Shine

I don't have any new pictures for this post, so if you normally just look at those, see ya next week.

I got a job!!! Praise Jesus, Bankers Life and Casualty hired me as a recruiter (so Redding people, if you need a job, hit me up). I started Friday, and I'm still learning the ropes and the computer system that we use. I wasn't going to be able to do 2nd year if I didn't get a job, and I've been looking since I got here in September. So in the first 5 months I got zero job offers and was wondering what's up. Then the DAY that applications opened, I got this job offer, and the next day I got another offer as well. What. A. Coincidence (wink wink, nudge nudge, Jesus).

This past week in school we learned about the glory of God, and how we all carry it throughout the day, even if we don't feel like we're doing anything spectacular. We also learned about the power of joy, and laughed at a ton of lies together. When you laugh at lies, they don't have any power over you because you are putting your hope in the truth instead. Let's try one together: "I'm too busy to experience God's presence". BAHAHAHAHA He's inside of every person He's in relationship with, and we can experience Him with every movement, every thought turned towards Him.

Festival of Cultures was last night, and it was awesome! It's a night to celebrate all the amazing people from all the amazing countries in the world who have come to Bethel. They dressed up, made delicious food to pass out, and entertained in various other ways, including some pretty cool dances.

Earlier I mentioned that my sister gave me the word "power" for this year, and then I also got the word "shine" during a worship set. I have 2 things to say about the second word. First of all, we should give thanks for our God-given talents and not think less of them. When I was younger I was very prideful and so as I matured I think I started to associate being good at something with being prideful. But excellence is not pride. Daniel and Joseph are two Biblical examples of men being promoted because of excellence. They used it for God's glory. Proverbs 22:29 says "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men."

Also, God is all about that shine. He loves the radiance of beauty that His creation emits. Paul says that through purity we are to shine like stars in the midst of a crooked generation (Phil. 2:15). Nobody lights a candle and then puts it under a bowl (Matthew 5:15). God lit you up when you entered into relationship with Him, and he intends to show you off. That doesn't mean being in the spotlight all the time, but people will want the gospel if they notice a difference in you. I'll end with this quote from Kris Vallotton - "True humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less."

Here's an old pic, but it shines

Wow wow wow this song! Mount Zion by Jonathan Hesler. He and his wife led worship at Bethel this past week. 

Countdown to Korea: 34 days! I still need $650 by this Tuesday to make the deadline. If you would like to donate, click here :) 

My first vlog

It's a video blog, about South Korea!

Song of the week: Beautiful Exchange by Hillsong

What do you agree with?

Hey everybody. Or "Hey everybody!" I think I feel slightly in between those (getting sleepy).

Hey everybody-

It's been an interesting week. On Monday my Indian roommates and I wore traditional Indian clothes to school to spice things up. We (at least I) got plenty of weird looks but it was so fun and quite the cultural experience. 

I'm the white guy

Then Tuesday we welcomed Randy Clark and his team who were here for the rest of the week for a healing conference. He spent a couple days just with us students and then a few with anyone who registered or showed up for the free evening services. SO many people were healed in these few days (as in hundreds of miracles). Most of them involved pain from an accident or surgery but we also saw deaf ears opened and people were even being healed through phone calls and texts. Randy would call out different problems and said that if anyone knew others with those problems, they should call them and release the healing over them. I only know about 1% of what happened so I wish I could share more testimonies, but we would praise Jesus even if only 1 person was healed this past week. 

Wednesday I got to meet with my core group (20 or so) at Westside Pizza. The pizza place is owned by Bethel people so they let us come worship and pray in there while they ran their business as usual. They even joined in on the worship in between making pizzas. We got to ask and answer some deep questions in groups of 4, trying to learn more about the hearts of these people I'm in community with. It's so easy to see them every week without truly knowing and being known by them. So that was fun. Speaking of fun, I made this sandwich a couple minutes ago: (Got the idea from the Internet somewhere)

Grape and strawberry jam, honey, Nutella, and peanut butter

My thought of the week is about what we consent to and how our thoughts are powerful. I have an example to illustrate! Some amount of time ago (to be specific), I was listening to music on my phone via Google Play. In the middle of a song a message popped up that said "Google Play has stopped working." It had a big Okay button at the bottom of the message. BUT the music kept playing. Nothing was wrong. I listened for a bit longer and then decided I didn't want the error message on my screen anymore so I clicked Okay. Of course, right then the app crashed and in came the empty silence that follows a song ended before it's proper time. 

I think many times Christians get bombarded with false accusations and lies from the devil which literally have no power to change us. That is, unless we agree with them. If our identity is rooted in Christ and what he did for us on the cross, then nothing can move us. But the enemy would love to get our help in taking us down. Ephesians 1:4 says we are "holy and blameless in His sight." Philippians 3:16 says "Only let us live up to what we have already attained." That means the hard part is over, we just have to agree with the victory. So sometime you might get a negative message in your head about your life, and it has a big Okay button attached to it. Feel free to ignore the message (even better, reject it) and keep believing what God says about you!

Another song from Bethel music this week: Fall Afresh featuring Jeremy Riddle

50 days until I leave for South Korea! $1350 to go in fundraising. Click here if you want to give.