Life is just so beautiful

So...I normally don't miss people. It's a bit handy most of the time. I can meet someone and then leave. I love them but don't necessarily miss them. If I see them again, I'll see them. If not, well, then...that's just how it goes.

But today...I miss people. It's like I miss everyone I've ever met or known and shared my life with. I genuinely care about each and every one of them. I wish it were possible to gather them all together to fellowship.

I suppose I'm just longing for heaven.

Life is so beautiful. So so so beautiful.

live

I suppose one should first begin with an apology of a lack of updating before writing a whole new post. Is it because I'm too lazy to type something up? Is it that nothing "specular" has been happening? Or is it that I'm too focused on the right now to truly see what's going on all around me. Whatever the reason, it is time to brush those excuses aside and to start living. Fully and deeply living.

John 10:10 "And I have come that you may have life to the full."

///F<>O<>G\\\

FOG…. It’s a little something called the Favor Of God.

Basically it’s when something ridiculously amazing happens that you totally know was straight up from God. It’s a random blessing that you were not expecting. It’s getting a sleeping bag given to you from someone you just met when you’re sleeping on the floor of a church. It’s hopping on a random bus and seeing friends who were just talking about how they were going to try to get a hold of you. It’s as simple as a slice of pizza given to you when you have absolutely no money for food. It’s just something random and unexpected that you know is from God.

Whenever we are following God and His plans, we will be living in the FOG. He’ll bless us at random times. Sometimes we will be expecting it, and sometimes it will be so unexpected but so needed. It’s just how God works. The more you follow and trust Him, the more the FOG seems to just show up.

How I seem to get anywhere in my life over this last past year has been crazy FOG. I went to Hawaii for three months, China for 2 ½ months, back to Kona for 5 weeks, and OC for 2 weeks. I always put every penny I have in and come up short, but God loves to supply and provide when we give it all. Here is a little story of some FOG on my way home from OC to Detroit:

The two-week outreach to OC ended officially on Saturday, 27 August 2011. The staff from the outreach were driving people to the airport up until the following Monday. My ticket from LA to Detroit was on Tuesday. I had a 1:20 pm flight to Las Vegas and then left there at 10:30 pm to fly to Detroit…and land at 5:30 am on Wednesday J So I didn’t have a ride to the airport.

I looked up different plans online, tried to find rides from people I knew, advertised my need for a ride on Facebook, and basically did everything I could to get to LAX by noon. For $50 I could get a shuttle to pick me up from the church I was staying and drop me off at the airport, or a $20 shuttle from the bus stop, or a $7 metro pass. I had literally no money. Not even a nickel in the change pocket of my wallet. So those options were quickly ruled out. All I had was an OC bus pass. So I looked up the bus schedule online and mapped my route to LAX. The hour long car ride would take me: about 4 hours via bus. My first bust ride would be 30 minutes. Wait for the next bus. Then 40 minutes. Wait for the next bus. 40 minutes. Wait for the next bus. 1 hour and 30 minutes. And then a 1.2 mile walk with my luggage to the airport. Sounds fun, hey?

I had originally planned to leave just before 7 am just in case I missed one of my busses. That way I’d for sure make it to the airport before noon. All I had was a backpack, so I didn’t have to worry about checking in my luggage. I woke up around 5:30, packed up my stuff, brushed my teeth…and it was like only 6am. So I decided to just leave earlier than planned. I figured it couldn’t hurt to be too early at the airport. The first bus picked me up at 6:20. I rode it for about 30 minutes and got off to transfer to the next bus. I had an unlimited bus pas for Orange County. I got on the next bus right away and rode it to the end of the line, so for about 40 some minutes. I got off and kinda wandered around trying to figure out where my next bus was. I finally found the stop across the street and down the road a bit. I waited for my bus and chatted with some other people waiting for the bus too. Finally the bus pulled up. I got on and tried to use my bus pass. Unfortunately the my OC bus pass didn’t work anymore. I had crossed into a different county and needed a different pass or had to pay the bus fare. I had no money so I left the bus and sat back down on the bench and watched the bus pull away.

Not gunna lie, this was the hard part. I had no money. No way to the airport. No cell phone to call anyone for help. Nothing. So I said to God, “Here I am. I’m doing this thing you told me to do. You said ‘Go, and I’ll provide for you.’ So here I am. You better show up.” Pretty basic. Pretty scary. Pretty exciting too at the same time.

A couple seconds later a guy walked up to a bench a bit away from me and was digging in his bag. I said, “Here we go, God,” and walked over to him. I explained my bus problem and my lack of money and asked if he could give me the $1.25 to ride the bus to my next stop. I figured I’d just have to do that for every stop until I got to the airport. He handed me 5 quarters right away and then started giving me more so I could get a transfer pass to ride my next bus. He gave me just over $2. Then we started talking more, and I explained my route to him and mentioned walking the 1.2 miles. He told me that he had taken the metro straight to LAX before and gave me about $5-6 more in quarters so I could get a day metro pass straight there. FOG!

We got on the bus and just started talking together. He told me where to get off and then started to help me buy the day metro pass. I put about $4 in the machine when another random woman walked passed me and told me to hit the refund button. She handed me her day pass and said she didn’t need it anymore. FOG! I hit the refund button and tried to give the money back to the guy, but he told me to keep it. We got on the metro and rode that for 20 some minutes until it was my stop. I transferred metros and then took a free shuttle from the metro station straight to the airport. I got there just after 10 am, plenty of time to get on my 1:20 flight.

I later counted all the quarters and random other coins that guy gave me. I had just over $7. I was able to get some food for my 8 hour layover in the Las Vegas airport.

That is the Favor Of God.

oh the places you'll go when God has complete control

The fire continues. Each day just gets more and more intense. Just when I think I may finally have a good understanding on things, something new blows my mind away. It's amazing.

And now I am so excited to tell you about what's going on next!! A team of crazy, Jesus loving, out of their minds, Circuit Riders are heading to Los Angeles, California. More specifically: Orange Country. Home of the richest people in America. And it's about to get crazy.

About 100-200 fiery revivalists are about to shake up the OC. We already have many churches in that area ready to follow up with us in this movement. Denominations have been pushed aside. It's all for the glory of God!! Nothing is going to come in the way of what God is about to do in CA through the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why LA? The last crazy Jesus Movement started also here in Orange County on the beach. Thousands came to know the Lord and went to tell everyone they knew. We are hoping, praying, and believing for a repeat of what happened in the past. This is the epicenter of today's culture. And we know Jesus wants to change it for Him! We were be working on skid road with prostitutes, the poor, the rich, the broken, and the lost. Anyone and everyone. We are going out with passionate hearts and empowered spirits to heal, bring revival of the heart, and reformation of lives.

God is calling me to join this crazy, passionate team. He wants me to evangelize to the lost and disciple the saved. He has given me a voice and the honor to work for Him. I need your support in finances and prayer. I still need a lot of my lecture fees for this class and also now additional costs for going to Orange County. I have invested everything I have into this, knowing this is where God is calling me. I don't know when I'm going to be going back home. I'm not leaving until God tells me too. I am needing at least $2,000 for the rest of lecture fees and for the LA two week outreach. But God is calling me for longer than that, and I will need more.

Please ask the Lord what He is telling you to sew into His Kingdom to bless not only me but the lost and hurting people in LA. I appreciate your time reading this and truly seeking His heart.

MOUNT UP!

I've been here in Kona, Hawaii for 11 days. It feels like I've been here for months, like I've known these new friends for years, like the revelations I've learned have been taught over my entire life. And .it's only been 11 days. Crazy.

I think this is what Heaven feels like. Time flies by but feels like it takes forever. Glory every day. It's not this place or this class that is the reason. This only give the environment for the opportunity to encounter God in an incredible new way.

I'm sure you're wondering, what's this Circuit Rider thing? Why am I in HI for 5 weeks? What's the point? Is it really worth it?

In the late 1700's, the western world was pretty under developed. In order to reach the lost, a group of men volunteered to ride horseback from town to town preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and making disciples. These men would come to a town, preach until the town was saved, ride to the next town, preach until the town was saved, and go to the next town. They would continue this for several towns and then would return to the first town to disciple the believers. They could travel in the cycle creating a circuit. These men were called Circuit Riders. Most of them faced physical trials with sickness and persecution from the people in the town. They didn't quit until it killed them.
And this is the heart of the class. Circuit Riders exists to establish and equip a generation to obey and fulfill Jesus' Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). It aims to cultivate a generation of leaders wholly given and surrendered to the will of the Father, living for a purpose greater than themselves, and sent as laborers of the Gospel to the hardest and darkest frontiers on the earth. The purpose is to revive and awaken the church to ignite a burning passion for the lost; to boldly proclaim and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit; and to make and train disciples through Biblical truth so they can go out and do the same.

This class has drawn me into deeper intimacies with God, called me to intercession and partnering with the Holy Spirit, shown me how to live in community centered around God, to go out and preach to the lost, to heal the sick, and to lead others to do the same. We have seen over 40 salvations and even more healed from various sicknesses and diseases all within the last two weeks. We cannot wait to see what comes next.

If you are interested, every day our class is recorded and uploaded onto itunes. All the podcasts are FREE! Just search "Circuit Riders" and look for the man on a house icon. I would totally recommend listening in. God WILL DO crazy things in your life if you let Him move.

Something Crazy.

Today is Thursday, 7 July 2011.

Today anyone attending the 5 week class, Circuit Riders, in Kona, Hawaii is supposed to arrive, get all checked in, settle into their rooms, meet and greet their fellow classmates, reunite with past friends, and just be there.

Today I'm sitting on the computer. I have an eye doctor appointment in two hours followed by a good seven hours of work. And then I'm coming home and booking a ticket to Kona.

I don't have $1,400 to take the class. But I do have about $800 to try and purchase a ticket to Hawaii. And so I'm going to go. I told Jesus that if He gave me enough money for a ticket, I'd go and trust Him to provide the rest.

I think I was just waiting for a sign. You know how we do that sometimes? We just sit and wait for "something to really tell us what to do next". And I suppose I got it. :) I was chilling at work, and someone reminded me, "when the Lord tells you to do something crazy, you'd better do it."

So let's do something crazy.

2 Corinthians 5:13-14 (The Message)
"If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do."

Will you join me in this crazy adventure? I am challenging you to do something crazy. I am asking you to ask God what He wants you to give to help me. I'm not asking you to give something random. I am asking you to ASK GOD. If He tells you not to give, so be it. If He tells you $2, you'd better give $2. And if He tells you something more, you'd better follow Him.

Trust Him. It's all I'm doing right now.

Stepping in Faithfulness

So...it's been a long while since I've updated this.
Maybe I've been too busy. Maybe I've been too lazy. Maybe I just haven't known what to say.
It's probably a bit of all of those things.

I've been back home in Grand Rapids for almost three months. It's ridiculous how fast the time seems to have flown by. And what have I done with the time? I think that's something I ask myself a lot these days.

When I first got back, I was filled with a passion to go out and change something. It's not that the passion has died off or slipped away. It's more like I haven't known where to start. Is that a good excuse? Of course not.

But through this all I'm learning more and more about the faithfulness of God. How He pursues us. How He never gives up. How He is so constant to attend to our needs. How He will always push us further than we think we can go. He is always faithful. Will we have the faith to follow?

When I first got back home, I planned on staying in GR for three months and then heading back to Hawaii to take a five week class that would push me even further. But I let life back here pull me back and decided to not go. But the Spirit of God wouldn't let my heart rest. Every day for the last three weeks, He's been whispering into my heart, telling me to trust Him and to follow Him. He kept asking me if I'd be faithful back to Him.

And so, in two weeks I'll be heading back to Kona to take a 5 week class called Circuit Riders. The class is focused on deeping our relationship with God to higher levels and bringing what we've learned in "class" into the "real world." I'm not sure where I will go when it ends. I might come back to GR. I might head to a different country. I might stay in Hawaii. I don't know yet. But I do know that this is where I'm supposed to go.

I'm stepping out in faith because I cannot do this alone. He's good. He's faithful.