God is SO Good!

Sorry its been so long guys but ya know college can be busy from time to time. So let me catch you up on some high lights from the best following months. Sadly my dear Auntie Mona passed away during the fall of 2010, I was a wreck when I found out she was passing but then me and my room mate just prayed aw man God is just SO amazing he is that peace like it says in Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Ever since me and my room mate prayed I couldn't shed a tear for her passing because something just so amazing happened. My Aunt Mona trusted Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of her life. My parents pastor just sat and talked with her and led her to the Lord it was so amazing seeing the change in her. She wasn't afraid to die anymore she had hope, she had Christ. So when she went home to the Lord all I could think was you beat me there Auntie M she you by the throne soon. Man and on top of that a couple of months later I got to see my young cousin at the New Years party at Hope Springs except Christ ah her saviour and man it has just been great seeing my family become my eternal family. To God be the Glory!!! And God has just been pounding me into shape these past several months, ever since he freed me from the thorns of worldliness an I have been giving it all to him truly he's grown me so much. Some times there are spiritual growing pains but there only showing that God truly does love me as it says in Hebrews 12:11 discipline never feels enjoyable at the time but it grows us to be more like him. And just today I had to rejoice in how great God truly is. This snow camp weekend I've been slacking in my time in personal fellowship with my Messiah. And just I was broken hearted at how cold hearted I was. So today after the meeting ended I just sat for a couple extra minutes and prayed and man God renews us so much when we go to him. Like it says in James 5 the prayers of the saints are powerful. I mean wow God of all creation hears are pleas and answers them this is the promise he has given us. How cool is THAT! And as I was sitting in line waiting for lunch renewed in spirit because of Gods grace I opened to Ephesians 1:4-5 and man this is reason to rejoice! " According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself , according to good pleasure of his will." Ephesians 1:4-5. Man our God is SO Good!!!!!!

Update from Schroon Lake

Sorry it has been almost a whole TWO MONTHS since I lost posted but I have been a tad busy. As you probably know I am now a student at the Word Of Life Bible Institute. An I have to tell you guys it is amazing up here, I am so amazed at what God can do in the lives of his children. So to review briefly what has happened, this is officially the end of our third week of classes. And we have studied the book of James, Evangelism, and Genesis 1-11. As well as theology and the old testament and I have to say I am learning a whole lot and being convicted of a lot of things. The biggest thing that has really convicted me in my relatively short stay here is evangelism. Reaching those who do not know Jesus Christ as their personal savior, an as we started that class the Holy Spirit just gave me a "gentle" nudge an I was mortified inside. We have been commissioned as Christ's followers to reach the lost. An I have been so busy wondering what God was going to do FOR me rather then what God wants to do WITH me. And right as he convicted me of that I just had to stop and pray to the Almighty. An I just begged him to change my heart, make it more like his own, fill it with his love and urgency for the heavenly agenda. To shape me an use me as he desires so that his will may be done not my own. An I can not wait to reach out to the lost, to often I see my friends status's on face book and the like are just filled with hopelessness and pain and suffering and it tears me up inside to see that an I know people will hate me as they hate my savior. But I know that if I don't live a testimony for my savior and witness to the lost they will stay in the suffering of the world an I can't live with the self imposed hardening of the heart anymore. I pray that the Lord makes me more like him each and ever day. An I pray he will use me and strengthen me to do his will, an I pray the same for you guys.

Numbers Don't Match!

Hi guys sorry that I haven't posted in awhile, well something crossed my mind today and I just had to express it. 76% of Americans claim to be Christan's' of one denomination or another, which is about 159 million. An even though this is a pretty dramatic drop in percentage from the 86% in 1990 it is still a fairly large number correct? Well another survey shows that the number of Americans who profess to be born again or saved number only 41%. Now were still thinking wow that's still pretty good I mean we're not the majority but we have a powerful influence in this country. And normally I would agree the numbers seem in our favor. But lets look at another set of numbers. 1% of Americans are homeless about 3.5 million, 14,500-17,500 people are illegally trafficked into the States as slaves. In 2004 4% of Americas children were orphans, over 2.9 million! I could go on an on but I think you get my point. How can there be such a "high" number of born-again believers in this country, but yet there be such pain and suffering. See we may be large in number but so many of us have adopted a small voice. So few of us care for the widow, the orphan, or the homeless. How can that be! now before I start sounding like I'm talking down to you I'm not. I am just as guilty of this as any other, we have grown so distant from the people. The people are our mission field, that is where God wants us among the hurt and needy. Now every man, women, and child hurts in some way for we have so many scars an a emptiness that can only be filled by Christ. But we have been filled we have had our scars treated an although we will always suffer we are now in the great healers hands. And he has told us to spread his word. With our actions an our words. I challenge you today, don't let the needy become far from us but let us hear their wounded plea. Christ heard our plea and he has heard theirs, lets not keep them waiting any longer.

Battling the Flesh

Sorry for being such a slacker in my posts as always I seem to be either really busy or really lazy. Any who I recently got back from an event called Soul fest which was an amazing four days of worship and just plain ol' rock and roll. And while I was there I bought a very interesting book that just called out to me. Its called "The enemy within." and the topic of the book was addressing repeating sin. Which is something I personally struggle with an I thought what a good book I should get it. An as I was flipping through I say the dedication was the following "For Nicholas, my son for victory! An I was amazed an I said to myself alright alright Lord I can take a hint. So I bought the book and just finished reading it an I most say it made many good points. An I just wanted to share some of them its the battle we face every day, the flesh battling the spirit. Swarming in force to keep us from intimacy with our Lord. It really proved itself to be true cause as I'm trying to read this my mind is flying and distracted an I'm thinking wow the author is right if I was reading any other book I'd be totally attentive been when I'm reading for the Lord I'm under attack. this week look at how you are being attacked whenever you live for the Lord. For the enemy strikes the hardest when we are in the spirit.

Jesus is all its about!

So today I read a quite intteresting story in my mornings devotional. The author talked about a women in a store who plowed through everyone to get the items she wanted. While wearing the appropriate T-shirt that said "Its all about me!!" No the author then goes on to talk about Romans 9:1-5 where Paul talks about how he would give up his salvation if others could be saved. which really shows the humility that we all need and should all be desiring in our lives. Christ came down from heaven to be the son of a carpenter to die on a cross for the lives of us sinful humans. This right here is the perfect example of love and humiltiy the example we all should be trying to reflect. I know I personally have trouble with be humble and more so loving those who have wronged me. But all I have to do is remember this God loved me in my sin can't I forgive someone who sin's towards me are so insignificant towards the sins against the almighty. Some times we do worry to much about ourselves and have this "Its all about me" mentality. We are called to share the message of God's love with those in the world, even those who have wronged us. And honestly how can we be angry at those who have wronged us when we have such love and promises that have been given to us. Lets throw away the "Its all about me" T-shirt and pick up "Its all about him" Tee.

In summary

Well guys I know that it has been a very long time since I have posted but as promised Nick is back. So a little run down of what I have been doing these past three weeks. The first week of my travels I was in New York at Word of Life Island. And let me tell you this was an amazing week of fellowship and praising the Lord. I made some awesome friend's in my counselor's and fellow TIers. The week after that I was in Philadelphia on a mission's trip where we ran a Vacation Bible School for two of the inner city churches. And again it was a great week of fellowship and praise an even better because on top of all that we got the chance to spread God's word but more detail's later. And the week after that I spent down in Florida with my parents, grand-parents, and family friends on a cruise. An I know in comparison between that week and the two before it its like wow big difference in focuses. But trust me it was just as spiritually fulfilling as the two weeks before that. So as promised more details about my travels, well on the Island God really blessed me because he started to show me the friends I had in his family. I mean this is personally something that has been really scaring me, I mean High school is over teen club is over an a whole bunch of other things. Everything I have know for the past twelve years is over an it feels like I will never really see my friends anymore. An I was praying in the middle of the night an I prayed God I feel so alone but your always with me and no matter who walks with me on Earth as long as I have you. And you know the amazing thing? The next day at church it seemed like everyone just came up and talked to me. An I couldn't help but be amazed at one God's answers to prayer but also his love that he cared enough to show me here is where your friends are. There right here with me, so I rambled but it was so amazing I had to share. So the week at the Island was a week of fellowship an it was AWESOME. Now it was also another chance for god to humble me. You see I am afraid some times I get a big head on my shoulders and think I'm some kinda of sage an extremely wise teen. Well at TI I was stunned to find I didn't even place in my area, and when I got the review sheets a couple of weeks later I found I did fairly well. its just that everyone else did really good at well. You see the thing I love about God is that he is never afraid to humble us for our benefit. An I find myself praying for God to humble me more and more so I can grow in humility an also the wisdom that God shows to me each time he humbles me. So any who on to Philadelphia this was an amazing experience as well because this week was a combo of living for God and seeing his works be done. It was amazing to see God work in the hearts of those children,teens, and adults.Now I should explain for one thing we were kept on our toes during this trip because nothing seemed to go as we thought it was suppose to. For the first church we had mainly little children around five and under. Also on one day ALL but three of the children left for a Field trip with the day care that was a part of the church. An I can say that God has a sense of humor when he answer's prayers because well the three that were left behind with us. Two of them were the children that I was praying for patience for because they were they troublemakers. So God thought it best to leave us alone with them an I have to say it worked I really don't remember them being to bad after that day when they got the attention and one on one time they needed. Now at the second church we had another curve ball thrown at us, the first day we went there we had only four kids. The group was mainly made up of adults and teens. So again another curve ball that I wasn't expecting but God's will was done . Now this situation was actually enjoyable to me because before we came down to do the trip I really wanted to run the teens class. But Joan one of our group letters really wanted me to stick with the big kids. Well after a couple of the curve balls I ended up being able to go help Joan with the teen class. And to my amazement on the last day of VBS Joan had nothing really prepared for the last lesson so i sat up on the churches balcony an I started flipping through my bible looking for some passages to help out Joan well when I showed her she just gave the lesson over to me. I got to deliver the message of salvation it was the coolest thing every. An also when we came down we brought three boxes of donated bibles to give to the churches. Well I saw those bibles fly off the 'shelves' it was amazing people just keep asking 'Can I have one?' and the second they found out they could they were gone it was so cool. And finally we come to the last part of my travels my week cruising. Now like I said before this was a week just as spiritually fulfilling as the first two weeks. Why you might ask well because i had given it to God. i might not have had fellowship with other believers or spread God's word but I was able to spend the majority of that week in intense prayer with my God. I would find a beautiful veiw of God's ocean an I would sit and just talk to him about my trouble's or blessing and sing praises to him and it was amazing. And you know what is awesome about our God? He is always there sitting and talking back and he even shows his blessing. No lie as I was sitting singing to God I saw a bunch of dolphins start jumping out of the water near our ship. it only made me praise louder. Well there is the summary of my three week travels, but trust me my journey with God isn't over not by a long shot. I might not travel to third world countries but I am a missionary and God has showed me my mission feild, an I am on my way!!!!

Missionary in training

So I am finally able to sit on the old "Nick-Top" (yes this is what I call my laptop) and post. So to catch you guys up I have been in New York for a week of praise,worship,and spiritual growth. As well as having a lot of good old fun and fellowship, I am really looking forward to the growth of these friendships. Now I would go into detail about all the lessons and spiritual leaps and bounds that I have gone through but I'm afraid it would take to long to do in one post so I will promise to sit down when I get the chance to go into better detail about my travels. As some of you may know I'm now in Philadelphia to help run a VBS for two churches here. An I am really excited because I get to hang with some really great brothers and sisters in Christ. But also because I get to see God's word spread and his message reach the heart's of many I AM EXCITED. Please pray for us and for the hearts' of those we witness to.