Psalm 56

1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
all day long an attacker oppresses me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many attack me proudly.

3 When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?

5 All day long they injure my cause;
all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk;
they watch my steps,
as they have waited for my life.
7 For their crime will they escape?
In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!

8 You have kept count of my wanderings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?

12 I must perform my vows to you, O God;
I will render thank offerings o you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death,
yes, my feet, from falling,
that I may walk before God
in the light of life.

Who Do I Serve?

Here's a little food for thought:
"And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15

We often quote the last sentence and forget the rest. The little bit before the main verse we put on a plaque in our homes really stuck out to me this week.

Who am I serving? Am I serving the gods of my fathers? Am I serving the gods of whose land I'm living in? Or am I serving the Lord?

In other words, for me... am I still following my parent's religion? Am I serving the gods of this world (pleasure, comfort, myself, etc.)? Or am I serving the Lord?

For a long time, I did just believe in God because that's what my parents believed. And that's totally fine until you're old enough to make it your own. Which I have.

Also, throughout my life, I have served the gods of this world. Everyone has, so I'm not the only one. Don't get me wrong, it's okay to enjoy comfort and to enjoy pleasure, but in Christ. Find comfort in Christ. Find pleasure in Christ. And I certainly do make myself a god some days, in fact, most days. I'm still learning. And I'll be learning for the rest of my life.

As for me, I want to serve my Lord, Christ Jesus.

Here's another little thing if you want to trigger some thoughts in your mind. It certainly has triggered some in mine. Like the classic children's song says...

"Joy is flag flown high from the castle of my heart, for the King is in residence there."

Zephie the Ninja & Valentine's

It's Saturday night. I'm listening to Owl City, because I've really come to love him. I've discovered a few new songs by him as well. He did a cover of Taylor Swift's Enchanted, for Taylor. He also did covers of In Christ Alone and How Deep the Father's Love For Us... two of my favourite church choruses!
Anyway, I've been working like mad on my study project for the past two days. I feel like I haven't come out of my room alot this weekend. I've nicknamed my minor prophet (for the study project) Zephie the ninja! The minor prophet is Zephaniah.

This weekend, when I wasn't hoarding up in my room working so diligently on my study project, I played a lot of games. On Thursday night, a bunch of us got together and played this game called Boxers or Briefs (it's like Apples to Apples). Then last night, a bunch of us played Quelf... which is probably the most random game in the world, but it's so much fun!

I know that a couple entries ago I talked about a list I was making, that I'd post on Valentine's. Which I didn't end up posting. Sorry for that, I actually kinda forgot about it. Capernwray life just got kinda busy, so I never got to finish said list. But it will go up sometime, because I still feel like it's important.

My Valentine's Day was interesting for sure. Normally I'm kind of apathetic towards Valentine's Day, but for some reason, this year was different. And I know that it's because I missed home. My roommate Yemima didn't really know what was going on because I cried. I don't cry alot, so she didn't know what to do. Basically I was missing my best friend. Valentine's was always our day. We'd get together, watch cheesy love movies, drink chocolate milk, and eat chips. And I was missing that this year. Plus she now has a serious boyfriend.

Valentine's Day has always been a day about celebrating friendship, even when I had a boyfriend. This year I just tried to remind myself about God's love and the friendships I've built here. I can't say though that these friendships are quite like what me and Joy have.

Anyway, that went a little deeper than I thought it would. Ha, good night!

World Religions - Pillars of the Fath

A couple weeks ago, one of my friends gave me the idea of sharing some of my completed assignments. So today I'm going to post my most recent assignment: World Religions - Pillars of the Faith.
Basically, as you know, my class went on Temple Tours this past week, and two weeks ago we had classes on all the major world religions. Our assignment was to give the pillars of their faith systems or religions. We also were challenged to add Christianity into our assignment.

Buddhism

- There are three pillars of the Buddhist religion: following the 5 precepts, maintaining the noble 8-fold path, and detaching yourself from the things of this world. The five precepts are as follows: don't take another's life, don't steal, abstain from sexual misconduct and sensual overindulgence, don't lie, and avoid intoxication. The noble 8-fold path consists of maintaining a right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right concentration, and right ecstacy. Lastly, you must detach yourself from the things of this world because attachment to the world brings suffering.

Isalm

- There are five main pillars of the Isalmic religion. The first is called "shahadah", which means your conversion. The second is called "salat", which means prayer. The Muslims do five daily prayers (before sunrise, at noon, in the afternoon, at sunset, and in the evening). The third is called "zakat", which means tithing. The fourth is called "sawm", which means fasting. The Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan, which is the month that their last prophet, Muhammad, got words from Allah, their god. The last is called "hajj", which is a pilgrimage to Makkah. Once in a Muslim's life, if physically and financially able, they need to go on a pilgrimage to Makkah, which is their holy city.

Hindu

- There are four main pillars of the Hindu religion: karma, dharma, artha, and moksha. Karma is living a good life, full of good deeds, in order to reincarnate into something better in your next life. Dharma is fulfilling your social, moral, and religious duties. Having good dharma gives you good karma. Artha is satisfying the desires of god. Moksha is the ultimate goal for Hindus. It is attaining liberation from the cycle of reincarnation and becoming one with their god.

Sikh

- There are five main pillars of the Sikh religion. In order to remain a baptized Sikh, you must follow these five pillars, or the five K's: kesh, kangha, kara, kirpan, and kachera. Kesh refers to their symbol of strength, which is uncut hair. A baptized Sikh will never cut their hair. Kangha refers to their symbol of hygiene, which is a wooden comb. A baptized Sikh will always wear this wooden comb in their hair. Kara refers to their symbol of an eternal god, which is an iron bracelet. A baptized Sikh will always wear an iron bracelet on the wrist of their dominant hand. Kirpan refers to their symbol of justice, which is a knife. A baptized Sikh will wear a special knife either on top of or underneath their clothing. Kachera refers to their symbol of fidelity, which is an undergarment. A baptized Sikh will always wear a special kind of undergarment.

Christianity

- I think the main pillar of Christian faith, which makes it unique from any other religion, is that it's not about our actions, but it's about having faith in Jesus Christ, Lord and resurrected Saviour of all. Because it's not about our actions, it's hard to pin-point specific pillars or disciplines in the Christian faith. Though, generally, the following disciplines are practiced as an outworking of our faith in Christ: reading the Bible, praying, tithing, evangelism, and fellowship.



From India to Israel

We just finished a super big week at Capernwray Quebec. A big week, filled with all kinds of religious activity. On Wednesday afternoon, we visited a Buddhist temple in Ste. Julienne. On Thursday, we visited a Jewish synagogue (the largest and most prestigous in Montreal), St. Joseph's Oratory (Catholic), and a Muslim Mosque. And on Friday, we visited a Hindu temple and a Sikh temple. The point of visiting these different places of worship was to learn more about their religion.

The Buddhist temple was interesting. It didn't really help that the Buddhist monk there didn't speak English; he spoke the language of Laos and a little bit of French. So I didn't really learn too much from the visit, but I know quite a bit about Buddhism already, so it was okay. While everyone was trying to listen to the French and Laos that was going on, I just scanned the temple. There were so many statues and colourful trees. It was really cool looking, but it just baffled me.

The Jewish synagogue was my second favourite visit out of all of them. The synagogue was so extravagant. It really amazed me. The main hall where they hold their services is HUGE. The rabbi who showed us around was super funny. He was making jokes and stuff all the time. What was really cool was that he pulled out one of the Torah scrolls and sang some of it to us.




St. Joseph's Oratory gave me the heebie-jeebies. I've never really understood a lot of the Catholic religion. This oratory was very much focused on the man that founded it, Brother Andre. We even went into the crypt church beneath it to see his tomb. These two women were praying to this tomb. There were two men praying to this wall as well. Also, Brother Andre's heart was taken from his body and pickled. This I found rather disturbing. Let's just say I was glad to get out of there... I really loved the architecture though.

 The Muslim Mosque was certainly interesting! There was a man there that decided to try to prove to us that Jesus actually never died or rose again. He tried to quote the Bible, but he quoted the Bible wrong. It was kind of unprofessional. But, in turn, I thought that my fellow students weren't very respectful either, not in the Mosque, but after, on the drive home. Some of them felt the need to pick apart everything the guy said about Jesus and put the guy down. It's been two days and they are still talking about it. Just because he was disrespectful toward us doesn't give us the right to be disrespectful to them, including when they aren't present.

The Hindu temple was certainly interesting. Our tour guide was a world religions professor from McGill University (who I suspect, even though he didn't directly reveal it, was a follower of Hinduism). Something I learned about Hindus that I didn't know before: they actually only believe in one god, Sheva (or depending on the denomination, Vishnu). The reason they have so many idols and altars is because their "god" has many different ways of manifesting himself/herself/itself. See, I'm actually learning stuff on this tour!

The Sikh temple was my favourite place actually. The lady that toured us around was super nice and very respectful. I had never heard of this religion before, so I learned a ton. The Sikh religion actually does not care about people converting. Sikhs are actually encouraged to learn about other religions! Their belief is that all religions follow one god and that in the end, we will all be together. So, instead of pressuring people to convert to their religion, Sikhs actually encourage people to seek and follow their own religion. It was a nice change from other religions. Equality is very important to them also. Men and women are completely equal, so are Sikhs and non-Sikhs. Afterward, they also served us lunch. Indian bread, curry lentil soup, yogurt, and homemade chai tea. It was so delicious!

Now, what did I come away with? Honestly, I came away with more of an assurance of my faith. To me, Christianity is sounding more and more like the only thing that makes sense. Now, I don't want to sound conceited or to come across as someone who has "arrived", but I honestly don't feel like it's necessary to bash other religions. Yes, what they believe isn't true, but that doesn't give us merit to bash them. Let's help them. After learning about their religions, let's not make fun of them or put them down, because honestly, how is that representing Christ to them? Even if they don't know about our making fun or bashing, we still know and so does God. I was really bothered by what happened pretty much every day on the way home from these various temples; bashing. God finds them just as valuable as any one of us, even if they don't acknowledge it.

I'm going to end this entry on a lighter note... this is going to sound like deja vu, but guess what happened on Wednesday night while I was doing dishes! I sliced my pointer finger open. It was nothing a little gauze and polysporin couldn't solve, but just thought I'd share.

The Pursuit of True Happiness

This week we were going through the books of Timothy.
1 Timothy 6:11 -> "But as for you, O man of God, flee these things [Paul was previously talking about false doctrine and the love of money]. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness."

2 Timothy 2:22 -> "So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."

These two verses really struck me because they use both the words 'flee' and 'pursue'. Then, I realized that almost every time, if not every time, the word 'flee' is used in the NT, it is paired with 'pursue', or something similiar. This indicates that every time we are to flee from something, we're supposed to be pursuing something.

Now, this was my question: what does it mean to flee? What does it mean to pursue? Fleeing is essentially running for your dear life! Pursuing is running towards something as fast as you can, in the hopes of capturing something. I think of my dog, Duke, running after the cars that drive down my road, trying to bite their tires.

One thing I've noticed about humans, myself included no doubt, is that we often just avoid the things we should be fleeing from. But avoidance just implies that it's still available for us if we want it. Fleeing means that it should be no where near us.

Another thing is that, although we might understand the 'fleeing' thing, what do we pursue? Do we really end up pursuing righteousness? Faith? Love? Peace? Purity? Or do we end up trying to push the 'line' as far as we can, as long as we think it's okay? We may end up attaining self-righteousness.

This really challenged me because my whole life I've always ended up pursuing things other than the One who wants to be pursued. These are the questions I've been immensely challenged with this week: what should I be fleeing from? Am I pursuing something other than God?

Let's make this personal. Since very early on in my life (as in about grade 2), the pursuit of my life has been a good reputation. I've always cared way too much what people think about me. In more ways than one, this pursuit has led to self-destruction, feelings of worthlessness, and doubting that anyone will ever love me. What I've been noticing and accepting more and more in the last year is that I am of immense value to my Creator. He wouldn't have created me otherwise. I am of immense value to the people around me; my family, my friends, and my church family. And it doesn't really matter if I'm not beautiful in everyone's eyes, or if I don't have a boyfriend, or if I have a stutter, because God created me just the way He wanted me. He gave me the body I have for a reason. He gave me the personality I have for a reason. He gave me the stutter I have for a reason. (And I just know that He's got a super unique plan to use it!)

Let go and let God.