So the Lord has been just wrecking me with understanding why obedient
sacrifices are so important to him, so I am going to share what he has been
doing. Shout out to Jonathan David Hesler for inspiring this revelation.
Sacrifice is so pleasing to Jesus. When we let go of things that have a cost
to us, the Lord gets to see what are hearts truly are. The bible says that offerings
are a sweet aroma to him. How great it is that we can do small things in order
to make our Dad even more joyful if that is even possible!
I feel sacrifice on earth is so important because we have an opportunity to
do something that we won't be able to do in heaven. When we get to eternity, (I
assume) we won't have to tithe, fast, pray, evangelize, walk out in boldness,
wake up early to pray, or even lay down our lives for other people. One reason
we do these things is that others and us will draw closer to Jesus. All
of these things that require sacrifice won't be needed as we get to live with Jesus
in perfection, we will get to be with our great reward. So how important is it
that we do these things now while we have a chance. I feel the worship and
sacrifice that we put out on earth is so so so so special to Jesus, in a way
that is so different from all the angels and creatures and creation praising
him. I can see Jesus sitting on the throne watching us saying, "Wow, the
worship down there is incredible!" I see him getting so happy and excited
that we do things like fasting and tithing because the sacrifice we can make
while we live on the earth is so unique. The Lord has given us such an
opportunity right now to lay down our lives for him so that eternity can be
impacted by the sacrifices we make today! What an honor it is to have a chance
to give everything to him, so when we reach heaven we can look back and talk to
Jesus about how those sacrifices impacted heaven with a worship that is so
special and dear to him.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
Hakuna Matata
I feel Jesus was the one who came up with this wonderful phrase. A life with
Jesus is supposed to be carefree! I feel there are so many times in my life
that i forget that when the lord says he has plans for us, he really means it!
This last week worry overcame me. With the engineering career fair coming up, every chemical engineer was looking for job, but as of late i am feeling call to be a church planter. With this mindset, it was very hard to listen to companies talk about getting jobs and planning your life because honestly, I don't have any personal plans for my life outside of being a missionary. As the companies were talking, fear overcame me. I was afraid that i would end up forsaking the calling Jesus put on my life and caving in and getting a cooperate job here in America. Not to say that there is anything wrong with cooperate America, but I just want what Jesus has for me. So this worry was carried with me throughout the day as i was studying and thinking about my future. I needed a renewal of my mind, and that’s what Jesus gave me. I went to life group and the Lord showed up. Through a long list of prophetic words and the Holy Spirit working, all fear and worry disappeared. It was like Jesus was the only thing on my mind and what mattered. Love It! The Lord so desired to renew my mind by giving me a perspective shift, he is the only thing we need to focus on.
The Lord then reminded me of this story from Africa that was just like this worry issue i faced. So i was in the middle of a village going from house to house praying for healing. We saw a couple of awesome healing of sickness and we felt the holy spirit moving! During this time I and my friend Aaron ran into a man who was drunk out of his mind. We began to talk to him and boy was he a complainer. He started to complain about all the problems in Uganda, probably because he knew we were American. He was saying Uganda was so poor, he didn't have any food, he didn't have any money, and everything in his life was bad, including some chest pain. He was angry and worried about so much. So at one point i just stopped him and asked if we could pray for all of that stuff and he said it was okay. So I and Aaron started to declare everything over his life. Healing, blessing, peace, you name it. And after we were done praying, he look up and said, "The lord is good." The Lord sobered him up and accepted Jesus right there! All pain in his body was gone and all the problems of the world vanished! Sound familiar?
We become so focused on problems that we dig ourselves into huge holes of
worry and fear. And the lord wants to solve that problem by letting us
encounter what life is really about, him. The world seems so big whenever we
take our eyes away from the Lord. Jesus doesn't want us to live a life full of
worrying or a live where we plan every single detail out because he when
we rely on our own strength in our future, we end up a hot mess. What it comes
down to is being dependent on who Jesus is. If we truly realized the power he
has given us and the promises he is keeping, worry wouldn't exist. It is hard
not to worry, but it is so worth it. I am still in a process of removing all
worry and fear from my life and that process begins by giving everything to the
Lord. Graham Cooke always talks about how he hasn't had a worried thought in
like 20 years because he has learned to completely renew his mind. That
perspective change is something the Lord desires for all of us. Hakuna Matata.
This last week worry overcame me. With the engineering career fair coming up, every chemical engineer was looking for job, but as of late i am feeling call to be a church planter. With this mindset, it was very hard to listen to companies talk about getting jobs and planning your life because honestly, I don't have any personal plans for my life outside of being a missionary. As the companies were talking, fear overcame me. I was afraid that i would end up forsaking the calling Jesus put on my life and caving in and getting a cooperate job here in America. Not to say that there is anything wrong with cooperate America, but I just want what Jesus has for me. So this worry was carried with me throughout the day as i was studying and thinking about my future. I needed a renewal of my mind, and that’s what Jesus gave me. I went to life group and the Lord showed up. Through a long list of prophetic words and the Holy Spirit working, all fear and worry disappeared. It was like Jesus was the only thing on my mind and what mattered. Love It! The Lord so desired to renew my mind by giving me a perspective shift, he is the only thing we need to focus on.
The Lord then reminded me of this story from Africa that was just like this worry issue i faced. So i was in the middle of a village going from house to house praying for healing. We saw a couple of awesome healing of sickness and we felt the holy spirit moving! During this time I and my friend Aaron ran into a man who was drunk out of his mind. We began to talk to him and boy was he a complainer. He started to complain about all the problems in Uganda, probably because he knew we were American. He was saying Uganda was so poor, he didn't have any food, he didn't have any money, and everything in his life was bad, including some chest pain. He was angry and worried about so much. So at one point i just stopped him and asked if we could pray for all of that stuff and he said it was okay. So I and Aaron started to declare everything over his life. Healing, blessing, peace, you name it. And after we were done praying, he look up and said, "The lord is good." The Lord sobered him up and accepted Jesus right there! All pain in his body was gone and all the problems of the world vanished! Sound familiar?
 |
| Ps. I love the Lion King |
Saturday, August 18, 2012
The Book of Jarred
"Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and
the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and
night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from
death."
Since I have been home from Africa almost every time I talk to someone about the Lord, I am always reminded of different things that happened in Uganda. I mean the trip was absolutely life changing. The amount of healing and salvations we saw was absolutely incredible. I can't help but think about the testimony that Jesus has had for my life every time I spend time with him.
I love these verses in the book of Revelations about how the enemy will be overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. Sometimes we don't realize the power that we have with what Jesus has done in our lives. If the church is called to defeat the enemy by 1. Jesus's blood and then 2. the power of our testimonies, I think sharing what Jesus has done is so stinking important.
The fact of the matter is that no matter what your testimony looks like, there is power there! You don't have to have gone on an insane mission trip to have a powerful testimony. Here is every single Christian's testimony in a nutshell. I was dead....and Jesus brought me to life. It's that simple. My testimony is that i was alone and lost in the world, and Jesus picked me up and said i was his. I wasn't miraculously healed, or wasn't addicted to drugs or anything. I was just lost, like everyone who needs Jesus. He took me from darkness and turned my life around entirely! And when i tell my story i can be 100% confident that with every word about the Lord's goodness in my life, the enemy is trembling. I can imagine Satan waking up in complete fear because Jarred is going to tell someone his story today. Jesus entrust us to use our testimonies to destroy the strong holds of the enemy in peoples lives.
Regardless of what your story is, if you walk out in confidence that your testimony is going to change lives, it will! And when you walk out in that confidence, then your testimony begins to grow even more! Confidence and a desire to see more of Jesus go hand and hand. When you walk out in confidence in who Jesus is, your desire for him increases, and you begin let him take control of every step you take. And when he takes control of your life, unbelievable things happen. You will find yourself in the middle of Africa praying for the dead to be resurrected. All because of your desire to see him trumps anything else.
So i encourage you to share what Jesus has done in your life to people! You build confidence in who you are and what he has done, which leads to a desire for more of him! This idea came to me a couple of years ago that said "I wonder if there was a book of the bible called the book of Jarred, would anyone read it?" And for so long that answer was probably no. But it wasn't til i realized that it wasn't about Jarred at all, it was about what he can do in my life, that the Book of Jarred began to seem like something someone would read. Give everything to him, and see your book develop!
Since I have been home from Africa almost every time I talk to someone about the Lord, I am always reminded of different things that happened in Uganda. I mean the trip was absolutely life changing. The amount of healing and salvations we saw was absolutely incredible. I can't help but think about the testimony that Jesus has had for my life every time I spend time with him.
I love these verses in the book of Revelations about how the enemy will be overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. Sometimes we don't realize the power that we have with what Jesus has done in our lives. If the church is called to defeat the enemy by 1. Jesus's blood and then 2. the power of our testimonies, I think sharing what Jesus has done is so stinking important.
The fact of the matter is that no matter what your testimony looks like, there is power there! You don't have to have gone on an insane mission trip to have a powerful testimony. Here is every single Christian's testimony in a nutshell. I was dead....and Jesus brought me to life. It's that simple. My testimony is that i was alone and lost in the world, and Jesus picked me up and said i was his. I wasn't miraculously healed, or wasn't addicted to drugs or anything. I was just lost, like everyone who needs Jesus. He took me from darkness and turned my life around entirely! And when i tell my story i can be 100% confident that with every word about the Lord's goodness in my life, the enemy is trembling. I can imagine Satan waking up in complete fear because Jarred is going to tell someone his story today. Jesus entrust us to use our testimonies to destroy the strong holds of the enemy in peoples lives.
Regardless of what your story is, if you walk out in confidence that your testimony is going to change lives, it will! And when you walk out in that confidence, then your testimony begins to grow even more! Confidence and a desire to see more of Jesus go hand and hand. When you walk out in confidence in who Jesus is, your desire for him increases, and you begin let him take control of every step you take. And when he takes control of your life, unbelievable things happen. You will find yourself in the middle of Africa praying for the dead to be resurrected. All because of your desire to see him trumps anything else.
So i encourage you to share what Jesus has done in your life to people! You build confidence in who you are and what he has done, which leads to a desire for more of him! This idea came to me a couple of years ago that said "I wonder if there was a book of the bible called the book of Jarred, would anyone read it?" And for so long that answer was probably no. But it wasn't til i realized that it wasn't about Jarred at all, it was about what he can do in my life, that the Book of Jarred began to seem like something someone would read. Give everything to him, and see your book develop!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Being the Bride
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
I love being the Bride of Christ. We as the church are his bride. In our culture we get misconceived view of what that means, especially being a guy. When many people think about being the bride of Christ, the idea of being in a wedding dress and looking absolutely ridiculous and weak comes to mind. People see it as a loss of masculinity and confidence. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Being the bride of Christ means walking fully into who Jesus has called you to be. Both men and women alike. When i think about being the bride, I picture myself completely covered in the golden armor of Christ, walking out in complete confidence that I am going to conqueror any situation i come up against because i am completely protected by the King. And all of that confidence comes from a place of intimacy with Jesus.
I feel we as the church are compared to the bride of Christ because it's the only humanly possible way to show how deep of a love the lord has for us. Obviously his love is sooo much deeper than a husband can love a wife, but he uses this example to show what our relationship should look like with him. Husbands protect their wives, care for them, and will do absolutely everything in their power to make sure the wife knows that she is loved. A husband would sacrifice himself for the life of his wife, and that is exactly what he did.
"God SO loved the world that he gave his only son, and whosoever believe in him shall not parish but have everlasting life."
God doesn't just love us, he SO loves us. When we are SO in love with someone, we will do absolutely anything for them. We will drive 24 hours across the nation just to see their face for 5 minutes. It's written in every love song of this world. We'd catch a grenade for someone etc. You get the idea. Our whole entire world will stop and we will put our lives on hold, just out of a completely surrendered heart for that person. Sound familiar? That's exactly what Jesus did. He said, I am gonna going to leave my perfect home in heaven, lose all my powers as God and become a man, and die for all the bad things you have ever done just because I soooooo love you. He put everything on hold to give us an opportunity to be with him. So when he calls us a bride, I think he means it.
And as the bride, what can we do to show Jesus our appreciation? Love him. Love him just as he loved us. As we learn to love Jesus and spend time with him, we start to become more like him. And when you become more like Jesus, things of this world won't get in your way because you are only focused on your love for him. All sin disappears in his love. I struggled with so much sin all the time because I didn't have a deep revelation of how much he loves us. I didn't realize that being the bride was my identity. But when I learned to set a goal of loving Jesus 100%, sin disappeared. Yes I still sin everyday in some way, but it's weight gets less and less as I learn to love Jesus and become more like him. So lets not focus on containing sin, but focus on our love for Jesus and all problems of the world will fade away. When we hangout with our friends, we start to become more and more like them. I can anticipate almost everything my friend Daniel says and does and he the same with me because we know each other and have so much in common as we spend more time together. It's the same with Jesus. Spend more time with him and you'll only be interested in what he is doing!
To conclude, The book of Hosea shows such a great depiction of our relationship with the Lord. Hosea was a king and God ordered him to marry basically an adulterous woman . Why would a King marry this woman? Why would someone who rules everything and can have whatever he wants want anything to do with someone who is unfaithful and turns her back to him? Sound familiar again? God wants to win our hearts, regardless of where are hearts are at. It's his love
In Hosea 2:14 it says
"therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
I love being the Bride of Christ. We as the church are his bride. In our culture we get misconceived view of what that means, especially being a guy. When many people think about being the bride of Christ, the idea of being in a wedding dress and looking absolutely ridiculous and weak comes to mind. People see it as a loss of masculinity and confidence. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Being the bride of Christ means walking fully into who Jesus has called you to be. Both men and women alike. When i think about being the bride, I picture myself completely covered in the golden armor of Christ, walking out in complete confidence that I am going to conqueror any situation i come up against because i am completely protected by the King. And all of that confidence comes from a place of intimacy with Jesus.
I feel we as the church are compared to the bride of Christ because it's the only humanly possible way to show how deep of a love the lord has for us. Obviously his love is sooo much deeper than a husband can love a wife, but he uses this example to show what our relationship should look like with him. Husbands protect their wives, care for them, and will do absolutely everything in their power to make sure the wife knows that she is loved. A husband would sacrifice himself for the life of his wife, and that is exactly what he did.
"God SO loved the world that he gave his only son, and whosoever believe in him shall not parish but have everlasting life."
God doesn't just love us, he SO loves us. When we are SO in love with someone, we will do absolutely anything for them. We will drive 24 hours across the nation just to see their face for 5 minutes. It's written in every love song of this world. We'd catch a grenade for someone etc. You get the idea. Our whole entire world will stop and we will put our lives on hold, just out of a completely surrendered heart for that person. Sound familiar? That's exactly what Jesus did. He said, I am gonna going to leave my perfect home in heaven, lose all my powers as God and become a man, and die for all the bad things you have ever done just because I soooooo love you. He put everything on hold to give us an opportunity to be with him. So when he calls us a bride, I think he means it.
And as the bride, what can we do to show Jesus our appreciation? Love him. Love him just as he loved us. As we learn to love Jesus and spend time with him, we start to become more like him. And when you become more like Jesus, things of this world won't get in your way because you are only focused on your love for him. All sin disappears in his love. I struggled with so much sin all the time because I didn't have a deep revelation of how much he loves us. I didn't realize that being the bride was my identity. But when I learned to set a goal of loving Jesus 100%, sin disappeared. Yes I still sin everyday in some way, but it's weight gets less and less as I learn to love Jesus and become more like him. So lets not focus on containing sin, but focus on our love for Jesus and all problems of the world will fade away. When we hangout with our friends, we start to become more and more like them. I can anticipate almost everything my friend Daniel says and does and he the same with me because we know each other and have so much in common as we spend more time together. It's the same with Jesus. Spend more time with him and you'll only be interested in what he is doing!
To conclude, The book of Hosea shows such a great depiction of our relationship with the Lord. Hosea was a king and God ordered him to marry basically an adulterous woman . Why would a King marry this woman? Why would someone who rules everything and can have whatever he wants want anything to do with someone who is unfaithful and turns her back to him? Sound familiar again? God wants to win our hearts, regardless of where are hearts are at. It's his love
In Hosea 2:14 it says
"therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master."
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master."
God is going to do what it takes to get our hearts. We might have to be in a desert place in our lives for God to speak to us. We dig ourselves in holes and Jesus comes right there and picks us up. Then he brings restoration to us and we realize a life with him is so much better than what we were living. And my favorite part. He isn't our master, he is our husband. Jesus isn't a demanding boss who tells you to do things and out of obligation we do those things. He is someone who we love and would do anything for because our hearts burn to see him delighted. He SO loves us, so I wanna live a life where I daily SO love him.
African Elephants in the Nile in Uganda. ( doesn't have anything to do with the post, but i really like this picture haha)
Monday, August 6, 2012
Not so Doubting Thomas...
So the Lord has put the story of Thomas on my heart and has given me huge revelation about him, so I am about to spit dat truf!
So for those that don't know after Jesus was resurrected and walking the earth, a bunch of his disciples had seen him and where telling stories about how they had seen Jesus and he was alive and how stinkin excited they were. (read John 20:24-31 for the whole story). Some disciples came to one of Jesus's disciples named Thomas and told him Jesus was alive, but Thomas said "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe". and forever he got the nickname "Doubting Thomas". Then I started thinking how much each and everyone of us is just like him. So hello, my name is Doubting Jarred and I am going to explain what I think Thomas was saying.
So growing up, I would always hear Jesus stories. I had friends who would tell me about casting out demons and healing the sick and the power of Jesus all the time. My response to those stories was okay that's cool, but what about me? How come I haven't experienced these things with Jesus? I mean good for you and the relationship you have with him, but why hasn't that happened to me? And now I know I was not experiencing Jesus because I wasn't seeking him and I wasn't letting him work through me. I was super doubtful. It wasn't til I hit a breaking point in my life that I cried out to the Lord and his presence dropped on me. At that moment I didn't doubt anymore. I had experienced Jesus's power, his voice, and his peace. And then my life was forever changed!
So when Thomas said what he said, I think the Bible uses him as a comparison of religion and relationship. Was Jesus just a story his friends talked about? Or was he someone real. I can see Thomas saying "I need to experience Jesus so he is real to me" And that is the difference between a religious idea of God and walking in relationship with him. Jesus wants us to have experiences with him! he doesn't want to be a God of the past. He is living in us through the Holy Spirit and wants to walk with us every second of every day!
And what does Jesus do with the doubts of Thomas? He answers them. He walks right up to Thomas and says "wanna know how I got these scars?" okay not really that was the Joker from The Dark Knight, but you get the idea. Jesus revealed himself to Thomas to show that he was there for him. Yes Thomas needed some convincing and Jesus says that blessed is the man who hasn't seen and still believes, but the Lord showed himself to Thomas anyways because he loved him and wanted to give him an encounter. Religion is man trying to do what he can to make it to God, relationship is Jesus coming to us and walking with us every single day and showing us that he truly loves us!
So if you feel like Jesus is just a story and you haven't experienced him fully and you have doubts, ask Jesus to show up in your life. Not out of an arrogant or demanding heart, but humble yourself and the Lord will raise you up! (James 4-10). Lean on the promises of this beautiful love letter Jesus left us (the Bible) and see him show up in your life!
One last story. When I was in Uganda I was in the middle or some random village 5 miles away from town and I ran into 3 ladies who had never heard of Jesus before. So I went through the whole gospel with them and told them all about the love of Jesus and I asked if that was something they would be interested in. They responded "Perhaps". I realized they needed a demonstration of the kingdom so Jesus could be real to them, just like I needed. They knew the story but Jesus wasn't real to them just yet. So I asked if they had any pain I could pray for because Jesus loves to heal his kids and show up. One lady said she had ulcers, one lady had a massive headache, and i think the other lady had something wrong with her stomach, but they didn't speak English and my friend Ben wasn't giving me all the details on what exactly she said. So we prayed.....and all of their sickness went away!!!! So then I asked them again if Jesus was something they would be interested in, and they were like yes yes yes! It wasn't until they experienced the power of God that the story of Jesus became real. And that is why we have the holy spirit, to demonstrated and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth so lives can be changed and Jesus can give people an opportunity to live a life for him. The best life anyone can ever live.
And if you believe in Jesus, and have never experienced him, that's awesome! But I feel the Lord wants to show you what a relationship with him truly looks like and the amazing places he can take you with the power of the Holy Spirit! It's incredible walking out fully into what Jesus has for you! Amazing things happen and his love can change everything in your life!
So when doubts about anything cloud your mind, ask Jesus to show up in those situations and he will! The bible has sooooo many promises in it, and when you speak those promises out and activate your faith, then the Lord will reveal himself. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open. Laters!
So for those that don't know after Jesus was resurrected and walking the earth, a bunch of his disciples had seen him and where telling stories about how they had seen Jesus and he was alive and how stinkin excited they were. (read John 20:24-31 for the whole story). Some disciples came to one of Jesus's disciples named Thomas and told him Jesus was alive, but Thomas said "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe". and forever he got the nickname "Doubting Thomas". Then I started thinking how much each and everyone of us is just like him. So hello, my name is Doubting Jarred and I am going to explain what I think Thomas was saying.
So growing up, I would always hear Jesus stories. I had friends who would tell me about casting out demons and healing the sick and the power of Jesus all the time. My response to those stories was okay that's cool, but what about me? How come I haven't experienced these things with Jesus? I mean good for you and the relationship you have with him, but why hasn't that happened to me? And now I know I was not experiencing Jesus because I wasn't seeking him and I wasn't letting him work through me. I was super doubtful. It wasn't til I hit a breaking point in my life that I cried out to the Lord and his presence dropped on me. At that moment I didn't doubt anymore. I had experienced Jesus's power, his voice, and his peace. And then my life was forever changed!
So when Thomas said what he said, I think the Bible uses him as a comparison of religion and relationship. Was Jesus just a story his friends talked about? Or was he someone real. I can see Thomas saying "I need to experience Jesus so he is real to me" And that is the difference between a religious idea of God and walking in relationship with him. Jesus wants us to have experiences with him! he doesn't want to be a God of the past. He is living in us through the Holy Spirit and wants to walk with us every second of every day!
And what does Jesus do with the doubts of Thomas? He answers them. He walks right up to Thomas and says "wanna know how I got these scars?" okay not really that was the Joker from The Dark Knight, but you get the idea. Jesus revealed himself to Thomas to show that he was there for him. Yes Thomas needed some convincing and Jesus says that blessed is the man who hasn't seen and still believes, but the Lord showed himself to Thomas anyways because he loved him and wanted to give him an encounter. Religion is man trying to do what he can to make it to God, relationship is Jesus coming to us and walking with us every single day and showing us that he truly loves us!
So if you feel like Jesus is just a story and you haven't experienced him fully and you have doubts, ask Jesus to show up in your life. Not out of an arrogant or demanding heart, but humble yourself and the Lord will raise you up! (James 4-10). Lean on the promises of this beautiful love letter Jesus left us (the Bible) and see him show up in your life!
One last story. When I was in Uganda I was in the middle or some random village 5 miles away from town and I ran into 3 ladies who had never heard of Jesus before. So I went through the whole gospel with them and told them all about the love of Jesus and I asked if that was something they would be interested in. They responded "Perhaps". I realized they needed a demonstration of the kingdom so Jesus could be real to them, just like I needed. They knew the story but Jesus wasn't real to them just yet. So I asked if they had any pain I could pray for because Jesus loves to heal his kids and show up. One lady said she had ulcers, one lady had a massive headache, and i think the other lady had something wrong with her stomach, but they didn't speak English and my friend Ben wasn't giving me all the details on what exactly she said. So we prayed.....and all of their sickness went away!!!! So then I asked them again if Jesus was something they would be interested in, and they were like yes yes yes! It wasn't until they experienced the power of God that the story of Jesus became real. And that is why we have the holy spirit, to demonstrated and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth so lives can be changed and Jesus can give people an opportunity to live a life for him. The best life anyone can ever live.
And if you believe in Jesus, and have never experienced him, that's awesome! But I feel the Lord wants to show you what a relationship with him truly looks like and the amazing places he can take you with the power of the Holy Spirit! It's incredible walking out fully into what Jesus has for you! Amazing things happen and his love can change everything in your life!
So when doubts about anything cloud your mind, ask Jesus to show up in those situations and he will! The bible has sooooo many promises in it, and when you speak those promises out and activate your faith, then the Lord will reveal himself. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open. Laters!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Uganda be kidding me!
For the month of July I was in the country Uganda sharing Jesus with people! Let me tell you how i got there first....
So this summer I had the option of 1. getting an internship for a company in chemical engineering and making a lot of money or 2. Going on a missions trip and trusting Jesus that was going to take care of the money and my future. Obviously #2 was what happened. It was a hard giving up the opportunity to work this summer, but I knew Jesus had huge plans for me in Uganda, so I said yes to him. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE!
What the Lord did in Uganda was out of control. I feel the team and I were living out the gospel every single day. The stories of the bible were coming to life and Jesus was using us for it! Since i have been back in America, i have told many people the stories of what happened in Uganda, and it takes about 2 hours to get through all the testimonies of what Jesus did! I am going to share a couple here, but if you would like to know more, please contact me and we can sit down and i can go through absolutely everything Jesus did and what he has taught me!
So me and my friend Aaron were walking around in the town of Gulu and I saw a man who was limping really badly. So i went over and talked to him and he began to tell me his story. His name was Simon and he said that he lived in a village about 30 miles away from town and came by bus to town for 2 days to Gulu to get medicine for this infection and muscle problem he had in his leg that had been there for 5 months. (the medicine and hospitals in Uganda aren't so great) . He said that he was Catholic and believed in Jesus, but wasn't sure about Jesus healing him. So being led by the Spirit, me and Aaron felt like Jesus wanted to heal him and explained to him that Jesus has the power to heal him right now if we could pray for him. He said it was okay to do so, so me and Aaron prayed once. nothing happened. We prayed again. he had a little improvement. Then the Lord told me to pray a third time. Nothing happened. Me and Aaron knew Jesus wanted to heal him but were confused why it wasn't happening. So i got Simon's phone number and told him to call me if he had more questions about Jesus. 2 days later i get a call....and Simeon tell me that his leg was completely fine and that he wanted to meet up (i was jumping around and so excited when i got this call)! So i meet him a couple hours later at Peche stadium. I am waiting there looking around, and i see a him walk up to me just like any normal person would. he was completely healed and in shock! He told me he tried absolutely everything for his leg but nothing worked and i told him, "well you did try Jesus just yet haha." So he accept Jesus into his heart, i gave him a bible and he was going to tell everyone in his village about his healing! I am excited to get to heaven, see him, and see the impact he had on his village because Jesus changed his life with his healing and love!
main things i learned from this story.
1. Jesus loves to work in secret. We prayed for him in the middle of the city where there were people all of the place that if he was healed, would have caused a scene. Jesus specifically spoke to me and said that his nature isn't that way. When Jesus drew big crowds he would leave them and go to new towns where he could be more personal with people. Because that is who he is! He is sooo personal to all of us. He healed Simon in the secret to show how much he loved him. Jesus wants to be our dad, our best friend, our everything. He wants us to have this intimate relationship where we are not just a crippled man in a crowd, but a man who is walking with him side by side. This revelation transformed the trip for me. I focused more on going to people's houses and being more secret and personal with people, and we saw even more and more miracles and people come to know Jesus because of it!
2. Our prayers work! we prayed 3 times. We held close to the promises he had and believed he would still be healed, and he was! Jesus's timing is so much better than ours. He listens to our prayers and responds! its that simple! we make it way to complicated and thing there is a formula, but if you ask Jesus with a pure heart according to his will, his answer is yes and amen! (2Corinthians 1:20) and healing is in his will!
This is only one story out of about 20 i can tell about how Jesus just loves us so much! I can't express how incredible it is to read the bible, believe the bible, and then do what the bible says to do. Jesus called his disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, etc. (Mathew 10:8)...and us, being disciples of Christ have been called to do that! It's so simple. Living a sold out life for Jesus leads us to see his glory and he does absolutely ridiculous things through us! The best part is, all that he does is out of his love! If you haven't experienced Jesus's love, ask him for it! and he will show up! it's who he is!
I Defs have more to say about Africa, if anyone wants to know more fill free to contact me like i said and I'd be soo glad to share! love you all! Here are some pics!
lady i met named mama grace! incredible story!
Our team! i love them so much
Some of my friends for Antioch Gulu!
Where I Belong
Hey everyone, the Lord has put it on my heart to share a little a bit about my journey with him as he takes me to new and exciting places, so I figured this would be a great way to do it!
I apologize in advance for all the grammatical errors I am going to make. I am awful at English and grammar haha
Simply put, Jesus is absolutely incredible! He has taken me from being a shy, insure, and lost kid to a man who walks out in the Lord's joy and confidence every single day. I spent all my life searching for a purpose for my life, and I can say that making the decision to follow Jesus has finally led me to where I belong, in his presence.
My purpose for this blog is to encourage anyone who reads it to dig deep with Jesus. There is no better way to live your life than to give it entirely to him! It's what we were made for. Jesus doesn't want us to just be saved and coast our way to heaven, he wants us to discover an absolutely incredible path he has for us that will lead us to a complete life of joy, peace, fulfillment, and purpose! When we put his plans above our own, then we are truly living a life that we were made to live. I encourage you all to give Jesus a chance to break everything that holds you back from having more of him. It's a wild and crazy ride and sooooooo worth it!
I apologize in advance for all the grammatical errors I am going to make. I am awful at English and grammar haha
Simply put, Jesus is absolutely incredible! He has taken me from being a shy, insure, and lost kid to a man who walks out in the Lord's joy and confidence every single day. I spent all my life searching for a purpose for my life, and I can say that making the decision to follow Jesus has finally led me to where I belong, in his presence.
My purpose for this blog is to encourage anyone who reads it to dig deep with Jesus. There is no better way to live your life than to give it entirely to him! It's what we were made for. Jesus doesn't want us to just be saved and coast our way to heaven, he wants us to discover an absolutely incredible path he has for us that will lead us to a complete life of joy, peace, fulfillment, and purpose! When we put his plans above our own, then we are truly living a life that we were made to live. I encourage you all to give Jesus a chance to break everything that holds you back from having more of him. It's a wild and crazy ride and sooooooo worth it!
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