So, we went to Windsor!

That's right, we went to Windsor! East Toronto/The New Glory Shoppe took a road trip!

When Gordy and Tina were asked to do a youth retreat type weekend at South Windsor Corps, they invited us to come along, so...of course we went to Windsor! It was a whole lot of fun!

We arrived in Windsor at around 10/10:30ish in the evening, where we had a practise and then went off to our respected sleeping quarters...the boys in their totally awesome hostle appartment with food, Lez and I at an officer's house, and Gord and Tina...I'm not really sure where they stayed! Saturday we met at the corps for 9 am and had another practise, then around 10:15 we had a breakfast, with all the youth from the corps! Then we began the sessions after breakfast! Gordy had the sessions structured in a way that allowed lots of worhsip, scripture, and a speak that was fitting to what the youth are going through!

It went really well, there is a great group of young people there, dispite all the gum chewing:) Personally, I really enjoyed the Saturaday evening speak where Gordy read from Ezekiel 22:30 which says,

"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none."

He then challenged us to stand in the gap. He wanted us to actually get up and move so he had chairs put out where we could stand between them symbolizing the gap. That hit me with the full force of the Spirit and I thought only of ETC and NGS! We're called to stand in that gap and we're gonna! Watch out East Toronto...New Glory Shoppe is coming at ya like a meteor to Smallville! Hoo Shaw!

"These sandwhichs are money...I saw Transamerica!"
Gold!

Holiness (gasp)

Amidst all the loaded conversations on the blogs about the analogy used for holiness at youth together I discoved something! Romans 6:22!

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness." (NIV)

Last night when I was reading chapter 6 for my Romans class, I read that verse and my eyes were opened. We as Christians all strive for a life holiness, hence the explicit anaology used this weekend. We need to bear the fruit of Jesus, we need to "give birth" to Jesus, the reason for the intercourse with a condom and masturbation analogy. However, as I read Romans 6:22 I got that you become holy in a different way.

Because we are free from the bondage of sin, we recieve a freedom from God; instead of being bound by the chains of sin, death and hell, we are enslaved to God through, love, kindness, and forgiveness. These are the benefits that we reap, these are the benefits that leads to our holiness! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you have to be a New Creation Christian to show love, kindness, and forgiveness, but what I am saying is that because we are slaves to God, He shows us love, kindness, and forgiveness first hand. If we have acknowledged who Jesus is, if we've confessed with our mouths the Good News then we know of God's faithfulness to us. Because of this, we have benefits that non-believers do not have. HEAVEN!

These benefits from God leads to holiness in that, we understand that God will forgive us for our stupid human nature but because of his love and kindness to us, we should want to live as pure as we can for Him.

Romans is all about the covenant that God kept to His Choosen People even though we break ours daily. Think about this, we worship gods, we have false idols, we take the Lords name in vein, we do not keep the Sabbath holy, we dishonor our parents, we murder, we commint adultery, we steal, we slander, we are envious of other people. Does any of this sound familier? Yes, it is the ten commandments, but in your own life, do you break any of these promises found in our ultimate covenant with God? I know I have! Which hurts my heart because I know that I broke some of these things and more and the entire time I did/do God still remains faithful to me.

God sent Jesus to die, in order for Him to fulfill His covenant to us! People who did not remain faithful to Him! How amazing is that? Sit down and think about that for a bit! When you do, you realize that the benefits we recieve from God, we really don't deserve! So we HAVE to strive to remain pure and holy just to honor God!

Does that make sense? Romans is incredible complicated and I could have interpreted this passage wrong but it made sense in my mind and I had to get it out!

Heavy!

P.S: Props to Stephen for the great message he brought to us on the Saturday night at YT! There were soul's won for Christ!

Awwwwwwwww!

So I'm here sitting in my science class and I got nothing!

No really I got nothing! This class is supposed to be a Christianity and Science class and as of right now it's only been science! We had our midterm this morning and I'm postive that I completely bombed it! I'm not worried though! Why? Because I know that God does not have quantum mechanics in my future! Gah!

Although I prefer death while sitting in this class, I have learned a very valuable lesson...thinking you know what's going to happen is not always the case! I registered for this class thinking it was gonna be about issues that are relevant to our lives today as Christians in a world of science! For example, evolution, creation, stem-cell research, cloning, etc! Instead, I need to know equations for calculating the circumfrences of planets, moons, and the earth that will give me an idea of how far a satelite is from pluto...I can't even explain it properly! Just know this...IT SUCKS!

The phrase, "fully rely on God" is very appropriate for this class...and that's exactly what I'm gonna do!

Life sucks but someone's gotta live it!

P.s: that's my science prof above! He's oober smart which makes the class even harder! Just look at 'em...he even looks smart!

This is Awesome!!

This past weekend the Ontario Central Division went to Collingwood/Blue Moutain for our youth together ski trip and it was awesome! What more could you ask for in a weekend...New Glory Shoppe leading worship...Steve Court preaching...and 8 hours on the slopes...that just has excitement written all over it! We got there at around 8ish on Friday night and the band was already warmed up and ready to PARTY! We ate pizza, listen to the word, and worshipped God! The way every Friday night should be! Saturday we headed for the slopes at 8 am, spent all day there and that evening we went to another church in Collingwood. We joined them for a "delish" spaghetti dinner and then worship and dug into the word again! Sunday morning we had a service with the Collingwood Community Church and its soldiers!

The Spirit was there this weekend and a lot of praying was being done! The theme of the weekend was Holy Temple and Steve did a great job of getting God's word out to us! We also learned how lucky we are here in Canada to have freedom! Thanks Edi!

I learned a very important thing this weekend! I suck at snowboarding! I went down the bunny slope twice and this other, intermediate hill once! I'm terrible! I felt like a huge loser wearing an orange jacket and white pants because I didn't stay up on my board for more than five seconds! People from space could see how bad I was! But it was the experience that matters...and plus I did invent another way of boarding...one foot in your bindings and kneel on your board with your other leg! It looks cool, and when you wip out you have a shorter distance to fall! I'm a goober!

The weekend rocked! The hotel was sketchy! The worship was beautiful! Snowboarding is cool...except when the boarder is me! Steve spoke fire and brimstone! Collingwood is beautiful! With it's ups and downs the weekend will not be forgotten!

I didn't give my testimony of thanksgiving because I was really sore and couldn't get up so I'll give it here...I'm thankful that our God is so cool and amazing that He created the Earth and it's beauty! The piercing blue sky, snow covered mountains, the firey yellow sun, and the snowboarder!

Be Bispiritual!

The Army

I've been having this beef with one of my professors! He's been ragging on the Army in every class we've had thus far this semister. He talked about the uniforms as being just a traditional value that we have. He talked about us not doing communion and how it's not right! Then last class he went on a huge rant about how wrong we are for not performing water Baptisms. I was getting so frustrated and all my friends around me knew it too! When I talked to my dad about it he got really upset, saying that the prof has no right to say that about any church during class time and that I should have said something. But he didn't want to have an arguement in class at the time, and I was just too afraid that I would say something that wasn't very nice!

I'm waiting for next class to see if he says anything and if he does then I'll speak up but if he doesn't then I keep my comments to myself! I'll keep you posted!

For those of you out there reading this that is Salvation Army, don't be like me and keep quiet...speak out because the Army is amazing and no one has a right to judge! No worries though, whether it's through a paper or a presentation I'll think of some clever way to rebutall! Without sarcasm of course! I Laugh!!

Blood and Fire<><

Silence

Last night as I laid in bed, watching the numbers roll by on my clock, I had an epiphany! The saying, "don't just do something, sit there" has great merit in our world today! Let me explain!

I went to bed last night at like 12:15ish which may not seem real late to some of you night owls out there but for me...I had a three hour class starting at 8:30 on the first part of Romans 3! Wonderful class but the prof just talks the entire time and those who know me well...I have an incredibly short attention span! But more importantly, I need sleep and a lot of it to function. The Bible verse that says, "the joy comes with the morning" does not apply to me at all!!

But anyways, it was getting late and my mind was all over the place so I wasn't getting sleepy in the least bit. I tried to make myself tired, I kept my eyes closed, I pictured myself in a room with black walls, ceiling and floor! I just laid there with my eyes open stairing at the ceiling and nothing was happening! Until, at exactly 1:00am the inevitiable happened...a frate train went by! It passed by perfectly insinc with the hour.

At first, I thought "perfect! This is gonna really put me to sleep!" (sarcasm) It was loud, long, and believe it or not soothing! That stupid train became like a constint hum that put my mind to rest and I actually started to fall asleep! Like really? No really! It was great, I was in that in between place on my way to getting at best 4 1/2 hours of sleep! And then when I was almost gone, it pasted completely by!

The silence woke me up!

I got so frustrated! I was so close but yet so far away again! But in my moment of sheer selfish grief God revealed something to me! Our world is terrifed of silence! Think about it, in a run of a day how many minutes do you have to just sit there? We keep ourselves so busy with work, school, church, sports, music lessons, dance, movies, television, etc! We're never not doing something! This rings true for me! Silence is the proverbial gun that is fireing rounds next to our ears! It's a noise that we just want to escape from! We go stir crazy! I know for me I have to either, turn on music, the tv, be on my computer, reading a book, doing work, etc., I never just sit there!

I'm challenging myself this week and I want to challenge you! When you find yourself in that deathly moment of silence "don't just do something, sit there"! Learn the discipline of solitude! You don't need to read the Bible, or pray (although you should do that everyday too) just sit and meditate. Soak in God, soak in His presence, His love, his creation! Maybe, just maybe the silence will be welcomed instead of feared!

Selah

Fo' Sho'...

Well, I've done it! I got me a blog, now hopefully people will actually read it!:)

To start I thought it appropriate to explain my blog address. Well, it's a Bible verse found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and all it says is to "pray continually"! I love this verse because it's so awesome. It's a verse that's short, sweet and to the point. It isn't hard to understand, and really easy to obey if you think about it! When you're on the bus, instead of analyzing the person's outfit across from you, PRAY! If you're driving and get stuck in traffic instead of flippin' the bird PRAY! In the shower? Pray! Walking to Starbucks...Pray!!! For goodness sakes, when you're on the john...PRAY! Just a thought...no worries though, I'm still working praying ever moment I can, hopefully this blog will remind me too!

I also thought that maybe I should explain my blog title! Some of you may never have heard that saying before but hopefully you'll start to use it after you know what it means! In the military fireing a volley is like fireing a canon or some sort of bomb type thing. In the Salvation Army fireing a volley is shouting praises to God! So when someone says fire a volley you have to reply by saying amen or hallelujah! Usually in the Army we shout it after a rip, roaring song like O Boundless Salvation or Victory in Jesus. Some, at the end of the song will shout out Fire A Volley and everyone will reply by shouting AMEN!

Well, that's it folks for now keep checking back, hopefully I'l be posting often!

Fire a Volley...(you say amen:)!!)

Eh-Oh!