My Perfect Belayer

"If I should say, "My foot has slipped," Your loving-kindness, O Lord, will hold me up. When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul." - Psalm 94:18-19


"Rescue is the constant pattern of God's activity." - Francis Frangipane



     There is a quote that really resonates with my heart these days, and it goes, "I desire with almost sickening intensity something never to be described." The weeks past feel like months and minutes. Months because I look back at what God has done in my heart and in my life and I cannot understand how He does so much forging in such little time, minutes because so much is going on that I hardly have time to take my heart and mind off Christ and what He is doing or showing me and I am just having too much fun living the life He designed for me!

     I am overwhelmed with God's knowledge, blessings, Truth, Way, and Life He has set before us. It is so crazy! I am learning so much about prayer and God's heart that I cant contain my love for Him. I am experiencing His power and blessing that is driving me further into a relationship with Him and I cannot hold back a smile and my heart flutters whilst my soul dances with Him! "I consider," states Paul in Romans 8:18, "that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us." But I propose that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with our present joys. The peace that resides on a soul abiding in Christ has limitless joy in the relationship with Christ. My Lover, Jesus Christ, has been answering my prayers faster than I imagined He would. I pray for romance, the flowers bloom and the Spirit of God brushes my cheek in the wind. I pray for a hunger for His word, verse after verse blow the flames of passion and love of my heart into a raging fire. I pray He would transform me into and grow me into the man He intended me to be, band aids are removed for healing and broken pieces are picked up and reassembled in my heart. I pray He will supply me and guide me, He first whispers to me that I step forward faithfully and He will bring success, and He proves Himself faithful. I can do nothing but respond and give my love and life back to Him.

     This past Sunday to Tuesday, my team and I took a short trip to Arkansas. We arrived there at night and slept over in a church. We then woke up in the morning and went to be guests at a company called Northstar. They are a business as missions (BAM) and God is blessing their dedication and generosity. They give %51 percent of their profits to missions and missionary families. They have a very awesome building in Feyetteville, Arkansas and a thriving company. We showed up there Monday morning and led worship for the employees, led a teaching, and a prayer time (they do this every Monday morning!). We then sat in their business meeting and saw how they functioned then the founder gave us a power-point presentation of the business, BAM's, his background, and Perspectives. It is such an awesome ministry and God is doing huge things through them and other BAM's they shared with us.

     We then went to a campground called the Devils Den and went cave exploring. It was SO AWESOME! It sometimes took 45 minutes to go through the caves tunnels. They were filled with bats and nooks. We had to trust our headlamps and the instruction of the person in front of us in our train of people. The cave at most points got so narrow that you could not walk through without shuffling sideways. There were parts where you are suspended above a 10 foot drop with your toes on a tiny rock lip or rock edge called a "knifes edge." The exits of the cave were so small that we had to crawl through as if it were a doggy door! I fell in love with Arkansas that day. It was such a great experience.

     The guys also went rock climbing on Tuesday Morning. It was good bonding time with all the men in the group and a challenge in trust, fear, and dependence on uncontrollable factors. We climbed two 5.10 routes and a 5.7 which are intermediate climbs. We also caught a few snakes, learned to tie a few knots, and shared some good laughs. The picture on the left was a route called "the sticky spots." I was able, with the coaching and suggested maneuvers by my belayer, to make it up and over the lip on the top as the other guys cheered me on. It was a great accomplishment!

     This week we started learning about church history, reading "Spiritual Leadership" by C. H. Spurgeon, memorizing verses, and preparing for our Kansas City outreach. A month from now we head out and up to Minnesota to go to the Minnesota boundary waters for 5 days and then we will go to Minneapolis and work with the Reign headquarters serving them and experiencing behind the scenes work of the ministry.

 Prayers needed:

• That God teaches me Christ like leadership that I may encourage and influence others to Himself
• That I learn to serve others out of love and not obligation to love
• That I learn freedom from fear through the love of Christ
• That my support continues to come in through miraculous ways that can edify others and glorify God
• That God continues to amaze me and draw me into Himself so that my heart can become like His heart
• That God starts to prepare the hearts of the small group of guys that I will be leading this summer
• That Christ can be a protector and a revealer of Truth to me thwarting Satan and his schemes.

     "And we Know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

     "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His." 2 Chronicles 16:9

                                      For His glory,
                                                   Stephen Reynolds

Faithful Friend

       God is so faithful! I was reading through John and came across the verses where Jesus says, "If you ask Me anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14:14) "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." (John 15:7) "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you." (John 16:23) I dont really understand these verses in their depths but I am so grateful that God is the perfect giver and willing to answer our prayers! I recently started praying that God would break me to remake me into the man I was intended to be and He is answering that prayer. I have gone through so much this last week. It is as if God is remodeling my heart and I feel like my mind and heart is in a blender, yet I know that God is the man pushing the buttons making me into the most delicious drink.

      I am more often than not at a loss for words for what God is doing in my heart yet I don't know if Jesus would want me to share the intimate details of the love story and romancing that He is bringing me through. On my last Royal Servants summer mission trip to Costa Rica (that's a mouthful) one of the boys I was leading shared with me the quote "when Jesus is all you have, you realize He is all you need." It is not a common thing to watch someone willingly throw aside everything to get to know Christ more... again I mean EVERYTHING: family, money, jobs, skills, intelligence, friends, abilities, lies, routines, comforts and the list goes on and on. But I realize that is what it takes. I pray that God continues to teach me how to open my grip from around the things I hold onto so dearly and when I won't do it willingly I pray that He will pry them open! Here at Kairos we explain this feat as the "Holy two by four" which is often needed to knock some sense into us.

     Lately, Christ has been trying to teach me about my pride and insecurities; that I needn't live to affirm myself in the eyes of man. This is such a struggle for me to understand. From what I see, peoples love is conditional. There are those who will love me "unconditionally" but because of who I am. I received a "heavy revy" (revelation) from a quote in an AA book that states, "People treat you the way you train them to treat you." My actions and attitudes determine peoples responses to me. So with all that said, I have yet to figure out who I am at the core of my being, and how to live that out without being insecure, living to get certain responses from people, or manipulating people to feed my pride; or essentially to live naked, clothed in the Truth of God. But oftentimes living with this garment, or rather, without them, scares people, confuses people, convicts people.. generally it brings negative emotions and people withdraw or it is so in my own mind. It has been a very challenging wrestling match in my mind and my emotions are haywire. This is just one of the many many things God is bringing me through. It is also challenging because I understand how immature my faith and my emotional and mental age is and a lot of this comes with time if I embrace the lesson and learn from it and others'.

     But God is faithful! And even if I have it all wrong, I trust He will bring me into the truth in time, the right time. We just recently finished the book "The Master Plan Of Evangelism" by Robert E. Coleman that explains the method of discipleship Jesus uses to evangelize. It was an awesome book and I recommend it to all. My Kairos team and I are also planning 5 days of ministry in Kansas. This can look like anything we would like it to look like. The staff just explained a few things and said here you go! It is up to us to plan whatever it is we have a passion for. I will let you more know details as they come along. This Sunday my team and I are also leaving to go to Arkansas to work with a business that gives 50% of everything to missions and also to go camping for two nights. I am excited to see what a business serving God in huge ways like this looks like. I enjoy an opportunity to see many different styles of everything from missions, to churches, to people, states, businesses, countries, Gods activity...

    



I like to update you with pictures but this is the only new picture I have taken in the past week. This is a little rabbit we found getting attacked by a dog. We rescued it, named it Lilly, and returned it to its home.







PRAYER UPDATES!!!

• I need to raise $2,600 by April 15th and I would love some prayers that God brings in this money
• Pray that God continues to show up in my life and work in amazing ways growing me and teaching me
• Pray against satan and his deception and dissension he causes in my heart and in my group
• That my team has safe travels to and from Arkansas, that our eyes are open to Gods work in this time, and that we grow more unified as a team body and in Christ
• That I am open to see Gods romantic love for me in my life
• That my roommate Keegan and I continue to grow closer

Thank you all so much, I love you all so deeply, and I am also praying for you!

                                                   It is all for Him,
                                                          Stephen Reynolds