My Spiritual Suitcase

And with the blink of an eye, we bid farewell to February... where is the time going? Anyways, this month i've been committing to praying for North Korea. As I look back, I can say that I haven't been as persistent in prayer with this specific request, but i've been very thankful to see how my prayer life has been changing - being able to pray for others consistently rather than just once and seeing it as a checklist or something. Praise God for sanctification! North Korea is #1 on the World Watch List for the 13th year in a row, meaning that it has been deemed the nation with the most persecution towards Christians and the faith. I'm sure we all have our own share of knowledge on the nation, but ruled by Kim Jong-Un, there has pretty much been no tolerance for the christian faith in any way. "Anyone discovered engaging in unauthorized religious activity is subject to arrest, arbitrary detention, disappearance, torture and/or execution" (Open Doors, 2015).

While discussing the whole idea of doing lent together as a committee, we were warned of potential outcomes of attempting to fast from certain things. The first was that as we gave something up, regardless of what it would be, it would simply just be replaced with something else just as bad. For example, give up Facebook, spend more time on Instagram; give up sweets, indulge in savoury foods.  The second was that even if we did successfully get through the forty-ish days of fasting, the minute it would end, overindulgence and binging on whatever we had given up would begin. "Lent is a period to empty ourselves of lesser things so that we may be filled with greater things of the gospel." - Geoff Ashley We're a week and a half into lent, and since the 10th i've been doing my best on giving up YouTube. It's been quite hard, when you're sent things to watch, when entertainment news that catches your eye is linked to a youtube video, and especially when the G

Easter comes round the corner early this year (March 27th), and i'm glad that this year I get to catch the Lent Season like how I did with the Advent Season in December. I often find myself in the midst of it when I realize it's actually happening. The purpose of lent is to prepare oneself for the death and resurrection of Christ, by giving something up over 40 days and re-directing that time back to God.  "It is a period to empty ourselves of lesser things so that we may be filled with greater things of the gospel" - Geoff Ashley So this time around, i've decided to switch things up a bit. First, i've challenged the committee (and have invited the fellowship) to do it together - hopefully it'll be a way to continue unifying our team as we walk through the season (and these final months) together. Second, each week will be different, so there will be something given up, and something to replace it with - all independent of each other, so it's not