New Things

God freed Alexandra from a spirit of fear.

God is telling me a bunch of what will happen with me and others at JBU, and in daily life before, during, and after that. I've just gotta keep in mind the fear of God thing, and be obedient.

For one thing, that book on the Holy Spirit that I used for small groups may be helping some guys out in a Bible study where we learn to work in our spiritual gifts together.

Oh, and I went shopping for dormroom stuff and clothes today. Suprise! My bed matches my eyes a lil' bit. Just sayin'

Huddle Group

The people in my huddle group gave up a lot of junk, thanks to God's work at YFN. We talked about it last night after service, and I'm terribly excited for them. They're reading their Bibles and everything, but even more exciting to me, they're being made fun of and criticized for what happened to them, and what they've given up. Some have given up rap music, and others different things, but their families are already seeing a difference. Most parents aren't fond of their experience of being drunk in the Spirit, so I told them to keep that on the down-low, and focus more on what God did to make them more like Him.

I also told them that I'll be leaving in a month. Such cruel news!

And I learned that it might be smarter to call God "The Lord" when I talk about Him, 'cause peoples' ideas of "Jesus" and "God" might be completely different (i.e. Jesus is friendly, God is distant and angry).

YFN 2009 & Those of Lil' Faith

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to look at yesterday's issue. There's a certain guy I know who happens to thrive in a pet peeve of mine. He tends to be on the side of arrogance and negativity. It's endurable when I'm not around him, but I spent much of yesterday with him. Negativity is something I deal with by slapping positive stuff on top of the other person's comments. With arrogant people, however, they try to outdo your comment. It only makes them look worse and they don't listen to correction. It irks me no end.
I choose my friends carefully.

To recap some of Paradigm's week of YFN...

Monday, Pastor Jaycee talked about the phases the demon-possessed guy in Mark 5 went through to be "crazy". It was really good and practical.

Tuesday, Pastors Adam and Banning both spoke for the morning sessions for the leaders' stuff. Pastor Banning, the leader of the whole Jesus Culture movement, spoke on "Pressure-Free Ministry", all about how to look at yourself and how to give your youth group the courage to go after God. One great quote from him in that was "You need to stop hurrying to the inner place of anointing and take time to die in the outer court." It was in reference to us being in a journey, a process, not just jumping into a place of crazy anointing.
That night, Pastor Banning spoke on how to get a passion for God, but what I learned the most was about how his view of worship was. I always viewed it as an exchange. I go crazy during worship and give it to Him, and He pours some love on me, and I send it right back at him. But Pastor Banning focused more on how you need to sit and just feel His love, and stop trying.

Wednesday, Pastor Adam McCain spoke on fearing God. He's not just your best friend, He is the Lord God Almighty, and it's the biggest privilege to worship Him and to have His love cover us. So good.

Thursday was quite a day. Banning switched what he was speaking on from prayer to holiness. One of the references he used was the verse in the beginning of Romans saying that Jesus' power came from His holiness. To be holy is to be set apart, and the only way to do that is to say one big "YES" to God and go all in, 100%. He was just explaining this and talking about a few miracles when he just says to the crowd "If you have scoliosis, please stand up and test to see if you still have it." All of a sudden people all over the room were shouting 'cause they'd been healed. Then Banning had people pray over whoever was standing, and people with dyslexia, injuries, arthritis, and all other kinds of stuff got healed. What I really loved about the way Pastor Banning carried it out was that he was simple, and he wasn't showy at all. He just let God do it all. He wanted to put it in our minds that we can do the same stuff he's doing if we just pursue holiness and chase after God. So good! Oh, and after all this, the junior high girls from my small group all got drunk in the Spirit. I'm so proud of them!

Throughout the week, I got to see like half of my Core siblings, which was so, SO very good. I miss them terribly.

After His Heart

I went to YFN on tuesday and heard Carey Robinson speak. The next day, at Paradigm, I heard him preach the same sermon. Somehow, the message finally got to me. "What do you want?" The immediate answer that came to mind was, "To follow God's will." But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if following God's will was my main goal, something is off. "To follow God's heart" came to mind as a more appropriate answer.

See, I get stuck in the workings of doing God's will so much that I don't make time to get to know Him. Lately, I've been feeling a lil' spiritually low on juice, and I wondered why, 'cause I know I've been reading my Word, so I should be in the clear. But then I realized that I've been munching on my Word, then poopin' it out without digesting it.

I need to go after the heart of God, to be personal and intimate with Him, rather than just doing His will.

The Impersonal God

I'm surrounded by such men and women of faith all the time that it's weird when I run into some more rational thinkers. My brothers were both at home today and we talked about some ideas in Christianity, most of which we seemed to be in a slight disagreement about. It seemed that in their opinion, God is a rather impersonal God who doesn't care about all the lil' things in life. Their example was of God just letting the world go, like winding a clock. And I imagined, for a moment, how crappy life would be if they were right.

I'm glad to live in a world where God loves to be an active participant of every facet of my life, where I can be His favorite one, and where no matter how big I can dream, He can and will bring about a bigger dream.

Children's Book

One of those things I've been putting off since sometime last year is the children's book I'm gonna write. I already wrote a rough draft, but I don't like it, and I wanna completely redo it. See, unlike my first draft, Dr. Seuss wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter. I don't wanna sound stupid when I write, so I'm gonna try to rewrite it more professionally

Oh, and I may have nothing to do this 4th of July. I have the option of going back to the lakehouse with relatives, but I don't wanna drive that much, or deal with the visible effects of a generational curse.

Us & Angels

Here's a brief catch-up. Servolution followed Kenya. It was a missions trip to Rockwall and God spoke to me ever so clearly and He actively guided my prayers, whether out loud or to myself. I've been working the firework stand since then too, to raise money for LA (my third and final missions trip of the summer).

So, I was thinking the other day about how angels appeared to so many people in the Old Testament, and even in the New one, so I asked God why they don't come so much anymore, at least in my experience.

I liked the answer I got. See, the angels came bearing a message. "Joshua, walk around Jericho", "Lions, shut yo mouth", "Shepherds, head over to Bethlehem 'cause your favorite baby is being birthed", "Saul/Paul, what the hole are you doing persecuting me?"

How do you or I get messages from God? Through prophecy, right? See, God is choosing to honor us by using us as His messengers. The messages that could be sent through shining heavenly beings with stylish wings are being sent through you and me. God doesn't have to use angels when His children are obedient to Him and His Words.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I did a version of my "Christianity on the Offense" sermon, except more as a testimonial for a Paradigm video we did last night. I'm hoping it'll be as good as the original idea God put in my head.