wil brillinger

What's the purpose of it all?

2006-05-14T13:39:00.000-10:00

"He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." Deut 8:3

I once heard that we really shouldn't be too concerned with future things (as far as figuring stuff out), when our concern ought to just be faithful in what the Lord has called us into where we're at. Basically, what was the last thing God actually told me to do, and do that, knowing when it's time to move along, I'll know and I'll have the resources to do so. When I think 'big picture' of my future life, I get overwhelmed. But I need to step back and realize that Of course I would be overwhelmed since I don't have all the components to live it out, but one day I will. Faithfulness today will open the opportunity of tomorrow.

Motorcycles and such...

2006-05-09T19:19:00.000-10:00

My apologies for the delay in getting some communication out to you about what’s been going on in my life. Plenty has happened in the last few months since you heard from me last, maybe it will come out in time…

Two weeks ago I was in an accident on my motorcycle. A friend and I were returning to Paia at about 10:30pm after hanging out with friends. I was going about 30-35mph when three deer ran across the road right in front of me! I hit one; breaking his back, and causing me to lay the bike down and slide a ways on some asphalt (not the best way to finish of a great night!). An ambulance ride, x-rays, and some scrubbing of wounds (the most intense pain I’ve ever been in, in my life!) and I was sent home with nothing broken, just missing skin and tissue. Fortunately my friend Melika, who was my passenger, faired better than I with some scrapes to her toes and elbow.

I’m doing pretty well. My right foot is pretty messed up and will take the longest to heal, so be praying for that. Also pray that things with my medical insurance pan out all right. My motorcycle is in decent shape; it still runs fine, which is the important part. But I’m going to have to buy a new headlight, speedometer and foot pegs, which will set me back several hundred dollars. But I’m thankful to be alive, it could have been much worse.

This accident proved to facilitate some great insight for me. As I was lying on the ground, when all had come to a stop and I saw the holes in my body, my first response was: all right Jesus, you’ve got to help me. After that my body started shaking, a natural response to shock, but you know, mentally/consciously/spiritually I was great. It was revealed to me that my physical body is just shell. People will talk about “the Joy of the Lord”, and it’s often seemed as something that I’ve needed to conjure up in times of distress. But I can honestly say in this time there was no conjuring involved, it was just there. I felt almost saturated by this peace and joy. "> http://wil.warning.ca/gallery/blog-photos/aaa

Thoughts from I Peter: part 1

2005-10-01T23:10:00.000-10:00

I Peter 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Soberness brings an alertness for preparation. Our minds will encounter action. As the truth of who Jesus is is revealed to us, we see that grace - his grace- is inseparable from who he is. We cannot have Christ without grace. Conversely we cannot have grace without Christ. It is fascinating to think that we can live this life with Christ but still not see grace in its effect. It’s almost like grace is the shadow of Christ, always with him, though we may not always see it or recognize it. But it is there, the shadow is there. In fact, we are to find our rest in the shadow of Christ. It is in Christ’s grace that we find rest. We wander around trying to do all this stuff... stuff... what stuff?!... stuff for what?!... What’s the purpose? There is no purpose, it is a result of a lack of understanding. A lack of seeing the Word applied in our lives. Peace and rest are in Christ’s grace simply because we finally realize that we can stop. We can stop trying to be the person we’re not. We can stop trying to be the person we think we ought to be. We can stop trying to be the person that anybody else wants us to be. We can be free to be who we are. We can be freely aware that the Lord will change us. We can curl up at his feet in the coolness of the grass as our shepherd keeps us protected in the shadow of his wing. We rest in our freedom.

Long Await

2005-09-28T19:34:00.000-10:00

I knew this would be the problem. I'd get all stoked on having a forum to communicate all these ideas and the journey I'm on, but before I could see it coming I'm sapped of the time to actually post them. So please bear with me as I continue this sporadic behaviour.

Since my last post I've sent two teams from our DTS to Borneo and Bangladesh, I was in Brazil for a YWAM University of the Nations International conference (1500 people from 80 nations present), a brief visit to the Amazon, back to Maui... and I'm off for SE Asia on Tuesday. I'll be heading over there to visit these teams. There are a lot of logistical things to come together, so please be in prayer with me.

I'll post some new photos on my web page soon to follow this journey. God bless.

Extrapolations of Psalms

2005-07-08T11:51:00.000-10:00

Ps 34:1; Ps 39:7, 12a

I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Despite the challenges and frustrations of walking in this world I will use my voice to glorify him. For it is he alone who is worth the breath that I breathe since he alone is the purpose of my being. My joy is because of him, my anxiety caused by separation.

And now, LORD, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. I wait to escape the I. It is because of my hope in me that I have lost hope. The instability of I has corrupted my understanding of you. I abandon hope in myself, for you are my Saviour who alone can save me in all – including myself.

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears. I am desperate apart from you. I long for the fulfillment of your touch. I long for that part of me to be filled by you, though I don’t know what that would be. Dry my waterless, tear-filled eyes.

Seasons of Life

2005-06-16T16:19:00.000-10:00

So, I'm leading this DTS right now in Maui - which is interesting. It's interesting because (as any of you that know me well enough would know) I have never had any inclinations of working with the Discipleship Training School. What causes this situation to be even more interesting is the simple fact that I am very much enjoying myself! God knows what he's up to. How many times does he lead us into something that we at one point in our lives committed to never doing! Oh what availability and submission can bring and what narrow vision can exclude. But obviously the picture is always much bigger than we could ever envision ourselves. I am confident that the Lord is using this season in my life to continue shaping my character closer to his, and I think this is what is most exciting about this portion of my journey.

The Lord constantly calls us to step out with simple obedience. What is the thing in your life he's asking you to be obedient in?

Thailand Tsunami

2005-06-08T22:57:00.000-10:00

Some of you may know that I was in Bangkok on December 26^th when a tsunami ripped through the costal regions of S.E. Asia. I had the privilege of taking my team down to bring some relief work a few days later. I have just recently posted some photos from Phang Nga and Phuket (Thailand) on my webpage if you would like to see those: http://wil.warning.ca/gallery/

You will also find the update that I had emailed upon my return to Bangkok on Jan 5^th in .pdf form here: http://wil.warning.ca/journal.html if you would like to read part of my account.

Thank you all for your continued prayers, I will fill you in on life as DTS leader (yes, the school started last Saturday) when I get a little more time.

God bless...

Still learning something new every day...

2005-05-31T22:30:00.000-10:00

This 'blog-land' has created a new opportunity of learning in my life. For example, I just learned how to insert photos into my blog:

Of course this photo is a year and a half old, but still new to most of you. The interesting thing about my new learning curve is that there will be much more to share with you in the near future... intrigued?

Personal Retreat: Day 2

2005-05-29T22:49:00.000-10:00

Again today I started with Lam. 3, which lead into some significant silent time. It's really amazing how waiting silently before God can open the door to taking our thoughts captive and submitting them to his Lordship. Kit was saying just last week that this is one sign of maturing in Christ, the increased capability of capturing our thoughts under God.

Later I continued on in my reading through Mark. Midway through ch. 28 Peter comments on how the disciples had left everything to follow Christ. Jesus responds to Peter by saying that when you leave family and houses for his sake (and that of the gospel's) how you will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age. As I have journeyed now with YWAM for the past two+ years I can certainly attest to this. It is absolutely incredible the extent of my families and houses around this globe. God has blessed me so richly with these various relationships, and it is such an honour.

I also started reading a great book called "Revolution Within" by Dwight Edwards. This book was given to me by my friend John McAuley last summer, but it's taken several months to get into - and I will say the timing has been incredible. Edwards is here talking about how our chief purpose as humans is to bring glory to God. That our life under the New Covenant is about Christ working though us, not us trying to appease God - which we could never do anyways. God does not exist for us; we exist for him. Too often in our materialistic/humanistic world we become wooed by some gospel that says Christ's purpose is for the betterment of our lives. Though this may be the case in some situations, it is not the chief aim of Christ. His goal is God's glory manifested through us in this broken world. How amazing would it be to have our Christian communities actually consumed with glorifying God! What kind of impact would a community like this actually have on this world?!

God is trustworthy, but do our lives reflect our trust in him? When the bills come around, when trials arise in the family, when unexpected challenges arise... does our response resemble trust in the almighty creator of the universe that sustains all things?

Are our careers an attempt to bring glory to our lives, or are we using our God-given gifts to bring him glory?

Here's one quote from the book:
"Our mind was given to discover and ponder God's character and truth, but we've used it instead to produce and embrace poisonous philosophies and self-centered rationalizations. Our intellect has become "darkened," to use the New Testament word. We don't think as God thinks. Our thoughts have become so clouded by innate sinfulness that we're incapable of God-honoring rationality." (p.45)

Oswald Chambers once said that the root of sin is unbelief in the goodness of God (Edwards, pg. 49). And John Calvin stated "The human heart has so many recesses for vanity, so many lurking places for falsehood, is so shrouded by fraud and hypocrisy, that it often deceives itself." (Edwards, pg. 52).

So let us wait silently before the Lord and allow him full reign to bring glory to him through the gifts he has placed within each one of us.

Personal Retreat: Day 1

2005-05-29T00:13:00.000-10:00

Day one of my personal retreat weekend is drawing to a close. It has been a very restful day. Much sleep, plenty of letting my mind roam, and most imporatantly a lot of the Word.

My theme for the day, and likely for this whole time, has come from Lamentations 3. The one verse in particular that stands out: "The LORD is my portion, says my soul". Portion, my share, my all, my sustenance, my need. So often I live my life as if this view is not actually an intrinsic part of my existence. I seem to get my feeding (and feed) from other aspects of life, that just simply pale in comparison. Last night Kit was teaching on road-blocks and detours we face in life. One way that the Lord uses these in our lives is to change our direction and align our intentions. I can see so clearly how I have allowed things, thoughts, in my life that have prevented my intentionality for God. The Lord is calling me to find my portion in him - and him alone. I need to seek him, and ultimately REST in him - to wait patiently for him. This is the life he is calling me to, to rest and wait. I've seen hints of this before (Ps. 37), but it seems as though it's going to deeper depths now.

Finances as a face of frustration is one that was smashed again today as I was reading from the Gospel of Mark. Here the disciples had witnessed two mass feedings from next to no food and shortly later they start discussing how they had no food. Jesus responds to them, as if they were grumbling, and challenges them by saying "do you not remember?" (Mk 8:18). Oh, how I forget. The Lord's faithfulness has been unfailing, and yet I get rocked by a postage problem. Who is this God I really believe in anyway, and what am I concerned about? Forgetting is too much of a problem with us humans. We need to spend more time remembering and much less time worrying - at least that's what God seems to think.

Later I came across Mark 8 where Jesus says to us that if we want to come after him we must deny ourselves (vs. 34). This brings me back to the Lam. 3 passage about him being my portion. Not feeding myself, or feeding on what I want to feed on, but denying those things for his sake, adn for his insight; trusting in his deliverance and provision. Allowing him to save my life and to give me life.

hmmm...

2005-05-29T00:04:00.000-10:00

I often have thoughts, ideas or little instances on my journey of life that some may find interesting to read from time to time. So I've decided to embark on the 'blogging' world. I'm not too sure how it will go yet, but I may as well try and see...