Okay guys, this update is gonna be sups long. I apologize for the length, but please read the whole thing! filled with a ton of stuff!
God's been doing absolutely crazy transformation in me since i've been here. He's been breaking down the walls i've had set up in my life even towards Him. It's crazy! I had no idea how dead my faith has been back home. Jesus didn't die for us so we could go to him when we needed something. He didn't die for us so we could spend 15 minutes a day doing a quiet time and say we got our jesus fix in for the day. He didn't die for us so that we could go to church on sunday and then youthgroup in the middle of the week and call ourselves christians. It's been absolutely crazy how mediocre my faith has been and how much he's been revealing that to me! It's awesome at the same time because it hasn't been in a condemning sort of way. There's nothing condemning about that realization because there's strait up redemption in the blood of Jesus! It's been so flippin awesome learning what it's like to walk with Jesus on a daily basis. I always looked at people who were "in tune with the spirit" and "walking with jesus" and thought they were freaks. I stereotyped them as the typical charismatic Christians who were strait up crazy. I know that sounds harsh but that's honestly where my mind went every time I heard someone say they heard the voice of God or started saying that God gave them a word for someone. Oh how flippin wrong I was! He's been breaking down every stronghold I've had in my life in that area. Prophecy? I thought it was bull. Boom, he broke that off by putting someone in my life that strait up spoke prophetic words into me that were so true but he never knew. Crazy. haha. God's been doing so much work to reveal himself to me. It's so amazing walking with Jesus daily! I'm learning and working towards getting to a place where it's just dialogue with the holy spirit. It's not like a "ok, i need to go pray and see what's going on." it's like walking through the day just having conversation with him and it's awesome! Sounds crazy, I know, but its strait up real yo! It's been confirmed through so many things too...like I'll be like "ok, holy spirit, what do we do today?" and he'll say "tell this person this." and i will and come to find out it's EXACTLY hitting their heart with something going on. And specific stuff too...so it's not like just general broad stuff that could hit anyone. It's so freaking crazy!
Longest paragraph of life. sorry. haha
He's also been putting crazy passions on my heart for the future too. Like...I really want to finish school but who knows when that'll happen. I feel like God is telling me that there's so much more to life (for me) than school right now. This not to say that every christian needs to drop school and do missions because that's definitely not the case. God has some people in the situations they're in because he's going to use them in absolutely radical ways where they're at. I've just definitely felt it put on my heart that schools not for me right now. Gonna start living life on one way tickets and see where that takes me and what God does to change the world through that.
Life's just so much more fun and interesting when you're rolling with Jesus! It's so much crazier when you have no idea what's next to come haha. I'm loving it. So good!
This past week our speaker was talking about the bible. So simple, yet so much revelation through it! He focused on 4 of the miracles jesus performed:
1. Water into Wine
2. Jesus feeding 5000
3. Healing the blind man
4. Raising Lazarus.
The point of us looking into these miracles (that past week in class) was not to focus on what Jesus did, but who the bible is trying to tell us he is through them. It was to take a look into the character of Jesus. It was to break down some of the stereotypes that some people may have of Jesus. Homeboy wasn't some strict dude that brought rules or regulations for us to live by. It is so crazy to realize all of the opinions that I had about Jesus that I didn't even realize I held. I've totally grown up learning about Jesus' love and grace and everything, but I never realized how fun he is. I kind of kept him in the box that the world makes for him and didn't even consider him to be as great as he is.
Another thing that was completely blown up by this was the realization and confirmation that Jesus is more than not wanting people to go to hell. Jesus is so much more than a get out of jail free card. Jesus is so much more than that. He doesn't want me to know him so I won't go to hell, he wants to know me because he loves me so much that he wants to have a personal relationship with me. He wants me so that i can experience the fullness of the great and unimaginable things that he has for me. It's so flipping awesome when I think about that! It's so flippin glorious that it's not a fear based thingou. He's not abt fear. He's not at all about being there to avoid condemnation, he's about being there because he loves and cares about me on such a personal, intimate level that he wants to walk, laugh, dream, and do work with me! So good! It totally gives the faith a different perspective when it's about love and not fear. So good!
Okay, let's do this now. haha I got goin and coulda gone for a lot longer on that because it's completely changed how I look at my faith. Now let's dig into these miracles!
I encourage everyone to go onto biblegateway.com and read along with it, because I'm going to sum up what hit me, but there's so much more great stuff in there! The passages can be found in John 2, John 5, John 6, and John 11.
Okay, first: Water into Wine.
Boom. Who says jesus isn't fun. Think about this. Jesus rolls into homeboys wedding. Homeboy is almost out of drink for his guests. In that time he could be sued for everything he has if he runs out of wine. All of the guests could literally sue him for whatever he has if he runs out of wine. Jesus tells them to fill 6 of the bottles that are full of water used to wash people's feet with. Srsly?! iknorite! Then, he turns them into wine. Not just wine, but the best wine that the master had tasted. Do you realize how much wine jesus made there?! I'll tell you. 120 gallons. Picture 120 things of milk full of wine. That's what jesus did. Who says he isn't fun? Jesus knows how to party. Also...think about this. He made wine...what do we drink for communion? boom. wine. Next miracle.
(P.s. He also called his mom "woman." I think i need to follow by his example...ok maybe not.)
Feeding 5000:
Boom. tons of peeps following Jesus. They're hungry, Jesus wants to feed them. Phillip comes and tells him it'd be a buttload of cash to cover the costs. Pretty much tells jesus "we could never fundraise for this." (remember this miracle next time you want to go on a missions trip but it's gonna cost a lot.) Jesus tells them to collect what they have and he'll do work. He feeds 5000 men. That's excluding women and children. Lets be honest here; that's like 10000, pushing 12000 people. Jesus feeds 12000 people with 5 loaves and two fish. wtflip?! If we believe in jesus, and claim to follow the bible, why doesn't this make us freaking excited?! Why aren't we jumping for joy at the thought that jesus took absolutely nothing and created something huge? . Again, think communion. He first made wine, now he made a ton of bread. Correlation? you tell me!
Next, this part rocked me big time, after they ate they tried to make jesus king and he fled. He then tells his disciples to get into a boat. A storm came. A freaking crazy storm. They were like 4 miles out at sea when this sucka hit. Boom. It was a sketchy situation. That's what happens when you listen to jesus. It's not all pretty rainbows and glory when you follow him. Sometimes he's going to lead you into a situation where you have no idea what is going to happen and what the outcome is going to be. He doesn't call us to sit in our little comfort bubbles and live a pretty little life. He calls us to listen to him no matter what he calls us to do. No matter what the storm that hits is he calls us to be faithful to him. Crazy. That rocked me big time.
Third miracle: Blind man.
So...jesus is full of rules eh? (not to you, just to the world in general). Yeah, I call BS. this miracle is a huge slap in the face of the pharasees. Do you know what the pharasees were? they were self-righteous religious people. We've always heard them to be like rulers of the jewish faith but they were more than that. They were any jew that claimed they knew all of the answers and that they were better than others. okay, here's what happened. Jesus purposely did this on the sabbath. The pharasees had so twisted the sabbath into such a religious thing that they made specific rules regarding how much your coat could weigh that you wore on it because anything over their limit was "work." Crazy. Jesus coulda waited to do this till sunday (their sabbath was on saturday) but instead he chose to do this, and let them know he did this, on the sabbath. Boom. He totally smacked the self-righteous religious people in the face with that. It really made me think...how often have I been that self righteous religious person? How often have I talked about someone and had one of those "we need to pray for them" kinda talks but it's really just me sitting in my self-righteousness. Crazy. Boom. mind-blown. That's not what Jesus is about, so why do we make him like that?
Fourth miracle: Raising Lazarus from the dead.
Man, this one rocked me hard. This miracle shows so flipping much about Jesus it's ridiculous. It also smacks me in the face with something that I am so guilty of doing way too frequently. To give the back story, One of Jesus' good friends is named Lazarus. We can see that they are close friends by the verse John 11:3 where it says "So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom toy love is ill." So it's a good friend of his. Jesus responds by saying "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Lazarus did end up dying, but that's not the end of the story. Jesus raised him from the dead. What a sign of the greatness of Jesus. Dang.
There are a few things that really hit me about this miracle. First off, when Lazarus initially died, two people came to Jesus and said "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (John 11:21 and 11:32). How many times have I done that? How many times have I just looked at the situation at hand and blamed God? How many times have I honed in on only one aspect of the situation and then acted like it was all God's fault? I'll tell ya, way too many times.
The next thing that hits me about this miracle is that it shows how Jesus felt the full range of human emotions. Shows that he was fully human. On multiple occasions it says "He was deeply moved." In one place he wept. boom. Jesus knew what it felt like to lose somebody. He felt the whole range of emotions so he knows what it feels like to mourn. That completely blows my mind. It blows my mind that he knows how it feels. It blows my mind that he knows exactly what I'm going through when I feel like life sucks. He knows exactly what it feels like. Man, how personal Jesus is! It's so ridiculously awesome.
Isn't it ironic that his first miracle was at a wedding, and his last was at a funeral? haha, kind of cool to look at.
There's a pretty long update for ya'll. There's so much more stuff I wish I had time right this very second to write about. I shall attempt to provide another update on what's been rocking my world soon.
And by the way, Thank you all SO MUCH for all of your support! Craziness happened, and I ended up being fully funded! So much came in from the randomest places and I am fully funded for outreach. Wooo! Thank you guys! Praise Jesus!
Much love to you all!
Friday, November 25, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Fellas and ladyfellas
Hey guys...sorry there hasn't been a fat update lately. It's been really busy and i'm working on putting one together. It's coming, and it's going to be glory!
Real quick, I just wanted to ask you guys for some major prayers today. Our deadline for the outreach funds is tomorrow (the 23rd) and i am still in need of about $1000. God's crazy and awesome, so he's going to make it happen! If you could please keep it in your prayers that would be fantastic! If you would like to donate some you can online at:
https://apply.uofn.edu/OnlineAppDocs/OnlinePayment.cfm
then fill in:
Morrison
Joshua
joshmmorrison@yahoo.com
jan 25 1991
DTS - Community Transformations
sep 2011
then check "Student Outreach"
Thank you guys! Seriously, anything would be a huge blessing.
Love you all! A big update is coming your way that will hopefully rock your world! It's been rocking mine lately so yeah!
Peace, yo!
Real quick, I just wanted to ask you guys for some major prayers today. Our deadline for the outreach funds is tomorrow (the 23rd) and i am still in need of about $1000. God's crazy and awesome, so he's going to make it happen! If you could please keep it in your prayers that would be fantastic! If you would like to donate some you can online at:
https://apply.uofn.edu/OnlineAppDocs/OnlinePayment.cfm
then fill in:
Morrison
Joshua
joshmmorrison@yahoo.com
jan 25 1991
DTS - Community Transformations
sep 2011
then check "Student Outreach"
Thank you guys! Seriously, anything would be a huge blessing.
Love you all! A big update is coming your way that will hopefully rock your world! It's been rocking mine lately so yeah!
Peace, yo!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Support Video!
Hey guys!
I will be sending out another update tomorrow full of stuff that has blown me up so far this week! I just wanted to post a quick video that my team and I made! It's a support video for our team, and will put faces onto the team so it's not just the "Africa Team." It's 8 other normal people just like you and me! Woot flippin Woot yo!
I will be sending out another update tomorrow full of stuff that has blown me up so far this week! I just wanted to post a quick video that my team and I made! It's a support video for our team, and will put faces onto the team so it's not just the "Africa Team." It's 8 other normal people just like you and me! Woot flippin Woot yo!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
This past week has been crazy. Every single day I am absolutely blown away by the greatness of God and how He has been revealing himself to our school. Strongholds in our hearts have been demolished, hearts are being transformed, and new life has been emerging all over the place!
It is amazing to me how personal God is. He loves me on such a close, intimate level that he does what he needs to do to show it! Craziness. This past week has been full of ways that he has reached out and pulled off hardness on my heart. So great!
The topic in our classes for the week is the Holy Spirit. I never realized how much I diminished this! I've always just brushed it off to the side as something that's there but not all that impactful. God's hit me with crazy revelation about it! Do you realize that the power that strait up brought Jesus back to life is inside of us? The power that Jesus used to perform all of the miracles he did is inside of us and wants to have an active, communicative relationship with us?! Crazy! These are some of the passages that have jumped out at me lately:
"...and i will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells in you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17)
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses..." (Acts 1:8)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the father. Whatever you ask in my name, this i will do, that the fatehr may be glorified in the on. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14:12-14)
These things have totally changed the way I look at my relationship with God. It's not a distance thing. It's not a thing that I strive for and hope to possibly have something that's acceptable to God come out. It's a relationship where we walk side by side with God because he has sent his power and spirit into us. The holy spirit isn't just about signs and wonders either, it's a strait communication line with God! This is the part that I had never really taken seriously. The personal level that God wants to interact with us is so awesome! I even have some stories about how he has done this to me personally!
Yesterday was absolutely crazy. Someone from the community sat in on our class. I had met him a couple of times before when we were out on the town so during the break I went back and started talking to him. He was talking about how he wants people to correct him if there's areas of his life that are lacking or off. We decided that we wanted to talk more so after class we would grab lunch and dig in. I went back to my seat and I felt like God told me to talk about John 15 with him. That passage is about Jesus being the vine and God being the vinedresser. It talks about how if there's areas of our lives that are dead he will cut them off. Not in a threatening sort of way, but in a way that will produce growth. It also talks about how our strengths will be pruned back so they can be even more effective. I was stoked to be able to talk about this with him!
This is where it got crazy and God really tested my faith.
After I closed my bible from skimming John 15, I felt like the Holy Spirit told me "Hebrews 11." I thought to myself "hmm...that's strange. I don't know what passage that is I'll look it up real quick." I opened my bible and immediately the Holy Spirit told me "Close your bible. Do NOT look it up. When the time is right I will tell you and you will open it up and just start reading. It will be exactly what is appropriate for the situation." I admit, i panicked. I was like whoaaaa what the heck is going on here. What if it's wrong?! and then I just got this assurance that it'd be right, so I just let it be. I was still freaking out on the inside because that's such a scary step to take out in faith. What if it wasn't God telling me that? What if it was just me trying to imagine a glory story to tell later? I was definitely freaking out.
Class got out at 12 and we went down to grab lunch. We started talking just about the bible and Jesus and everything. It was then that I felt it laid on my heart to bring up the passage from john 15...so I did. We talked about that a little bit and it was pretty cool. I expected the Hebrews passage to come back up right away but it didn't, so I was a bit nervous. We got talking about faith. He made a reference to this passage in the bible and said "I don't know where that is though." Instantly I felt this voice inside me say "Okay, GO!" so I opened my bible to Hebrews 11. I closed my eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and just started reading. Boom. It was the passage that he was talking about. The exact words. CRAZY! At that point I felt like my faith had risen. We kept talking about stuff ranging from several different topics. The word from the Lord about Hebrews 11 was definitely an encouraging lifting of my faith, because as the conversation went on it started to get into some views that were definitely off of what the bible was saying. Every time that something like that would come up I would pray a little prayer in my head that simply said "Ok, God, go for it. You know I need ya right now." Boom: a scripture reference would come into my head. Sure enough, it was exactly what needed to be said there. This happened like 6 times! So crazy!
Crazy story number two:
The other night I was sitting outside talking with a friend about some stuff that they had going on. I was mainly listening and asking questions, trying to let them work through it. At one point I felt like God gave me a word for them. I closed my eyes for a second, looking like I was intently praying. What was really going on inside me was absolute panic haha. I was praying "is this you God?! is this you God?! Please tell me if it's you! please tell me if it's just me!" (picture that but speaking like 1000 words a second). I had this overwhelming feeling in my chest so I figured I would just go for it. When I told them what I felt like the Lord wanted me to say I instantly knew it was not just my words but his. We prayed about it and then the Holy Spirit totally moved in and it was an overwhelming feeling of it! There was major breakthrough on the situation at hand and God totally gave them a clear word on what they were supposed to do! So crazy!
This is one of the strongholds that God has been breaking down in me! I wrote about prophecy a few posts ago and how I said I am definitely NOT prophetic. There has been major breakthrough in this! It's not like I'm getting visions and stuff from God, but he's really breaking down the fact that he speaks through me personally!
One of the passages that I have really been digging into lately is 1 Corinthians 12. This is the one about Spiritual Gifts. I always looked at this as one of those things where if you had it, you had it. If you didn't, then you didn't and that's just how it was. Totally not the case!
(I'm going to share some of the revelations I've experienced through this passage, but i definitely encourage you to open it for yourself too and see what the Lord says to you!)
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the spirit of utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills." (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
I always looked at it like some people have one of these, some have none, and that's just the way that it is. Not so much! It talks about one spirit that gives all of these. That spirit is the Holy Spirit, which lives inside of us as Christians. It also says that the Holy Spirit apportions to each one individually as he wills. It also says each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. God totally smacked me in the face with the revelation that the Holy Spirit gives all of us all of these! To some, there may be strengths in certain areas and some people may tend to receive one more than the others, but it's not like a one and done sort of thing. The Holy Spirit will throw one of these out there for the situation at hand! If some prophecy is needed, then it will be given! If tongues are needed then they will be given! If a dash of healing is needed, then it will occur! If a pinch of discernment fits the situation, then he will give it! I had never looked at it like this, and it's crazy that God brought this into the light to me!
The biggest thing that hit me was that I had a stronghold against these gifts. Too many times I have seen people fake them and not be honest about all of them. God totally broke this stronghold down in me! That is a story for a later day though ;)
If you keep reading in this passage it says "But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And i will show you a still more excellent way." (v. 31). You never know what Gift God wants to shower upon you! We can't just sit back and expect that we don't have a certain gift because it isn't placed at our feet in our idleness! Earnestly seek after him for gifts for his glory and you never know what will happen!
That's just a couple stories of the crazyness that has gone down since my last update. So good! I'm really excited to continue on this journey and grow with Him through it! Woo!
I have some crazy exciting news in regards to outreach! Well, the journey to our outreach location haha. Our planes got booked, so praise Jesus for that! We will be heading out for Africa on the 23rd of December. From there we will fly to LA, then from LA we will be flying to London. (This is the exciting part.) We get in to London very early Christmas morning and then have a 23ish hour (i believe) layover in London! We will be spending Christmas in London! So crazy! haha! From London we will fly into Africa. We are so excited!
With that exciting news we also have a couple of prayer requests! First off, we don't have a place to stay in London yet. We are praying for a connection to be able to leave the airport and be able to store our things and spend the night at. Please keep this in your prayers!
We also need quite a bit of funds to come in for our team to be ready to go. I don't have the exact number on how much we need, but I know that I still need about $1000. Our target price for outreach is the cealing of $6000 each. We didn't expect this, but through contact with the team over there we found out that they went in and had set their budget way too low. It costs a lot more to be over there than we had anticipated. If you could please pray for some radical provision from the Lord that would be fantastic!
If you would like to help that would be so awesome! Shoot me an email at joshmmorrison@yahoo.com for the information if you would like to support financially!
We also have another area that we are asking for prayer in and asking for support in! There are several supplies that we are needing before heading over there. We are praying for provision on those so if you could keep them in your prayers that would be appreciated! We are needing:
Supplies:
-Mosquito Nets
-Water Filters
-Hiking Backpacks (for some of the team members)
-First Aide Kits
Childrens supplies:
-Coloring Books
-Frisbees
-Balls
-Jump Ropes
-Spiral Notebooks
If you would like to support us by hooking us up with some of these items please let me know! We have radical faith that God is going to provide with radical provision!
God is so good! Thank you all for all of your support through this whole journey! It has truly been life changing, mind blowing, and I know I will never be the same.
I love you all so much, Jesus loves you all so much, and you mean the absolute world to him!
Stay Classy San Diego
It is amazing to me how personal God is. He loves me on such a close, intimate level that he does what he needs to do to show it! Craziness. This past week has been full of ways that he has reached out and pulled off hardness on my heart. So great!
The topic in our classes for the week is the Holy Spirit. I never realized how much I diminished this! I've always just brushed it off to the side as something that's there but not all that impactful. God's hit me with crazy revelation about it! Do you realize that the power that strait up brought Jesus back to life is inside of us? The power that Jesus used to perform all of the miracles he did is inside of us and wants to have an active, communicative relationship with us?! Crazy! These are some of the passages that have jumped out at me lately:
"...and i will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells in you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17)
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses..." (Acts 1:8)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the father. Whatever you ask in my name, this i will do, that the fatehr may be glorified in the on. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14:12-14)
These things have totally changed the way I look at my relationship with God. It's not a distance thing. It's not a thing that I strive for and hope to possibly have something that's acceptable to God come out. It's a relationship where we walk side by side with God because he has sent his power and spirit into us. The holy spirit isn't just about signs and wonders either, it's a strait communication line with God! This is the part that I had never really taken seriously. The personal level that God wants to interact with us is so awesome! I even have some stories about how he has done this to me personally!
Yesterday was absolutely crazy. Someone from the community sat in on our class. I had met him a couple of times before when we were out on the town so during the break I went back and started talking to him. He was talking about how he wants people to correct him if there's areas of his life that are lacking or off. We decided that we wanted to talk more so after class we would grab lunch and dig in. I went back to my seat and I felt like God told me to talk about John 15 with him. That passage is about Jesus being the vine and God being the vinedresser. It talks about how if there's areas of our lives that are dead he will cut them off. Not in a threatening sort of way, but in a way that will produce growth. It also talks about how our strengths will be pruned back so they can be even more effective. I was stoked to be able to talk about this with him!
This is where it got crazy and God really tested my faith.
After I closed my bible from skimming John 15, I felt like the Holy Spirit told me "Hebrews 11." I thought to myself "hmm...that's strange. I don't know what passage that is I'll look it up real quick." I opened my bible and immediately the Holy Spirit told me "Close your bible. Do NOT look it up. When the time is right I will tell you and you will open it up and just start reading. It will be exactly what is appropriate for the situation." I admit, i panicked. I was like whoaaaa what the heck is going on here. What if it's wrong?! and then I just got this assurance that it'd be right, so I just let it be. I was still freaking out on the inside because that's such a scary step to take out in faith. What if it wasn't God telling me that? What if it was just me trying to imagine a glory story to tell later? I was definitely freaking out.
Class got out at 12 and we went down to grab lunch. We started talking just about the bible and Jesus and everything. It was then that I felt it laid on my heart to bring up the passage from john 15...so I did. We talked about that a little bit and it was pretty cool. I expected the Hebrews passage to come back up right away but it didn't, so I was a bit nervous. We got talking about faith. He made a reference to this passage in the bible and said "I don't know where that is though." Instantly I felt this voice inside me say "Okay, GO!" so I opened my bible to Hebrews 11. I closed my eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and just started reading. Boom. It was the passage that he was talking about. The exact words. CRAZY! At that point I felt like my faith had risen. We kept talking about stuff ranging from several different topics. The word from the Lord about Hebrews 11 was definitely an encouraging lifting of my faith, because as the conversation went on it started to get into some views that were definitely off of what the bible was saying. Every time that something like that would come up I would pray a little prayer in my head that simply said "Ok, God, go for it. You know I need ya right now." Boom: a scripture reference would come into my head. Sure enough, it was exactly what needed to be said there. This happened like 6 times! So crazy!
Crazy story number two:
The other night I was sitting outside talking with a friend about some stuff that they had going on. I was mainly listening and asking questions, trying to let them work through it. At one point I felt like God gave me a word for them. I closed my eyes for a second, looking like I was intently praying. What was really going on inside me was absolute panic haha. I was praying "is this you God?! is this you God?! Please tell me if it's you! please tell me if it's just me!" (picture that but speaking like 1000 words a second). I had this overwhelming feeling in my chest so I figured I would just go for it. When I told them what I felt like the Lord wanted me to say I instantly knew it was not just my words but his. We prayed about it and then the Holy Spirit totally moved in and it was an overwhelming feeling of it! There was major breakthrough on the situation at hand and God totally gave them a clear word on what they were supposed to do! So crazy!
This is one of the strongholds that God has been breaking down in me! I wrote about prophecy a few posts ago and how I said I am definitely NOT prophetic. There has been major breakthrough in this! It's not like I'm getting visions and stuff from God, but he's really breaking down the fact that he speaks through me personally!
One of the passages that I have really been digging into lately is 1 Corinthians 12. This is the one about Spiritual Gifts. I always looked at this as one of those things where if you had it, you had it. If you didn't, then you didn't and that's just how it was. Totally not the case!
(I'm going to share some of the revelations I've experienced through this passage, but i definitely encourage you to open it for yourself too and see what the Lord says to you!)
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the spirit of utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills." (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
I always looked at it like some people have one of these, some have none, and that's just the way that it is. Not so much! It talks about one spirit that gives all of these. That spirit is the Holy Spirit, which lives inside of us as Christians. It also says that the Holy Spirit apportions to each one individually as he wills. It also says each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. God totally smacked me in the face with the revelation that the Holy Spirit gives all of us all of these! To some, there may be strengths in certain areas and some people may tend to receive one more than the others, but it's not like a one and done sort of thing. The Holy Spirit will throw one of these out there for the situation at hand! If some prophecy is needed, then it will be given! If tongues are needed then they will be given! If a dash of healing is needed, then it will occur! If a pinch of discernment fits the situation, then he will give it! I had never looked at it like this, and it's crazy that God brought this into the light to me!
The biggest thing that hit me was that I had a stronghold against these gifts. Too many times I have seen people fake them and not be honest about all of them. God totally broke this stronghold down in me! That is a story for a later day though ;)
If you keep reading in this passage it says "But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And i will show you a still more excellent way." (v. 31). You never know what Gift God wants to shower upon you! We can't just sit back and expect that we don't have a certain gift because it isn't placed at our feet in our idleness! Earnestly seek after him for gifts for his glory and you never know what will happen!
That's just a couple stories of the crazyness that has gone down since my last update. So good! I'm really excited to continue on this journey and grow with Him through it! Woo!
I have some crazy exciting news in regards to outreach! Well, the journey to our outreach location haha. Our planes got booked, so praise Jesus for that! We will be heading out for Africa on the 23rd of December. From there we will fly to LA, then from LA we will be flying to London. (This is the exciting part.) We get in to London very early Christmas morning and then have a 23ish hour (i believe) layover in London! We will be spending Christmas in London! So crazy! haha! From London we will fly into Africa. We are so excited!
With that exciting news we also have a couple of prayer requests! First off, we don't have a place to stay in London yet. We are praying for a connection to be able to leave the airport and be able to store our things and spend the night at. Please keep this in your prayers!
We also need quite a bit of funds to come in for our team to be ready to go. I don't have the exact number on how much we need, but I know that I still need about $1000. Our target price for outreach is the cealing of $6000 each. We didn't expect this, but through contact with the team over there we found out that they went in and had set their budget way too low. It costs a lot more to be over there than we had anticipated. If you could please pray for some radical provision from the Lord that would be fantastic!
If you would like to help that would be so awesome! Shoot me an email at joshmmorrison@yahoo.com for the information if you would like to support financially!
We also have another area that we are asking for prayer in and asking for support in! There are several supplies that we are needing before heading over there. We are praying for provision on those so if you could keep them in your prayers that would be appreciated! We are needing:
Supplies:
-Mosquito Nets
-Water Filters
-Hiking Backpacks (for some of the team members)
-First Aide Kits
Childrens supplies:
-Coloring Books
-Frisbees
-Balls
-Jump Ropes
-Spiral Notebooks
If you would like to support us by hooking us up with some of these items please let me know! We have radical faith that God is going to provide with radical provision!
God is so good! Thank you all for all of your support through this whole journey! It has truly been life changing, mind blowing, and I know I will never be the same.
I love you all so much, Jesus loves you all so much, and you mean the absolute world to him!
Stay Classy San Diego
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
He is either LORD of ALL or Not Lord at all...
Hey E'ryone!
We had an absolutely amazing lecture in class today. It really hit home for me so I really want to share with you guys some of the stuff that I'm wrestling with. If you take the time to read this you definitely won't be disappointed! Strait up crazyness!
I'm going to try to paraphrase some of what was said and use my notes to the best of my abilities. I'll also combine some of the intense revelations that hit me while listening, and even some things that I've been thinking about that other people have said too. Enjoy!
What if we weren't comfortable with where we're at in our walk with Jesus? What if we were constantly falling into such a deeper love with Jesus that the people who seem like radical Christians in today's time would seem like lukewarm followers of Christ? What if the level of radical-ness was ever increasing in such a way that we didn't limit it to taking one day a week to eat lunch with a homeless guy?
These are just some things to think about.
Are we living to achieve a certain level of closeness with God? A closeness that once we reach it we simply put that trophy onto the shelf and then retire? That's definitely how I've been looking at my walk with God. I figured if I could reach a certain level of closeness with him then I would be satisfied with it and then feel accomplished in my faith. The thing is, God wants so much more from us than that. This isn't in an achieving sort of way. He doesn't want us to do more things for him. He wants us to be closer to him. We put so many boxes and limitations on where we think we need to get with God that it's like there's a plateau that we're striving for. Isn't it crazy to think that the creator of the universe wants to shatter that level that we set for ourselves? Isn't it crazy that he wants to be in an evergrowing relationship with us? Isn't it crazy that He wants to help us do things no one else has ever done before? I find that insane!
One of the main topics that we talked about today was revival. The first area was revival of the heart. This means that in our own personal lives we come to love Jesus in an all new way and the fire grows like never before! All too often this can look like this: We decide that we want to try to "get back on track" with God. The problem is that we don't know how to do that...so it lasts all of 3 weeks and then we screw up once and we're back into the same rut that we were in before. Our hearts are completely in the right place, yet we just don't know how to maintain that revival. This is where it requires a life style change. This may mean something different for each person.
When we start to grasp the radical love that God has for us we start to realize how real he is. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy. As we draw near to him we start to develop such a strong personal relationship with him. It stops being a religion and turns into a personal relationship. I know that's such a cliche term that is used all the time in the church, but think about this: When was the last time I woke up and simply asked Jesus "What do you want to do today?" When was the last time I was sitting and praying and simply asked "Jesus, please come and hang out with me for a bit." It isn't about this religious routine or ritual when it comes to praying, it's strait up relationship.
The speaker made a point that has really resonated with me over the past couple of days. He said "If God is as good as He reveals himself to be, then it demands a lifestyle change." How true is that? I've totally lived a life of half-ing Christianity by saying I believe something and then only halfway living it out. I've been living for the parts of Christianity that are convenient or what I think will be easy to follow or sounds like the right answer. God really smacked me in the face with that quote. The God of the universe wants to use me to do huge things. He wants to use me to change nations. He wants to use me to bring a revival that may have never happened if it wasn't for me. If he wants to use me like this how can I just get by through life on the bare minimums? How can I "try" to read my bible for 10 minutes a day and then write it off as being a good Christian for the day?
He is truly as good as we say he is. In fact, he is so much better than the best picture that we could ever paint of him. If he is really that great, why has it always been so hard for me to grow in a completely intimate relationship with him? Why has it always been so hard to consistently have a quiet time? It's not that being a Christian is about having a quiet time, it's just the fact that I want to be strong in my faith yet I haven't been putting in the effort to do so.
(This is all stuff I've been wrestling with over the past couple of days. It gets happier later, just throwing out there where my train of thought has been haha)
The speaker put it in a way that I had never thought of before. He said "If the buffet table is so good, why would we willingly leave it?" Bam. Smacked in the face. I've totally experienced God before and I know how good he is and how great relationship with him is, yet I've acted like I could do better on my own. I've acted like I could offer myself more than he ever could. Realizing this was both a little disappointing and exciting all at the same time. It is one of those things that needed to happen in order to move forward. This is where it gets more exciting!
The next topic that the speaker talked about was revival in the church. I've always had the mindset that if I can just get them to come to church then God would make it all happen. Don't get me wrong, he can definitely do that, but the problem is that the inside of the church looks exactly like the outside of the church. By this I mean that I personally have not been a good representation of what the love of Christ looks like. Please don't mis-read this to be me bashing the church. I'm definitely not trying to do this in any way, shape, or form. Christ loves the church like crazy! The bible even uses that love as an example for how men are to love their wives: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."(Ephesians 5:25-27). I am not at all trying to bring down or talk bad about the church. What I'm referring to by "church" is the body of Christians as a whole. As Christians, we are just as broken as the rest of the world is. Our divorce rate is just as high, we have just as many struggles with sin as people who never go to church, and it's all bad. Not saying that you will be perfect when you become a christian, not at all, and definitely not saying this in a holier than thou sort of way. What really hit me is that if we, as Christians, want to be effective and bring people to Christ then we need to look like something the world has never seen before. We need to show the radical love of Jesus because when it is legitimately shown, people can't help but be drawn to it. I've almost turned Sunday mornings into a day where I can "sacrifice" some of my time to come sing a little, pray a little, hear some of the bible, and then pretend like I got my Jesus fix for the week. Does this sound familiar? I know I've dealt with this for a long time so it really hit home. The thing is; Jesus didn't die for a Sunday morning club. There's so much more to it than that! I've been spending way too much time trying to figure out a way that I can creatively word it in order to present it to people if ever given the chance, but what the world really needs is Christians to legitimately pursue God and have the gospel radiating from their lives. This is what will bring the opportunities to tell them about Jesus. Once we, as Christians, start actually living the gospel out (to it's entirety, not just what's convenient), people will come running to it. This is because it won't just be a title. It won't just be a thing to do on Sunday mornings. It will have something so attractive about it that people won't be able to help but want it.
The next area that I've been really challenged in is following no matter what God calls us to do. Following what He tells me even when no one else sees why or how it will happen. Following even when I won't see the benefits of it right now or even in my lifetime. This may seem crazy, but it's a totally biblical concept. The speaker really dug into the story of Noah in a way that I had never thought about.
For those that don't know the story of Noah, I'll recap for you. (Genesis 6) Early in the time of the earth the people had become completely corrupt. Like, COMPLETELY corrupt. Like, today doesn't have jack on it. God came to a man named Noah and told him that the earth was going to be destroyed. He told Noah to build an Ark and gave him specific dimensions for it so he could house all of the species and family that he needed to. Noah obeyed, and his family was saved.
Now let's break down what happened in this story.
God came to Noah and told him to build a boat because it was going to rain. At this point in time, it had never rained before. It had never needed to rain. Noah probably was like "What the heck is rain?" But he was obedient. Even though he had no idea why God wanted him to do this, he still obeyed and did it. If he had never heard of rain before, then it is guaranteed that none of his family or friends had heard of it either. This means he had Everyone telling him that he was insane. People were coming and mocking him throughout every point of this. Not to mention that he was 600 years old when he got onto the ark. That means it wasn't a short term calling from God. It wasn't like today where if we don't see results in a 6 month time period we question whether or not it was God. Would you be able to stick with something that God had told you to do for a couple hundred years without seeing the outcome? What if there was no other confirmation along the way? Crazy. I want a faith like that.
The reason that this story of Noah hit so hard is that he was an example of a revolutionary. God called him to do something extraordinary and he obeyed even though he had absolutely no backup and everyone was against him. The simple act of obedience, no matter how hard the task is, will always win in the end. What will I do if I have no backup? What will I do if God calls me to do something that everyone thinks is absolutely insane? What will I do if everyone I know tells me it's a waste of time, money, energy, and my life?
Another thing that we talked about in class was worshiping and giving God praise even when I don't feel like it or don't feel like he's there. If I don't feel like he's there, does that make him any less sovereign? Does that make him any less powerful? Does that make him any less worthy of praise? Crazy. It's not about feelings. All too often I've made it about how I feel when worshiping him. That's not what it's about because at the end of the day, whether or not I get a little tingly feeling in my stomach is pointless because he is still deserving of all the honor and all of the praise.
Have you ever thought about the fact that you will never die? Seriously, you will never die. We get 70-90 years here and then we have the rest of eternity. I'm not talking about the kind of eternity that we've always talked about and just pretend to make a big deal. Eternity like eternity. Forever. Foreverness. Neverending. For all time. Have you seriously thought about what that means? We have 70-90 years where there's sickness and pain, and then eternity after that. What if I was focused on eternity rather than now? What if I woke up each morning asking myself "how can I change eternity?" What if I stopped worrying about my petty problems today and tried to do whatever I could to forever change how eternity looks? Another question: What if I was more concerned with eternity than my own ego? How would that change what my days look like? I know for sure that I would put aside the stupid fear of telling people about Jesus. Those nerves that come from being afraid of rejection would sure as heck be gone. If God tells me to do something and I question it and argue with him, what good does it do? Do the angels ever question his authority? No? Then why should I? I had never thought about it like that before. Wrestling with it.
Another topic that was brought up is the bible. You may be thinking "duh, he's doing a discipleship training school"...But let me ask you something. When was the last time you actually read your bible for fun? Not in quite some time? True story, I'm right there with ya. It's one of those things that I've always felt like "I need to discipline myself to do." How sad is that? The way that the creator of the universe wants to talk to me personally is something that I have to "try to make time to spend 5 minutes reading." That's just crazy. I've been totally rocked this week about this. What if we were addicted to Scripture? What if we were addicted to getting to know God on a deeper, more personal level? What if it wasn't boring to read the bible? That's one of the biggest lies that satan has convinced our culture of. He's somehow made us, even as christians, think that the bible is boring to read. Let's break that off! Satan knows that if we actually got a hold of a love for the bible and used it then it would bring revolutionary changes to our society as we know it.
Something that the speaker said has really stuck in my head today. The question was "How do you maintain zeal?" and the answer was "You are fooling yourself if you think that you will be in love with Jesus 20 years from now if you don't make it a daily effort." Wow. At first I fell right back into how I thought for a long time that if I just keep trying then I will continue to love Jesus. Not the case. This isn't about a religious routine of having to read the bible every day. It's not about a required amount of time you spend reading it. It's about the daily effort to walk with Jesus through the day. To daily read his word and grow in knowledge of him through it. To live life with him and walk with him, not trying to walk to him. It's not a book that we have to try to read and somehow interpret. Imagine sitting down with C.S. Lewis and having him explain one of his books to you from his perspective. From the perspective of the author. You would completely understand it and even understand it in ways that you would have never done on your own. The bible is the same thing. God wants to walk with us through reading it and bring revelations about it to us. Not secondhand revelations, but intense revelations firsthand. The deeper of an understanding we have about God, the more we will love him. The more that we love him the more of an understanding we will get about him. Do you see the cycle? It's about putting my heart 100% into it and going all in.
The last thing I'm going to share is what we've been talking about when the topic of "holiness" comes up. I've always looked at holiness as things that I don't do in order to be holy. Man, was I wrong. It's not a list of things to do and not do. That's religion. That's a set of standards that we have to maintain in order to be loved. That's not what a relationship with Jesus is. Holiness is about pursuing God in such a way that obedience comes naturally. It's not about the things we don't do, but the things that we do do in order to grow in our relationship with Jesus.
Here's the order of revivals that we've been talking about:
Revival of the heart --> Reformation of lifestyle --> Revival of the church --> Reformation of the church --> Revival (world) --> Reformation (world)
There's some of the stuff that's been going on in my head guys. I hope it impacts some of you as well! Please hit me up if you'd like to talk more about anything! I would love to!
Jesus loves you more than you know, just let him love you,
Josh
I also want to leave you with some quotes that I wrote down from class:
-"So many people want God to hear what's on their hearts, but so few want to hear what's on God's heart."
-"What if we, Christians, stopped drawing ambiguous lines to get as close as possible to them and instead started pursuing God?"
-"We are the only ones that question God's authority."
-"If we want to be a revolutionary then we need to walk in integrity in every area of our lives."
-"We think we can break the law, but really the law breaks us."
-"Political Correctness is a giant demon over the land. All that it is is a compromise."
-"Look at the consequences of sin, does that look like freedom to you?" (About just letting people have the freedom to make their own decisions without saying anything and pretending to turn a blind eye to it.)
-"Truth is outside of your opinion."
-"If we can't stand up now, how will we ever expect to later?"
-"Not because I feel like praying, but because it is about God."
-"99% of our struggles would be solved by gazing at Christ"
-"Lord of all, or not Lord at all."
-"Don't be influenced by circumstances...Own them."
-"Did Christ wait for man, or did he save them?"
-"Are you willing to go when no one else will go with you?"
We had an absolutely amazing lecture in class today. It really hit home for me so I really want to share with you guys some of the stuff that I'm wrestling with. If you take the time to read this you definitely won't be disappointed! Strait up crazyness!
I'm going to try to paraphrase some of what was said and use my notes to the best of my abilities. I'll also combine some of the intense revelations that hit me while listening, and even some things that I've been thinking about that other people have said too. Enjoy!
What if we weren't comfortable with where we're at in our walk with Jesus? What if we were constantly falling into such a deeper love with Jesus that the people who seem like radical Christians in today's time would seem like lukewarm followers of Christ? What if the level of radical-ness was ever increasing in such a way that we didn't limit it to taking one day a week to eat lunch with a homeless guy?
These are just some things to think about.
Are we living to achieve a certain level of closeness with God? A closeness that once we reach it we simply put that trophy onto the shelf and then retire? That's definitely how I've been looking at my walk with God. I figured if I could reach a certain level of closeness with him then I would be satisfied with it and then feel accomplished in my faith. The thing is, God wants so much more from us than that. This isn't in an achieving sort of way. He doesn't want us to do more things for him. He wants us to be closer to him. We put so many boxes and limitations on where we think we need to get with God that it's like there's a plateau that we're striving for. Isn't it crazy to think that the creator of the universe wants to shatter that level that we set for ourselves? Isn't it crazy that he wants to be in an evergrowing relationship with us? Isn't it crazy that He wants to help us do things no one else has ever done before? I find that insane!
One of the main topics that we talked about today was revival. The first area was revival of the heart. This means that in our own personal lives we come to love Jesus in an all new way and the fire grows like never before! All too often this can look like this: We decide that we want to try to "get back on track" with God. The problem is that we don't know how to do that...so it lasts all of 3 weeks and then we screw up once and we're back into the same rut that we were in before. Our hearts are completely in the right place, yet we just don't know how to maintain that revival. This is where it requires a life style change. This may mean something different for each person.
When we start to grasp the radical love that God has for us we start to realize how real he is. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy. As we draw near to him we start to develop such a strong personal relationship with him. It stops being a religion and turns into a personal relationship. I know that's such a cliche term that is used all the time in the church, but think about this: When was the last time I woke up and simply asked Jesus "What do you want to do today?" When was the last time I was sitting and praying and simply asked "Jesus, please come and hang out with me for a bit." It isn't about this religious routine or ritual when it comes to praying, it's strait up relationship.
The speaker made a point that has really resonated with me over the past couple of days. He said "If God is as good as He reveals himself to be, then it demands a lifestyle change." How true is that? I've totally lived a life of half-ing Christianity by saying I believe something and then only halfway living it out. I've been living for the parts of Christianity that are convenient or what I think will be easy to follow or sounds like the right answer. God really smacked me in the face with that quote. The God of the universe wants to use me to do huge things. He wants to use me to change nations. He wants to use me to bring a revival that may have never happened if it wasn't for me. If he wants to use me like this how can I just get by through life on the bare minimums? How can I "try" to read my bible for 10 minutes a day and then write it off as being a good Christian for the day?
He is truly as good as we say he is. In fact, he is so much better than the best picture that we could ever paint of him. If he is really that great, why has it always been so hard for me to grow in a completely intimate relationship with him? Why has it always been so hard to consistently have a quiet time? It's not that being a Christian is about having a quiet time, it's just the fact that I want to be strong in my faith yet I haven't been putting in the effort to do so.
(This is all stuff I've been wrestling with over the past couple of days. It gets happier later, just throwing out there where my train of thought has been haha)
The speaker put it in a way that I had never thought of before. He said "If the buffet table is so good, why would we willingly leave it?" Bam. Smacked in the face. I've totally experienced God before and I know how good he is and how great relationship with him is, yet I've acted like I could do better on my own. I've acted like I could offer myself more than he ever could. Realizing this was both a little disappointing and exciting all at the same time. It is one of those things that needed to happen in order to move forward. This is where it gets more exciting!
The next topic that the speaker talked about was revival in the church. I've always had the mindset that if I can just get them to come to church then God would make it all happen. Don't get me wrong, he can definitely do that, but the problem is that the inside of the church looks exactly like the outside of the church. By this I mean that I personally have not been a good representation of what the love of Christ looks like. Please don't mis-read this to be me bashing the church. I'm definitely not trying to do this in any way, shape, or form. Christ loves the church like crazy! The bible even uses that love as an example for how men are to love their wives: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."(Ephesians 5:25-27). I am not at all trying to bring down or talk bad about the church. What I'm referring to by "church" is the body of Christians as a whole. As Christians, we are just as broken as the rest of the world is. Our divorce rate is just as high, we have just as many struggles with sin as people who never go to church, and it's all bad. Not saying that you will be perfect when you become a christian, not at all, and definitely not saying this in a holier than thou sort of way. What really hit me is that if we, as Christians, want to be effective and bring people to Christ then we need to look like something the world has never seen before. We need to show the radical love of Jesus because when it is legitimately shown, people can't help but be drawn to it. I've almost turned Sunday mornings into a day where I can "sacrifice" some of my time to come sing a little, pray a little, hear some of the bible, and then pretend like I got my Jesus fix for the week. Does this sound familiar? I know I've dealt with this for a long time so it really hit home. The thing is; Jesus didn't die for a Sunday morning club. There's so much more to it than that! I've been spending way too much time trying to figure out a way that I can creatively word it in order to present it to people if ever given the chance, but what the world really needs is Christians to legitimately pursue God and have the gospel radiating from their lives. This is what will bring the opportunities to tell them about Jesus. Once we, as Christians, start actually living the gospel out (to it's entirety, not just what's convenient), people will come running to it. This is because it won't just be a title. It won't just be a thing to do on Sunday mornings. It will have something so attractive about it that people won't be able to help but want it.
The next area that I've been really challenged in is following no matter what God calls us to do. Following what He tells me even when no one else sees why or how it will happen. Following even when I won't see the benefits of it right now or even in my lifetime. This may seem crazy, but it's a totally biblical concept. The speaker really dug into the story of Noah in a way that I had never thought about.
For those that don't know the story of Noah, I'll recap for you. (Genesis 6) Early in the time of the earth the people had become completely corrupt. Like, COMPLETELY corrupt. Like, today doesn't have jack on it. God came to a man named Noah and told him that the earth was going to be destroyed. He told Noah to build an Ark and gave him specific dimensions for it so he could house all of the species and family that he needed to. Noah obeyed, and his family was saved.
Now let's break down what happened in this story.
God came to Noah and told him to build a boat because it was going to rain. At this point in time, it had never rained before. It had never needed to rain. Noah probably was like "What the heck is rain?" But he was obedient. Even though he had no idea why God wanted him to do this, he still obeyed and did it. If he had never heard of rain before, then it is guaranteed that none of his family or friends had heard of it either. This means he had Everyone telling him that he was insane. People were coming and mocking him throughout every point of this. Not to mention that he was 600 years old when he got onto the ark. That means it wasn't a short term calling from God. It wasn't like today where if we don't see results in a 6 month time period we question whether or not it was God. Would you be able to stick with something that God had told you to do for a couple hundred years without seeing the outcome? What if there was no other confirmation along the way? Crazy. I want a faith like that.
The reason that this story of Noah hit so hard is that he was an example of a revolutionary. God called him to do something extraordinary and he obeyed even though he had absolutely no backup and everyone was against him. The simple act of obedience, no matter how hard the task is, will always win in the end. What will I do if I have no backup? What will I do if God calls me to do something that everyone thinks is absolutely insane? What will I do if everyone I know tells me it's a waste of time, money, energy, and my life?
Another thing that we talked about in class was worshiping and giving God praise even when I don't feel like it or don't feel like he's there. If I don't feel like he's there, does that make him any less sovereign? Does that make him any less powerful? Does that make him any less worthy of praise? Crazy. It's not about feelings. All too often I've made it about how I feel when worshiping him. That's not what it's about because at the end of the day, whether or not I get a little tingly feeling in my stomach is pointless because he is still deserving of all the honor and all of the praise.
Have you ever thought about the fact that you will never die? Seriously, you will never die. We get 70-90 years here and then we have the rest of eternity. I'm not talking about the kind of eternity that we've always talked about and just pretend to make a big deal. Eternity like eternity. Forever. Foreverness. Neverending. For all time. Have you seriously thought about what that means? We have 70-90 years where there's sickness and pain, and then eternity after that. What if I was focused on eternity rather than now? What if I woke up each morning asking myself "how can I change eternity?" What if I stopped worrying about my petty problems today and tried to do whatever I could to forever change how eternity looks? Another question: What if I was more concerned with eternity than my own ego? How would that change what my days look like? I know for sure that I would put aside the stupid fear of telling people about Jesus. Those nerves that come from being afraid of rejection would sure as heck be gone. If God tells me to do something and I question it and argue with him, what good does it do? Do the angels ever question his authority? No? Then why should I? I had never thought about it like that before. Wrestling with it.
Another topic that was brought up is the bible. You may be thinking "duh, he's doing a discipleship training school"...But let me ask you something. When was the last time you actually read your bible for fun? Not in quite some time? True story, I'm right there with ya. It's one of those things that I've always felt like "I need to discipline myself to do." How sad is that? The way that the creator of the universe wants to talk to me personally is something that I have to "try to make time to spend 5 minutes reading." That's just crazy. I've been totally rocked this week about this. What if we were addicted to Scripture? What if we were addicted to getting to know God on a deeper, more personal level? What if it wasn't boring to read the bible? That's one of the biggest lies that satan has convinced our culture of. He's somehow made us, even as christians, think that the bible is boring to read. Let's break that off! Satan knows that if we actually got a hold of a love for the bible and used it then it would bring revolutionary changes to our society as we know it.
Something that the speaker said has really stuck in my head today. The question was "How do you maintain zeal?" and the answer was "You are fooling yourself if you think that you will be in love with Jesus 20 years from now if you don't make it a daily effort." Wow. At first I fell right back into how I thought for a long time that if I just keep trying then I will continue to love Jesus. Not the case. This isn't about a religious routine of having to read the bible every day. It's not about a required amount of time you spend reading it. It's about the daily effort to walk with Jesus through the day. To daily read his word and grow in knowledge of him through it. To live life with him and walk with him, not trying to walk to him. It's not a book that we have to try to read and somehow interpret. Imagine sitting down with C.S. Lewis and having him explain one of his books to you from his perspective. From the perspective of the author. You would completely understand it and even understand it in ways that you would have never done on your own. The bible is the same thing. God wants to walk with us through reading it and bring revelations about it to us. Not secondhand revelations, but intense revelations firsthand. The deeper of an understanding we have about God, the more we will love him. The more that we love him the more of an understanding we will get about him. Do you see the cycle? It's about putting my heart 100% into it and going all in.
The last thing I'm going to share is what we've been talking about when the topic of "holiness" comes up. I've always looked at holiness as things that I don't do in order to be holy. Man, was I wrong. It's not a list of things to do and not do. That's religion. That's a set of standards that we have to maintain in order to be loved. That's not what a relationship with Jesus is. Holiness is about pursuing God in such a way that obedience comes naturally. It's not about the things we don't do, but the things that we do do in order to grow in our relationship with Jesus.
Here's the order of revivals that we've been talking about:
Revival of the heart --> Reformation of lifestyle --> Revival of the church --> Reformation of the church --> Revival (world) --> Reformation (world)
There's some of the stuff that's been going on in my head guys. I hope it impacts some of you as well! Please hit me up if you'd like to talk more about anything! I would love to!
Jesus loves you more than you know, just let him love you,
Josh
I also want to leave you with some quotes that I wrote down from class:
-"So many people want God to hear what's on their hearts, but so few want to hear what's on God's heart."
-"What if we, Christians, stopped drawing ambiguous lines to get as close as possible to them and instead started pursuing God?"
-"We are the only ones that question God's authority."
-"If we want to be a revolutionary then we need to walk in integrity in every area of our lives."
-"We think we can break the law, but really the law breaks us."
-"Political Correctness is a giant demon over the land. All that it is is a compromise."
-"Look at the consequences of sin, does that look like freedom to you?" (About just letting people have the freedom to make their own decisions without saying anything and pretending to turn a blind eye to it.)
-"Truth is outside of your opinion."
-"If we can't stand up now, how will we ever expect to later?"
-"Not because I feel like praying, but because it is about God."
-"99% of our struggles would be solved by gazing at Christ"
-"Lord of all, or not Lord at all."
-"Don't be influenced by circumstances...Own them."
-"Did Christ wait for man, or did he save them?"
-"Are you willing to go when no one else will go with you?"
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