Youth Sunday, Being a Pastor, & Deep Fried Cheeseburgers

Well it’s been a while since I last blogged. I've been spending all my time getting ready for youth Sunday, which finally went down yesterday. It was awesome. Genuine worship, powerful testimonies, awesome witnessing. A pretty sweet weekend overall. We went to Claypools for British deep fried cheeseburgers...ohhhh, they taste better then cookie dough, mountain dew, and bacon combined. Speaking of bacon, Bob Madden is back on the meat- Amen. In other news, spiritual warfare broke out at my house Saturday night. As I was putting the finishing touches on my testimony, I read through it- and it sucked. I got really depressed & doubted if I could give my testimony at church the next day. I was going to forget it completely, because it seemed so stupid. I thought, "How could I ever be a pastor, if I couldn’t even write a 10 minute testimony?". Basically the devil put all these thoughts of doubt into my head, and it was really really depressing. So I shut all the lights off, went to bed, & prayed. But I tried something new, praying with my hands open. It’s really sweet. It just seems that there is a physical contact with the Spirit that way. Anyway I prayed that God would speak through me, and the others on Sunday, and that our names would fade away so that only Christ would shine through. All this time I still had some doubt. And then it happened. It felt like a finger touched the palm of my hand. It was if an angel touched me or something, and instantly I felt this awesome affirmation as if God said- I chose you to speak tomorrow- so do it. Instant spiritual high! All my doubt fell away. It kinda reminds me of when the bleeding woman touched Jesus' robe & was immediately healed. That's pretty much what I felt. It was SO COOL. Sunday morning, I gave the testimony at the 8:30 service & was really nervous up there. My legs shook behind the podium and I thought I'd pass out. The only thing I can think to compare it to is how a groom must feel when the bride comes down the aisle. Anyway the 8:30 service was an awesome crowd. They actually interrupted me with an applause when I told them I was considering ministry. That was a real nice warm feeling of affirmation up there. It was the first time I'd ever seen life out of a Presbyterian congregation during a talk, sad but true. Anyway it felt real good. So thanks to everybody who worked to make the service happen, Ben, Ben, Bob, Cam, Gu, Phil, Stax, Sarah, Steph, and everybody else who spoke or ushered or whatevered, God worked through us yesterday, and it was real good.