~You Prepare A Table~

When all is said and done, God is our strength and our hope in times of trouble. He is ever faithful in preparing a time of peace during our worst struggles, our worst trials in life.

Without Adversity

Without Adversity

We Can Never Discover

The Treasure Of Courage

The Value Of Tenacity

The Strength In Persistence

And The Satisfaction Of Hope

                              By Ernie Kasper

Lions Den

When I faced my stroke,

there were many times I couldn't speak,

express my thoughts,

move or understand

but I knew one thing,

I was facing a circumstance for which I could only simply be still and let God do what He does best, turn hungry circumstances of potential great loss into a victory for which only God can be glorified. That is truly what He has done for me :) Just trust Him and keep on praying, keep on living the gospel message and let God do the impossible.

Psalm 18:2
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.

Your Cares, His Strength

     I remember as a teenager how burdened I felt, how depressed I often was, I felt the world was too big and I was nothing in all of it. I was always the one last picked in every game at school, chuckled at when I ran, walked, talked, laughed etc. I was the misfit who always felt unfit for acceptance. Those days were trying, difficult and extremely lonely days of hurt and pain; often I was praying and asking God for the help and strength to go through another day of bullying, rejection and so forth. One night as I was praying I remember seeing this verse and it really hit home for me, I simply need to cast my anxiety and my worries to Him because He CARES for me. That was a powerful moment, it didn't say that all heartache and rejection would simply fade away. What was important; what was the paramount thing to understand was this: God Cares For You... 

The World tells you if you want God to listen to you, then you need to earn it!

Well here is the beauty in a relationship with God who dearly loves us and like a father only wishes to give good things; His grace is sufficient and His love for us is relentlessly perfect. God sent His son into the world to set us free from the debt we owed, the price we could not pay, our tresspasses, our sins. When Jesus died on that cross He died for you and me and when He resurrected He established a right standing with God. You were worth that cost, that profound sacrifice, that amazing grace that was undeserved and yet it was freely given. So remember this, you are loved and God desires us to trust in Him; no matter the storm, the trials, the persecution. It's not a road intended for the blessings of earthly things but rather the joy in God's purpose, to reach the lost with the saviour! God takes care of His children and He will take care of you...

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

                                                                                        Proverbs 3:5

Rejoice

This life is temporary and all it's trials are but a shadow when it comes to our eternity. God brings us peace in the most unlikely places, the most unbearable circumstances and it is in Him we have our hope, our joy and our strength.

Under A Thousand Tears

   Sometimes we bear the weight of our deepest fears in silence. We put on a brave face and all the while we cry on the inside, we break into pieces, thinking, pondering, wondering if anyone knows our pain and do they really care. The bible says this in Psalms

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
                              Psalm 34:17-19
     The comfort we receive is in this very thing, that God is ever attentive, He is ever prepared to easily overcome anything we are enduring. He promises that He will deliver us out of all our afflictions. The great joy we receive is in knowing that God stands by His word, even to the cross! His mercy is ever enduring, ever compassionate and full of love and joy. We have hope because God does exactly as He promises and has never failed, His record is 100 percent perfect and He knows exactly everything there is to know about you and how to make all things new in His perfect grace. So take hope in this very thing, you are loved and that love that is so profound that it causes us to soar above the impossible, to do the very things we thought would leave us in the dust of weakness. God delivers! God Heals! God Restores! God Renews!

 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
                               Isaiah 40:31

Never Stop

Never Stop Training!

You train your mind, you train your body and you train your expectations... Always reach further and farther, from one plateau to another!

Feed your mind and body the right food and practice, train hard
and go the distance never known...

Beyond The Pain

There I was, quivering, shaking uncontrollably...

     I felt a lightening bolt surge through my body and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground shaking. I just fought to walk just a few feet and it took everything in me to do it and then I found out seizures became another battle I would surely have to face on a regular basis. The daily tasks that so many people take for granted, I took for granted, now they were mountains of trials; journeys I never new that would test my determination. I felt often frustrated, taxed by new challenges that would face my life. 

     The stroke took everything from me except one thing, my determination, it simply couldn't find a way to remove that very thing that would lead me to where I am today!

Yesterday was a monumental moment, I ran a huge distance along a winding trail with so many ups and downs and there I was, persistent to the very end. I finished my goal and after 8 long years I came to this very point! VICTORY!!!

God always has a plan and when we feel like He isn't there, He is the very one who is sustaining us, challenging us, encouraging us softly. My roots have grown deeper than ever, my understanding of what really matters in life is far greater than before and my joy for life, thankfulness in the simple things makes me one happy guy!

Thankfulness is an art and its returns are endless...

Rise Above It

     What an awesome night of training!!!! For the first time I ran 7 km while skipping and I was able to perform for the last km a double skip every 5 minutes and then I did my regular routine of martial arts and acrobatics. Towards the end of my training a group of teenagers were cheering me on and screaming and shouting after I performed acrobatics. One teenager ran across the street and nervously came up to me and wanted to shake my hand. It was weird to see all of them filming me with their cell phones though.
     When I got home I couldn't help but remember when I couldn't speak, walk, understand language and more, I thought of all the people who turned away and stopped talking to me or people who would look down at me because my stroke often presented itself as a person of less intelligence or to say it kindly, they thought I was mentally challenged. I saw through their eyes the shallow judgement, the snobby refusal to even look at you because of your behaviour but in turn I also saw and met some of the sweetest people who wanted to find the deepest part of me, they wanted to know who I was despite what they saw. God does that but with far greater wisdom and he takes our lives when we trust in Him and He plants a new beginning with much more than we could ever conceive on our own strength.

#TeamJesus #suffering #courage The real character of anyone is truly seen when they're at their weakest, their worst of hours; watch them in the seasons of despair and if something shines in those darkest hours you know the truest of characters, the rawest of integrity, the grit and if they pray, praise, rejoice and trust in that season you have met a hero of faith. 
By Ernie Kasper



Silence has words

The joy on my face was evident but suddenly the words fell to the floor, once again the stroke has reminded me that I am weak and that words are precious. Words are too beautiful for spending them on hate, wasting them on pride, planting fields of discouragement. I reached into the depths of my heart and tried several times only to fail miserably with "blub blub blub blabbablub" Tears crawled down my face, my heart was weary, my soul was crying out for courage and my words were broken. All of a sudden a song came to my heart and it just showered me with such joy, such hope, such love! I began to sing the song out loud, the words quickly fell into place and everything was clear and precious. I raised my eyes to God and sang "How great is our God, how great is our God, sing with me" The words danced from my lips and that one place where the mind wasn't damaged, I could sing, I could sing with hope. As I lifted my trials to God I felt His peace and I knew that He was and is with me in my weakness and for that I praise Him. Greatness isn't about all the things you can do so easily, in fact it's all about what God can do in every failing moment, every circumstance that stands itself between you and Gods promises. Never give up hope in what God can do, it's never about your abilities but rather what God is willing to do in your inabilities, this way only God is given glory and the roots of your faith can only become more precious. You may be pressed from all sides but that will never silence the will of our saviour. God is able, He is able to do much more than we could ever imagine and for this we praise Him, even in the darkest corners of our trials. 

In The Tomb Of Your Weakest Hour

God is ever ready to hear our prayers, it isn't in the caverns of distance that whispers are heard but in the depths of Gods heart, His soul, that is the place where prayer is heard. To God it is nothing short of a symphony of faith, hope and love. The passion is in the waiting, knowing that whatever is done it is done at the epicenter of wisdom. God rolls the stone away from each and every circumstance, what He does with it is the Fathers will and that matters most. The sweet joy is knowing that whatever it is it will be covered by the hands of love, the same hands that where pinned to the cross, the same back that was marked because of our transgressions but praise God for the love that rose jesus from the grave. Whatever you are facing, remember this, God is never finished with you and even when you feel like your in the grave of sorrows last song, you are in Gods hands and He can always roll the stone away. By Ernie Kasper

Bullies and Me

The words come to the forefront of my mind "You're such a loser", "Nice face buddy, man you're ugly", "If I looked like you I would shoot myself" and so forth. It was a constant barrage of cruel words with hateful intentions.

     There I was in grade 9, my first year in a big unknown school and I didn't know a single soul. The crazy thing about it all is I was more uncomfortable because at recess people were smoking and some were even lighting up drugs. I hated drugs with a passion, my brother was and is hooked on them and I saw how it was destroying his life, his body, his mind and his character. I had a strong sense of right and wrong and maybe that's where it all started but I think it was even more than that. I looked awkward, spoke awkward and didn't look anyone in the eyes and that's the perfect recipe for being bullied.

     After just two weeks of school things suddenly became a living nightmare, people would just come up to me and say nasty things, sick things, things that don't even deserve to be repeated but I tried to ignore them. I put my best foot forward and kept smiling when I could and shaking off the heartache, the verbal daggers, the cruel intentions. I often prayed before going to school, during school and one thing it taught me was to never be anyone else but yourself.

     During that year and the next it became clearly evident that even switching schools wasn't going to solve my problem with bullies. The next school was even worse than the first one. Girls would come up to me and just laugh at me, while others pretended to like me and then begin laughing as others looked on, knowing all the while that it was just a cruel joke. Stories circulated about who I might be, what I might be, what I was in their minds and the stories got bigger and more cruel as time passed on. One morning in particular I was mocked and ridiculed during class by seven to eight students at one time and then the teacher joined in the festive banter and that was the day that my heart completely fell to pieces. Later that night I attempted suicide and failed miserably, thankfully! My parents saw the serious situation that had finally boiled to an uncontrollable frenzy of pain and decided to take me to South America on a trip. I believe that in some small way it was the best thing to do. They took me out of school and I lived life, I actually began to smile again, not all the time like I used to but the smile was working its way back in.

     To make a long story short, I fell into satanism, became an angry young man and by the time I was 17 I was seriously involved in martial arts for the purpose of never being bullied again. I took my situation and tried to resolve it my way, I was angry at God and at life but I had a radical turnaround and accepted christ back into my life and began witnessing to my partying friends and the change in my life shocked them. Suddenly I wasn't the angry guy looking for violence and hate, I was looking for truth, faith, hope and love. God took my broken life and made me bold for the gospel. I became someone that had enough courage through christ to forgive those who hurt me, who hated me, and even those who betrayed me. Jesus taught me to love others as myself and that in itself is a novel waiting to be written ;)

Where we are broken, God in His amazing glory, His wonderful love, can and will restore us. It isn't that God is cruel by ignoring our suffering when we pray for hope, change and deliverance but rather it is all about perfect timing. My life is a testimony of Gods unfailing love, His devoted arms of strength despite everything I've done, everything anyone has done to me. I am a child of the one true King and by jesus's strips I am made brand new. Bullying can never triumph over the grace of the cross, fear and hatred could not keep jesus in the grave and for that resurrection I am forever changed...