An Unsafe God and his Unsafe People

"...in order that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. You will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old. That was why this city was laid waste." (Ezra 4:15)

They are trying to rebuild the city and the temple and the people who are around Jerusalem are not happy. So when there is a new king they write to him and inform him that these people (Israel) cannot be trusted to rebuild their city because they are dangerous. The accusers tell the king to search the records and they find this is in fact true. 

Gods people are a dangerous people to the world and that past will catch up to you when you endeavor to join God in what he is doing. Is your God too safe? Cause this God of Israel doesn't seem to be... and that is why the king commands a stop on the building (for now). 

What kind of God do I believe in? What kind of person do I believe God is making me? I think a dangerous one. One that is dangerous to the world in the way that I love; the way that I stand for those who no one stands for; the way that everywhere I go the ideals of the world seem to collapse. That is a dangerous person to anyone who has their security in the ways of this world and they will do anything to stop you, but our God is greater and will never be stopped.

Follow the unsafe God and you will overthrow kingdoms cause God is in the business of doing so. Only one kingdom will truly stand, His. 

Why do Whales jump??

One of my favorite things too see here on hawaii are the humpbacks jumping around..they are EVERYWHERE. It is crazy. But one may ask, "Why do they jump? Seems like a lot of work to thrust a 40 ton body out of the water...." There are many theories to why humpbacks jump and do displays, some say for sexual display, some say for fun, some say to look at their surroundings...but I have my own theory. They jump for the glory of God, to praise him! To praise the one who brings them peace and life in this world. The one who gives them life and gives new life as they birth new calves and start new lives through mating. They sing songs underwater (which scientist also have no idea why) to sing of the God who gives and takes and is worthy of all praise. The sing and jump for the years of great schools of fish in the north, and warm waters to bring rest in Hawaii. They praise God because they know that you are worthy of praise.

They study but do not know why the whales jump, I pray it would be the same in my life, that people would wonder why I jump, why I raise my hands. "It does not make logical sense..., they will say, "Is it cause he is crazy? Maybe he is stretching from his long day?" But I will know... its for the glory of God. To sing and display my praise for the God who saves brings peace, purpose, and hope to idiots like me. And unlike the whales, those who wonder can ask me, and I will tell them. It still may not make sense, but for those whom it does, I think soon they will be jumping too.

God's Secret Family Recipes

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord..." Isaiah 1:18

When Jesus commands us in Matthew 18 to go to our brother if he has sinned against us and tell him his fault that he might listen and you may gain a brother, that isn't some new way of dealing with people...its been God's way since the beginning.

God is the first example to us this. He has just listed off all the people's wrong yet he does not pour judgement first. No, first he says let's get together and talk reasonably about it and not continue in ignorance of where we stand with each other. He then promises forgiveness and blessing if the repent and turn back to Him. He comes to us and says, "Hey, here is what you have done, lets see it as it is and move forward in grace and forgiveness." Which is exactly what we are to do with each other. To come together and see ourselves and our actions for what they are (not what we want them to be or how we want to see them) in relation to each other so that we can acknowledge, repent, forgive, and move forward together in love and grace. 

When God asks us to do the same in Matthew, remember that he exampled it first. He is not asking us to do something cause he decided its what is best for us (which in theory would be a good enough reason), but actually he lets us in to his world, into his secret family recipes, and says "Hey, let me tell you my secret to reconciliation...it works every time."

Honesty...is such a lonely word.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7

God, knowing all that we need even better than we do, still has us ask him. You do not have because you do not ask (James 4:2) Clearly, we do not ask because God needs to know what what we need but because it is how he designed us to be...to be honest. Asking is honesty, its admitting to ourselves and to someone else what we need. This is the way God wants us to be...

So if God asks us to ask in order to receive, how much more do we need to ask each other when we need something? We so often expect that people should just know what we need and expect them to answer our needs, even God who knows all and can do all says thats not how it works, yet we expect it of each other who are so far less knowing and able than God almighty. We need to learn to ask each other, to be honest with each other and with ourselves when we have needs.

God can promise that when we ask anything in his name we can receive it because he can do all things, and though we cannot promise that of each other, I think we would find if we asked more, we would have a lot more...and judge a lot less.

Forget lies, Remember.

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. Psalm 40:4-5

 "Who does not go astray after a lie" - everything in this world that promises something better than God is a lie. Happy is the man who makes the Lord his trust...who ONLY trusts in the Lord. There is no certainty in anything else in this world, everything here is fleeting and will come and go, but not the Lord. Verse 5 is a reminder of why the psalmist trusts in the Lord, because he has been faithful more times than he can even remember or say!

 We must remember his faithfulness, speak it to ourselves everyday, remind ourselves of all that he has done as often as possible. God knows our minds forget easily which is why he instructed the Israelite people to write his words everywhere and remember what he did in Egypt from generation to generation. We must tell people of the great works that He has done in our lives not only for their sake, that they might trust in Him, but for OURS...that we might remember the truth of who he is. If we can remember the truth, we will be able to pick out the lies.

 There are lies all around us trying to get us to follow them and forget about God. But we must see them as they are....lies. They are nothing but lies. Lies. Everything that is not of God is a lie. Satan is the father of lies. We must be adamant about seeing them that way and not let them convince us that they might be ok. "You won't surely die...." Lies.

 Remember who is the truth...Jesus. Forget lies, remember.

Dare to worship?

Do you dare to worship?

Most of the time we show up Sunday mornings not ready to sing praises to God. We probably don't feel like clapping our hands and jumping around in praise to our King. Why? Because life is hard. More often than not our weeks have been hard, our months have been difficult, our years have just been one broken family, friendship, attempt, after another. The enemy works overtime to make this world a terrible place to be and then gets us to believe that the only way to find some happiness in it is to look after yourself alone. Yet we continue to show up to church with a mask on that tries to say "I got it all together." But you don't, I don't, you don't, no one does. Just take off the mask because true worship is even greater with the mask off...

Many people living in this reality think that those who worship God do so only as an escape. To pretend for a moment that things are ok, an effect similar to drugs, and the truth is that many probably do worship in this way. But that's not what true worship is. Worship is defiance. It is daring to proclaim a truer reality than this world offers, that Jesus Christ is Lord and in him is found life. That in him is found refuge, strength, peace, because greater is He who is in me than who is in the world! Do you dare to worship the almighty God amidst a world trying to erase him? Do you dare to look into the eyes of the enemy amidst your struggling family, finances, and friendships and declare "Jesus has saved me and you have no hold on me!"

Let us no longer dream to worship, let's dare to worship.

Skipping like a calf loosed from its stall...

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4

Great verse. I've quoted it many times to people and myself, its even in my signature for one of my email accounts! Its one of those great one liners thats always encouraging. But what does it really mean? How do you just delight yourself in the Lord? I realized that this verse is not as stand alone as I thought...

 "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday." - Psalm 37:3-6

Trust, Delight, Commit. Delighting in the Lord is just part of a greater process!

 Trust. First before you can delight in the Lord you must trust him. And as you trust him, you can dwell in peace and befriend faithfulness (also translated "find safe pasture"). It is this first step that begins the rest of the process, the mental action to trust God with whatever is in your life will allow you give it away and take away the burden so that you may live in peace and "graze" on faithfulness. Only then are you ready to delight in the Lord.

 Delight. Once you have trusted him and find his peace, then you are free of the burdens of the world and are able to delight in the Lord. And as you are empty, he will fill you with his desires and then fulfill them which will cause you delight in him more and more! As you find your delight in him it will lead you to greater intimacy and commitment to him.

 Commit. Again, the psalmist reminds us to trust in the Lord as we commit to him, but this true commitment is only found after we have delighted in the Lord. Anyone who commits to something out of obligation is never very committed but those who commit out of a place of desires and delight will always be committed followers. The more and more we trust God, the more and more we will commit our way to him and in that he promises that he will act. We commit to him and he will deliver. What will he deliver? Righteousness and justice. What about blessings God? What about a bonus, a new car? a better place...maybe a vacation? If I commit to you will you act on those?? God tells us what he acts on. And only after we go through the process of trusting, delighting, and committing will we discover that His righteousness and justice are exactly what we desire.

 I realize that to delight myself in the Lord is not just something I can pursue on its own but I must pursue God with all my trust and give him everything and in the process I will discover all the yearnings of my heart satisfied.

Why Doesn't Anyone Name Their Kids "Obed-Edom"??

End of 1 Chronicles 13. A guy named Obed-Edom the Gittite (Goliath was also a Gittite) gets dropped with the task of taking in the Ark of the Covenant into his city and taking care of it. That new king guy wants me to do what? I'm just trying to mind my own business here, I don't want to mess with those Israelites and their issues. And I heard that Ark thing killed a guy! Why do they have to send it here. Ugh. Yet while David and the rest of Israel are dealing with other things, Obed-Edom gets his first encounter with the presence of God. He spends just 3 months near to His presence and sees the blessings from it, gets to feel the power of it, he gets to experience the living God at work in his city and all around him. 3 months go by. 1 Chronicles 15. David says they are gonna take the Ark to Jerusalem again and this time, they are gonna do it right. Who is part of the processional? Obed-Edom. There taking it where? I gotta be with it! I can't get enough! When it arrives in Jerusalem and David starts assigning tasks. Pick me! Pick me! Yea I will be on the praise team, whatever keeps me near to that box! Sure, I don't care if its the back-up team! Wait, what you need a harp player too? Sure. I mean, no I don't know how to play but I'll learn! And when it comes time to choose the gate keepers (one of the most important roles), who gets picked? Yep, Obed-Edom. A guy going about his normal business has an encounter with God and it changes him forever. Spends 3 months in the presence of God and when it moves on, he drops everything and follows. This is the power of God. We need not forget it, or ever cease to follow it!

Write Your own Psalm

(From Worship on Earth as it is in Heaven by Rory Noland)

Ever wanted to write your own Psalm? You can! Your original psalm doesn’t have to be wordy or eloquent; or even have to rhyme! You just have to be honest with your feelings toward God. You may want to set your psalm to music, or to a dance, or paint a picture to go with it; whatever will enrich your private worship experience.
Biblical Psalms can be roughly divided into three basic categories: songs of lament, hymns of thanksgiving, and hymns of praise. Should you choose to compose your own Psalm keep in mind these simply guidelines.

Hymns of Thanksgiving

Hymns of thanksgiving express gratitude for who God is and/or something God has done in the life of the writer. A thanksgiving psalm refers to a specific experience and gives witness to how God intervened. So the overall tone is joyful, with a deep awareness of God’s unmerited favor and blessing. Psalms 9 and 30 are good examples of thanksgiving hymns, as are salvation testimonies and stories about answered prayer. Characteristically, hymns of thanksgiving include these three factors:

They describe a past problem.
They recount how God intervened.
They express thanksgiving for God’s grace.

Hymns of Praise

Hymns of praise call God’s people to respect, admire, and revere God’s attributes and mighty deeds. They may not refer to a specific experience because hymns of praise begin with the premise that God is worthy of praise simply because he is God. As a result, such psalms highlight various names or attributes of God. Psalms 8, 93, and 145 are perfect examples. Thus, hymns of praise follow three principles:

Generally start by calling God’s people to worship.
State specific reasons to worship God.
Cite specific names or attributes of God.

Songs of Lament

Songs of lament are expressions of deep grief, anger, or sorrow related to personal hardship and crisis. They reflect an honest struggle to make sense of the pain of this world. Amid great adversity, the writer turns to God, knowing that God is the only one who can rescue, vindicate, and make things right. Songs of lament typically move from desperation to hope. Examples include Psalms 12 and 13. In writing a song of lament, keep in mind the following guidelines. Generally, songs of lament include three statements:

They are addressed to God.
They state a personal problem or crisis.
The eventually affirm hope and trust in God.


As you write your psalm, remember, you don’t have to write a literary masterpiece for God in order for it to be worship. Unless you decide to share it with others it can always remain between you and God.

Wide Road

Psalm 119:44-45 "I will keep your law continually forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts."

We often see God's road, or way for our life, as narrow and restricted. This isn't wrong for Christ himself tells us to "enter by the narrow gate for...the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13-14) So why does the Psalmist in Psalm 119 say that by keeping God's law continually he walks "in a wide place"? Because he has discovered the truth that when we follow God's way for our life we find freedom. It is "for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1) God's plan was never to restrict our lives, but to free them from sin to live in the abundant "wide road" that he originally intended for us! Once we secure ourselves on God's road we find that it is wide and flat and free. God is ruler over all the world and, in Him, we find that all the world is ours as well, through what Jesus Christ did on the cross, which brought us in the family of God. The life God has for us is intended to be a life of freedom, you can walk, you can run freely, not worrying for as Proverbs 4:12 tells us "your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble" because we have kept the way of righteousness, the way of God.

Let us not forget that the gate is narrow that leads to life, but once we have found it, once we are walking in His way, let us not keep looking back at the narrow opening but look forward into the wide lush road of freedom that lies ahead. God is a good, and his goodness never ends!

God Who Loves

I have come to know and believe this Love that God poured out for me
And for all who will believe in the One that sets us free
So with every breath that comes, I'll make known this God who loves.

So let us lift our broken hands and bring strength to our weakened knees
That we may run to the God who loves and brings everlasting peace

Your love sings over us
Your love reigns victorious
Your love brings glory to Your Name in all the earth

Your love pours unendingly
Your love shines for it is Holy
Your love never fails to lift me up though I have fallen to the ground

Your love brings peace to all
Your love it saves my soul
Yes it broke the chains that bound me
I was lost, but Your love found me
I pour Your love on those around me
For my God is God who loves.

You are my All in All

Jesus You heal my soul
Raised me up and made me whole
I called, Your answer gives me strength
In weakness Your power goes the length
No height, no depth can separate
All that You've done, I do give thanks
To You alone all glory given
For You were dead but now You are risen!
Your perfect love, shown on the cross
Has cast my fear, Lord I am lost
For words to say how much You've done
Transformed my death to life, I've come
To tell You know, here on my knees,
You are my all, my everything
No rocks will cry, no trees will ring
In my place, it's for your grace I sing...

Random but Intense thoughts from the morning....

God created all things. He is the sustainer of all things. He is the only one who is worthy, and all the worth of everything else is given and put on by God.

You are worth only the worth that God gives you. Just as the worth of the planets are only worth as much as God has given them. The standard of worth in the universe is the worth that God places on a given thing.

God allows and knows every breath we take. If we live another minute, it is because God said it could be so. He is so much greater than us and we ourselves are worth nothing.

Apart from God we are worth nothing. Because of God our worth is great. He sent his son and died for us..thats how much we are worth to God. No other living or non living things has God done anything like that for. Not even the angels.

If we take our identity from somewhere besides God we are putting our worth in something worthless and we become worthless in the world.

We have no right to tell God what to do and we really have no right on our own to talk to God at all. He, in his divine wisdom and love, CHOOSES to allow us to talk to Him but that is because of no merit of worth of our own. And because of our sin we not only have no worth or right aside from God but we have chosen to give up the worth given by him in search of creating our own worth. We should fear God because he has all things under control and could at any time, in righteous judgement destroy us at any moment. We have no right to live and we have no worth so its pointless for us to exist.

BUT, God gives us worth and a chance to live and raises us above all creating and all the universe. Not because of who we are or what we did or even because of our faith(our faith simply allows us to accept His gift). It is just because he loves us.

If our identity is in God our worth is so great that all of the universe is in our inheritance and is subject to us.

We have no choice or right to do anything but to surrender to Him EVERYTHING and accept ALL that He allows us.

Time to get dressed I guess...

I Am Deeply Sorry Sunday...

I think we owe an apology to Sunday. We've robbed it of all that it was intended to be and instead placed it at the back of the line. Most every calendar in America puts sunday at the beginning of the week, where it was meant to be, but who actually puts it there in their head? Definitely not me, and most likely not you. Christ rose again, proclaiming new life, on a Sunday which is why the early church switched its worship day to Sunday. It's supposed to mean new life, new beginnings, aliveness. We were meant to START our week off worshipping God so that we can remember all that we experience throughout the rest of the week! Instead we tag it onto the back end of our week and we start monday morning all things that before then go into "last week" in our minds and are put aside.

I do the same thing every week and I work at a church! We sit around each week planning for "this sunday", and what we think God wants the message to be for our church "this sunday"....NO! This sunday was the sunday that started at the beginning of the week, "this sunday" should be what we are still talking about as we live this week and seek to be His servants! As I prepare for the coming sunday it should be instead "what does God want for us next week?" And that is what we plan for that upcoming sunday!

I believe that if we started seeing Sundays as the beginning of the week instead of the end, we would see a change in how going to church impacts our lives, how worshipping together impacts our lives, how God impacts our lives. We need to apologize to sunday for what we have done to it and return it to its created, destined, and rightful place at the beginning of our week.
Today is Sunday night and I am praising God for the amazing way He has started this week, I cannot wait for the rest of it!

"Wait....I want my ark back now!"

2 Samuel 6:5-15
5 And David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 And David was angry because the Lord had burst forth against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. 9 And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” 10 So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 11 And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household. 12 And it was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. 13 And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. 14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.

We see that God is not safe here by the way that he deals with the priest Uzzah. I find David's reactions interesting though...first he is angry with God and then he is afraid. So afraid, in fact, that he does not allow the ark to enter his city. He sees that God is not a safe thing to have around and is afraid to let him dwell so near to his own home!

I feel that we often respond to God in a similar way. When God does something that shows that he is not safe to have around, we get angry and afraid and do not let him close. We close off our cities from allowing his presence in until we get wind that he is blessing someone else and suddenly we want Him back to bless us!

God is not always safe, but we learn that the only safe place from God is to seek to be as close as we can to Him. We need to pray that we would not be afraid when God seems unsafe but instead march him even more quickly and praised straight to the heart of our city that we might be blessed by His presence. Lets cut out the time of sending God away cause we know we will only want Him back again.

Arguments or Obedience (from My Utmost for His Highest)

. . . the simplicity that is in Christ. —2 Corinthians 11:3

Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and . . . every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).
Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.

Two Gospels...

The modern day gospel says "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps and you can be saved." Meanwhile the biblical gospel says "You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life. Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do."

The former sells books and draws crowds. The latter saves souls. Which is more important?

-David Platt (from the book Radical)

Czech 2010

“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." Habakuk 1:5

This verse pretty much sums up the last week. My friend Nathan shared this verse during a prayer time that we had the friday night before camp started and for me it has become a theme verse for this camp. I don't want to make this a long post describing how ever part of our trip went...if anyone wants to know they are free to ask! I just want to talk about the way God worked.

Ways God worked (that I know):

1. We had twice as many students at camp this year...half of them were returning and about half were new campers! We also had about half as big of a team this year....but we prayed for strength and energy and God gave it to us. Every one of us made it through camp without crashing and burning....to me this was a huge answered prayer.

2. Each night after we would tell a story from the Bible about someone who had been redeemed we would have discussion groups. These discussion groups went better than any camp I have ever been at. I don't even know how to write about this to truly say how awesome it was. Students were asking questions about God and really thinking about their lives and what they believe like I have never seen. Usually there are a few students at each camp who you can see God really working in their minds but at this camp about 95% of the students were really interested! God was working mightily in nearly EVERY student at camp. Each night it seemed that there were not enough of us to talk to students who had even more questions after discussions!

3. One of the biggest praises for this camp was about a student who has been coming to camp for the last 3 years. He is a totally crazy but fun kid and he likes to go by Bob. He lives a lifestyle that is far from God but I have seen many guys pour into him over the years and seen him wrestle with this idea of God. But last wednesday night (not even on the night we present the gospel) he accepted Christ. This was a momentous occasion for many of us especially the Bohumin youth pastor George. He was crying after that night as he led Bob in a prayer for salvation. The coolest part was that some of the change in this student was instantaneous...the rest of the camp he had what I can only describe as a new life inside of him. He was still the same crazy Bob but there was an overwhelming sense of a a feeling of being loved behind it. It was utterly amazing.

4. That same night I had an awesome experience with another student that I found sitting on a bench. Its important to note that this student was in one of the lower level english classes and so I was little hesitant to really engage him in real convesation without any translator near. But I felt I should, and so I did. I asked him what he was thinking and told me he was thinking about God and then asked me "how many years been a christian?" So I prayed a little prayer and began to tell him my testimony and he listened intently. He asked a question or two here and there which led our conversation into presenting the gospel. After I had sat with him and we talked for about an hour and I told him the gospel and my whole testimony he just looked at me and said " Its amazing, I understand everything you are saying"

5. There were numerous other conversations people had with students where they got to answer questions about God and what it means to have a relationship with Jesus and it was absolutely amazing. And it never seemed to matter what the level of english was, truth always got across. :) Many students at our camp went from saying there is no God to really thinking that maybe he does exist and if he does, what He is like. I have never seen so many large steps toward christ at once. Even though Bob was the only student we know that accepted christ with one of us I am almost certain that there were a handful that accepted Him in their mind or are about one more conversation away!

6. Another highlight of our camp was the fact that we had a baptism ceremony. I have never been to anenglish camp where someone wanted to be baptized. The crazy part was we didn't just have one student...we had 6 people come to George and say that they wanted to be baptized. Bob was just one of them, but also several of the students who were in the youth group were moved to take that step in their faith and also a few students who had accepted christ in the last year or so. It was amazing. We invited anyone from the camp who wanted to come to come see the baptisms and everyone showed up. So got a chance to explain the meaning and show this great symbol of new life and faith to all the students...whether they believed or not. And it was a moving experience for all!

There were many more moments and experiences of God working at this camp I could talk about but these were the main ones for me. I remember thinking one of the nights about that verse I quoted at the beginning and feeling just like that. God was showing us the work he was doing and I could barely believe it! Thank you all who supported us on this trip and know that your prayers and gifts did not go in vain. They went to one of the most amazing english camps josiah venture has ever experienced.

Please continue to pray for the czech youth group in Bohumin especially for the leaders George and Pajin for God has given them a great gift of all of these students who are interested in God and church and thye will be following up with all of them. They will definitely need patience and strength to do it, but as we know, the same God who worked in their lives, saved Bob, moved many of the students, and gave us all strength for the week is with them still and will continue to work through them and their church. :)

Czech update #1

Its our last day in Malenovice for english camp training and training has been great! There were so many teams here that they actually had two trainings going on at the same time staggered which seemed crazy at first but really it didn't seem as busy as I thought it would. Our team got to spend a good of amount of time hanging out with each other and laughing and also praying and preparing each other for camp. Its been a good experience and I am excited to move forward to camp! We leave today for bohumin where we will be for one day and then on saturday we leave for the camp and get started! I am so excited, I know God has great plans for this camp (we have twice as many people as last year!) and I can't wait to be a part of them!

Please keep us in your prayers, especially as we start camp. We will need a lot of supernatural energy to keep building relationships all week and as we start camp just pray that connections are made quickly and easily so that they can move quickly during camp and we can have the opportunity for many deep and lifechanging discussions!

Thanks you all for your continued support and prayers!

Living, breathing hope.

1 Peter 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.."

Peter describes a life that is born again as "living hope" -or "hope" in living, breathing form. I am floored. If I was asked to describe what hope looks like would I say myself; would I say you? When people look at my life and how I act would they describe me as "hope in human form" ? I am not so sure they would most times.

So then what does hope look like so I can look more like it? I think probably like the wind....wait what, you don't know what the wind looks like? So how do you know the wind is around? Oh by observing the effects..I got it, so for something to look like wind the effects need to be present. So what are the effects of hope? I think they are probably love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Would you be described as living hope? Lets let the Holy Spirit of God, that is given to us by faith in Jesus Christ's conquering of sin and death, help us be the embodiment of hope. :)