Got To Be Tru!

Hey everyone! So this past week we didn't anything to extreme...sadly. However we did do some orienteering for our Outdoor Education for Spiritual Formation (OSEF). For those who do not know what that orienteering is, it is how to use a compass, read maps and coordinates, take a heading, and follow that heading the correct way. I would just like to say my 5th grade geography came in handy, thank MAMMA! So after a couple of classes in the morning we spent the remainder of the afternoon in the valley on a way-point race. My 4 person team finished in just over an hour. The winning team was done with a time of about 35 minutes. So that put us in 5th place. We would have had a much better time but on our last two checkpoints there was a very large metal object in the woods. Which in turn threw off our compass and we spent about 20 minutes doing some deductive reasoning to figure out which was our correct checkpoint, since there were multiple in the valley. It is okay though I am taking the loss well. Only a minor breakdown afterwords. I'm just kidding haha. It was a prep race for the actual race on Monday so the loss didn't hit me too hard. For those who don't know me as well as others, basically if I can compete at it, I will compete at it and you can put money on it I'm gonna go for the W! So the actual race will be Monday and from what I gather it is going to be an Amazing Race sorta thing. So I am extremely STOKED!

It also looks that I will be able to start playing guitar on a regular basis at Fraser valley baptist. So needless to say I am very happy about that.


We had a few different speakers this week all are staff here at Timberline. The majority of the week Dan Thomas spoke on 1st Samuel. We also Pete Hammond go through Ezra as well as Joseph Weissman give us an intro into Isiah.
I enjoyed going through 1st Samuel the most out of all the classes this past week. In the first few chapters of 1st Samuel we see the Israelites                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
again not quite following God like they are supposed to be,"big surprise I know". We see them putting their faith into the things of God instead of the god of those things. In chapter 4 we see how they were so convinced that bringing forth the Ark of the Covenant in front of them in battle would bring them victory over the Philistines. They only forgot one thing the Ark never brought them a victory, it was the Lord of the Ark that had brought them victory in the past. Also however we see the evil men who were leading in chapter 4, the sons of Eli. I wonder why it seems almost every time there is a Godly leader in Israel at this point in time and prior their sons turn out to be just wicked men. A verse that was said to me a lot growing up while I was being disciplined was Proverbs 22:6 which is-

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

I often wonder if these Godly leaders did not follow this command because if they did their children would probably not be wicked like they turned out to be. Which also takes me to another Proverbs verse. 

Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them. Proverbs 13:24

So I wonder if these Godly leaders just neglected their children? Or just didn't care? Whatever it was I would argue that we can look at these verses and see that if the leaders would have followed them, most likely Israel would have been much better off.

When Samuel becomes judge we see the drastic turn around from evil to Godly leader. We see how in chapter 7 that when the Philistines try to attack Israel by surprise all that Samuel has to do is pray and sacrifice to the Lord. Then God goes out and defeats Israel's enemies for them. All they had to do was ask and God would save them. Yet how quickly they forget and in the next chapter they demand a king to go out and fight their battles for them. So they can be like the other nations. Yet they are supposed to be Gods chosen people set apart from the other nations and what do they want to do? Be like everyone else. So they demand a king. Which in turn is do to another bad son leading the nation. Even when they are warned of what will happen if a king is given to them they still are stubborn and demand one.
Yet it is so very cool how through their demanding stupidity God still works and will send Christ through the line of king David.

We still end up doing this a lot today. Not so much demanding someone to fight our battles for us, however that can be one of them. I would qualify what we do and what they do is the same, saying we know best and demanding our way when God does not seem present. Yet at that very point in time He is just setting things in motion or lining the last few pieces up into place. We have to remember God's timing is perfect and ours just isn't anywhere close!

On Tuesday we had our workday. I was on wood detail. We delivered a trailer full of firewood to a lady from a local church. After unloading the trailer we then preceded to cut more and then split it. I felt right at home with the 18" chainsaw I was logging with. Thanks to the many years of practice at Doyle's Lawn and Landscape.

So for the outreach team I'm on we go down every Friday night to Colorado University and help out with Horizons International which is a Christian organization. We go over to the university for their international student coffee hour. What we do is basically go in and talk to students, if Jesus comes up great, if not we still are trying to leave a good impression of Christians on the students. We had an awesome time this past Friday. We did a free food Friday back at Horizons after the coffee hour. We had a great turn out. Along with dinner we did some pumpkin carving. for most of the students there they had never carved one before. I was the only one at my table who had done one before. So I enplaned what to do and everyone played their part. It was a fun time that's for sure!

 It was great to just get some hands on experience with some other cultures and other people and just be a light into their lives for those few hours. Hopefully week after week our saltiness will start to rub off on these people and they will start to see the difference in us.
Through this ministry it has made me think of how I act not only in public but also back at the lodge or even at home. Because one small thing can make it that much harder to show someone the difference we have compared to them. So these words come to mind.


Its got to be tru
I gotta be livin what I say I believe
Its got to be tru
Even when nobody but Jesus is whachin me
Its got to be tru
Every single minute of every day
Is anybody ever gonna look at me and say
hey its got to be tru

Now I know that I will never be perfect but I and we all do need to be more conscious in what we do and say in not only public but at home. Because we never know who is watching, but God always is.


Till Next Time
Love Jared.