Prank.

I just want to share this with everyone. I was at Miracle Camp this weekend and had a blast helping with different events and games and hanging with camp friends! Saturday night though, Me and two other friends (Ryan Thill and Frank Colarusso) decided to burry a friends (Adam Sturdavent) car in snow. We didn't really have any special reason that we picked his car over anyone elses, he just happend to have a small car and I knew it was parked all by itself across the road. I'm pretty proud of our prank, so I just wanted to share it with all of you.

God is Good.

Currently, I have no job. I have bills that need paid, but no job. We all know that this situation doesn't work out too well. Being honest, although I love it up here in Detroit, I love my job as a worship leader and the work/planning involved, my job situation is beginning to really discourage me. Thankfully, I have Janurary's bills paid for, but I'm running low on everything else, and I dont have much money left... With all that said, I've been having a tough time the past couple weeks. I keep most things bottled up inside, and unless you know me very well, you probably wouldn't even know that I've been pretty stressed out lately. On the inside, and when I'm alone, the lack of a job/lack of money, is really getting to me. I've been praying constantly that God will give me a job! A good one that pays the bills and gives me the ability to set some money aside to save. I also pray that until I can find a job, that He will give me the funds to be able to pay my bills without having to worry about being late on payments... Well, God is good! The other night, Josh handed me a check. Someone from Evident Church who knows my situation decided to help me out! Its such a blessing! I was blown away! I actually opened it up in front of Josh, and did a pretty good job at keeping my cool while I was with him, but once he went upstairs, I fell to my knees and cried. :) I'm moved to tears now just thinking about it. I am more grateful than you can imagine. I serve an awesome God who loves me and provides for me. Thank you, Jesus.

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:19

I just wanted to share this praise of mine. :) Its encouraged me, and hopefully will encourage you also. God provides! Its not always in ways that we would think, but He comes through, and His timing is PERFECT!

Your Love Never Fails.

I strongly recommend that you all go out and buy this CD! I'm not sure what stores its available at, but I know you can get it on iTunes, thats where I got it. This CD is great! Its a great worship album! My Brother, Seth actually told me about this one, and I believe we share the same song as our favorite: You Won't Relent. Go buy it. You won't regret it.

Here's a link to listen to You Won't Relent:
http://free.napster.com/player/?play_id=24885087&type=track

Flying Sports Cars and Nifty Jackets.

Its 2009!! Gosh! I'm starting to feel old, and I'm only 24! I feel like my life has flown by! Its funny, I remember-what seems like ages ago-when I was younger, my brothers and I liked the Back To the Future movies. I think its in Back To the Future II where Doc and Marty McFly hop in the Delorrian and time travel to the future... 2015. Haha! We aren't quite there yet, but thats only 6 years away! Where's all the flying sports-cars and sky highways? Or those inflatable, auto-drying, re-sizable nifty jackets... or HOVER BOARDS! Now those would be sweet!! -Stay away from the water though! But for real, its 2009, time flies!

I was talking with my brother tonight about worship stuff, trying to get an idea of something to share with my church to lead into the worship set, and of course, being the awesome, worship leading, older brother that he is, he helped me out. I think we tend to overlook what worship really means. What is worship? I feel like the typical answer would be "singing songs to God", right? Yes, and no; it goes deeper than that though. Worship is our outward action of showing God how much he really means to us-how much he's worth.
I Googled the question, "What is Christianity?" The first definition listed was, " a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus..." Christianity should be more than just a system of beliefs; more than a religion. Its a relationship! Its not something that is required, rather, its our response to how awesome our God is! Think of all the things that God has given us... Now, how much of that do we deserve? None of it! We don't deserve anything! As humans, we deserve death-its the result of our sin. We are born with it. There's no getting out of it. God, however has given us so much! He's given us everthing! The very breath in our lungs is a gift! What a great reason to worship!
One of the songs that we're singing this morning is I'll Stand by Hillsong. I love this song. The chorus of it goes like this:

I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
I'll stand, my soul, Lord, to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

Now, they don't know it yet, but I'm going to encourage Evident Church to sing this song in response to everything that God has done for us. Its a new year, just looking back to 2008, God's done countless things for all of us! But I want to focus on the words for a second... Why do we stand when we worship? Standing is a way of showing honor and respect for something or someone. -Makes me think of our American flag, we stand for our flag, we salute it, we honor and respect our country by standing for our flag and singing the national anthem. In the same way, we stand and sing to God in reverence. Why do we lift our hands? Lifting our hands is a sign of surrender or submission. I picture a police officer shouting at a gunman to stick his hands in the air! Or in war, when a handful of soldiers have been caught and surrounded by the enemy, they lift their hands in the air as an act of surrender. Now, God is not our enemy (maybe I picked a some bad examples, lol), but we lift up or hands to show God that we surrender! We give up! Its up to you God, you're in control now. Thats what the song is talking about. But anyway, I'm rambling, and I need to go to bed. Haha! its late. Good night everyone!