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Life is hard. God is good. - Stephen Weinhardt

August 20, 2024

“Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” 

Psalm 37:4


Being nearly 21 one years old now is mind blowing for me to think about. In one sense, it feels like my life has been so long and there are so many things that I’ve experienced. Yet on the flipside, if the Lord wills that I live an average lifespan, I’m only a quarter of the way into my life. So why does it sometimes feel like I’ve already gone through so much? Even when I look at the circumstances in my life, there is truly nothing for me to complain about. I grew up in a Christian family, in a first world country. I’ve had no significant illnesses, immediate family members passing. I’ve been blessed with so many things in my life there are too many to count. So why then did I still feel broken inside? Why did I experience this longing for somewhere I’ve never been? The truth is that I wasn’t created for this world. I was made with a desire that can never be satisfied with anything that can be found in this physical world alone. 


The deeper I understand the Gospel and what Christ’s sacrifice on the cross meant for me and my life, the more I realize that the only true satisfaction I can ever find in my life is in Jesus. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said that He is the Living Water. These past 8 months at Legacy have had their moments when I wrestled with God and the purpose with which he called me to serve Him. The countless nights that I’ve spent in prayer with God as I searched for answers. It seems like it’s only now that I finally am beginning to realize that sanctification is a painful process. As God molds and shapes each of our lives to be more like Christ’s, that is only done through the testing of our faith that produces steadfastness. (James 1:3)


But looking back at all the work that God has done for me, I see just how much higher His ways are. Our Father in heaven knows what we need. He knows that things are difficult. But He made a way for us to be in fellowship with Him through faith in His son Jesus and the work that He did for us at Calvary. He wants to give us the true desires of our hearts. The deepest desires that we were all equally created with. The ones only He can satisfy. All God asks in return is for us to delight in Him. 


What does delighting in God look like? 


“If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).


Jesus doesn’t make it complicated. He shows us just how simple it is to delight in God. All we need to do is follow his commandments. And what a comfort it is to know that through his Holy Spirit He provides us with the strength to follow his commandments! When we live lives according to the way that God designed us to live, we start to truly experience the blessings of abiding in Him. It’s the reason that the Psalmist writes the entirety of Psalm 119; they understood that God's Law is what gives us fulfillment in our lives. Jesus goes further and says that the entirety of the Law can be summed up in two commands. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbour as yourself. When we obey the Word of God, we begin to see just how good God is and how He’s always wanted the best for us from the beginning. It’s why He gave us a law in the first place. 


A concluding thought: this world is going to present countless false hopes, false gods that promise us satisfaction and fulfillment. A question that I need to ask myself daily is this: Am I satisfied in Christ alone?


As one of my favourite songs brings out in its chorus:


I rejoice in my Redeemer 

Greatest Treasure

Wellspring of my soul

I will trust in Him, no other

My soul is satisfied in Him alone.

In the Hallway - Linda Kovacs

August 20, 2024
Have you ever felt like standing in a hallway? Like you would need a direction, a signal, a word or just something or anything that would show you how to move on, what step to take next but nothing seems to happen? I believe that each and everyone of us knows that feeling. And it can get really challenging. Especially when we feel like our time is running out but you feel that God is still waiting and nothing is really changing. It could be a sickness, a difficult marriage, singleness, loss of a job, loss of a loved one, waiting for a child, or just simply a graduation. We have many examples in the Bible that show us similar stories or situations. How about Noah who was building the ark in the desert for approximately 75 years. How about our famous Abraham, how did he wait for his promised son? How about Joseph after his brothers sold him to Egypt or when he was imprisoned? How about Moses who spent 40 years in the desert before God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and then he had to wait another 40 years wandering through the desert towards the promised land? Or how about David whom Saul loved first but later became his enemy and chased him for about 4 years? There are so many more stories in the Bible about someone waiting on God, and not only for a few days but for weeks, months and years. How did these people spend those times of waiting? As we know, not all of them were able to wait faithfully. But we don’t want to raise our fingers to judge them. Rather, how do we deal with the times of waiting? With the times in the hallway where we seem to be alone, where every door seems to be closed and maybe we only glimpse a tiny window if we look up? I believe, that God is using those times for something good. He wants to see, how we react and behave in the hallway. If we get desperate, hopeless and depressed Or, if we look around us to see if there are other people in the hallway waiting just like us, who might need our encouragement, advice, a listening ear or simply a smile. How do we act in the hallways of our lives? A few days ago I had a conversation with someone about the “waiting in a hallway” and he said that sometimes it’s not easy to wait in the hallway. He sees it more as a desert. A plant challenged by drought learns to develop stronger roots. And that this is exactly the case in our spiritual life. Looking back, we see that God meant it well and that we were allowed to grow through our situation. Let us trust in God during the process, during the wait in the hallway and keep in mind that the hallway is just a season, not a destination, which God can and wants to use for our good, if we are willing to follow him and seek his will.

Surrender - Hanna Isakov

August 20, 2024
God has been teaching me so much during my stay here at Legacy, through the study of His Word. One of the most dominant lessons lately has been to surrender my ideas, hopes and dreams to Him. To surrender means to cease resistance and submit to an authority. To surrender, I must trust. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6  I serve the One with ultimate power and authority. Life is not “all gas no breaks” as lots of us young people seem to think sometimes. I have always said that I want whatever God wants for me but how will I know what that is? First, I must truly surrender my deepest hopes and dreams to Him in prayer and display my intent with my actions. I have begun to write my prayers down so that I can look back and praise God for the principles He's taught me and the wrongs He's convicted me of in my everyday habits and practices. Am I intentionally examining myself, my motives? How can I require His guidance while overlooking surrender to the things He has already given me in his word! I am called to be his steward here on earth. Verse 25 of Psalm 73 says: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.” I have been asking myself ever since the first weeks of this year, is this verse a reality in my life? Deep down, if I do not get what I am hoping for out of this life, will I still praise Him and be content in Him? Does He fulfill my deepest desires or am I reserving that for something else? Am I experiencing true intimacy with my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ? These are the challenges set before me and I can say, by the grace of God, I will strive to be obedient to the Holy Spirit no matter what my feelings may dictate. This life I have is a gift, I was not brought into this World to fulfill my desires but to shine the Light of the Gospel to those in darkness. Gods' way is best. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20

Worship - Simeon Nenadov

August 19, 2024
Worship is the very reason we exist. Worship is much more than singing, worship is presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, dying to sin and giving your life to God (Romans 12:1). Worship is living to glorify God. Worship is serving. Our worship is only made possible by God Himself. It takes a marvelous trinitarian action for us to be able to worship at all. We are saved for the purpose of worship. God displays this purpose in Exodus as Israel is saved from captivity in Egypt in order to worship the Lord (Exodus 3:12,18 ~ 5:1,3,8 ~ 7:16 ~ 8:1,20 ~ 9:1,13 ~10:3,7-11,24-27). Parallel to Israel being stuck in Egypt, we are by nature stuck in sin. We were captives, dead in our sin. As Romans 8:6-8 says, in our flesh we cannot please God. We had no hope or way of escape. Romans 6:17-19 says that we were “slaves to sin,” but by the trinitarian work of salvation we have become “slaves to righteousness.” Just like Israel was saved from Egypt so that they could serve and worship God, we are saved from being slaves to sin so that we can become servants and worshipers of our redeemer! God saves us for worship. Each part of the trinity plays a unique role in our salvation and in making worship possible. The father made the plan, and it was a well calculated and long prepared plan: Ephesians 1:3-6 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” The Son accomplished the plan given to Him by the Father: He became human, lived perfectly, died for our sins, and rose for our justification. Philippians 2:6-8 says, “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” And the Holy Spirit applies the finished work of the Son to believers: We are sealed and sanctified by His indwelling presence. 1 Corinthians 6:11 says “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” “Without the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we would be dead in our sin, unable to recognize God, much less worship Him” (Zac Hicks Doxology and Theology). Jesus not only died for our sins, but He gives us His perfect life. We cannot bring an acceptable offering to God; we cannot live anywhere close to His standard. We cannot even look upon His holiness, let alone give Him the worship He deserves. Christ provides us with the worship God requires of us. He was obedient in living a perfect life and worshiping the Lord perfectly. God sees Christ’s perfect worship as we continually worship imperfectly. Jesus Christ is the only Worship Leader. He worships for us. Similarly to how we pray, we worship the father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our great God is why we worship, how we worship, and who we worship. Apart from Him we are dead and we have no worship. He has graciously gifted us a pardon from sin, eternal life, and the ability to worship Him. Key Verse: Romans 12:1: "I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
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