God's Wonderful Blessings

I am sitting here at my work right now (on lunch) and I am listening to a song called "He will Carry me" by Mark Schultz. Such a wonderful song. It got me thinking about the many blessings that God gives me each day:

- A wonderful family whom I love dearly
- My health
- A roof over my head
- A wonderful job (which ends January 6th because of Christmas Kettles being over) and the blessing that I have a job to go after that is over (At the college that I go to..well..not the right campus..but its closer to my house)
- Wonderful friends

Overall he gives me a reason to smile each day!

A wonderful story about his many blessings happened yesterday....

It all started yesterday when my friend picked me up after work and we went for a drive and talked. That was really nice and it was relaxing after a long day (payroll for 8 hours straight). and he gave me a Christmas gift which was a plaque that has the verse "3 John 1:2 "Dear friend I pray that everything may go well with you" That made me very happy because the plaque is beautiful and it is a very nice scripture too.

Anyways, after that he dropped me off at Reitmans so I could buy something with my gift certificate I got for Christmas (i was getting something for a formal i am going to on Friday) and it was worth 20 dollars..the subtotal was under 20 and it had to be 20 and over, which i did not know. so anyways, I had to pick something else and hope that it came to a LITTLE over 20..well it came to 24 something (1 pair of striped socks and 1 pair of earrings at 1.99 a piece and then a sweater) and I had the 20 and maybe a few dollars in my bank account. So we did a transaction to pay for the 4 dollars with my bank card, well it didn't go through because of insufficient funds..so they put 2 dollars on it..so it went through. I was a little worried because I didn't have ANY cash on me and so I called my mom to see if she could come rescue me but she was in bed with a migraine (she had gotten up early that day because of my grandpa). so she couldn't come rescue me, which was fine, she needed to rest.

So I told the lady that I would have to come back the next day to get it, ahd she said "you know what? Merry Christmas. I'll pay the difference" She was so nice to pay the extra 2 or so dollars. I said "God Bless you" and I left the store smiling so widely. It was so nice of her to do that.

God is so good!

Derek in Australia

Hey everyone!
Check out the blog by my friend Derek Craddock! He is in Australia for 6 months, and he has a blog that he keeps up to date with his adventures. He is off to India and Napal til February.

Check it out ^_^

Sacrifice

Sometimes we have to sacrifice wonderful things just so we can please God. This is very important to sacrifice your lives to please God. Very important.

Tonight I was offered the chance to go to Summerland for the New Year (from the 30th of December to the 1st). Previously planned was a Huge Worship Bash to ring in the New Year at my church. I was so torn because I love Summerland (and seeing it in the winter would be amazing) but I also loved the idea of ringing in the New Year with a big bang. Worshipping God through music to ring in the New Year is a great BIG bang I think. So I had to turn down the trip to Summerland because I knew that there would be drinking there... and I don't want to go against my covenant... I don't know if I would be tempted to drink if i went and......well... I don't like that too much... I get uncomfortable around people who drink....so I had to turn it down.

I turned down a great trip to Summerland because of my convictions (i think thats the right word)

I had to sacrifice..its a tough decision to make.

Edited December 23rd to change wording.

What does it mean to be yoked?

What does this mean? Does it mean not to date/marry someone? Or does it mean that you shouldn't fall into a trap of sin when u are with them (friendship or intimate relationship)?

I was talking to a friend of mine about this issue today because it is something I am struggling with really badly right now. I do not want to give details about who he is or anything like that because this is a public blog and such... but I am crazy about this guy, and I mean crazy. Like slip a straight jacket on me and put me in a padded room. We is so astounding when we talk and we find out that there is yet another thing we have in common. Only thing we don't have in common is our faith.

So the Bible says:
2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (New International Version)
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

I hear this, and I understand it, but what I am struggling with is the question of "What if your heart is contradictory to this, and it is so overpowering?" My heart totally wants something that is contradictory to what the Bible says, but my heart is much more overpowering than my head.

So my question for you all to answer in my comments is "What do you do when your heart is feeling what is contradictory to what the Bible says?"