I'M GOING TO NEW ZEALAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you may have deciphered from the title of this blog post, I got accepted to YWAM and will be off to Tauranga, New Zealand around January 9th or so. (I have yet to figure out when I'll be leaving so I get there at the right time, because I know it's a REALLY long flight, and it's all a bit confusing figuring out when I'll actually arrive because New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of us on the East Coast.) And yes, I'm a tad bit excited about it. ....That was a lie..... I'm SUPER excited about it! I'M GOING TO NEW ZEALAND, PEOPLE!!! Let me get into the story of how all this fell together and the numerous times God showed me that I was, in fact, on the right path.

I'll start this off with a nice little story. My cousin Rachel started having doubts about if God really wanted to her be an interpreter (this is now her 4th year of taking sign language in school) so she asked God to start confirming her path for her. She started meeting deaf people in restaurants, public places etc. and was very thankful that God was making it pretty clear to her that she was to continue on her path. Then one day He sent her a sign that she LITERALLY could NOT miss. She was at the beach with a couple of friends, and enjoying the view, when two people sat down directly in front of her, so that she couldn't even see the ocean around her. Later she noticed that they were talking and expressing themselves with large gestures, and then she realized that this wasn't just an expressive conversation, it was calculated. She got up her nerves and decided to go talk to these people. It turned out that the older woman was deaf, and the one beside her was her daughter. The daughter is the same age as my cousin, looking to go to the same college as my cousin, for the same major as my cousin. Yay God!

So, what does this have to do with me? NOTHING. Just kidding. After hearing what my Daddy did for my cousin, I was like "Dad, can you do the same thing for me? Send me something that I just can't miss!" I asked that probably 2 months ago, and it wasn't until about 2 weeks ago that I received my answer. New Zealand started popping up in pretty much everything. One day my mom came home from school and said "There's a guy at Global that went to New Zealand with YWAM." ...That's cool. I didn't think to much of it until later, I mean, there are like 6 different bases in New Zealand anyways, what are the chances he went to the same one I'm going to? I stowed that away and kept going on with my life. I started watching a man named Todd White preach online, and one time the video wouldn't load, so I decided to check out the comments. (This was the first time I even looked at any of the comments on his videos by the way) The second comment read "I wish Todd White would come to New Zealand." Interesting... Then I was watching an episode of Mythbusters, where they were testing an old myth about exploding pants. I was like "Yay! Esploding pants!" Anyone want to take a guess where this myth came from? NEW ZEALAND. So I'm kinda starting to get the picture by now. Remember the guy my mom had mentioned? Well, he came over one night for supper, and guess what? He went to the same base that I'm now going to. He even worked there for a while! A week or so later, I was going to a conference at Global Awakening, and talking to this guy who had gone to New Zealand and I said "You know what? I'm pretty sure that God wants me to go to New Zealand, but I really just want one more sign that I couldn't possibly miss." The speaker that night was a man named Bob Hazlett. He was about to start his lesson that night when he started getting words of knowledge for the people who had come to hear him speak. Then he said "I feel like this is for someone watching online, but it's possible that it's for someone here too. I keep hearing New Zealand. Is there anyone here who is from New Zealand or something like that?" Well, as soon as he said "New Zealand" I looked over to my dad and sister and said as quietly as was possible at that moment "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME." But it didn't stop there! Another episode of Mythbusters had yet another myth (again about pants) from New Zealand. Just last week as I was posting notes from the sermon I put together, there was a post about "My Road Trip Through New Zealand". God is good!

Even though God had made it very clear to me that this was His will, I was still doubting that it was really going to happen, because I still had to go to the doctor's office, and get her to give me the "all clear." This appeared to be a HUGE problem at the time. The last time my doctor had seen me was in may of 2012. I still couldn't walk up a flight of stairs, or do much of anything. I figured that my journey would stop cold in it's tracks when I went to see her again, but as I drove down God just kept saying, "Trust me, Peter. I can do exceedingly abundantly beyond what you can imagine! In fact, don't just expect her to give you the go ahead, expect her to say 'I think it's actually a really good idea that you're going.'" And that's exactly what happened. In fact, God took it a step farther! She then gave me her email address so that as soon as I get something set up for people to donate to help me get to New Zealand, I could contact her and she would donate! So my biggest "hurdle" turned out to be a big blessing instead! I got the letter saying I was fit for travel, emailed it to the base in New Zealand, and when I woke up the next morning I had an acceptance confirmation in my email inbox!

So, in summary, GOD IS GOOD. Something that he said to me at the beginning of this journey was "I make paths straight, but for me to guide your feet, I need you to start moving." God cannot direct the feet of a person standing still. Start walking into what he has for you and if you start getting of the path, he'll make it clear to you, and he'll give you a way to get back to the place you were intended to go.

For those of you wishing to donate to make it possible for me to get to New Zealand, I will hopefully have a way for you to start donating here shortly. I'm trying to see if I can set up an account with a church so that all donations will be tax-deductible, but I may have to just set up a Pay Pal button here on my blog. The money would go to my Pay Pal account and I would then send the money donated to the base in Taraunga, or use it for paying for travel costs. Blessings!

Personal Holiness Notes

I spoke at a youth event yesterday and I figured I'd put these notes up here because I put about 5 hours into preparing this. I hope it challenges you! ...You may need to look the scripture up on biblegateway.com to understand the points.

LIVING A HOLY LIFE-STYLE/LIKE JESUS

• 1 peter 1:15-16 “15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
• Greek word for Holy is Hagios (a) to set apart 100% for a set purpose and (b) pure, clean. The objects in the temple were set apart as holy, and were only to be used in the Temple. We are to be holy, set apart for special use for God.
• yeah, but how are we supposed to live like that? what does that even look like? Who’s the Holiest person to ever walk the Earth? Jesus. We should model our lives after his.
• 1 John 4:17 “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.”
• Ephesians 5:1  Imitate God because you are his children

IDENTITY THAT ALLOWS US TO LIVE HOLY LIVES

• 1 Peter 2:9 God calls us “royal priests” a “holy nation”
• Galatians 4:6-7 We are children of God, his Heirs
• Can God lie? Than this is who we truly are. we ARE holy, we ARE PRIESTS, we are Sons and Daughters and we are Heirs.
• story of the worm/white washed worm.
• 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 live controlled by christ’s love, died to old nature, you no longer live for yourself. the old life is gone and the new life has come
• we are no longer worms, we are a totally new person!
• Phillipians 3:13-16 letting go of the past, so that you can put on the new nature of righteousness and holiness
• we are no longer that person who did that terrible thing this many times and did that other horrible thing that one time! And when satan tries to bring it up again stand up and say ‘you got the wrong guy, that dude died way back when’
• Hebrews 8:12 God has forgotten our sins, we should too!
• Hebrews 2:11 Jesus MAKES us holy. Makes is like saying, he’s MADE us holy, he is MAKING us holy, and he will continue to MAKE us holy. It’s a process, not an event.

• 1 John 4:7-17 Christ didn’t just die for our sins, he died to TAKE AWAY our sin. Our sin is gone from us and we don’t have the obligation to sin. If we still sin, it’s because we haven’t let God take it away from us!

• Romans 8:1-17 God ended the control of sin over us, if we are living in sin, it’s because we are allowing ourselves to do so.
• You can allow Holy Spirit to control you! verse 6
• Like father like son. verse 14. touch on “who here gets told that you remind people of your dad/mom?”
• Paul, James, Peter, and Jude all refer to themselves as “slaves of christ” or “slaves of God”
• We are no longer slaves to sin, where we have to do what our old sinful nature tells us to, but now we are slaves to Jesus! We should impulsively obey him

OUR NEW NATURE

• Colossians 2:11-14 Christ cuts off our old nature and gives us a new one and he cancels our record of wrongs
• Galatians 5:5 receive righteousness by faith. we don’t have to TRY to be righteous, God has already called us righteous. all we have to do is say “yes” and receive it.
• You must become like a child (Matthew 18:3) because children know how to receive. When you give a kid a gift, they don’t ask what they have to pay you back with. They just accept it and say “thank you”.
• Ephesians 4:22-24 throw off your old sinful nature and put on your new nature, created to be like God
• Colosians 3 take off the old nature (lists what that looks like, taking note that it says that the people of this church dealt with the same stuff we deal with) keep your mind on heavenly things…. i think i’m going to end up reading all of this chapter and just point stuff out as i go on.
• Galatians 2:20 -crucified with christ, we no longer live, but christ lives in us

A NEW WAY OF THINKING

• You become what you believe you are. if you believe that you are good enough, you will act like you aren’t and eventually this will become your identity. if you believe that you are made holy and righteous, this will free you to live holy and righteous this is why ROMANS 12:2 says Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. It’s thinking that is what totally changes us.
• If a boy thinks he can fly, he’s going to try to do so. It doesn’t mean he’s right, but his thoughts lead to actions.
• If you think you’re sick, you’re going to act sick and eventually feel sick/ if you think you’re healthy, you’re going to feel healthy
• If a girl believes she's ugly/worthless, she'll act self-conscious around people, but once she knows that her true beauty/worth comes from God, she'll view herself and others with a new perspective.
• When you transform the way you think, you become a new person.
• If an overweight person changes the way he thinks about food, he can change the way he eats, and he can change the way his body looks as he eats more responsibly
• If you change the way you think about work from “i just have to get through this so I can get to the fun stuff” to “this is an opportunity to work for the glory of the Lord!” you will work harder, and be more efficient.
• When you consistently change your thoughts, it changes your motivation, and that will eventually turn you into a new creation.

PRACTICAL HOLINESS

• You are what you eat
• if you put junk in your body, what will you feel like?
• if you put healthy stuff in your body what will you feel like?
• If you fill and feed your heart and mind with the things of this world, you will receive the benefits of this world: death and decay. But if you fill your heart and mind with the things of the kingdom, you will receive the benefits of the Kingdom: life to the fullest and wisdom. Just like our physical bodies will reflect how we care for it, our souls, thoughts and actions will reflect what we are putting into it. If we put junk, crap, lust, violence, and fear of man in our hearts and minds, we will get out junk, and crap, and lust, and violence, and fear of man. But if we fill ourselves with hope, love, joy, faithfulness, peace, and the kindness of God, then all of those things will come out of us.
• So how do you manage what you are putting into your mind?
• Phillipians 1:9-11 i want you to understand what really matters. in the end, what you’re doing, will it matter? will the video games, the music you listen to, the movies/tv shows help you towards your goal or make a road block for you?
• Phillipians 1:27 “live a life worthy of the gospel” is this (movie, tv show, video game, song, book, magazine, entertainment) worthy of the gospel? is it helping or keeping me from living a life worthy of the gospel?
• Phillipians 2:13-15 is it pleasing to god? is it pure and blameless?
• Phillipians 4:8 thinking on things above, good things should fill our mind, not things that look like this world.
• Does it look like the kingdom of God, or like what Satan does john 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. we should not be like the enemy. he enjoys stealing, killing, and destruction. we should not enjoy these things.

• Let what you’re putting in effect how you act.
• Would you do/say/think/watch/listen to/read it if Jesus were standing in the room with you? Apply this to relationships too
• What would Jesus do?

CONDEMNATION/PRIDE

• John 8: Jesus didn’t condemn the woman for what she was caught in
• “I love you, now go and sin no more”
• Romans 8:1 “Now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus”
• Don’t be “Holier than thou”
• where you’re at with God is not based on what you’ve done to earn it, it’s only by his grace that you aren’t out doing what “those heathens” do. Instead gently encourage them in their walk.
• 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 We are given the task of reconciliation, not condemnation.

CONCLUSION

• You are called to live and look like Jesus,
• He already payed the price so that you could live and look like him, and he already says that you are!
• so put on the new nature you received by faith. Galatians 5:5