Playing in the rain

So...no post in a while...this title may seem random but if you read this whole thing you'll understand. Today it rained...a lot...and me and my friends, Bobby and Amanda, decided we were going to go play in the rain...I know it sounds childish, but I really could care less what other people think...just because we're in college doesn't me we have to act like adults all the time...but I digress...so we go to the Parade Grounds and we're splashing each other and sliding through the huge water puddles and playing frisbee, and altogether having a blast...Well, afterwards I had an epiphany...I'm taking a shower and thinking about how much fun it was to go out there and act like a little kids, and how we were playing with a reckless abandon, and it struck me...this is how we are supposed to be towards God...We're supposed to be like little children worshipping and following after Him with a reckless abandon...We went out there to have a good time and we really didn't care what other people thought...That's how we should worship and follow after Him...not caring what others think! We need to lose the inhibitions that society places on us when it comes to how we view God, and become a little uncivilized...As the song goes "And I'll become even more undignified than this..." I'm sure we didn't look very dignified out there playing in the rain like we were little kids again, but we didn't care, and folks that how it should be in our relationship with God...So next time you're in the presence of God, remember how you used to "Play in the rain". Just a little thought...now I'm out.

Repentance

So, last night at Lifegroup we talked about Repentance...now most people say they know what repentance is, but really do they? We looked at King David's reaction to sinning against God when he decided that he wanted Bathesheba...it's in Psalms...but at this current time I do not have a Bible, but I'll get back to you on that...He said that his heart was broken...now he wasn't talking in the sense that a girl or guy breaking someone elses heart, but rather God showing you that you have done something against him, and your spirit crying out to Him...and that repentance isn't just saying sorry God for what I have done, but rather your actions showing it, you have to want to change...For example, in Augustine's Confessions, there is a point at which St. Augustine asks God to help him get rid of his addictions but says "...not yet"...there can be none of that in repentance...you have to want to get rid of whatever "it" is. Well, that's it for now!

Teaching and Humility

Teaching and Humility
Woah...Me and Jennifer just got done talking about teaching and correcting people in the Word, and I've come upon some realizations. The core of our talk was about 2 Timothy 2:24-25

24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,

I've never realized how to teach something about the Word, but me and her started talking and I realized something: I should teach by using the Word itself. Now, I'll explain myself by using a real life example. My friend Bean knows more about the Bible than anyone I've ever met, yet he doesn't beat people over the head with his knowledge of the Word, it's never "I know more about the Bible than you, so shut up". When talking about Scripture or when teaching, Bean will let you present your point of view and then agree with it or disagree with it, and back up his reasons with scripture. He leads people to the answer that he has discovered, but doesn't tell them that they are wrong or that he is right, rather he lets them accept or reject the answer, he leaves it up to them. Along with leading, he prays for them to recognize the truth of his point and that they way that they were thinking was wrong, and that throught this they come to change their ways.

I think this is probably one of the best ways of teaching out there, to be humble, to keep situations defused and less tense, making learning more easily possible. Use scripture to back up your idea of what is right and lead the other person to that, but don't force-feed it to them, let them take the symbolic spoon themselves.
Well, that's it. Later!

An update finally!!!!

So, yes updating!!!! So, I'm still thinking on the happenings of Spring Thing '06 and my baptism in the Holy Spirit, and I'm studying this issue deeper, especially now that I've made my way into Acts, where it is definitely spoken on...In 2 chapters I've come across it many times. This is what I've come up with so far...definition for dunamis comes from Strong's concordance...Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Gift of God. Gives power (from Greek Dunamis: Force (literally or figuratively); specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself):—ability, abundance, meaning, might (-ily, -y, -y deed), (worker of) miracle (-s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work) to the recipient and that person is told that this power should be used to witness to others throughout the world. One part of a baptism in the Holy Spirit is the speaking of tongues. (Shown in Acts 2:4 - And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.) Many people have a problem with the speaking in tongues part of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, claiming it is of the devil or demonic, yet it clearly states that after being filled with the Holy Ghost, they began to speak in tongues. Does not sound very demonic to me. In two chapters that's what I've come up with, now granted this doesn't even skim the surface so I will edit later, just thought I'd go ahead and post this now, just in case I lose it. Will edit later.

***edit***
Ok, more thoughts on this concept of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost.
Along with speaking in tongues, it appears as though some of those baptized in the Holy Ghost would be given the power of prophesy (Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Act 19:6 And as Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.)
So according to these two verses, not only would one be given the gift of tongues, one might also be given the prophesy. Now it might be wondered why someone would be given all these things, but it's like my pastor Nick says..."Your not supposed to be a container, where everything just goes in and fills you up, but more like a pipe, where everything goes in and goes through you to someone else. What God wants to do in you, He wants to do through you." So, basically the overall reason for the bestowing of these many gifts is to spread the Good News, that God sent his Son to die for the sins of the all mankind, not to condemn to death all of mankind. (Joh 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.
) So, being baptized in the Holy Spirit is like going from trying to hammer a nail in with a piece of wood, to using a hammer...It's to make you more effective evangelically. (Bad analogy, I know but it's the best I could come up with at 6:03 in the morning)

BTW, e-Sword is one of the best programs in the world!!!

Spring Thing 06!!!!

So, yeah...Spring Thing 06...so I go not knowing what to expect. I was hoping for God to move in me but I wasn't sure how I wanted him to move in me...Well, I must admit the first night, I wasn't thrilled at all, worship opened up and I wasn't feeling it at all...I actually sat down and just stopped, because I was feeling that the worship I was doing was fake, and not heart felt. Well, that all changed when Eli got up there and started talking about "One Soul": the idea that even if everybody else on the planet was perfect, Jesus would have came for that one soul who was not. Well, I get up for the second day, had fun playing football and volleyball, and then went to the final message. The message was about being "Baptised in or by the Holy Spirit" and all the things that go along with that...Well, I didn't know what to think at first, because Eli started talking about talking in tongues, and I was like I'm not sure about this. Anyways, that didn't matter, I felt God softening my heart to this idea of being Baptised in the Holy Spirit, and I went up front to pray to God to do what he would with me...well I started crying, no...weeping uncontrollably for like 30 minutes, and just crying out to the Lord, and for like 15 minutes, I couldn't feel anything from my head to my toes, I felt God's touch on me...So I've been baptised in the Holy Spirit, and I can tell the difference in myself, I more attuned to what God what's me to do...Well, anyways later!