Crazy Train

"Is that a guitar?"

I look up and see a girl probably in her twenties smiling at me and right at that moment, I knew she was a little off. She wasn't normal and I could see it and I felt something strange going to take place.

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at a train station in Oceanside after taking the Coaster from Old Town there. The Coaster ride was a very interesting ride. It turns out that I and two other people from Point Loma were taking the Coaster this day and we were all going to Oceanside. None of us knew the others were going and I didn't even know one of the girls that I rode with was from Oceanside but nonetheless, we were all going to ride the train together. Definitely a God thing. I'm sure we were all prepared for a train ride alone but we were brought together instead. Small world. Big God.

I had a good time on the Coaster with my old friend and my new friend and after we got off the Coaster we all parted ways. I had to take another train, the Sprinter, over near my house. I sat down at a bench to wait for the Sprinter to arrive and that's where I'll pick up the story again.

"Yeah. It is."
"That's cool. I play bass. What type of music do you like to play?"
"I really only play worship music. I work at a church."
"Oh, so you're a Christian?"
"Yes."

She smiled oddly. There was something in her eyes that I could read that made me think she wasn't well.
I knew at this point that I wasn't in for a normal relaxing train ride. My mind was immediately led to Ephesians 6:11-12

"Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places"

I wasn't going to be wrestling with this girl. There was something inside of her that was not right. I just knew it.

She replied, "That's cool. I believe in Jesus. But I'm not a Christian."
"Oh? How does that work?"

I can't recall exactly what she said here, but she went on to mention that she believed in the other people like Buddha and Mohammed, reasoning that Jesus is just one of many of God's chosen people.
"How did you reach those conclusions?"
She replied, once again with an odd smile, "God told me. I pray to Him all the time. I speak directly to Him."

"Oh really? God wouldn't tell you all that."

Then I continued to speak as God brought me words about how Jesus is the only one of those people who is truly the Son of God. The Bible also came up and she talked about how she doesn't believe in all the Bible because it's written by man. I don't remember exactly what was said after that but I knew that God was taking over and I was in for an interesting ride.

The Sprinter arrived and she turned to see it and then looked back at me and said, "Have a nice day!" with the same smile that she had had from the beginning.

She boarded the train as did I and God led me to sit in the same section as her but not too close. I sat for a while and prayed about what I should do and God directed me towards Scripture. Specifically, to the book of Romans. I'm not exactly sure why that book but what I do know is that God spoke to me in that moment and told me that I needed to pass on His message to her. He wanted me to tell her that she was being tricked by many evil spirits and to read the book of Romans. I knew that wouldn't be an easy thing to say to someone and how would I bring that up?

No sooner than I had thought about that, she came and sat a row across from me and wanted to keep talking. I knew I had to tell her that message but God said wait until you get off the train. She tried to make small talk with me and asked me my name. Her's was Jessica. She tried to give me a CS Lewis book claiming that God told her to give it to me and I hesitantly accepted it.

Seconds later, a man who stenched of alcohol came on the train and sat directly beside me. Now, I had my Bible in my lap from when I was looking up Scripture to show Jessica and this saw the Bible.

"You have your sword! And [pointing to my guitar] the axe!"

He was delusional and not right in the head either. That was obvious. He started to rant about random things and asked me 4 different times, "How are you doing my brother?" He also had a glazed look in his eyes and I knew it was more than him simply being drunk. And I knew that these two people weren't just randomly placed in my life. I just didn't know what to do. I was physically corned because I was sitting in a window seat. But I wasn't afraid, I knew God was with me in these moments.

Jessica asked the drunk man his name and he tried to tell me his name was Artemis something at one point and then Lazareth at another point. Then I think he pulled out an ID that said he was mentally handicapped I believe. His name was Tom Warner.

So there I was, with Tom and Jessica on the train and my stop was coming up soon. My words now, I'm sure, aren't adequately describing what I was going through at the time. I really believe that I was sensing that I was "wrestling" with "spiritual forces of evil" and that Satan had Jessica and Tom in a bind of which they could not set themselves free.

My stop arrived and I knew I had one last moment to say something. I gathered my things and then boldly declared as if I was talking directly to their souls which appeared to contain evil spirits.

I spoke with authority and conviction; my speech was direct, blunt, and cutting in this moment. They were not my words. I didn't think them. They just came out. And I looked them directly in the eyes and I felt this compassion running through me as words came to my lips. I was speaking with love because I had been given a compassion for their souls.

"I want you both to listen to me. You [pointing to Jessica], you are being tricked by many evil spirits. Jesus is the only way. You need to read the book of Romans and learn to believe it. You're being tricked by many evil spirits. And you, [now point at Tom] you are an alcoholic. That is sinful. Seek help and actually keep with it. You need help. I'll pray for both of you."

Then I left the train and continued to pray. I have no idea if my words will do something in either of their lives or if my words will enable them to be set free. I have no idea what they would have talked about once I left or any clue what their interaction would be. All I know is that I was obedient.

I am now reminded of something my youth pastor once preached, "God is more concerned with your obedience that your impact." It doesn't matter what takes place now as much as it matters that I was responsive to His Spirit's leading. I don't know what exactly took place yesterday evening on that train, but I know I did what I was supposed to do.

That is all.

It's My Birthday

That is all.

Brandon Heath/Toby Mac Concert

On Thursday night, I went with a few friends to a Brandon Heath and Toby Mac Concert at the Rock Church in San Diego. It was about a 20 minute shuttle ride away from campus and even that shuttle ride just set the night up to be a fun one. From falling out of my seat when the bus driver turned to laughing a lot with my friends and the random people who were on the shuttle too, I knew the night was going to be fun.

We got to the Rock and made our way in. Our seats were on the left of the room in the front sections but I somehow knew I wouldn't be sitting there for long. I really wanted to be in front. I NEEDED to be in front. I just wanted to have fun and the best fun at concerts comes from standing in the front row in front of the stage.

Brandon Heath came up first. It was a good show and I really liked the songs he played. "Your Love" was probably my favorite one that he played. I digged how he was playing some worship songs and made sure to give God the glory. The crowd wasn't super into it but when he was getting towards the end, I could feel the excitement increase. And I realized that most people were here mainly to see Toby Mac. I know that's the main reason some of my friends were there so it made sense.

After Brandon Heath was done, I felt like I just had to get close to the stage. So I did just that. My friends didn't want to go at first but, except for a few, they came eventually. I was right at the front and they started to set up everything.

7:59 PM - Stage mostly set up

8:04 PM - 5 minutes later, Toby came out with the Diverse City band

If you can't tell, I was definitely right in the front. This guy is Deshon "Shonlock" Bullock, a member of Toby's Diverse City Band. I really enjoyed watching him perform too. He's a great dancer too.

8:19 PM - Toby and all of the Diverse City band during a song all crowded up front, directly in front of us! So cool.

8:24 PM – After the first couple songs, Toby gave a little baby sermon about God’s love for us. It was really great and definitely showed that he was doing this all for His glory.

This is when things got crazy. During this sermon thing, Toby walked right towards ME and shook my hand. It was like a friendly "what's up bro" sort of handshakes not just a "you're a random fan let me touch your hand" handshake. No one else. Just me. It wasn't like when a performer will go down the edge of the stage and touch everyone's hand. No no no. He made a B-line at me and made eye contact with me and shook my hand. I don't know why, but he did! And it was awesome.

Tweet:"Toby Mac just shook my hand from on stage!" @ 8:24 PM

After that happened, it could go without saying that my night had been made. But it didn't end there. Shortly after Toby shook my hand, Shonlock (the black guy from the earlier picture) came right to me and did the same thing! And within the next 10 minutes or so, all the vocalists (except for the female vocalist, Nirvessence) and the bass player, Todd "Toddiefunk" Lawton, had came right to me and did the same. Then, Toby put the mic in front of my face and let me sing in it! It was like when you echo what they say. People usually point the mic to the whole crowd, but Toby gave it to me instead! It was so fun and so crazy but so confusing all at the same time. I just knew that I was having a great time. That's why I knew I needed to be in the front row!

Tweet: "Toby Mac handed me the mic and let me sing in it! This is awesome! And one of the members of diverse city band shook my hand too!"

The keyboardist/vocalist that they're all pointing to is Dave "D-Dub" Wyatt. At one point in the set, he pointed right at me and gave me "what's up" head bob for whatever reason. I was definitely getting love from that stage that night! It’s like they all knew who I was or something. That must be it.

Towards the end of the set, Brandon Heath came back on stage and sang a song with Toby and believe it or not, he came over to me and did the same thing Toby did! I still don't understand why, but it happened! Brandon also give high fives to people around me, but he came to me first. What the heck?

Tweet: "Brandon Heath just shook my hand from on stage too!" @ 9:03 PM

I stopped taking pictures by this point because I was so wrapped up in the awesomeness of this concert but basically, it was phenomenal. They ended with "God of This City" and it was great to worship at the end of the concert and realize that God was the main focus and purpose of Toby Mac's career and ministry.

They finished up and closed with "Jesus Freak" and then they all posed for a good minute.

They broke their poses and then did a rendition of the Goodbye Song, the one that goes, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye." and then left the stage. One of the vocalists came back and started throwing towels and I caught Toby Mac's towel. It was cool but sorta gross.

Tweet: "I got Toby Mac's towel at the end of the show! It was used! His makeup was on it!" @ 9:50 PM

And that was the end of the concert. After the concert, we went to In-N-Out and then Walgreens

Tweet: “Just randomly met and hung out with a group of Australians at Walgreens. Some of them were extremely drunk. I avoided them."  @ 12:40 AM

They weren't all drunk though, so we talked to the sober ones. Then to Von's

Tweet: "Hide and seek in Vons!" @ 12:56 AM

Then to Denny's and then finally got back on campus by 4:30 AM.

All in all, a crazy awesome night, and I'm so glad I'm at this school. 

That is all.

Journey In Isaiah

This may not seem Loma life related but for me, it definitely is. It's a constant struggle to find time to have a quiet time with God here at Loma amidst the business of school and the amazing friends I've got as well as now having a roommate. Despite the great community, I definitely have been having to try extra hard to slow down and read but today I did and the Word was really speaking to me so I thought I'd share my thoughts that I thought.

Passages are from Isaiah 43-44

“Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you… fear not, for I am with you; everyone who is called by name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

The Lord God, Yahweh, sees us, His children, His chosen people, as precious, honored, and loved. We were each created for His glory. I feel like this is a huge thing to realize. We weren’t created just to do great things. We weren’t created so that people think we’re great because of our accomplishments, we were created for God's glory, not our own.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

So often, we dwell on things in our past but God tells us not to think of the old things. He promises that He is starting something new in us and for us. I find it extremely important that He asked, through Isaiah, “do you not perceive it?” because I think so often, we as people, tend to miss the new things God is doing in our lives because we are thinking too much about things in the past, remaining oblivious to the present.

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

This verse also goes along with our dwelling on our pasts. Therefore, if God doesn’t even remember our sins, why should we? We focus so much on all of the junk that we’ve done in the past and constantly remember our sins and let them destroy us. But, we live under a God that doesn’t even know recall the sins we’ve committed, He’s forgotten them! God doesn’t keep a list of every wrong that you’ve done and hold it over your head, so why do you?

“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

God has not only forgotten our sins, he’s blotted them out, as in gotten rid of them for good, not just thrown them to the side or hidden them as if one would throw dirty clothes under their bed. The clothes one throws under their bed are still there the next day. That’s not what God does with our sin. He has gotten rid of them like mist. Mist is a form of water that is so quickly separated that it quickly vaporizes and disappears as if it was never present. This is what God has done with our sin. He’s spread our sins so far from us that they’re virtually not there anymore. Because of this, God calls us to return to Him, to stop seeking to gain His favor or hide our mistakes, but to return to Him. He has redeemed us. We should walk in the knowledge that we are a redeemed people, knowing that our sins are no longer a part of who we are.

Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old things have gone and the new things have come.

Spring Semester

Well, today marks the end of the first week of the new semester. It's been incredible. I like all my classes thus far and all my teachers seem really cool! I feel like this first week has been a whole month. It was a really long feeling week. A bunch of my friends were feeling the same thing around Wednesday. We were feeling like there was no way we'd only been at school for 3 days. I came up with a llittle theory to explain why some pepole were feeling that way. I felt kinda scientifical or something lol.

The week felt so long because of what we got used to. When we were on break, (for the most part) one day consisted of one or two big events. Therefore, when we got back to school and began doing multiple things each day, our internal clock began to make us feel like if we did 8 tihngs in one day including going from one class to the next, that 4 days had passed. Obviously, I'm not a scientist, or whatever "ist" profession would study this sort of thing but that's just my theory on why it felt so long. Hope that made sense.

Anyway, like I said, this week has been phenomenal. My biggest news is that I got a roommate this semester. It's really different having a roommate when I didn't have one for a whole semester and got used to it, but I'm loving it so far. He's a great guy and I'm adjusting to what it's like to live with someone.

I've been able to see my friends a lot and it's been great catching up with them. I've spent a lot of time with a core group of people and that's really rare for me. But I really love having a group of friends that I know are there for me if I need it and that I can joke around with but also be serious around if need be. I've just been blessed to have certain people in my life. Sentimental moment over.

I had a few highlights of my week that I thought I'd share.

1) On Wednesday night, we had a Time Out service that was not like any other one we've ever had. It was a live worship recording album and the energy was so high in the room. Jesus was definitely glorified that night through the extremely loud singing, the loud clapping, and it seemed that a lot of weighs and burdens were lifted off of people's shoulders. It was a great way to start Time Outs for the semester. On a personal note, it's kind of intimidating because the freshman band plays in Time Out on the 26th and that excitement is a lot to live up to!

2) On Thursday night, we got the band back together and we had a lot of fun. It felt so good to be able to get together with all 5 of my band mates once again and make some beautiful music to our Father in Heaven in the name of His Son by the empowering of the Holy Spirit! I really like how not everything always has to be perfect. We're all humans. We don't always agree on everything both musically and sometimes we get into theological things as well. But I wouldn't want to just go and agree on everything and not grow at all. I love that we get to come together and wrestle with songs and what the words mean to us individually and think about things congregationally. But at the end of the day, we're all falling more and more in love with the same God and that's what matters. A song is not a worship song because of the lyrics, but because of the heart of the singer.

All in all, 2011 has been such a good year so far and I don't plan on letting that change. I'm clinging to God and trusting Him with everything. I'm continually laying down my desires and letting Him by the owner of this life. My heart - Christ's home.

To those of you who read my blog, thanks for reading and I'm glad I get to share my life with you.

That is all.

International Appreciation Blog

I have been made aware after looking at various stats on my viewing audience and have found that there are people reading my blog from far away places such as Denmark and Slovenia. Some countries I've honestly not heard much of but I just wanted to send hellos your way if you're from outside the United States :)

Sorry if I butcher your language...

To my Danish audience: Hej ven eller venner! Tak fordi du læste min blog! Jeg synes det er cool, at Danmark's største religion er kristendommen. Gud velsigne!

To my Slovene audience: Pozdravljeni, prijatelj ali prijatelji! Hvala za branje mojega bloga! Slovenija je med najbolj biološko raznolikih držav na svetu! Mislim, da boš fit v veliki s prizadevanji Point Loma's go zeleno. Bog vas blagoslovi!

To my Russian audience: Привет друг или друзья! Спасибо за чтение моего блога! Жаль, что я жила в самой большой страной в мире. От имени Соединенных Штатов, извините о холодной войне. Бог благословит!

To my Malaysian audience: Halo teman-teman atau rakan-rakan! Terima kasih telah membaca blog saya! Adakah anda pernah makan ikan pari? Kedengarannya seperti itu akan menarik. Tuhan memberkati!

To my Filipino audience: Hello kaibigan o mga kaibigan! Salamat sa pagbabasa aking blog! Mayroon akong lubos ng ilang mga simbahan mga miyembro ng pamilya na misyonero doon! Edwin Samson ay isa sa kanila, marahil ka na nakilala niya. Siya ay awesome. Natutunan ko ang ilang mga Tagalog last summer pero nakalimutan ang lahat ng ito. God bless!

To my French audience: Bonjour l'ami ou entre amis! Merci d'avoir lu mon blog! La seule chose que je sais comment dire en français «Je suis la petite fille." En France, il est interdit d'appeler un cochon Napoléon. Dieu vous bénisse!

To my Canadian audience: Canadians speak English right? Hello friend or friends! Thanks for reading my blog, eh? :) God bless.

To my German audience: Guten Tag Freund oder Bekannten! Danke für das Lesen meines Blogs. Mein Lehrer für mein Abschlussjahr an der High School hat uns gelehrt, eine andere deutsche Phrase jede Woche. Ich erinnere mich nicht ein einziger von ihnen! Gott segne!

To my Mexican audience: Hola amigo o amigos! Gracias por leer mi blog! Me tomó tres años de español, pero se olvidó más de lo que aprendí. He ido a México dos veces para viajes misioneros. Los buenos tiempos. Vaya Con Dios y Dios le bendiga!

Das ist alles.

Det er alt.

Iyon ay ang lahat.

C'est tout.

Itu saja.

Вот и все.

To je vse.

Eso es todo.

That is all.

Yes, You Are in the Right Place

New year, new look. Don't be afraid. This is the same blog. I just wanted it to look different. Not sure if I like it yet, but we'll see.

Had a lazy day today sitting in my snuggie and chatting with Jesus :D Loving life, but missing Loma.

Nothing really to update on so...

That is all.

Grades

One quick thing.

It's the new year, so happy new year to you all. While nothing is magical about a new year coming, I've definitely had a wonderful start. At 2 in the morning today (January 1st) I saw this:

Needless to say, I am SOOOOO STOKED. I did it :) So many people told me it's "impossible" to get a 4.0 because of the grading scale (An A- doesn't give you 4 points like it did in high school) and work load. But nothing is impossible with God! So, praise the Lord indeed. Anyway. Just wanted to share my good news.

Also, a few blogs ago, I said this:

"That just goes to show, if you read my blog and contact me, you get in to Point Loma. Prove me wrong. I’m going strong 100% right now. One for one. Beat that, bloggers."

Just wanted to say, that I am now 2 for 2. Another prospective student who has read my blog and who I met at a preview day a month or so back has also been accepted into Loma! So congrats to you Tyler Merrihew!

That is all.