Citywide Gospel Campaign

I realize it's only Monday but I am extremely excited for this upcoming weekend. More specifically, I'm excited for the upcoming Citywide Gospel Campaign!

What is the Citywide Gospel Campaign, you ask? Well it's only the biggest, most organized, most publicized, most prayed about outreach event that Missionary Gospel Church has ever been involved in. In fact, I believe this is the first event of its kind to be put on by a Slavic church in Sacramento. The 4-day event features 3 evening outreach services and 1 Sunday morning service aimed to reach our American neighbors in the Citrus Heights area with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The biggest challenge? Somehow inviting the 83,498 people living in Citrus Heights!

Sending invitations via the postal service proved to be way too expensive so we needed to find an alternative way to get the word out. That meant distributing 40,000 fliers on foot. I guess where there is a will, there is a way because a group of dedicated individuals prepared maps for about 200 routes!

I only did one of those routes but it included 3 apartment complexes. It took me 2 hours and then I ran out of fliers. I don't know how that happened because I grabbed a giant stack of fliers "just in case." Later, I figured out I did an extra apartment complex that wasn't part of my route. Oops.

I love the graphic design of the fliers! 

I was originally planning to do my route on Wednesday after work but after it started raining in the afternoon I decided to hold off and wait for better weather. When better weather didn't come the next day, I still ended up distributing my share of fliers in the rain. Makes for a better experience anyways.

With half an apartment complex still left and no more fliers, I left that night wet and tired (from going up and down all those apartment stairs!) but happy. God is good and it's always such an honor to be able to serve Him even in such small things. I thoroughly enjoyed distributing the flyers and praying for each home, asking God to work in the hearts of  people living there. Even if people don't show up to our event, I know God can still draw them to Himself through other means. Please continue praying and fasting for this event!

I grabbed another handful of fliers at church last night. Gotta go finish off that route today after work!

Check out the Missions Worldwide video with the Gospel message:

Captain of my soul

I was listening to a sermon by Chuck Swindoll this morning and he read the following poem by William Ernest Henley, a British poet and early humanist:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

The sad truth is that we are not the masters of our fate or the captains of our souls. In fact, we cannot even be masters of our own bodies. Anyone who has suffered even a mini heart attack knows that we can't will our hearts to beat or cause our blood to circulate.

No matter how healthy or fit you try to be, ultimately you are not in control. The reality of this hit me this morning when I got the devastating news that one of my favorite people, my favorite boss ever, has been battling cancer for over a year. Mind you this is the most active and fit man you will ever meet. When we worked together we would run around the college track together during lunch. This man would run 6 miles every day - and that's when he wasn't training for a marathon. He ate healthy. He did everything he could to meet his goal to live until 125. But, cancer shows no favoritism.

Thankfully my boss is doing well and has been cancer free for a year now. I don't know the details of his diagnosis but one thing I do know - Christ is the master of our fate and the Captain of our soul.

A Christian woman once read Henley's "Invictus" too and wrote her version:

My Captain
Dorothea Day

Out of the night that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be
For Christ the conqueror of my soul.

Since His the sway of circumstance,
I would not wince nor cry aloud.
Under that rule which men call chance
My head with joy is humbly bowed.

Beyond this place of sin and tears
That life with Him! And His the aid,
Despite the menace of the years,
Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.

I have no fear, though strait the gate,
He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate,
Christ is the Captain of my soul.

Lunchtime with Kristy

Getting my job at Boldt has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. God came through on his promises during a difficult time in my life. But ever since I got the job, I knew that there was a specific reason why God wanted me working for this construction company at this time. A few months later I met Kristy and it all made sense.

Having Kristy around makes work so much more enjoyable! Our conversations are always deep and often focused on God and His Word. We constantly share what God is teaching us individually and we learn from each other. 

My favorite time of day is lunchtime because that's when I get to spend the most time with Kristy. When it was warmer, we'd bring lunches from home and walk over to the nearby Sutter's Fort for a picnic lunch on the grass. But now that it's cold and rainy, we usually occupy one of the conference rooms in the office or head to a local food joint for thai food or sushi. 

Today during lunch we decided to go for a little walk and ended up at Rick's Dessert Diner.

Rick's Dessert Diner is one of those really neat
cake shops that still has  jukeboxes at every booth. 

I couldn't help indulging in a slice of Chocolate Caramel Mousse Tart. And a glass (errr... cup) of milk!

Sorry, I realized I should take a picture of my lovely
cake AFTER I devoured most of it! So yummy!

Since it was a fairly nice day -overcast and cool- we decided to sit outside.  Before long, it started to sprinkle and after a failed attempt to open up the umbrella, we had to quickly head back to the office. 

Kristy being Kristy.
That's one thing I love about our friendship -
we can be completely ourselves around each other!

That pretty much sums up our lunch date. Topics discussed: fasting, Kristy's high school small group, Girl Time with Andrew, whether 2% milk is really lowfat, and my awkward experience with live community theater.

I'm so thankful for this girl! She brightens up my day... Every day!

Aaaaaaaaaand we're back!

I'm terrible at being consistent and dedicated to one thing. I'm the kind of person who likes variety, spontaneity and change. Because of this, it's extremely difficult for me to keep a blog.

But... I'm on a mission. This blog is coming back to life after more than a year of slumber!

Here's what you should expect from ReflectGod:
1. A new post at least once a week.
2. Devotionals similar to the ones already on the blog.
3. Updates on my life and lessons God is teaching me.
4. Links to great articles and other resources.

Realize this is going to be a challenge for me, so if I fall behind a little bit, reserve some grace for me. Other than that, welcome to my blog! Enjoy!

Content with today

By nature, I'm a go-getter. If I want something, I try not to rely on other people to get what I want. I set goals and I reach them. I am constantly wanting to change, grow, experience, and risk. I am totally future-oriented.

And although this may be a great character trait to have as a student or as a working professional, in my personal life, it is something that often backfires. Always looking into the future means I am consistently bombarded with worry and uncertainty.

It is difficult to be content with today when I'm always looking into tomorrow.

Here are some verses from the Word that have been helping me realign my thinking and find contentment in Christ alone:

"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:31-34

"But godliness with contentment is great gain." -1 Timothy 6:6

"You will start to become much more content with whatever state you may be currently in as you realize that your happiness and state of well-being is founded and rooted in your personal relationship with God and Jesus – not with the material possessions you already have in your life." - Quote from Bible-knowledge.com

A Slice of Pie

Often we try to divide our life into pie slices. We allot a slice for work, a slice for family, a slice for recreation, and whatever sliver is left over gets allotted to God.

Sometimes when life gets too overwhelming and we feel burnt-out, we make a pact with ourselves to eliminate one slice of our pie. As a student, I heard people always say that now that the semester started, they’re not going to have a social life. Essentially they’re saying, "I'm cutting that slice out of my pie."

Or let’s narrow it down to one day. We spend 8 hours of our day working, 2 hours in traffic, about 2 hours eating, a few hours watching TV or hanging out with friends and then at the end of the day, we spend maybe less than 10 minutes reading the Bible and praying. If you look at it this way, our daily “pie” is not very proportionally sliced.

So what’s the solution? Should we stop working and just sit at home reading our Bibles all day? Not at all.

Instead of devoting a slice of your life to God, we must allow Him to be the filling in our pie. He needs to be present in every slice!

So when you’re at work, He’s there with you. When you’re with your friends, He’s present. When you’re driving, He’s there too.

Instead of limiting God to just one slice, allow him to be the Goodness that fills your pie.

Humility on the Potter's wheel

It's seven months into the year and if you're like most people, your new year’s resolutions have long disappeared into thin air. Unless you're like me.

Every year, instead of making pointless new year’s resolutions about how I'm going to start working out every day, eat healthier, or go to sleep at 9 pm (instead of 1 am), I do something a bit different. I take some time to analyze myself and see what areas of my character need polishing (or major reconstruction!) and I choose one of these areas to work on that year. It's kind of like taping a sticky note to my brain for a year.

Then, throughout the year, I pray that God teaches me this character trait.

Last year, I asked God to teach me compassion. This year, I asked God to teach me humility.

And let me tell you, I sure got what I asked for! These past few months have been the most humbling months of my life.

Let me be completely honest. I like to be in the center of attention. I like when people compliment me, praise me for being good at such and such, and I like feeling powerful and important. But, I also recognize how this can quickly cause me to be proud, arrogant, and self-seeking.

Well God has been working on me lately, chiseling away the pride, the arrogance, the selfishness and bringing about obedience and humility. He put me in situations over which I had no control.

First it was the end of a relationship that I thought had a lot of potential. Then it was the lack of direction after graduation. Then it was a job in which I had to decide what was more important- how others see me or how God sees me. Then it was the complete uncertainty of unemployment and a quickly deprecating savings account. It was seeing my little sister get married, it was realizing my parents had shifted priorities, and it was eventually feeling like I had nothing and I was nothing.

All I had was God and I held on to Him for dear life.

This brings me to the Word, where Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

You see, no matter what lows we are experiencing in this life, it will never come to a point where Jesus says, “Ok, this is a dead end. You have no way out.”

As Paul writes, we will not be abandoned or destroyed. Isn’t that reassuring?

What’s even more reassuring is that it is in and through these tough seasons of life that Jesus is most revealed in us!

As clay in the hands of a potter, our character gets pressed down, molded and shaped into a vessel that suits the potter. A vessel that reflects the creativity and craftsmanship of the creator.

So let me ask you, are you willing to be pressed down, crushed, and reduced to nothing? Are you willing to let go and let God? Are you willing to become the masterpiece that God is preparing for His good works?

If you are willing, let me challenge you to pray this prayer, “Lord, I acknowledge my pride, my selfishness and my desire to be in control of my life. I realize that if I hold on to these things, all I will ever become is a lump of clay, hard and useless. So Lord, I give myself into your hands - to be molded into a vessel for your glory, even if it means going through seasons of uncertainty, loneliness and darkness. Teach me obedience and humility along the way so that I may be transformed to reflect less of me and more of You.”