Today Lord I stand

                What a blessing it is to be able to celebrate Christmas with my family. To all be together under one roof laughing, loving, and sharing good times together. Yesterday was Maria’s first Christmas since she has been home from China and it is always a fun time to have 3 little girls so excited about the gifts under the tree. The coolest thing I heard from my sister Laura was when she made a song. Her song wasn’t something that rhymed or even sounded great but it was something that had true meaning to it. She sang about how we get gifts on Christmas but how the real gift is Jesus and how she loved Him with all of her heart. This took me back for a second to see my little 7 year old sister worshipping God in her own way and I found it so beautiful. After opening all the gifts and eating a wonderfully prepared meal by my parents we sat and listened to Andrew (my oldest brother) read the Christmas story. It was such a wonderful day with the family and for celebrating the true meaning of CHRISTmas which is our Lord Jesus Christ.

                All week I have been preparing for today’s worship service and felt that God was bringing one song into my head every single day. That song, which is Glory in the Highest, has such beautiful/ wonderful lyrics. So I added the song and trusted that God would have complete control of it and help all the things to fall together. As I woke up this morning refreshed and ready to lead in worship I felt such a peace in my heart and all around me, a love and comfort that I have never experienced before of God just holding me up on stage and using me to lead His congregation is worship. As I looked out all I saw was the glory and majesty of Christ which made me smile and rejoice the whole time. As I walked off the stage and Bro. Phil came to preach I had a feeling that is hard to explain on where God wanted me. I have known for almost 2 years now that he has been calling me into ministry but I had no firm answer where he wanted me to be, to do, to go. I have been pursuing Worship Ministry because thats where I feel God has gifted me and was waiting on God to direct me to where he wanted me.This morning I received a confirmation from the Lord and I know for sure that God has called me to be a Worship Leader and to lead His church in worship. If He tells me to move I shall. I will follow you God!  Where you tell me to go I will go, where you tell me to stand I will stand, and whoever you tell me to love I will love Lord. Be praying for me as I continue to follow God’s direction and live my life for His glory until the end of my days.

                This is day 39 of no soft drinks, and day 20 of fasting for 180 weekend. I love the question that the devotional asked yesterday.  Are you growing or are you stuck because you are blind and nearsighted? As Christians I feel we should always be growing and never be satisfied with where we are. How many times though do we actually do a check-up on ourselves to see how we are doing, or having someone keeping us accountable? Do we challenge ourselves in the word or just challenge others? We are going to suffer as Christians and it says so in the Bible. It won’t be an easy path but the word promises that it is a path worth taking. I love what it says in 1 Peter 3:17-18; “For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.” He died for us so why don’t we serve Him and follow His commands for our life. I can honestly say that without God it would be impossible for me to make it through fasting. He is greatly helping me get through it each and every day.

                Finally something that I know is true to the word is that prayer works and if we call on the name of the Lord He will answer us in His timing. I wanted to end this post with saying that I am praying for everyone who reads this post. I may not know who you are but God does and that He will speak to you in an incredible way this week.

                 Here is a song I wrote that I feel God put on my heart to share.

Verse:

I serve the Lord, I serve the King of glory now,

In this time of desperation Lord I’ll praise you in this nation.

I speak the truth, all I truly need is you.

Chorus:

Today Lord we stand, here in your hand

Help our eyes to see all your making us to be,

God we sing your our everything. 

Praise HIM!

          What an incredible week it has been. I can truly say that we serve a beautiful God. I love him so much.

            I have felt led this past month to give to different organizations. Now this may seem easy but when there isn’t the funding its kind of hard. But I still gave anyways knowing that God was going to provide all my needs. Now remember me saying the funding wasn’t there well God provided the funding that I needed as well as a bit more. How incredible! Our God supplies all of our needs and He is so beautiful.

            I am still waiting for an acceptance letter from The University Of Mobile, which I know if God wants me there He will be opening that door. The other night I had a dream that I received an acceptance letter. Now I am not saying I believe that dreams tell what is in store but I am saying that I think and know that God gives us signs in many different ways which is really cool. So I will just continue to wait on that letter with my head held high.

            Last week I was given the opportunity to hangout with the senior adult ministry and what a treat it was. I really enjoy so much hearing their incredible stories on what God has been teaching them as well as all that God has done in their lifetime. I also was able to go caroling with the Adult Choir, how incredible! It was awesome to get to just share the joy of Christ and Christmas to those who are unable to get out. It was such a great surprise for them as well as us. 

            Christmas is such an incredible time of year. A time of giving….. GIVING….. Speaking of Giving God gave the greatest gift of all, His son. What an incredible thing our Savior gave His son on the cross for our sins. So why don’t we thank Him this Christmas and worship our King with all of our heart and soul and adore Him.

            Finally… Day 33 of no soft drinks and Day 14 of fasting for 180 weekend. Like I said before fasting so far has been an incredible journey and I have really enjoyed all of the extra time with the Lord. This Sunday I have been asked to lead Sunday morning worship. I am so excited and can’t wait to see what God has in store. Praise Him from whom all blessings flow. 

Stay Amazed

                Christmas break is here! What an incredible week it has been for many reasons. Sunday was the Christmas program here at RidgeCrest. After months of preparing, praying, and learning music it was here. It is incredible to see how God just makes everything work out and how nothing is in our control. Just seeing the ballet dancers worship and our choir sing with all they had to the Lord and be a part of it was incredible. Giving our everything in a way of showing God how amazing He truly is. Words truly can’t describe how awesome it was. I know for me it was just refreshing to be able to be with my family of believers and worship. TRUE WORSHIP!

                As we tore the stage down yesterday and put everything back in its place where it was all back to normal I looked out at all the seats in the sanctuary and just cried tears of joy. Tears flowing from my face just amazed on how wonderful our God truly is. The one that never ever ceases to amaze Abba Father our creator. The one that never fails or leaves me. I just want to pour out my love for Him and just dance and sing in utter love for you Lord.

                I am still waiting to hear something from The University of Mobile. I normally would be worried and stressed about it but God has just given me a peace that he is in control and that He has a great plan for me.

                I really enjoy being able to get to know family’s that I haven’t talked to before because everyone has a unique story and from each of those stories I learn something new. I am so blessed to be able to get to know all kinds of new students as well.

                Finally….. Day 27 of no soft drinks and Day 8 fasting for 180 weekend. Fasting is more than just giving up something but spending that time with the Lord. I am enjoying spending much more time in the word and in prayer with my savior. 

December 7th

This marks day 20 of no soft drinks as well as day 2 of fasting from Chick-Fil-A, Television, and Sweets for 40 days leading up to 180 weekend.  I am so excited to be spending more time in the word and getting back in shape which is going to be really cool. This 40 day journey may be difficult at times but I know I can do it with Christ.

                So this past weekend was very busy but I enjoyed every minute of it. On Friday I was able to go to see Christ Tomlin, Christy Nockles,  & Louie Giglio with a few friends. It was one of those things that I have always wanted to be able to do because not only are they incredible worship leaders but they are incredible speakers as well. It was a good night of praise and worship, a night I won’t forget. Saturday was the Madison parade which I have not been in one parade since I have lived in Mississippi so it was a great experience. Sunday the Student Choir went caroling at Baptist Hospital. What an incredible afternoon it was to be able to go and pray for the sick, encourage, and show the love of Christ.

                This Sunday is the Christmas program at RidgeCrest which we have been praying for months about. I know God is going to do some awesome things and I can’t wait to see all that he does through the worship ministry.

             
                I am so thankful for all the encouragement I have gotten this week. It amazes me how when I am having an awful day and feel let down God just send someone to help just encourage and lift me up. He is such a great master and I love Him with all my heart.

               

                

Thanksgiving Break

                Thanksgiving  day makes me so thankful for all the family I have and what God has blessed me with. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It has been so long since I have been able to actually eat with my entire family back home, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After dinner I went to my Aunts house where we all watched the Target Christmas ad’s. It was great to laugh for an hour at the funny commercials that were probably not as funny as I was portraying them to be.

So on Black Friday I was able to go shopping with my cousin Josh and his wife Tracy.  We went shopping for the community center here in Grayson, Kentucky. We embarked on our journey with $500 and a goal. We left with gifts for over 30 kids. It was such a great experience to be able to go and help some others. I would love to be able to give the gifts to the kids and share with them about Jesus Christ. How cool would that be? Following our journey we went to Shoney’s for the breakfast buffet, all I can say is man I miss living here haha. The rest of our Friday consisted of going to Ashland which is where we used to live. We went shopping for awhile there which was a blast. Finally I got to see my next door neighbor from when I was a kid and wow how she has changed. It makes me think how fast time just goes by. I miss the old days but at the same time it is so exciting all that God has taught me over the years.   

Today marks day 11 of no soft drinks. I have no desire at all to drink them and I am very glad that I have given them up. Water is rather good if I do say so myself.

So I have been without my phone all week here because I don’t have coverage.  I am really glad that I haven’t had my cell phone because phones are such a distraction and make it very hard to just spend some quiet time alone. My goal for this week was to just spend a week in God’s word deep in it away from the distractions back home. Every night I pulled out my Bible, journal, and an open mind willing to just do something out of the norm. As I read I just spent time praying that God would use the scripture to teach me something new and help me learn in a way that would help exalt Him. As I was able to sit in a little twin size bed I just sang praises to God. Singing scripture is something that someone mentioned to me and it is a great way to just connect with the word and what is going on. I really enjoyed this time and plan to continue doing this every night.

Tomorrow we are headed home in our one vehicle for 12 hours. This will end our Thanksgiving break in Kentucky. I had a great time here but I am ready to be back. What a great Thanksgiving break!

Thanksgiving Eve

This year my whole family is in Kentucky to have Thanksgiving with our whole family. I am very excited to be here and get to be with my whole family which I haven't been able to do in awhile. After a long car ride we made it and I am so thankful to be here. I can honestly say I love having a big family because there is never a boring moment. Thanks to God for giving me such an incredible family.

               

I finished my application for The University Of Mobile. This is where I truly feel God is directing me and its not easy to get up and leave, but if that is His plan then I shall follow. All I am waiting for is to get an acceptance letter saying Aaron Collier you are accepted. This is probably one of the most nerve wrecking things that just makes me worry even though I shouldn’t. Now funding…. $23,000 dollars a year to attend school is a lot of money. I am unable to afford that, so I need to completely trust that since this is where God is calling me, he will provide all the funding I need. So this week I have been asking the Lord to take my worry and anxiety away and just fully trust and know that God is and will always be in control. I am praying that whatever God has planned for my life and I will follow and obey. I praise Him and for all he has done for me.

                

Two weeks ago I was given the opportunity to go to a worship conference called “Glorious” Seminars4Worship. This was the conference I have been to since God has called me into ministry, so you can just imagine how excited I truly was. As Greg and I traveled to Mobile I can truly say that I was so excited for what God had in store for the time that we were there. The worship leaders were Paul Baloche, Kathryn Scott, and Brian Doerksen. These three Worship leaders had the most sincere hearts and love for Jesus Christ and it was evident in everything they did and said. Now it is pretty incredible to be in a room with over 100 other worship leaders all worshipping our creator as one body. You could just feel the Holy Spirit surrounding the room and all of Cottage Hill Baptist Church. I learned how to be an effective worship leader and how to lead a worship team that is in love with Jesus Christ. I was so thankful to be able to go and be discipled more on the direction God is taking me.

It is official day 8 of no soft drinks. I can honestly say I am sleeping much better than I have in over a year. I am not getting headaches anymore from caffeine withdraws which is good and I can tell that my body is starting to get the hang of things.

I want to end this blog with a scripture I read today. John 6:35  “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

November 17th

           I woke up this morning with an awful headache. This is one of the symptoms of day 3 of water only. I have decided to cut out soft drinks and drinks with a high sugar level all together and stick with water. This is going to be a pretty rough journey but I am in for the challenge.

           

           School is almost finished one more day until Thanksgiving Break begins and I can’t even begin to tell you how much it is needed and how excited I am about it.  I also just think I am ready to transfer schools even though I still have one semester left I will make the best of it. The cool part about being at Holmes is how God has opened doors and showed me possibilities that I cant even begin to describe.

            

          God is so good! Yes it may have not been the best day but the smallest things just seem to brighten my day. For instance someone walked up to me today and said “You Rock”! Now I didn’t want to be like I know because to be honest the only one that rocks is our Lord Jesus Christ. Truth be told after that person said that it made me smile. See the little things can make a big difference in someones day. 

As I sit here in my office and listen to lyrics like O Holy God I stay amazed, You are so much more than words could ever say. O Holy God I pour out my praise, on the one who never ceases to amaze me. Now what they are saying in the chorus of this song is “Hey God your beautiful, I love you, thank you. They are proclaiming Jesus and thanking Him even more than the words they are able to say. How many times a day do we sit down and say “Hey God I stay amazed in how awesome you are?” I mean really think about it… The God that made the universe! He loves us and cared enough to send His son to die for us. So why aren’t we giving him hours of our day praising His name and thanking him for all he has done? I know that I serve an indescribable God that’s beauty is radiant. I love him so.

            

           It is so relaxing so just sit and dwell in God’s word. This day has been a blessing and I am excited for what God has in store for tomorrow. 

Preface

So I have decided to start a journey. What is the journey you are starting Aaron? I have decided to start writing a blog at least once a week if not more on what God is teaching me and just talking about life. As I know God has called me into ministry it will be cool to be able to follow along with this journey and one day be able to look back and see all that He has taught me. Are you willing to take the journey with me? May God be praised in and through this. Amen!