your time of worship with prayer. Focus particularly on the words, "His faithfulness continues."

This may be the end of your quiet time, but it's not the end of your time with god. Watch for Him in the hours ahead. Look for Him in random moments. Search for Him in the faces you pass. Listen for Him in the sounds you hear.

There is no place you will be today, tomorrow, or forever that is not His sanctuary.

Well, these thirty days have been fun, and I cannot wait to talk to you tomorrow.

You know I love you.

-Colton

Day 29 - Enjoy the Silence

Matthew 15:22-28 -----

^21-22From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit."

²³Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy."

²⁴Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel."

²⁵Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Master, help me."

²⁶He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs."

²⁷She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table."

²⁸Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well.

Bonjourno! So read this passage, anything stand out? Haha, how about the line, "Jesus ignored her." I read that and was like, "WHAAA? Jesus did what?" Then I thought about it, sometimes I am in situations like that. Jesus isn't being rude, i think he is teaching us through the silence.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever experienced the depth of silence? Has there ever been a time in your life where you brought something to God, in prayer, and you felt like there was no reply, there was simply nothing, just silence?

Think about such a time. As you recall it, how are you feeling? Angry? Sad? Insignificant? Forgotten? Do you feel sorry for yourself? What is your sense of God in that place of silence?

Journal.....

How does God's silence affect your prayerful requests to him? Do you just turn your back and choose not to ask again? Do you feel rejected, unheard, unwanted, unloved, betrayed? Maybe you feel like it's better to walk away from the whole thing. After all, surrender doesn't hurt as much as outright rejection. Before you answer, look at what the woman in the story did. She didn't walk away, she didn't surrender to despair and cynicism. Instead she kept crying out after Jesus and his disciples.

Go back and read verse 24. You see, Jesus did answer the woman, and His first words may have been more painful and harsh then the silence itself. He didn't heal her daughter immediately as she hoped He would. It must have felt to her as though his answer ignored her questions, not to mention the pain she felt. What I love, is that the woman was persistent... and not because of who she was, but because of who He was. She dropped to her knees, in faith, and said, "Help me!"

Then Jesus spoke again, this time, after the silence, it was with volume echoing all the way back to the sickbed of a little girl in a distant village... "²⁸Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well."

We might not always understand those times when it feels as though God is silent, but consider this possibility: In those moments when there is no word, perhaps God is reminding us that, even more than He wants to meet our needs, He wants to understand our own need to meet Him, to fall before Him, and to trust Him.

Don't hide from the silence of God. Sit with it, ponder it, challenge it, and question it. Soon enough the silence will turn into an answer. Whatever you do, don't give up and mistake the silence for lack of compassion or lack of hearing.

Journal what you're thinking.

-Colton