Prayer

Today (again) is not about the Word, sadly.. It's about the prayer meeting I had with the teachers of the Youth Group. And I was hoping that you guys who read this could also pray for these things too, because I feel that prayer from others will help us come to a firmer conclusion that comes from God, not just from our desires or decisions.. It was mainly about the retreat that will be coming up in June, and we don't really have a firm theme set yet. Although we mentioned many themes that are connected together in one way or another, we want to decide on a overarching theme, and a catch phrase that goes with it.. Some themes that came up: Revival: Freedom/Worship Culture of Prayer Offering Unity Some catch phrases for unity: OneVoice, IXOYE United Thanks everyone!

Overflow

I've been more consistent this week than last week... but it's not saying too much. I did though, hear a word of encouragement from Pastor Brian's message yesterday in youth service.. He said "Reading the word is like spiritually eating, and praying is like spiritually breathing. If you're not praying, you're suffocating" And while we were singing praise, we sang "fill me up God", with the intent of asking God "fill me up with your Holy Spirit". And although this was really good, the part that hit me that hardest was the word "overflow". It really made me think about how I've been living, and I feel that I've been lacking His presence in my life. If I keep seeking an overflow of God in me, I know for sure that whatever I do, it'll be more of Him and less of me. That's my prayer.

Struggles

Man, it's been more than a week since I've blogged/read the word according to the plan, and I feel like it's been longer. It's been harder for me to focus on God recently, because I feel that I've been caught up in all of the other things in my life. I remembered to read today though, and look at what God has in store for me: "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge" It's safe to say that I've been struggling in taking refuge in God, and allowing Him to take over in my life. I've had this feeling before, of lacking passion in God because of the regular cycle of life. Even in a youth staff prayer meeting on Sunday, the first thing God put on my heart was pursuing God's presence, and breaking chains that hold us back. I feel the need to stop worrying about my family's situations, or my classes, or even the studying that I'll have to do over the summer, but it's really hard to stop worrying and putting it before God. It's time to go back to square one.

Day 4

Today's day 4, and I am slowly getting to the point of getting excited for when I'm going to read the Word. The downside is, I still read it when I'm in between games or have nothing to do. I guess it's a start for now.. Today, I won't be reflecting on the Word that I read today. Instead, I wanted to share a few prayer requests that's been on my heart lately before we come together as a group tomorrow. 1. Family's financial situation: For the past month, neither I nor my mom were working, so we were depending on the money coming in from my aunt and very small amount from my dad.. Plus I had to get my brake pads replaced because my rear ones were practically metal-to-metal. Good news is, my mom is working a lot more for April because her friend is going to Korea for 2 weeks, allowing her to fill in, and she'll be working regularly starting in May to help out her friend's business in Federal Way. I feel that I should be praying for our family's reliance on God and less on ourselves, because I'm beginning to feel the burden a little bit. 2. My sister/cousin's SAT stuff: They just got back their SAT scores today, and my sister did better than expected in the 1700 range, but my cousin's is not so good, and because my aunt is in Korea, she expects a lot more than others would. I'm worried for her stress level.. 3. My bible study group stuff: I'm going to be starting a 1-on-1 with my group, starting from the first week of April. I'm planning on meeting 2 kids a week, because I'm pretty sure my spring schedule will be relatively simple. I'm praying that from these 1-on-1's that I'll get to know the kids better, and that the environment will allow for deeper, more meaningful conversations, which will hopefully increase the trust levels between me and the kids. :)

Confessions

So.. I skipped yesterday because I was too busy plowing through the campaign for SC2:HOTS... but now that I'm done with it, here we go! There was a verse that really called out to me.. Psalms 5:11 - "But let all who take refuge in you rejoice" And a passage that really confused/annoyed me: 1 Chronicles 6 as a whole.. what was the point? I feel as if the verse from Psalms was a hit for me was because lately I have begun to feel like I need to do things on my own, rather than relying on God for the things that may or may not be out of my control. It was a really good reminder today that 1) I need to take refuge in God, 2) if I do take refuge, then I will be able to rejoice in his presence. Sidenote: Today was the exact day that I stopped posting last year.

First Day Back.

Man, this is the first day back on blogging after a longggg hiatus, but definitely it's going to be good.. I missed a couple days actually, so today's my first day of blogging, but fourth day of reading. The passage that I wanted to focus on was Luke 2, because it highlights the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. I took a class this past quarter on the history of Jerusalem and the important figures that resided there, and I learned about the Church of the Nativity that exists in Bethlehem today that is built on top of the supposed location of Jesus' birth and the Manger. I just found it interesting that Jesus, being God, is the only spiritual figure that has a place built where he was born. I guess that's what makes Him the Son of Man and Son of God right? Learning about the different historical churches really helped me put a lot of Christian basics back together, and I'm hoping to use those basics and other bits of knowledge that I've gained over the years to be a edifying bible study teacher for my class.. Pray for my class please! :)

1 John 2:3-11

Oh man. This passage...

It says love your brothers. I'm going to take that as another way of saying love your neighbors/family/everyone you know and don't know.

I'm really having a hard time loving my dad right now.. Hell, I can't even muster up 1% of care for him or how he's doing.

Love.