Coming to a Close

Well, it's been 9 months. Time really does fly by. I can't believe it was 9 months ago that I first set foot in Sebring, FL. When I came to Sebring it looked like such a long time to spend away from home but looking back I can only wonder where the time went. It's truly been a life transforming year for me. If you can spend a year in God's Word and not be changed by it than something is wrong. I've finished this step of my life, but the question is, where will He take me next? Maybe Peru, maybe not, all I can say is that He knows what He's doing. He's doing something, something mysterious and beautiful. He's changing me. He's conforming me to be more and more like Him everyday. Father, thank you that you have an amazing plan for all who choose to follow you.

I want to thank everyone who made this step in my life possible, especially Mom and Dad. I couldn't have done it without you guys, you mean the world to me, I love you. Everyone else who stood and stands behind me I thank you. I hope that my life is an encouragment to all who are around me, a testimony that God can change anyone. Thanks again!

Simplify My Walk LORD

Today will go down as one of those life changing days that only happen every once in a while. I don't know about you, but for me it's easy to make my walk with God way too complicated. My prayer lately is that God would simplify my walk with Him. The answer to that prayer came in a simple package but that simplicity had a great affect.

Today at the second sermon Pastor Randy preached on 2 Timothy 4. I won't take time to break down the passage but the punchline of the message was that believers should focus on 3 keys in their walk with God. 1.) People 2.) The Word 3.) Intimacy with God. This is simple I know, but for me it's what I needed to hear. I'm over here worrying about petty issues in my walk with the LORD when I'm neglecting the necessities to sustain a powerful relationship with Him. God's intention was never to make things confusing for us. I pray that you too can rest in the simple but strong faith that God has called us to as believers

Prayer for Peru

I'm finally back again. Once again it's been a while since I've last posted. I've been rather undisciplined at blogging consistently. Anyways, I've been praying a lot about God's leading after GCBI. It's coming to a close soon and I need to know where God will have me next.

Just the other day my Mom called me and told me about a mission called 40/40. It's a mission out of Extreme Nazarene and their goal is to plant 120 churches within an 18 month period. There will be 40 pairs of missionaries. Each pair consists of 1 American and 1 Peruvian. I started reading up on it and almost started crying. I believe God gave me a burden for it in that moment in time so I ended up applying and am currently awaiting a response from them.

If I get accepted I'll spend 3 months learning Spanish. Then 6 months of missionary training. Lastly 18 months of mission work in which I and my Peruvian partner will plant 3 churches.

If you read this and God gives you a nudging to pray for me, please do so. This is a big commitment for me and I'll need lots of prayer to back me up. Thanks!

Israel Report

The Israel trip was amazing. I've considered posting about each individual day but I don't want to do that. Only for organization and time sake. However the trip was beneficial to me for a few reasons.

It gave me a better view of the culture. When we read the Bible we tend to put our culture to it. We have to remember that it was written by the Jewish people. They live much differently than we do. When we learn their ways we can interpret Scripture much more accurately.

It brought the Word to life. Reading and studying have went from standard television to HDTV. When you actually see the places and experience them first-hand it adds color to the Bible. Knowing that you saw the sight and smelled the smells somehow helps you to relate with the writer.

Lastly and most important is that it gave me more of a desire to learn the Word of God. Going into Israel I wished that I had spent more time studying and learning God's Word. To learn the significance of the people and places. Since coming back I've been studying the Word more diligently. I've almost wrapped up the New Testament and will start the Old Testament after I finish.

For more pictures of the trip check out my Facebook page.

Israel Trip

I haven't posted anything in over a month. I feel like I had a period where God was revealing things to me and now is the time for application. He gave me more than a few things to work on and I'm still learning to apply those lessons.

Tomorrow at 5:30 A.M. we leave for Israel. I feel excited and humbled that I get the opportunity to go. I'm very excited about all that I'll learn there. After the trip I'll be putting up posts and hopefully pictures of my experiences in the Holy Land.

Back 2 School

Today was my first day of class for the Spring semester. I've been surprisingly excited about coming back to school and learning again. Today we went over Jude and Obadiah and I have to admit, I knew very little about either of them. We spent six hours in these two books and it was refreshing to receive the truth of God's Word. I'm excited about starting off this new semester. I believe that over break God has matured me more in the faith and I am starting to appreciate Him and His Word more and more each day. The one thing that does disappoint me about this place is that it's very hard to find a place to spend quiet time with the Lord. It's so crucial that each day I spend time in His presence so that He can transform me to be more like Him. I'm going to have to be more creative and find an escape so I can spend time with the Maker. God bless you, and I ask God that these posts will be a blessing and encouragement to you.

Memorizing Scripture

Break is coming to a close very soon because school starts back up this Tuesday(13th). God knew that this break was just what I needed. It's hard living with 11 other students in very close quarters and it wore on me quite a bit. I needed this break to have a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit in my life. God's been teaching me so much over the past month that it's been somewhat overwhelming. The newest lesson/ prompting He has put within me is to memorize more Scripture. I'm starting in Proverbs and am just going to start from chapter 1 memorizing as much as I can. I'm going to write 7 verses at a time on a half sheet of paper and carry it with me throughout the day for maximum memorization. It's important to hide His Word within our hearts and there are three huge benefits from it (There are more, I'm only listing three). If we memorize His Word we will have more Scripture on hand for encouraging, exhorting, reproving, correcting and rebuking others (2 Timothy 3:16 and 4:2). Also we will be more grounded in truth and not as susceptible to believing false doctrine (Ephesians 4:14). Lastly and most importantly we can fight the enemy with the Word (Ephesians 6:17). Keep in mind that it's our only spiritual Weapon. If we take a deeper look at Matthew 4:1-11 we'll see that Jesus fought satan with the Word. He didn't argue or reason with the devil. All He did was simply correct the lies with truth and the enemy fled Him.

I hope you take the time to seek God in prayer concerning this matter. God is trying to raise up a generation of warriors for His sake. I don't want to miss out because of a lack of discipline.