Exodus 15:25-26

²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. ²⁶ He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."


God is righteous. God is holy. God is a healer. In times of trouble, God will heal you. By obeying God, and His laws, God will bring healing upon you for God is righteous. Yet, if you rebel, God will provide consequences and destruction. God's love is amazing, holy, and righteous.

Love

As the summer comes to a close, I just can't explain how God moved in my life. Here's a little summary then. Coming into the summer, my main goal was just to draw closer to God. I thought that in my head, but not in my heart. Over my life, God has been working in my life in such an amazing way. That way is called love. From the warm embrace of my mommy, to my sister tucking me into bead, to talking to my dad online, or to just the noogies from my brother Shawn, Jesus showed His love for me through other people. It's been so awesome, how my family, friends, and everyone were always there for me, regardless of how bad i was, they were there, but the most of all, the One who was behind all of it , was my Daddy, Jesus Christ. This is a bit personal, but i hope that's ay okay with youo, somethings you have to get personal =] Jesus showed me so much on just relying on Him this summer, from just the brooklyn missions, which i ll get more later into, to His fatherly love at the agape conference, all the way to the commitment and love of Jesus, it's been so great what Jesus has been doing. I just can't imagine, His love for me and this world. That He was willing to take all the pain, shame, rejection, suffering, and sin on the Cross for us. He offered himself as a living sacrifice to set us free. Just feeling His presence is just so awesome. How He humbled himself to the point that He became a common criminal for us, and how He gave His life so that we can know of His great splendors and of His love. Today at worship , it's just been such an honor worshiping God. Soaking in His presence , and just feeling just waves of His love has been so great. God showed me a lot about humility , and just putting Him before anything else. Before hat other people think about me, before what the person beside me is doing, but truly just magnifying His glorious name and feeling His love and to glorify who He is! and just how awesome my Daddy really is. God has been great. I want to encourage you just to seek His presence and to sing and to glorify of His victorious love, and How much He wants you.

The Times of Jeremiah

What is happening to our nation once under God? I can barely watch the news anymore, it's the same thing over and over again. People getting murdered, the rich getting richer, more scandels, poor getting more depressed, it's the time of Jeremiah. The Lord is breaking forth calamity over our nation. Who is willing to take the stand, to rightfully proclaim this nation under God? For Christ? I really want to encourage you guys to look at the life of Jesus, and His life, and truly living up to who were called to be Sons and Daughters of God, disciples, Christians. Let us get out of the comfort zone , and allow God to take control of our life. Where are the Daneils of this generation? Where are the Isiah's? , the Elijahs, oh where. Instead of always huddling in the our selective cliques, let's break the cliques. Why can't we love one another? Are we not in the Body of Chrsit? Truly, why cannot we be unified? And then take the Gospel outsidse the 4 walls of church. To love all who come nears us, to be a Jesus to people, healing the sick, prophecying in Jesus name, and most of all, laying our lives down to do Christ's will for us. I see how our Heavenly Father is crying, everytime someone dies from a driveby shooting or a scandel, oh how corrupt is our generation. Lord God, we need you. These are your children O God. I see how so many times we clap, we dance , we say amen, but how many times do we deny our selves, pick up our cross , and follow Jesus Christ!Oh Fire fall down on us we pray. Father, reveal yourself to your children. Rise up a generation with selfless faith. There will be struggles, difficulties, temptations, but Lord i know that you've went through them and through the power of the Cross, i can over come them. Through the loving body of Christ, i can rely on one another and share and pray and read your Word, and love , and live for You oh Jesus. Come Father, We are so hungry for your name, come and change this generation. Fire, fall down. Reveal your love DAddy, reveal. by your grace Father, the time has come.

New York City Missions

Wow, how can i explain this mission? My goodness gracious. This was just absolutely crazy. Getting there I didn't know what to expect. I knew we were going to share the Good News of Jesus Christ but it turned out men of God changed my life in those 6 days. God has been so good to us, showing our the whole team the meaning of being one in the body of Christ and truly having an intimate relationship with Him. Having a team of 33 from Tennessee with funny accents =P, I thought it would just be an ordinary mission working together. It soon turned out we became family. We bonded so much and we all drew close to God so radically and intimately in that week man. One moving location whom "Yogi Bear" ( name of the ministry there ) preached at were subway carts. What happened was that one person would get up , draw the crowd's attention and share the love of Jesus Christ. I personally shared my testimony, and just the love of Jesus, and with God's presence with you, He moved souls everywhere He went. After sharing the Gospel, we would ask if they would accept Jesus into their heart, then the whole team would move out witnessing one on one to the peeps in the subways. Hearts were change and people were delivered all by God's grace, and I saw God move through that week i never even imagined. Though we were rejected at times, God's grace and love pushed in and we weren't looking forward to results or people's approval, but just being obedient and faithful to God. He opened up doors and opportunities which blew me away. One time we were singing worship songs in the middle of the train station, and I saw a girl curious on what we were doing. Explaining how we were just worshiping God and how God moved in my life, I saw she was deeply moved and God's love had just touched her right in the heart. It was amazing. Another time was when Evangeline and I met a couple at Coney Island. We shared the Good News of Jesus Christ and it moved both people. They soon accepted Jesus in their heart and were completely moved by God's grace. I felt the presence and pouring of God's presence and salvation moving and shaking New York City. The Tennessee folks were just also amaZING. They were just so nice and so on fire for God. They were all a bit shaky in the beginning but as i saw God working through each and every one of them throughout the week, they were all shaken radically and were freaks for JESUS! We bonded and unified and had awesome and hilarious times together, and God was just always there with us no matter what happened. He never left our backs, and He never will. Now you may ask how do you evangelize to people or how do you start a conversation. 90% of people won through Christ are won through family and friends. BE their friends, be a Jesus to them. Love them as Jesus would love them, and know how much God loves you that He was willing to be crucified on the cross for your sins. It's that easy, and just a simple conversation like that can change a person for all of eternity. There was an amazing skit team and drama team just giving it all out for Jesus. Encountering God was amazing as well. When pastor Jay shared the message of when sin came through the world , it brought shame/guilt, fear, assigning blame, rejection, yet when Jesus Christ died on the cross, it nullified all of it and when He resurrected from the dead, He conquered all the obsticales in our lives and that He lives in us now giving us the same authority and love. God's been amazing throughout this week, and im praying that will give a chance for God to reveal how much He loves you, and who you can be with having Him in your life.

revolution cry, can you heart it?

Sometime this decade, something went wrong. Whether it was just after-shocks of the Hippie Rebellion or 9/11, or even the War in Iraq, something's wrong with our generation. So you ask how? Let's go over the facts. If you have been frozen up in an ice cube since the 1960, and now you wake up to 2007, let's see what changed. Divorce rates sky rocketing, to 1/2 marriages are ending up in divorce( what happaned to i ll love you until the end?), teen trippled suicide, soaring rate of depression( some say it's even worse than the great depression, i guess video games and lsd does get you pretty down), quadrupled rate of reported violent, from whether the columbine shootings or the recent v-tech one, something's wrong, oh so dearly wrong. Can we change in the midst of darkness? Are we able to turn around? Guess what? It doesn't end with this. It doesn't end like this, and never should. And definetly, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. God is raising a generation, a generation to let us get back to our first love, to change society, and change the world. So , what is this called, oh , oh , that word. Revolution. Now, I'm not saying that you rebuke your teachers and start protesting and complaining to your local government, or throw the national govt. It's simply just a call for something far more radical. Simply just living out the Bible, having a call for the people of God to spark a chain affect which can change the world, giving the depressed hope, finding skeptics on their knees, the lost found, and ultimetly, God's name magnified. So you say, count me in! I want to change the world! Yeah, let's live for Jesus! Wohoo! Yeah, I like that, that's the spirit! But look, the is something else that you must see. Now you look back to Jesus' day, where chariots were the new dodge durangos and then there was the all american donkey replaced the ferrari.. Looking back at Jesus' life, I saw wow, this dude was crazy. And He was. He challenged the Pharisees, traditions, healed the sick, raised the dead, prohpecized, spoke with authority, i mean like Jesus was pretty awesome ( He was nice too , and loving =) ) But as i also look back at His life, people tried to kill Him. He was betrayed( Judas who sold the brotha out for 30 pieces of silva ), rejected, persecuted, flogged, and ultimetly nailed on the cross for what? Let me tell you something. Light is always a threat to darkness. Truth is a threat to lies, Purity a threat to perversion, holiness a threat to sin, God's people a threat to the world. Simply to put it, Jesus was a threat. The way he rolled was a threat, His lifestyle , His standards, they were all threats. Why? He was revolutionary. He was light in the darkness.That's why the Gospel is such a threat to the world system, even though the message within the Gospel is actually one of peace, love, and reconciliation. Jesus never gave up, i wondered about that. And then i saw His passionate love for His people, gentile or jews. He loved them so much he was ready to be humiliated to the lowest level of a common criminal, to be beat, to be flogged, all while He had the complete the authority the Son of God. He loved us this much. You cannot go anywhere of do anything or have any slight of a passion for God unless you realize His intimate love and passion for you. That's the only thing that will get you running, that will have that fire burning in your heart, that will allow you to run and not grow weary, that burning passion in your heart, that's called love. Psalm 147:10-11 - His pleasures is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delights in the legs of a man, the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. More than anything, God wants to be in a close relationship to you and me. That's what sparks a revolution, an overflow of love. pow.

Wow. Back in the early days of like apostle paul and his bro's , they were just so fun to be around. I mean like, when the believers all shared their possessions and everyone became a big family, rich or poor, everyone becomes homies and brothas in Christ. The poor and rich collided, they they broke bread, praised God, loved each other, do crazy things like heal the sick, like i mean, it was pretty wack back then. It was a whole new way of life, no wonder the early church was called the Way. Greek or Jewish, Philip preached to all, breaking the ethnic barriers, regardless of who or what you are, your always accept by the blood of Jesus. Like how Jesus hanged out with the prostitutes and the lepers, these guys schooled the Romans, dared to help the poor like beautfiul, and dared to go against traditions. I was reading this book, called The Irresistible Revolution, and this guy, Shane Claiborne ( one dangerous dude ) he shared this thing called radical interdependence. The reality of this divine multication is realized only when we depend on one another and God. He caught a glimpse of this concept in Calcuttu, and found it again in his neighborhood. Kensington, Pa, one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania. From the streets either being piled with trash, or the walls covered with graffiti, it was a pretty neglected neighborhood. Yet, this neglection was a perfect scenario to organize themselves. Sometimes when the city refuse to plow their streets, they would just get out and have snowball fights and shovel their streets together. Or when trash piled up, it was a darn good excuse to have a block party, clean up the trash, open up the fire hydrant to play, and play in the water. A family whom owns a mini mart in the town, over the years Shane and the family became inseparable. Their kids would come over his house for homework, or do theater camp, or have all sorts of fun. Then Shane would rehab their house, and sometimes they taught each other things such as Spanish. Often times they needed transportation to restock the store or pick up the kids. So Shane and his crew found that he could insure them under their policy. They shared cars with each other all priceless like they were just one big family . They were neither Good Samaritans, nor were they an efficient nonprofit provider, better yet, they were a family, and money lost it's revalance. So many times scenarios where one person has a plumber but doesn't have a construction man, and another dude needs a plumber and has a construction man. It's not the matter of money, but it's the matter if we unite and became one in Christ and in each other of the body of Christ. I remember i heard somewhere that one horse could carry like 200lbs or something, but two horses can carry like 1200lbs, now that's something. Jesus didn't call us to be in our own Christian bubble , but He called us just to be a family with one another, loving each other as if we were all bros. By doing that, it just seems to make sense. Like Shane, money was no longer an issue, the town was no longer a ghetto but a community. Christianity no longer focused on us, but it focused on Jesus and one another. Things work out much better when we do them, together, regardless of one's the president of north Korea and the other one anti-war protester, it just all seems to make sense, together.

07.07.07 is coming near. What does that mean? The Call, Nashville, were about 100,000 youth are going to gather at Titans stadium and fast and pray and ask the Lord if we can remarry Him, for we're just so empty with Him. Oh God, we need you. Lord, may you deliver us from our enemies, yet transform our enemies so that they may know the divine love and grace of our Gracious God, Jesus Christ. I feel God is moving across the world, China in particular, and i feel something is going to blow up in the Call Nashville. God is going to shake the heavens and His mighty hand is going to transform the lives of many. I ask for your prayers because it doesn't begin with us preaching, but it all starts on our knees. May God bless you all.

Or so?

With divorce rates climbing over 50%, I ask myself, what is happening to this generation? I see how America’s marriages are being torn apart from cheating husbands and unfaithful wives; then I look to see how our relationship with God is? Like in book of Hosea, it showed how the Hosea the prophet radically loved his wife even through the numerous affairs and deceptions she provided abundantly to her husband. Hosea still treasured her and loved her. Similarly, I feel that yet we are a generation nearing divorce, yet God is still calling us to repent, to come back to Him, with arms wide open and a divine hug to gives us. As I was typing this, I looked out the window in my bedroom, and I saw the sun setting. 76 degrees, partly cloudy, 8:29 PM, I gazed at the pinkish clouds and the sky falling into a majestic purple. I was in awe of God’s beauty, authority, and His radiant love. To be honest, I find myself daily, choosing another task, and leaving God empty handed. Thinking back, I saw how God continuously blessed me even when I cursed Him. Seeing how He never gave up hope on me though I gave up faith in Him. Looking back, I am in just amazement in how God is daily, left behind in all our agendas and yet He still loves us and calls us to a place of repentance. Like Hosea’s wife committing adultery, here we are, waking up and deciding we’re too tired to go to church, when there He was; having 7 inch nails being brutally put through his wrists. And I wonder, how much longer should we continue this, cheating on God should I say? Jesus Christ is not only our Heavenly Father, not only our personal Savior, but He’s also our Bridegroom, our Lover, our dangerous, compassionate, good, Lover. Jesus not only died for our sins, but He also died so we could know and have a relationship with the King of kings, Prince of peace, the Great Counselor, and God Almighty. With Independence Day coming and the fireworks popping over everywhere, I see how America the country has it’s patriotism for our freedom and our rights. Still on that subject, I look how we got there? How many hours George Washington and his troops stood in the bitter cold and just praying to God to save them from the British? Who was the One that gave birth to this country, and delivered us from a vicious king? And then I remember, oh yeah, it was He, Jesus. Yahweh, Jehovah, Messiah, Christ, it was He who was the one who gave us the victories when all the odds were against us. It was He who never gave up Hope in us, all when we gave up hope on each other. Yes, it was who? Jesus. Getting back to the roots of our country, I see how we drastically drifted and forgot who created those miracles which got us her in the first place, who gave birth to us, who loved us in such an extreme radical way that He offered His only son to pay for our transgressions, and I come back to this name, Jesus. Jesus.. wow. Oh Jesus. It was You.

Ordinary yet Extrodinary

If you ask most Christian what they believe in, most of them will they you, “Christians believe that Jesus is God and He died for all of mankind’s sins, and then later rose from the dead.” Yet, if you ask a Christian how they live, they are struck silent. Most Christians basically lived like everybody else, sprinkling a little Jesus and occasionally invite their friends to their youth group. The doctrine is not very attractive, even if it’s true. Few people are interested in Christianity that has nothing to say to the world and only offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death? I’m convinced that Jesus came not just to prepare us to die but to teach us also how to live. Otherwise, much of Jesus’ preaching would be quite unnecessary for the afterlife. Think about it, how hard is it to love your enemy in heaven? In addition the kingdom that Jesus speaks about so much is not just something in which we hope for after we die, but it’s something we are to incarnate now. Jesus says the kingdom of God is “within us” or “among us,” and we that it may come “on earth as it is in heaven” That explains why the early Christian Church was called the Way. It was a totally new and radical life that stood in glaring contrast to the world. What gave early Christians integrity was the fact that they could denounce the empire and in the same breath say, “And we have another way of living. If you are tired of what the empire has to offer, we invite you into the Way.” Coming out of elementary school, I was pretty unwilling to “conform to the pattern of this world,” as the Scriptures say (Rom. 12:2) I knew that there was a broad way which lead to death and destruction, and a narrow way that led to life. In middle school, I would always correct my friends whether it was a curse word or something stupid, and thus later I would invite them to my youth group or a Christian event. Most said no, and occasionally some said “okay fine.” I was wondering what I was doing what was wrong, and one day as I was looking back, I saw how wow, I was a major hypocrite. People say Christians aren’t hypocrites.. Duh! Notice what we say when we repent. Praise God we have a merciful Father, who paid the price for our iniquities. Living in this generation, a lot of us know it’s easy to get sucked into the flow. Whether eating that lollypop when you’re fasting sweets, or slipping a curse, it’s hard to be that picture perfect Christian. The good news is that we don’t, for Jesus already die for our transgressions. He told us not to worry about it for He was the Good Shepard and He laid down His life for us. What Christ does call us to do, it to be disciples, not just believers, but lovers of the One who loved us first. One person once took a survey, and asked Christians if Jesus spent time with the poor, 80% of them agreed that He did. Yet, once he popped in the question whether any of them spent time with the poor, only 2% said yes. I learned a lesson where we can worship and praise Jesus yet not knowing what He did. We can adore and praise the Cross without taking up ours. Some people will still chose to live in modern Christianity casually just going to church and fellowship, yet outside the church doors they’re just the same as the kids next door, yet some will decide to deny themselves, pick up their cross, and follow after Jesus Christ hard. Without hindrance and boldly confessing, these are the people, the radicals if you may call it, which change generations and lives, completely relying on God’s grace and love to transform the world. Just like that and something amazing happens. Like what Mother Teresa said, “It’s not about how much you do, but it’s about how much love you put in the things you do.” Little or big, it’s all for God’s glory and His love for us, and it’s just like that, when we come become ordinary radicals.