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