Respect for God

I think a lot of times we forget to fear and respect God, I was listening to this podcast of Chuck Booher (amazing pastor) and he was talking about the fact that as christians we have forgot how to fear and respect God.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13
¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

 Where has the fear and the respect for God gone in our country and in our youth group. So many times I see kids on their phones during the message or I see kids flirting with each other during worship....... don't take Gods love for weakness.... He Is the Creator, The Love, and as well.... the Judge. When worship is going or someone is speaking about God, we should be showing respect, we should be concentrating on what God is trying to teach us. When we are worshiping we should be concentrating on praising God, the one who gave you life, the one who is there for you when no one else will be, the one who sent His Son to die so that way you could live forever in heaven.

This Thursday is going to be so awesome, I am excited, I am going to get heated up on stage and we are going to get into the nity grity of life. I am so excited to see God work and to see Him bring us all to the next level in our walk with Him and in our times at youth group :) Lets impact the world.. .remember don't be on the sidelines, be where God is moving

In Him,

Brett

God Moving

I am so proud of you all, I keep hearing people telling me about praying with people and I keep getting prayer request from you about your friends. There are students giving people pieces of paper at their schools and they are writing down prayers to be prayed for. Prayer is so powerful, if you are one of these people keep it up, God is going to move and you will be a witness of it. But for everyone i want you to see how true prayer is.

Psalm 10:17

 ¹⁷ You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted;
       you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,

Isaiah 58:9

 ⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
       you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Hebrews 10:22

²²let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Isaiah 65:24

 ²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
       while they are still speaking I will hear.

Luke 11:9-10

 ⁹"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

PRAISE GOD FOR THESE WORDS OF PROMISE!! You see prayer is so powerful, God tells us that He will listen, He tells us He will answer if He sees fit, He tells us that it will build us closer to Him, He tells us that he will comfort us in it. PRAISE GOD!.

Everyday I pray that God moves in Moreno Valley among the students and so do some of the leaders, and every thursday me and the creative team pray for students to step outside of their box and live a passionate life for God and to let the world know they are loved by God.

Right now some of you at landmark are passing out prayer request cards, some of you at march middle school started a bible study and 20 kids attend, you also pass out prayer request cards. At our youth group no kids are sitting alone, at our youth group kids are coming for the first time and I see some of you welcome them with open arms, at our youth group I have seen you crying with each other and praying with each other, at our youth group I see you raise your hands to God in worship to Him, not caring about what people think, at our youth group I went from preaching 10 minutes to 30 minutes and you have told me how you want more and how you love it. You are inviting your friends to youth group, you are making a change in your lives and in the lives of those around you. I SEE YOU DOING THIS!! PRAISE GOD I AM BROUGHT HUMBLY TO TEARS. and all this is a result of prayer and God working!

God is moving at discovery and He is moving at our schools, we can't miss out and we can't settle down, we need to be on fire and passionate about what He is doing. We can't let people around us mess up our progress and our heart for God. I know that a lot of you are scared to step out, but God loves you so much, and prayer is a great way to do so.

This Thursday I am so stoked, we are going to talk about God moving, and God is definately going to move, Bring people from your school, let them know they are loved by God. Let God work through you. Let your friends come who don't know the Lord and let them experience true love for the first time. PRAISE GOD!

Amen,

Brett

Big Mistake

I wanted to put this movie up, 1) because its hilarious and 2) because we all need to realize that we make mistakes, but its not the end of the world. I know that a lot of you are truly trying to live for God and there are times when we mess up along that road. And the best thing we could do after getting knocked off the horse is to get back on and ride harder. I want to encourage all of you to not get discouraged when things don't go how you think they will. God is in control and He loves you so much, make mistakes... because that means your trying :)

In Him,

Brett

Hospital

So some of you might be wondering where I was on sunday and monday for the landmark bible study. Sunday morning around 2 A.M. I woke up with insane chest pains, I thought i was on the verge of having a heart attack, so I woke Raquel up and we rushed the hospital. When we got there the doctors hooked me up to all these machines and monitored me and gave me a bunch of shots and we were there for about 9 hours. It was a very long night, sunday and monday was a blur for me because I still had the medicine in me. Now the doctors want to run a bunch of test to find out what caused all the pain.

As I was coming out of my daze from the hospital, I realized something. What if sunday morning the pain I experienced really was a heart attack and I passed away. It really made me appreciate my beautiful wife and the life that I have. It made a cool breath of air that I breathed in mean more to me. It also made me think "If I passed away sunday morning would I be proud of the life I have lived for the Lord when I would met Him or would I stand there ashamed" It really impacted me.

So here is my questions for you, and I really want you to think about this, we really don't know when we are going to die, we might think its not going to be for a long time, but what happened to me sunday morning at 2am could happen to any one of us and it could be fatal. We could be driving home and get in a car wreck and there we go. If you died today, would be you be ashamed of standing in front of God the way you have been acting lately or would you be proud?

After you answer your own question, think, how could you start living or what could you start doing in order to make God proud.

In Him,

Brett

P.s.

I really missed you all sunday and monday and I can't wait to see you tomorrow night, Which is going to be awesome by the way.

Principle of the path

So I am reading this new book called "Principle of the path". It is amazing!!! So let me break it down for you guys and show you guys what it means for all of us. So this author talks about how in life we all take a certain path, we might have good intentions but ultimately if we look at our life and what's happened to us so far we have started a journey on a path that we haven't even notice. For instance, we have the intention of getting good grades, but look back at the times you haven't studied when you should of and see the result of the grade. Do that with anything...... Girls, I hear you talk about how you want to marry this great guy but yet sometimes you date any cute guy that asks you out. One of you might say "I want to develop a deep and lasting intimacy with God".... so you get up every morning and spend your time watching tv or getting ready instead of praying.

Basically what this guy says is that if we have a destination that we want to be at, we need to really think about the path were gonna take, meaning the intention and the decision were gonna make. For instance, we have been talking about "telling your friends about Christ" and I am sure there is a lot of you out there that is all for it.. you have GREAT intentions (meaning to do something)... now look at how many times you have talked to your friends about Christ... you see intention doesn't always bring result, but looking at where we want to be and making sure were staying on the "path" we originally set out to accomplish, which could be doing better in school, being an example of Christ on campus, inviting our friends to church, getting along with people (family members, friends). Have a goal but realize that every decision you make directs your path and will give you the result that your looking for or that you were looking for regardless of what you wanted.

Today I just spent time in prayer for tomorrow night and for all of our hearts to just be open to the path that God has for us and for us all to be wise in our decisions so that way we can look back later on and see that we did the right decisions to get the right results.

I am so excited for what God is doing on thursday nights and I can't tell you enough how much I love you all and how blessed I am to see God working in your lives. Brandon is going to do a great job preaching tomorrow night and you should definitely invite your friends. Remember, good intentions don't bring results, making the right decisions and stepping up and out for God does.

In Him,

Brett

Advice

"Give a man a fish and he will wont be hungry for a day, teach a man how to fish and he won't be hungry for the rest of his life"

This is a quote that I thought of on the way home after meeting with a friend from our church. We went to breakfast and he gave me advice on the future. I was fascinated by his words of wisdom and the way he has lived his life and the love he has for God. And it made me think, as we grow in life there are many things we learn along the way and many things we need to be taught. It got me thinking, I have many mentors in my life and they all meet these guidelines and help me, and that we should have certain guidelines as christians to who we listen to and why.

Proverbs 12:15

The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

Guidelines:

1) Find someone who loves God and who has a good head on their shoulders.
2) Find someone who is older than you and has been through some of the stuff you are seeking advice about.
3) Don't go to someone who will just agree with you because their your friend, go to someone who cares for you enough that they will disagree with what your doing or the direction your taking sometimes because they care for you.
4) Find someone who is honest about things and wont sugar coat them.
5) Find someone you trust, and that won't tell people your business.
6) Find someone who you feel comfortable being honest with, someone who you won't keep your brutal facts or actions from.

It is always important for us to have mentors or people that we get advice from, I hope this helps you

In Him,

Brett

Tonight

Tonight is going to be awesome, I can't wait! tonight were gonna talk about getting over our fears and comfort zones, I am constantly praying for you all that you can just live it up for God! only 9 1/2 hours till youth group ... I CANT WAIT!. make sure you invite your friends, were also a cool new game I learned while on the retreat.

In Him,

Brett