Zachaeus Wasn't A Wee Man Of Faith


Luke 19:2-5

- "And, behold, there was a man named Zachaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who He was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, "Zachaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.""

I must admit that I don't that I have ever read this story and realized what a beautiful picture this is of how our relationships with Jesus should be; How we should be pursuing our Lord. I would think that this is a story in the Bible that almost everyone has heard of and that we all read and see the Love of Jesus and how He even eats with the cheating tax collectors; How no matter what we have done will matter to Jesus, as long as we choose to turn away from those things and pursue Him. I believe that Jesus knew the heart of Zachaeus, when He saw him and told him He would dine at his home. As we read past these verses, we see that Zachaeus turns from his wicked ways and has this big "Grinch That Stole Christmas Turn Around" giving back his cheated money back to the people as well giving to the poor, but what really touched my heart while reading this story this morning was found in these verses above. First off we read that this Zachaeus guy was chief among the publicans, which automatically made my mind switch over to where Paul admits to be the "chief of sinners" in 1 Timothy 1:16. Now I'm not trying to put Zachaeus on blast or anything, but Paul with a changed heart tells us that he was the "chief of sinners" which, in my mind, when someone admits that they are the worst at something I usually think, "ehh, they're probably not that bad." But here we see that he, Zachaeus is known for being the chief of these publicans (tax collectors), who were known for cheating people out of their money, which is, in its on way, stealing. So Zachaeus is the "Leading Thief" we can call him, so the next part of that sentence becomes a little obvious, "and he was rich." Then it says that "he sought to see Jesus..." That hit me. Like I can't lie, this verse is what hit me and spoke to me and why I felt like I had to write this down. "He sought to see Jesus..." why?, for "who He was..." Zachaeus with all of his money and "power" that he probably had over these people, heard about who Jesus was, from somewhere, I don't think it really matters where, but he heard of Him and went to see Him. Why did he go to see Jesus? Well, It's my assumption that he liked what he heard of Him! He heard something that sparked in his head and thought, "Ya know, I should probably go see this Jesus guy." Then we see the part that kills me because I realize how much I DONT do this my walk with Christ... he, while being super short, unable to see Jesus through the crowd, ran AHEAD of the crowd, which by the way, if there's a crowd so big that you can't see through it, then there was probably a lot of people in it, meaning he had to work his way to the front of that crowd to get where he made it to. Then, it says he climbed into a tree, to see the Lord for he was to "pass that way." So we have Zachaeus, this wicked man, who hears of Jesus, wants to see Him, why? don't know, but I would assume it's because he heard something really good. Then he gets to the crowd, he's too short and says, "Bump that I'm going home"? NOPE, he drops his shoulder, forces his way to the front of the crowd, then waits for Jesus to walk past him"? NOPE, then he climbs into a tree... to make sure he gets a complete view of Jesus as He walks past. All this effort in hopes that he would be able just to SEE Jesus. Then Jesus looks up, sees a midget in a tree and says, "Oh now I've seen everything." No, however that would be quite a sight. But no He looks up and says "Hey! Zachaeus! get down here quick! I'm going to eat at your house today!"

Ya know, I feel like Jesus always has had a knack for finding the person in the crowd who stands out a little more. We have all these people who went to see Jesus just like Zachaeus did, they all went, but they all stood in the crowd. It's in some ways a little strange to me, because, I don't think that's a bad crowd to be in, ya know? That crowd was all there to see Jesus because either they heard of Him, maybe some of them really loved Him, they were all there to see Jesus yet, we have this one guy, Zachaeus, a well known sinner, putting forth all this effort just look upon Him as He passed by. And I believe that this is a great example how we should be striving to see our Lord as Christians but this also reminds me of one of my favorite lines ever in a movie. It's from God's Not Dead (I know a lot of people didn't like it, I personally didn't like it all that much), It's not out of the Bible so I'm just going to paraphrase, but it's the part where the jerk son visits his dying mother with Alzheimer's and she tells him, That sometimes the Devil allows people to live in a life of sin where they feel like nothing is wrong so that they stay in their sin, but in actuality, they are just paving their way into an eternity of Hell. This is how I feel Zachaeus' live was like before Jesus. I feel like he was just like those of us who didn't get hurt from their sins initially, but then He heard of Jesus, that there was something better for him in Jesus, and so he went to see Him and went beyond these other "Christian" people to see Him because he knew that he needed Him. We all can get very comfortable in our sins, and think we don't need to be working so hard just to see Jesus, we just need to stand in the crowd with the others and heck there are times when we have this annoying little man push us out of the way to get in front of us, to be the first up there, then we watch him climb a tree and we sit there and judge him and murmur at the situation as it says the crowd did in verse 7; but we didn't know the heart of the person "On Fire" for Jesus. How about we all just be the ones on fire for Jesus.

 

I have a lot of friends who are in sin, who are Atheists, who are living "great" lives, who feel they don't need God that they live lives the way they want to because that's all life is. I continue to pray for them, not that they would have to go through some traumatic experience to make a turn around, but that they would realize themselves that Christ is Life and run to Him.

Let Him Guide Your Life

Luke 5:4-6

- "Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto Him, Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake."

This morning, for some reason I truely can't explain, I have been full of joy! Perhaps it was the 10 hours of sleep I had last night, but for whatever reason I'm extremely joyful! With this joy, I stepped out the front door and looked around and what did I see? Well, I saw my God's beautiful creation. How amaizing His work is, how His beauty shows through His masterpiece that we are able to call our home while we are here on earth. How truely blessed we are. So I began to thank Him, for all that He has done, for all that He is doing, and for all that He is going to do, when I realized that I hadn't yet read this morning. So I ran over to my room, grabbed my Bible, picked up where I left off in Luke and read this passage. I was blown away with these verses, especially in relation to what I was just praising Him for, so I just had to write it all down.

I had just sent out a mass SnapChat saying, "following The Lord will take you to places you would have never expected to ever be in." Then I read this, where we see Simon, jsut living his life, doing what he always does, and Jesus walks in and tells Simon to fish as He tells him to. Simon, adresses Him as "Master" which means we can tell he repects Jesus, he knows what He's all about, says, in my own words, "Master look, we've been doing this all night, a million different ways, but you know what, it can't hurt to try." Now before I get into saying what happens next, when I read this passage this morning, I immediatley looked back at my life. While it's not a very long life, I quickly noticed that I tried living my own way a million different ways. I knew Jesus, I knew He was my Master, I knew what He was all about, yet I did my own thing in a sense. Finally I come up to graduation from Highschool, I had been living my way, trying different roads, different paths of life for 17 years now. While for at least the first 10 years of my life I was obviously too young to really go out and rebel against my parents, I was living with the option of obeying them, or not. So now I graduate from Highschool, faced with the "real world," What am I gonna do? I feel The Lord telling me to go to Guatemala with Potter's Field and give a year of my life to Him, or I could stay home, wait a couple years without going to college, and work my butt off, and make some money and do whatever I want with it. I think this was probably the first time in my life where I actually said, "ya know what, moving to guatemala for a year sounds kinda crazy, and I don't even have enough money to do that, but you know what, It can't hurt to listen to the voice of God right? I mean worst comes to worse I won't get accepted into the program right?" So I put the application in, or in Simon's case, cast my net to the side Jesus told me, and now I am amaized with what He has done with just myself and my net. So what happened with Simon and his fishing? He caught so many fish that his net broke and in the next verses it says he had to call his friends over to help pull all the fish in.

In short, all I really wanted to post today was this fact that God will blow your mind all over the room if you would allow Him to. I am reading a book called Real Worship by Warren Wiersby right now. If we would worship our Lord with wonder and amazement, give Him our lives, you will be caught up in a whirl wind of blessings! I am living in Antigua, Guatemala because I cast my net on the other side. I am teaching children english, spreading the Love of Christ, teaching children the Bible, learning Spanish, meeting people from all around the world, and I'm learning so much more than I ever would have if I had just stayed home and worked. Now obviously The Lord works in different ways, this program isn't for everyone, but in whatever you are doing, just the Lord guide you because you have no idea where you might end up!

Going Hard For Christ

Mark 14:3-8-

"And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on His head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, "Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come a forehand to anoint my body to the burying."

Last Tuesday, a team from Oregan arrived here, and will stay for two weeks. So we decided to hang out with them a little bit and get to know these guys and perhaps encourage them to come to Ignite. Before Kids Club the following day, I was talking with a few of them about the Kids Club program in Antigua. They asked me how many kids usually come to Kids Club, I told them that we don't know, quite frankly it's a little hard for me sometimes because due to some rumored about circumstances, the number of kids went from 150ish to a max of 20. Anyways, the clock struck 1pm and it was time for kids to start arriving. A total of 6 children came that day. Personally I felt embarrised. It was my week to "lead" Kids Club and for what we had planned and the 12 extra college students we had visiting we only had 6 children. Once I started thinking like this I took it to prayer. Simply asking the Lord that He would give me an overflowing amount of Joy to be able to share with these kids. Long story short, we had an amaizing time with these children, and the team had a great time as well. That night, for some reason, a few of us interns decided to join the team with their nightly "wrap up" time. As they went around the circle telling their "highs" and "lows" of the day, it got to me. I asked them if they could be praying for me and my heart as I was feeling down today when I really shouldn't have because the number of children shouldn't matter. After my turn one of the team members said something I won't soon forget. He told me that his highlight of the day was watching me lead songs with the kids that came that day. He told me that because of the joy and excitement that I put forth he could see that what I was doing on that stage was for the Lord, and whether it was for 6 or 600 children I would have done the same thing becasue it was for the Lord. PRAISE GOD TO THAT! Talk about an answered prayer! That day I learned what the Lord was saying to His disciples in this passage. There is nothing better than giving our Lord everything you have. I this woman spared no expence when she anointed our King, so why do we? Looking at it, the Lord gives us talents, He gives us resources and He wants us to use them for His glory. I don't think the discples were wrong in thinking that the ointment should have been sold and then the money given to the poor, but giving what the Lord has blessed us with back to Him shows how much we love; and like His word says, we will be blessed in doing that. It makes me think of the "Gringos" I've talked to here who say that they are here to do volunteer work (contruction, helping at orphan homes, etc.) They are doing a great work, but if the Lord has given them a heart for people, they should be not focusing completely on phyisical help, but spiritual help. If they love the Lord and have a heart for people, use that to bring them back to the Lord. It's my prayer that I will never forgot that when we go all out for the Lord, we will be blessed by that.

Am I Satan?!

Mark 8:33-

"But when He had turned about and looked on His disciples He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind me, Satan: for you savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men."

Everytime I read about Peter in the Bible, actually, I think this goes for anyone who reads about Peter in the Bible, we look at him and his example and think, wow how is it that this guy can mess up so much. He lives with Jesus everyday, and claims to love Him, yet we see him falling short in many different areas. He knows what's right, and he knows what wrong, so why is it that we see him doing the wrong so many times? I mean The Lord told him that He was going to use him to be the foundation of the church, how is it that he was so love by God and yet messed up so much and was even, like we saw in this passage, called Satan!

If there is anyone I would hate to be called Satan by, it would have to be Jesus, not simply for the reason that He is my Lord and Savior and I would hate to have God mad at me, but because He has actually had face to face experiences with the devil, He actually has been around Satan and knows how disgustingly wicked he is. Know I'm not saying that we have no idea how wicked Satan is, but just holding on to the simple truth that Christ knows all, I think He knows a whole lot more about the devil than anyone else. But let's take a look here, why does He call Peter Satan? Jesus says because "you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." This stopped me for a minute, because this would qualify me as Satan. Jesus says in the next verse that "whoever will come after me must deny himself; take up his cross and follow me." If we are wanting to be a follower of Christ we cannot be holding on to anything that is of the world. The Lord will bless us if we walk with Him, whether that is a physical blessing or not, we will be blessed.

Now let's look back at Peter's walk with The Lord, I mean, my walk with The Lord. Because I do walk with The Lord. There isn't much difference in Jesus physically being in a room and Him being there spiritually. We like to think so, but if you think about it, Jesus was on the earth, and man was still wicked. So when we sit here and say, "man those guys where so lucky! They actually walked and talked with Jesus! It must have so much easier to faith in Him!" We are just talking nonsense because He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. He was with us then, now, and will always be just the same. Anyways, my walk with The Lord, which could simply be put as knowing what was right and what was wrong and doing what was wrong. Pretty much reminds me of Peter. Pridefully I say that, you know I have my moments when all I wanted was Christ, and I lived for Him in those moments. But my pride is quickly squashed when I think back to what I said and respond to myself with, "Moments Jonny? Really? Moments?" I have failed countless amounts of times and just like we see here in the life of Peter, it happens right after I do something out of faith for The Lord. So what is my point, what am I trying to get at. Honestly it's this simple truth, that we cannot possibly grow closer than we are to Christ and still hold on to some sort of garbage that we want to keep from the world. There are going to come times in everyone's walk with The Lord when you are going to be in a place where it's one thing, or the other. The world or Christ. I pray that we will continue to pursue Christ in those times.

　

What Are We Holding On To?

Mark 6:7-9 -

"And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse; but be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats."

Being followers of Christ, whether it be at home or out in a foreign country, we know that we are all called to die to our selfish needs and be like Christ to others. While this passage speaks to me during my circumstances of being on a small team sent out from a bigger team onto a foreign mission field, this passage also applies to couples, families, kids in highschool; any Christians life really, considering that darkness is all around us, we are called to constantly be lights in this world. Here Chirst sends out His disciples in I guess we can call it, small groups. Before sending them out, He gives them power over the unclean spirits. Here we see that when we are going out into this world we need walk in the power of Chirst. We need to be faithful to recieve His power, that He wants to bestow upon us. If we know the fact that with Chirst all things are possible, then we should understand that without Christ, nothing is possible. While there are "good" people in this world, who love others, who go out and do volunteer work at hospitals and retirement homes, who take care of the homeless and the orphans, if they are not doing it for Christ, it will amount to nothing at the end of their lives. Continueing on in this passage, after He gives them His power, He tells them that they should take nothing with them but a staff and sandals and the clothes on their backs. After I read this, I quickly remembered that our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He tells them to keep a staff on them; do we know anyone who has used a staff because the Lord told them to? Here Christ is telling them what they need; shirt, pants sandals, staff and Him. God did amaizing things through men in the Old Testiment, and while I don't want to make extreme assumtions, I feel like most of these men had clothes, a staff, and God. Now I'm not saying that we need to all go out and buy staffs, but the picture here is very clear to me that all we need to serve Christ and to survive in this world is our clothes, our shoes our Lord, and what He has given us to use for His glory. While we all have spiritual gifts, we all have phyiscal gifts that we can use every day to bring glory to our Father, thats why He gave us these gifts in the first place. Like I said before, Our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomrrow, so if He told Joshua that He has given him every place that the sole of his foot will tread upon, and He has told us to not worry about what we will eat or wear because He feeds the foul of the air and He clothes the grass of the field, He will take care of us if we would allow Him to.

I will pray in the mornings that I will use the gifts God has given me to the fullest of my abilities!

The Lord Appoints Posistions In Ministry

Mark 5:19 & 43-           
        

          "Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, "Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee"; And He charged       them straitly that no man should know it..."

As we all probably know, or at least can tell, there are many different roles or aspects that take part in the ministry. One thing that I, personally, have always dealt with, was the issue with asking God, "Why is that person in that posistion," or "Why am I not doing that?" When I was in, I believe, 10th grade, the youth pastor who had been teaching the newly developed middleschool/highschool aged teens, stepped down from his postition. I still have no idea why he stepped down, perhaps because he had been fed up with our immaturity, but when he stepped down, the senor pastors 19 year old son began to take over. Now, while I didn't know him personally, I knew enough about him to know that I didn't like him, and to know that when he and my older brother where in school together, he wasn't exactly the nicest kid around. Now, I am supposed to look up and respect this person who, in my mind, didn't have the best reprutation? wrong. At least thats what I told myself. Honestly, while he was still a student in the youth group I couldn't stand this kid. He was always so prideful in everything we seemed to do. The first year the youth group performed at our Chirstmas program, I couldn't stand how much this kid wanted to do everything up front on stage. He also became the worship leader, and once again I began to see this self centered attitude in the way he performed. One summer, the youth went to California for a Youth Camp. While there, he and I butted heads so much we could've given eachother comas; but it was probably after that year when I felt God tell me, "Jonathan, you know this to be true... that nobody wins with a headbutt." While that may sound a little silly, it made me ask, Why am I continuously butting heads with this guy? Why have I seemed to purposefully set it on my heart to do this? I needed a heart change. So I asked Him for it, and He gave it to me. Now, Nate has been leading our youth group for 3 or 4 years now, is married, and has done amazing things for our Church and our community, because he had listened to God. We don't know why God asks us to do some things. We don't know why He tells some to go and be a witness, and others to stay at home, but the truth is, we don't have to know. It's His plan and we need to obey whatever He tells us to do. He has something planned for everyone, so when He tells you to be a witness, be that witness for Him; and when He tells you to stay at home, you stay because He told you to.

Faith Can Move The Mountains We Need To Overcome

Matthew 21:21-

"And Jesus answered them and said unto them, 'Verily I say unto you, if you have fatih, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done'."

As this is the start of our first week of our feild time here in Guatemala, I can already see the enemy trying to attack in anyway he can, whether it be from sickness, or just the smallest things like making the decision on which board game to play. Of course the last thing we as a team want is any kind of division among ourselves, however as every team who has gone before has told us, "You are going to get tired, you are going to rub one another wrongly, and there will be times when you do not get along with eachother as a team." Yesterday while out into to town I joking brought up that fact, saying that we should start hating eachother now, that way we can spend the last four months learning to love eachother and end on a high note. However, after making that comment I remembered Philippians 4:12-13- "I know how to be abased and I know how to abound, in everywhere and in all things I haved learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And then it hit me; I don't know what will come ahead and I don't know exactly what the other teams went through, but I need to know that whatever is going to come my way, that If I trust on my God, Christ, that He will lead me on the straight an narrow path and I will not wander astray, and if we all (Team Guat.) are trusting in Christ, putting 100% of our faith in Him, giving Him our all, we will never fall of the path He has set before us, and the firey darts from Satan will not be an issue. The Bible says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can tell a mountain to go for a swim and it will. I'm paraphrazing of course, but this is one of the many things that I know the Lord is going to teach me during my time on the field, the concept of having true faith in Him. I believe it starts with this team He has placed me in to be apart of.

Encourage my team in this truth. Let's be a team who keeps Christ first, not just as head knowledge.

I.B.S. #52

Psalm 133:1

- "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethen to dwell together in unity."

This verse, I believe, encapsulates this weeks theme of unity. In the sense that when we as believers, brothers and sisters in Christ dwell, fellowship, reside in uinty, it will be pleasant. This makes me think of heaven and how we will be in constant unity, and life will be pleasant and good. While we will be physically united with God, and there will be no way for sin or anything of the devil to reside with us, we can do the same spiritually here on earth. If every individual in a group of Christians would have their hearts centered on Christ, then there will be perfect unity. Our God never changes, He has shown us that this has happened before, so we know it is possible today. Knowing that we can reach this pleasantness and goodness of being unified with eachother and with Christ, I think we should be purposing it in our hearts to achieve this goal. For each of our teams, as we are all going out in a week or so, to always keep it in our minds that we won't be unified as a group in Christ is not the center of everything that we are doing. The number one thing we need to remind ourselves is to seek Him first, and let Him take control of ourselves. He's going to do wonders in all of us, so let's all take a step back and let Him work, so that we may be a blessing to others.

Appologize to all for being a jerk sometimes, I need to work on stepping back and not trying to grab back onto the wheel. Pray everyday for everyone in Class #6.

I.B.S. #51

Acts 2:46-47

- "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily as should be saved."

Here we see that when we have Christ as the center, when we fellowship with eachother and keep Him as our conversation or continually love eachother as He did unto us, we will want to remain in fellowship with others. Here we see that after all has passed, they go with one another, together, to the temple to eat yet while they are eating, they are still praising God and being lights to one another. It's funny how sometimes we, at least as guys, can go out together for a Bible study or a night of accountablility, and leave the place with a completely different mindset than we had going in. For example, last thursday we went to McDonald's after dinner for Ice Cream, where Elijah shared his message on... exactly, honestly I don't remember off the top of my head what he shared on exactly. It was a great message and I learned from it, I can tell you that I learned how important it is to give everything up to God, but I'm sure that was just part of his message. The first thing that just came to my mind just now about that night, was the thought, "You know, that McDonalds plays some dope music." They had a little BackStreetBoys, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Adele, and I left with Timbaland stuck in my head. All this confession to say that when we don't keep the conversation around Christ, it's easy to get off track. Now don't get me wrong, Elijah didn't plan for them to play dopesauce music, but when we go to fellowship with others, we need to check our own hearts and make sure that we keep Christ as the center, because I'm sure there was something he taught on, that I heard, but then quickly went out the other ear to make space for I Want It That Way.

Write "Be Alert" on my hand.

I.B.S. #50

Acts 2:44-45

- "And all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possesions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."

This is going to sound alot like my last I.B.S. for the reason that here we see that through the power of the Holy Spirit, all the bleievers were brought together. It then says that they all had things in common, and I think the one thing that all believers need to have in common, just one thing, thier love for Christ. First off, if we don't have a true love for Chirst, then we won't ALL be brought together in that love. This of course points back to what I wrote on yesterday in that we need to examine our own hearts and make sure we are doing our role as part of the body of Christ. I do believe it helps for beievers to have some common interests, so that we can grow together in that way, but at the end of it all we need to find the roots in our relationship in Jesus Christ. Now the second verse here is something I found really cool, and is something I see still going on in the Church today. As we are unified in Christ, we see a family type bond take place, and if there's one thing my family does, it's helping others out in their times of need. Meaning, when we as the body of Christ see a brother or sister in need, physical or spirititual, and we know we can help that person, we need to be. It takes us right back to J.O.Y. if the other is in need and you can help them, you should, especially if you feel the Lord telling you that He wants you to do so.

Look for ways to help out my friends and family, even in the little things.

I.B.S. #49

Acts 2:43

- "And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles."

This verse here is reffering to the Holy Spirit, and the power that the apostles attained by truely fearing the Lord. At first glance of reading this verse, I wasn't sure of how we can see an example of this weeks theme "Unity" clearly. However, I believe that this verse is showing me that when everyone in the ministry has Christ as the center of their hearts, He uses the Holy Spirit to move in amaizing ways we could never expect. We need to remember that the only way that we can have true unity with man, is if our heart with Christ are in alinement. Of course I believe thats a very difficult task for us, but when our hearts with Christ are in check, everyones hearts, there will be a perfect unity and we will all be used by the Spirit. Again, our hearts need to be inline with Chirst, we need to check our own hearts for this, we can't look at someone else and tell them that they need to fix thier hearts. We can only control what we do, lets allow the Spirit to control us.

Encourage my team to continue to die to self daily, and to check our hearts so that there will be perfect Unity in our team now and in the field.

I.B.S. #48

Acts 2:42

- "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

"They continued steadfastly," in other words, they went on and devoted themelves to the doctrine, they continued to study with a heart that wanted more and more of the Word. In my walk with Christ, I know there have been times where I might slow down in my race. If I ever take a day off in reading the Word, it only seems to follow that I will go that whole week without opening my Bible. I realize in this verse that there is one thing I need more of, something that will keep me in the Word daily; I think people really underestimate the importance of this part in ministry, fellowship. I was born in Miami and my family lived there until I was about ten. From my birth up until I was about 7, were attended a Church called Jesus Fellowship. I had always thought that was a strange name for a Church, mostly because there were all these First Church's or Calvary Chapel's or Central Assembly's. Now I see however that really is the reason for going to a Church, the fellowship with other believers. On our second group street witnessing day, I met a man named Aaron. I asked him if he was a Christian, he told me yes but there was something about the way he looked at me and the tone he used when he answered me that made me think he was somewhat of sceptical about the faith. As our conversation continued, I found out that he was visiting Guatemala from Brazil and that while he was a Christian he stopped going to Church because every Church he has been too either adds to the word or takes away from the word. He told me that he can grow in his relationship with Christ just fine if he just sat in his room and read his Bible. I told him thats true, but going to Church and fellowshipping with other believers is a huge part of our walks with Christ. I then told him about Calvary and that they read through the Bible and that they should have a Calvary Chapel planted there. While we are running our individual races, we are running this race with the other racers. These are our brothers and sisters and we need to love them that way.

Pray that He will continue to remind me that the people in my life arent distractions, but lessons.

I.B.S. #47

Matthew 5:20

- "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

The Pharisees know the law, the scribes know the law. I could never be as perfect as the Pharisees or scribes who not only know the law and abide by it, but they also memorize it and in a sense have it embeded deep into their minds. However these people are the ones who constantly show us, in the Bible, the difference in realtionship and religion. I see that the Pharisees and scribes were the ones who were constantly being rebuked by Christ because they held so firmly to the law of the Old Testiment, that they would condemn others for trying to grow personally to Christ. A lot of friends of mine and I believe just people in general, get turned off of Christianity because they say, "oh it's just a bunch of religion," "Christians are just abunch of stuck up people who think they're better than everyone else because they don't break their laws." It's sad to me that people view Christianity this way, but sometimes I cannot blame them for thinking so. The truth of the matter is that alot of Churches and people who say they're Christians do act this way. Honestly the problem with this lies in the pride of that person. Once we realize that we all need is a relationship with Christ, and that He loves everyone and came to save everyone, and that we are no better than the next person, we should be humbled

Read the Ten Commandments and think about how many times I have broken those laws. Ask myself why I judge others.

I.B.S. #46

Matthew 5:19

- "Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

All of my life, or at least as far back as I can remember, my father has always reminded my brother and I to "Be part of the solution and not the problem." If there is one thing I really regret doing, it's not just sinning, but also encouraging others to do so as well. I guess I kind of felt that if I was only one doing these bad things, then I look even worse than everyone, so I figured I would take down as many other kids as I could with me. Which of course is so wrong, and as we see here, Jesus tells us that if we break these commands and then teach others to do the same, we will be the called the least in the kingdom. It was especially sad to watch these people I brought into sin because after I turned away from those sins, they continued to go in that way. He then says in this verse that whoever practices and teaches the commands are great. I think it goes without saying, being a Christian or not, we all want to be considered great in heaven. Man is aways striving to be great in everything that they do, so it only seems fitting that we should want to be one of the greats in heaven. Just like in any sport or any activity, if we practice at it, we will become great at it.

I need to practice these commandments that Christ has given us to become great in heaven.

I.B.S. #45

Matthew 5:18

- "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

The law will last as long as the earth lasts. Yet when the earth has faded away so will the law and all that will be left is Jesus, which is everything. In the end, the heavens and earth will pass away, the law will no longer exist, all the prophecies will be fulfilled and God will reign forever. Where there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more cheating, lying, sexual immorality, stealing, cursing. There will be no more need for a law because we will be in the presence of God and He cannot reside with sin. The things of this world will fade away with the wind, but our Lord will rule forever; how can something that is temporary live in a world that is eternal?

Need to focus my mind on living for the heavenly things.

I.B.S. #44

Matthew 5:17

- "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill."

When Jesus came to this earth, He fulfilled every prophecy that was made about the coming Messiah. One thing that I really like about reading these prophecies in the Old Testiment and seeing them come true in the New Testiment, is seeing that Jesus fulfills them all, yet He doesn't fulfill them in the way that man would have predicted Him to do. They prophecied that the Messiah would come and rule over all the earth and they probably expected someone who would, physically, be mighty or strong in stature. However, we know He came as the innocent lamb who ruled and still rules the whole earth with His unfathomable power. He came here not to be serve but to too serve, through these acts of service we see man stand in awe and wonder at why a man who claims to be the Son of God would wash the feet of men, or sit and talk with the prostitutes and theives. He fulfilled the law and He fulfilled the prohecies, Jesus Christ is Lord over all, and we can say that in full confidence.

Before I pray, I need to seriously think about the God that I am praying to.

I.B.S. #43

Matthew 5:16

- "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

This little light of mine I need to let it shine. Whatever we are doing, we need to realize that we are representing something. When we go on trips with our school, we are representing them, when we go on trips with our church we are representing them, but if we look past our school, church, parents, sports teams, we see that all Christians are representatives of Christ. As far as I can tell, all of Gods other creations, meaning everything else but humans, I can look at and say wow an amaizing God made that, do you see how beautiful that sunset is, or that volcanoe is, or how the humming bird functions. Now, don't get me wrong, the human body is beautifully made, it's incredible to think about all that goes on in our bodies in just three seconds. However, it's sad in a sence that God created everything for a purpose, and us humans are the only ones to mess up. We're the ones who seek sin and deny God for all that He has blessed us with. Then again, perhaps I am looking at man in the wrong way to think that we are all a bunch of screw ups. Perhaps I need to be looking at the heart of man like our Lord does.

Pray that God will help me to see man in this way.

I.B.S. #42

1 Corinthians 9:27

- "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

We arent to run this race aimlessly, as the previous verse says, as if we are fighting against the air. We need to be putting our bodies into subjection of what we are doing. If we are preaching to others the truth, but aren't practicing what we preach, we won't understand what we are telling others to do. Intresetingly, Jesus seems to ask that we do all that He did, and while that seems impossible because He is God and we are sinners, we can do what He did through the power of Christ. Jesus asks us to love others, He did that; Jesus asks us to care for others, He did that as well; Jesus asks us to pick up our cross everyday and die to ourselves, He did that as well. This is one of the greatest things that I love about Christ, that we can look at His life and see that He will never ask us to do something that He didn't do. It makes me think of the episode of the Office where Michael Scott is looking for the employee to take his position. He makes up a bunch of strange challenges to see who can handle each challenge, yet they're challenges that he wouldn't do himself because they were too dangerous. As we are representing Christ and trying to bring His word to others, we cannot tell people what to do but then not live that example out. Christ lived His life and only asks that we do what He did. Only through Christ are all things are possible.

Write "don't doubt" on my arm.

I.B.S. #41

1 Corinthians 9:26

- "I therefore run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as once that beateth the air."

Therefore we run! Paul has just given us all pretty good reasons in the verses before this why we should be running the race for Christ. It's the only race worth running, because we will recieve the prize that actually matters. One of the hardest things that I see in others lifes and my own life, is running the race without uncertainty. He says here that when we run with uncertainty, we fight. If theres one thing I know, it's that whoever fights against God will lose. His will will be done. Therefore I need to make sure that I am running the race and not fighting against anything He has said.

Everymorning walk the campus and pray.

I.B.S. #40

1 Corinthians 9:25

- "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptable crown; but we an incorruptable"

We strive for an incorruptable crown. That's an encouragement for us. This week as we have the theme of discipline, its so refreshing to know that all that we go through, all our trails and tribulations, when we get through them with Christ, we will recieve an incorruptable crown. It kind of makes me sad to know that there are other people who are living in the world and for the world and who, because of thier descisions, are going through lifes hardships and when they reach the end of thier lifes, their crowns, their medals, their achievements will crumble at the judgment seat. It actually upsets me that the life I was living was a lie from the Devil that I fell for. With all the stupid stuff I was doing, I would have entered eternity and all I was on earth wouldn't matter. We need to be telling other people about Christ on a personal level. I know that I would rarely share the gospel with friends, but how in the world could I care about my friends and not tell them the truth.

Write Tell ALL on my arm

I.B.S. #39

1 Corinthians 9:24

- "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one recieveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain."

My first thought after reading this verse might be a little bit different than everyone elses, which is good I guess in a sense, but after reading this the first time, I first thought to myself, "Man I hate running." Then I began to think about that a little more. One thing I know that when I or someone else is sharing the gospel I should avoid saying is that, "If you accept Christ, your life will be so much easier than everyone elses. You will get anything you ask for and your wildest dreams will come true." Reason being is because when we life for Christ, It's going to be rough. As Jesus told His disciples that the world will hate them as they have hated Him. The world will persecute us, they will hurt us because that is what they did to Christ. This verse seemed to have come more alive to me while doing this I.B.S. because if there is one thing I know, is that, for me, running sucks. I hate it. Of course there are some people who love it, who can go out and run for miles and miles and actually enjoy every minute of it. This makes me think of those who are continuously being blessed by God. I believe that God works in many different ways, and from hearing the testimonies of others I know there are people who didn't have to go through much to realize Christs grace, and there are some who had to be completely broken to find His grace. For me, I realize now that I may hate running, but we all have to do it in a Spiritual sense. While it may be extremely difficult to do in the beginning of our journey, the more we practice and train, the more learn from our mistakes of slowing down or getting overheated or sprinting then having to stop to catch our breath. We need to be running this race to the best of our abilities and these abilities have been given to us by God to help us run this race. I need to focus on my spiritual running and not my physical running

No more running in the mornings for the rest of training because it has been taking over my time with the Lord in the mornings.

I.B.S. #38

l Corinthians 9:22-23

- "To the weak, became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you."

A lot of times I look at people these days and I say to myself that they all need to be like Paul. What I mean by this is that I think we need to be one extreme or the other. We need to be 100% for Christ or 100% against Him. As I mentioned in my testimony, one of the biggest things I couldnt stand about my old life was the amount of hypocrasy in my life. Now dont get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone needs be either 100% sinful or 100% perfect because noone can be perfect. However I do believe that if we are to lay down our own desires and follow Christ, we need to have hearts that are truely on fire for Christ. The Bible says He spits out the lukewarm people, those who are claiming to represent Him but are doing a crappy job of it. This definatley is not an easy task however. I think it's probably the hardest way to go about life, constantly dieing to self, but what Paul says here is what we need to have in mind. "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you." Dieing to self, living for Christ, being rejected by the world, going out of our comfort zones to go where God wants us to go; It's all for the sake of the gospel. That we might be able to be a part of it. That we might be able to used for the advancement of the kingdom of heaven. Which is the greatest honor that I think God has given us. I need to be using that gift which God has given me.

As this time of training is coming to an end, I need a refresher so I will pray that the Lord gives me strength to fight off that lukewarmness.

I.B.S. #37

Philippians 3:12

- "Not as though I had already attained, either were perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."

I love that we can look at Paul, who we view as this amazing devout man in Bible, who has one of the most amaizing testimonies and yet hes is so humble in saying that he just like anyother Christian and is simply a follower after Christ. This is all we can do while on earth. Simply follow after Christ earnestly. We will never be perfect, I will never be perfect; we will be perfect, however, when we finally see Him in His kingdom. When I arrive, I want to be given a "Well done" because of how I followed earnestly after Christ during my time on earth. It's kind of sad to know that no matter how much we sacrifice here on earth, we will never reach perfection. However it is pretty cool to know that what He has prepared for us in perfection is going to be so much greater than the amount of blessings that He is going to pour on us when we follow Him.

Continue to examine all that I have sacrificed and make sure I have given ALL things that are stopping me from growing as close as possible to Him.

I.B.S. #36

Philippians 3:11

- "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."

Well this verse doesnt make much sense to me. I have read this over and over and in the context and I cannot figure out how to write something down that will come straight out of reading this verse. I begin to read it in context and figure out something, but then I realize that what I figure out comes out of the verse before this one. The most I can seem to get out of this verse is this, that we have to give up everything that is not of the Lord before we can gain anything from Him. If we want the Lord to bless us, we need to have the heart for it. We need to actually want/strive/do something about our situation to recieve blessings from God which in this verse is the ressurection from our deaths. We all will die, but because of what we do with our lives, if we live for Him, for the kingdom to come, we will be resurrected from our sinning bodies and live in perfection forever in His presence. We need to be doing what ever we can, by any means possible to live for Him in order to actually grasp this resurrection

I need to go back and read the story of Jesus' resurrection

I.B.S. #35

Philippians 3:10

- "That I may know Him, and the power of His ressurection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death."

When I first copied this verse down, I initially wrtoe the power of His righteousness. I think the reason why I did that was because I never recognized the amount of power that He showed during His ressurection. The beauty in the fact that He died, rose from the dead, and lived forever. I remember a study that I heard a while back that said something along the lines of Jesus, while He raised the dead, was the only person to die, raise Himself back up, and never die another earthly death again. Interestingly enough, I always figured that yes Jesus can bring the dead back to life (in the physical sense) so of course He could raise Himself from the dead however, I guess I never saw the power, the magnificence in the fact that Jesus never truely died, He lives even still to this day. While we've been this week of I.B.S. on the theme of sacrifice, I've been realizing that we don't actually sacrifice anything to gain eternal life. I remember a little skit we did in highschol. It had two people with full trashbags over thier shoulders who were in desperate need to get rid of it. They both realized that little by little the trashbags gradually got bigger and bigger with more barbage inside of them. Then Jesus comes along and asks one of them to give them their trashbag. He asks what the catch is. Jesus says there is no catch, just give me your bag, I'll get rid of it all, and you won't have walk around with this burden any longer. So he gives Jesus the bag, is immediatley happy, and skips of the stage. Jesus then asks the next person and they say no. He asks him why? He replies, well it may be stinky and heavy but this is my trashbag and while I would like to give it up, I might need something in it later on. This is how I feel about when I "sacrifice" something. Everything that we live for in this world is trash compared to what Jesus has for us. The sad part about it is that most people, like myself, for whatever reason, want to hold on to those bags of garbage even we know it may be bad for us or unnapealing to others. I contually find myself holding on to trash and I just need to give it all to Christ.

I'm going to write trashman on my arm to remind myself to take all the trash to Jesus like a trashman takes garbage to the dump.

My Testimony

I guess my life is an example of someone who was blessed by God their whole life yet rejected/ignored all that He seemed to have given/said to me. My mother is the perfect example of a godly woman, my father the perfect example of a godly man. Because of the parents God had given me, I know what I need to be as a man, and I know what I need to love in a woman. He placed me in a Christian environment in every state, in my home, my education, and my church. I constantly was having the truth shoved in my face. But I would always spit it back in His face. I threw all His blessings away, the talents that He gave me. I didn't seem to be getting the approval, or at least in my childish eyes, the love of my parents so I looked for it in popularity. I began to attend a youth group that seemed to draw the popular crowd. Most of the kids who attended were hypocrites like myself, only there to hangout because our parents would let us go there on a Wednesday night. I learned from these hypocritical friends and the non-believing friends that I had, that you were cool based on how many girls you could get to "love" you every other weekend. That watching pornography, listening to the dirtiest music, and shoplifting were ways to fit in with the popular kids and to get kids to hangout with you. By the grace of God, I had a heart change. Sadly it took the fear of everyone I loved finding out what I had been doing to change my heart, but then again, my heart was so hardened by that point that I had to go through such pain to finally break down. By the grace of God my heart was changed before things got too late. I kept my virginity, I didn't spend any years in prison and I came to the realization of all the lies that Satan had put in my mind. My parents did love me and that the lusts of the flesh will quickly leave us in the gutter alone to die. As a child my father always would recite Psalm 1, to this day I know it, but however, I never realized the truth in that whatever he that brings forth good fruit does shall prosper, "but the ungodly are not so: but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away." Psalm 1:4. Yet Christ plucked me out of the gutter, the dusted me off, and gave me a new start. I would have to say that I have truly been living for Christ for about 3 years now. Now, having a change of heart, I view everything differently. I think the new worldview He has given me is what will keep me living all out for Him. There is no desire to go back to who I used to be any longer. I'm sick of my own hypocrisy, it annoys me to think of the things that I would do right before and right after Church. However, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17. I thank God everyday for the new mindset He has given me. When I allowed to Satan to get in my heart, I saw life the way that he wanted me to see it, my actions and my thoughts were set to his desires. However the same worked with Christ, when He changed my heart, Everything outward changed as well. Then, God did something in my life that caught me completely off guard. After my heart had changed and I had finally felt at peace with God and with my parents and with everything; my life felt perfect. Then God took away, what was in my eyes, the greatest thing that He had given me. A solid relationship with a godly woman. I became angry, not at God but at her and then eventually, myself. The devil used this opportunity to try and break me down from the inside out. Yet I felt God tell me that this needed to happen so that I could give 100% to Him at Potter'sfield this year without any distractions. However during my time here, I can see that Satan is trying to use what He can to get my focus off of God. However, God is continually providing for me with the examples I need that will continue to encourage my heart on my journey, during this year and during this program.

Proverbs 21:21- "He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor." Proverbs 20:7- "The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after Him."

You Were Made For More- Book Report

         If there's one thing that I would have to say that I don't like doing, it's reading. However, I always find that after I force myself to read a book, I end up loving it. Especially with my time here at Pottersfield, they seem to do an amaizing job of giving us books that have to do with exactly what were going to face and what we are personally going through. Throughout my life, my parents always told me that I was made for more than what I think I am. Of course I figured they were just saying that because they wanted me to strive for exellence. I now look back at my life and see how God has prepared me to face the things that He has put in my life today. Which, why my life isn't even half way over, so much more than I ever could have imagined.
          I know it may sound cheesy, but the title of this book, You Were Made For More, completely says what this book is about. This book tells the stories of both men in biblical times as well the accounts of personal testimonies in how God has taken an "average" persons life and change it around and then continue to use that changed heart for the furtherance of His kingdom. In a way that, like the book is titled, that person would have never expected. While at a young age I never realized it, but the godly men in Bible times were just like the godly men of today, meaning they searched for God just like us, they grew closer to Him just like us, and they failed just like us. I guess I always looked at the men of the Bible as these devout men of God who were in a sense Holy and better than everyone else. This definatley is not the case, but I feel like at a younger age i never noticed all the sins that those men had commited back in those days. Now that I'm older, however I see that they face the same problems that we, as Christians face today.
          It encourages me so much to be able to look at the lives of those who have gone before me and see how God had used them to do such great things. While I am just now starting my real walk with Christ, not resting on my parents faith, I can see already how Christ is moving through me and guiding my life with His divine plan. I would have never imagined two years ago that I would be living in Guatemala for 8 months serving and giving my all to grow closer to Christ. It's amaizing to see that God is already using me for so much more than I could have ever imagined and to know that He is just going to continue to bring me closer and closer to Him and farther and farther away from what I thought I would be doing with me life. I know understand that I was truely made for more.

Kids Club 2014 in Antigua, Guatemala

Here's just a little something something I whipped up for your viewing pleasure (hopefully) I hope to keep you updated with more videos and child stories during my field time here in Guatemala! Thank You for watching and Dios le bendiga!

I.B.S. #34

- "And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."

As Christians live this life, we have one goal in mind, to reach the gates of heaven, to enter and hear well done, my good and faithful servant. To reach this goal, however, we need to keep in mind that if we arent being His servants here on this earth, then we aren't going to truely feel like we have done well. While theres no doubt in my mind that it is possible to believe in Christ, read the Bible, stay in your house, do nothing about it, die and still go to heaven; I do believe that that would be foolish. If we are reading His word and truely love Him, we will do as He has commanded us to do, which is to go out and be a light, go out and spread His word. Of course that includes your town, your community, your church, your workplace. We need to remember though that if we are not sacrificing our lives for Him, the people around us may not see the example that Christ set for us. If we are supposed to resemble Christ, and we do nothing about our faith, what does that tell others about Christ? I know that this is something that I have failed at doing in my own town of Vero Beach. I would like to say there were specific times where I would slack off and be a bad example of Christ but that seemed to be me all the time. And like I said last I.B.S., I truely feel like I havent been really sacrificing everything to Him daily.

I'm going to draw a steering wheel on my left hand to remind me that I need sit in the passengers seat and let God take complete control of my life. 

I.B.S. #33

Philippians 3:8

- "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ."

"Everything I once held dear, I count it all as loss." Everytime I think of this song, I think of all the skits that I have seen with this song. As we have seen during our training here, for the most part at least, they all have to do with a person who chases after the desires of the flesh, gets themselves hurt from those desires, Jesus saves them from death, takes thier sins, dies for them, and raises again; conquring death. This verse reminds me that everything we used to do in the flesh we gave up in order that we could grow closer to Christ. Also, that while we may not have thought it was worth it during the suffering of the loss of it all, we gained Christ and in reality all we lost is all the garbage that we carried around with us. It's kind of cool that when you look at those skits we do, the person who Jesus is dieing for, is happy committing the sin until it starts to hurt her, then they begin to cry when it hurts them and when Jesus is being hurt because of them. It's funny/sad to think we think we suffer for Christ having to face this world and thier mockery when Christ died because of us. I makes me ask myself am I really dieing for Christ? I feel like I need to be suffering more for Him.

Mike will keep me accountable to serving during the things I dont like.

I.B.S. #32

1 Corinthians 9:19

- "For though I be free from all man, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more"

Having the power of Christ in our lives gives us that freedom above other men. We are not slaves to man but bondslaves to Christ. Therefore we are not forced to do anything that man tells us we must do, but to first and foremost answer to Chirst. Of course us Christians are called to respect authority, obey our parents, and obey the laws of the land but if our parents, the authority and law over us are corrupted then it is more important to follow what our Lord tells us to do. Just as we see the with apostoles while they did sometimes follow the law of the places they were, they only follow the rules of that which was in accordance with Gods word, and for doing what was right in Gods eyes they were martyrd. We must make ourselves servants to all of those who we are with, because this is where we will gain the more. I love the second part of this verse. Because while people would normally read the word gain and think, success, power, etc. Right now, for some reason, while im reading this I can only think of the word "Grow". When we become servants others, we will grow the more. While we may think that oh if we serve God will give us whatever we want, thats not the case because if there is one thing that i have learned in these past couple of years, is that God will bless us when we bless Him BUT, He will bless us in the way that He knows is best.

I will expect nothing for my service because it is whats required of me.

I.B.S. #31

Luke 17:10

- "So likewise you, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."

This week of I.B.S. for me was a little frustrating, only because the verses we have been writing on were followed after the other and they are all teaching the same thing in a sense. While I'm not saying that it is a bad thing, I find it annoying that I can't seem to find a different application for these verses, but then again maybe that's what I really needed to learn this week. As our theme this week is on being a servant, these verses give a picture of that, but along with some other interns, I would agree that there might be other verses that would be better to study this week for the theme of servanthood. As we have finished this story of the master and the servant, we learn to not have a heart that only seeks profit for our service. We need to realize that all of the things what we are asked to do we are supposed to do, and we are not going to be given a pat on the back for the things that we are supposed to do. It was out duty to do so. That being said, it is our duty to die to ourselves and to serve others as Christ would serve them, so even in doing things for others that they didnt ask for we shouldnt expect an "Atta boy!" Because doing things for others that werent commanded of us is our duty.

I'm going to continue to serve meals.

I.B.S. #30

Luke 17:9

- "Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not."

Being employed in fast food, I know that you dont really get "thank you"s for doing your job becuase that's whats required of you. The things that they command you to do are the things that they also expect you to do. Not to say that you didn't feel apreciated as an employee, but in all honestly they have a standard that they keep you at, and you recieve recognition when you go above and beyond that standard. When we do the things that we aren't neccesarily told to do, that's when we recieve thanks from others. Why do we give thanks to God? because everything we recieve from Him is above and beyond what we deserve. We deserve death, but yet He blesses us all the time with life. We are blessed just to wake up in the mornings and for that we must give thanks to God. Christians serving other Christians on the mission field is almost like this serving circle; everyone serving everyone. So we constantly should be thanking one another for even the smallest acts of service that we do for eachother even if it is as small as taking the plate off your table. We also need to be making sure that we are serving one another and having the mindset that all that we do is for Christ and that we are not serving others so that they will say, "wow, what a servant" but because we truely have a heart to serve one another. I pray that I will continue to have a heart that wants to serve.

My application is to continue helping to serve meals.

29th I.B.S.

Luke 17:8

- "But will he not rather say to him, 'prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and aftwerward you will eat and drink'?"

Jesus, others, then you. I feel like thats the only thing I need to write on this verse. The fact that it's the way of man to put themselves over others is one of the greatest issues we face. We find it so easy to put Jesus first, honestly I think thats just because He's not physically present. However, even in putting Him first, we don't completely understand that we can't simply love Him and not love everyone else as well. We are to place Jesus before anything or anyone else so that we can truely love other people. His love is the standard that we need to be using in the way that we treat eachother. In todays day and age, we don't really have masters and servants, but as a Christian I am to assume the role of a servant just as Christ did. When you think about it, for the Christian, there should be a never ending cyle of servants because everyone should be serving each other in some way. While I know it was just for a team building exercise, I thought it was really cool recieving our food at dinner but then waited for everyone to be seated before we began eating. It was nice because I know that everytime we eat, the same couple of people will help distribute the food and because of that they are like the last people to eat and they end up eating by themselves. When we waited for everyone to get a plate and sit down, we were able to fellowship with those who usually eat after us or who finish before we make it through the line.

This week I will help serve meals.

Michael (Pato) Ronaldo

My first couple of Potter's Field Kids Clubs were some of the most fun times of my life. Getting to hang out with and grow closer to the kids of Antigua, Guatemala and being able to show Christ's love through kids songs and relay races was such a blast. Much like programs like this in the States, I noticed quickly that the older kids wouldn't participate as much as the younger kids were in the games or in the songs. This is what I would have done when I was the older of the kids group, so I made it my goal to reach out to those kids. One of the funniest things about these guys is that they have made nicknames for eachother. Most of which are named after different animals.

One of the first kids that I met was nicknamed Pato, which in spanish translates to "duck". I'm kind of ashamed to admit this but I didn't even know Pato's real name until I decided to write this story on him. Michael Ronaldo is his name, he is 12 years, old, in sixth grade, has two brothers and one sister, who also attend Kids Club. He loves fried chicken and you can always pick him out of the crowd because he always wears his white/red shorts with his soccer cleats. That being said, he loves soccer! While he doesn't play on a team at school, he loves to play anytime he gets the chance to. Not only does he attend Potter's Fields Kids Club program, he also attends the Tutoring that is offered from the Ignite students at the Center. Due to the tutoring, his academics have acceled noticably, and he has continued to learn more and more about God. His favorite Bible story is that of Jacob and Essau because it gives us a great illustration of what we should do to be good. Michael has been attending the Potter's Field Kids Club program since it had started. He heard about the program through hids friends from school, and says that he loves to come for pretty much everything that we do here but especially that he can come here and learn more about God. Not only did he hear about this program through his friends, but he also has made a ton of new friends through this program.

Michael is a leader. He is a child who has passion for things special to him, and who cares for those around him. When I see the way he interacts with the other kids, I can tell he doesnt know how much they look up to him. I continue to pray that Michael will see whats worth living for through this program, and that he will follow Christ and lead those who look up to him to Christ as well. Please keep Michael in your prayers, Thank you!

Michael's ready to play some Kickball!



Alexis and Michael

28th I.B.S.

Luke 17:7

- "And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'come at once and sit down to eat' ?"

Christ gave His followers a couple of rules. some of which are that Christians are to be servants to everyone, Christian and non-christian just as Christ was. Also that we are to do unto others as they would have us do unto them. This verse reminded me of our hours here during servant time. Not that we were plowing or tending sheep, but that while we were out working, whether it be raking or pulling weeds or painting the walls or whatever, the RAs would come to us and ask if there was anything they could get for us while we do so. While pretty much everytime they asked us if we were fine I said yes, it was still nice to know that they seemed to care about us while we were serving. I have been to a friends house where, if they had someone doing yard work for them at night, they would pay them and then have them stay for dinner. Honestly, in doing so, you open another door to build a relationship with that person and also to tell them about Christ while showing an example of His love.

I need to pray daily that I would keep my eyes open for those opprotunites.

27th I.B.S.

Philippians 2:7

- "But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man."

This is probably one of the greatest things that I love about Christ, and it continues to show how much of a servant He truely was. The greatest and most powerful king, the ruler of all, would step down from His throne just to show how much He loves the world. It's one thing to serve in your home, it's one thing to serve at your own church, it's one thing to serve in your own comunity and state, but to leave the comforts of your own lifestyle and serve the people who don't even have enough money to buy clothes, or even shower is different. We humans will do that and then when we get to the location, complain about the weather or the food or the smells or the people. Can you imagine what Christ felt like? We left the United States, He left Heaven, He left perfection came down to this human run world and helped the lame, the poor, the blind, the sick, the lepers. He never complained about anything, can you imagine how good the food in Heaven was? And He's down here eating bread and wine. The only reason why He would do all this is for love, because He loved us so much, He would walk on this messed up earth just to die for us. Because He loved the Father and obeyed Him and because He loved us.

I need to be more sensitive to the Spirit so I will write LISTEN on my arm.

26th I.B.S.

Philippians 2:5-6

- "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God."

Growing up in the home that I was raised in, I never thought that I can be like God. That just sounds weird to me. I did know that we are to strive to be like Jesus. In my mind I've always viewed Jesus as the perfect example of what a Christian should be. I always knew that God and Jesus were the same person, but never would I have thought to say, that we need to be like God. As we see in His word, God sends His Son to earth to save us all and to serve us all (John 3:16-17). So it would seem to me like what are to do based off this verse, is to have the mind of Jesus Christ and to spread the word of Gods salvation as Jesus did on earth, and serve all of those around us. One thing that I have realized while being in Gautemala, as it is a third world country, is that there is a noticable amount of poverty found here than back in Florida. It makes me think of how some people may think that they don't want to leave the comforts of their home to be a missionary in a third world country but when you think about it, Jesus left heaven to come here on earth. I am completely sure that the most beautiful place on earth can't even compare to the worst thing in heaven. For Him to leave His home, perfection, and to come to earth, imperfection, was the greatest act of being a servant for the Father. I need a mindset to understand that no matter what I see or do here, there is nothing that Christ hasn't done. He came to this earth and healed the sick, no matter how bad the situation was.

I need to look at everyone on this street as a beautiful child of God. I will write "we are all sheep" on my arm

25th I.B.S.

Philippians 2:4

- "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others"

I would categorize this verse as another die to self verse. While we would usually be concered about ourselves and our own well being, we are not to be doing so. We need to care about our own interests but not in the sense of physical wants or needs. When we look at our own intrests, we should ask ourselves, "Am I pleasing God in what I am doing?" If this is true then we should already be focused on the intrests of others. I love that everything God tells us to do comes naturally if we are living with Christ in us, and allowing the Holy Spirit to move through us. If we are seeking to be like Christ and if we are continually yeilding to what He hs for our lives, all these things will come naturally to us. The people who I know in my life who care way more about others interests over their own are people who we continually see Christ in. They are the ones who have made the decision to die to self and to allow the Spirit to move in a way that is unstoppable for the Evil One to creep in and shut them down.

I need to make sure I'm not allowing the devil to get the slightest hold on me.

24th I.B.S.

Phillipians 2:3-

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."

We are to be filled with joy through everything that we do. If we do everything with the mindset of j.o.y., then we are doing it right. We should be having a bad attitude about it because we are tired, or because we dont like what it is we're doing, or because of the team we are doing it with because the first letter here is "J" which we all know stands for Jesus. If we are doing everything with the first priority that says, "okay, this is for Jesus." I think I would put alot more effort into it than I normally would. Now lets say your stuck on a what you consider a junky KP team. And you say, "Well I love Jesus and I want to do my best for Jesus but this sorry bunch of losers on the other hand..." that doesnt make sense because Jesus said that we cannot love Him but not our brothers and sisters. So when we say Jesus, then "O" for others we should be serving those who are serving with us. So when we're on KP, and we see that someones not having a good day, and their work is showing that, talk to them, help them out, our teams aren't going to grow stronger if we just sit there and complain, "Oh there goes Ben, doing backflips when he's supposed be doing dishes." Then there's the "Y" for Yourself. honestly while writing this I want to finish with just saying that there shouldnt be a "Y" because your supposed to be dead to yourself while serving others.

When doing anything, I need to work on physically expressing joy during work, so I will try my best to always smile during those times.

23rd I.B.S.

Eph. 6:1

- "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

Col. 3:20

- "Children obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord."

These verses are two verses that I have taken very lightly in my life. Obviously I know that I am supposed to obey my parents and I know that it pleases God, but have I been obeying my parents with the same heart that I need to have while serving God? I sadly would have to confess no, no I haven’t been. But to think how much trouble it would have saved me. I mean I wouldn’t have gotten into half of the garbage that I put myself through if I had just followed my parent’s instruction. Now I do have a confession to make, I would have to admit that I was blessed greatly by God for the parents that raised me. I have friends who have tons of parental issues and I can’t ever imagine having to go through things such as divorced or alcoholic, drug addicted, adulterating parents. I’ve seen how that can affect a growing boy and it causes me to step back and be so thankful for the ones that God has put over me. Actually, when I think about it, not only was God blessing me with my parents, but I was receiving His blessing and saying, "Oh gee thanks God… SIKE!" and throwing in the trash. Now I’m not saying I don’t love my parents, because I do. I understand that they love me as well and make constant sacrifices for me. I can see my Gods love through them in so many different ways. So, the question I have to ask myself is, why in the world don’t I love them like I serve God. I’m getting to a point in my relationship with God where I WANT to serve Him. I’m stepping into that by giving Him this year. Why don’t I want to grow closer to my parents and love them, and respect them, and bless them near as much as I want to do those things for God? I’m not saying my parents are just as good as God but He placed them in my life as a blessing and I need to be honoring that.

The next time we get WiFi, I will skype my parents and apologize.

22nd I.B.S.

Romans 6:16

- "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

Well, I guess since Christ has saved us we can sin all we want right? No, this is not the case. A lot of my Atheist friends have used that line against me actually, they say Christians use the fact that Christ died for them to cover up the fact that they sin continually just as everyone else does. Honestly, I don’t blame them for thinking that, they look at the world’s picture of Christians, and most of their friends, and see hypocrites. This verse, however clearly tells us that this is wrong to be a Christian and to not have a heart of repentance. If we are to be servants of Christ, we should obey His word. It really sucked for me because while I love the Lord, there were some sins that I could not seem to give up. Knowing completely that the things I was doing, wasn’t what a Christian should do, and that everyone saw me doing so. Honestly I think the thing that kills Christianity in the worlds eyes are the hypocrites, but of course I find myself in that same category, sinning and not caring. So, if we are to be the servants of God, we are to follow His word meaning to we are to have a repentant heart that seeks Him, and we are not to judge our brothers walks with Him as well. Which is exactly what I was doing. Matthew 7:3, "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but consider not the beam in your own eye?" We need to realize that we are just as bad, if not worse than the next person. I think that once we truly understand this truth, we can be servants to Christ as He wants us to.

I need to humble myself daily to the least of my brothers and sisters. That way I can accept correction from others. So I’ll draw a less than sign on my hand.

21st I.B.S.

Acts 5:29

- "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."

WWJD is the first thing that popped into my head after reading this passage. The apostles answer that we should obey God other than men is a mindset that Christians need to have. Looking back in the Old Testament, there are many examples of people who did what God told them to do even if it went against what man said. Because at the end of the day, we need to ask if what we did was for God, or for mans eyes. Of course, this doesnt mean that we dont do anything that man tells us to, how in the world would any work get done. However, whatever we do, we are to do it as if we are doing it for Jesus. While we may not like deep frying chicken and getting hot oil splashed on our hands, with a never content boss telling you how to do something better than you are doing it, we should do it with the mindset that we are doing it as unto Christ. This applies the same idea as Radrack, Meshack, and Abendego. While they were working in a chocolate factory, and listened to what their boss told them to do, when it came time to bow down and worship the Bunny, they knew that this was not something that would please God, so they obeyed God over man. While man would say, just bow to the idol and dont mean it in your heart, they knew God would like for them to bow at all, that He wanted them to stand up for what they believed in.

I need to be more bold with my faith because what I don't say can harm those around me.

The 20th I.B.S.

John 15:14

- "You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you."

Reading this verse for the first time was kind of wierd. Most likely because I read it out of context. The verse before says "Greater love hath no man than this, that He would lay down His life for His friends." And the verse that follows this says, "henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant doesnt know what the Lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things i have heard of My Father I have made kown to you." Here Jesus is talking to His disciples and I can't imagine how honored they were to have Jesus tell them that they were His friends. And as We read, we see that they were His friends because they did whatever He commanded then to do. As a modern day Christian, I don't think I can say that I do everything that He asks me to do, I know I do a lot of things He doesn't tell me to do, but looking at the qualifications on being a friend of Christ I feel more comfortable calling myself a servant of Him. Of course I think it does without saying that I want to one day be called a friend of Christ, and do whatever He commands of me. So there we have something to strive for.

Memorize John 15:13

I.B.S. #19

Psalm 17:50
"As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I wake, with thy likeness."
We will be content when we awake and we are in His presence. This is the time when we will be truly content, when we are face to face with our father. When we are no longer searching for Him or seeking to be like Him. There is only one time when we should not be continually seeking after Christ, and that’s when we are with Him in His kingdom. During this time, we will be like Him, we would have found Him. We would have found Love, Peace, Kindness, Joy, Gentleness, all the fruits of the spirit because He is the Spirit. We will have no wants, because He is everything; and while He is our everything on earth as well, our sinful human bodies don’t allow us to be in complete Joy etc. We are separated from Him by sin, but when we go to be with Him, there will be no more sin.

I will strive daily to be more content on earth, which will allow me to grow closer to Him.

I.B.S. #18

Philippians 4:11
"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
I pray that one day I could say that I have learned to be content in whatsoever state I am in. That’s probably challenging thing I have ever heard of. In whatsoever state we are in, we should be content. Personally, I know that I am always in want, like I said yesterday, not of material items, but in the little things. For example, let’s say it is a hot day in Florida; it’s 98° outside, with 80% humidity. Naturally, I am complaining about it being hot so I want to go to the beach. So, I call up some friends and we head over to the beach. We get there and it is packed, and the only parking space is a quarter mile down the road. Now I’m complaining and wanting someone to back out so I can take their spot. Finally I park, get to the water and it’s too cold. So now I complain and want for it to be warmer. Then I realize that the water is too salty when it gets in my mouth. Then I realize that I want to go to a pool and not the beach. Of course I could keep telling this story, but I think you get the jest of it. Contentment is hard to have in every state we are in. honestly the example I gave wasn’t even that hard of a state. I just couldn’t seem to be content with the weather, or with the temperature of the water, or with the kind of water. It makes me think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears story. I think that story truly encapsulates the human mind. It’s kind of sad to think that when she was hungry, and came upon food, she was still picky about the food. When she was tired, she was picky about the beds that were there, and it is so true with the rest of us. I can’t count the amount of times when at school I would say, "Thank God its lunch time cuz I’m starving, what are we having?" "liverwurst." "Why can’t we just have like a salad?" We need to be content in whatsoever state we are in. while I think that’s one of the biggest challenges I have ever heard of, nothing is impossible with Christ’s help, through His power we can accomplish this.

I will practice more content in my daily life by not complaining about the food or temperature.

I.B.S. #17

Hebrews 11:5
"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for He has said, I will never leave you or forsake you."
Being honest, I’m usually a pretty content guy when it comes to material items. The only reason why I think that I can say that is because God has blessed me with those things that I do have. I honestly can’t remember the last time I looked at a car or a phone or TV and thought man why do I have this sorry piece of junk phone/car/TV. Sure I admire other peoples stuff, saying oh that’s pretty cool and finding out more about it. But, I don’t think I’ve ever looked at something else and became upset and said why can’t I have something like that? I deserve a nicer car, or I deserve more than I have. Like I said earlier, I think that is because God has blessed me with so many things, including the parents to raise me to know that everything I have is a blessing from God, and that I do not "deserve" anything but death. Knowing my past, and my experiences, I shouldn’t even have been blessed with the things God has given me. Now obviously I wanted things growing up, and I definitely cried and complained about not having the Beyblades my friends had. But throughout the years, God has continued to work in my life to grow away from that. One thing I do struggle with, is being content with myself. There are talents and skills that I possess, yet, I constantly find myself looking at other people and wondering why can’t I do that? Or, why can’t I be like them? I know that I possess skills and talents that others do not, and I need to be content with what God has given me. I need to be content with what I have, and not talk about other people’s stuff in a covetous manner. What do I have? Jesus, as He did say, I will never leave you or forsake you meaning He will always be with us. God is enough, He is everything, so why would I even think of wanting someone’s objects.

I.B.S. #16

Luke 3:14
"And the soldiers likewise demanded of Him, saying, and what shall we do? And he said unto them, do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages."
John the Baptist tells the multitude that they may become children of Abraham by chopping down the trees that they have grown that do not produce good fruit. The multitude of people, tax collectors and soldiers all ask how they can produce good fruit. He tells them the way by giving to one another, if you have two coats, to give to someone who doesn’t have one, the same goes with food. When the soldiers ask him, he says to do no violence towards men and to not accuse falsely. While John gave a message to all, these men of authority have to apply that message to their lives a little differently. They knew how to become Abraham’s children because John just told them, but because they are men with power and authority over others, they need to be careful in how they correct those who may not always follow this rule. John tells them first not to do anything violent to them; I know that, for me at least, that my initial thought when someone is doing something wrong is to physically correct them. Of course I do not have the authority to do so, these soldiers on the other hand, do. He then tells them to not accuse others falsely, to be honest, and to get the facts straight before you are going to say anything to the person. Then to also be content with their wages; what they have earned. Those of us who, in the human eyes, would be considered to be in a higher position have to realize that when we have heard and know the truth, and have more power and authority over someone, have more of a responsibility to not just follow these rules, but to make sure that we are correcting others properly in doing so. Because we have to realize that we received that position by God, and we are to be content with what God has given us. That being said, if spiritually, we are all on the same level in God’s eyes, we need to be content with where we are at with Him and He will bless us and we will grow closer to Him as well.

I need to listen and accept correction from those above me with a happy and content heart, knowing that God has blessed me with that leader or leaders to help guide me in my walk with the Lord.