worship and intercession

It has been an exciting week of teaching. I'm just going to start it off with some cool things we've been taught this week.

• We want to hear from God because we want a relationship with Him!
• It should be normal to hear God speak.
• God's ability to speak to us is far greater than our ability to hear from Him.
• Every time we try to hear the voice of God it is a step of faith.
• Spiritual battle is real and we all have our own part to play!
• We have authority through Jesus while we are acting according to His will.
• We are living sacrifices, even if you're tired worship God with all you got!
• If you're distracted by other people during worship, stand in the front.
• Give your best years to God.
  

So those are just some great points that we went over during class. One thing I'd like to mention is hearing God's voice. In learning to hear God's voice we start off as infants and it's really hard for us to discern His voice. It's like when a stranger calls you on the phone, you can't tell who it is by their voice but as a friendship develops you start to recognize that person's voice. It works that way with hearing God's voice as well. That's why it can be so difficult to start recognizing His voice from the very beginning. We've been taught that God wants to speak to us and that it should be normal so we should be expectant to hear from Him. The application of this is that anytime we have any sort of inkling no matter how small we should go for it in faith (and humility) that it might be from God (assuming it follows His word of course). If we keep doing this we'll be able to strengthen our 'faith' muscles and learn to discern His voice. How exciting is that? God speaks to us concerning the big things and the little things in our lives. The speaker this week used a lot of stories and anecdotes to really get his points across. One of the examples he used was from the movie Wall-E. He compared the people to our ability to hear from God saying that it's normal for us to walk but since the muscles of the humans were so weak they could barely stand anymore. Makes sense to me. I'm going to work on those faith muscles and not be afraid to be a fool for God!

So last weekend we went camping! I volunteered for the camping committee and it was more work than I thought! Camping in Australia is much different than camping at Cabrillo Beach. The biggest different was bringing and cooking food for 50 people each meal. It was good fun though spending time out in the woods. We spent some time canoeing, cooking and cleaning, toasting marshmallows, playing some group games including capture the flag in the dark which was quite intense! The only part I didn't enjoy was the enormous amount of flies! I must have ate a couple that weekend that got mixed up into the food. We labeled the really big ones 'Goliath' and they actually pack a punch when they bite! Overall it was a good time to bond and spend some time outdoors. I'll put up some pictures at another time.

As usual, praying for all of you at home. Especially the youth group! I always think of the Philippians 1:3-5 whenever I think about you guys. Keep pressing on and deepening your relationship with him because He is so worthy of everything. Don't waste this precious time you have and set your eyes on Him! Love you guys so much. That goes for everyone, I miss all of you!

Blessings,
Andrew