Share Your Water!!!

Lately, the past few months I have been humbled so much by God. I've been humbled by learning what it means to deny myself daily, pick up my cross, and follow Him. Humility comes with surrender. The more and more I surrender, the more and more He humbles me.

Living that lifestyle of "deny, pick, follow" is learning to allow myself to surrender to His will and His heart for His children. How can one follow and not be surrendered? The Lord desires for His children to be healed, encouraged, loved, and so fourth. So how can one follow and surrender to our God's desires, and not minister to others? I realized, when down at Bethel church, how much I sucked at that. My friends who live in Redding and live pretty much at Bethel took ministering to a whole other level. They didn't just minister on Sunday morning services or at Tuesday night bible study... they ministered ALL THE TIME!

HOW OFTEN DO YOU SACRIFICE YOUR TIME TO MINISTER TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU?

That's the question that hit me. After realizing that, I wanted badly to change. So I started praying for people... asking those who were limping if I could pray healing over their injured area, or staying open to the Lord's voice and receiving a word of knowledge for someone who I didn't even know. AND THEN I REALIZED THIS... My Bethel friends are so happy and BLESSED all the time... Why is that? I'm a super happy and blessed person, but once again, they were on a different level.

As I started to make ministry a lifestyle, rather than a shift or... J.O.B., I started to receive more JOY and BLESSINGS in my life from our Great God! And here's what the HolySpirit spoke to me to wake me from my dummy-dum... "The more you yield to my will, and minister and bless others, the MORE blessing you'll receive."

Catch my drift, here! I'm not taking away the blessing of God from others... I'm not even necessarily receiving MORE blessing than those who I minister to... Nor am I even expecting a blessing in the first place. It just so happens that when you make ministry a lifestyle and yield to the Lord's will, and as you minister and bless others, you receive MORE blessing because YOU ARE CONSTANTLY BEING USED BY OUR UNFATHOMABLE GOD! And don't misinterpret what I mean by "receive MORE blessing" please! What I mean by that is this... God gives you a cup and says, "When you minister to others through MY WILL and MY DESIRES, I'll put some water in your cup. And the MORE you share your water with the thirsty, the MORE water you will receive."

Now let me ask you a question...


"Who are you SHARing YOUR WATER with?"

Let's not just receive, let's give and GIVE ABUNDANTLY!



Love you all! Be blessed in abundance this week.

LOVE & Love

I was browsing some of my friend's blogs and came upon this dirty hipster musician, Trevor Hall. His style of music is so close to my heart.

If my ear could be married to a style of music, it'd be reggae, Islander music. Better yet, if my ear could be married to anyone, it'd be Trevor Hall.

Anyways, after listening to his lyrics, reading over his lyrics, and then processing his lyrics, my heart started to get broken. Trevor Hall's message is love. Nothing is better than love...nothing at all. But to love without God, isn't love. As I continued to listen to and read over Trevor Hall's lyrics, I became curious if he loved God...loved Love.

I'm not sure if Trevor Hall believes in Love. I know his message is love, but does his passion for love come from the source of love?

There's this deep heart cry within me that wishes the world would come to understand love, know and believe in the source of Love, and then live to love through Love. I want the world to know Love. I want to the world to feel Love. And knowing that the world claims to love, but distorts and ridicules the true message of Love....breaks my heart.

BUT...... it's freakin rad that those who know and love Love are able to love others and that love then reveals Love.

I don't know this brother of mine, Trevor Hall. He's a gifted artist and I have no doubt that his message of love inspires the world. All I hope and pray for is that T.H. loves Love and that his message of love that inspires the world will reveal Love to all!

Little Christ

It all started three-four years ago when I didn't like to call myself a Christian. Rather, I'd claim the title, Follower of Jesus, or the Way. Later, I realized that I wanted to call myself a Christian because Christian means, "little Christ." If there is anything that I want to be, it is to be like Christ. And to proclaim I am a "little Christ" is a blessing from God.

When I think of "little," I think of a child. All children were once a "little" infant and grew in to being a child, and a "little" child will eventually grow into being an adult. Tis' life, right? I, a "little Christ," am growing to be more like Christ, not growing to be Christ, but growing to be more like Christ. I guess a great thing to do would be to look at Jesus himself and the progression of his life.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin's womb. As believers, we must seek to find life in and through Life on this earth. He was then born...in a manger, while him and his parents were livin' large in a.... stable. After having Life as a part of our lives, we should come to accept who we are in Christ and be thankful for what God has done and is going to do. Next big thing: his childhood and awkward, pubescant teenage life was not recorded in the NT, except for a couple things THAT ARE VITAL for being a "little christ."

Luke 2:48-52 tell of the only record of Jesus' childhood. The first is when Joseph & Mary lost and anxiously searched for Jesus. After finally finding their son, the Messiah, Mary asked Jesus why he has caused their anxiety and frustration. Jesus replied....

""Why were you searching for me?" he asked. Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?""

Jesus could have turned Mary & Joseph in to dust...haha BUT he didn't because he honored his parents and then lovingly replied..."...I had to be in my Father's house..." As a little christ, in order to have life within us, we must spend time in our Father's house.

My current devo book is The Divine Mentor written by Wayne Cordeiro. He told this story about a famous european pianist from the 1900s and his work ethic. He wrote that the pianist would practice scales three hours a day and after being asked why he practiced SCALES three hours a day, he said this powerful statement.

"If I didn't practice my scales one day, I would notice the difference in my playing. If I didn't practice two days, my coach would notice the difference. If I didn't practice three days, the world would notice the difference (paraphrase)."

As little christ's, we are the light to this world. If we don't spend time in the Father's house for a day, we'll see the difference. If we don't spend time in the Father's house for a couple days, our close, loved ones would notice the difference. And three days not being in the Father's house, the entire world would notice the difference.

And lastly, Luke 2:52 records that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and mankind. As Believers, we should be reading our bible, growing in our godly character, and "in favor with God and mankind"

2 Peter 1, after Peter wrote a list of godly characteristics, he wrote that we must make every effort as a little christ to be possess those characteristics. As I finish this, I'll close with what Peter wrote after writing the list of godly characterists...

2Pe 1:8... "For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Love!!!

Tug-of-war!!!!!

I freakin love tug-of-wars!!! It reminds me of this tradition that the elementary school I attended does every year. The tradition is all the fifth grade classes come together at the end of the year for a class battle, and one of the events is tug-of-war. I remember the best battle were the ones that would go back and forth...one class would be close to the "pit" and then they'd pull their opponent to the pit. Such a rad game and I bet the teachers were stoked watching the battles.

Tug-of-war is a super fun game, but when "tug-of-wars" take its toll on your faith... not so fun at all. God has created me to be a person of heart. I tend to do nearly all things from the source of my heart. The bad thing about being all heart is that being all mind is like a really distant.....cousin. You know...those cousins who you wonder if they're really related at all?

"Love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love thy neighbor as thy self."

For some reason, heart and mind are the two strongest qualities that people "are." I am a man of heart. I do use my mind and logically try to approach many things, but when it comes down to being in the moment of quick decisions, my heart leads. My wife, Hanna, is a woman of mind. She is a passionate woman and is a big lover, but I believe that is a life or spiritual threatening moment was to happen and she had to make the next step quickly, her mind would lead her.

Jesus' gives this great command and because of his mysterious, trinitarian nature, he lays down something that is so familiar, yet foreign. Most of the people I hang with are minds. I guess I purposely surround myself with minds because I secretly am desperate for a better balance with my love towards God. I'd like to think it's been helping, but who knows.

I just look at this way... if I wanted to be a professional tennis player, I'm not going to go out and hire a karate master. And I also see it this way...we should stray from spiritual tug-of-wars as a church or a believer, and run towards being a balanced church/believer. And if we look to the body of Christ, we can learn and grow a healthy balance as we work daily on loving the Lord our God will all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Strong and Powerful...me?

I've been thinking a lot lately about the idea of being strong and victorious as a follower of Christ. I guess the reason why I've been soaking in this idea is because I've had my fair share of flesh-vs-spirit battles in the past (and to this day) like seeking freedom from certain bondages, praying for a different mindset, and such things like that. There are a couple truths that I've been exposed to that has...humbled me.

One truth is that across the world, since the beginning of man, various forms of pride have existed. From Cain killing his blood brother over an offering to Joey & Hanna being stubborn and not wanting humble themselves to understand their lovers heart during an argument (I love you Princess!). Pride is so confusing, it has birthed so many different forms from the depth of its heart. And I believe, just like a disease, it has infested or linked itself to other forms like misconception.

I grew up in the faith misconceived about this power that we possess as Christians.

Unfortunately, the new thing among churches in America is to be seeker sensitive...seeker sensitive: presenting the gospel that will not offend the congregation, or give them the meal that they want, but "hold the onions". And something that is hard to avoid with this mission is that there is no separation between the world and the church. I'm not saying that congregations can't be righteous or whatever...but going in to the world and preaching the gospel requires that we present the name of Jesus with power, authority, and through the righteousness that comes through Jesus.

My point is this...with this mentality of being seeker-sensitive or as the church, staying level with the world, the idea of being powerful and victorious has been infested. We have this misconception swayed by the world that we can be powerful and victorious. Like from the line of one of Hillsong United's songs...

"The same power that conquered the grave lives in me"

To be honest, after I sing this song, I feel like a conquerer. But the main truth that I've been learning is this from the great Apostle Paul....

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Cor. 12:9, 10


The same power that conquered the grave lives in me... PRAISE JESUS for that truth because the power that Jesus had while on earth does live within God's children! BUT that power that is in us isn't our power...it's His and His alone.

So...I'm starting to rid myself from the sad misconception that exists within the church. I realized that I am not strong. That I am not powerful. But I will boast about my weaknesses and live in Christ's stength and victory!!!!