Sin is sooo interesting.

We just finished our Christian Theology course yesterday. Which sucks. Our prof, a hard-nosed Polish guy was SUPER intelligent and wise in the Word. We finished the course taking about sin, which was SOO interesting. I don't know why I like learning about it so much... I don't know why it needs to be such a hard issue to talk about with some people... I'm just ready to accept how sinful I am I guess.

We talked a little bit about demon possession and exorcism, which was also cool, I've never heard so candidly such terrible stories from one person. It was a good thing. I don't know about what he had to say about exorcism though... he had been involved in a few. He talked about how the demon had to be addressed, named and give his purpose and cast out and praying them out... and sometimes there were greater demons waiting behind that one.... I just don't know how someone gets those ideas... because the only time Jesus asked for the name of a demon was when "legion" had taken over a guy... Dialoging with something so evil seems pointless to me. How can you trust that ANYTHING it's saying isn't a lie? Even if you're speaking in the authority of Christ?

Just something I'm thinking about. Especially because of the homeless walk last week. In my two experiences this year with the homeless, the spiritual warfare/ spirituality was so evident.

In contrast, the spiritual deadness of St.John's youth group was highlighted tonight. The Kaleo kids led the youth group because Kathryn couldn't make it, which was cool. We led some hilarious games that the guys have never played. But things took a sad turn when we put on the Quest video... which was about Hell (coincedence that this was right after our class on this topic? definitely not). Anyways, the videos asked a few questions about "what are your plans to avoid Hell" and "how are you going to follow Jesus"... and the answers that came from the kids who have been going to church forever shocked me. The answers were things like "Generally, try to be a good person" and "Try to stay true to yourself" and "Try to do something nice for somebody".

A. Everyone thought that it was there good deeds that would "get them in" to Heaven.
B. No one mentioned that Christ is the only way to the Father and that it's only through his death that we have been redeemed.
C. No one mentioned Jesus. period.
D. All of the answers included the word "try". Is it really that hard to DO? AGH!

It was an eye-opener. It gave us a good opportunity to share the good news with our kids... Please pray that they cared. It's tough. One girl literally got a pony for Christmas. Jesus isn't really good news when you've already got everything you think you need.

Till next time,
Kevin

Oh the Homeless...

Well, I just had a fantastic night yesterday. Kind of.

St. John's youth group headed off to Victoria last night to give to the homeless. They had done a pancake dinner to raise money a few weeks ago... the week after I made a mall scavenger hunt for them and afterwards we bought some toiletries and food... and yesterday we gave it out.

The people we met break my heart. Their insight into life kills me. And they are sooo open. The conversations with those people are so interesting and deep so quickly. They're real. And they're SO open to truth. And so much of what they say IS so true = so biblical. The first woman I met last night was named Linda (everyone calls her mama though... and mama bear when she's angry ahahha). She was talking about how she checks in with everyone she runs into... makes sure they're living well... because "everyone needs to be loved unconditionally"... and she wanted to be that love for people. I wanted to ask her who she had to provide that love for her... but I thought of it after I left her. I should have handed her my Bible and told her that it will tell her everything she needs to know about unconditional love.

I should being doing things like what we did last night all the time.

Kevin

Jesus the Christ

Holy Cow (that's a little pagan isn't it? considering I just came out of gospels class...) Jesus is something else. Who knew?
I just took and excellent course on the Gospels with Wes Olmstead and his "apprentice" Nate. Whoa.
Did you know that when people in the Bible bowed down before Christ and said something like "surely you are the Messiah", they didn't realize that they were actually speaking to the one true Son of God?
Or that Jesus did not know everything before his death? For example, when talking about the end times, he says in Matthew 24:36 that only the Father knows when the events he is prophesying will happen. I never paid much attention to that. Nor did I ever spend much time thinking about the humanity of Jesus... so much emphasis has been put on his divinity that I almost accepted him has nothing but divine.
What a wonderful course.
Meanwhile, I just went snow caving on Mt. Washington and that was probably in the top 3 list of my most ridiculous camping experiences. I don't know that I have been so uncomfortably cold for so long in my life. But the cave we made WAS pretty amazing. Minus our friend Arlan (one of the weirdest characters I have ever known) forgot his sleeping bag, so Jon and I zipped our sleeping bags together and all three of us slept crammed together. I can't sleep when I'm relying on someone else for comfort... The first thing I'm buying when I get married is a nice wide bed.

Peace out, dudes and dudettes!

Kevin

Skoop-bah-dap-beep-boop-BOP BOP BOP!!!

Hey guys. This is what's up. St. John's has been absolutely incredible to me. I freaking love that church. It is such a new thing to go to church with a defined purpose... in my case, it's the youth. I never would have thought that I would get out of my ride to the church and have all of the youth race out and jump on me and be so so stoked that because my Kaleo group arrived. Plus my leader Katherine is super cool. I hope that I have such a heart so focused on ministry one day. She works a lot with young pregnant women in rough conditions, so she's constantly relying on God, and so she's always seeing him at work. Too cool.

Meanwhile, the church is going through INTENSE times. The Anglican churches are beginning to choose sides it sounds like. I thought for a while that the main issue was "same-sex blessing", but apparently the issue goes much deeper. Rather, the issues. I heard that about 80% of the anglican churches are more on the liberal side. The authority of scripture is being challenged, questioned and in some cases disregarded... "What's true for you is true for you" seems to be the motto of many in the Anglican community. I'm taking comfort in the fact that I've never read anything in the Bibes that isn't true when applied to my life.

St. John's isn't one of the liberal churches, fortunately (I don't understand why a Christian would want to "liberate" themselves from the Word of God). On top of everything, our Pastor is not doing well at all. He is suffering mentally in a bad way. If you could pray for that and St. John, that would be fantastic.

It's amazing to be part of such a tight-knit community, who pulls together even tighter in the midst of the roughest stuff.

Jesus love,

Kevin