An Honest Rant

So I have a little rant that has been bugging me for a while... Out of context, prosperity Gospel, bookmark Scripture. Specifically Jeremiah 29:11.

Now you probably know what Jeremiah 29:11 says because it has been quoted over and over, pasted on t-shirts and mugs and pens and bookmarks etc. etc.... Honestly, it is some awesome, uplifting, inspirational and wise scripture, but it is also more than just a happy thought and it can be applied to real life in a much better way than just inspiring people. I will try and break down the problem I have..

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

By itself this verse isn't really that bad, the problem I have with it is the way it is being used.  From what I have collected, this verse is quoted because it has words like, "prosper" and "hope" it is also very center focused on Me, Me, Me. We want to believe that God is watching out for us and has good plans for us, yes of course. But there is so much more in these verses than what people would like to acknowledge.

I have heard this verse quoted many, many times, and when I finally decided to look it up for myself I was very surprised at what I saw after verse 11..

"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Jeremiah 29:12-14 (NIV)

Now, while you think about that I'm going to take you somewhere else and we will come back to verse 12-14.... Let us unpack this for a second... Firstly, the context here isn't some sort of wisdom literature, actually the context is right at the front of the chapter.

"This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon."

Jeremiah 29:1 (NIV)

Okay, so now that we know that we can see that this is a promise from God, to his people in that context..it's kind of weird that we would just crop out that one verse because it sounds inspirational and prosperous. That's called the prosperity Gospel.  I listened to an amazing preacher named Matt Chandler, who once said "If you put any word in front of the Gospel, it is no longer the Gospel." The prosperity Gospel is focused on YOU not on Christ.  By simply quoting a verse that is good for you and is taken out of context is preaching the prosperity Gospel and is saying that God will help you do awesome things, but you really have no commitment to Christ before or afterwards.

Back to verse 12-14. I personally believe that many Christians who quote Jeremiah 29:11, aren't intending to preach the prosperity Gospel, they believe in a developing relationship with Christ but they are just forgetting the biggest part of that verse...12-14... Just to remind you about those verses I will quote it again! :)

"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." (emphasis mine)

Jeremiah 29:12-14 (NIV)

Obviously verse 14 is directed back to the promise that God is making to bring them out of exile, but verses 12 and 13 really complete the devotion that we need to have to God. Now lets look at Jeremiah 29:11-13...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)

Now I love that! I love that when we quote that we pronounce our devotion to God and that he wants to give us good things but not just for our good! We seek God, not for the gifts and the prosperity, but to know him closer and to seek his heart and will. We pray to God and he listens! We seek and we will find!

I want to be clear that I love this scripture when quoted thoughtfully and I believe the best in Christians and don't plan on tearing others down. I just really want to make people aware that there is more beyond the t-shirt, popular verses. I encourage you to open God's word and when you see something you like, look before and after the verse that stands out to you. You might just find that God is trying to tell you something so much more meaningful and awe-inspiring!

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Spencer L.

Pride Downfall.

Over my life I have realized that I have a lot of unresolved pride issues.  I don't like accepting help from others, I refuse to go to the doctors when I have a health problem, I find it difficult showing my gratitude because it makes me feel weak, and I have a really, really hard time apologizing or acknowledging when I am wrong. I've always been quite stubborn and it really hurts me. Sometimes I know when I am wrong but don't want to admit it to others because it makes me feel like I "lost" in the conversation/argument.  I would rather fight my opinion than humble myself and give in.

As much as I wish that I could tell you that this is something I used to struggle with I can't.  This is something that I am working through and I really suck at. This pride overflows into my spiritual life and I am very hesitant to give control over to Jesus in my life. As stupid as it sounds, I wrestle with God and tell him that he is wrong and that I have it all control.  It makes it worse when I have victories over sins and temptation because my ego goes through the roof and I think that I am better than sin and don't need Jesus' help. Essentially what I am saying is that the cross is not enough for me and that I don't need Jesus because I am super awesome, when in fact I am not super awesome.

Here is some imagery that just came to mind.  Imagine that your soul is like a really nice pair of jeans. Now you go and do something stupid like try to roller skate down a steep hill and you biff it hard and tear up your jeans all over the place.  What you should do with those jeans is take them to your mom or someone really good at fixing rips in jeans. Instead you tell yourself that you don't need it fixed by a professional and instead you pin the holes up and do a rough patch job to fill the holes.  The next thing you know those holes are going to burst open again without warning and you are going to be in some real trouble.  I wait for those holes to reappear and they grow and stretch out farther, next thing I know I have big gaps in my soul because I refused to go to God for help.

Maybe that imagery was a little confusing but hopefully you got something out of it. There was one particular moment where God humbled me a little bit and showed me that I don't need to be perfect and I don't need to try and do everything myself. I had an argument with someone close to me and shortly after I turned on some music and a worship song came on. The first line of the song was "You are good, you are good, when there's nothing good in me." That really hit home for me because I felt like a big sack of used packing peanuts. I realized how pathetic and weak I am without Christ and how I need to go to God and humble myself.  I went and apologized for my actions and harsh words and felt a weight lift from my soul that I had been holding onto and telling God that I "had it under control". He is good even when I am a complete dummy. It blows my mind that God loves me even in my lowest.

A man's pride brings him low,      

but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.

-Proverbs 29:23

Stay Beautiful,
Spencer out!

Time

Time is running out.


There is never enough time. 


We rush from place to place and cram as many things into our days as possible. We post inspirational quotes but never pick up a Bible. We buy birthday gifts for family members but never sit down and be together. We tell friends that we need to meet up but never set a date.  Somewhere along the way we have run out of time to live our lives.  Recently I realized that my favorite part about the missions trip I was on a year ago was that I was able to spend time talking with the other members of the team and hearing their spiritual thoughts and what impacted them. You don't get that kind of growth at home because you only see those people about one or two times a week. We spend more time living our lives out through video games or through posting things on the internet. 
Maybe it's an impossible dream of mine, and maybe it is unrealistic in this world.  But I wish that there was a way that we could all leave our jobs and excuses and come together as a community and trust that God will provide. In the book of Acts whenever there were people converted to following Christ they would sell their stuff and start working for God. I wish our world was different.  I wish that instead of being consumers we could be people not bound by possessions or "stuff".  I think one of the most crucial mistakes we make is that we think that God will change with our changes and he will adapt to our lifestyles. Since when did worship become about how WE feel when we do it? When we worship shouldn't we be reflecting back God's love through our lives and to other people? I honestly don't believe that God is making an exception for our generation because we are different.  He is probably not all that thrilled at how much time we spend on the internet doing things that have no significance. (Yea I understand writing a blog is quite hypocritical.) I just wish things could be different.  I wish that instead of mocking a campaign to end the abuse of children we would fight for what is right. We teach children that killing is bad but our movies and our video games are full to the brim with it. I wish that the big questions in life still mattered to people.  I wish that people would ask what the meaning of life is and not answer it with "to have fun and enjoy yourself."
I always tell myself,
"there is time for that later."
"I'll do that another time."
Who has the time to do all of that spiritual work anyways? I mean, praying, reading AND doing works of service? Whoa, whoa, whoa! I have television to watch and tweets to tweet! Not to mention all of the pictures I need to take of myself in the bathroom for my Facebook profile picture! Some people spend more time hitting the "post" button on websites than opening something I like to call, a book. More specifically the Bible. Our culture has labelled the Bible as completely outdated and full of ridiculous rules that need to be followed. Why not look at it as the only way we can truly live our lives.


Everyone dies. Everyone is forgotten eventually. Everyone has a choice.


Time is running out.






"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
Ephesians 5:1-2






Spencer Lalonde

Jaime's side of the story

We had been planning to go back to Banff before the end of the year, since the beginning of the year when we went with a few friends from school. So I thought nothing of it when Spencer was all gun-ho to set a date that would work. As it got closer to the day that we had planed to go, I was really hoping that he was organized enough to propose. I figured what better place to get engaged than on the top of a mountain?! However, I was almost positive that he hadn’t talked to my mom yet or gotten the ring or any of the necessary things that he would have to do in order to propose. So we are having a wonderful day walking down the main strip of stores, exploring Banff Springs Hotel, and then we went to the gondola ride. At this point the rational side of me is like “he is not going to propose today, he hasn’t even talked to your mom yet” but the hopeful side of me was like “he is definitely going to do it! Right at the very top too!!” So we get to the top and he sets up the tripod and we are taking some pictures and I’m just trying not to think about it. So once we finish taking our pictures up there I was positive that it wasn’t going to happen, so we go down the mountain a little bit and he sets up the tripod again. I am sitting on this bench so that he can focus the camera and there’s this family standing near by so we take a picture and Spencer doesn’t like it. As he is adjusting the settings (which now that I think about it he was taking a really long time to do) the two cutest little kids come up and are just chatting away with me and I’m loving it! But after a couple minutes their dad calls them away so Spence comes over to take the picture and he sits down but then gets up again and I have no clue what he’s doing. Once he goes down on one knee I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It was the happiest moment of my life!

Jaime <3

The Proposal

Generally I publish blogs about my spiritual walk with God and things I am learning in life but today I wanted to make an exception. When I first came to Ambrose in September I had a promise to myself that I wouldn't start dating anyone until I had at least been through my first year at Ambrose University.  This promise was broken 2 weeks after arriving at school.  The second promise that I had was that I wouldn't be the stereotypical Bible college student and fall victim to the "ring by spring" fever. I broke this promise yesterday(March 25th).  Since I live far away from a lot of family and friends back home and since I figured some people just really like hearing engagement stories, I am going to give you the detailed, mooshy, romantic proposal story while it is fresh in my mind! So here it goes...

We had been planning a trip to Banff since before Christmas break and really wanted a chance to go and enjoy the sights for a really nice date.  I realized what better a way to propose than in Banff surrounded by a bunch of beautiful mountains!  The day began early as we went to the early service at church at 9am and the church happens to be about 40 minutes away from the University.  After this we headed back to school, boxed up a quick lunch and headed out.  I was already bringing my camera and we decided to bring the tripod as well so that we could take some photos using the timer without having to give my camera to some stranger over and over again.  Once we arrived at Banff we parked the car and starting walking around to different shops just checking out the different stores and neat thing-a-ma-bobs in stores.  After we were finished we went to Banff springs hotel and we were checking out the different parts of the hotel and the cool things inside.  We were in there for probably close to an hour before we headed off the Sulfur mountain to take a Gondola ride up to the top.  I had the ring box in my camera bag the entire time and didn't want to put it in my pocket until I had my warmer jacket on.  We hopped in the Gondola and headed up the mountain and took a few pictures on our way up.  When we got to the top I had to "go to the bathroom" suddenly.  This is where I took the ring out of my camera bag and put it into a secret pocket on the inside of my jacket.  It was a little bulky in my jacket but I figured as long as I had my camera hanging around my neck Jaime would never see that there was something sticking out of my chest.  We began heading down the path taking some scenic pictures all the while I was looking out for the area that I wanted to propose at.  Once we arrived near the spot I was planning to pop the question, I saw that snow had completely covered the area and there was no way we were going to be able to go that way.  So I had began to panic a little bit as my plan was starting to fall apart.  We continued up to the very top of the mountain where we set up the camera on the tripod and took 3 or 4 photos of us in front of the mountains.  I knew that I didn't want to propose there because there was nowhere to sit and there were a lot of people around.  So we headed down to a lower level and I asked if she wanted to take some more photos here since we still had the tripod out.  She said yes (she didn't have a clue what was about to go down).  I got everything set up and we took a few photos with the timer on.  Then I said that I wanted one more photo because the "lighting wasn't quite right" (ya right).  Right around there a family with a few young children started talking to Jaime while she was sitting on the bench and the kids were showing her their snowballs that they had made.  After they left I finished setting things up and little did Jaime know that I hit the record button.  I headed over to take a photo with her like I did before, I sat down for a few seconds and then stood up and acted as if something wasn't quite right with the photo how I wanted it.  This was when I knelt down on one knee and popped the question.  She said YES. =D

(click photos to enlarge)

 This is the photo that I took right before I hit the record button.

 This is the photo that we took after she had called a few of her family members.

This is the best picture I think my tripod has ever captured =D

Stay Beautiful,
Spencer out!

Desire vs. Discipline

As I am nearing the end of my first year at Ambrose University I am starting to look back at where I was at the beginning of September.  Honestly I can say that I haven't matured as much spiritually that I thought I would have.  I figured by now I would have had some divine revelation in my life where I heard the audible voice of God telling me to go to a small island somewhere that is hard to spell.  I thought a lot of things would change in my life and that I would become some sort of "super christian" at Bible school.  I think the reason that I thought all these things was because I was making such insane progress in my spiritual life back home.  Not saying that you can't grow when your not in Bible college, I'm just saying that when you think about the environment you just assume that you are going to pick up positive habits and lifestyles of the people around you.
I definitely feel like God was working in me in Estevan and preparing my heart for the things I would encounter at University.  I was so focused on learning all the information I could and becoming so wise that I forgot God has His own agenda for me.  A few of the most important things I can see God has wanted to show me was how weak I am.  Coming here wasn't simply to learn about the Bible or hang out with other Christians or serve God's Kingdom.  It was to teach me patience, love, discipline, devotion, dedication, trust, fellowship, selflessness, hope and grace (and even more).
The most important thing over this whole year that God has shown me was that I need a desire to serve him.  I needed to attend a lectureship for Bernie Van De Walle's class Theology II, at this lectureship Sunder Krishnan was speaking about the mission of the church.  In one of the two lectures Krishnan stressed that it is not discipline that we need, but that it is a desire.  This seemed so fresh to me and I couldn't understand why.  It felt so basic, so simple yet I was completely oblivious to its importance until that night.  Discipline was something that I was relatively good at for the most part. Go to church, done.  Help when others need helping, done. Go on a mission trip, done.  Nearly every time that God strongly called me to something I helped, or tried my best to do my part. This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy these things or didn't want to do them, I wanted to follow God and these things were how I would do that.
Desire is more than that though.  How can I learn God's word better? By promising myself to read a chapter out of the Bible every night and ticking off each box before I go to sleep? Sure, it worked to an extent, I have read through a big chunk of the beginning of the Old and New Testament but mostly because I want to read through it all and say that I have read the Bible front to back....This isn't enough for me anymore.  Last Sunday I made a decision that I won't simply read the Bible anymore because it's what everyone says I should do or because it means I am being obedient.  I decided to change my devotion schedule and frankly, its been really hard!(especially with LYC this past weekend)
Instead of reading one chapter before bed each night and basically skimming over the long parts because I am tired, I decided that I will read my daily chapter right in the morning once I have had time to open my eyes and get my mind ready for the day.  I have decided to read Ephesians each night before I go to bed, and then to lay with my eyes OPEN and talk to God so that I will not fall asleep. Can you imagine what it would be like to be talking on the phone to someone and suddenly they fall asleep while they are talking to you? How rude!
I don't want to follow what God wants simply because I should or because it means I am being obedient, I want to follow God because I have built up a desire to serve Him and to know him more intimately. I am excited for what He will do.

I hope you enjoy tagging along for the ride whenever I have time to blog about what is going on in my life.


"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through-out all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

Stay beautiful,
Spencer Lalonde

God in a box

We all do it. We place the creator of the universe, the Almighty, The great I AM..into a tiny little box.  Why? I dunno!...that's it......that's all I've got today...


Just kidding =)


Isn't that completely true though!?! We take God and put him into a little convenient box of what our minds can handle and carry that little box around with us throughout our day and completely ignore Him all around us.  It's funny how there is only so much we want to accept about God, when we imagine outrageous miracles we just assume God wouldn't (or couldn't ) accomplish them!  Yes, I know the first thing you think of are diseases that need healing or opportunities we would like God to open up to us, or relationships we would like...And that is completely normal!  But for just a minute, I want you to use your imagination and think of the craziest, wildest thing ever!  Think God could make that happen? 
Okay so I'm a pretty big nerd and I love me some superhero comic books from time to time. The Flash is one of my favorite superheroes and he is super duper fast..like faster than McDonalds drive through...Do you think that God could make you super fast if he needed you somewhere quick? He could. Not saying he is going to give you awesome superhero powers...but he could..I'm really trying hard to not sound heretical here, just open your minds up to the idea of God being ALL POWERFUL!  Familiar with Night Crawler? Off of X-Men? He can Teleport...fiction right?....or......maybe not...


Do you remember in the Disney movie Aladdin, when Genie is telling Al that he has "PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS" and an itty bitty living space? That's very similar to what we do to God. He can do incredible things in our lives, (supernatural and spiritual) if we only give him some space to move! We cramp him up in a tiny little lamp and when we need some help we just give it the ole' spit shine and expect him to poof out and grant everything we want and go back inside after.  I'm not saying if you pray enough God will grant you awesome Adamantium claws like Wolverine, because honestly, how are you gonna use those to further his Kingdom? (but it would be freakin' awesome!) All I am saying is don't limit God! He can do so much in your life! In comic books, being able to heal quickly is pretty cool. But what about being healed instantly..that's not fiction, if anything that's history. Super heroes can heal because of genetic mutation or because they are Aliens or any number of things. God can heal by saying the words, "Be Clean!" or "Get up and walk!" WOW! look at that authority over creation and disease and death! That's even too crazy for comic books! BUT IT HAPPENED! That's the beauty of it! We can stop thinking God wont ever do anything and start realizing that God can do more than we could ever imagine. Just be careful not to pray just for miracles, because even if he answers your prayers and gives you a miracle, you will still struggle. Seeing one miracle or one angel isn't going to save you for the rest of your life. Make a relationship with God and if you witness awesome stuff along the way then that is cooler than a knit unicorn sweater!


Here is a little Bible snippet of the day;
When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." - Matthew 8:1-4 (NIV)






I know some of this was a little iffy but I meant absolutely nothing negative or heretical about it. Just want to broaden your view of our Lord.

(See look how cramped it is!)

Thanks for reading!


Stay Beautiful,
Spencer out!