Practical Application

I was just standing there. Just standing, holding for dear life to the "DANGER: Do not dive or jump" sign which, according to the locals, is the marker for the best cliff-jumping spot in that area. "10, 9, 8..." I hear from below... But when the count reached zero, I still hadn't made a move. I know it won't kill me. I'm not even the first to do it. I've seen other people do it, and how glad they are that they did it... But still, to jump off the edge into that deep blue below... Butterflies bellydance in my tum-tum just thinking about it. The boat full of people below go silent for a moment, and I have time to pray. "God, do you want me to do this?". "Well DUH!" seems to be the immediate reply. This time, I begin the countdown, "10, 9, 8..." and at zero, butterflies fly through my belly, around my throat, then back down, and then I realize that I'm still on my way to that deep blue. This is taking so long! I'm still anticipating. Butterflies have begun dancing in my toes, but are immediately stamped down as they're pounded upwards by the water below. "Poor things," I think, until I realize that a similar fate awaits me at the end of the moment. I hit the water, and am fully immersed. No regrets on my end.



Here it is, practical application of holiness. It's time for one big "YES!!!" to God, with a million implied "no"s to all the stupid things the world throws in my face.

I told my dad what God told me to tell him while I was in LA (he needs to be teaching, 'cause he studies and watches Christian preachers and junk all the time, but he doesn't pour out). And a simple apology came out after an incident involving my new sunglasses going for a dive, which was a confirmation in the realm of the little things. This family is gonna make it after all.

I move into my dorm tomorrow. And one of my dad's stock deals is supposed to go through tomorrow too. I didn't invest, but maybe I can make a few bucks off of it, being the poor college student I am.

LA then Lakehouse

I got a Macbook Pro and I love it!

I went to LA last week for the first time in seven years. Everything seemed perfect. The weather, the beach, the city life... Then you start to notice the homeless there. It's funny, 'cause Jordan and I were talking about how we could spend a summer there just surfing and enjoying everything. The only problem would be food. Well, as it happens, that's exactly what the homeless people think before they go there, and then they become homeless and people give them food. But they love the streets because it is seemingly the "dream life". Drugs are easy to get on the streets, and demonic junk is seen as a pretty incurable mental illness, and people don't wanna give up the drugs or the demons because they are comforted by them, and they don't have to do anything with the life they have.

God saw the desire of my heart and arranged it so that I got to meet the man The Soloist was based on, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers. It was incredible to meet such a talented man, and be ministering on the very streets where stories like his can be found. Dennis, Donald, Mark,

I got to see my sister step out a lot and move in the gift of discernment (sniffing demons), I prophesied a bit, and our group bonded. I learned more about being a revivalist or "anabaptist" as a 100-year-old book we found called it, by discussing it a lot with Rachel Chapman.

On the last day of the LA trip, the Spirit came upon me and we had street rappin' ministry on Hollywood Blvd, next to the Chinese Theatre and all that. So I danced in the Spirit, and the crowd doubled. I'll have the video for you in a few days. It's on the desktop, and I'll set it up when I move into my dorm. Anyway, that night a man, Ariel, got saved, and I met a homeless man who had both literally and figuratively been stabbed in the back by his wife. He offered me beer, but I respectfully declined.

Now, I'm on my family vacation. Anthony prophesied over me that what I did really would create change in my family, that it isn't a hopeless endeavor. My oldest brother is here, but, like my dad, he's hesitant to step down from his lil' pedestal and be open.

I've got a sibling who doesn't seem to have been baptized in the Spirit, or so they tell me. Talk about boring!

The Soloist

By the way, this is a picture of the guy the movie is based on; he still plays in the streets sometimes.

Thank God for friends like Jordan Wood who can tell me when crap is an attack from the enemy so I don't keep getting mad at people.

Last night, I watched The Soloist. It's about a musically gifted man with a mental disorder living on the streets of LA. What I realized part of the way through the film is that the life of this man that the movie was trying to portray is the life of many of the people I'm about to go serve on the LA missions trip. Skid Row was mentioned, among other streets and areas. There is even a chance that I could run into the men portrayed in the film. It's all real. It's not distant, 'cause it's where I'm going tomorrow.

Spertly Drrr?

I don't remember going through a spiritually dry season since, well, before The Core. Or if I did have a "season", it lasted a week or two tops. I suppose it's not that dry, considering that God does talk to me. It's just that He talks to me specifically about the future, and it feels like we haven't really just talked about life. Anyway, it might just be the whole transition from high school to college thing, but still, I'm gonna need Him working with me when we go to LA, and I don't wanna just get there and say, "Will You finally talk to me now that this guy needs a Word from You?"

Then again, I feel like He wants to talk to me now. And what better book to hear from Him than Romans?