I hope that you are all doing awesome and I hope that reading through this encourages your hearts a little bit today.
So it's spring again, I can tell because my car is dirty as ever, but it's a good thing. I celebrate not having to let it warm up for 5 minutes in the morning.. my jeans are getting ruined from the puddles but again I celebrate that I'll be wearing shorts very soon! Today I want to take some time to fill you all in on the last month. I got home from Kansas City and since then, life has been a blur but it's been great! I'm going to quickly touch on what God's been teaching me recently, what I've been up to, and how you can be praying as we continue to move forward.
What God's been Teaching Me
Two verses have really been at the forefront of my journey over the last couple of months:
[27:1] The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
[2] When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
[3] Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
[4] One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.
(Psalm 27:1-4 ESV)
And [11] You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(Psalm 16:11 ESV)
Both of these verse talk about the fact that a relationship with Jesus Christ is something that is pleasurable, something that is not burdensome. I often pray that God would give me a heart like David had, that in the midst of struggles I would seek the face and presence of God rather than let myself succumb to the attack of my enemies.
One of the books that I've been reading that has really been speaking to me is 'Pleasures Evermore' by Sam Storms
(to order the book, click here) This book has been awesome and has really helped me to re-orient my thinking about who God is and His plan for my life. I have been learning that God has created us each to be in relationship with Him and, because of this, when we are enjoying that relationship and when that is most fruitful, we experience the best possible life we can: one that glorifies Jesus Christ with everything rather than ourselves. This really hit me over the last couple of weeks in the areas of sin. I've learned that sin is simply indulging in anything other than God that is promising to satisfy the deepest yearnings of my heart. The thing about it is, though, that sin is crippling, it simply does not satisfy. The other thing about sin is that, when we are living in lives of habitual sin, we become 'satisfied' with where we are at in our desire to know God. Keep with me here... we lose our desire to know Jesus through the scriptures, we begin to stop wanting to spend time with Him, we become stagnant in our personal growth and character development, and, worst of all, we lose our hunger to know Him (Ephesians 3:19 implies that knowing the love of God is the way to living in the fullness of God). Somewhere, we began to believe a lie that the longings of our heart (which I believe is ultimately to know God) can be satisfied by something apart from God, and sin becomes a punishment in itself because it keeps us from longing to know God more (Romans 1 says that God 'gave [us] over to our sinful desires,' meaning that the penalty for our sin is often the sin itself).
Back to those verses: what I've been learning is that the way to overcome sin is to overcome something greater. One of the teachers at International House of Prayer said that he was raised eating chopped steak and jello pudding as delicacies (they are really both terrible), but the first time He tasted a real filet minion and cheesecake, the chopped steak and jello pudding became that much less desirable. David knew something about God that I long to know in my heart: that 'at the right hand of God there is fullness of Joy and Pleasures evermore.' Because he knew this, he desired to know God and be with God more than anything else, and this completely re-oriented his thinking and he was the one man the Bible referred to as 'a man after God's own heart.' Once we have tasted of the pleasures and joy of God, Satan will dangle chopped steak and jello pudding in our faces, but we will know that the joy of the Lord and the knowledge of God is so much sweeter, so much more desirable, so much more healthy and fulfilling, and we will be able to say no to sin and yes to Christ. I know this sounds a little abstract, but I've seen the fruit of this in my own life... you want to know how to grow in the knowledge of God: LOVE the word of God, spend time with Jesus, talk about Him with your friends, pray that He would reveal Himself to you, spend time in quiet trusting that He is speaking to You, listen to and read stories about how he is at work, pray in groups of people, come to church EXPECTING to meet with Him and longing to passionately express Your devotion to Him... the list goes on an on. I think we complicate things like sin and temptation a lot, but really our only way out for real is to know that our God is so much more satisfying and desirable. Get this, I mean truly get this, and your life will change. Even the pursuit of knowing this has changed my life.
I pray Ephesians 1:17-19 over anyone reading this, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
Father You are so beautiful, reveal Yourself to anyone reading this now, strengthen them in the knowledge of You. May nothing other than You appear as sweet and satisfying. We bless You, Jesus. Amen
The last Month
So, other than learning what I wrote in those last couple of paragraphs the last month of my life has been quite intense. Life since Kansas city has been crazy (in some positive and some negative ways). HoPE tuesdays launched at the end of February and it has been amazingly well attended and quite awesome. I invite anyone who wants to know a bit about what I do at House of Prayer Edmonton and the vision for what I wrote above to come out on Tuesday nights from 7-9 in the Marketplace Chapel, West Edmonton Mall.
Other than HoPE Tuesdays, I have compiled a video for House of Prayer Edmonton on the prayer room, what it is, why we do it, how we do it. It is almost available to watch online, we just need to get permission from everyone involved and I will send everyone I know a link to watch it so that you can see a bit of the practical day-to-day stuff that I am doing.
Apart from HoPE, this has also been a busy couple of weeks because I am compiling a video for the Alberta Baptist Association on leadership development and the awesome tools that they are using to raise and develop young leaders. This video is a huge blessing because it came at a time of financial need and will hopefully be a springboard for more videos.
Coming Up
- In big news, TOMORROW my family is leaving for Mexico! We are going to visit one of my favorite families, the Barcelona's, who are missionaries in San Luis, Rio Colorado, Mexico with other families from McKernan. Typical for the Buyer family, we are driving and attaching a little holiday at the front, 24 hour drive to Vegas (don't worry supporters, I'm not going to Vegas for 'Vegas' ) with one day spent with my mom's awesome family, then a 6 hour drive to San Diego for 3 days of fun in the sun, golf, ocean, and various other things!
- Please pray for this trip as we will have a lot of children (mostly young boys) there. Pray that they would really truly experience and learn about Jesus while they are there (and the parents too), and that it would not just be a fun trip (which it will). Pray that we would make an impact in the Kingdom there, that we would be able to support the amazing work that God is doing through the Barcelonas.
- Another quite big thing that I have coming up is both involved with House of Prayer and simply a passion that I've had for quite some time: Unity Nights. I have such a heart to see people from different denominations and backgrounds worshipping together and I am working on a plan to begin to do city-wide unity events here in Edmonton. I will keep you posted as far as what they are, when they are, and how you can be involved... even if simply reading this is impacting you, email me and tell me so you can get in on it right away.
- Looking ahead we are still in a season if financial need so if you have been encouraged by this blog and would like to support me and what's going on with House of Prayer please email me and I will send you more information about how you can join the team.
- House of Prayer is going to be hosting a conference in June called Awaken. I would like to inform you of this so that you would be aware and begin to plan on coming. It is going to be phenomenal.
Thanks! In Him
Daunavan Buyer
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