Camping

Hi Friends!
Could please pray for us. We are taking some students from SDSU camping tonight. We will be using this time to re-connect with each other and with God. Our goal for this time is to discuss the new school year and brain storm ways to meet new students. I can't express in words how grateful we are for your prayers and support!!!

Trust is a Good Thing

A blog by Ryan P Buss.

This last school semester was quite a ride for me personally, and for Valerie and I as a couple. Now that summer is in full swing I have had some time to reflect and see what it is that God is doing among Valerie and I. I would say that the biggest, most front and center thing that He is growing us in is our trust in Him. Trust. We trust and depend on a lot of things on a daily basis. In fact, you could say that we humans are very needy and dependent as a whole. I would invite you, for a moment, to think through all the things that you depend on and trust in every day.

Do it. C'mon, do it! 

Did you do it? How many things did you come up with? Probably less that you really are depending on because we are so prideful in our feelings of our own strength, intelligence, skills, or of other people telling you to do things. If I sound kind of mean, I am not trying to be. I just want us to stop for one moment and think about how we are REALLY dependent and needy people.

The question that Valerie and I have been asking ourselves a lot recently is not what we are depending on, but WHO are we depending on?  If we look around at our lives it can be pretty easy to despair or let fear in and enslave us all over again. So where do we look for provision when we feel as though we have nothing? Who do we turn to when our sin and guilt overwhelm our fragile hearts? Where do we look for truth about the world and who I am when all I see is confusion and darkness? Where do I find strength when I am helplessly weak?

...Jesus.

He MUST be the One to whom we look, all other places fail. I will fail. Valerie will fail. Family will fail. Friends will fail. Jesus will never fail. He who did not fail when, knowing the pain and anguish and rejection He would receive, He went to the cross. He went, willingly, obediently, humbly, lovingly to His death and resurrection three days later. That we might know Him and be reunited with His Father, the Creator and God of all the universe! Since He did not fail in this, He will not fail if I trust Him with my life. He will not fail if I trust Him with my marriage. He will not fail if I trust Him with our finances. He will not fail. Not ever.

That doesn't mean that He won't allow hardship or troubles or afflictions or persecutions to come our way. But it does mean that we have a living hope that He will guide us through them, sustain us in them, and remind of Himself because of them. We have a living hope that when we finish our time here on earth we will be with Him for eternity where there is not death, nor tears nor pain, and where we get to hear the sweet words of our Master "Well done,thou good and faithful servant."!

                           

                             O! to hear the Master say "well done" is the desire of my heart

                             To see His smile and to feel His arms embrace my weary soul.

                             I cry to You, faithful Jesus, when the waters surround me

                             For in You,and You alone, is all my trust and victory!

Who are you trusting in with your life? I hope it is Jesus.

Last Week

Can't believe it's my last week working with this guy. Excited for his next stage of life and especially his upcoming trip this summer to Japan. However, crazy sad I won't see him much around campus. He's become a pillar in our ministry and a pioneer in creating epic emails that students actually read. God has used him exponentially in the lives of students and even more so in Ryan and my life.

"Dear God,
Thank you so much for creating this man in your image. For allowing me to be his sister both physically and spiritually. Thank you for letting me work alongside him these last couple years as you molded him more and more into your image. I love him and will greatly miss working alongside him. However, help me to make the most of this last week with him. In Jesus name....Amen"

Rest

 

Rest...

Something I feel I'm constantly learning. 

This last week we experienced spring break, and it is always amazing to see God work during these times of seemingly inactivity. God has answered so many prayer requests this week, BIG requests, and I think it's to remind me that He doesn't "need a bull from my stall or goats from my pen." (Psalm 50) The world does not stop when I rest. Rest is good. Rest is needed and God works even when we rest. Sometimes I feel like He works even more when I rest because then I can get out of His way, sit back and watch His handiwork. I still struggle with the concept of rest, but my friend Kariann I think summed it up best, she described it as a time to renew. To renew my walk with God, with my husband and friends. To laugh, sleep, read and just be. As the the Psalmest reminds us: "Be still and know that I am God, I WILL be exalted among the nations. I WILL be exalted in the earth." (Ps 46) Nothing can stop God from being exalted. He will do it through me, or without me. But HE will do it! His command to me to rest reminds me of that, "Find rest Oh my soul in God alone, my hope comes from Him." (Ps 62) Rest is a very, very good thing.