Discoveries...

Today at VBS the theme was thankfulness and how Jesus gives us the ability to be thankful. I am a team leader in charge of 10 kids (4, 5, and 6 graders) and it is alot of fun being able to interact with them in games and crafts and bible stories. I want this to be something they remember as they get older, that VBS was fun and they had a good leader that payed attention to their every word and was truly invested in what they are doing. All I hope is that this is something that will shape their future steps into walking with God the rest of their lives and knowing that He is real and loves them and desires to be with them...

At the end of the day we had like a little debriefing where we just talked about the day and what we learned as we prepared to go and end in the main sanctuary for service. So one of the questions I had asked them was what are they thankful for. If I remember correctly 5 of the kids first response was they were thankful for their cell phones... Cell Phones... seriously! I dont remember exactly what I woulda been thankful for in that age, but it sure wasn't cell phones. Something is a little disturbing about that answer... But with times changing and technology such a huge part of our culture should I really be that surprised...

Eastside Church

So being up in Bothell WA has been nothing short of amazing... I feel like I'm growing and learning alot and getting alot of hands on experience, leading worship and playing and building relationships that could take to back here in the future...  God is continually revealing things to me and people are just pouring into us like crazy... So to keep it pretty short every year the interns make a video so heres our video and its three announcements and you can see me dancing in a few and serving someone a burger in the second advertisement... I'm off to bed cause I gotta be at the church early cause I'm playing electric...

Worship + Justice pt.1

Worship and the pursuit Justice go hand in hand. I believe that Worship is not fully happening unless one is pursuing Justice. It is possible for one to pursue Justice but not Worship at all. There are many examples of that with groups that desire peace and fight for what they feel is right. In class I once heard a teacher say that he gets questioned, “what does Justice have to do with being a Christian?”

The basics of being a Christian is to love God with everything, to live a life totally in surrender to His will, to say that Christ is Lord and Savior and to be imitators of Christ and follow the example that He has set for us. Jesus loved people He really loved people and I love to read about His encounters with people who were not Jews. How he came to serve and not be served. Jesus came to 'bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight to the blind and to set the downtrodden free (Lk 4:18). He called us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and afflicted, and to comfort the victims of injustice (Mt 25). The Church doesn’t exist to go places and make more and more churches just to fill up. The Church is to see what God is already doing, to build relationships with people, to love and care for people, to see what the needs are for the people, and be available for people, how ever that may look like... I think if I were someone in a place where I was in poverty the last thing I want to hear about is a church that someone has just planted, I’m more concerned about trying to feed my family, getting water, getting medicine, getting some new clothes and so forth...  That is how I believe you can show people your intentions and heart and it is in those times when God is able to move and reveal Christ through us, the Church, who genuinely care about people...

I had the opportunity last week to work in the missions dept. of Eastside and meet the missionaries they have sent and support in the Philippines. I thought to myself these people really care about the people there and the way they are helping others find faith by being people who genuinely care is amazing. You can’t help but be moved by genuine people. I want to be a genuine person that wants to talk to people without an agenda for what I need to fulfill, but because I love what God loves and that is people...

I’m not looking for a reward when we go to skid row to give a meal to a person who’s hungry. I don’t feel burdened to take off my shoes and give them to a man that has no shoes. It’s a joy to me to stand on the corner and shake a hand of a man or a woman and ask them how they are doing as I give them a bag of soap and shampoo. I feel it’s the only natural thing to do, if I am connecting with my Creator and my Creator loves people, I have no choice but to be drawn to people and love them as well...

This was kinda scattered but there’s so much to say. I don’t even know how or what to write but it helps just to get some of this out... more to come...

I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want (Ams 5:21-24 MSG)

Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what's wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people - law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side. But they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' "Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, 
a fast day that I, God, would like? "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.' "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places. (Isa 58 MSG)