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!