Carrying the weary

Healing the Broken

Making me whole again

The name of Jesus is the same today, yesterday and forever… His name is Powerful, Righteous, Holy, The Prince of Peace, Lord of Lords…

He is known as the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the FirstBorn of Israel…

At the mention of his name, every power and principality whether in heaven or under must bow and tongues must confess the strength of His Name. This is the Name of the God we serve. “The Name that shakes the Universe”

Are you believing in God for anything today? Ask him and believe he has done it.  Because, His name carries your burden, heals your bones and restores your soul.

His name is All You Will Ever Need…

Mark 11:22-25:

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³ “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

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Love should radiate through you because love became one with you the moment you accepted him

Yes We have our differences, yes, we gossip about one another, yes, we fight against one another, but we also fight together, stand up for one another, and worship together. Yes, we are over 90 brothers and sisters who have different aspirations and dreams, but deep down inside, we have fallen in love with the same thing. We are drawn to the same cause and for this, we wont relent…

Seniors, you have become our role models and mentors. We will always look up to you, thank you for pouring your lives into us, and in essence this ministry. Thank you!

To the C.C people who are staying: We are not perfect, but together, we can achieve the illusion of perfection. Together, we can be transformed.

As for me: Flat out worship has stolen my heart, Campus Choir has become me. Has Campus Choir become you?

Live. Love. Be Loved.

Even your sorrow, your unhappiness, and the good times,

The times when you felt lonely and unloved,

The times when you feel great and on top of the world,

The times when you lose your faith and stumble,

The times when you are hungrily pursuing the Lord,

The times when you put on a real smile, and a fake smile the next day to prevent people from worrying about you,

The times when you are just trodding along life with the feeling on no purpose, and those times when you feel like you know exactly what direction you should be headed..

Always remember:

ALL things. Work. Together. For. Those. Whom. God. Loves.  (Thats you, in case you are unsure.. Yes you, God Loves you)

“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”  Victor Hugo

I was dejected,

Friends failed, Parents were too far away, family failed

I was lost, sober, bitter

I cried out for mercy

I cried for compassion

Touch the tip of my burning tongue

Quench this unwanted fire in me

Let me feel love

I cried out for mercy

My God heard and He answered

Even before you cried out for mercy, I heard, said He

Mercy has been granted

You just have to look all around you

Past the bitterness, hurt, and sorrow

Its right there, hidden beneath the stuff

Its all over you, all around you, all within you

Mercy now cries out for you

Redemption, Restoration, Love, Peace

Yes, They sing for You!

Mercy now cries out for YOU!

Erich Fromm once said, “Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.”

For some, this statement has been fulfilled, while for others like me, self-discovery is a continual process.

Why do we tend to try discovering ourselves in one direction, thereby straying away from the Lord’s path, even though we know it is not the right way? Why do we run away from God’s calling for us in life? Why do we place our hope in riches, wealth, social status and academic achievement?

We are human, we have been brought up in a culture that places its faith in the tangible things and refuses to acknowledge any thing that cannot be scientifically proven or quantified.

We have been raised in a culture that places its faith in science, and worldly accomplishments. A culture of security: financial, emotional, academic, and physical. We live in a culture that is ruled by the flesh.

Consider the caterpillar. It is a very ugly insect that spends most of its time devouring food. Despite the fact that it is ugly, it does not waste its time looking for ways to improve itself; rather it spends its time eating food.

It does this until it has reached its level of maturity, and then it undergoes metamorphosis and finally becomes a beautiful butterfly.

Many of us are unlike caterpillars: we spend most of our lives detecting our flaws, and insecurities. Some of us are people pleasers: we would do anything to fit in with our group of so-called “friends.”

Some of us spend most of our lives in competition: we do everything possible to be better or different from our brothers, sisters or parents. We want people to know us for who we are and not who our parents are.

A lot of us have come into the college life with emotional, financial and spiritual baggage and insecurities. We have come into the college atmosphere somewhat emptied of our high school friends, looking for ways to fit in and ways to become active.

On the other hand, some people came to this university because their friends were coming here, and so they do not want to be all alone in this new college lifestyle. We have left the high school district, and we are now in the college territory.

It is almost as if one’s world has been turned upside down when one enters the college scene.

One comes to college with somewhat of a void that needs to be filled, an aching that needs to be soothed, a longing that needs to be pacified. As a result, we run to places where we feel welcome, places we feel accepted, places we feel comfortable forging a new identity.

In the process of finding our identity, let us not lose the core values that we have been brought up with. Let us learn to stand up for our beliefs, and speak truth. Let us learn to find our identity in Christ.

Institutions will fail, friends will desert us, academic achievements cannot satisfy our yearnings, and social clubs cannot guide us in finding ourselves. Only Jesus can.

His word says that He knows the number of hairs on your head, He knows each of the over 70 sextillion stars by name.

Why put your faith, your hope and all of your energy into a social organization that is under His authority, or even things of this world, when you can put it in Jesus, the Lord of all and Master of the universe, the God of Wonders who is eternally holy?

Let us find our maturity in Christ; let us lose ourselves for Him.

According to Matthew 16:25, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

Let us find our identity and indeed our lives in Christ.

What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to love the Lord with all our heart, what does it mean to have faith in him?

These are questions that we, his children, have long struggled with. We wrestle with our identity; we try to define who God is and how we deserve his mercy. And by so doing, we fit God in our box: we try to fit him into our preconceived notions, we try to fit the message of the cross into what we feel makes sense!

The truth is NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE!! There is no sense with God. He does what He wants to do, his word says “As far as the heavens are from the earth, so are his ways from our ways”

We can’t fit True repentance into a box! We can’t fit Christianity into a box; we can’t follow a set of rules and standards and expect to be saved! That is Religion at work. Christianity is not a religion, it is a lifestyle.

This lifestyle is one that depends on TOTAL trust and confidence in God, and not in ourselves!! No matter how many times we repent, there will be times when we stumble into the same sin. But Fear Not! The message of the cross is not one of condemnation, rather it is one of grace, and the unfathomable love that our father has for us!

It is not the number of times that we repent from sin that makes us immune from it, it is not the heart we repent in that makes us immune to sin! Nothing makes us immune to sin! We are human, if we were immune from sin by following some written law, we would all be perfect! We live in a fallen world, and the only person that can set us free is Jesus!

The work he did on the cross is far too great to be understood! But I know one thing; Christ came to prove that his grace is ALL we need to go through this imperfect life. Christ came to show us that his Mercy is all that sustains us.

During the West Virginia tour, Pastor Jimmy shared a testimony about his son who was saved from an accident in which his car skid off the mountain and the only thing that saved his life were the trees on the side of the mountain. The Lord had begun preparing this miracle, years in advance. In the same way, I believe that, years in advance, the Lord had planned everyday of our lives.

The circumstances we are in are to mature us, and the sin we struggle with is supposed to be our encouragement that Christ’s redemptive power is still at work in us. It is our testimony and encouragement to others! Christ came to be the Light, he came to Love us, and he came to show us true love by what he did on the cross.

So what does it mean to be a Christian? It is simply to have zero confidence in yourself, and total trust that God put you through this situation for a reason. It’s not by power, nor by strength but by my spirit, says the Lord.  All we can do is stand in awe of his wisdom and mercy.

Your Brother and servant,

Akolade

Recently, Pastor Loran Livingstone spoke a very powerful and revelatory word that my spirit bore witness to. What he said could be summed up as thus, “Human beings can never earn the worthiness of God, we can never be perfect, we can never be holy, we can never measure up to His standards, but one thing we can do is Trust in His goodness”

I feel like this is a word for the season that our Campus Choir family is in. We can never measure up: No matter how much we fast, no matter how much we pray, no matter how much we seek, we can never be good enough for him. But He is always good enough for us. “He has mercy on those He chooses to have mercy on”

Do you follow my point? When we begin to trust in the power of the Cross and all it represents, when we begin to realize that it’s a relationship between us and God, when we begin to realize that He expects us to fail, when we begin to realize that we can never fathom his ways nor force his hand, only then would we begin to understand the concept of Christianity.

A good Christian prays “Not my will, Lord, but Your will be done!” Why? Because this prayer is borne out of a heart of love and trust in God. It basically says, “No matter how difficult or horrible life situations might be, no matter how much I may want to give up and quit, Lord Take control and Let my flesh submit to you.”

“Order my steps, Lord” He/She says “Let me understand that when I give it all to you, and submit my future, my ambitions, my Life, my family to you, You will take care of it better than I ever could.”

We should reach a point in our lives when we just want to fast, pray and seek the Lord’s face for days, weeks, and maybe even months, not because we need something from him, but rather as a sign of our love and worship for all He means to us.

Let Go and Let God.

Campus Choir, when we begin to realize that we should have ZERO confidence in ourselves, but rather we should have TOTAL confidence and trust in God, our relationships with one another would change. We would see that God uses the imperfections that we notice in ourselves and in others to show that He is God and everything he does has a purpose.

For it is only when we have confidence in ourselves that we set a standard for ourselves and others. Pride comes in, a sense of “I can never do this”, a feeling of spiritual superiority comes in, Selfishness comes in, and Religion comes in. I hear all the time: “I am a C.C member so I can’t make fun of the Holy things, or say or watch certain stuff” NO!!! Let our words, and lives, reflect the fact that: We love Abba Father so much that We refrain from watching certain material or saying certain stuff. We love and respect Jehovah so we’re going to serve him all our days and sacrifice the old things for the new that he is working in us. Place your confidence in him.

We would also realize that we should look at each other with Love and compassion because Christ loves us. No matter how bad a member of our family might have fallen, no matter how much gossip a C.C member might have spread about you, no matter how negatively you “feel” about a person, We MUST always regard one another with Love, and trust that the Lord placed you in such a situation to mature your spirit. We MUST see in others what Christ sees us as: His beautiful children.

God is not moved by our achievements, He is moved by our sacrifices that cost us something.

Even as we prepare for this weekend’s tour, Let us pray to God to help us trust in Him always, and also give us the grace to love one another with unbiased eyes.

Your brother and servant,

Akolade

I pray that you (those of you reading) have learned and grown to love our Creator, Abba Father, more this year.  Before closing this year with a final Campus Choir blog, I am going to leave you with beautiful quotes from members of this semesters 2009 Campus Choir.

With love, and a steadfast heart for more of The Father,
~ joanne “jojo” etienne

(3 Things… The peace, grace, and love of Abba Daddy)

. . . . . . . . . .

I have learned to be more obedient and receptive to His voice. So many times in the past I have heard Him speak, but this semester was a whole new learning process for me in having “ears to hear” what He has been saying to me.
     ~ Lindsey Dempster

I have learned so many things this semester with Campus Choir. But more than anything I have learned how to TRULY worship Him. And I can honestly say that when I auditioned for choir I had no idea what I was getting myself into! But, I’m loving every bit of it. I’m loving the close friendships I’ve made with these wonderful people, but more importantly I’m loving the spiritual growth that I’m experiencing. I also love our director, Pastor Jim, and Mrs. Johnna’s sincerity. It feels so good to know that we have people leading us who are completely sincere and are so in love with Jesus.
     ~ Brooke Mills

This semester has been so trying for all of us. Warfare was definitely true to what I thought it would be. Difficult and exhausting, there were times within this semester that I wondered whether or not the fight that we were putting up was effective at all, and then in perfect timing, the Lord would show us a victory; and for a moment, however brief it may have been, we got to see exactly what our fight was accomplishing. We were pushing back the enemy, whether it always felt like it or not. With intense fighting came rewarding victories, and I know that the Lord was on our side, even in the midst of warfare.

I have been so exhausted this semester – emotionally, spiritually, and physically.  I was able to push on, with the help of my brothers and sisters.  It was when I was at my weakest (when I felt I could go no further) that I would feel an arm wrap around my shoulders, just as bruised as mine were, to help me the rest of the way.  The Lord has been so good to us – absolutely, undoubtedly faithful.  My life would be nothing without Him. He took my mess, and made something beautiful.  And He does it every day.
     ~ Whitney Skeigh Wilson

Coming from a Baptist background, the intense worship of Campus Choir is a new experience for me. But I’ve come to realize through the Christ-like examples of older choir members that the intensity of our worship through song should be surpassed only by the intense worship of our lifestyles! Thanks for an incredible semester!
     ~ Michael Young

Being in Campus Choir this semester has taken my walk with God to the next level and I’ve learned that I’m never alone in anything. I’ve become part of a family, and I am grateful that God has called me into this ministry.  I’m so excited to see what else He has in store for us, but I will patiently wait on Him. This ministry has blessed me so much, and I can’t think of another way I would’ve wanted to start my college career.   
     ~ Brittany Wooden

Campus Choir: I have learned many things, however the most important thing that I have learned is to be still, and know that He is God.  Our God is not the God of emotional hype but of a sound and firm relationship of grace and love.  It’s the still moments that I have come to appreciate… The services where normally we are used to people flooding the Alters and screaming as loud as they can… the services like the jail are just as important to see the Lord working in the unseen. We need to not put God in a box.   
     ~ Kristen Hollowood

In just a few short days when you re-visit the Campus Choir Blog page,
you will find and enjoy the thoughts and quotes of those who have cherished their time in CC this semester.

You’ll read about what they’ve learned during this season, and what they will carry with them for a lifetime.

As for now….
Take a moment to pause… ponder… and pose yourself a question:

“What are my 3 Things?”