Tucson or Bust

Well here I sit before you now and I am about 6 hours away from flying to Tucson, Arizona for a mission trip for my Spring break. I don't have much to say about it except that we will be working to help a church down there grow and that I ask for your utmost support in prayer. I know God can definitely work and will if we petition, I will and i pray that you will too.

Thanks every one!
God bless
(for real not the cliche kind)

P.s. here is the website for the church: http://www.ebc-tucson.org/

Here is the first page of the newsletter that the church sent out... Since the text is so small, I will past the text below.
________________________________________________

"The Spring Fiesta event (block party) is a culmination of a week long surge to make an impact in our community. Ten college students and their leaders from Southwest Baptist University in Bolívar, MO will be coming to Tucson to help us fulfill this mission. They, along with church members who’d like to
volunteer, will be prayer walking and canvassing the neighborhood with door hangers to get the message out about the Spring Fiesta. They will also be assisting us in other outreach events, including a youth rally on Wednesday night. To pull off an event like this, we need your help!
Please contact Janie Villareal (298-2186) if you want to be enlisted to serve. There is a place of service for you!!!

In Proverbs 20:11, we are reminded that “Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.” I pray that by our actions, the community will see our conduct to be pure and right. Now is the time, once again, for our neighborhood to see that Emmanuel cares. Sure, there’s always more we can do. But, let’s start here and make an impact serving our community with these fabulous events.
Striving with You,
Pastor Louis"

WOW
It has been a while since I have been on here.
So much school and such though.
Well I was just thinking about updating this when God gave me a little inspiration. I feel like lately I have really been branching out to meet people and to just love God's humanity so much. I don't know if that is necessarily equivalent to a "calling" but it just really gets my blood pumping and reminds me so much of Christ.

Speaking of which God has really has been impressing me with time management. I feel like we don't realize how we organize our time. I especially feel this lately because my day gets so filled I have to fit God in just to make sure He gets time but why isn't He like the center of my day and revolves around Him.

I don't think this is anything new that hasn't been said before But I feel like this is so important. I have been studying the nazarite vow in numbers 6 lately and the more I see it within the context of Israel the more I realize how so important God is supposed to be and how we are to react to Him.
I guess what I am trying to say is that we are to be consecrated to God, separated to Him and that's a 24-7 fully devoted job that everyone should see by who you are and where you are.

Worship

I don't have much and i still have a bit until i clear this thought up but lately I have been contemplating the idea of worship, mainly worshiping together.

How do we worship together?

That has been on my mind after Doctrine class on Thursday. It seems as we discussed that every Sunday we just get together and individually worship when we should be lifting up as the body of Christ.

So basically that's what has been on my mind.

How do we worship together?

Master of Art

First Things first- I just wanted to add to the last post that Flight Design( the band I had mentioned) did in fact win the Battle of the bands.


So it has been snowing here on campus for about 2 days and it is truly beautiful.I really like the snow because it is so pure and yet so dangerous. It reminds me of Dad(God) so much.
And although we didn't get to miss any classes I still got the awesome opportunity to go out and sled and play in it yet my favorite thing to do is write in it and make snowman art.

I suppose that God as snow, or more over God as an artisan, is not to far fetched an idea but really it represents Him pretty accurately. For instance it is truly a beautiful and pure display of art to see all the snow falling. The snow laying so even and so intricately together is something that is no where else replicated in Nature. Even the detail is so amazingly big its hard to conceive.
Then its so dangerous, not many other weather types are quite as dangerous. Although its not as strong as a hurricane, snow in any form has easily destroy something. A good example of this is its variety of forms, from blizzard to light snow, not using caution can definitely be a bad choice. During this storm here numerous people have gotten stuck or worse.

But wow how beautiful is God's creation.

Isn't that how we should see God, his art so pure, so endless, so big, so ready to be loved, so pointing to its creator and yet so dangerous and so hard to calculate.

I really like how God loves to paint us daily pictures of Himself everywhere. But then again He is the Master of Art

Rock Band

Lately i have been really ranty and right now i really don't want to make an entry like that. So i won't.
The thing i want to say though is that it was amazing to see God today.
Just to let you know I spent my day back at home before winter break is over. This weekend I went to the Battle of the Bands at my old high school to see some friends play in it.
I am not going to lie these guys were great musicians and their competition was good too but one thing really stuck out to me. The last song of their set they chose to play Amazing Grace.

First off I think that was an awesome and very tact choice( and tact is a very big score booster on my scale). But what caught me was their attitude comming into this thing. As we huddled off stage before preparing to go we joked and talked about the changes they had made and to remember them when playing. Basic prep stuff. But the next thing was a very awesome thing to say.
It was as if God entered the room then even as dark as it was because all jest left their faces. Then via the mouth of Matt Fellers came the something that surprised me. He said very intuitively and very seriously:
"Guys remember, just remember when you are out there forget the audience, forget the other bands, just forget winning. We have aren't here for them, we aren't here to win, we are playing to Jesus with the talents and skills God gave us. Do it to show all those people lost out there why we play"

Now those aren't exact quotes but really that statement we are to use our skills and to just play for Him hit me big time. And thats not because i never realized i was supposed to use my talents for Him but more so the heart of the guys in this band. That amazes me. Really tonight God softened my heart a little and it definately needed it.

well i just want to pray really quick here for you all and then i am out for bed

Dad, I just ask blessings on that band, thats really cool but moreso dad I ask that you show me that kind of will power and ministry with the things I love that would allow me to feel the warmth of your smile when I follow your will. Your so awesome and thanks for being proud of those guys tonight, they really love you dad. good night.

Golf Course REAL-LIFE

Do you ever find you ever find yourself randomly on a golf course?
Today me and a good friend Andy found ourselves in the most beautiful January day in history. Like the kind that are 60 degrees and totally sunny. It was amazing so we did what any self respecting guy would do-we hit the golf course.
(*disclaimer* Just so you don't go any further and think i love golf i want to clarify that it was Frisbee Golf, the one sport Jesus would have really enjoyed.)

So there we were playing the first game of Spring on possibly the nicest day we would see in ages. And it seems to me that it must be the weather but i always seem to encounter God in some way on that course.
Its like that "field of dreams" analogy- 'Build it and they will come', but mine is more 'Play a lot and i will come"
Anyways me and Andy played about half-way through our game and then the question was popped: What has Jesus been teaching you lately?
That is such a deadly question, but being the danger seeking people we are we entertained it.
That is also why i love this question, its so dangerous. I mean like its not really going to matter what you really say because a year from then you probably won't ever remember what you discussed but I think its a huge danger- a huge testing to see just how real you are willing to be not just with yourself but out loud.

Isn't that how we are today? Scared to be real? Look around how real are you to one another, and i don't even mean with your struggles here and there or even with your willingness to talk about what God is doing in your life. I mean how real are we when we think about the world around us? If its so bad off what are you really doing? Is happiness all that Christ gives you? Are you really being persecuted for your Faith? Is that persecution from more than just the other side of the spectrum, or is it those that are closer to you?
It seems like today its easy to just ignore the world, its even easier to talk about how bad off it is, and its the easiest to try and work against it by putting your ideals of following God on a world that has no desire to want to follow. But how real is it to truly live differently, to be set apart so far that it makes everyone but Christ uneasy. Don't get me wrong, you need to know whats right but how far are you willing to go to know something before you execute.
I think in the it basically comes down to one question that Andy challenged me with:
What would Christ be doing if he was in your shoes right now?
How real and deep is that question? If you don't get it try reading that again.
What would Christ be doing if he was in your shoes right now?
That question still leaves me just as puzzled as much as Andy was with it on his own. What would Christ being doing right now if he were you. That sounds so cliche but getting to the heart of it burns me every time. Its a bad feeling to be showed up, and i understand if this were a competition that i would definitely lose. But this is deeper than that, If i am to be an imitator of the King, to be as a dearly loved child how am i doing that?
I guess in the end I am sick of inaction. Or maybe i am sick of knowing i am inactive and that i can change it. I think its best stated in the lyrics to the popular Switchfoot song, Meant to live


Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, fly

[Chorus]
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside

Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken

[Chorus]

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live
We were meant to live