It doesn't get better than God!

Ahhh.. so the last while I have been getting random urges to cry out and praise God and worship and I have been amazed by who He is and what He has done in my life and in so many others. So, I figured I would write some worship declaring a bit of that!

      To start off, God has absolutely revolutionized and transformed me, who I am, how I think, my goals, my inspirations, everything! I used to be so weak, stuck in sins, insecurities and what I thought would make me happy. God began to help me face my insecurities, one at a time. He helped me to grow strong and overcome them. He taught me that my identity is found in Him and who He has made me to be: A son who is loved and cared about, a son who has a purpose and a plan for his life, a son who can overcome, a son who can make a difference, a son who doesn't need feel worthless if the people around him don't really notice him or think he's "something special," because his Father has made him unique and beautiful, powerful in love, made him with care just the way He wanted.
      He has helped me to face the sin in my life. Its a battle as old sins seem to creep up and new ones are brought to light, but I don't have to be a slave to that sin anymore. I can grow and overcome it, and when I do fall, I know my Father loves me and forgives me and will help me to stand back up and keep going and continue to fight to be pure! I know that on my own I can't do a thing, but with God I can do everything. I know that I will always fall short, but because Jesus gave his life in my place, I am forgiven. God did what I couldn't so I could be given a gift that I never deserved, so that thought I am unworthy, God declares me to be worthy and have worth!
     God has added so much joy to my life. I no longer have to walk through each day wondering what the point is, because He has given me purpose. I can be joyful, knowing that He'll never leave me and He will always draw me closer to His side, which is the best place I could ever be! He comforts me and helps me to move past my hurts and habits. I can leave anything and everything in His hands, because He loves me enough to take care of me and help me through any and every situation. I know I can trust Him, because He is perfect and will never let me down. He'll never come up short. Even when I come up short He loves me so so much.
     I could go on and on about how amazing God is, but if this was too long, you probably wouldn't read it and I probably wouldn't get any sleep tonight. All I can say is that God is the best thing thats ever happened to me, the best relationship I've ever had, the best One I could have ever met! Growing close to God can be a long journey, and there will be hard times along the way, but it is so worth it. I wouldn't give up my relationship with God for anything or anyone. I would go through every hard time again, because God used those times to draw me close. He is worth everything, even life itself. I love Him unlike anyone else I have ever loved! Still though, He loves me more than I could ever love Him! 

Where are we going to start to make a difference?

"Factories in three countries – the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka – were surveyed, and not one of them paid a living wage to their combined 100,000-strong workforce. Many of them didn't even pay the legal minimum wage. What the report also makes clear is that this is a gender issue: 76% of the surveyed workforce are women. Globalised supply chains exploit predominantly female labour. It's an irony that probably escapes most of the women who do the bulk of high street shopping in the west. Women shopping for products made by other, underpaid, exploited, women."

The list of brands ultimately sourcing from the 83 factories surveyed in the report is so comprehensive, it seems to make a mockery of the whole idea that the 'high street' has cleaned up its act.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/apr/28/sweatshops-supplying-high-street-brands

So what are we going to do?

Sweat Shops

Hey, so here's a link to an article talking about sweatshops/slavery. Its quite long, but there is a lot of information in it that would blow you away. Its easy to ignore the fact that slavery is more prominent today that before the American Civil War, but when you read an article like this and its brings the truth a little closer to home. Not only are many of the workers who make our clothes made to work long gruelling hours for little pay, but rape is also prominent. I guess when you think about it, if someone values another's life so little that they can force children to work for nearly nothing and beat them almost to dead when they don't produce well enough, rape isn't exactly a stretch. Anyways, if you care to, click the link or read a small section I've copied below.

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/21/sweatshops_still_make_your_clothes/

"For example, consider one of Kernaghan’s most horrifying exposés: In 2011 he penned areport on Classic, the largest factory in Jordan. Management hired young women from Asia, stripped them of their passports, forced them to work grueling hours for awful pay under a managerial regime that subjected them to routine rape. One woman hung herself in the factory’s bathroom with her own scarf after allegedly being raped at the hands of a manager. The Jordanian Department of Labor, when informed of the abuses, did nothing.

After Kernaghan’s exposé, Kohl’s, Macy’s and Lands’ End stopped doing business with Classic (they represented 8 percent of its export trade), but the factory’s chief customer, Wal-Mart, was unfazed. One serial rapist manager was fired, but many of the other managers accused of rape are still employed there, and women continue to disappear from the factory under highly suspicious circumstances. (Colleagues believe they are being murdered or sold into sexual slavery). According to documents recently smuggled out of the factory, 75 percent of Classic-made apparel is still going to Wal-Mart and Hanes."

Love??

So, the Bible tells us to love the people around us. Jesus goes as far as the tell us to love our enemies! In Matt 5:43-48 Jesus says that anyone can love those who love them. There’s no reward in loving people who love you already, everyone does that. Even tax collectors or in todays world dishonest business men and thieves love the people that love them. Jesus says we need to love those who do not love us back, the ones who ignore us, who hate us, who rip us off, lies to us or treat us like crap. (Major paraphrase.) 

I always read this and hardly thought about it. I always thought of enemies as in war or some other majorly dramatic situation. I figured that one day if someone did something really awful to me I would be able to make the choice to love them and forgive them. Loving however does not start with the big situations, it starts with today’s situations. In reality, when someone treated me like crap, I got angry with them. Sometimes I would put them in their place while other times I would pridefully stay quiet and think about how badly they were in the wrong. The truth is, I definitely did not love my enemies. When someone talked to me in a nasty tone, I often reacted in a nasty tone. If someone ignored me, I got annoyed. If someone yelled at me, I made sure they realized that I was pissed at them for it. Everyone once in a while I was able to react with a soft answer, but not often. I was focussed on myself, and decided that if someone treated me badly then they deserved some type of punishment. 

This however is not what Jesus instructed us to do. Jesus said to love our enemies which even includes loving the members of our families and friends when they lash out at us. 

A few weeks ago I ran through an interesting situation. Someone who I deal with and interact with on an every day basis began to treat me quite badly. It wasn’t just a one time word or action, but an ongoing issue that began to leak into every interaction they had with me every day for weeks. I kept quite quiet for a while and managed not to say too much to them and felt I was growing. However, after several weeks it got to the point that I was ready to snap and tell them how it was and where to go. It was then that I spent some alone time with God and asked Him was I should do. The answer was clear. God told me that I had a responsibility to love that person. I asked how I should confront them, and God said that He would. It was His job that day. So, I decided I was going to love this person. It wasn’t easy, because they continued to treat me the same way. They also avoided me when they had nothing bad to say. I hardly had the chance to do something nice and definitely didn’t have the chance to have a good conversations and encourage them. However, I showed love through a simple smile, a nice comment and also by not treated them badly as a reaction to their treatment. 

I wasn’t perfect in my love for that person, but God began to make a change in me. Very quickly the way they treated me began to affect me less and less. Loving them wasn’t so much a grueling task as a joy, a chance to serve not only them but over all my loving Heavenly Father. (If God can love me after I constantly turn from Him and disobey Him, who am I not to love another no matter how they treat me.) 

I also realized that God had given me a chance to grow in love. I always assumed that one day when I was married when my wife would act badly towards me I would react so lovingly toward her and quickly mend any problem. I realize I was day dreaming like crazy. If I couldn’t love my enemy today, then can I really expect to magically love my wife one day when she acts like an “enemy?” 

The fact is, our opportunity to grow is right now. Its not tomorrow when war breaks out or we face persecution for being Christians, its right now! We need to learn to love our co-workers when they lash out at us, to love our family when they misunderstand us, to love our spouse when they come home grumpy and tired. Loving starts now, in todays situation. I know its not always easy, but its good! As we love, we don’t only grow in our character, but also in our relationship with God and the people around us. We also will hate and stress less often and will be able to find much more joy in our lives. 

I haven’t written this to say look at me; I still have so far to go. I’m writing this as an encouragement. I hope that everyone who reads this will be encouraged and find new strength to love! In the end guys, “What we do in love will remain, but what is not done in love for God will not count.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-6 (paraphrased)

“So now faith, hope and love will remain, but the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13: 13

Fear??

     I realized not long ago that I used to be scared of God. I'm not talking about a holy "Fear of God" being a pure desire to obey and honour God, but rather, actually being scared. Scared that maybe God's plan for my life really isn't the best, scared that maybe He doesn't have a good plan for my life, scared that maybe He won't show up like He has promised or provide as He says He will.
     Where did this fear come from? I think it directly came as a result of not really knowing God the way I thought I did. I had a ton of head knowledge, which is great, but I didn't really know God with my heart. Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." I was doing great with head knowledge, but not with my heart. There is a huge difference between reading that God is a provider vs. knowing in your heart that God loves you enough to provide for you. I heard tons about God's "Father Heart," but it wasn't until 5 or 6 months ago that God began to reveal His Father Heart to me and places the knowledge of His love in my heart.
     So often we don't walk out in what we believe to be God's plans because we are scared. We are afraid to step into an area of "ministry" because the pay is less or we think we won't enjoy it. We're afraid to pack up and go overseas because we fear that we will run out of finances or we won't have a secure future/retirement.
     What I have learned is that when we walk out in Father's intention, He WILL provide. Sometimes we walk out in our own plans and fall flat on our faces. Then God comes, picks us up, dusts us off and helps us to continue on. But, when we walk out in God's intentions for our lives, down His path rather than our own, we have nothing to fear. He will provide, He will protect, He will fill us and use us. When we take risks for God, we grow closer to Him. Every situation we go through will draw us nearer, and we will know Him better. We will understand more of His character, more of His nature. He will become more and more alive to us, more and more a part of our lives. The more we dig in, the closer to Him we will grow.

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." James 4:8

I was only going to put the first part of the verse in, but then I felt I should type the whole thing. Not only do we need to dig in by reading, praying, listening and worshipping our amazing Father, but we also need to throw the sin out of our lives. It will hold us back from drawing close to Him. Sometimes we think that maybe the things we want, the little bits of sin in our lives are going to make us happy.... we enjoy them... but as you begin to walk into God's fulness, you'll be blown away by how amazing He really is, and how much better He is than the things of this "world" that distract us.

I just want to encourage you all to dig in with God and chase after Him. Don't be afraid to walk into His plans over your own, He'll blow you away as you do! I know its a journey, and its amazing one too! I'm just beginning, and already God is blowing me away! How much more does He have in store for you and for me!! Crazy to think about.    :)

Fair Trade

I have decided that I'm going to share a bit about Fair Trade. Over the last few years this movement called Fair Trade seems to have been coming up a lot. I first heard of it 5 or so years ago in Grade 12 of high school. At that point I was a bit ignorant and laughed. I said that I couldn't afford to buy fair trade.

The fact is, that much of our coffee and the cocoa used in chocolate is produced in undeveloped countries by slaves including child slaves or by people who are paid so little for their product that they can hardly survive. Other products often produced by slaves or under paid workers are sugar, tea, bananas,  cotton, wine, fresh fruit, gold and clothes. (We often think that slavery was abolished in the 19th century, but it is common today that ever before. We often do not hear about it because it mostly occurs in undeveloped nations and receives very little media attention.)
   
Fair Trade is an organized social movement started by people that decided to do something about this issue. The Fair Trade goal is to make sure that workers are paid a wage that they can actually live off of, and to do away with slavery.

I realize that not everyone is called to visit a foreign country and expose the slavery that happens or start a company that pays a fair wage, but we can all Very Easily make a Difference. When you buy a product that bares the Fair Trade symbol, you are supporting farmers/workers in foreign countries and are making sure that they are receiving a fair wage.

It is very difficult to make sure that every product we buy is "Fair Trade" but please, don't be discouraged! The best thing to do is to start somewhere, anywhere! Just start somewhere you know! Buy reading this blog post you now know that Coffee and Cocoa/Chocolate are two of the products most commonly produced via slavery and underpaid workers. This is now an easy place to start! Next time you are in the store buying coffee or chocolate, look for the Fair Trade symbol.

The downside for us is, Fair Trade is harder to find, so you will have less variety of chocolate, and fair trade coffee costs more. However, naturally, if you buy a product that was produced via slavery, its going to be cheaper to buy, whereas if you buy a product produced by a person who is being paid a wage they can live on, it will of course cost more. I used to say that I couldn't afford to buy Fair Trade, but then I realized that the majority of the world cannot afford for me not to. 

This whole issue of Fair Trade is something that was on the back of my mind for some time, and finally a few months ago I decided that it was time to start doing something. It costs me a little bit more, and I eat a little less chocolate, but my conscience is clear, knowing that the workers who have produced the chocolate I am eating are able to support their families. I would have never supported slavery in my own country, and I guess I finally realized that I had to stop supporting it in other countries. Hopefully over the next few years I will be able to support Fair Trade in more areas like clothing :)  


My hope in you reading this blog is that you will start to think about this issue and consider to take action yourself! It may cost us a few dollars more a week for coffee, but it could also mean the difference between slavery and a free life for a family in Brazil or Vietnam, the worlds leading producers of coffee. I hope that you will take some time to think about this issue of slavery and if it is right for you to help support the workers who grow and harvest our luxuries by buying Fair Trade products. Or, maybe you'll look up a bit more on this issue. If you start to search, it will unfortunately blow you away.

ps. the first track of the Pass It On Tour was pretty sick too... check it out at www.gopassiton.org or check out the video links on the right of your screen!!