Grace

Dude, I haven't posted in ever.

I just wanna post something extremely awesome that happened to me- my lady broke it off with me.

I know you're probably wondering how in the world this is a good thing, but it is. A few weeks ago, my youth pastor, Justin, taught a lesson on Esther 1. He got really passionate about how we shouldn't be wasting our time with dating and relationships (boy-girl). I felt convicted the entire time because my lady-friend and I were not very equally yoked.

After that youth group, my brother came up to me, sarcastically, and told me that this message was for me. It was. All the way. That night, I prayed that if God wanted it to be over, for Him to take over and work his awesomeness.

The next day, she called me saying that it wasn't working. For her sake, I will leave out the details, but basically, she had just stopped liking me.

-Prayer works.

A problem arose when I started being sarcastic to her and talking smack about her at school. The next week at youth group, we talked about Christ-like love. Those dang youth group messages are like aimed at me on purpose. I, that night, committed to go apologize to her and start being respectful for her, and watching her back. So far, I've been fairly successful.

The morals of this post are 1) Don't waste your time with girls or guys right now. God wants so much for your life. 2) Prayer works. 3) Christ-like love does not involve talking smack to people.

Leadership

I've recently realized that I have been in about every position of leadership at our church, besides an elder or pastor. I worked in the nursery, then with the kids. I ran sound in big church and did the slides for worship and did likewise in the youth group. I've also been on the worship team for both big church and the youth group.

Now I'm not just trying to show off here. I have a reason for this business and that is one question: Does being in a position of leadership truly make you a leader?

I know this sounds contradictory but seriously, if I get up on stage with an instrument and people paste the title "Worship Leader" on me, am I a leader?

I'd like to say no. I've heard plenty of stories about people who were not cut out to be leaders. In Romans, it says that he who is in a place of leadership should govern diligently.

Personally, I think a leader is simply someone who leads. If I get up on stage and do not lead in a time of worship, I'm obviously not leading. It's like of President Obama just stopped working, he would still be president (maybe not for long) but he would not be a leader, because he would not be leading.

My words of advice are, if you find yourself in a position of leadership "govern diligently." Make Christ-like decisions. Consult Christian peers. Peace out.

All Things for Good

Alright, lets face it. Not everything goes our way. Life seems to suck sometimes. It's the truth. Why do I say this? Some things have definitely not gone my way recently. I was mad/sad, but then I remembered "God works all things together for good." This is so crazy. ALL things. That means that just because things didn't go my way, it doesn't mean its bad. Actually it's the opposite. Things are meant to happen how they happen. I'm not saying to clap for joy whenever some tragedy happens, because its sad. It's sad because the world wasn't supposed to have death in it. But God even works that out for good. I can't tell how he will, I can just trust he will.

Still, think how crazy it is. I have to do extra chores because my brother is gone. Somehow that will work together for good. Somehow it will effect my attitude or my parents' attitudes or maybe even my brother's. The girl I like doesn't like me back? Sure, that sucks, but maybe God is growing her and making it so that she can have fantastic relationships later.

So still, why do I blog about this? It just goes to show that there IS a plan for everyone's life and God made it like that for a reason. So if something bad happens, don't blame God, cause he CANNOT be bad. Evil came into the world because of man anyway, there isn't a use blaming anyone but ourselves. But God, loves us, so he WILL work all things together for good.

So after reading this, remember these three things:

1. God loves you

2. God is in control

3. God knows what's best

(Thanks to Justin for the "The Bottom Line" ^^^)

Awe

I don't have a lot to say in this post, but I wanna make a point that God is big. Go look off at the ocean, into space, or at the mountains, and you'll find all are bigger than you. I think despite that, we still think life is all about us when God shows us it obviously isn't. If you've never cracked open a Bible, you can still just stand in awe of this comforting yet terrifying fact: God is big. Really big. He controls orbit, waves, earthquakes, thunderstorms, so he can control any problem I have in my life.

Serious Christians

You know what I absolutely dislike? People with no sense of humor. These are the people who are strictly business and don't think humor should be a part of their busy schedule.

I think Christians do this a lot though. We go to church and everything needs to be serious and business-like. I'm not saying God isn't serious, but He has a sense of humor. He also is joyful. Notice there isn't a fruit of the spirit called "Serious" because God wants us to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, so on and so forth.

At really formal churches, I imagine the Pastor telling a joke during the sermon, then getting taken from the pulpit and tied to a pole and brought outside the city limits and stoned. That shows how my mind works.

I really wrote this because people need to stop being un-funny for the Lord. Its just boring and not Christ-like.

Worship

For almost a year now, worship has been a pretty popular word in my vocabulary. Being that my dad is our church's worship leader, and my brother is the youth group's, I had a pretty good idea of what worship was... or so I thought. My definition of Worship last year was "the musical stuff that happens before Pastor Matt speaks and we all scurry off to youth group."

I began to hear the term used in a way I hadn't heard it though. Elders would come up on stage to give the announcements talking about having a "heart of worship" while coming out to serve on a church work day. That confused me. Wait are we singing and working? Thoughts like that ran through my head.

So, I went online to Bible Gateway and used the keyword search (can't beat that) to find verses relating to worship. I found that about half of them were from Psalms. Psalms, for those who don't know was written by David, a dude who lived in the wilderness by himself, apparently with a harp.

This confused me even more. Everything was wrong now. Worship was no longer a safe thing we did in church with guitars, drums, and piano, it was now a wild, working, act of adoration for God. And that is truly what worship is.

I went to a summer camp last year where our counselor, Chris, sort of "taught" me to worship. He was more of an example. The worship at the camp was really good, so you could easily slip into the state where you realize that a whole body of believers is singing to the creator of the universe. But I watched him as he threw his hands up in surrender to God during a worship song, and reflected Christ through his honestly and conduct.

So then, I knew what it was to worship. Living your life could be a praise song to God if you let it. However, I still got distracted when it came to making a choice whether to worship God or do something else.

On the way back from a prayer seminar at Calvary Chapel San Jose, my youth pastor, Justin, was talking about worship and prayer. He said, "I have to ask myself 'Would I rather (insert an activity here) than worship the creator of the universe?' and when I do, it makes me realize how stupid what I want to do is, compared to worshipping God."

That hit home. I knew I was guilty of that. So from then on, when I was faced with that choice, I would ask myself that very question and realize that God is far more important than my little problems. If he can control how the ocean works, he can fix my problems, so I can just worship him without worry.

update: Book

I found out I had been going about my nook the wrong way, so now I'm starting over and making it more of a youth version of Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. It's not going to copy it, it's just going to be organized in a similar way, topic by topic instead of chronologically. Thats it for now.

Update: Book

I have currently written about one page of my book. Its harder than it seems, but there's sooo much to talk about. I didn't realize how much my views changed since last year. Welp, I'll keep you posted.

The school year is closing

I thought i'd do an 'end of the year' post. I just finished my final, so i thought i could work on this. I sit recalling all the events of the past year and my mind is exploding. Yes. seriously. So, i thought i would write a short book on my thoughts of the past year. It will be titled "Thoughts of a teenage Christian." Profound? Completely.
Julia, who currently sits next to me, will be my proofreader. I hope. I haven't asked her yet, but i think she will. she'll laugh at anything my brother or I will say, so she'll probably be entertained.
Along with that, I will continue to update my blog over the summer, so you few followers can 1) check the progress of the book and 2) Possibly be inspired to think a little more deeply about your life. Yeah, i know that sounds cliche, but it'll have to do. (Insert a 'are you trying to tell me that I don't think deeply about my life?' statement right here) So yeah, this is my re-intro to blogging I guess. See ya. (I don't really know how to close a blog post).

Easter Post

In my good friday post, I mentioned a story about a kid who turned into a mouse and had to die for them to get them out of a maze. Here's the rest of that story.

So the mouse/kid, who had done nothing wrong endured all that the evil mice could do to him, and he, though flawless and merciful, was killed. Why did he die? If you want to know, look at the good friday post.

The mouse was but in an enclosed apart of maze and then he shut in. When some of the mice went to anoint the body with spices, they saw that the maze wall was broken, and there was no inside. Outside there was an angel mouse who asked, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" He explained that he had risen and is not in the tomb.

The mice ran and told His followers that he had risen from the dead.

Alright lets stop the story here. I've kind of run out of ideas for this thing.

Why did Jesus/kid/mouse have to raise from the dead? What would have happened if he didn't? He wouldn't have been stronger than the world. I don't want to worship a God who can't conquer death.

So how do we treat a priceless gift like this? How do we react? The most Jesus could do is die for us. The least we could to is live for him.

Switchfoot song that is truly awesome

I've been watching the skies
They've been turning blood red
There is not a doubt in my mind
There's a storm up ahead

(Chorus)

Hello Hurricane
You're not enough
Hello Hurricane
You can't silence my love
I've got doors and windows boarded up
All your dead end fury is not enough
You can't silence my love

Everything I have I count as loss
Everything I have is stripped away
But before It started building
I counted up these costs
Ain't nothing left for you to take away

(Chorus)

Hello Hurricane
You're not enough
Hello Hurricane
You can't silence my love
I've got doors and windows boarded up
All your dead end fury is not enough
You can't silence my love

Im a fighter fighting for control
Im a fighter fighting for my soul
Everything inside of me surrenders
You can't silence my love
You can't silence my love

(Chorus)

Hello Hurricane
You're not enough
Hello Hurricane
You can't silence my love
I've got doors and windows boarded up
All your dead end fury is not enough
You can't silence my love

Moving

Yay! We finally moved buildings! Our church (Calvary Chapel Gilroy) just moved to a new building (370 Tompkins Court). I was at most of the work days and stuff to prepare the new building for us. While doing some touch-up painting in the sanctuary, a thought passed through my head. What makes a sanctuary any different form any other room? So, what does?

Does it need a stage? No. Does it need a chairs? No. Sanctuary comes from some roots and stuff pretty much meaning holy place. Holy Place. Okay, so is our sanctuary really a sanctuary? It isn't holy. It has its imperfections.

God makes a place a sanctuary. The only way the sanctuary is holy is if God is in it. So some clearing in a forest in the middle of nowhere could be a sanctuary if God is there.

We seem to put things out of perspective when we are decorating a sanctuary room. We treat it like it needs to be perfect-looking if people will worship correctly.

Moral of the post is to realize that any place where God dwells is a sanctuary, including our hearts, if we let him.

Yet another Donald Miller Quote

"I always thought the Bible was more of a salad thing, you know, but it isn't. It's a chocolate thing."

— Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality)

Why? (Good Friday Post)

Earlier this morning (in the shower actually) I was thinking about the cross. I know Good Friday's coming up, so this is why i'm posting this. I've grown up in the church, so i've heard the crucifixion story hundreds of times. But my question is why? Why did He do it? The church answer is "Because he loves us," but that doesn't make any sense to someone who does not understand God's love.

Picture a dad. He and his son have spent some time making a maze and some mice to put in it. These mice can only get out one way, but they've chosen to stay in a corner of the maze where they can't get out. So the son realizes that the only way he can get the mice out of the corner of the maze is to show him the way out. But, wait, he can't talk to the mice as a human! He has to become a mouse. So the son somehow becomes a mouse and goes down to show the mice the perfect way through the maze. The mice follow him through, but some stray off and get lost in the maze again. The only way the kid/mouse can ensure that they won't stay lost is to die for them. And he does... (to be continued around Easter, that was the good friday part)

Now lets look at that part of my story. Why did the boy care so much about the mice? It's cause he made them and they are his. Its just like a little kid caring about a pet frog. It's his. Why does he like it? It can't do anything for him. It's because he owns it. It is his.

All these analogies obviously represent Christ dying for us. Why did He die for us? It is because He loves us, but He loves us because we are His. How absurd would you think it would be if your best friend said he was gonna die for mice? Thats exactly what Christ's love is. It's insane. It's crazy. But thats exactly how it should be. Imagine the conversation that happened between the boy and his father.

"Hey Pops, I've gotta die for those mice."

"WHAT!? WHY!? They don't deserve it. They don't do anything for you."

"I've just gotta do it."

It doesn't make any sense. But thats also the perfect example of how we should love. Love our enemies like Jesus loved the people who beat him up and put him on the cross. Why? Because Jesus said to. That's good enough reason for me.

Don Miller Quote

"It occurs to me it is not so much the aim of the devil to lure me with evil as it is to preoccupy me with the meaningless. "
— Donald Miller

Pushy Christians

So a while ago, I was talking to a friend of mine, and basically, they said they didn't want to be a pushy Christian. What's a pushy Christian? Thanks for asking! Non-believers I have talked to say that they don't like Christians who are always telling you about God (a.k.a. a pushy Christian).

But wait, isn't it our job to be pushy? Aren't we always supposed to be worshipping God or in some way spreading the gospel? Yes, but there are ways of going about it. Like I said in my first post, people won't listen to you unless they know you like them. So, you don't want to scare people by telling them they're going to hell or by saying that everyone's gonna die in the end. If you want to share your faith, try to make it free of Christian lingo (Christianese). People start to think that you think you're better than them because you use big words that don't really mean anything.

Also, try to make the person comfortable. Don't just show up at your friends front door and say, "Hey, lets talk about faith," because they will feel uncomfortable. You want to sink into a conversation about it. In reality, people will never be fully comfortable talking about faith if they haven't ever done it before.

One main thing you want to get across is that the difference between Christianity and other religions is that it isn't a religion, it's a relationship. It is often thought that Christians are all perfect and goody-goodies. But it is honestly a relationship with the creator of the universe.

Personally, I don't like being called a Christian. It seems like it puts a title over my relationship with Christ. People think so many things about Christianity that is twisted or untrue that it doesn't make God look good. It makes him look like his followers are jerks and they always have to do what's right and they don't love non-Christians. And it's true. Lots of Christians (or thats what they claim to be) have hurt non-Christians and put on a bad face for Christianity. I prefer the term 'believer'. I believe that Christ died on the cross for me and sacrificed himself for me. And for all he's done, I love Him.

Quote from Blue Like Jazz

"The problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money. The Church used love like money. With love, we withheld affirmation from the people who did not agree with us, but we lavishly financed the ones who did." - Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

OMG!

Okay, so we've all heard the phrase "Oh, My God," right? I had a friend ask me the other day, why Christians think the phrase is bad. I said it was God's name in vain. He asked what that meant. I grew up being told that, so I assumed it was just bad. I had never really looked at what it means. Really, nowadays, it is an exclamation or a cuss-word, if you will. But why is it bad? Does it have some sort of curse in the meaning?

Really, the phrase itself that is wrong, it is the way we say it. What the Bible says is that God's name is too holy and too powerful to be used so lightly. My friends dad, who is an atheist, said "Oh, My God!" on our DC trip. It got me thinking about why His name has been watered down to an exclamation. The scribes who wrote the Bible would wash their hands before writing "Lord" or "God" because it was just that holy. And, truth is, it a still is that holy. People have just adopted it as a something to say in a string of cuss-words or to say if something interesting happening.

A different friend, who also does not really believe in God, said "Oh, My God" after someone had whispered something in her ear. I tapped her shoulder and asked, "Um... your God?" She told me to chill and that she didn't mean it that way.

I have heard quite a few people use the phrase. It's really sad that so many people mock the name of their creator, but that seems to be a recurring theme in the world.

The Love of Argument

So last night, while reading Blue Like Jazz (fantastic book by the way), I had some thoughts about my relationships with other people. I'm a very argumentative person, I admit, so I always try to get people to see things my way.

I have a process while arguing. I have to first make at least three points and reinforce them. Then when the opposing person makes a point, I have to shoot it down (prove it wrong) or accept it as true. It is rarely the latter because I hate being told I'm wrong.

Anyways, I can normally make a point by arguing. What I have failed to do (most of the time) is change the person's view or opinion. Basically, I'm talking about arguing that Christianity is the only way to Heaven. So while I'm explaining how Christianity is a relationship not religion, I come across as fake; like I'm selling Christianity.

Take it from the point of view of a non-Christian. Here's some dude trying to tell me his religion is right. Oh, its a relationship? Obviously not. This dude has no relationship. Its just a way to get me to be 'one of them'.

Seems like I'm being a little fake doesn't it? So back to Blue Like Jazz. I was reading a chapter on love, specifically, how to love others. The point was made that nobody will listen to you unless they think you like them, or love them.

This hit me hard. I wasn't ever really loving people. I was selling Christianity. I had reduced it to a method of points and arguments. There wasn't any love in what I was doing.

I thought long and hard (about 45 minutes) about this. There has to be two conversations that go on in an encounter with any human, regardless of their beliefs.

The first is with the mouth. You can't make a point easily without words, well I can't, at least. Words, though, need to be well thought out and biblically built upon. If you are trying to make a point about about Christianity, try using the book its built on to make it.

The Second conversation is the words of the heart. This is love. This is how someone can tell you like them and how they can tell you are in love with the Lord. Nobody will believe you are in love with Him unless your heart and words show it.

I also questioned whether I was really in love with God. Could I gave been using God as some sort of puppet to get my own way?

Suddenly, it hit me. I started to feel this feeling that God was around me and was holding me and, well I don't know. I then listened to the Phil Wickham song, Divine Romance. This is now my favorite worship song. Your relationship with Christ should be romantic. I'm not saying to go to a fancy diner with the Bible. thats just weird. But if you realize that the Bible is a love letter to you, to everyone willing to except it, then you should fall into this 'divine romance' with Christ.

To close, all relationships need love. Most importantly, your relationship with Christ. But the Bible says to love unconditionally, and that means everyone, regardless of their looks, race, religion, political views or anything. Love unconditionally.

Blog Intro

Greetings! I have never blogged in my life. I got this idea partially from my brother. Well here's my lil' intro to my blog. I'm Evan. Yeah. I don't expect anyone to be wowed by what I say here, but I hope to at least interest people. I'll probably blog like twice or thrice a week. I'll just share some thoughts and ideas that might partially matter to some people. Welp.