I Don't Want To Be a Hypocrite....Cause They're Not Hip With It

When I was 5 years old I "asked Jesus into my heart". Nothing really changed. Basically I didn't want to go to Hell because Heaven sounded so much better and that's where my Mom and Dad were going. It wasn't until I was 17 at Gardom Lake Bible Camp where I was truly saved. A speaker challenged us if what we believed was really shown in our actions or if we just said that we were a Christian and that's where it stopped. The Lord showed me that I was the kid who said I was a Christian, but didn't really show it.

That day the Lord showed me that I had broken all His Laws....that I had lied and stolen and not put God first and that if I died in my sin, I would stand guilty before Him. God is good and so He would have had no choice but to send me to Hell. I understood that instead of punishing me, God punished His Son. What a loving sacrifice - one I didn't deserve. It all made sense to me then. I repented of my sins and put my entire faith in the Lord. I realized that there was nothing in me that could save myself and I needed to put my faith in what Jesus did on the cross. By myself I was a lost hopeless wreck.

If we say we are Christians then we need to show that in our actions. If you have said the sinners prayer but there is no evident change in your life such as having a desire for the things of God like reading your Bible or sharing your faith. If the sin in your life does not burden you and repulse you, then I think it would be a vital step for you to reevaluate your salvation.

I keep seeing people who have told me they're Christians, yet they walk instep with the world. It should NOT be this way. When we repent of our sin and put our faith in the Lord we are turning our back on SIN. This means we have our faces on the Lord. We will desire the things of God. We will hate the sin in our lives and with the Lord's help we will purge that sin from our lives. We are powerless on our own.

I encourage you, be sure of your salvation and live according to what you say you believe. NOTHING matters except your eternal destiny. If the Lord is tugging at your heart, do something about it. We never know when our last breath will be.

"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more." Ps. 103:15-16

If you want to follow the Lord with your life then agree with the Judge of the Universe that you are guilty and that you are helpless on your own to save yourself. Repent of your sin, in that you don't only say you're sorry for your sins, but take action and turn from your sin. Do a 180 so your back is on your past life of sin. Tell the Lord you need his help. Acknowledge that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and on the third day he rose again, conquering death. "Salvation is by faith alone and repentance MUST come before and after that faith." - John Piper

Don't Settle For Less

Yesterday I was reading the Nov. 2 devotional from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I would highly recommend this daily devotional book to anyone wanting to be challenged in their faith. It was talking about obedience vs. independence. We have a daily choice weather or not we will obey the Lord and what he asks of us.

"God stresses what we ought to do, but he will never force us to do it. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an "If," meaning, "You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so." "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . ." ( Luke 9:23 )."

Personally, I am no where near the "perfect christian", nor will I ever be. Yet I do refuse to have a mediocur relationship with the Lord. There is nothing worse than a stagnant relationship with Him. There is ALWAYS ways we can grow in our relationship, be challenged or simply just further our knowledge of our faith. I encourage you also to refuse to have a mediocur relationship with the Lord. Don't settle for a mundane faith. Absolutely nothing is more important than our eternal destiny. When we stand before God one day (that's right, every single human will) the only thing that will matter is what we have done for the Lord.

Why would we settle for a stale relationship when it can be vibrant and more alive than we could ever imagine? Our creator loves us and wants to hear from us. He wants a relationship with us.

If you are at a "dry" patch with God then its up to you to change it. God never leaves us or changes, we are the ones who walk away from him. Disipline yourself to get into God's Word EVERY single day, read a daily devotional book on top of your Bible reading, get involved in a church group, talk to other believers and share your struggles, ask for prayer and help from others! "Come near to God and he will come close to you." James 4:8. Hold on to the promises that God gives us.

Micah Preston

Please remember to pray for my dear nephew Micah Preston. He is going for a minor surgery tomorrow and as minor as it, it is still a pretty big deal! All the prayers are appriciated.
Please pray...

That my sister will be strong and trust the Lord and not worry.
That the Dr. will have steady hands
That the anesthesiologist will be attentive to what he is doing and be very diligent.
That Micah will be strong and healthy through it all.

Thanks so much.

Pray without Ceasing

If you haven't read the Mark of The Lion Series by Francine Rivers, I highly recommend that you do. They are addicting and they have taken up the past couple weeks of my life. Just to warn you the first book is a little hard to get into, I attempted to read it like 3 times and then finally I pushed through to the 5th chapter and after that I couldn't put it down.

A major lesson I have learned from these books is the importance of praying without ceasing. Prayer changes things. It changes things around us and it changes us inside. The main character in these books is constantly in prayer. It is amazing to see how her faithfulness to the Lord and her constant prayers change things around her, and within her.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

John MacArther's book Alone With God defines praying without ceasing in a really good way,

"To "pray without ceasing" means when you are tempted, you hold the temptation before God and ask for His help. When you experience something good and beautiful, you immediately thank the Lord for it. When you see evil around you, you ask God to make it right and to use you toward that end, if that is His will..."


"May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice." Ps. 141:2.

Our prayers are like incense to the Lord, he would rather hear from us than not hear from us at all. I encourage you to pray a Psalm to the Lord. Go through a Psalm and read it sentence by sentence and add in prayers of your own through out. It is truly amazing. Do not just pray to the Lord to get things, do not think "Oh what I wanted to happen hasn't happened so I guess God isn't listening." Prayer isn't about what we can get, its about the Lord, about honoring him, having communion with him, being with him, obeying him. He loves us and wants us to come to him.

Worship the King, "...enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

"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. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:22-24

My life as of late...

Recently I got back from a trip with my family (minus my dad) to Orlando. It was a gift, and it was a true blessing. One thing I learned when I was in Florida was that there are wild Pythons!!!! Did you know that?! I had no clue until we landed and I was told this truth. So the whole time I was keeping my eyes out for these HUGE creepy snakes.

While we were in Orlando the 1 year anniversary of Preston's passing happened. On that day we were in Disney world and it was a decent day. I tried my best to just push the reality out of my mind, because I knew dwelling on it would only make things harder. Its just so surreal still and absolutely hard to believe that he has been gone more than a year.

Every time I get to see my nephews it is the biggest blessing in the WORLD!! They are just so awesome! I know I am obsessed, and that's just the way it is. Jacob is just so much fun, so funny and silly and sweet. One day we were just laying on the bed with our heads together and he grabs my cheek lightly and looks at me, and in his cute little 2 year old voice, with lisp and all says, "I love you Malory"! OH MAN! I just laughed, it was the sweetest thing and I couldn't believe it came from his mouth! He is a charmer that's for sure! And Micah, oh man, what a blessing he is. He always has a gigantic smile on his face. It lights up a room. He is rarely grumpy and he is just so much fun!

Also, I have started working out. I used to be Mrs. Athlete in high school and since then I haven't really done much. But I decided that I would like to get into better shape, so I have started running and do some exercises on our Bo Flex thing. Its been pretty awesome so far. I just hope that I can keep the motivation up and keep doing it.

Oh ya...how could I forget to mention my sweet dog! She was hit by a car last Thursday I think. I wasn't here. She has like 3 fractures in her right hip, but the vet gave us pain killers and said that there is a big chance that she could just recover. So we have her at home and its so sad to see her so down, but I do think she is going uphill. We are definitely not the kind of people who will keep an animal alive and let it suffer just because we can't let go. If she is in pain and we need to put her down we will without question. But she has been doing good so we are going to give it some time to see how she does. I pray that she will be healed. She is so sweet, and I don't want her to die. So if you could remember her in your prayers, I know she's just an animal, but I think she's pretty great.

Almost a year...

How does one get through the death of a loved one? I have realized that you never understand the pain of losing a loved one until you do. Before Preston died I had a lot of my close friends lose loved ones and I tired to understand what they were going through, but I never really understood until September 15, 2008.

It's almost been a year since Preston died. Its been over a year since I last saw him, and I just can't even come close to believing that this is really reality. It is so weird still that he is gone. I miss him. I am so happy to know that he is in Heaven though. Preston isn't dead, but more alive now in Heaven then he ever was on earth! He has seen the face of God. How incredible! I know there is no greater place for him to be. How amazing to think he is there with Paul, Noah, Moses and so many other amazing people of history.

Preston was a light. He was the kind of guy who just lit up a room when he walked in. I always loved when I got to go visit Tara and Preston, or when they came here. He was the greatest brother in law I could have asked for. He always had good advice for me and he was always willing to listen.

I would like to share just a couple of my memories of Preston.

When I first met him it was at Youth Quake at Briercrest. Tara and Preston had just started dating. Tara introduced us and I whispered to Tara, "does he have hairy arms?" I know what a weird thing to ask! Tara laughed and said no. I just thought at first glance he looked like he could be a hairy guy! This is a picture of them that weekend.



Preston was the king of puns. He loved puns and he would laugh at his own jokes all the time! My family has always called me Mallard the duck, but I guess he wasn't aware of this. So one day he's like "Hey Mallard!", thinking that he is so funny and that he was the first one to ever come up with it! I had to bring him back to reality and inform him that that had been my nickname forever!

As many of you know he loved Sponge Bob. I remember watching it with him many times, and I did think it was funny but Preston would laugh so hard. And when something funny happened he would always look over at whoever was watching with him to ensure they were laughing and enjoying it as much as he was.

I loved how he would always be singing. I have so many memories of him just singing around the house, or him playing his guitar and singing. I loved it.

Well, I leave this post at that, and here are a few pics of the crazy guy!

Camp Adventures

This past summer has been wonderful! It started out with an epic road trip to Nelson with 4 other lovely ladies, then Tara and my two sweet nephews were here for a month, then I was blessed with the opportunity to go to camp. And in between all this I have been going to the beach and soaking up the sunshine in the beautiful Okanagan.

I was at a camp in Saskatchewan called Good Spirit Bible Camp. I was there for two weeks. The highlight of camp was definitely that one of my campers became a Christian. The Lord reminded me that he works in ways that are beyond us, ways that are above our simple understanding. A couple verses that have been close to my heart lately are, Isaiah 55:8-9,

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

and Ecclesiastes 11:5,

"As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things."

It was so amazing to see God work so clearly. I was struggling at the beginning of the week to get my campers to open up, but I would daily ask the Lord for opportunities to talk to each camper one on one and he would make a perfect chance every time.

When I was talking to one camper about whether or not she was a Christian, she said she didn't know. So I took the opportunity to explain to her her need for a Savior and her need to repent and put her faith in God. After I was done explaining to her she started to cry, when I asked her why she was crying she said she didn't know. Then the bell for breakfast rang and she bolted up and left. I sat there thinking, "Oh man, what did I just do to my camper? I made her cry! I win the worst cabin leader ever award for sure!" Well I was burdened for her the whole day, I talked with Ash (one of my best friends who is the camp directors wife) and told her my problem. I felt so bad, but I kept praying for her and that an opportunity would come up again for us to finish our conversation.

That night I took her aside and asked her if she had thought about what we had talked about and if she was or wasn't a christian (we had to fill out a form on where they were spiritually and this was one of the questions). She said, "Ya, I am" I said, "Really? Like you did what we talked about earlier?" She said "Ya" I said, "When did you do this?" She had done it after breakfast! Praise the Lord! I was so happy. I was so sure that I had done something wrong to make her cry, but the Lord knew better and he was working in her heart. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. Two other boys were saved that week too! So keep all 3 of them in your prayers!

I was also encouraged at camp to hear some of the other staffs testimonies. I was constantly shown how the Lord uses camp to change people's lives. There were so many stories, mine included, of people who had either become Christians at camp, or who had been challenged at camp to take their relationship with God seriously and not just sit on the fence. I see how camp is an amazing tool that the Lord uses to change lives.

I was blessed with the chance to see some of my amazing friends from Bible College. The Lord's ways are always higher than we know, he can do all things even if it looks like a dead end to us! Here are a few pics from my summer.