Designer & Developer
I got more information on my trip today, about where I’m staying and my packing list.
I’ll be staying in Luquillo, Puerto Rico in a rental house with the other team members for the summer. I was looking at some pictures and I saw palm trees. I think palm trees are awesome.
Finances are all set! God is good. I booked my plane tickets this morning to get to Atlanta and back.
Please keep me in your prayers leading up the the trip and throughout the summer while I am in Puerto Rico. I also stated in my last post that I would be Head Coach. However, I will actually be Service Coordinator for my site.
Thank you for everyone who has supported me financially and through prayer.
I got the call today from AIM (Adventures in Missions) about my location and my position for my missions trip this summer.
I’m going to be in Puerto Rico serving as head coach.
I start at training camp, which last a few days, on May 23rd and I’ll be back in the states to debrief before heading home on August 5th. Our site will have a blog where we’ll be posting updates, photos and videos throughout the summer. Once I know that link I’ll post it here.
I’m going to be on site all summer with 3 other people and we will be facilitating youth groups coming throughout our time there. We’ll be equipping the youth groups to serve the locals and to learn to run the ministry with hands on experience. We will be their guides for the time that they are with us and it’s going to be a lot of fun serving God alongside of them.
Your prayers are greatly appreciated and I’m still raising money, so if you’d like to support me you can get in touch with me via email tylerwchilds[at]gmail[dot]com
They are still looking for 6 more people for the various trips, so if you’re interested in applying, please visit adventures.org/youth/leaders
If a man wants to become stronger, he works out. He plans a workout routine and he follows it. He doesn’t just magically become buff just because he wants to. He disciplines himself and he works towards the goal he wants to achieve.
If a person wants to become good at a sport or an instrument, they practice. They work at it and even if it seems hard at first, it gets easier because they become passionate about it and they enjoy working at it.
When Solomon was building the temple, he prepared for the work and he took care of every preparation before he even began the construction. His work payed off, but it wasn’t without hard work and preparedness.
So often in our lives as Christians, we just think our future selves will be better followers of Christ. We think that we will be better people in the future; more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, more patient, more kind, more good, more faithful, more gentle and more self-controlled. But if we don’t intentionally plan to live this way, we never will.
I don’t think we can afford to buy into the lie that we’ll have it all figured out in the future. Even if that were true, we’d still have to work at it.
Just like the musician and the athlete work toward their goal, we also need to work towards our goal of becoming more Christ-like. We’re not going to be better at living our lives in a way that honors Christ if we don’t work at it. And if it seems like hard work, that’s because it is, but it is worth it.
How do you normally drive? I know for me, I usually speed a little bit and I mostly stop at stop signs. I’m assuming most people are the same way and might have other habits that are also illegal, because let’s face it, speeding is illegal.
How do you drive with a cop behind you? I usually go the speed limit, maybe a little under just to be safe. I completely stop at stop signs and I look every direction multiple times. This shows that I know the law, but sometimes I choose to ignore it. Driving laws are put into place to protect us, but we think we know better, we think we know the “real” limits and we push them. Can you relate to this?
But what if you have a friend that’s a cop and he’s on patrol and he pulls out behind you. You know he won’t give you a ticket because he’s your friend. How do you drive then? Do you respect him, his authority and follow the driving laws or do you walk over him and basically take advantage of the friendship you have with him?
I know it’s not a perfect analogy, but how often in our walk with God, do we know what is sin and yet we choose to do it anyways? How often do we push the limits of sin by thinking we have control of various situations? How often do we disrespect Jesus by repeatedly falling into sin? How often do we take advantage of what He accomplished on the cross?
A while back my mother told me a story about my 4 year old sister and her AWANA memory verses. Her group (cubbies, I think) were practicing their memory verse, Romans 5:8.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
So my sister said it along with the group, except she remained silent for the phrase “While we were still sinners.” Now she didn’t say it because she doesn’t yet understand that she is a sinner. I think that we are more like her than we’d like to admit. We see that verse, process it as, “I’m forgiven now because I’m saved but that will be a good verse to share with someone in the future.”
Sometimes I feel like we forget that we still are sinners. Even after starting a relationship with Christ, we still fall into sin and it is a daily struggle that we need to always look for Him to help us. He can give us the strength to resist temptation and He alone is the one that is able to forgive us of our sins.
I believe that it is important to try to be sinless, even though it is impossible and even though Christ will forgive us when we do sin. If we continue sinning because we know why can fall back into Christ’s forgiveness, we are disrespecting Him and we are disrespecting the gift that He has freely given to us.
I don’t think we need prayer structures to pray to God. I know we can pray to Him and say whatever we want, however we want to. But I kind of like a structure when I pray as a launching point to get my heart and mind settled and focused on Him.
So I’ve heard of a few different types of ways to pray. One of them is to:
Praise
Repent
Ask
Yield
and the other one I’ve heard is to:
Adore (God)
Confess (your sins)
Thank (Him for anything/everything)
Supplication (ask for… whatever)
And I’ve done those before, but I always felt like those were man-made prayer structures. So I started saying The Lord’s Prayer daily, for about a week. And then I realized I was missing the point. When Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer, he didn’t say to “Pray this,” instead, he said to, “Pray like this.”
So I broke down The Lord’s Prayer and this is the prayer structure that I derived from it, which turned out to have more life application than prayer application.
Submit to God’s will (Ask Him to help you to do His will)
Live righteously – don’t profane God’s name. (We are his followers and are therefore his representatives on earth.)
Constantly depend on Him (He can and will provide for you. If you depend on Him daily for your needs, He will provide. Ask Him for provision in your life.)
Forgive others (Remember that whenever someone has done you wrong, that you have done worse to God.)
Ask for forgiveness (Know that only He has the power to forgive you.)
Ask Him for strength to resist temptation, to help you flee from it
Pray Genuinely
So it isn’t exactly a prayer structure, but it does give me some direction when I pray. When I pray like that, my prayers are typically like the one I typed out below.
“Father, help me to do your will. I pray that you will give me direction and that I will follow it. Help me to focus on you, daily, and to not worry. I ask that you would help me to remember that you are in control and that I do not need to worry. You have never let me down before, even when I had my doubts. Forgive me of [actually name your sins]. And help me to resist [name your temptations].”
I have some friends that know what buttons to push to bring out the worst in me. I’m sure we all have those friends.
They are only people I am with sometimes and they know what to do to make me say or do things I wish I hadn’t. Satan and his demons are working against us constantly. To name a few ways, by bombarding us with images from the media and tempting us with evil thoughts.
How much more do they know our buttons than the people around us? We need to constantly be on the watch to protect our minds and our hearts.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8
We can stay on guard by monitoring what we take in from music, movies, television and books. We can protect our hearts by staying in God’s word daily and by memorizing scripture.
“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10
As Christian’s we aren’t called to judge and condemn, we are called to love. To be the hands and feet of Jesus.
It isn’t our job to save people, that is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, we are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ clearly.
If we don’t (at the very least) do that, then we are essentially condemning people to hell.
People will not want to listen to us or take us seriously, if they can’t see something different about us. We need to live our lives daily in a way that reflects our faith in Jesus Christ and that only He can give us peace in this world that is so restless.
I know nothing, so I’m not even going to pretend to; So this post is just a summary of part of my journal from this past week.
I’ve caught myself worrying this week more than I’d honestly like to admit. So I’ve been going back to my two of my favorite verses, which just so happen to be about worrying. These are a couple of my vice verses which I cling to every single time I get caught up worrying about things that honestly do not matter in the grand scheme of things.
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:26
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34
I also ended up looking up the word “still” because I felt so lead and I ended up finding Psalm 46:10 which gave me a lot of comfort when I needed it.
“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.’” Psalm 46:10
All of Psalm 46 is good; it is about God being our fortress, which is always a comforting fact to keep close to our hearts.
I’ve also been singing, “Bless the LORD, O my soul” a lot recently. I haven’t really been able to get it out of my head, so I finally looked it up and I ended up going to Psalm 103. I’m just so undeserving of God’s love, but He is “merciful and gracious” [v. 8] and “does not deal with us according to our sins” [v. 10]. I’m just so grateful for his forgiveness.
I need to always remember that life is short and that life without God is meaningless. So while I’m here, I need to make the most of my time and not waste the resources God has blessed me with.