Whatever

Hey hey hey! Brian Onken walked us through Mark this week. His class was basically just reading through Mark. However the way he guided us through was much like a tour guide in an art museum. Before really looking at Mark this past week, I would kinda read it as one of the Gospels that didn't have as much stuff in it as the others. My view on it now is much different. When we read Mark's Gospel we see that he is more concerned with showing the love, compassion, patience, and the time that Jesus was willing to take with the people he was around. My favorite section of classes this week was when we went over the chapters where Jesus feeds the 5000. Then after the disciples don't get the lessons that he teaches there and shortly after he repeats them and finally the light bulb comes on for them. The mission statement for the book we were given was "His words matter". That really sums up what Mark is about Jesus words matter. So when he is speaking pay close attention or you will miss the small things like the disciples did. But thankfully when we don't get it he will be patient and repeat the lesson till we do.

For workday I was yet again delivering a trailer full of firewood. It is something the lodge has been blessed with so much wood it is great to be able to bless the community with it so people can stay warm.

Our wonderful cook Jenelle

I was on p.m. crew this weekend for the group we had in. That meant I was in the kitchen for a lot of the weekend. I did however do a bit of sanding on some lumber for a bunk bed that is being made for one of the rooms. But most of the time like I said was I was in the kitchen working the dish pit, setting out food and also prep!












Still mach to do on the projects I have to turn in this coming weekend but it is coming together nicely.

Something that will be PRETTY STINKIN AWESOME!!!! is that we will be working the Dare 2 Share event this coming weekend in Denver. It should be a real good time. maybe we even get some backstage access because we know Zane? Hey you never know.

As we were in class this week something I thought of was, I wondered how many times while the disciples were walking with Jesus, did he just sit back and kinda face palm and think to himself how can you not get it? This thought came to mind because of how the disciples often are so close to the answer but then totally miss it and try to be used in a way they think best. Even though it is not how the Lord wanted them to be used. But he always was patient and loving in how he taught. I am glad he is still that way with me. But maybe, just maybe we should pay a bit more close attention because, his words matter. That way we don't miss it.

These words fit so well for me I think

I made a list, wrote down from A to Z
All the ways I thought that you could best use me
Told all my strengths and my abilities
I formed a plan it seemed to make good sense
I laid it out for You so sure You'd be convinced
I made my case, presented my defense
But then I read the letter that you sent me
It said that all you really want me from me is just

Whatever, whatever You say
Whatever, I will obey
Whatever, Lord, have Your way
'Cause You are my God, whatever

So strike a match, set fire to the list
Of all my good intentions, all my preconceived ideas
I want to do your will no matter what it is
Give me faith to follow where You lead me
Oh, Lord, give me the courage and the strength


Whatever, whatever You say
Whatever, I will obey
Whatever, Lord, have Your way
'Cause You are my God, whatever

I am not my own
I am Yours and Yours alone
You have bought me with your blood
Lord, to You and You alone do I belong
And so whatever



Till Next Time
Love Jared

All About Love

A bit of a strange week this week. We had a patchwork of classes because a lecturer had to cancel. We watched a few sermons by Major Thomas the founder of Torchbearers, we also had a few other guest speakers. Doug Toller the senior pastor of Winter park Christian was kind enough to come out and teach for a block of classes. He was my favorite of the guest speakers this week.
He taught on compromise and how it is the blending of two different viewpoints. It's very true that we often compromise what we say we believe. I could not help but think of how many Christians were going to just this when they go to see 50 shades of grey this weekend. This is just one way we compromise, we say that we would never do something like what is portrayed in the film yet we will go and support it? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even if we don't go to see, or support something like this I would argue that it is just as much a compromise to not speak out against it and let a brother or sister compromise. I don't mean for this to become a rant about this film (because we all know we have had enough of it) but these were just thoughts that came to mind. So I would challenge you to think about the next time you have a chance to speak truth to a brother or sister about something they are going do or watch, and you don't, because you do not want to offend them or because you have to be politically correct, so you don't say anything, have you compromised in what you say you believe?

Tuesday for our workday, me and some of the other students set to work on the tubing hill. With how warm it has been the safety berm had melted quite a bit and become more of a launch ramp. So for a few hours we were out shoveling and reshaping the berm to a nice smooth, non jump like curve as to safely guide the tubers on a merry ride down the hill. 

Friday night I was up at the Younglife gym watching and playing games with kids from 4th to 8th grade. Me and some other students were helping out with the Pregnancy Resource Center fundraiser banquet. It turns out a few years as an Awana game commander comes in handy. I joke after running around a gym for 3+hrs that I am getting old as I realize I can't go nonstop for that amount of time anymore.  

 

I was on program for this weekend. We had a group of Burmese kids from Aurora Co in. I led some games, music, and just hanging out with the kids. They had a wonderful time in the snow as they do not get to play in a lot of snow. So more or less we kinda played the weekend by ear so that they could experience something they don't often get to.Football with the boys in the snow quickly turned into lets just tackle each other into the snow and forget about the game.

Currently we are working on a project called (progress of redemption) it will be a 10 to 15 minute presentation of 10 or more scenes from the Bible as to explain what the story of the Bible is all about to someone who may not know. I am working with my buddy Chris. We are doing a slideshow, voiced over to tell the story. So along with writing this, I have been also very busy in writing the narration Script for our project 1226 words and counting. If you know me well, you would know that just a few months ago I would have lost my mind trying to write that much. Well I can honestly say I have kinda enjoyed it. I credit it to keeping this blog actually, and a good school teacher back home (TV SHOUT OUT "HI MOM") because I really do think this has  prepared me for it and the Lord used it to do that.
Not only do I have that, I also have to prepare a teaching from a book of my choice. I chose James, not really sure why but I have quoted a number of verses out of this book the past couple of weeks. I think I may talk out of chapter 1 or chapter 3 but I am not sure yet. So as I prepare and read and pray through my reading if you would pray for me as well I would greatly appreciate it.


I often times sit down and write these posts and often think I will go a cretin direction with them and I usually end up finishing in a way that I didn't see when I started. I was just thinking as many people will go out this Valentines day weekend and try to find love or they go and watch a so called "love" story there is a greater love story at hand. That is the LOVE story that Christ wrote for us in red ink when he freely gave up his life so that we may be reconciled by it.
John 15:9-11 ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

 Lets also take a look at what real LOVE looks like.

1st Corinthians 13

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

This will be the song seems to fit the theme of this post rather well.

 We've got CD sets and videos, radio and TV shows
Conferences, retreats and seminars
We've got books and magazines to read on everything from A to Z
And a web to surf from anywhere we are
But I hope with all this information buzzing through our brains
That we will not let our hearts forget the most important thing

Is love, love, love, love, love
It's all about love, love, love, love, love
Everything else comes down to this
Nothing any higher on the list than love
It's all about love

Now they're fighting in the middle east
And they're fighting down on Seventh Street
And there are fights in my own house on given days
It's like something's lurking deep inside
That can't seem to be satisfied
But life was not meant to be lived this way
'Cause it's true for every man and woman
Every boy and girl
That our only hope for living here together in this world

Is love, love, love, love, love
It's all about love, love, love, love, love
Everything else comes down to this
Nothing any higher on the list than love

This is the reason we were made
To know the love of our Creator
And to give the love He's given us away
Yeah, the Maker, and the Father, and the God of everything
He says to love, love, love
He says love, love, love
Love, love, love
'Cause after all, it's all about love

Gods says love, love, love, love, love, yea yea
It's all about love, love, love, love, love (love love love)
Everything else comes down to this
Nothing any higher on the list than love
'Cause after all, it's all about love

That's right, yeah (laugh)
Woo!
It's all about, yea yea
It's all about
All about love, love, love, love, love
It's all about love, love, love
Yea it's all about love love love
It's all about love love love (yea love)

After all don't you know?
That it really all comes down to love
After all don't you know that
Gonna tell you what it's all about, yeah
Yeah, it's all about love
Yeah, it's all about love, yeah
It's all about love,
Love, love, love


Till Next Time
Love Jared

Land Of Opportunity

Free Cokes Are Always Cool

This week was a little more mellow. We had a shorter class list than usual because our sister school Ravencrest was here for a few days.
We went through Ecclesiastes with Dan, for our short group of classes. The overall point of Ecclesiastes is that "man was made to be centered around God." Fear God and keep his commands this is the duty of  man/woman. It is widely believed that Salomon is the author of Ecclesiastes. It would seem that he wrote this book at the end of his life, after he has strayed from God. It would appear by the way he writes this book that he is looking back on all of the the folly he has committed in his lifetime, and wants to warn his audience to not make the same mistakes. In the closing of the book basically says make wise decisions because it will be judged whether secret or not it will be found out. So I remember a line from Indiana Jones, "Choose wisely" that is exactly what Salomon is saying in this book about life.  

Tuesday I had the wonderful joy of turning over rooms for our guests for the weekend. 

I had the opportunity to lead at Fraser valley Baptist this evening. It was strange to lead a different congregation than my home church. I did enjoy it though. It felt good to lead again from the stage. It is crazy to think one day we will all be singing together in one group.    
 
 

  Ravencrest came in on Wednesday. They come over every year for their break. It's a sweet time to get to know some other Torchbearers students. We went out as a big group to ski and snowboard on Thursday. That night we had the yearly hockey grudge match. I was the Timberline coach, complete with hockey hair style. We won 12-1, that makes it 3 years in a row for Timberline. It was just a small Bible school pickup game but I felt like we had won the Stanley Cup!

We had a group of middleschoolers in this weekend, 43 of them! I was on mountain ministry this weekend though, so I didn't get that much interaction with them. However I did get to snowboard around, love on lifties, give them cookies, and invite them to Soup & Tune. We had such a good a good turnout on Saturday night. It is cool to see the relationships that are being made with constantly coming in contact with the same lifties. I can see seeds being planted and an impact made on the lives we encounter. This passage always comes to mind when we are in a group interacting with people at a outreach "34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." So many of the people who have come out to this little resort town or the mountains for that matter do so to try and fill a void and think life can't get any better than this. Yet after awhile they start to search for more, whether it be hitting the hill as many times as they can in a year, smoking more and more pot, drinking, or whatever it may be. I hope they see the difference in us and that we have found what we need and they realize they need it too. I see it is the little things that make a difference. Remember that while you are out during the week.

Another day is off and running
And I hear somebody pounding on my door
It's opportunity knocking
Says what I need is just a little bit more
Every time I turn around I'm finding
Another chance to climb a little higher up
But it's never what I thought once I get there
And I'm left wondering "How much is enough?"

I can live like a prisoner to all that could be
I'm living in the land of opportunity
But a heart pure and simple
Is a heart that stays free
Living in the land of opportunity
I'm living in the land of opportunity

This is a world full of options
It's like a never ending buffet line
While all that I'm really needing
Is living water and the bread of life
So as I'm walking through this life making choices
There is one thing I must never forget
This land of opportunity has one God
If I seek Him first He'll take care of the rest

Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Seek ye first the kingdom of God

Seek ye first the kingdom of God
So many choices, so much it could be
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Living in the land of opportunity

Till Next Time
Love Jared

Do Everything

Another awesome week down! Sorry this week will be a little light on pictures. Our guest speaker this week was Dave Firth. He is originally from England but lives in New Zealand, about an hour from the Shire. His class for the week was on the Bibles authority and how to use it to disprove mainly evolution. If you have ever seen Louie Giglio do "how great is our God", Dave's class was basically a week long of that times 10. We were in the first 11 chapters of Genesis all week. We covered everything from creation, to Noah and all of his decedents. I found it to be vary valuable the information that was taught. Mainly because as young Christians and even some older have often times a very difficult time in defending the origins of our faith.
Here are a few points from the classes this week that I really liked

-The word Universe speaks to creation perfectly, because universe is a compound word. Uni=single and Verse=spoken sentence. So Universe essentially can be summed up with "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth".

-If we follow the family tree from Noah back to Adam and also forward we can see by lifespan roughly how old the earth is. Give or take a few hundred years because we do not know an exact age of some of the decedents. However we do know what would have been the general age they would have lived to be. So with some educated guess work we get to around 6000 or so. Much easier to prove than 75billion.

-The ark is an awesome representation of salvation. Noah had to enter into something to be protected from the wrath of God. In the same way we need to enter into Christ to be protected from judgement of the sin we have committed.    

On Tuesday for workday I was delivering firewood. So I spent the afternoon loading, unloading, then stacking piles of wood. Keeping people warm in the community. As I have said before I enjoy the work days here and being able not only to help the lodge out but also the people around the lodge as well.

We had a guest group in this weekend. It was a high school group of about 20. I was on the lodge crew for the a.m. shifts. However I helped out both days with the p.m. crew. Basically our job was to keep the lodge clean, stocked, prep food, and do dishes after meals. So on Friday night I helped on kitchen crew. Saturday I was up before 7 and in the kitchen at 7:15. We prepared breakfast and served the guests. Then we had clean up. Following breakfast we cleaned, stocked, and readied the lodge for lunch as the group was out at the mountain. We had an hour or so break then we were back in the kitchen to prepare lunch. We finished cleanup and a.m. crew was off. I however volunteered to help the p.m. crew again. So after a short break for me, I was down helping split and stack wood. After about 2 hours or so we were done. I then again was in the kitchen helping with dinner prep and cleanup. I was very tired after the day was done but I was more than happy to work the extra time. I enjoyed working behind the scenes this weekend.

As I sit and type out this week's entry I am working out in my mind a short devotion for Colossians that is due the end of the week. Having to do a small project like this would have seemed impossible to me at the beginning of the year. Now as I have learned much this year it does not phase me at all.

As I worked behind the scenes this weekend, it really came to mind of how much goes on that we do not see in our day to day lives. So these simple words came to mind.

While I may not know you
I bet I know you
Wonder sometimes, does it matter at all?
Well let me remind you, it all matters just as long
As you do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you,
Cause he made you
To do

Every little thing that you do
To bring a smile to His face
Tell the story of grace
With every move that you make
And every thing you do

1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God

No matter how small a job you think it is it matters, so do your best all the time.


Till Next Time
Love Jared