Bethel Day 3

As most of you can tell I am writing a day behind. So yesterday (18th) was amazing. Jeremy Riddle led worship and spoke. So during worship I decided to do what Jenn recommended which was to ask God who He was in the Trinity. So I asked about who or what Holy Spirit looked like in the Trinity. Let me tell you I was transported to another realm. I am not sure it can even be explained, and I wish I could paint just to try and show what I saw. It had to do with fire and glory light. How to describe glory light? If anyone knows let me know. I was just receiving this vision for about 15 minutes. It was awesome.

Then Jeremy spoke about worship in the church and some of the things he has seen at churches in his travels. It was an amazing teaching on putting faith into action because without faith it is impossible to please God. He talked about how we say we believe God is holy, just, King of kings and Lord of lords but we are unwilling to put that belief into action. We as worship leaders and pastors of our churches need to be so amazingly extravagant in celebrating who God is and putting actions to what we say we believe. This way no one, whether they believe or not, can deny that God is in their midst. So if we are singing songs that say we will bow but are unwilling to put that into action then stop singing those songs. He deserves our wholehearted ridiculousness that people offer to bands like U2 or Coldplay. There is something wrong with our world when they get the worship and praise that is due our King. We as worshippers need to not care what anyone thinks of us and be exuberant in our worship.

He also talked about how, without pastors and leaders who are worshippers first, these things cannot change in a church. I know many of us know this or have experienced it somewhere in our church life, but I just want to say that I feel blessed to be in a church where the senior leadership team are true worshippers and prove it with action. This is a very special thing that Joyland has that may other churches wish for. In talking with some people I met they want our church to happen in their church. I am not talking up Joyland but just the truth of what we do, and how we are trying to train up the people. "Thank you!", to all leadership for setting the precedent of worship and that worship is the thing--not the stuff leading up to the thing.

So after the morning session we had a BBQ at Kathy Vallotton's home. It was absolutely stunning. It was awesome to see how God blesses those who are faithful. There home is built for children, and entertaining very large groups. Their house is used for the ministry. It was wonderful. I also got to talk to Chris Quilala about his new baby Ella! Great name right. I believe this is a God given name and Ella's will be changing our world. She is 6 weeks old and just beautiful. I also got to tell Kris V. what an amazing teaching he did. He is a very gentle man with a sweet spirit. He reminds me of God the father who is gentle and loving and kind but there is an underlying fierceness to Him about His people. Kris is like that. Gentle but fierce when it is needed. So, needless to say the time there was fun and relaxed. I get to go back one more time at the end of school.

Early in the evening I was able to talk to Riley, and he had a very rough day missing mommy. It hurt my heart to hear him sobbing on the phone so I cried for a while and then went to sleep. It helped. He is now doing better and very excited about a surprise day of fun today. I am hoping to figure out what to do today and then be back to watch Joyland's 1st service at the Nazarene Church. So I guess I will see you all tonight...like the fly on the wall. I expect to see exuberant worshippers because the King is in your midst.