From MI

Hey guys,

I'll continue as Ben reminded us with a post on how God has been working in my life. I had the privilege of seeing some of you at GYC this year which was a real blessing. A lot has happened, I can't believe it was just over two years since '08.

I've been going to school back here in Michigan for most of the time, now on my last semester in business. After the summer of '09 when I came back from doing a little work with Scott in Florida, me and three others started a campus ministry at Oakland University where I go. We started a little slow, but had a few students coming out to our studies, one of which is now part of our group.

DBF - has gone through some changes since ARISE moved to California. Many members either moved or have not come to church in a while. But a core remnant is still there. A couple newcomers from other churches also joined. Eddie Petreaca pastors both our church and Troy. We no longer meet at Freedom Assembly but another church we were blessed with in Sterling Heights. An evangelistic meeting will be held in the fall, which we haven't had since ARISE believe it or not.

A major blessing this last year was seeing my friend Dan I grew up with (some of you met him) get baptized. Thats after about two years of studying and praying for him. Its amazing to see a friend like that now ministering to others and getting involved in the church.

Even more than looking back, I'm excited about whats ahead. I'll be done with school soon and plan on being more involved with ministry. Pray for God's guidance in my life. Also right now I'm taking on 6 classes to finish while helping lead our campus ministry. But the promise of seeking God first and the rest being taken care of I already see being realized.

Love all of you and hope to see you soon wherever that will be,


Dmitri

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." - Jude 24,25

Fear, stress and learning the slow way

As my plane landed at Heathrow airport, and I looked out of the window at the foggy grey dawn, a feeling of dread filled my stomach. After two years of living and teaching in South East Asia, I was back in my home country, and I wasn't particularly excited. I was arriving in a place I'd never lived in before, I didn't know anyone, I didn't have a home to move into, I didn't have a job and only a little money, I was already experiencing waves of reverse culture shock and I had no idea what the immediate future would hold.

I thought back over the past two years, my mind grasping at the ways God had provided for me. It had been two years of richness, beauty, pain and growth, and although God had proved Himself again and again, from "big" things such as providing what I thought were impossible amounts of money so I could serve in the mission field, to "small" things such as simply getting me through hectic work days, somehow I didn't feel sure if He would do it again.

Whenever I'd read the story of the Israelites in the wilderness in the past, I'd always been amazed that they could have doubted and complained so quickly after witnessing so many miracles. Yet here I was doing the same thing! I wasn't so different after all. In fact, I grew quite depressed and stressed out. There was a point where I felt like my prayer life was nothing more than a list of complaints and worry, and I felt terrible for that. I began to pray less, wondering if God was getting tired of listening to me, although I knew with my head that He wasn't! My fears continued to fester inside.

Then one morning I opened my email to find a friend had shared with me something she'd read for devotions. As I read through the quotes, I felt as though God was speaking to me, not in the reproachful tone I'd half been expecting, but so lovingly that I began to tear up.

"'Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' Many who hear this invitation, while sighing for rest, yet press on the rugged path, hugging their burdens close to their heart. Jesus loves them, and longs to bear their burdens and themselves also in His strong arms. He would remove the fears and uncertainties that would rob them of peace and rest; but they must first come to Him, and tell Him the secret woes of their heart...

"He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us on all the rough pathways of life...Jesus, the Majesty of Heaven, proposes to elevate to companionship with Himself those who come to Him with their burdens, their weaknesses and their cares...

"Do just what He has told you to do, and be assured God will do all He has said He would do...Have you come to Him renouncing all your makeshifts, all your unbelief, all your self-righteousness? Come just as you are, weak, helpless and ready to die. What is the rest promised? It is the consciousness that God is true, that He never disappoints the one who comes to Him. His pardon is full and free, and His acceptance means rest to the soul, rest in His love."

(Our Father's Care p 98)

Crying into my pillow, I chose to put down the burdens I'd been hugging to my heart. God had not disappointed me in the past, and again I chose to trust that He would not disappoint me now, no matter what I was feeling. It felt incredible to be reassured in such a timely way of His love for me.

And God has been providing! I've found an apartment, and I've found a church family where I can be involved. I'm making some good friends locally to help me through the culture shock, who I can bless and be blessed by in turn. The job and saving money for college next year is still an issue (pray for me!), but I'm trusting God to look after my needs in that area too. It's a lesson I'm seriously slow in learning, but He is an incredibly patient Teacher!

What about you guys? Where are you now and what has God been teaching you? How can I pray for you?     

1 year since our graduation - ARISE 2008

Hello ARISE family,

how are you all doing? Can you believe it’s a year since we graduated? Amazing, time goes by so fast, and still our LORD hasn’t come yet! Let’s stay focused on the mission we have, for he has PROMISED to come back soon and we want to meet him in the clouds, right?

You know, the last months have been up and down in my spiritual life, somehow I couldn’t figure out how to fit everything in one day, bible studies, university, studying for exams, calling people, cleaning the house… I was tired when I got up and tired the whole day, couldn’t really concentrate on my devotions, repeated the same phrases while praying and started doubting if this whole “religion thing” was just an imagination and nothing real. Most of my university colleagues don’t believe in God, in creation, the Bible,… Especially the last week was really hard. We were on a snow camp in another state, skiing the whole day, presentations at night, studying for the exam tomorrow afterwards. Whenever we had the time to be in our room, our neighbor’s listened to music really loud and I didn’t have a silent minute that whole week. We came back yesterday (Sabbath) and I missed going to church, spending time with other believers. At night I was just sad and this morning I remembered our graduation, the whole ARISE session, all of you – my brothers and sisters, and I started crying cause I was so unsure what to do and what to believe. I started playing the piano and singing hymnals, opened the book at page 322 “Nothing between”

My eyes flipped over the text and I started crying again. The last months I’ve been trying so hard to live a “good life”, but failed. I realized again that although I didn’t mean to, I again made myself the boss of my life. I knelt down and started praying and asked Jesus to enter my heart and make me more like him. I asked him to be the one sitting on my throne, asked him to fill my heart with his spirit and to cast out everything that’s hindering.

Lying on the floor crying I heard a small voice telling me to open the Bible at Isaiah 43. I started reading the first verse and had to cry even more. What wonderful love is this, that he who created us, calls us by our names – we are HIS. With every verse I read I could see the fathers love for us and also, that I can trust his word. Chapter 44 is amazing, I tell you, God has humor, it answered my question if he really can be the only one and true God, or if I’m stubborn and thinking in a wrong direction… God says, how can people take the same wood and use it for warming themselves, making fire to bake bread and yet cut a god out of it and worship him!? How can we worship something we created? Jesus Christ is the true God because HE created us and this is why we worship him. And he did not only create us, he loves us and redeemed us. I tell you, I was astonished anew, God is great!

God lifted my burdens and gave me joy and peace in my heart this morning. He wants to live in ALL of us, never forget: There is power in the blood (hymnal294)

Remember David’s sermon: Keep getting up? This is what I was thinking of this morning.

Falling is a part of walking, and struggling a sign of life! Jesus promised in Psalm 145:14 that he is with us when we fall and that he is the one giving us strength to keep getting up! (read Steps to Christ, p.64!)

Brothers and sisters, I wanted to share my little experience with you cause I’m sure that some of you might feel the same. Let me tell you: He is faithful!

I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN, EITHER HERE ON EARTH OR UP IN HEAVEN! Please keep fighting the good fight, keep studying, keep praying, keep sharing and keep taking the time to be still and listen!

I love you all,

my prayers are with you

Lissi

Who is doing the work, you or Him?

"When men loose sight of Christ's example, and do not pattern after His manner of teaching, they become self-sufficient, and go forth to meet Satan with his own manner of weapons. The enemy knows well how to turn his weapons upon those who use them. Jesus spoke only words of pure truth and righteousness.

If ever a people needed to walk in humility before God, it is His church, His chosen ones in this generation. We all need to bewail the dulness of our intellectual faculties, the lack of appreciation of our privileges and opportunities. We have nothing whereof to boast. We grieve the Lord Jesus Christ by our harshness, by our unchristlike thrusts. We need to become complete in Him."

Gospel Workers 328

Please let it be Him.

Encouragement

If we would only do as the Lord desires us to, our hearts would become as sacred harps, every chord of which would sound forth praise and gratitude to the Redeemer sent by God to take away the sin of the world. With joy we would be able to say, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into the grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." {RH, October 1, 1908 par. 4}
When temptations assail you, as they surely will, when care and perplexity surround you, when, distressed and discouraged, you are almost ready to yield to despair, look, O look, to where with the eye of faith you last saw the light; and the darkness that encompasseth you will be dispelled by the bright shining of his glory. When sin struggles for the mastery in your soul, and burdens the conscience, when unbelief clouds the mind, go to the Saviour. His grace is sufficient to subdue sin. He will pardon us, making us joyful in God. {RH, October 1, 1908 par. 5}
Looking at self, we see only weakness, and we forget God's purpose for us. We forget that he placed on us so high a value that he gave Christ to die for us. O, after all that has been done for us, how can we disappoint Christ by failing to live the life that he has made it possible for us to live? Let us no longer talk of our inefficiency and lack of power. Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press forward in the heavenward way. Let us neglect no opportunity that, if improved, will make us more useful in God's service. Then like threads of gold, holiness will run through our lives, and the angels, beholding our consecration, will repeat the promise, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." All heaven rejoices when weak, faulty human beings give themselves to Jesus, to live his life.

We may claim sanctification...

The Scriptures teach us to seek for the sanctification to God of body, soul, and spirit. In this work we are to be laborers together with God. Much may be done to restore the moral image of God in man, to improve the physical, mental, and moral capabilities. Great changes can be made in the physical system by obeying the laws of God and bringing into the body nothing that defiles. And while we cannot claim perfection of the flesh, we may have Christian perfection of the soul. Through the sacrifice made in our behalf, sins may be perfectly forgiven. Our dependence is not in what man can do; it is in what God can do for man through Christ. When we surrender ourselves wholly to God, and fully believe, the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. The conscience can be freed from condemnation. Through faith in His blood, all may be made perfect in Christ Jesus. Thank God that we are not dealing with impossibilities.

We may claim sanctification! We may enjoy the favor of God!

We are not to be anxious about what Christ and God think of us, but about what God thinks of Christ, our Substitute. Ye are accepted in the Beloved. The Lord shows, to the repenting, believing one, that Christ accepts the surrender of the soul, to be molded and fashioned after His own likeness.

2SM 32.3 (emphasis added)

don't forget

hey guys, i hope you are all doing well. listen, it's been almost a year since we started ARISE, and i don't want you to forget the experience we had. about a month ago, i was in troy shopping at the mall with my family, and after we finished i visited the Somerset Apartments neighborhood and the Troy church. even though there was nobody there, i thought of all the memories of morning chapels, falling asleep in class (haha) and returning from outreach to share testimonies of how the Lord had tried our patience and taught us to let Him lead. there were times on outreach that irrefutably could only have been orchestrated by the Divine hand. each one of us had many of those experiences.

the reason i am writing this is because many of us will be starting school soon, or working, or doing some kind of full time ministry, and i don't want a single person to forget that God was definitely leading us. as a matter of fact, He'd still like to, but are you giving Him the time to tell you how to live? perhaps you're too busy, maybe even too busy doing ministry that you don't have enough time for your personal time with Christ in the morning, and you're getting worn out. so please, take a step back and review your life with God, and ask Him to FULLY come into your life without you getting in the way. fully SURRENDER, and be vulnerable to the Spirit of God so HE can show you the way you ought to live, and what you should do. "The safest place in the world is in the center of God's will." remember, "We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history."

Revelation 2:10- "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."

Revelation 22:12- “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work."

P.S. By the way, I saw Kayleen Burt and Josh Maloon a few days ago while I was visiting some friends in Berrien Springs. Kayleen's baby is doing well, and Josh is going to Palawan, Philippines as a missionary with AFM for at least a year. keep them in your prayers.