OC

I got to go to Orange County today! Chilled with Lisa, Reach, Kaitlyn, Jessica W, Christine F, Megan F, Roddy, Cody, and Patrick all afternoon. We got some boba, and went to sticki picki in korea town, then hit up Laguna beach (loco taco). It was an awesome time connecting with Lisa and her friends...we played a game in the car "I'm going to a picnic in LB and I'm gonna bring some asphalt, a baby, cantalope, d, eggplant, f, green grass, h, italian spaghetti, jump rope, kite, lisa, money, ninja, oreos, pinky winky or something, quidditch field, roscos chicken/waffle, starbucks...we had some a great time talking...unfortunately one of the girls she's discipling isn't doing so great off by herself somewhere, we talked about her relationship with her sister "Eva" and how it's not going so great, but her faith is so solid that God will take care of it. It was interesting learning that she too struggles with her mind a lot. We talked about romans 12:21 and 2 c

She talked about her internship for a few minutes and it was really cool hearing about how one of the girls she's been mentoring and just hanging out with there is the daughter of a disciple! I also saw one of the cutest videos with the kid she babysists named Kendrick. It was such an amazing encouraging time the only thing I fear is the fact that at times we seemed like we were on a weasel date...at times I completely ignored all the other people around and just concentrated on Lisa...though this isn't necessarily wrong, I think I could have handled it in a much better way. But amen, God is good and the day was amazing. Finished it off by giving Azzie a little walk around the block and then allowing her to pull me on the skateboard :)

Prayer Train

Today was a great day. Not going to surf ministry gave me the chance to have a great quiet time. I read Luke 14:25-16:18 starting off with the Cost of Being a disciple which was amazing to remember the promise and commitment I made to Him. Also, after that the Pharisee's try to bash on Jesus because he loved people, he even ate food with sinners! As a result, he tells them 3 stories: Story of the Lost Sheep, Coin, and Son. They were amazing reminders of how joyfully God accepts us no matter who we are or how far we've strayed. After a passionate prayer time, I got to go to our amazing church to worship God. The singing was harmonious, the preaching was convicting, and the fellowship was contageous. Shane preached boldly on repentance. It was such an epic lesson called Repentance and Redemption

First he explained that repentance is NOT...
-just a good idea
-feeling bad about what you did
-cheap grace (Romans 6:1-4--stop being a nice guy!)
-independent of others
-just a confession

Next he defined repentance:
-dealing with sin (Matthew 5:27-
"heart" CUT IT OFF! Don't manage it, CUT IT!
-Having the same attitude towards other people's sin...what is your relationship with people defined by!???? If your being simply nice to them, then your not being a brother..get in their life and challenge with love!
REPENT FROM THE SILENCE SO PREVALENT IN "GOOD PEOPLE" without going all self-righteous

James 4:17
Not just repentance from evil but the good we must start doing! Replace the sin with good!

Romans 12:21
DO NOT BE OVERCOME BY EVIL BUT OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD!
your sin just needs a little crumb like a dog under the table. Satan is NOT done attacking, once he gets a crumb he comes back for more, and more and more until he's eaten everything you have away.

Hebrews 10:19-25
SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON TOWARD LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS!!!
"How you doing?"
"Good"
"So what's been your challenge lately? What do you need to repent of?"

REVIVE THE CULTURE OF OPENNESS

repentance begins with a decision to change: WRITE IT DOWN
Right now I will change the way I love God and people...from making it a habitual checklist chore, to a heartfelt, serious, deep devotion with complete breadth.

John 5:1-9
DO YOU WANT TO GET WELL? THEN WRITE A JOURNAL OF THINGS YOU'VE DONE, HOW YOU FELT ABOUT THEM, AND THE CONSEQUENCES THAT CAME.

"Take your mat"
Your dirty, disgusting, smelly, nasty mat you've lived on without taking a shower for the last 20 years!
A good reminder of what you were...be in touch with the pain!
How has this sin hurt the ministry? Relationships? family? etc.
Get in touch with that pain and NEVER go back to that putrid mat--stand up again and never go back to it don't even take a nap on it.
In order to get to the diamond of your life, you MUST dig through the dirt.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES
"I didn't have the time" CANNOT fly any longer! Get deliberate with it!

2 Corinthians 7:18 (Godly sorrow)
Have you been innocent by repentance shown by your deeds!?

1. Go pray with somebody!
2. Have a bible study on the sin your most struggling with!
3. IMMEDIATE confession
4 Journal/openness
5 get help!

Pretend your going to the cheesecake factory...but instead of ordering food, you bring a Deluxe Cheesebuger with fries (lies), ask for a table, sit down, and start eating...that would be outrageous!!!! WOuld you do that? Then why bring that fake stuff in the church!?

*****And then some guy I don't even know his name did contribution and just totally blew it out of the house...Its like when your a dad you might give your son some money to put in the contribution tray. But what if he took half of it, put it in his pocket and then put the rest in the tray? or crazier yet took all of it and put it in his pocket? Acts 17:24-25 ("The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anythingbecause he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.") God gave us everything we have, including money for contribution. We need to stop putting half or a all, or whatever part of it in our pocket and start giving it back to him!*****

So church was beyond epic! But that wasn't even the highlight of the day...the best part was the glorious prayer train we had. Today from 3-9, many disciples went from campus to campus praying boldly for this semester. It was a fantastic time and we had a lot of fun and built faith togethor. It was cool visiting all the campuses, even ones I had never seen before. I was really grateful we made that happen it was an amazing time.

Saturday Morning Learning

What a morning it has been. The breakfast is done, and the reading is on. I'm trying to finish the NT 3 times this year and I just read some inspiring scriptures. The most recent is about Satan and the misleading ways that he overwhelms us, making any sense of truth hard to believe:

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you were unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native tongue, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.
JOHN 8:42-47

We just had a really sweet men's D-group in which we shared something we got out of a recent quiet time and then got vulnerable and everyone prayed. It was an extremely great time and I'm definitely grateful for all the brother's I'm in the fight with. We're doing our best to promote a deep sense of camaraderie in the brother's ministry. Today I get to move back into my room...but I'm feeling kind of lazy and don't want to really do it all that much...anyways today I get to go hang out with Brian Ha and I'm definitely stoked to get reconnected with him at starbucks...He's the guy that was baptized last year and went back home and kind of dipped out on us. Anyways, I'm trying to get back into his life a little bit especially because I'm going to spend a lot of time at UCSD. I pray that everything works out and he can have a deep influence on his friends in IV.

stoney hike

THis morning I woke up at 3:30. This wasn't that difficult because I've been getting 3-4 hours very frequently. I woke Josh up, he called Ricky, and bam! We were on our way. We already knew that his other friends would probably be smoking on the mountain, so when this was the case, we were not surprised but I was speechless. Going into it I was thinking of the fact that Jesus was all about loving people in the world--prostitutes, tax collectors, etc. However, it was almost overwhelming and I was extremely grateful that Josh spoke up at the beginning and just told them "were not down with smoking." We basically split up on the way up there. Ricky, Josh and I walked ahead and the road was steep, however we got up it quite rapidly. We walked around there a little bit and then finally his friends met up with us, so we split off again and prayed. Then we went up to the top of a rock to watch the sun rise, but the sun took FOREVER! Ricky's friends--the outspoken athletic one named Joe--were smoking their bowls, and it was interesting being in their presence. They were kind of tripping out a little bit and doing their thing, cursing a lot and just imagining things in the sky...but Josh Ricky and I stood behind them just kinda making comments when we could. It was a good, cold, beautiful time and we did have fun...After the sun was well up in the air, we went back to a brilliant rock form called Potato Chip rock, because it is an extremely thing overhang out of a rock. Joe and I sat on it and it was quite the experience! We went down the mountain said our goodbyes and drove home..unfortunately ricky played the mikey show on the way back and it was very shady but he was laughing having a great time. I felt terrible I didn't speak up and get indignant about it, but at the same time he was driving and I didn't want to come across as self righteous and judgmental...anyways, overall it was a good morning

2010

It has been 8 months since I have posted anything on this thing, and I've learned a lot in that time. Bad part is, much of it I cannot remember. The highlights of 2010 are:

1. Got to intern with the Pomerado region teens during the Summer.
This was an amazing experience. It started off with a few weeks of pure intern training by the greats like Robert, Shane, Mark, Yung, Luis, and John O. Lessons on false doctrine, Islam, theology, encouragement, leading like Jesus, prayer, exegesis, habits of highly effective interns, conflict resolution, and organization each lead to an immense amount of growth.
Some highlights of these classes:
-Encouragment gives vision--best way to overcome your discouragement is to go encourage someone else! Encourage by listening and paying attention to details. Encourage through example of convictions. Encourage by telling them to repent...2 thessalonians 2:16-17
-Prayer: prayer is creating space for God to act (EM Bounds). THere's no such thing as a bad prayer...its like kindergarten artwork, always gets put up on fridge. Prayer is: Intimate, mighty, specific, praise, aggressive, creative, emotional (heb 5:7) impact, PUSH (pray until stuff happens)..GOD I WANT TO BE LIKE ____ (JONATHAN) WHO KNEW HOW TO BE A FRIEND...ETC.
-Exegisis: A critical explanation or analysis of a text...the procedures we use to understand what someone else means by what they are saying. It doesn't matter what it means to YOU but only what God means by this, what HE is explaining it by! basically HOW TO study your bible. on the other hand Eisegesis = put something in...the way we make the scripture say what WE want it to say. This leads to false doctrine.

One of the cool things about the internship was that an amazing sister named Lisa Hinton was able to do it as well. It happened so fast, but the Gore's were I guess interviewing me and Yung casually asked me who I liked and I told her and so she went up and got her. I was super grateful and had an amazing Summer interning with Lisa though at times it got awkward. The focus on the teens was what made it great. I got to study the bible with 2 future evangelists: Micah Konzen and Kyle Schultz. They each have amazing gifts from God and I can't imagine how talented they would be with the Holy Spirit. I developed a deep relationship with each of them and was able to go snowboarding with them this winter, and I hope to continue to help them take steps to get closer to God.

this year was extremely fruitful for the campus ministry. The greatest gift of the year was the baptism of Sam Mueller--my best friend and amazing roommate. I love this guy more than any other disciple in the campus. I had the privelege of sitting in on his studies with Robert Carrillo, and I learned more then ever before. Robert used God's power to really penetrate Sam's heart. Sam made the decision that he needed to step out on faith, having a confidence that getting baptized will be the best decision and that God will make everything clear. He led a bible talk this semester at Grossmont kind of by force and not desire, and he is now transferring to the best school in the world--SDSU.

During finals week this semester I was going through some really tought times. Lots of stress, depression, feeling like a failure led to me feeling like giving up on school, girls, the church, and God. Sam helped me one night more than anyone has in a long time. He told me about emotions--the way you react to changes. Told me that many different things are currently tugging at my heart--school, lisa, and God. God wasn't winning because I was not focused or prioritized on him. When we change what we value, we risk getting extremely emotional...maybe you are putting all your heart into Lisa and not God (where your treasure is, there your heart will be also) But since Lisa loves God, and currently you are not loving God, you and Lisa have nothing in common! He also gave his new definition of faith--being certain that the changes occurring, whether they seem bad or good, are vital steps that are leading to the best outcome that God has for you. Its hard to see now how this thing mixed with that seemingly negative thing can actually turn into this awesome thing--but when we die it will all make sense perfectly--OH so that's why I had to get hungover in SB! We talked about the undeniable gifts of the holy spirit. If I give up on every other thing of God, the one thing I can never deny is the prevalence of the Holy Spirit--for me it was confidence and zeal for Sam it was humility. I also saw some epic quotes from Austin Farrell's dad on facebook: "It's better to face things with courage than to endure things with fear"
"The only way you can comprehend how much someone who's close to you loves you, is to love someone else in that same incomprehensible way."


This year I learned how dependent I am on people. How much I need the fellowship to get through tough times. I learned I need to rely on God more, because his will for me is so much greater than mine. I had a lot of practice being a leader and learned that teens take an immense ammount of patience and love. I learned that I haven't been all that loving because I've been so focused on my own personal accomplishments like school that I haven't really had time to get in people--even roommate's lives. I learned how fragile my faith is and how important it is. I learned how critical it is to be actively studying the bible with somebody, it truly helps the leader more than the learner. I learned that school, money, materialistic items are the least important ever and that my sin is to try and rely on them.

I hope to take the things I've learned this year into next year, and make next year an even more radical, intense year of life changing adventures.