God Always Works

 Hey y'all! I hope everything is well. I am so happy I am back at blogging, hopefully I can keep up with it.

Our pastor spoke on these two verses a couple of Sundays ago and it was quite amazing all you can get out of them.

This is a letter, well this is just a little paragraph from the letter, from Paul to the church in Philippi.

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12-13

Verse 12 talks about how we need to work out what God has given us. It isn't saying we need to work for salvation, lets get that straight right away. God graciously gives us the gift of salvation through Jesus, we don't need to do anything to earn it. When someone gives you a birthday or Christmas gift it isn't because you earned it, it is because they love you. Anyways, moving on...
How do we "work out" our salvation? We have to live Christ filled lives that shine His glory. Sin kind of hinders us from doing that though. Humans are really weak. We can't do much on our own. That is why there is verse 13.

WE DON'T DO IT ON OUR OWN! God works through us! After salvation there is sanctification. Sanctification is God changing us to be more like Jesus. It doesn't happen in an instant, if it did Christians would be perfect and wouldn't need Jesus. No, we need Jesus because we are weak, sinful humans. We can't do it, but God can. God can make us love that unlovable person, God can make the right answer come out of your mouth in a disagreement, God can make us say no to something that we shouldn't do. If we go on our own will everything will be a mess. That is why we work out what God works in us. God doesn't do everything for you though. You can't just lay in bed and wait for God to do something. You need to get up and put effort in so He has something to work with.

He says to work it out with "fear and trembling". One day we will all bow down at the feet of Jesus. We will confess He is Lord. What are we to even have Him as King? We are NOTHING compared to Him. Thanks be to Him who died for our sin so that we can stand before Him spotless.

Finally, God takes pleasure in us doing good. God actually takes pleasure in us?! It is God's joy, happiness, delight, amusement when we are more like Jesus. That should make us strive to be more like Jesus when we know that it makes God smile.

Verse 12 can't be wihtout verse 13 and verse 13 can't be without verse 12.

I hope that was somewhat clear. As our old pastor always said, "Was that clear as mud?"

God bless y'all,
Rebekah

Nashville

 Say what she is still alive?! Yeah I am! I didn't purposely take a break, I just kind of forgot about it...

My summer was GREAT! It all started with a trip to Nashville with my grandma. My grandma started this thing when one of her grandchildren turn 16 they get a trip to any location of their choice. I know I could have gone to somewhere cool like Italy or Australia, but I chose Nashville for a reason. It was CMA Fest when we went. CMA Fest is a country music festival that just involves all the concerts you can imagine, and 80% of them are FREE!!! Two words every music lover hears, free concerts. I think we got to see about 40 different acts and I got to meet quite a few of them.

Our first stop though was New Orleans. My grandma and myself wanted to check out the place so we took a little road.

My favourite part of the whole New Orleans trip was the buildings. All of them were so beautiful!

Our first day in Nashville was quite crazy. We went to the CMT Award Show! It was my first award show so I was SO excited. But before any awards, there is a red carpet. We waited out in the sun and heat for 8 hours just to see these stars for like 1 minute. It may sound not fun, but I think it was so worth it. That is Old Dominion.

The awesome thing about getting to the red carpet early is that you get to be near the front. That is how far away I was from the one and only LUKE BRYAN! 

Maren Morris, Keith Urban, and Brett Eldredge kicked off the show with Keith's song Wasted Time

I got to meet our very own Albertan country singer Brett Kissel. He was my favourite people to meet because he talked to everyone like they were the only people there. I think our conversation was a good 8 minutes.

One of my favourite free shows was Eric Paslay's. He was just so good live and I just couldn't stop dancing and singing.

High Valley

On Sunday morning we saw David Crowder

I got to meet Maddie & Tae. Tae made my day by gushing over my nails. I never felt so cool as right then.

Sunday night was one of the best nights EVER! I got to go see the big show which involved Thomas Rhett, Brett Eldredge, Little Big Town, Keith Urban, and Luke Bryan. I walked into Nissan Stadium, which is where it was, and got all teary eyed because it was going to be a one of a kind night.

My awesome grandma sat outside with everyone's purses because you weren't aloud to bring your purse inside the stadium. She sat out there for 5 hours! She is too awesome!!!

So that my Nashville trip and just the beginning of my summer. I started writing this post with the intention of talking about my whole summer... oh well another time.

I hope y'all doing great and that you are all getting in the mood for Christmas!

God bless,

Rebekah