In His Gaze

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far to my South Korea trip! The first payment deadline was met (with 2 hours to spare!) and I have a month and a half until the next one. You can still donate here if you want to.

The past two weeks have been amazing. There are no crazy events that stand out but it seems like every day we get hit with a new truth or revelation about a concept that's spoken on. Kris Vallotton has been blowing our minds with a couple talks on truth, the Bible, and how nobody can accurately interpret the Bible without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We get to download 10 of the talks for free (3 bucks a piece after that) so I'll definitely try to get some of the more impactful ones to save a share. I'm also enjoying worship more, and it's definitely a highlight of every day. Sometimes I wish I was up on stage playing but I know that I already have plenty of things to do with my time.

A few days ago some friends and I went to Whiskeytown lake to have a late-night bon fire under the stars. The next day there was a fire by the lake on the news but we are 95% sure it wasn't our fault:

Don't worry, we covered it up with sand afterwards

One thing we sang during worship one day was the phrase "You never take your eyes off me." I don't think it's from a particular song, but I love the idea of God constantly looking at each one of us. It's a gaze so loving that no deformity or sin will turn it away. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him in (John 6:44) so even the most rebellious souls are being wooed daily. The stories of people "finding God" are actually stories of people finding out that God has been chasing them their entire life, and He actually knit them together in the womb (Psalm 139).

He's not like a celebrity that people follow on Twitter, limited by time and space. He has enough mind-space to concentrate fully on everybody, all the time. And we're engraved on the palms of his hands (Isaiah 49:16). God delights in us and loves looking at his creation. He knows when we sit and when we rise, when we go out and when we lie down. He is extravagant in his pursuit and extremely optimistic. He is awesome!

I've been jamming out to this on guitar recently: Great I Am by New Life Worship