Monday, September 20, 2010

Take Off Your Shoes, Stay A While


My weekend was AWESOME! Saturday I was picked up by my Aunt Kaytie and was taken to her Aunt Peggy's house to answer questions about Jesus and the Bible. I was there for 4 hours! It was wonderful! Some of the questions they asked me were:

-Who made God?
-When God says "let us make man in our image" who else is He talking to?
-How good do I need to be to get to heaven?
-How will God judge my sin?
-What makes other people's prayers more important than mine?

and there were many more. It was a great time, I told them to read Romans and let me know if they ever have anymore questions. Aunt Kaytie contacted me again today because she has a lot more questions, so we are hanging again this Saturday.

After getting back I went to Whitworth with my friend Megan to find sources for our Old Testament paper. Then the fun began. A bunch of us Moody students and Jeremy, Hol, and Lauren got dressed up and went salsa dancing downtown. It was a lot of fun! Afterwards I went to the satellite diner with Jer, Hol, and Lauren. We talked life and church and ministry, great stuff. Met back up with my Moody friends at the bowling alley and bowled until 1 am. Im still no good at it! (the picture above is of us at the bowling alley)

Today I woke up and went to Faith Bible Church. It was a great experience and had really solid teaching and worship. After coming home and eating dinner we went and did cookies again today. I met a 45 year old man named Mike who lives in the sobriety house who invited us in and told us about his faith. He explained to us that he has always seen options in his life of following God or following his desires (playing basketball, smoking weed, having sex) and he always chose his desires. Now he would like to do the opposite. I hope God shows me how I can assist him.

2 things Mike said to me that stuck out.
1. Whatever you want to be, be it today.
2. There are 3 types of people in the world.
a) People in Egypt
b) People in the wilderness
c) People in the Promise Land
Which one are you?

My advice to you, If you are "c", realize where you are at, take off your shoes, and stay a while.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

A Crushing Weight

School went by really fast today which was great. Thursdays I just have Lifetime Fitness and Intro to Ministry and I'm done by 1030. It's great! Every week for Intro to Ministry we have a speaker from a local church come to talk about their church, their vision, and the service opportunities of their church.

Today while listening to the speaker I was struck with something. I could do the ministry that they were offering. The next speaker, the same thing. Its been like this every week. I came to realize that, by the grace of God, I am blessed with many talents for ministry. I began to wonder why God would give me this. Obviously, for His glory. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I will be held responsible for all of this. I am terrified.

Something to meditate on, am I using ALL of the tools God has given me for His glory?

Crap.

Today has been sweet. Going to work soon. I received an email from my Aunt with questions about Jesus so we are hanging on Saturday. God is just laying so much grace on me. Im stoked to see how that goes and I'm pumped for Saturday period. It looks very promising!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A Change of Pace

I haven't posted in quite a while. I figured I would change the pace of this blog as more of a "here's what has been going on lately in my life" kind of thing. I will post any deep thoughts and things God has been teaching me lately as well.

Where to start? Last weekend was great! I went to Riverview Bible Camp for the Moody Retreat. It was a great time to get to know people and hear how God has brought them to the northwest and what they feel like they are called to do with their life. I got the opportunity to share my testimony with a few people, which is always sweet because it reminds me of where God has brought me.

Pastor Matt Jensen (U District Pastor of Mars Hill Church) was the speaker at the retreat. He spoke about worship and living missionally and it was very convicting. During his worship talk I just felt convicted about my pessimism when it comes to looking at why other people are here at bible college and was just hit with a saying "It's Not About Me." This is something I need to keep remembering.

During the missional talk God told me "I have a special call for you" "You will be a church planter" and "Do cookies at two certain houses." I went up to thank Pastor Matt after his talk and told him what God said to me. He invited me to come to the Acts 29 bootcamp in Seattle in two weeks and he would take care of it. WHAT?! I am so blessed! I feel like the bat boy who just got asked to play in the world series! So humbling!

My housemates + Hannah went and did cookies to the two houses on sunday (baked cookies and took them to people's homes). Next door are three girls named Nevaeh, Nikell, and Unique. We also went to the other house down the street, which turned out to be a sober living house. 7 ex drug addicts or felons, living in a house to get their lives straight. We stayed and talked to Jersey (one of the guys) for two hours. God is moving in Spokane. I am pumped.