ONE Series
Amplify is in its second week of our series ONE. We have ONE focus this summer and that’s to grasp how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ. Here’s the video we made for this series:
Meet Messi
A couple weeks ago I was in Tarragona at the theme park, Portaventura. When I entered the theme park, my friend and I got word that Leo Messi was there. For those of you who don’t know him, he’s the best soccer player in the world. When we heard this, we sprinted all around the park to find him. We didn’t care about the roller coasters, the water rides, or hanging out with friends. We were focused on one thing, finding Leo Messi.
As this summer approaches, I want my focus to be on one thing: to get more of God. It’s as simple as that. I don’t need to consume my time with the television, the internet, the pool or friends. I need to have one focus and that is to get more of God. I encourage you to take this summer as an opportunity to draw nearer to God because when you draw near to Him, He’ll draw near to you.
Remember When
We had some powerful sessions at my mission’s conference with the missionary kids. I loved seeing so many students come to worship God with all that they had. There were even nights when we stayed so long worshiping God that they had to kick us out because they were closing down the building. It was truly an incredible time worshiping Jesus. Although all of that was great, I see that many of us who worship God at retreats or camps change the way we worship when we get back home. It’s like we feel God’s presence more at camps and retreats than we do in our own time with God. I’ve heard so many people tell me, “Remember when God showed up at that camp?” I hate it when people tell me that because God doesn’t show up at places. He’s everywhere at any time. We are the ones who show up and respond in worship to an almighty God. We cannot whole-heartedly only worship God on camps, we must worship God as we worship him in retreats in our very own room. I encourage you to seek after God like you’ve sought after him in camps or retreats. Know that the same God you worshiped while at camp is the same God that is in your very own room. Don’t remember God’s presence, but constantly experience God’s presence no matter where you are.
All Europe Retreat – 2010
My mission just held a retreat for all of the Assemblies of God missionaries in Europe this last week. I love my mission and what it does for Europe as well as other missions. I had a ton of fun at this retreat gathering with 158 MKs and 250 missionary parents to worship and seek after God in a powerful way. Here are three amazing MKs that want to tell you what they like about being an MK:
Creativity Needed
Amplify just ended a series last week titled “God, The Scientist.” We developed a new perspective of God through observing his huge power of creating the entire universe. I am truly humbled to worship a God so big that even the heavens cannot contain Him. Not only have I been seeing God’s power displayed in the universe, but I am also seeing how creative God is. God didn’t have to make the universe exactly how it is or create humans and animals in such a unique way, but He did! God created huge stars that are millions and millions light years away and at the same time, He created little tiny ants. God had creativity when He created the universe and the animals and us humans never get tired of observing science or nature just because of how creative it is.
I think that what God has shown through the universe and nature is what is lacking in the church. The church is missing the creativity that God has displayed through creation. If the church would stop singing the same hymns with the same choir every Sunday and spice up the church service with creativity, the unchurched would find church more interesting. There are many churches who do the same order of service every Sunday and it becomes a tradition. This should not be. People don’t want to see tradition at church, they want to see a revolution. The church must use creativity in order for people not to be bored of the same old church service.
Be Creative
JSB 2010
Each year my school has the Junior class create a banquet for the Senior class. This year it was my class’ turn to create the banquet. We went with a luau. To see more photos of the banquet click here. Here’s a picture of my class:
3 Reasons Why NOT To Pray
I love praying. It’s satisfying. It’s worship. It’s powerful. It’s laying your life down before God and giving him your worries, praise and requests. There are many great reasons why we should pray but here are three reasons why not to pray.
Don’t Pray…
1. To compare yourself to others – It’s important that when we pray, we aren’t praying to make us look better than other Christians. If that’s your reason for praying, then they’re probably more spiritual than you to begin with. Just sayin’.
2. To update Twitter or Facebok – There’s nothing wrong with posting on Facebook or Twitter that you prayed a ton. The problem is when that’s the reason you pray, is to make yourself look good online. How would you feel if someone wanted to hang out with you just so that they can put on their profile that “I’m hanging out with friends” to make them look good? In the same way, we shouldn’t use prayer as a sign of how spiritual we are online.
3. To please God – Don’t think that God needs your prayers in order for Him to have a good day or to understand what you’re going through. God’s day won’t be ruined based on whether you’ve talked to Him or not. When we pray to God, it’s not helping God, it’s helping ourselves. When we pray, we don’t give God news that He doesn’t already know about, we receive news from Him that we had no clue about.
God, The Scientist – Series
We are starting a new series this Friday at Amplify titled, God, The Scientist. The purpose of this series is to get a new perspective of how big, powerful and creative God is through observing His creation of stars and planets. We hope you can join us for this awesome series!
I’m Hot And I Hope You Know It
I attended a Real Madrid soccer game the other day. Madrid was playing against Mallorca, which is another team in Spain. While I was observing the match, I saw that there was this very crazy fan waving a Spain flag around. I thought to myself, Why would someone be waving around a Spanish flag when both teams are from Spain? How are the fans suppose to know who he is cheering for? He needed to choose one team or the other and express his flag-waving to the one team he wanted to win.
I feel that non-Christians ask Christians this question all the time. The unchurched people see Christians one way outside the church and then see them as perfect in the church. This my friends is hypocrisy. We cannot call ourselves Christians and act like atheists. I feel that this is a huge reason why the unchurched don’t attend church. They see the church members as hypocrites. Who wants to go to church with a bunch of hypocrites? As Christians, we must choose to go all out for God or to not live for Him at all.
Revelation 3:15 – “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!”
