Thursday, February 18, 2010
Check out our new website!
I know this blog hasn't been active for awhile, so if you find your way here and are looking for the latest from camp the place to be is pembinavalleybiblecamp.com. There's a link to our Facebook page on the site too.
Blessings,
PVBC Staff
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
ROCK THE VALLEY 2007
ROCK THE VALLEY 2007
Friday Aug. 17
At Pembina Valley Bible Camp
7:30pm
$5 At the Gate
Bring Friends!
Over and out!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Best Friend
Focus. In Baseball, i order to hit the ball and win the game, you need focus. When writing an exam and there are three precious minutes passing you by, and you still have a paragraph to write, you need focus. When on stage infront of hundreds of people and it's your turn to sing the solo, you need focus. Focus is important. When I started a competetive sport awhile back my coach talked to me about priorities. What are you willing to sacrifice to do the best you can? What are you willing to let go for the ultimate goal? What is your focus? I'm notorious for getting distracted. I wrote a note to my friend the other day, it ended up being 4 pages long. It's not like I had anything really important I wanted to say, I just kept rambling on random things. There are many distractions, things that can keep us from our goals. In a soccer game, a player from another team can distract you and mislead you from getting the ball into the net. What are you distracted with? Is it something good, or bad? Is it keeping you from coming into a closer relationship with God?
My little sister sings a song from church about Jesus being her best friend. Friends are important to all of us and God wants to be your best friend. Don't let anything get in the way of that.
Have a nice day, God bless you,
Tasha
Monday, April 30, 2007
Trust
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:8
I read this verse of Tasha's post and it applies so much to what I want to share today. So last week I had the awesome experience of going to Banff with my choir for a festival. I had never seen mountains so it was really neat but besides the point... Before we had left, I had spent 4 hours in the emergerncy room one night because of these pains i was having in my stomach and behind my ribs. These pains were nasty. Since than I hadnt had them so I thought they had cleared up but I was mistaken. The day of preformance rolled around and after getting up in the morning I thought I was going to die. I was in so much pain that one of my friends had to carry me to the bus b/c it hurt to much to walk. At this point I could do nothing but pray. So I prayed that God would clear these pains so I could reherse and preform with all I had. Like no joking around, 2 minutes before I had to stand to reherse all the pain cleared up. It was amazing, I couldnt believe it! I am so glad I trusted God, He is our refuge and our strength. I challenge you all to lean on Him and pray to Him when things get tough. God is huge and powerful, He can preform miricles in your life if you let Him!
God bless,
Cassandra
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Let Go & Let God
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5&6
My soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great
love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:20b-23
I was home schooled for all of my elementary years except two. During those two years I learned a lot about trusting in God. Most people have gone through a moment in their life when they've felt very alone and scared. There are things that happen that we don't understand, things that make us cry, moments that we never forget and changes we're reluctant to accept. Life can feel a little more than overpowering at times, but we never are alone. God is always, and I mean neverfailingly always, by our side. We can't do everything by ourselves, and we certainly can't do life alone (even on the box for the board game it says you need at least 2 players). God knows what He's doing, He'll catch you when you fall and help you stand up again. You can trust Him, go on. Let go and let God.
Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:8
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
God Bless you and have an exquisite day,
Tasha
Friday, April 13, 2007
Internal Makeover
Lately I've been thinking a lot about right and wrong and how to figure out what God wants me to do in difficult situations. One thing that I've realized is that in order to become more like Jesus we need to move beyond simply trying to figure out a set or rules to follow or outlining a perfect code of conduct. These things will simply show us where we fall short, like the Old Testament Law. What we truly need is an internal makerover, a transformation of our minds and hearts to begin to think and see situations like God does. Then the right thing to do will become more obvious. There are always times when we can not understand what God is thinking and need to obey interesting commands, but I think God wants to teach us how to look at situations from his point of view. So I challenge you to ask God to reveal to you what you need to see in the hard situations in your life or with the sins you struggle with. What he reveals to you will change your life if you accept it as truth and help free you from things you are a slave to. Trust God's wisdom in your life!
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Romans 11:33-36
For who has know the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor. 2:16
Rock on for Christ,
amber
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Big Number 1
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compssion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will aknowledge the Lord.
Hoea 2:19-20
In the book of Hosea you'll find two love stories, one between God and Israel and the other between Hosea and Gomer. In the beginning of this book God tells Hosea to marry an adulterous woman (1:2) because the land of Israel was doing terrible things and was turning away from God (1:3). The two love stories are closely related. If you continue to read this book you'll find out how much Hosea loved his wife, and yet, she turned away from him and concentrated on other men. Why did she do this when Hosea truly loved her? Why is it that when God loves us so much, we make other things more important? It's pretty easy to rationalize what we do and it's very easy to say, "I'll do it tomorrow". There are days when I look at my bible and say to myself, "I'm too tired". Although I sometimes forget Him, leave Him 'till tomorrow and say I don't have time, God loves me and He loves you. He loves us 'cause we're His, not because we do our devotions, but that doen't mean we should forget. Talking, listening and reading the bible are important way to get closer with God. Put God first in your life, in your thoughts, actions and everything else. Don't make petty idols, really, however much you love your TV it's never going to love you the way God does. God's love is forever, He won't ever stop pusuing you, so turn off that TV or whatever else is keeping you from Him.
God bless you and Have a wonderful spring day,
Tasha
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Society and Easter...
"And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Matthew 10:30
That is an absolutely amazing verse.. just think how much he must love us to know the number of hairs on our head... I challenge you all to just think about what Easter means to you.
Holding on to Him,
Cassandra
Friday, March 30, 2007
Beer-Lahoi Roi
"You shall name him Isamel, for the Lord has heard of your misery." Gen 16:11b
I just love the story of Hagar because of the name she gives to God after he sends an angel to comfort her. Hagar is Sarai's (of Sarai and Abram) servent and runs away when Sarai begins to mistreat her. The situation is quite complex as you will understand when you read Genesis 16. So Hagar runs away to the desert and sits by a well, miserable and alone.
An angel of God finds her there and reveals to her three important things
1) That she needs to go back to Sarai despite the mistreatment. I find it amazing that God does not allow Hagar to run away from her problem or duty as a servant. God expects us to do the right thing even when it is hard. (Genesis 16:9)
2) God tells Hagar that he will bless her through her son that she is pregnant with. God blesses us when we are obedient, even though obedience can seem costly and painful. (Genesis 16:10)
James 1:25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.
3) God reveals to Hagar that he has heard her and knows the details of her past, present and future. (Genesis 16:9-12) God knows Hagars situation and has heard her cries of misery. More than that, he cares enough to send an angel to comfort her.
Because of this Hagar names the well she was sitting by Beer-Lahoi Roi, meaning Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.
God saw Hagar. God sees you! This is so encouraging to me when I am going through a hard time or facing a difficult problem. He knows and cares about everything going on. He knows what we need to do to make difficult situations right. Go to him and ask him to reveal what you need to do to him and He will guide you the right way and give you strength to obey.
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. James 5:13
Following the God who sees me,
amber
Friday, March 16, 2007
To Be Healed
No one can forgive you your sins but Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12), but this verse does not say we need to confess our sins to each other to be forgiven, but to be healed. Sometimes there can be a lot of pain left over from past sins or even things that people have done to hurt us. You should not need to try to hide these things from everyone, we need to open up to other believers made righteous in Jesus so they can pray for us.
I am writing this because it is what I am trying to do right now. Usually I'd rather ignore my problem and focus on helping others. God is showing me it is important to talk to others about my struggles or I can not be fully healed from them.
You don't need to tell everyone your deepest secrets. God tells us to watch our tongue (Proverbs 21:23) and to be cautious in friendship (Prov. 13:26, Prov 11:13). Find a righteous, trustworthy person to confide in, and if you don't have anyone like that in your life, ask God to bring someone into your life and if this is what you really need, God will provide it for you.
If we all hide our weaknesses, we only hurt each other because it makes everyone feel like they are the only one with a weakness. I've talked to so many people in emotional pain or who keep making the same mistakes and I'm one of them. You are not alone if this is you and there is Hope if this is you. Wow, I've overcome so much with Jesus Christ and I know he will help you with whatever you are dealing with, but be willing to get healing the way God says we need to heal. He knows the right way and part of it is talking to another faithful believer in Jesus about what you are going through.
God tells us to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice (Rom. 12:15) Do this with others and allow them to do it with you. We are brothers and sisters and need to stick together through the times that rock your socks off and the times that are hard.
God be with you!
amber
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Find a Twinkle for Your Eye
There is a lot said in this verse. Originally, I went into the back of my bible to find reference for a verse about hope and this verse definitly talks about that, but it talks about more things too, like character, faith and love. Today I had had a rather bad day, not so bad that I was suffering or anything, but bad enough and God cared. I really love it when things happen and I least expect them, it's like when I read a really good novel and end up reading 'till 3 in the morning. When God lets things jump into my day and I learn so many things and make so many connections, it's amazing. It's one of the many things that helps me keep on keeping on. I really like the last line of the excerpt above, "hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts." Doesn't this make you picture a big golden pitcher of pink and red hearts being poured out of the sky and landing on/in people everywhere? It's such a lovely thought. Sometimes it's easy to forget about those magical heart sparkles on top. DON"T! Some days can be really tough but on those days we can still find a twinkle in our eyes if we remember that this day isn't for nothing. Don't forget that God is with you all the time, there's hope yet. God Bless you and have a great day. I'm sorry this post is late, the clock just struck twelve.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Let Him give you Strength!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Apart from him, we can do nothing
John 15:5
This past week at camp has been an interesting one. It seems like anything that we want to work doesn't, vehicles, snowblowers, tractors etc. This has been very testing and annoying as we have a lot of snow that we need to clear. As Derek and I were trying to start a push behind snowblower, Derek said something, OK GOD what are you trying to teach me?
On Sunday I heard a fantastic sermon from John 15. This is the passage about the vine and the branches. There are so many illustrations that can be drawn from this but the one that struck me the most, is that apart from him we can do nothing. A vine apart from the root, is just dead and useless. It can't do anything. It may think it has more freedom, more opportunities, but with out that root, it loses it's life.
Some of you have a problem and your first instinct is to pray, for others it's about 5th down on the list. Lately with these mechanical issues, for us it seems like praying is about 35th down on the list. Is this the lesson God is teaching us, probably, but there could be more. With God and with prayer, maybe these things will work, we'll see.
Last week I saw a football movie called "Facing the Giants", Derek and Tracy rented it, they lent it to us to watch. Derek absolutely loved this movie. Much like any Christian movie, the acting was straight out of a high school production. The script wasn't much better. To say the movie was predictable was an understatement. The team was falling apart and losing, they believed in God and they ended up winning. Now, we all know that doesn't work all the time, what if bolth teams prayed to win? who would lose.
To me this movie was a little unbelievable, but what right do I have to say that God can't do something like this. What right do I have to put God in a box. What right do I have to say that God, who created the heavens and the earth, can't give me everything. I have no right. The only thing I have is to be realistic and know that God can doing anything with me and through me.
amen
Trevor
Friday, March 02, 2007
I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's power, but on God's power. 1 Cor 2: 1-5
Sometimes we can fear sharing our beliefs about Jesus with people because we don't think we are eloquent speakers or can't defend our statements with clever, philosophical, or scientific arguments. It can be fantastic to have this type of knowledge and God has given us the ability to do so and use it to teach others about him, but we don't want people to rest their faith on our clever arguments. We want them to have faith in God's power. People come to know God through his power, not our own.
This Tuesday I'm going to be sharing my faith and part of my journey with God with some people at school at an evening event. I'm feeling pretty terrified at this point in time and would love if you would pray for this. But I think that is OK. The disciples said they shared their message with fear and trembling! I think the key is to do your part, share, then have faith in God to do his part in changing people and drawing people to him.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire but you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever! Psalm 73:23-26
Rock on for Christ and Trust God,
amber
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Prayer
"Pray without ceasing..." 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Prayer is very important. It is one of the ways that we can communicate with God. There is no specific where or when you're supposed to pray, God is always there to listen. You don't need to pray only at church or at the specific time of before you go to bed. These are good times to pray, but every time is a good time to pray! You could pray while you're walking, swimming or driving a car (just don't close your eyes!). There also is a time to go alone to a quiet place to pray, like Jesus when He prayed before Judas betrayed Him. If anything, don't make prayer an exercise or a daily ritual, prayer should be like breathing or having your heart beating. Offering up anything and everything to God. When someone sends me a card, or note I always (almost) feel like telling them thank you and continuing chatting about lots of other things. That's one of the ways relationships grow, by communication. Could you imagine for a moment that you're mute, that nothing comes out of your mouth but silence. Besides using sign language, you'd never be able to talk about things that make you happy, your thoughts, your problems or feelings. Talking about things really helps sort things out and God wants to hear about all those things so don't pretend to be mute. He's always listening, the whole world is practically His ear. Many people have talked to God, so can you. In the Bible there are people who pray for guidance, blessing, thanksgiving, other people, confession, forgiveness and so much more. We can tell Him all this and He will answer us. He doesn't always answer us in the way we want but His answers are always perfect. Throughout all this talking, asking, explaining, listening and answering you learn more about your Heavenly Father and He gets to share the experience. Definitly something you don't want to skip out on.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Helping others
A friend of mine has a fridge magnet which always seems to catch my eye as I walk through his kitchen. “World Vision is a Christian non-profit humanitarian organization seeking to do good in a world of hurt through acts of compassion”. I’m going from memory here, but it’s something to that effect. I always have this nagging question go through my mind, why is it a “Christian” humanitarian organization? To me that just seems to be repeating itself a little bit.
In order to understand why, we all have to ask “why help others in need”? What is so special about humans that we should care for each other? As a matter of fact, why should we care about the environment? Or the animals? What makes it all so special that we need to take care of it all anyway? It never stops amazing me when I here people who blatantly hate God, or at least the God of the bible, and at the same time keep pushing for humanitarian goals, or conservation goals. Here is why. Only in the book of genesis, chapters 1 and 2, do we have a reason to help and be good to the environment. There is simply no other belief system in the world which has the type of foundation which can hold those philosophies up so they don’t come crashing down. To those who believe in some form of evolution, people are nothing more than a chemical accident; people don’t have any value. Those who believe in “mother nature” really don’t have any reason to help after the Tsunami hit last year; in that example the animals sensed something was wrong and went to safer ground ahead of time, they did better than the humans as mother nature desired. God tells us we were created in His image (Gen
Now do you understand why a Christian humanitarian is saying the same thing twice? Just a little food for thought.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Thursday's blog. (aka i can't think of a name)
So I have a story for you. I was driving along between morden and steinbach on wednsday, trying to get back to the school, and as I got closer morris, it got more and more difficult to see where I was driving. at one point the only thing I could see was the yellow lines that were almost beside my car. So as I was driving eventually came across a truck driving ahead of me, and i remembered something a wise man (my father) once said to me. "If your ever stuck in a storm while driving and you find a semi, follow it because it can see over the storm where you in your itsybitsy car cannot". well follow that truck i did, and I got back to steinbach safely.
As I was following the truck mentioned previously, i realized something, if thats true for a semi in a storm, its definately true for God with life. I couldn't see ten feet in front of my face while driving in that snowstorm, but the truck driver could. I (obviously) don't know my future, but God does. He knows whats ahead for everyone. So if it was a bright idea for me to follow the semi who could see in the storm, how much smarter is it for me to follow God who can see whats best for me in life?
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
An offering to God
Genesis 22:18
To say that we don't understand God would be a huge understatement. He has a purpose and a plan behind everything he does. It had taken Abraham and Sarah so long to have a child, in fact Abraham was 100 years old. Finally Isaac was born. Some time later God had a test for Abraham. God told Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice. The whole process took three days. Not once did he tell his son what was going on. In fact Isaac asked where the lamb was for the offering, Abraham replied saying that God would provide it. Little did he know that Isaac was the lamb.
They reached there destination, and Abraham and Isaac continued on with out the servants. Abraham made the altar and took all the steps for a normal offering. At this point he tied up Isaac. Now there is no description of what Isaac said or did, but there must to have been fear. Abraham placed Isaac on the altar, took out his knife and was ready to sacrifice his son. Only at the last possible second did God tell him to not harm the boy.
God knew that he feared (respect) him. Nothing was going to get in the way of serving God. Because of Abraham's respect God blessed him. Read for yourself the blessing that an angel of the Lord gave him in Genesis 22:15-18.
Do we have this kind of faith? What are we willing to give up to gain God's blessing. Everything that we have on this earth is not ours. It all belongs to God. Electronics, money, friends, family etc. At any point he could ask for you to give him an offering, are you going to acknowledge obey and be blessed. Or will you ignore and............................
If you follow and obey he will bless you. If you allow nothing to get in the way of serving God, he will bless you.
Trevor
Friday, February 16, 2007
Jesus Weeps With You
Is anyone out there hurting today? Is the pain agonizing or have you gone numb to avoid it? Has anyone lost someone to death, feel alone, tired of struggling with the same problem over and over again? Yesterday I mourned with a family so dear to me at the funeral of their father. Where is Jesus when this is happening? The pastor at the funeral shared the story of Lazarus to show us the heart of Jesus in these times.
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" John 11:32-37
Jesus knew the end of the story, just like we know the end of the story for those who follow Jesus in this life. We can boldly proclaim "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:565-57) We know that those we lose in Christ are in heaven and we will be with them one day. We know that our present struggles will be gone when Christ comes back to take us to live with him. We have hope.
Mary also knew full well that there was life after death for her brother. She said "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." (John 11:24) Yet, she wept.
Jesus knew that Lazarus wouldn't just rise on the last day - He was going to rise TODAY! Yet, Jesus does not skip about as he sees everyone mourning for Lazarus, He feels their pain, and was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled" (John 11:33) Jesus wept with the family. He knew Lazarus would be up and moving in a couple of moments, but he always cares when he sees people in pain. He cares about your pain. He reminds you that it will not be forever to encourage you, but while you are going through the trial, I am sure that Jesus will weep with you as he did with Mary. That is what I usually want when I'm suffering, someone to be willing to be with me through it and Jesus promise to be with us always is still true when we are in agony. Take the chance and trust him. Jesus understands pain and knows how to comfort the hurting:
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:3-5
Resting in his arms,
amber
Thursday, February 15, 2007
You've been called!
Am I right?? Wrap around sunglasses, fancy shoes, Irish accent, and a passion for to end world poverty.
Okay, honestly, when you look at a guy like Bono, who do you see??
The world's most famous rockstar??
The guy who dropped the F-bomb on live television at the Golden Globe awards??
But really, I'm sure that if you met the guy in person, you would see that he's made up of the same stuff that we are...
Just recently I was reading a book on the spiritual journey of U2.
There was one thing that really caught my eye, and it was about prayer.
Now, I guess it would be needless to say that Bono has offended quite a few peoplein the past, especially the church... but this comment he made about prayer really rocked people back on their heels!
"Get off your knee's! Stop praying!"
At first glance that looks extremely wrong hey?
But Bono wasn't saying to stop communicating with God, he was saying to stop continually asking God what you should do with your life!
I'm going to give you a scenario...
"Millions of people are dying in a certain country in the world, to famine and disease. While millions of people live in another certain country, running in the rat race... trying to "get ahead" in the world by making money, and storing up treasures on earth."
I hope this scenario sounds familiar to you guys, because it's happening right now, in our world.
It's easy to turn a blind eye to Africa, or Haiti, or any other country in desperate need, and it's easy to say, "Well, there's other people who can take care of that", or it's even easy to say, "Well, God can take care of that".
That last statement is the best hey??
"God's in control, I believe that He'll take care of the situation and make everything better."
What can I say?? It must make God cry when He see's us in Canada living in the land of the plentiful, complaining about being hungry after 4 hours without food, while thousands of people die in Africa everyday, due to a lack of food in their stomachs.
God has called us, to be there for the alien, the fatherless, and the widow.
He has called us, to love our neighbors as ourselves.
He has called us, to go into the world and make disciples of all nations.
He has called us, to proclaim His name unto the four corners of the world.
Do we really need to ask God what we should be doing?
I'm pretty sure we know what's the right thing to do...
My question for you is are you doing what God has called you to do?
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