Walking in the dark...

J man the moderator

Cranium Overload

BBQ girls

Di Cookin'

Welcome back Jon

Mich

Small Group this week.

Playing Ultimate at Don Valley Hill. See you all there.

Happy Birthday Di!

And many more to come!

Small Group Tonight!

We're meeting tonight at 6:30pm at Chiu's.
See you there!

Life Together Rocks!

Hope everyone had a good time last night, I sure did! I just posted some of the pictures below. My apologies to those who were somewhat injured during the fence hopping incident. As I watched some of the faces wincing in pain, I felt like a general sending my men out to die.

I read from Philippians 4 in my readings this morning and among many other powerful words, Paul says...

"Rejoice in the Lord Always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near."

I often hear of Christian's who are incredibly experiencing incredible blessing, and they follow it with 'but...' all the time. I'm not sure if it is becuase we don't want to get our hopes up, but I think what Paul is doing here is stating things for what they are, and not to take away from what God has richly blessed us with. I rejoice because I know God is moving and shaping our group! Rejoice because He is so very good!

TenRen's after an unexpected hour long walk down Yonge Street

Can't quite center the picture

Fence Hopping - We sent Jon first in case dogs were let loose...

Chiu Follows... pressing onwards, pushing every hindrance aside... While Michell points out there must be a better way, turns out there was

Too tired to walk...

Lost in the woods...

Past Midnight, and still climbing mountains

Another Fantastic Life2Gether Small Group Night!

Unreasonable Love

God spoke to me in this excerpt from "My Utmost" today...

The first thing God does is remove any insincerity, pride, and vanity from my life. And the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was in His nature to do so. Now He commands me to show the same love to others by saying “…love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He is saying, “I will bring a number of people around you whom you cannot respect, but you must exhibit My love to them, just as I have exhibited it to you.”

This kind of love is not a patronizing love for the unlovable –it is His love, and it will not be evidenced in us overnight. Some of us may have tried to force it, but we were soon tired and frustrated…. Neither natural love nor God’s divine love will remain and grow in me unless it is nurtured. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained through discipline.

It's crazy how I find I need to be reminded to love people, especially those who aren't easily loved. Yet it was this same unreasonable love that captured me when the creator of the universe broke into my life. God found me in the gutters of life, self-absorbed and aimless, and somehow as Paul says in the Bible, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8) It's so easy to lose sight of this and get wrapped up in the non-essentials of life - we reject the call of God to love others - and we wonder why His voice quietly seems to fade from our lives.

I find it so interesting that while we as humans spend our lives trying to fill ourselves only to find ourselves empty, Jesus emptied himself and lived the fullest life possible. I pray that all of us this week have the opportunity to give ourselves to those the world sees as unlovable.