RAW 2006: Day 3

Pics:

Tunic Tuesday

$20 Dollar Shirt

Xander and his tunic

Praying the Bible

Worship

Aaron White

Jonathan Evans + Tunic = Best picture ever

Andrew (Speaker)

Cell Group

Planning a letter

Lunch

Open Air

Thrift Store

Dinner

Worship

Darren

Amy

Task; writing qualities of God

Mission 2: Street Combat with Joe and Cory

-Brent

RAW 2006: Day Two

When we arrived at †Culture I met with Mark at the youth drop, since there was a ping pong table, I decided to play him. He was pretty good, but I feel we walked away with an equal game.
Anyway afterwards we traversed upstairs for morning worship. After some more time spent in worshiping our Lord, Aaron White talked to us about opening our eyes;

Open Your Eyes- Notes taken in a discussion by: Aaron White; Side commentary by Brent White
Ezekial 37;
How freaky it would've been to be traversing along as Ezekial and then bam, God places you in a crypt full of, oh guess what? Dead, dusty bones. You can see the darkness and smell the stench of the place full of death. Ezekial is forced to face a reality in this crypt; just like how our missions forced us to look around in the darker places of Vancouver to see the hardships there. What is a reality check though? Well plainly put it is forcing you to be aware of the things around you; or forcing you to see the reality of harsh times.

When the Lord brought Ezekial to this crypt it was the reality check that the Lord wanted him to experience. God forces Ezekial to face these bones (which represented his people); to look at this depression, this death, and defeat.

Looking at loss isn't easy to look at. Take this time to find a place in your life where you were defeated. Mine wasn't long ago. We were playing soccer in gym class, and the other team just beat us, watching their victory was not fun, they were laughing, patting each other on the butt, busting out the high fives; while our team trailed off to the bench in defeat, in failure. Looking at defeat is hard.

But Aaron brought up the good point in his discussion; just like Ezekial we are going to be forced to look at, to look at these dry bones.

Then Ezekial, after being forced to look at these bones, is asked by God, the seemingly impossible: "Can these bones live?". Which Ezekial being an intellectual prophet replies the only answer that seems reasonable; "Only you know Lord."

You see God wants us to look at the unseen in our lives, like if there is hope in the dry bones around us. Still only God knows the answer whether they can live or not, and we should work towards the goal he wants.

We were brought to RAW to be able to look past our comfy couches and our warm churches. We needed to have our eyes opened so we could see the dry bones in our own world.

Aaron meations a few dry bones that can be overlooked and go unseen

• World Poverty
• War
• Child Slavery
• Parents killed in Africa
• Unadoptable Foster Children
• Suicide
• Addicts

We see these dry bones on the television sometimes, or we hear about them, but at RAW we couldn't change the channel to some of these, and it taught us not to. It taught us to ask the question; Can these dry bones live?

It is these dry bones God will use for great things, not us, we are used to breath life into these dry bones, to bring hope to the hopeless so that they may do the great things God has in store for his army.

So take an eye test, what are the dry bones in your life, and can these dry bones live?

So after Aaron talked to us, we went to go have lunch, which was nice except for the fact that I'm allergic to mustard and can't eat it and so I couldn't eat my sandwich. Alas, our first mission for that day came next and it was the prayer room.

Mission One- Prayer Room

So everyone was getting in the mood of prayer to God, I started to pray for the other groups and their missions, I heard God ask me if I wanted to learn more about Obedience. Well God then told me to wear sock on my ears as a sign of obedience, at first I was pretty skepitcal if this was God, or more own insanity. As a sign of obedience to God, I decided to wear my socks on my ears anyway. Other than looking like an idiot I really didn't see the point, but as time went through reading God's word and talking to him, I began to forget about the socks, until I had problems with them falling off. Now God told me to keep them on, so I decided to tape the socks to my ears so they wouldnt fall off. Now this hurt alot for anyone who has hair by their ears. But the tape represented that even though the task was hard, I needed to perservere and be durable for my God. The socks actually represented my obedience, and how obedience can only be a part of you if you listen to what God says and then do it, and to be durable in completing the task, even if it becomes more difficult. I'm just glad that I didn't have to wear socks on my ears all day, nor have any pictures of me with socks on my ears. Thank you oh God of mercy.

After our first mission then we got to hear from Jonathan Evans either before or after our night worship.

He talked about the breath in dry bones, and how prophecy was that breath, b/c Ezekial had to prophecy into those bones, and tell them what they were, before the breath of God came upon them.

He brought up key points about prophesy;

We first have to receieve prophesy, then interpret, then apply it. You have to have all parts for the prophesy to really work.

Jesus was the breath of life, and he gave life to the dry bones of his disciples, although, I'm pretty sure when he did it, he didn't look like he was vomiting all over them.

Then Aaron White made us practice breathing, and then I think worship followed.

Anyway afterwards we were off to Re:Cr8 again, where I met Ricky and Alfredo, both cool and interesting guys.

By the time the night was over I was pooped b/c of the long day, and all the stuff I had learnt.

All of the day two pictures: (Click to enlarge)

Annoucements

April and Christine

Ashley and the coolest hat ever

Evans vomiting over everyone

The discipline of sleeping, err.. breathing, yes breathing.

Cell Group

CORY

Cory and a mouthfull of pie

Dinner

Evans preaching

Butt wooped Cory

Juan

Jill+ Pudding= Yum

Joel

Joel + Matrix Glasses = wootness

Lunch (told you no order)

I heard about a mansion, He has built for me in Glory..

Mark Armstrong

Me

Me + Xander + Both Smiling = Creepy

Mike Birge the average bum

Rest of New Westminster

The newspaper disgusts me too

Parking, too bad it was the wrong place

OWN'D

Joe and Pool

War Room

Aaron White

This is why mail is always late

Song book time

STOMP

Out for a Walk

Aaron got the word... wor'd

Worship

Xander

-Brent

Ready And Willing 2006: Day One

After are drive in the van, we arrived in Vancouver at the RAW meet, which was situated at †Culture (Cross Culture).

As we ventured into the Youth Drop I didn't know what to expect really. I actually expected to start serving as soon as we got, you know by setting up stuff, but realistically we got there and there a bunch of youth whom I've never met, and a few who I did know. Anyway after getting to know new people and playing a couple of name games, we went upstairs for worship.

I think the smoke machines and lights were a nice touch to worship, although making the product look good isn't the point of worship, it didn't take away from the heart of worship. Anyway, Mark Armstrong was on the electric and a crazy pianist and Fiona was painting as part of her worship. All in all God's presence was there, I think I was dancing as part of my worship to the lord.

After that Danielle Stricklen and Stephan Court talked about Ezekial 37.
The Valley of Dry Bones
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

Ezekial was a man who had God's hand upon him. What a marvelous thing that would be. Stephan and Danielle brought up four points about how Ezekial was able to have this with God.

Ezekial had Credibility with God; Invisibility to the world; Dependability to God and others; and Humility with himself and others.

I didn't really take notes for this so, sorry, check other people blogs for more on this discussion.

After that, Darren gave us a few annoucements, we went downstairs and had some time to waste, and GUMP was the game of RAW that was played. I didn't feel like playing it at the time, and I was more interested in reading my bible and talking with new people. Anyway, Cory rounded us up for our mission for that night; Serving at Re:Cr8.

When we got there, it was not what I expected, and I didn't take any pictures b/c I felt it would take away from time of serving on my part and it might offend some people. Anyway, I met lots of new people there, and helped some guys with getting Coffee. I met a girl who helps there regularly named Jill, and met Denis, and this other guy who's name was Rob later on, who was having a good time talking with some of the girls from New Westminster. I learnt that even though I know how to jump out of my comfort zone I still need a push to do it, and this mission was definietly good at that.

Then we were dropped home, or off at the church in my case, and I went to bed like usual.

All in all a good day so far, I was waiting to see what else God had in store for me at RAW.

All the pictures: (Click to enlarge)

Worship

Getting to Know each other

Ashley and Kayla

Darren

Gump

Lead us oh, Fifield

Danielle Stricklen

Stephan Court

GORILLA, oh dang, a gun..

-Brent

The Monkey Song

OMGosh MUSIC VIDEO

Sorry for the bad sound, my mic sucks.

Anyway Enjoy,

-Brent

The Chase Review: Index

Here are all the links to each and every chapter;

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

-Brent

Favour

Song

I need you guys to test that link above and tell me if it plays the song for you.

thx,

-Brent

The Chase Chapter Sixteen: The Joy of Holiness

The last chapter hopefully all you readers enjoyed sharing my thoughts as I enjoyed expressing them;

There's a prize for our chase after holiness; I'm not just talking about the reward at the end of this world, I'm talking about what you get when you obey God.

On the day back, after listening to God, and saying, I am your servant 'Use me'. I was filled with the Holy spirit. I was filled with this overwhelming Joy.

I didn't know what to do with it, but I realized that Joy is a reward that God gives us so that obedience isn't a chore, but we en'joy' doing it.

Holiness allows you to get closer to God, the closer you are the more joyful you become, trust me, this is true. I was really close to God that I day, and man was I bursting from the seems with Joy.

Joy isn't just a result, it can also help us live a holy life this chapter states.

The joy of God gives us strength. It's true, I felt like I could move mountains, I wasn't tired I was ready and willing to do what it took to help God.

I was full of this 'RAW' joy that only comes from God.

At the end, the book asks us if we are ready to live a holy life, and my answer is heck yes, bring on the trials, I'm ready to be joyfully holy.

-Brent

The Chase Chapter Fifteen: Holiness in an Unholy World

This chapter is huge. No it's only like 5 pages, but I mean the points in here are big.

I use to run away from anything that might cause me to sin, but this is exactly what this chapter deals with, being able to turn to God in those situations, and stand up for your beliefs, without shoving your religion down their throats.

The world is full of sin, what do we do, when everything around us sins? Sin with it, I don't think that is very holy.

So what can we do? Well we don't run from the problem. We need to not blend in with the world, conform or be a hypocritical Christian like we all do at one point or another. We need to stand up to the pressures that the rest of the world will put on us.

The book gives us a few ideas to do this.

Make sure the people around you know your a christian. Thats doesn't mean wear as much Jesus clothing as possible. But it means let your actions and speech speak for you. Pray before tests or meals, invite friends to church. 'Whatever comes naturally to you that will let others know you're a christian- do that.'

Another way to protect ourselves from the worlds influence, is to remain in the word.
Flooding are brain with the truth will allow us to have the knowledge of how to deal with those everyday problems we face, when staring down sin in the world.

The next is love everyone, don't boast b/c your a christian and your saved and their going to hell. You were once like them, heck we still are, the only difference is that we hvae accepted Jesus, and they might not know the full truth about the matter. We can show them God's love through our own love for them.

Be the shinning light in the dark corner of the room.

-Brent