worship // decisions // dwell // be humble

I learned a lot the past weekend and it helps me to consolidate what I learned by writing it out. It's not a lot of information that they can be individual blog posts, so I thought I would just write about all of them!

Worship
Worship is a response. Last Saturday Andrew taught the youth group praise team about the meaning of worship and why we worship. What is worship? We have Sunday Worship Services and time set aside for worship during retreats and conferences (which we think synonymously to praise). I'm continually learning what it means to worship, but I think the statement that really stuck with me the most is - worship is a response. When we worship God, it is a response to what He has done for us and who He is. A lot of times when I ask people why they don't sing during praise, they say "I don't feel like it." But when I think about worshiping God in this way, as a response, every time I worship God, I should be giving him my all. Because Jesus died on the cross for my sins. "I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God." When you think about it this way, I am not worshiping based on my feelings and emotions, but I am responding to God. And though our emotions and feelings change ever so often, God never changes. Every time I worship, I need to look to Him, not at my own failures or even victories. As a sunflower matures, the sunflower head turns to face the sun. I want to be like a sunflower, facing the Son.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deut 6:5). When we worship, we must worship God not just with our mouths, but with all our heart and with all our soul and with all your strength. In high school, the verse that always stuck out to me the most during praise was Matthew 15:8 - "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." It is so easy to sing without thinking about the lyrics or sing and have another thought or worry in the back of your mind. But even as we set aside 15 minutes to worship on Sundays, let's give God our all.

What is amazing is that as I learn more about worshiping God, I have a deeper understanding of the trinity. Unlike other religions, as Christians, we believe that our God is three in one - God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Although they are three, they are also one. Very hard concept to grasp and understand! I believe that there are two ways we can experience this - in marriage and in worship. I'm not married, so I don't know from experience, but the Bible says - "'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" (Mark 10:7-9). When we worship, we worship physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. When I look back, the times I experienced God's presence the most and the strongest were during times of worship. Why? I believe it's because when we worship with our all our essence, we get to experience  and see a glimpse of the trinity - how they can be three, but at the same time one. It still boggles my mind, but amazing how God created us to be!

Decisions // Living in Light of Eternity
On Saturday Aug gave a seminar on the life of Moses.

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith the people passed through the Red Seas as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned" (Hebrews 11:24-29).

As we look at Hebrews 11, we see that Moses made decisions in his life by faith, by faith, and by faith. Moses had an amazing relationship with God that he could just have a conversation with God. "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend" (Exodus 33:11). How amazing is that? As my class was discussing the decisions Moses made, I was reminded of the decisions I had made to honor God. Sometimes it's easy to give up something God asks you to, but other time it takes everything to surrender and say "yes" to him. But I believe that God honors the decisions and sacrifices you make for Him. 

I know there are upcoming things that I question in my life such as - Where am I going to go to medical school? What kind of doctor do I want to be? Where am I going to live in the future? Am I even going to be in the US? Who am I going to marry? Do I have to save for retirement? And the answers for now are - I don't know. And does it all really matter? Yes and no. If I take a step back and look at the big picture, as a society, we go to school for so long to get a career. Then we have a career to save up for retirement. Then we retire and have all this free time. Then we face death. But think about this for a moment. We will be living for eternity. Did you think about it? I honestly cannot grasp what it means to live for eternity, but the decisions you make now will affect how you live for eternity. I want to spend my time here investing in people and others that will make an impact for eternity. What decisions are you making now? What are you doing with your time? How are you sowing into eternity?

Dwell

"Set me Ablaze is an ongoing prayer to stay hungry and passionate for God for as long as we live. To keep growing and searching out the things of His heart and who He is. At 18 I moved to Redding, CA by myself to attend the school of ministry at Bethel Church. I was so moved by what God was doing in that little mountain town. I was passionate to see God in a new and personal way and was willing to sacrifice a lot to pursue that. I was young, zealous and excited and I remember seeing things in times of prayer and worship that I had only dreamed of.

Many days in the ministry school pastor Bill Johnson came to speak to us. He so thoughtfully spoke with us about the things of the Kingdom, the miraculous, and his personal journey and history with the Lord. One of the classes I remember so clearly him leaving us with a challenge. He told us how happy he was to see us a class full of people of all ages and walks of life full of desire, passion, and fire for God, but then asked us to come back in 20 or 30 years and take him to coffee and tell him we are STILL burning.

One the passages of scripture that I love and have gone back to time and time again is Psalm 27. I love in verse four where David says “One thing I have asked of Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.” (ESV)

King David is someone who is known for his passion, and being remembered as a man after God’s heart. I feel like this passage in Psalm 27 is one of the keys of his passion. He breaks it all down to one thing, to “dwell in the house of the Lord” to continually encounter the presence of God. I love that he says the word “dwell,” that he wants to live in the house of God. His life shows us that it’s not just a one time encounter with God that we’re after, but a lifestyle where we continually seek after and encounter the presence of God." // written by Katie Torwalt 
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The part that stuck out to me the most was the last paragraph. "I love that he says the word “dwell,” that he wants to live in the house of God. His life shows us that it’s not just a one time encounter with God that we’re after, but a lifestyle where we continually seek after and encounter the presence of God." Yes! We are called to encounter the presence of God more and more. I have a similar story from what Katie Torwalt shared in the devotional. When I was in middle school, Pastor Tom (I believe that was his name) came and spoke to us at the winter retreat. We were so blessed that retreat, but I remember he told us something along the lines of - "Don't just tell me that you liked my messages and were blessed, but come back 6 years later and tell me 'I'm still following God.'" This really stuck with me. 

Be Humble // Stay Humble

I recently read an article by Bob Hartley and it just filled me with hope! You can read it here. I can't quite understand the full extent of what God revealed to Bob Hartley, but I'm so excited for what God's going to do this year. But to receive His gifts, we must remain humble. "He gave me a picture in the dream of Willie Wonka and the chocolate factory (I wish it was more Biblical, but I just got to tell you it happened), how a pauper got an inheritance, but there was one thing required of him, and it was to be humble...everybody was wrong and had made mistakes, but Charlie would pass the test of humility and receive God's great gift of the Kingdom."As I was asking God what this year is going to be like back in January, there were two phrases - "exciting" and "people are going to bloom." I'm not quite sure what God is going to do this year, but I believe that it's going to be exciting and people are going to be launched into doing greater things for His Kingdom! As we study the book Multiply by Francis Chan, I'm SO excited for how God's going to move this semester and in the semesters to come. Yes, it's going to be hard, but it's always worth it saying "yes" to God! Jesus, would you move. And would you move our hearts to not be just convicted, but to take action, not because we need to work for our salvation, but out of our love for you.

Sorry, it ended up being longer than I intended it to be, but this is what God has been teaching me this week! Thanks for reading. :)