Worship- Evan Hilllis

So, first off, I would like to apologize for getting this last post in about a whole 4 whopping weeks late, but here it is!

Worship is such an amazing and holy thing. It's funny how my definition of worship has changed while as my faith has grow, increased, and developed. It all started off as just those songs we'd sing in youth group about that Jesus man, then it was about connecting with Him during those songs, then it was a mindset, and now it's a way of life.

By living in the Spirit, we can worship Christ with everything we do. Through song, dance, and even by planting potatoes, or something random like that!

Recently I was reading about when Satan tempted Jesus and reading this devotional brought back the image of Satan standing next to Jesus and saying,"Look at all of this, this beautiful creation of your father's. You can have all of it, every single last piece of dirt and drop of water, if you bow down and worship me." Jesus then turns to him and says, "No! I won't do this for it is written: 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve!'" The beauty of this image is not only in the triumphant defeat of Satan, but also in what Jesus is choosing to take upon himself when He chooses to worship God instead.

He chooses to be crucified, to have false accusations thrust upon Him, and all the other things listed in our devotional and not. He looked at what Satan had to offer, literally, the WORLD, and Jesus said, "No." He would rather suffer and serve all of humanity for all of eternity and live the life of a true slave than have every wish and desire fulfilled forever and ever! Amen!

If that's isn't worthy of worship, what is?

worship

"If Jesus is our leader, slavery to all man kind is a natural response to following Jesus in Spirit and in Truth!"

worship is such an amazing thing, its a time where we can kneel at the cross on our hands and knees and praise God. it isn't just a few songs being sung at the begging and end of church it is so much more! its crazy for me to think that we can be in worship throughout the whole day, as we're cleaning our room,  going to class or hanging out with friends we can be praising Christ in our actions. thats so exciting! its like as we walk in the spirit and the truth we are worshiping God in our simple tasks though out the day.

Weeks 7, 8, 9 and 10!!

Hey there, Team! So sorry I am so behind... I am still in school and have a lot going on this month! But here they are, weeks 7, 8, 9 and 10! Can't wait to see you all in just a few hours!!

Service:
I really loved the Karl Rahner prayer. SO eye-opening and convicting. I love the way he questions God and it is clear that his heart is truly open to change and reconstruction. I pray that my heart would be that open and raw. I pray that I would be that transparent with God so that He may work on my heart with me receiving the lessons openly.
I had never thought about the difference between choosing to serve and being a servant. I think that our job's this summer really require us to be servants to the students, leader and our other staff members, not just choosing to serve one but not another. I know that ministry can be so exhausting and really difficult at times, and I am sure that each of us will run into these times at some point during our time on the water. But we don't have to worry about that, for our strength and rest comes from the Lord! He will guide our words and actions as we strive to serve others to the best of our abilities, and He is always there for us to run to in times of uncertainty. And as we learn to become servants, lets not forget that we have the support and love of our whole staff, who will be walking alongside each of us through this journey. Praise the Lord for community and humility!


Celebration:
I loved the way that John Henry Newman described the angel's announcement, saying, "Such were the words which the blessed Spirits who minister to Christ and His Saints, spoke on that gracious night to the shepherds, to rouse them out of their cold and famished mood into great joy; to teach them that they were objects of God's love as much as the greatest of men on earth; nay more so, for to them first He had imparted the news of what that night was happening." Newman explains that God sent his angels to the shepherds, of all people. They were not the most important or the most qualified to hear this glorious news first, but they were no less worthy( or excited, for that matter)!The shepherds were celebrating God's great love for them and for the world, just as we celebrate His great love. I love celebrating, whether it is Christmas or Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you... hahaha.) But this devotional really brought out opportunities to celebrate to my attention. We are all children of God. We are "Imago Dei", made in God's image. We have SO MUCH to celebrate! We can breathe, smell and see. We can make food and taste it. We can use our voices to yell and laugh and sing praises to our Heavenly Father. We can paint and solve math problems and dance and feel a wide range of emotions. And all of things are cause to celebrate our God for His great love and the many blessings He gives.

Guidance:

Psalm 24:1-6 "The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers."
This verse has been a great comfort to me in the last few years of my life and has been a source of guidance, as it lets me know that God means it when He tells us that He has it all under control! There are two sides to guidance for us as Christians. First, we have to be attentive to God's guidance in our lives. I think we find this guidance through all of the topics we have been discussing in our blog posts! It is important for us to be deeply rooted in the word so we may study and meditate upon it. We must converse with God through prayer. We must set aside time for solitude, as well as be intentional about serving one another. Through these disciplines, the Lord guides us and shows us his good and perfect plans for us. And through these experiences, I believe that God has called us to help him guide others in their life choices, joys and sorrows. God calls us to live in community, and people in community want to help and be helped. God has given each of us special gifts which enable us to bring His kingdom to earth, and guidance is a big part of that. And aren't we lucky... WE get to follow God's path and guide each other and the campers out on the water in the California sunshine. Yeah, THAT is pretty awesome :)

Lord, I ask that you would equip each of us to follow you this summer. I pray that you would fill us up so that we may pour out gentle love and guidance on those around us.



Worship:
Oh, I love worship! It is usually my favorite part of church services and I love the way it brings people to a state of noticeable yet humble beauty. But this devotional reading really made me think about what worship IS and not what produces. I know that I have a sense of peace and adoration when I am in my "worship zone" if you will, but I don't notice this feeling a lot during the times that I am not choosing to worship. And there it is... I choose the times I want to worship. Shouldn't my life be dedicated to honoring God's glory and power at all times? I think it should be. But I know this will never be totally achievable until I am with the Lord in heaven. And while I still love worship in church, I will be more attentive to my daily worship. I want to use my whole life to glorify my Lord and my God, not just my whole Sunday or my whole summer with Sonshine.

For we are the Lord's and all that we do shall bring honor to His name!

Guidance

I think what really struck me in this post was how the purpose of creatures is to study God's character so that we may reflect His image in our lives and set out to do the work that He wants us to do: for His glory to be revealed in our lives. It was crazy to me to think how different my life would look like if i choose to live by and remember these truths about God: that I received everything from God, that I belong to God, that I am surrounded by Him and His love, that my fate is in God's hands, and that my eternity is to be with God, in a companionship of unspeakable delights. How differently would our lives look if we actually lived out and truly believed these truths. I think I fall into the trap of so often forgetting who God is and who He is in my life. I think that it's all about me and my time when in reality, I, as a creature of the  Creator, living in the Creator's hands, exist not for myself but for God. We forget that we were not meant to control our lives on our own and do whatever we want but that we were created to love God forever and to serve Him from that love motive. I really want to write these truths down somewhere and just see how I would live my life differently by constantly remembering who God says He is.

here i am to worship

"If Jesus is our leader, miracles should be expected to occur in worship."

"If Jesus is our leader, slavery to all mankind is a natural response to following Jesus in Spirit and in Truth!"

Worship isn't a selfish act to make ourselves feel good or look good or to get on God's good side, but it is giving everything we have all up to Him. Worship is praising and exalting the amazing Lord who sacrificed everything for our sin! He loves us soo much and we worship as a response to His love. Through this worship we become slaves. It is our natural reaction to having Jesus as our leader. Worshipping in every aspect of our lives will allow us to truly be servants of Christ.

See you all TOMORROW!! :)

Worship

Worship is so much more than songs sung in church on a Sunday morning. "We do ourselves a great disservice to think that worship only happens in the walls of a building on specific nights or mornings in a week." This devotional made me look back at all the times I've felt my time was being wasted by remedial tasks, it makes me wonder what miralces God could have worked in my life had I been worshiping him in spirit. I love Revelation 4:11, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." God created all things; every far reaching mission trip to every mundane chore. If God created it all, that must mean we can worship Him through all of it too. We must find who we are and why we worship in Him and His promises because when we follow him it isn't going to be easy and we are going to suffer, but we get to have an unshakable joy no matter what happens and as far as I am concerned, that is worth worshiping.

I love you all! Can't wait to see you guys tomorrow!

Guidance and Worship

What are we really without God? His guidance is what drives us to be the people we have become and are going to be. His compassionate teachings show us how to live and love. The dude is seriously awesome! This "creature" lesson was very interesting because it looks at things from a different perspective, figuring out why what we believe is truth.
The phrase "God is his end" really struck me because it points out that we are not the purpose of our lives, but living for God is.. Which gets me thinking about why we do the crazy things we do on earth if in the end we know it's all about God, if he's our end goal then why do we spend so much more time worrying about short term earthly things instead of enjoying the splendor and joy of the King. It's madness is what it is.
The second scriptural note is awesome as it asks who can take the Lords place, well of course anyone who is clean and perfect is welcome to. I picture a scene where He's standing there asking who will take His seat, asking "anyone? anyone at all?" And then the awesome thing is that even though we aren't clean and we do sin we can still be cleaned by the one who is in the throne and through his guidance can conquer this enemy known as sin!

Worship is such an amazing thing because we can come before an almighty God and acknowledge how amazing he is, and thank Him for the wonderful works that He done for us undeserving people. When I think of worship I tend to think of guitars and singing but how true is it that we can worship no matter what? Even just being out on the water we can be constantly worshiping through giving Him our time and our hands. Every counter cleaned and every sandwich made can be an act of worship if we put ourselves in a place of love and open mindedness to Gods glory.
I love the "if Jesus is our leader" quotes because there are so many things that fit into that sentence. Certainly this act of worship is the least of the things that should be expected in response to His word and love. We should be pouring ourselves out in response which in itself is an act of worship.

Worship

Hi, All,

I liked the devotional this week. It's nice to think that worship doesn't have to be singing. I'm afraid I often don't have a very worshipful attitude in general, though. It's something to work on. I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Gwen

weeks 9 and 10

Guidance: As children of God we were made in his image and with all the same attributes. Like humility, love, kindness, compassion, mercy, etc. We all have the pieces to become who God made us to be. We just have to find out where they go, and we can with the help of Jesus and the holy spirit. We were made with those characteristics because we are children of God. He is a part of us, and we are a part of Him. I feel like it's easier to be someone you were made to be, then to try to be someone completely different. Being someone completely different; is taking yourself away from the creator, to follow a dark, and broken dead end road. Jesus came to show us the straight path that lights up the darkness and helps you to see. He was the life that we were made to live. He was the perfect example of a creatures life.


Worshiping: Worshiping God is what started my new perspective on life. driving 45mins to school everyday i would listen to 107.3fm and sing along to the song. Some songs made me happy, sad, some even spoke differently to my heart as if God played it for me at the moment i needed it. This lasted a semester and became the BEST part of my day.. Now i only listen to Christian radio stations and have more knowledge of God then i did when i first believed. Serving others and helping out are ways of worshiping God. If we are ALL children of God then what we do for mankind or our peers or parents. Its like were doing it to God for God. Worshiping is a great way to show God you've acknowledged what hes done and that your soooo grateful for it.. I often thank God for the blessings he gives me.. The seen and acknowledged but also the unseen and unnoticed.

Week 9 and 10

Guidance...

"The Creature's end is God"

That line is simply profound.  That everything we do is meant for God, always.  I took that sentence and reworded it as such, "Stephanie's end is God, always." and I will tell myself that even if I'm doing something uncomfortable, or that I don't want to do, it's all for God.

This has greatly affected me for when I'm at the Delta I will miss my senior Grad Dessert at my church, the Seniors run the weekend at my church, and will not be able to help my family move.  For escrow just closed today and this weekend my family is moving into a new house (for the 1st time in the past 12 years!) and I won't be there.  With all that is going on in my life I have been rather sweet and sour about this upcoming weekend.  A part of me wants to just stay home and finish my homework and go to church and help my family move.  While the other part of me (that is winning to say the least) knows that God has something amazing in store for me this weekend and who am I to say no to God? And the line I created above, "Stephanie's end is God, Always" is giving me extreme courage to deal with the fact that I have to make tough decisions and that I will follow through and serve even if I must give up something to do it.

Worship...

"If Jesus is our leader, slavery to all mankind is a natural response to following Jesus in Spirit and in Truth!"

I am forever going to hold onto this line.  It will be my bread and butter, and will help me get through this summer.  It will encourage me, and remind me that I am not higher than anyone else, I am simply a servant placed in this world for God to use.  And being His servant requires that I be a servant to all mankind.  And I will always pursue this, even when I don't want to.

I can't wait to see you all this weekend....

With Lots of Love... Stephanie! :)

catching up!!

• FRIENDS!
  
  I’m SO sorry for being so behind on this… life has just gotten to much in the way but I’m finally finding time to write this down!
  
  Service
  
  I definitely think that I tend to be more service oriented then servant oriented. I love serving Jesus…. as long as I have control over who I get to serve and when I can serve, etc. And I think that for the longest time, I convinced myself that that is all that God wants from me… that that is all that he calls me to… to serve on my terms and my conditions. But God calls all of us to be servant to him…. Giving up our right to be in charge, letting go of all of our wants and desires and surrendering our plans and what we want to him. We can be used to God’s fullest potential once we give up the control and giving ourselves the opportunity to experience the great freedom of participating in His will and plan fully. We have the privilege of getting to be a servant to our King… why wouldn’t we want to experience the full greatest joy and peace and freedom? It takes courage and boldness to completely let everything go but what a blessing to get to be a servant to our Savior, vulnerable and ready to tell everyone of this indescribable joy and love and peace.
  
  Celebration
  
  Coming back home and adjusting to life back with the family has been really hard. My family is going through a lot with my sister right now and its been hard to try to focus on the positives of life when it just seems like we are stuck in a world of darkness. Being home so far has kinda made me forget what is at the heart of Christianity and the center of our faith: CELEBRATION. Celebrating that our Savior has won, celebrating that despite being in a storm of pain and confusion, Christ is taking hold of us as we press on, celebrating how loved we are by our Savior, celebrating the grace He has generously bestowed on us, celebrating how we are daughters and sons to the King of the Universe.... how can our response to all of these truths not be celebration? THIS is our light and hope amongst all the anger and pain. THIS is what we should be turning and clinging to... I had simply forgotten since being home who God is and who He claims to be and how celebration is the heart of Christ.

7 & 8

Service is something i feel like God has been leading mean to do. Serving or giving back opens up the spirit. Its showing love to people Gods made in his likeness. Also to show love to people who need it, its what were called to do as believers. Show them the light and let God do the rest. Also pray, praying works great! Serve, is what Jesus did with His LIFE. He came to earth to serve us and to serve God. He did what was written by God (his father) I feel like to serve someone is to lay down your life for theirs. Put the worries and problems of others above your own.


Being a child of God is something to celebrate. His love for us has to bounds. He came to earth to die for us so we can live. That's the greatest new of my life!! When you seek and find Him. It blows your mind, you start seeing more, and more of him around you. How advanced WE are, how everything has a system to keep the earth thriving and life continuing. He never ceases to AMAZE either. I mean the man dies for us and still continues to show how much MORE he loves us, by continuing to serve us and answer our prayers. Its definitely something worth celebrating for! But we should also show thanks to God by doing what week 7 talks about.

Let's celebrate =)

What struck me as very interesting was the distinguishing between who has the spirit and who does not. What I understood from the Bible verses in the devotional is that if you have Jesus in you then you then have the Spirit. But if you do not then you do not have the Spirit. But, then what about miracles that happen to those that are lost and then drawn to Jesus because of this? I suppose God has no limits =D I don't think that we need to understand everything.

I love that EVERYTHING shouts Jesus' name!! Nature, every good characteristic of a human is from God, all that is good. So, then wouldn't it be obvious that everyone would believe in Jesus and devote their lives to Him? Well, as I learned in this devotional, as John 1:5 says: "THe light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" I love this because it shows us that they CAN understand. They are just not understood yet so it is our duty and great opportunity to share Jesus' love with them. I have learned that this does not mean to necessarily just share the doctrine or the religion of christianity but it is more than that! This means to do what Jesus did.. He shared with people strategically. He lovingly got to know them and cared for their needs as to show God/Jesus's love with them. They then "understood" because they saw the truth in the love that is from God. This just gets me so pumped to read the gospels and see what Jesus did, go out and do it as much like Him as I can =D

SO, LET"S CELEBRATE in that Jesus died for us. Let's celebrate by dying ourselves that our lives can be in and for Him in everything we do!

Love you all and see you all very soon!
God Bless!
-Kev

Guidence and Worship

So this past week has been finals week for me and today is my last "final" its really just another photo critique but the rest of this week through the weekend is going to be rad because after my critique I am headed up to Mt. Soledad in La Jolla for our annual USD intervarsity leadership retreat then leaving early from that to go to our retreat!

So in the week for guidance the three things that really stuck out to me were the first title we are creatures, God became a creature, and the creature loves and serves God. For some reason that I still can't fully grasp was the whole little section about the creature that loves and serves God. It just really struck me.

Worship has been something that I have been trying to find my niche in and figure out how I truly worship outside of just singing and one of the first sentences that says "More often than not the Holy Spirit whispers to me that I am worshiping the Lamb while doing the most mundane things" and that is totally true. When we live by example we worship through the things we do even when we ourselves may not recognize it.

Solitude

Solitude is the best thing you can do to reach God. I read a book that explained our lives as ripples in the water. and the only time you can see your reflection in the water is when the waters are calm. No noise or movements. This is the best way to hear what God has for you and she yourself clearly. The worries and demands of this life often flush His voice out of our heads. Solitude brings me true peace and it makes it a whole lot easier to hear the voice of God. Its hard to do because of all the distractions this life has. School, work, Tv, FB, computers, games, cooking, cleaning, kids, etc. All these things cover up His voice and will for us. Solitude and silence clean up all the distractions and leave one thing left, the voice of God. The only thing that matters in this life and the one to come.

Catching up

Wooow I have been horrible with this lately. May has been the most stressful month by far this year! I am working on the devos from the past three weeks. I just did service and I'm reading celebration right now. Service was a really cool devotion for me and was something I needed a reminder of for this week. I am so stoked to see everyone this weekend!

Guidance

Psalm 25:5 says "Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." One of my favorite verses!
Every step which a creature takes, when he has once been created, increases his dependence on the Creator... Every single day I live is because I am completely and wholly dependent on my Creator. I have received everything from Him and only He knows where I am headed! Because of this it is so silly of me not to seek Him for guidance in absolutely everything I do. I am a creature and creature means "All for God." He has created my everything and it's up to me to continue that relationship and rely on Him in each and every step of my journey. God uses so many different things as tools to guide us but the most important one is Scripture. "Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light on my path." Psalm 119:105
He is literally using his Word to create the path which we will follow! Trust in Him because only He knows what's best!!
SO excited for this weekend! only 2 more days :)

Guidance & Worship

Guidance

When I think of a creature I do not think of, “All for God.” Reading into this devotion was a little bit difficult and not the easiest to understand but God showed me a few things through this. We face trials daily because God is not done working in us and making us who He wants us to be. If we were perfect, there would be no room for growth and certainly no room for God to shape us. The few words that stood out to me were, “Holiness is an unselfing ourselves.” That is so hard to even understand, let alone to live it out. We need to make God our end, and remember that we are creatures, living All for Him. 

Worship

Worship is not only something that we do to praise Jesus, but it’s a lifestyle. We are able to worship the Living God in spirit and in truth through simple acts throughout the day, how awesome is that? One of my favorite things to do is worship but more times than not I find myself worshipping if it’s good music or I can feel the Holy Spirit working in me. I have to then return my focus on the one I am worshipping for the sake of knowing Him more. There is no need to restrict our worship or relationship with God to certain places and certain times, we can worship in ALL things.

-Taylor Lee

brian - week ten - worship

^ God created that

worship is awesome

it's true that we should be worshipping God through simple acts such as washing clothes, making our beds, and cooking food; we have to remember that God gave us all these things and that we are blessed to even have clothes, beds, and food

however, one of my pastor's quotes is "we cannot worship comfort over Christ" - we have to be willing to get in uncomfortable situations if it means glorfiying God; like choosing not to do something that is contrary to what God commands, even if everyone else is doing it, for example, or simply standing up for what we believe in

in the end, we cannot worship ourselves (the created) but we can only worship God (the creator)

some more worship quotes:

"Be thankful...but be careful that you don't become so enamored of God's good gifts that you fail to worship the giver." - AW Tozer

“Everybody has something, that if they lose it, they won't even want to live life anymore. That is what you're worshiping.”

“The awareness that God is present and a recognition of who this God is make for meaningful worship.  In other words, authentic worship of God is a function of our affirmation that he is here and our understanding of who he is.  The vitality and relevance of our worship is directly related to our view of God.”

Guidance (:

Being God's creation is such an amazing blessing. While I am not perfect and can think of so many people I would consider to be better people than I, He calls me to something particular. Some work that he will guide me to and through can't be done by anyone else. Everything I study equips me for what God is calling me to do but as it says, "the only science which will last with him and stand him in good stead, consists in his study of the character of God. He received everything from God." Every good thing that I have ever done is from God. I must exist for God, not overall but in each moment my goal must be to show God's love from what I choose to wear, to what I say, to everything. God knows how hard it is for us to make our everything Him when his son Jesus became a creature too. Our God is so compassionate and loving, who else would do that for someone who is only going to wrong them over and over again? Hopefully as I grow in my relationship with Him I will look more and more like him and my life will too, because in my heart I know that I want my life to reflect Him and His will for it and as a creature, the "precise obligation of loving our Creator supremely as our sole end, and of serving Him from the motive of love."

God Bless you all! Can't wait to see you this weekend :)

Guidance

So this week the point that really stuck out to me because it's been a huge focus in my life the last year or so was the part that said Every step which a creature takes, when he has once been created, increases his dependence on the Creator... The Creator's hand is the creature's home.. How awesome is it to know that where I belong is in the in the safety of the Creator of our universe. Through some hard lessons I've been learning that we face trials and tribulations a main aspect of our existence because God allows them in our life so that way we may seek him more and learn to depend on him more.

When I was reading this the Gungor song Beautiful Things kept playing in my head,
You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of dust.
You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of us.

 Ahhhh guys I am so stoked for this weekend!! I can't wait to see all of you guys again and get ready for this summer!:)
-Syd

Got some catching up to do....

service.

to serve or be a servant? 

before reading this devotional i never realized there was such a difference between the two. Richard Foster worded it well when he described the difference and it kinda opened my eyes to the real meaning behind the words and its gnarly. i find myself so often just serving others and choosing who to serve and when to. but Christ doesn't call us to just serve but to follow his example and he's is the ultimate servant.  he voluntarily chose to be taken advantage of, to surrender the right the decide who he wants to serve, to be available and to be vulnerable, that so crazy! and now its our choice to serve other or to deny ourselves pick up our crosses and follow him. 

Celebration.

this past week hasn't been entirely rough but it hasn't been the easiest either and this devotional really spoke to me and reminded me to celebrate the relationship Christ has given me to grow deeper with him and when i give it all to him i have nothing to worry about. Also how rad it is that celebration is such an awesome part of being a Christ follower. knowing that with Christ we can celebrate in our trials and know that with him we are kept from temptation as we continue to give God our all and lay at the cross and turn to him.  like it said it the devotional "lets party" cause we have eternity with him as we celebrate what the true meaning of the cross is and was an awesome promise it is. 

Guidance.

"the creator's hand is the creature's home"

we are creature's! so insane!

this devotional hit home for me. lately I've been struggling with where God wants me and I've been seeking his guidance but not fully getting a clear answer and after reading this devotional i can see why. "God must have his whole heart as well as his whole mind" I've been trying to give God my all; all my struggles, all my doubts, all my worries and so much more but i haven't been giving him my whole mind. i know God is calling me to leave school and follow him but i have such a great future planned in my mind, go to school, transfer to a bible college, get my degree and start a career but Christ doesn't want me to find my identity in school but in him. like the devotional said " man belies his own position as a creature when he swerves from his sole true end" and thats what I'm doing I'm not looking at Gods end but my own and in denying Gods call on my heart because i want to go to school but when i put my fate in Gods hands and listen to him i know he's calling me out of school and towards him and to discover him and to do an outreach to share his love. so it all comes down for me to remember that I'm a creature and Christ is my creator and to seek and follow his guidance because God is our end and he has the best plan for us. all we have to do is listen and follow.

GUIDANCE AND WORSHIP

Guidance:
God is the creator and we are His creatures. As Gods creatures we must behave in that manor. Gudiance is very important in our walk with God. Eventhough God is the creator of everything and everyone, we don't all belong to Him. Our path is either eternity to be with Him in a companionship or we are to be exiled from Him. It's awesome to know that we belong to God eventhough we don't deserve it. But He loves us. When we are guided by Him we are living for Him. God wants our hearts and not just a portion; He wants all of it. Everything we have should be for God.  I really like how it says "holiness is an unselfishing oursevles." When God calls us to be holy He doesn't want us to be self-seeking. When we think of God as our end, we are putting Him before ourselves. We need to remember that it is not about us, but it is about the creator. The reason we are able to have a relationship with God is because of Christ. He shows us how to live our lives. God loves us. We are able to love the creator because He loved us first.

Worship:
When I first think of worship I think of singing in church. In John 4:23-24, it says that we should worship in spirit and truth. When I worship I'm praising God, I'm showing Him that I love Him and that I'm His slave. There are other ways that I show God my worship to Him without singing. It could be when I talk about Christ to people that are not saved or when I read my bible or even when I do something that I love. We can always be worshiping God; Worship doesn't always have to be at a specific place. Worship should be about giving glory and honor to our Lord. God wants us to worship Him and only Him. Worshiping the Lord should be a constant thing we do in our lives.

I'm really excited to see you guys this weekend!
-Keisha

Guidance- Evan Hillis

Hey everybody! Guess what? ALL-STAFF TRAINING THIS WEEKEND!!! Woo! Fun stuff :D

Anyway, this devotional on guidance was pretty hard for me to read, mostly due to the dense language used in it. In order to really get the meaning of what the words were saying, you had to stay completely focused on it and not let you mind wonder for one minute. I found that I had to reread many passages because while I was reading I had become distracted by a thought. I find this remarkable because it's just like my walk with Jesus: every single day, He tries to tell and show me incredible, amazing things, but in order to hear and understand Him, I need to direct myself fully to Him. When I don't and my focus is shifted to something else, I loose part of what He's trying to say since I'm too concerned chasing something else. 

A line that really stuck out to me was near the beginning when it said,"...We know nothing of what has gone before us..." Now, anyone who has gone to school or talked with people knows that we know about events that have gone on before we were alive, including the existence of great civilizations, the invention of new, astounding technologies, wars, and the death of an all-together awesome Jew on a cross! However, upon reflecting on this, I saw that we as human's don't know what went on before we existed! Sure, God gave us Genesis and in that book the beginning of everything is described, but do we really know about the beginning of things? Can we say we know what it looked like when God was carving the mountains into the earth and just how awe-inspiring it was when He brought the first light into the universe? No. We can only know of what was written for us from Him. To imagine the almighty God of the universe doing all these astounding things really makes you feel so small and insignificant in the scheme of things. The best part about all of that though is that God knows you better than words can describe, has an individualized plan for you and your life, and He wants to be your best friend forever! Woo!

On a different note, as you guys know, the emails came out for the fundraising and that was well, a painful and humbling experience. For all of you who were also discouraged by that message, here's a story for you!

Unfortunately, I've been incredibly busy this past couple months and I wasn't doing well with my fundraising at all. Sure, I sent out a message and asked a few people, but with my schedule and the perfect excuse of hating to ask people for money (which I'm still not comfortable with), I could've done more than I had done thus far. And so, as you can imagine, reading that email and seeing the tiny amount of money raised was shocking and flat out depressing. I thought to myself,"Come on God, you know I'm busy! I don't have time for this and I hate asking people for money!" Also, I have an issue with being prideful on occasion and this truly showed that. I was confident that I wouldn't have to pay any of the funds and that I would raise all the money necessary, but as it turned out, I hadn't. In fact, I had fallen incredibly short, which was quite embarrassing to me and my prideful ego. To have to pay with my own money would've meant that I failed, that I wasn't worthy of serving this summer.... I can't believe how silly that sounds!

It was then that it stuck me that this was a small example of how short we all fall in comparison to the glory of God. I prayed and felt bad about it for sometime, but once I got Alyssa's message it just struck me that all I can do is to do my best and to get up and fundraise despite how short I was at the moment. I quickly sent out another email, set some fundraising plans into motion, and whatever I can't get, I will gladly pay. Now I'm not saying that it's okay to just pay and not try to get out there and fundraise, but for me, I realized what a prick I was being to myself and God and for the moment, He's fixed that! Yay! In fact, since then I've already gained a good portion of the $500 through fundraising. Is He way too good to me?  Yup. 

And so, I just wanted to encourage the rest of you in your fundraising endeavors, no matter where you are with it. God is using this to teach us all amazing things and I pray that you each receive His message for you through it! God bless and see you all this weekend!

Submission

I now that Jesus came to the world to save it and that he helped anyone and everyone he could. Submission was His lifestyle. He always put others before himself and submitted to everyone. In doing this he showed us what true love is all about. Not about class, money, politics, Jobs. It was about relationships and limiting himself out of love. Putting himself as the lowest and the least Because to God money is worthless and so is governments and other man made institutions. Hes MUCH MUCH bigger then the Things made by man. By submitting himself to everyone it amazed people and still does. He didnt care about authority or money. His only concern was doing the will of God and helping every lost soul who asked for help.

I Wouldn't Rather Be Anywhere Else

This has been a week where I have been seeking and begging for my fidelity to God's guidance. Like waves crashing over me, I get pulled out and then reminded that being with God is the only thing that can ever matter to me. To love God and love people, this is what I was created for. In truth, no matter how distracted I find myself. I know that There is no place I would rather be than right here trying desperately to follow Him. I want to be actually humbled. I want to stop fighting it. I want to stop talking about being humbled. I want to actually be humbled. "Yet God must be right... He clearly has work to do."And with each step I should be growing more dependent on Him. Sometimes I feel like I can't possibly be genuine enough, I want to rip out my heart fix whatever is wrong with it and stick it back in. But that isn't the nature of this journey and completely rules out the Guidance. Sometimes I just wish that ceasing to struggle was as tangible as that. I went on a retreat with College Life (Christian Fellowship on UCD campus) and our speaker said: Our response to serving God should be "I can't help but" instead of "I feel like I should." As it is when we find ourselves loving (brotherly or otherwise) our neighbors. I've been thinking lately that the Christian wold always puts our relationship with Christ in terms of a relationship, a friendship. But we never define it. Until recently I didn't really understand the relationship part, even though I've grown up my entire life in relationships. Granted it's an unequal friendship. I am so clearly not on the same plane as God. But He chose to interact with me and I can't help but be changed by that. Every season, there's something different to learn. It's like He's putting together the puzzle of me. The struggles come because I am not finished yet. And in all honestly I wouldn't be much fun to play with when I am finished. I'd just sit there. There wouldn't be any interaction anymore. Life on this earth without interaction with the Spirit of God would be empty, broken, and plain boring for both of us. I really don't like struggling though. So I guess, I struggle with my need to struggle. The little bit in the devotion about God being out end has always bothered me. Maybe I just don't understand it completely yet. But as much as I understand this to be pretty impossible I don't want to have to have an end. I want there to be so little me in me that I don't even start. I guess more like I don't deserve a beginning. The broken people (myself included) on this earth don't want to see me, they want to see Christ. And so I don't even want to start. I don't want to want what I want. I want to want what God wants, with everything I am, and come to only want His wants. I am such a broken and lost person.