Moving

Well, I've decided to change from this to something else, so I will no longer be posting on this blog. If you want to follow the one I'm currently using, I'll put a link in this post. Thank you all for reading what little I posted here, and I hope you'll enjoy the new site.

Link: Awaken Revelation

Thanks,
-Jake

Slavery and Servitude

This is a post I wrote while at Ihop East Bay. (International house of prayer, not pancakes.) Hope you enjoy it.

If you really think about it, we're all slaves or servants. I would consider myself a servant to God. And yet, I still say I'm free. A lot of people would think slavery and servitude are the same thing. But the biggest thing is in the choice. God set me free and showed me love. Because of that love, because He set me free, I chose to serve Him. I chose to give myself to Him, and He freed me from the bonds of slavery to sin. And now I have a burning desire to serve Him more and more. To give Him everything I have, everything I am. To make myself His. Sure I'll still mess up sometimes, because I am no where close to perfect and still sin. We all do, every day. But I'm not bound by it anymore. It's not who I am, it's who I was. And the closer I get to God, the less I even want to. I'm a servant, not a slave. There is a difference. And I would much rather serve someone as holy and wonderful as Jesus than be a slave to all the garbage and sin in this world. And as a servant I am free. Sin blinds and breaks us. Jesus takes off our shackles, picks us up off the ground, dusts us off and cares for our wounds. He treats us fairly and will never hurt us for something we do, though we may hurt ourselves at times. But what do you think the better choice is? God as our master and guide, or our own broken hearts and messed up minds?

Existence

Sometimes we think about God and wonder "how could He exist?" Well, here's another question. How could we exist? There's been a lot of ideas and theories, but no facts. We just do. So why should it be impossible for God to exist just because we don't know how? I mean, people used to think the world was flat and you could sail right off the edge. Is this true? Not at all. They didn't think the earth being round was possible. So why should it be impossible for God to exist? It's really not. Just because we can't see or touch it, doesn't mean it's not there. People couldn't see other galaxies before the telescope. Does that mean they didn't exist or magically appeared when a telescope was invented? Of course not! Just because we can't SEE God does not in any way mean He isn't there. But we can see the things He does through others and ourselves. People who are sick or hurt being healed. The dead being raised. That stuff goes on today. Right now. It isn't just a story. I myself have seen people's injuries healed. I've even been sick and had someone pray for me for a few minutes and I was perfectly fine afterwards. Even though we can't see God with our eyes, we should run after Him with all we have. He's always there. Always speaking to us. Always calling us. But will you listen?

Break The Chains; Break The Silence

Alright, so I'll just start this off with saying that I've had these three words running through my head for weeks and I couldn't figure out what the heck they meant, and they wouldn't stop. "Break the silence". I just keep hearing that in my head over and over and I think I've figured out what it is, so now I'll write about it.

    I was talking to someone this morning about how there are always chains trying to hold us down. Bad experiences, fear, doubt.. So many things are trying to keep us from being who we're meant to be. And the closer we get to that, the harder and heavier they become. I mean, lets face it, the enemy doesn't exactly want to let go of us and just let us be who God wants us to, right? That would be really stupid of him. The best part is though, that it really doesn't matter.   We have the choice. No matter what influences there are, we have the final choice. It might not be an easy one, but we do. There are so many things in all of our lives holding us down. A lot of the people I know deal with issues of feeling like they aren't good enough, or they can't do anything right, or that things will just never get better. That's not true if you don't let it be. God lives INSIDE us. Thinking things like that about yourself is almost a form of doubt, really. If you think you'll never be good enough, you're basically thinking that God couldn't lead you into being good enough. That's a thought I've dealt with a lot, and recently I've been coming to realize that it just isn't true. I can be whoever God made me to be. He made ALL of us to be amazing. To do incredible things for Him. And one of the most amazing things is that we choose whether or not things hold us back. We all need help, we all need strength, but that comes from God. He looks at the heaviest load and takes it easily. In Him we have our freedom. Freedom from the burden of sin. Personally, I think that is the best choice anyone could ever make.. To follow God and get set free from everything.

-Jake

Loves and Likes us.

As some of you may or may not have known, I spent two weeks going to a youth intensive/internship called Captivated at Ihop (international house of prayer) east bay. The first day was amazing. Jim, the guy that did the teachings, was talking about how God not only loves us, but he LIKES us. I know you're probably thinking "wait, wouldn't he have to like us to love us?" The answer.. Not necessarily. You see, you can love someone, but not really like them. You could be angry at them, or annoyed. But God doesn't get that way with us. He not only loves us, He likes us. What's that mean? He'll fight for us. He will guide us. No matter what we do He will always be there. He's not going to just leave us and say "oops, sorry, I don't want to deal with you right now." He is there for us. Lately I've been going through some really hard times. Things just seem to be getting worse and worse. And yet through all of this time I have gotten closer to God than I've ever been. He was there when everything was falling apart. He was trying to get me to see that I could go to him. That He liked and loved me and wouldn't give up on my. You can love someone and not really like them. But that will never be true of God.

Sorry

Hello everyone. I've been really, really busy lately and haven't had a lot of time to post anything. I've been writing a few, but just haven't put them up. I'll try to work on that soon.

Lessons in everything

Well, it's been a while since my last post, and while I was in church tonight I got an idea for a post, so I decided to be productive and write it out. :P

Anyway, while I was standing in church during worship I had a random thought. There are lessons in everything we do, and everything we see. If you look at it the right way, so many 'worldly' things can have a Godly message. Take 'The Matrix' for example- (Warning: Will contain spoilers.)

In The Matrix, the very first movie, an ordinary guy learns who he really is, and through that, becomes extremely powerful. Now isn't this true for all of us? We're all just 'ordinary' people, and at the same time, there isn't anything ordinary about us. We have purposes, we have power. God has given each and every one of us incredible gifts. And when we learn who we are, through Him, then we become powerful people. The closer we get to God, the more powerful we become. I'm not saying this like we're all super heroes or something. Though in some ways, that's true. People have done things that are completely impossible. Things have happened that are impossible just from people being around. It's incredible what God can do through us, and yet so many people take that for granted, don't believe it even when it's right in their face, or just don't think it can happen to them...

On to the second movie. In the second movie, Neo does few things. Using his new found power, he battles the evil that dwells in the Matrix. Now, shouldn't that be what all of us are doing? Fighting against the evil and the sin in the world around us? Showing God's love and light to every person we pass on the street. Just being able to go places and walk through crowds and change the atmosphere of a place just by being there. We can make a huge difference. Just us. One person. And to the second part in this movie, Neo restarts Trinity's heart. She was dead, and he brought her back. Through God, we have the power to do things like that as well. And it happens a lot more often than people think. Someone in my youth group went on a missions trip and prayed for someone with a glass eye to have their sight restored. Well, that glass eye turned into a real, normal, working eye. Pretty crazy, right? Almost doesn't sound real, but it happened. Thousands of miracles happen all the time, and very few people it seems take much notice. It's almost sad, really.

Aaand on to the third movie. This one is pretty cool.. In the end of the movie, Neo goes into the heart of the darkness. Right smack into the middle of the robot city. From there he goes into the matrix and fights agent Smith. At the end, Smith turns Neo into a copy of himself. But just after that happens, a bright light begins to shine from his eyes. It goes through all the other Smith's as well, and destroys them all, freeing all the people under his hold. Isn't this kind of like what Jesus did for us? He died and went into the darkest place, took on all the worlds sin for us. Sacrificed himself to free its hold on us. Sacrificed himself so that we could be free of it. He took it into himself and became just like everyone else, then died and took the sin with him.

Isn't it interesting how you can get so much out of a movie that wasn't even made to show that? I think it's really cool, actually. Just goes to show that there are lessons everywhere.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully I'll have some new stuff to post soon. :P Seeya all later!