Epic Crew Breakthrough

Wow! So God never ceases to amaze me with His awesomeness. He always seems to show up in ways that you least expect it. As the semester winds down, it's crazy just to sit back and reflect on the craziness that God has orchestrated. Speaking of orchestra - totally random, but I'm going to say it anyway - so I've been listening to a classical music lately especially when I'm studying. It might seem kind of nerdy, but I find it to be very relaxing. I remember I would use to listen to the classical music station on the radio when I was doing my calculus homework in high school. Haha it was legit! I'm determined to play Mozart music to my children one day so that they will grow up to be geniuses haha. Anyway, as I listen to classical music especially orchestras, I am blown away by the complexity of the music. It blows my mind away how one person could come up with musical masterpieces so complex. As I listen to the music, I am reminded how God is so much bigger and more complex than anything any human can come up with. Crazy!

Anyhoo, tonight was a pretty crazy night. I really feel like we stepped into some kind of breakthrough with our Epic crew tonight. Lydia, one of our Epic friends invited us over to her house to have dinner with her mother and Rick and Fran Love. Rick and Fran Love were the former International directors of Frontiers, a missions group focused on reaching the Muslim community. In other words, they were a big deal! It was such an awesome experience to hear their hearts on missions and their insight into the things God is doing around the world. They have such amazing hearts, and they were so gracious in taking time out of their busy schedules to have dinner with a group of college kids.

The things we talked about were amazing. One of the things that really got me excited was the brief conversation I was able to have with Rick about the Philippines. Rick has been all over the world and lived in Indonesia for many years. He has a special heart for reaching the Muslim community. And he talked some about Filipinos working in the Middle East. As soon as he mentioned this, i got super excited because one of the things God put on my heart over the summer was the role that Filipinos could possibly play in reaching Muslims and bringing the gospel back to Jerusalem. One of the things I have been thinking about doing is looking at the impact of the Filipino Diaspora in places such as the Middle East, and my heart has been to see God use Filipinos in these places to spread the gospel. As I told him about my interest in the Philippines, he began to tell me about how these things were happening with Filipinos in the Middle East! Filipinos were being raised up to reach the Muslim community in places like Saudi Arabia! I always thought I was crazy in thinking about those things because I had no idea how legitimate it was. But it was such a crazy confirmation to know that things like this are already happening.

The Loves also talked about racial reconciliation and the beauty of seeing different cultures and ethnicities worshipping God in their own unique ways. It was so cool to hear him talk about the cool ways different ethnicities worship God and the importance of recognizing and working toward this diversity especially in the Western church. Here in the West, we have become so set on worshipping and understanding God in a certain way. Even in our mission work, we tend to relay our Western conceptions of church onto other people without taking the time to understand the beauty and complexity of their own cultures. We also got to talk about some deep-rooted issues dealing with evangelism. We often go into evangelism with wrong motivations, and we fail to recognize just what evangelism means. He reminded us that the root of the word evangelism means "good news." We often lose sight of the fact that the heart of evangelism is "good news."

But I think one of the things that I was really convicted of tonight was the idea of loving others. I mean we hear all the time. We have to love our neighbors as ourselves. Loving other people is such an important concept. And yet, too often, we love people with an agenda. We love people so that they will follow Jesus. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this, but the Loves brought up the difficulties they faced in reaching the Muslim community. They were confronted by the fact that they would only love people if they followed Jesus; however, when people weren't following Jesus anymore they wouldn't show them they same kind of love.

When they said this, I was instantly convicted. I look at so many situations in my life when my love for them has been contingent upon them meeting my expectations. I only love people when they do the things that I expect them to do. I only care for them and keep up with them when I see growth and transformation. But whenever people are not meeting my expectations or aren't loving Jesus anymore, it's like I don't love them as much. And it's really crazy to think about this concept especially in thinking about what parents have to go through. I realized the hardships that many Christian parents face in raising kids. So many parents work so hard and do so much for their kids, but so many times things don't turn out how they expected. I heard examples of this tonight, and as I think about it now, it grips my heart.

I am beginning to realize so much of what it means to love people without agenda. I mean I always thought I knew about this. I mean ya, we are supposed to love people no matter what they do and no matter what the circumstances. I think this is sometimes easier when we are first meeting people. We meet a person, and we want to love them no matter what they do or who they are. This is a significant first step. Then as we love and care for this person, we see them grow and get excited about loving God. They do and say all the right things, and even if they don't, you see significant growth, so it makes you happy. When you see this, you love them even more. But lately, I have been realizing that it is so hard to love people who have shown so much potential and so much growth in loving Jesus who all of a sudden don't show that same amount of interest and enthusiasm about knowing about God. What happens when those people who have grown so much hit speed bumps, and don't follow Jesus the same way you used to. Do you still love them the same? Our love for people shouldn't change, but in my human flesh, I realize that I make judgments based on how people act and how they respond to me. I often think about how selfish people or how ungrateful they are for not responding to the love that I have shown them. But then I realize that I'm the one being selfish in wanting that kind of recognition and appreciation in the first place.

And then there's the whole issues of parents. I know I have a hard to understanding how my parents have loved me at times. I went through a somewhat rebellious period in my life, and yet my parents never checked out on me. They were there to love me through thick and thin. There were definitely some hard times along the way, but they have loved me a long the way. Then there's the story of loving parents who love and care for their kids so much even though they break their hearts. How does that even work? How can you do that?

It's even crazier to think about God and the crazy love He has for us. We have let Him down so many times and haven't always loved Him fully, but He has always been there for us. When I remember this, I feel like a jerk for being so angry and frustrated with the people in my life who I feel "let me down." I've let down my parents so many times, yet they still love me. Even more so, I have let down God so much, and yet his love never changes. I guess it was awesome to get this perspective once again and see just how big and awesome God's love really is. This is a definitely a lesson that never gets old.

But getting to the heart of this matter, I really felt like tonight was a breakthrough of sorts. Tonight, five of us from Epic got to sit down and have dinner with friends and mentors of an older generation - our parents generation. It was so amazing to hear their unique insight and experiences. So many times, I know I get into the mentality that I am a young visionary with a plan to change the world. I often forget that there have been others before me who have had similar ambitions. It was so good to hear their wisdom and see their openness to hearing the things God is doing in our lives. It was cool because while we learned so much from them I think they were really encouraged by us as well. This is a breakthrough because this is the kind of thing that I have always wanted to do - bridge the generational gap with young and old sharing their stories and experiences. I remember Kelly and I talking about this kind of thing when we first started Epic a year ago. I have even heard our Crusade campus directors talking about this concept. They have wanted adults in the community to take in students, share a meal with them, and exchange stories. We did that tonight without knowing what we were stepping into. It just kind of happened.

Thank you God! This night was seriously an amazing blessing. Not only did we get to hang out with some cool adults, but we also got closer as a group as well. I mean its 1am on a Sunday morning, and we are hanging out together while studying in the library. Who does that? We are seeing some crazy transformation. And it's nothing that I could have orchestrated or come up with in a million years. Life is like a crazy symphony and God is orchestrating everything to perfection. All we gotta do is play our part and let the complexity of his plan unfold around us. I sure have no idea what is going on, but I feel so privileged and honored to be a part of it.

God,
Thank you so much that you are a God who works in mysterious ways. You never cease to amaze me! Thank you for the lessons you teach me in the places that I would least expect it. Tonight, I want to lift up to you the parents of this generation. God, I pray that they would remain steadfast in your love as you have remained steadfast in your love for us. I thank you for the parents who have remained faithful in loving their children even when their children break their hearts. God,you said that you would turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the hearts of the children back to the fathers. So tonight, we pray that you would bring the prodigals home. Lord, bring back the prodigal children back to their parents. Lord, we also pray for the children who don't have parents to love them. May they know tonight that above all else you love them. But we pray for their parents as well. Your promise is two-fold - the father's would turn to their children and the children to their fathers. So we pray for a special impartation of that tonight. After hearing the brokenness of parents tonight, we just want to lift up the children and pray that you bring them back to you. And in knowing the pains of this fatherless generation, we pray that you would break off the orphan spirit and return the father and mothers back in loving relationship with their children. Teach us how to love without agenda Lord. May we love people through the good times and the bad even when they aren't following after you. Thank you that you showed us what this looks like in sending your Son even in the midst our sin and depravity. Help us to never lose sight of who you are. Thank you Abba Father. You are soo goood! We love you. In Jesus Name, Amen!

Who will stand?

This is a video testimony of the Justice House of Prayer. They were praying and worshipping in San Francisco one Friday night as they usually do when they began to be attacked and cursed by onlookers. It's a crazy story. At one point, the group was surrounded by a mob of people, and they had to eventually be escorted away by the SWAT team. One of the girls said she always thought she would die a martyr for evangelism, but she never thought she would die a martyr for intercession.

It is a chilling reality check of the situation we are in today. How many of us would actually be willing to die for the sake of praying and worshipping God? Paul tels Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted..." It's crazy to think that something like this is happening even in America today. Ezekiel 22:30 says, "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none." We say we love Jesus and will do whatever it takes. But when push comes to show who will stand in the gap for this generation? Who is willing to take up the call?



Check out their official statement on their website:
http://www.jhopsf.org/

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

Gotta love them....

Seriously though, decisions are a big deal. I think people's response to them really reflects a lot about a person. My head is swirling through a range of possibilities, scenarios and what not as I ready myself to make a big decision. But if there is one thing that I can glean from this whole situation is that decisions can really bring you closer not only to God but to those around you who you love and respect. In just the last 3 hours, I have had some of the most intentional and intimate conversations I have ever had with the some of the most important people to me. Though I am still struggling to come to terms with this decision, I feel like I have experienced transformation myself in just the last three hours as I have come face to face with grappling with this issue with people I love. I have learned so much about the myself and so much about the people I have shared with. I have realized how much they truly love me, trust me, and support me. I think that to me has been one of the most significant things that I can take from this situation. Regardless, of what I decide and what other people's opinions are, I think I can be at peace knowing that people genuinely care about me and want the best for me. Ultimately, the decisions we make are between us and God; however, in this process, I have learned the beauty of what it looks like to invite other people into the process. You get to grapple through things together, and I think it really pushes everyone involved to truly seek the heart of God.

Anyway, on a lighter night note, I got to go out to the lake today and spend some time with God. My discipleship group went out and spent a few hours in the wilderness hearing from God. It was a little distracting at first, and at times, I got frustrated because I really wanted to have some more clarity from God. I was a little disappointed at first, but after thinking about the situation, I am beginning to see a little more of what God was speaking. I think at times I really want to see something spectacular and amazing from, and in doing so, I sometimes fail to see the more subtle things He wants to show me - like just enjoying time to rest and relax with Jesus! But anyhoo, I decided to read through Song of Solomon again. It's such a cool book to read in seeing Jesus' love for the church. Anyway, I was reminded of the significant of these passages once again.

Here they are:

Song of Solomon 4:9 "You have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes."
Song of Solomon 6:5 "Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me."

In these two passages, the bridegroom is speaking and he is referring to the beauty of the bride's eyes. The bridegroom represents Jesus and the bride represents the church. I heard Brian Kim talking about this passage over the summer, and he put it something like this: God is so madly in love with us that when we just glance our eyes towards Him, His heart is captivated and He is overwhelmed by it. Can you even imagine that? When we lock eyes with the God of the universe for just one split second, we blow Him away. That is how much Jesus is in love with us. The crazy thing is that we are so dirty and despicable on our own doing. But because of what Jesus did for us, He sees us as absolutely beautiful. He is captivated by us and overwhelmed by just one glance. I can't even come to terms with this. It's like walking through the mall, and catching the eye of that beautiful guy or girl for that brief moment as you pass each other and your heart just melts. God's heart does that every time we lock eyes for just a little bit.

Now, can you imagine what it would look like if we locked our eyes on him for more than just a moment? How would God react if our eyes were permanently locked on His? What would that mean for our life and for the decisions we make? Now consider this. What would it look like if our entire generation locked eyes with Jesus? What would happen then? If God is delighted by a single glance of our eyes catching one another, what do you think he feels when our entire generation locks our eyes steadfastly with His eyes? We can only speculate, but I believe God is inviting this generation into something special, and He is giving the invitation for this generation to lock eyes with Him.

Lets put the verses in Song of Solomon in perspective with the verse from 2 Chronicles 20:12 that God has recently placed on my heart. 2 Chronicles 20:12 states, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." Wow, this verse changes completely for me after putting it into context with the verses from Song of Solomon. No wonder God showed up and saved Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah from certain destruction at the hands of the Moabites and Ammonites. The people of Judah finally placed their eyes on the eyes of God and when this happened, God did not refuse. He provided them a way of salvation and answered their prayers. I believe that this is what God is calling our generation to do. I believe that God is calling specifically the young ones of this generation to heed to this calling. The things God is calling us to might be absurd and unrealistic according to the standards of this world. We may be torn by the decisions we are faced with. But in the end, my heart's desire is to lock my eyes on Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weigh, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who or the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God."

God, I have no idea what to do, but my eyes are on you. I pray that you would send your spirit and bring clarity to the things you have placed on my heart. But even more so, as I wrestle with this decision, I want to lift up the situation that is even bigger than my own. God, I pray that you would raise up a generation of believers who will set their eyes on you. God, may we strip off all the things of this world that are hindrances to what you desire, and may we look straight into your eyes and peer deep into your heart. God, we want the desires of your heart. Lord, as we stare into your eyes, may we know the things of you heart. Forgive us for putting anything in front of you, O God. God, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. We love you Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Uhhh-Mazing!!!!!

Wow! What a day! What a day! What a day!

Today was pretty amazing! I had two papers due and a test today, and I was running on like four hours of sleep from studying and writing the night before. But God is soooo gooood! He got me through the paper writing and helped study pretty efficiently last night, and I feel pretty good about the test. But that was just the beginning of God's awesomeness today.

So today, in class my professor had a really awesome lecture about just the inconsistencies in our culture as we venture to see more sustainable development. The class is International Development and Sustainability, and it's a really cool class because it talks about the different ways that we need to approach making our communities more sustainable. I see God revealing Himself so much in that class by seeing the ways in which God wants to bring restoration to society. Sustainable development has a lot to do with maintaining resources while meeting the needs of the underprivileged and overlooked. It's cool to see how the strategies that are deemed to be most successful have been the projects that incorporate grassroots mobilization and local participation. Sustainable development points to the ways in which the large-scale development agencies are most successful when the empower the local people. Why is this so cool? Because God wants to use the marginalized and overlooked in society to restore our generation. Sustainable development is seeing the ways in which indigenous knowledge and empowerment is often the most successful in seeing this restoration. Likewise, this idea of local empowerment and grassroots mobilization is the whole idea of the simple church! When we empower from the bottom-up rather than reinforcing a hierarchy of power from the top-down, we will see God do some amazing things. I see this happening on the campuses especially through the freshman class of 2012. God has awesome things in store for them, and we must empower them to know who they are in Christ so that they can step into their identities. But a little more on this later.


After class, I saw J'shon, and we go to talk about some awesome stuff going on in our lives and pray over the campus. I also got to meet with my discipler Shaun, and we got to talk and share what God was doing in our lives. He gave me this sweet vision map of the things he sees God doing in my life. It was super legit and so encouraging. After that I got to hang out with the discipleship group I lead. We were celebrating Zach's birthday, so we went to go get frozen yogurt! Man, this day just keeps getting better! I got my favorite green tea frozen yogurt! It was muy delicioso!

But it gets even better. Maybe one of the greatest highlights of the day was going to our Asian Coalition meeting. Asian Coalition is the umbrella organization that oversees the different Asian clubs on campus. We joined the group to be able to gain connections with the Asian American community and help make an impact in the community. The Asian Coalition helps fund different cultural activities and events. Since we are going as a group to Epic Conference this semester, we needed a lot of money to get plane tickets to help lower costs for our members. So we made a proposal today asking Asian Coalition to support our group going to Epic Conference. I will go into more detail on this in the Epic Movement Blog sometime this weekend because it is an awesome story. But long story short, God totally had favor upon us and provided us $500 to help with airplane and registration fees! Thank you Jesus! It was soo awesome! God is doing awesome things in the Asian American community and has been blessing us like crazy. One of the girls was telling us afterwards that the Coalition said that we gave the best proposal the ever had. In return for the money they are supporting us with, they want us to hold a workshop talking about the things we learned about the conference and describing the overall phenomenon of Asian Americans being an invisible minority! It is going to be such an awesome opportunity that God is going to use to speak truth and freedom to the Asian American community. Seriously!? God is soo Legit!

Than to top it off, I went to our final Crusade meeting tonight. Since it was the final meeting, we had an open mic night where people could share some of the things God was putting on their heart. I had talked to Shaun a little bit earlier about some stuff, and so he encouraged me to go up and talk tonight. As they called people to go up, I knew that God wanted me to go up there, but I was pretty nervous. I stood in line to speak, and I was feeling a little of the nerves. I haven't been to Crusade or spoken publicly in a while so it was pretty exciting. As I went up to speak, God totally gave me a peace of mind. It was so awesome to be just relaxed up there knowing that God would give me the words.

I got talk about how God has been putting the freshman class of 2012 on my heart. I asked the freshman to raise their hand, and it was so awesome to see how many freshman were there. Crusade has grown a lot this year, and there are probably about 200 people or so that come every week. So there was a good amount of freshman! So awesome! So I told them a little bit about my freshman experience and how I was totally different. I told them how God wanted to use the freshman class to do amazing things. God has been showing me awesome things about the freshman class. He has drawn my attention to the numbers 2,1,2 in the number 2012. When you put those numbers together you get 212. It takes 212 degrees to reach boiling point, and I believe that God wants to use the class of 2012 to see our campuses reach boiling point for Jesus. In addition to this, God showed me an awesome verse at Crossroads last weekend that I think encapsulates what God is calling the freshman class to do. This verse caught my attention because I remember trying to look for a verse that God would use to describe the freshman class. And I think, He has begun to reveal it. The verse is 2 Chronicles 20:12 which is crazy because it has the numbers 2012 for the class of 2012! ya!!!!

Anyway, in the verse, King Jehoshaphat is about to be attacked by an army and he doesn't know what to do. So in verse 12 he prays this prayer that I believe is going to be the defining prayer of this generation. He prays this prayer to God saying, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." I think there is this conception that we must know what we are doing to do God's will, or we must be super-qualified to be leaders. For so long we have relied on leadership structures that focus on leaders at the top telling those under them what to do. But I believe that God wants us to shift away from this and empower a leadership structure from the bottom up. God wants us to empower people like the freshman to hear God's voice and respond. This may seem scary and filled with uncertainty. But what Jehoshaphat's prayer reveals is that we don't have to know what to do. All we must do is set our eyes on Jesus. If you keep reading in that chapter, you see that the Spirit of God comes upon a young man and he tells the whole assembly of Israel what to do. In the midst of the King's prayer, God spoke to a young man to direct the entire nation of Israel.

I believe that God wants to do similar things with our freshman on our campuses. But not only the freshman but all those people in our ministries who think they aren't cut up for the job. I believe that this will have domino affect as we see freshman begin to empower other groups that have been marginalized in our society such as immigrants, minorities, and the poor to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. I saw this cool quote on a prayer board during 24hour prayer, it said, "God doesn't call the qualified; he qualifies those he calls." In Colossians 1:11-12, it states, "May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light." It is a lie of the enemy that says you have to be qualified to be a leader. God is the one who qualifies us through His son Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors. We must empower this generation to know their identity so that there destiny may be released. Our generation must know that they are loved by God, and it is out of this love that we will step into the fullness of God has called us to be. God is calling the little children to Him. Don't think that can't use you. Throughout the Bible, God has used the young! He wants you!

God, I pray that you would raise up a generation who will respond to your call. We break off the lies of the enemy that have subjugated your people for too long, in Jesus name. Raise up a might generation who knows the essence of their identity - we are beloved children of God. God, I pray you would release destiny to this generation. Raise up forerunners who will speak your message of truth, and raise your brave warriors who will respond to the awesome adventure you are inviting us into. Thank you so much for all the blessings you have poured out to me this week and especially today. God, I know that nothing that has happened today has been due to my personal abilities. I am weak and inadequate, yet you have empowered me to know the great I AM. Lord, humble my heart and break off all pride. All glory and honor to you. Thank you for you amazing love! Your grace is sufficient for me. Thank you for abounding us with the richness of your glory. You are Uhh-Mazing! I love you. In Jesus Name, Amen.

New Perspective on Studying?

So studying long hours into the night is never usually a highly-anticipated activity. But in my quest to see how God is working in everything, I had another thought. What if all the time I spent at Hayden Library, I saw myself as a library intercessor? I mean the whole idea sparked when I was taking a break from doing my work (which I should be doing now). I went outside and sat down by the fountain and just sat there observing what has happening around the campus and asking God what He had on His mind. There was a street preacher talking to a small crowd. Usually the crowd is made up of the same group of people from the secular-free thinking society. I just kinda sat there and observed and prayed for what was happening there.

While I was sitting there, a friend came out of the prayer chapel and approached me. We started talking about the street preachers and stuff, and as we talked, he mentioned to me that a girl he knew had a vision that one of the prominent leaders of the secular club crying out to Jesus! Cuurrraaazzzzy! So we prayed over that and declared that, and then I walked back down the library steps to finish my homework (which I will be resuming shortly). As I walked down, I saw people sitting outside, and to be honest, they looked somewhat oppressed and down-hearted. It is even more obvious now as we head into finals. I walked into the doors of the library, and I was reminded of the intellectual bindings that the enemy has over students in our campuses.

As I thought about it, I had this thought come into my mind that we really need to be praying for the students in our campus. And what better place to do it than in the library. The library represents a place of one of the enemies strongholds -our minds. The intellectual stronghold over the campus is probably one of greatest hindrances to gospel of Christ. As I think about it contextually, Hayden library is an underground library so we go beneath the very foundations of the school itself. 24 hour prayer has been housed many times on Hayden Lawn which is directly on top of the library. We have talked about this many times with our prayer group, and one of the things that has come up is praying for the foundation of Hayden Lawn and ASU in general because intellectualism currently is one of the biggest foundations that the university is founded upon. Symbolically, I think this is pretty powerful because here at ASU, like I've mentioned, the library is underground which makes it literally a foundation for a big part of the campus.

And as I think about it even more, Hayden library is open 24 hours a day for most days of the year. And as I think about it more, so many people are in the Hayden library at the wee hours of the morning. I was here until 2am last night. So as I think about it, why don't I be more intentional in lifting up prayers every time I am here studying. What if I changed my mentality of going to the library? What if we all changed our mentality about studying and used it as an opportunity to intercede against the oppressive spirit of intellectualism that has held our campuses bound for so long. What if we are saw ourselves as watchmen interceding in the night as we worked into the wee hours of night on homework. The enemy wants to try to steal our joy and bring anxiety through school work and especially now during finals time.

But I don't think we tolerate this foul spirit of intellectualism and anxiety that the enemy places upon us! No, the Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom! Can you imagine what that would look like if that happened at the library? What if the library of all places was a place where the Spirit of God rested? There would be freedom and deliverance! We see people be freed of so many disorders and addictions associated with the stresses of school work. It would be amazing! It would change the foundation of our campuses and rock the spiritual atmosphere.

So like I said before God is good! He is too good to be confined to our Sunday morning church services, Christian club meetings, or even conversations with friends. God is with us everywhere we go and in whatever we do. Let's remember that especially during this season of finals and crazy studying. Be a library intercessor! It's the year of the Lord's favor. He is going to set the captives free!

Dear God,
May we see you in every moment of our lives. May you change our perspectives from earthly things to heavenly things. May we not be bogged down by things of this world, but may we be set free by renewing of our minds. Renew our minds and give us a fresh new realization that we are loved by you. May we be intercessors wherever we may be. May you bind the spirit of intellectualism on our campuses and restore the foundations to be built on the Cornerstone. Bind the hearts of broken-hearted and set the captives free. We declare the year of Jubilee - the Year of the Lord's blessing! Thank you, Abba Father. You are our true source of knowledge -you are the way, the truth, and the life. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Insightful Procrastination?

So I have a lot of work to do. But I have a thought, so I'm going to write it down because that is what you do on blogs.

Do you know that verse that talks about how if they recorded all the awesome stuff Jesus did in His 3 years of ministry they wouldn't have enough space to hold it all? I can't remember where the verse is right now, but if someone knows, they should let me know!

Anyway, I was just thinking about how awesome God is, and all the awesome things that God is doing in my life and in the lives of people around me. If you have seen any of my blog entries, you probably noticed that I could go on forever and still just only be scratching the tip of the iceberg of things that I think I'm thinking about. So I was thinking that with all the thoughts we have about God and all the cool stuff He is doing in our lives, couldn't something similar be said about us that relates to that verse I mentioned above. I mean it's not like we are doing crazy miracles and stuff at the moment, and I definitely don't want to take away from the person of Jesus - no one will ever be as big as Jesus! But like if we really thought about it, couldn't we possibly reason that if we were to write down all the awesome stuff that God does in our lives and record His goodness to us, we wouldn't be able to write it all down because it would be way too much?

We are blessed with amazing blessings and they are just overflowing all over the place. It talks about how God gives us immeasurably more than we can hope for or imagine. So what's the point I'm trying to make? Well first, God is goood!!!! Secondly, if you know that God is good and see it in your life, write it down! Yes, that means I think you should blog!!! Haha just kidding (but really, you should think about it;)

In closing, write down the awesome things God is doing in your life! Declare it the world! I bet if you tried to write down everything, you couldn't do it. You know why? Because God is just too good to be confined by our weak words!

And that's all I have to say.

God is good.

Enough said.

Can't help but smile :D

"For i have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11-13

First of all, can we just stop and say the Apostle Paul was legit! This guy was throne in jail, got stones thrown at him, got bitten by a snake, and who knows what else he went through. Yet at the end of the day while he is in jail Paul says that he has learned to be content in every situation. Wow! Crazy! How crazy do you have to be to go through so much difficulty and still be smiling at the end of the day knowing that God is good! This just blows my mind away. Paul was so firm in knowing who he was in Christ that nothing could phase him. He was consumed by the love of God, and there was nothing that could stand in the way of carrying out his calling.

Which reminds me of another thing that was recently brought to my attention. Paul cared about people so much. I mean he took the time to write out all these letters to the many churches and every time he wrote to a church he always mentioned how he thanked God for them. This is so crazy for me to grasp sometimes because I look at my own life, and I can hardly keep up with my family and a small group of friends. I haven't done a very good job keeping in touch with the people I care about. My parents recently reminded me of this over break. They brought to my attention to remember to update and stay in contact with all those who have been praying with me and supporting me throughout the years and not to forget the people who helped me get where I am at today. It's such a humbling experience to remember that there have been so many people who have helped me get tot his point.

But anyhoo, I just wanted to take a few moments to say that God is good.! Right now I am going through such an awkward point of my life right now. I have had to have some pretty difficult conversations today and the past week. I have some pretty big decisions to make. And I have two papers and a test all on this Thursday. When I look at it now, it doesn't seem to bad. But there are always those moments when I get really overwhelmed by everything. Yet in the midst of it, I have been learning to trust God more and more. Things could be a lot better, but right now I can't help but smile. God is awesome! He is soo good.

Today, during lunch, a Christian group got to lead worship on the stage outside our Memorial Union. It was so awesome to be out in the middle of campus with other Christians worshipping God. It was so cool. How many times do you get to straight up worship God in the middle of campus with a full band that's mic'd up and everything. God is doing awesome things on this campus. Today's worship service definitely shifted the spiritual atmosphere at ASU today. Likewise with 24hr prayer, last night we had another all campus worship night. It was soo good! The Holy Spirit is rocking in that place let me tell you.

So ya, I have no idea what to think right now. I have been on some pretty low lows in this past week, but God is still working in cool ways. So even though I have no idea what to do about decisions, don't know what to do about all this school work, and really don't know what to do about much of anything in my life at this point, I am happy because Jesus loves me. And I think that was that was Paul's secret. The love of Christ is just too good to have a frown on our face. If we really think about it, God loves us. That's a big deal. God's love is bigger than our biggest decisions. He is bigger than our biggest tests. He is bigger than our greatest fears.

We all go through highs and lows in our life. When we are high God wants us to encourage and lift other people up. When we are low, I think God still wants us to encourage and lift others up. Usually, when I am sad and upset I tend to isolate myself and not want to talk to anyone. But God has really been reminding me how good it is to encourage and love other people even when we are down. When we are sad and help other people, we are not only encouraging other people, but we are encouraging ourselves because we are reminded by the goodness of God by the very words we speak. I ran into a friend today and got to encourage and pray for her, and I got to talk to my grandpa last night and pray for him also. It is always good to see people smile after their feeling blue!

Well, I usually write on forever. So much I could say, but I probably have already written a lot. I guess I just can't help it sometimes. God is good. Enough said.

God,
Thank you that you are good. Thank you that you love me. Thank you that you make me smile. Use me to bring smiles to other peoples' face. You are rad! In Jesus Name, Amen!