Dance.Dance.Dance.

DTS 10-4

Wow.

Today is ONE WEEK of DTS 10-4! This week has been marked with many many ups and some downs. I'm totally exhausted.. in all ways.. spiritually, as a staff we have been fighting for these students like crazy!

We've been very busy since we got here..

My students blow me away, they are all so fantastic. I can't believe it's only been one week. Today we finished up telling all of our testimonies and it was a sp

ectacular time.. Then after we had a super fun dance party to celebrate our one week anniversary... for like 2 hours. I got so sweaty.. I had to take a shower. Then we ate Korean noodles and had a good ol' time!

Satan has definitely attacked me throughout this week.. With feelings of inadequacy and doubt. And at times I've felt like I'm too young to lead these people.. Some older than me.. But time after time God has been reassuring me and encouraging me!

Please pray for me staff team that we'd continue to seek after God's heart and that he'd align ours with his... Pray that God would help me. :) Thanks

God is so so great... I can't wait for this quarter to unfold further!

My and my DTS guys in front of the Chalet.

Arrival Day!

Today is arrival day for all of the new students at the base! Many have already arrived and I am having a blast getting to know them! There's still many more to arrive. I have the "Red Eye" shift at the airport... 9-12! Woo. haha..

Anyhoo! At's all real exciting here at the Chalet! This quarter is finally getting under way. Thank you Jesus...

Please pray for my health! I have a little bit of a cold. :(

Love you all! :D

Busy week

Hey friends!

Just a little update...

I arrived in Switzerland on Friday... 2 hours after our arrival we started staff training! The last 3 days has been CRAZY because of the YWAM 50th Year Celebration! I literally have had no time to rest until now.. But it has been fantastic. It's great to be back in Switzerland! :D

We're continuing staff training tonight and tomorrow... Then my students arrive on Thursday! YAY... I'm really excited but a little nervous!

PRAY! Thanks! :D

Love,

Josh

The.Best.Lies and Our.Lives.

I think it was my friend Clive... That would be Clive Staples Lewis who once said that the best lie is 90% truth.

I've made a lot of mistakes.. A pivotal one being allowing myself to live a lot of my life in 90% truth.

I think most people unknowingly live their lives in that 90% rather than the full 100... Sadly, that 10% lie is like leaven in bread... It will spread through the whole of it and contaminate it with itself... So that while there is 90% truth... that truth still has this underlying falsehood hidden within. It is something that is subtle but slowly corrupts the truth in our hearts... C.S. Lewis also wrote "The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

It is necessary to always check ourselves to make sure we're not on the safe road to hell... It sounds brutal, but that's the simple truth. Because it is easy to let this 10% run rampant and grow without realizing. It is easy to not acknowledge the leaven. But that is suicide.

Let's examine our lives... Are we living in 90% truth or 100% truth?

I don't know what this looks like... I don't know how to extract the leaven from the bread. But I do know that 90% is dangerous...

So, this ended up kind of being an expose on C.S. Lewis. Haha.

The Truth, Honestly.

So this is going to be a short one.

A few days ago.. Ok maybe a week or two I ran across this verse: "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." -Psalm 145:18.

What does it mean to "call in truth?"

What does it mean? It's a good question. I guess to answer that question you need to think about what truth is... I think in most instances when we think about speaking the truth it means to be honest.. So, when this verse says that the Lord is near to all who "call on him in truth," I believe the Psalmist is telling us to call on him with honesty!

Could this mean that we are to call out, to cry out to God with honesty on our hearts and on our lips? To lay our hearts out, to be honest with our struggles? Are we to be "straight up" with God? No facades, no sugar coating? YES!

I think this is a beautiful promise! When we are humbled to come before God and just say "God, I am scared. God I need you... and I sin in this, this and this way. I Think wrongly in this way. Sometimes I don't trust you! I love you though, and I'm trying.. God I need you so bad!!" The promise we have is that the Lord is "near" to all who "call in truth" or as I believe those who are honest when God. Not that He doesn't know all these things already.. But He is concerned with our hearts, because He is a personal being. God wants us to tell Him what is up with us.. It's like when a child breaks a vase and the parent says... ok, who broke this vase?? The parent knows it was the child.. But they ask because they want their beautiful child to tell them on their own!

This is why we are to call out to God in truth. God wants us to tell him the truth on our own.. And His promise is that He'll be near to us. He'll protect us and watch over us. He'll comfort us in His arms. He is a Father.. An amazing gracious Father!!

Christ Knows ALL Our Temptations!

Ok Ok... It's about time!

Gosh, I'm sorry. I suck at keeping up my blog! Please accept my deepest apologies!

So While is was in Israel I was reading through Hebrews and as I read Heb. 4:15-16 then, these verses just jumped out at me. I think maybe because at that time the fact that I definitely needed Jesus' help with my temptations to sin was clearly evident to me.. Something that as time goes in becomes even clearer. I was on a long bus ride so I had some time and decided to look a little deeper into these two verses. And that time is where I got the bulk what is in this blog. But then about a week ago, my Friend Isaac posted that verse on his status on Facebook and so I was prompted to look at it again.. And Now I guess I just felt like it's probably time to put it into a blog!

So, here's the verse- Hebrews 4:15-16:

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

1st: You notice that we have a promise of help when we are being tempted to sin.

Then we have the question: Wy does He have authority over sin?
1st: Because He IS God incarnate.
2nd: Because Christ humbled himself and became a man, he had to suffer every temptation like we do. He knows exactly what we are going through (you read this in Phil. 2), he knows our suffering because He has endured it! Since he triumphed over the temptation to sin, he has the authority over sin.

So the next question is: Jesus humbled himself to become fully man, so, being fully man, how did Jesus overcome sin?
1. As a man he had potential to sin. Some people think that it wasn't possible for Jesus to sin. in Latin the term is "Non posse peccare" but that isn't true.. It wasn't impossible for Jesus to sin.. But it is possible for him not to sin. The term is "Posse non peccare".. Meaning that he had potential to sin, but he was able to not sin.. He was able not to sin because he had direct communion with God the Father and was empowered and strengthened.
Now, because of Christ's death, resurrection and ascension we have received God's grace and The Holy Spirit who through God's grace welcomes us into the family.. Into relationship and fellowship with the Father. Through this relationship and community with the Trinity we too are strengthened and empowered by God to fight temptation.

Jesus stands holding our hand and he pulls us into this relationship and he makes it possible.

So, how are we supposed to respond to this?
1. Allow the Holy Spirit to work to empower us.. In John and Acts the Holy Spirit is talked about as a Helper.. He helps us.
2. Trust- Trust that God has given us authority over temptation. Believe it!
3. Act in this belief- Walk in God promise that we will find help to resist temptation... Put on the shoes and walk in them. Start living in a way that suggests that we believe what is written in this passage!
4. Take the practical step of having someone to be accountable with!

That's just how I worked through it.. A person could probably spend many many hours diving into these verses.. They're very rich verses! As is the whole book of Hebrews!

My trip was fantastic BTW! Keep me in your prayers as I prepare mentally, spiritually and financially to go out one more time! In the Fall I will be going back to Switzerland for another round of DTS(Discipleship Training School). This time I will be a staff member!!!! Woo.. But seriously.. pray for me. Haha

Thanks,

Josh!

Almost Time!

O my!!! I leave for Egypt in 45 minutes!!! It shall be so amazing!!

I can't say much and don't have a lot of time! but I am so thankful for all of your guys' support and love! I feel so blessed to be doing this! wow... He is so good!

Just keep me in your thoughts! :D I love you all so frikin' much!

THINK!

Sorry- It's been a while!

BCC is keeping me very busy! I mostly only have free time on the weekends! It is a lot of hard work, but I am really loving it! so far we've read through 7 out of 66 books of the bible and done an in-depth study on Philemon and Galatians... We'll start diving into Matthew tomorrow!

In a community meeting we had Paul Hawkins come and speak to us. He talked about thinking and how important it is for Christians to think. Unfortunately the majority of Christians don't! It really inspired e to think more. I think as Christians of we actually think... We can impact the world for God so MUCH more! Instead of distorting peoples view of Christianity and Jesus... Just an idea..

I leave for Egypt in 13 days! Wow! Yay.. I am so excited!

So, that is just a short update. Like I said, BCC keeps me pretty busy.. Saturday was the first time I'm really had any free time.

Please pray that this crazy Icelandic volcano stops so we can fly out in 2 weeks! Pray that God will continue to give me energy and drive! Pray that all of the thinks that I study and learn will seep from my brain into my heart!! Thank you all.. also, pray for my health! I am recovering from a cold. :(

Love,

Josh

P.S.. The picture on the right is a vertical chart for the book of Philemon! bahh

Modern Day Israelites.

We read through Judges yesterday. It is basically a story about how God constantly came through for the Israelites. Whenever God put a judge in charge of them, everything went well. But as soon as the judge died, everything went crazy again! They started worshipping gods again, they would start doing all sorts of naughty things. Then enemies would start attacking.. Finally after God can't take watching His children tormented anymore, He delivered them. Then he would institute another judge.

The reason for their continual tendency to fall back in to sin is because they failed to do what God commanded them in Joshua, to wipe out all of the inhabitants of Canaan. In nearly every territory the Israelites left small pockets of enemy heathen nations. This is why every time there was no Judge to rule over them they went back to worshipping gods and idols. It was because of the influence of small pockets of heathens in their lands that they were influenced to sin again.. The nations that they left.. the small pockets of heathens.

As I was reading through Judges it annoyed me that they kept going back to the same stupid things. They kept sinning, no matter how many amazing things they saw God do. I couldn't understand.. Then I realized.. We are modern day Israelites. God was constantly delivering them and they are constantly turning from Him. They are constantly turning back to gods and idols. and turning back to their sin! It isn't necessarily as obvious in our case. But we do it! We do the same thing! We turn back to our idols and our sin time and time again! It's because We failed to obey God and totally remove the enemy from our lives. We let sin sit in the seat right next to us.. instead of throwing it off as far as we can.. we pick it up and gently place it right next to ourselves.. Why is it so surprising that it so easily just waltzes back into our lives?!

Ah.. now I'm annoyed with myself..

But, an even more outstanding fact that I noticed in Judges is God's patience! He will endlessly wait for us! He will continue to deliver us no matter how stupid we are. Not matter how disobedient we are. No matter how many times we turn on Him. and He'll keep giving us opportunities to completely obliterate the little pockets of that heathen nation that we leave in our lives.. He is sitting there looking at us, grieving, wondering when we'll figure it out..

He is so faithful..

Please pray that I wouldn't be over-whelmed by the teaching or work load. Pray that I would have energy and joy. Pray for my health too! :) Thanks

-Josh

First day of class!

So we started class today! Read through the book of Joshua(how fitting) and discussed it. Wow.. There's some parts in the middle that are a mouth full! I really love the example of Joshua though.

The way he obeyed God even in scary situations. I don't think Joshua was fearless. I think he followed God's commandment to be courageous. I have heard Courage defined as: Not having an absence of fear, but carrying on with what needs to be done, or what you believe in regardless of your fear. I think that was exactly what Joshua did. He knew God's promise in Joshua 1:9, that He would always be with him! So, even though Joshua and the Israelites were in many daunting situations, they carried on and accomplished what God put in front of them.. Not because they were fearless, but because they had faith and were courageous and followed through with God's instructions.. And God fulfilled His promise. He was with them everywhere they went. He gave them all of the land that they stepped foot on!

So far all we've done is start doing some reading. No studying or lectures yet! I'm so excited to start doing more though! Wow, it is going to be some crazy hard work!

Pray that I would hunger for the Word. Pray that I would be able to focus and concentrate. Pray that my mind wouldn't explode with so much knowledge! Well, actually an explosion of knowledge might not be too bad.. but play that it wouldn't overwhelm me! :)

I love you all!

-Josh

Bye Bye Seattle, Hello Lausanne.. Again!

I'm just sitting by my gate at the airport waiting to depart! Sea-Tac has free Wi-Fi.. I wonder if the Portland airport does..?

I am so excited! I just want to be there. But I guess I'll just have to endure the long flight first.. So many thanks to God. He made this possible in every way! The most recent and AWEsome being the provision of the money needed for the trip!

Last friday I bought my plane ticket.. At that point I was still in need of around $3500 dollars. 2 days later I bought my travelers insurance, still needing roughly $3000 at that point. So, here I was. A week before I am supposed to leave. Still in need of ridiculous amounts of money to make this trip possible. Sunday night I already had made the decision that I would go regardless of if I had all the money or not. I would just have to trust God to provide it all. However His crazy ways may be.

Monday proved to be a momentous day! In one day $50 short of $3000 came in for my trip. Thank you all so much! Everyone who made this trip possible! A large sum came from a very unexpected/ awesome source. Wow.. God is good.

Now I'm waiting to get on my plane. Worry free about money! I have all that I need for this trip. God is too good!

Pray for safe travels. Planes to be on time. Sleep on the plane. No hitches along the way!

All my Love,

Josh. :)

p.s. Sorry that it's been months since the last post! It's my goal to not let that happen this time!