Hellooooooo again!

So I know what you're thinking as you're reading this right now.."It's about time he wrote something else on this blog!". And you'd be exactly right. For those of you who still check out the blog - thank you! And for those of you who don't - well, I guess it doesn't matter because you're not reading this.
As you know, it's been almost 7 MONTHS since I've last posted on here, and to make it even worse, I said back in August that I would continue the series on James that I had started. This of course has not happened, and for that I am very sorry. I hope I'm still loved. :-D I will most definitely continue that series sometime in the very near future.

Anyways, even though the blog has been dormant for this period of time, God has been doing amazing things in my life! I thought this would be a great time to share some of them with you.
First off, as a little background, I'm currently finishing up winter quarter of my 4th year at OSU (woot) and it's been an absolute BLAST. Yes, the weather sucks, and yes, it is downpouring super cold rain right now (I know you're asking that in your head), but despite all that, God has used this quarter as a time for great personal growth, and as a time to really connect with Him in ways I've never really experienced before. I'll straight up admit that winter can be a pretty depressing time of the year, especially if you hate cold weather, and a lot of my time has been spent indoors - which I'm not a fan of - but in a way it's been a good thing because I've had more time to really spend time in the Word and to also spend time with great people and friends in my life that have really challenged me Spiritually. Being in a Christian community has been great for me this year, and it's something I really want to touch base on tonight.
Being in a Christian community really is such a great thing, and as Christians, we ALL need this. It's very hard, if not impossible, to have a thriving relationship with Christ if we do not have a community of believers around us to share our joys with and our struggles too. That's the great thing about community - we're all in this together. Chances are, whatever struggles you may be going through, there's someone else close to you that's going through, or has gone through, the very same thing. Someone that can encourage you in your time of need.
Here's what Paul has to say about it in Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
So what's he saying? "Let us not give up meeting together...but let us encourage one another". Boom. Here's just one of many examples of this found in the Bible. We need to be encouraging to one another in our walks with Christ! We need to be there for each other. Despite what you may think, living a life that Christ calls us to live is not easy..in fact, it's pretty hard sometimes. At least in my life, it's very easy to buy into the lies that the world throws at me, despite the promises that God makes in the Bible - promises that only through Him will I experience true joy and happiness. Why do I choose the wrong path? I don't know. I do know this though - through these rough times in my life, going to a friend or spiritual leader and letting out my frustrations to them and allowing them to encourage me has been so vital in my walk with Christ.
If you're reading this right now, and you're going through a rough time, with anything really, I really just encourage you to talk to someone about it; someone who will be able to help you through it and encourage you at the same time. Trust me, it works.
A little side note - a "church" is NOT just a building. "church" is NOT just a Sunday morning service. We, as the body of believers of Jesus Christ, are the "church". The Christian church is a COMMUNITY. We're all running this race together, side by side. Let's not forget that.

Again, thank you for reading my blog! I really do hope that anything I've said can help you in your walk with Christ. Please talk to me if you have any questions or comments!

In the meantime, watch this video and this video, both of which involve animals talking in British accents. They're hilarious.

God Bless!
Kyle

8/17 - Faith: Part 1

Hey everyone!
Today I'm going to start writing about James. It is personally one of my favorite books of the Bible, and it has some good stuff in there that all Christ followers should read and know. James is really like the Proverbs of the New Testament; it largely focuses on the ethics of the Christian faith, and more specifically, our actions and how we as Christians are to behave. One key word that you'll see throughout this is "faith". Faith is definitely something that is hard to grasp and understand, especially for a non-believer who does not have a personal relationship with Christ. Here's how Hebrews 11:1 defines faith:
"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see." (The Message)


Most of you have heard the verse go like this:
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV)

In The Message version, faith is simply our "trust in God" and our "handle on what we can't see". We cannot physically see God, but we believe He is there and we put our trust in Him regardless. It sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? That we would put out trust in someone who we can't even see and someone who we have a hard time proving His existence? The great thing about this is that, even though we cannot see or touch God, when we put our trust in God and live our lives in a manner that is pleasing to Him, He rewards us every time. He truly blesses me in these situations, and this is how I know He does really exist.
Because it would be kind of ridiculous to talk about the whole book of James in one post, I'm going to split it into 5 parts, one part for each chapter.
Chapter 1 of James is a personal favorite of mine. Here James begins by telling us how we can overcome the testing of our faith and the temptations the devil throws at us, and then, starting around verse 19, he ends the chapter by telling us how we can show our faith through our actions.
Here's the whole chapter (in The Message):

1 I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!2 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.3 You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.4 So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.5 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it.6 Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves.7 Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way,8 adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.9 When down-and-outers get a break, cheer!10 And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it.11 You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.13 Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way.14 The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust.15 Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.16 So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course.17 Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. 18 He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.19 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.20 God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger.21 So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.22 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!23 Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror,24 walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.26 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. 27 Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

James loves to use metaphors! (Look it up if you don't know what those are..) I like that because it helps to paint a picture of what he's really talking about. James is telling us that when we are tempted, this is when our faith is really tested. God tempts us as a way to test us..He wants to see how faithful we really are to Him. Pray to God and ask Him to help you defeat your temptations instead of trying to do it all on your own! Those who manage to overcome their temptations with God's help are the ones who are truly loyal to Him, and they are the ones who will be rewarded with life and more life. In the second part of the chapter, James tells us to act on what we hear. If we hear a voice in the back of our heads telling us to help a stranger out or to be a friend to someone who may not have many friends, act on it instead of simply ignoring it. If we simply talk the talk and not walk the walk as well, then we really aren't doing our jobs as Christians! Saying you are a Christian without living a Christian life is pretty pointless and self-deceiving.
If you have any questions about this, please leave me a comment! I'll try to answer them the best I can.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next 4 parts in my faith series.
God Bless!
Kyle

8/6

Happy Friday everyone!

Last night I began reading the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. Francis Chan is a pastor of a huge church in southern California..really cool guy from what I've read and watched so far. The first chapter of the book told me to go to this video on the book's website (the video is called "The Awe Factor of God"), and after watching it, I really was in awe of how amazing and, really, how BIG God is. It blew my mind! 

It's crazy to think how a God powerful enough to create a universe of indescribable proportions can love each one of us as much as He does, and that we are able to have a personal, intimate relationship with Him. He's truly an amazing Savior! I'll post more on the book and Francis Chan's ministry when I'm finished reading it.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Kyle

9 Dots Puzzle

I figured that since I've themed my blog toward boxes, I'd put up this little brainteaser. If you've already seen it before, well...sorry.

The object of the game is to connect the dots by drawing four straight, continuous lines that pass through each of the nine dots, and never lifting the pencil from the paper. Can you do it?!


(Answer can be found here) Good luck.
Kyle

8/5

So today, I felt like God's love hit me like a freight train. It was a great feeling! (I can't think of many other scenarios where getting hit my a train is a good thing..) Maybe it just took a freight train for me to realize that God is always there for me when I need Him, and that I need to quit turning to other things, most of them worldly things, to seek satisfaction. God has never let me down and He never will, so why would I ever choose to turn away from Him? I think many people ask themselves the very same question. Good and evil are always at war in each of us, and unfortunately, we most often choose evil. This is a very frustrating thing! Here's what Paul has to say about it in Romans 7:14-25 (I'm using The Message because it is a very easy to read and understand translation):

"^14-16 I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. ^17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
 ^21-23 It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
 ²⁴ I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
 ²⁵ The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different."

Sin's "prison". Sin really does feel like a prison sometimes! (I've never been to prison..but still). We want to do the right thing deep down in our hearts, but sin always leads us to do the opposite, almost as if we are slaves to sin:

"16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16 NIV)

 We always set ourselves up for disappointment when we choose to follow a worldly path. It may lead to temporary satisfaction, but only God can give us (and promises us) eternal happiness and righteousness. Sometimes going down God's path may not always be fun, or the cool thing to do, but it ALWAYS leads you in the right direction! God will never let you down!

I'll leave you with this passage that is definitely inspiring (again from Romans..Paul was a pretty sweet dude):

^"31-39 So, 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." (Romans 8:31-39 The Message)

Live by the power of the Spirit!

Love you guys,

Kyle

First post EVER!!

I really just came up with the idea to make my own blog earlier today, and honestly, still don't completely know what I'm doing! I've just been thinking that there are many times when I have a really good thought that I'd like to share, but don't want to throw it up on Facebook (since it's annoying when people change their status multiple times a day..can I get an amen). This will definitely be a learning process for me here for a while, but hopefully soon this blog will be awesome and worth reading! I plan to share on here what God has been doing in my life, hoping that in any way my words can help someone who needs to hear them. It's a good thing Google has all these crazy sweet gadgets now that allow anyone to do this type of stuff for free! Gotta love technology...

Much love,
Kyle