Week 4

Good Day,

This continues to be a an experience that I am sure will have repercussions throughout the rest of my life. God has opened my eyes to many things: views on life, sin, evangelism, etc. Here is a brief, but more specific synopsis of the items that God has been bringing to my attention during my time here.

1) The Spirit that Jesus talks about in John 14 is alive and well in my own life. I have been able to view its guidance in my own life much more effectively in the past and therefore I have been able to visibly give God more glory.
2) A better definition of what worshiping and glorifying God looks like has been given to me. Time spent in the word and visibly worshiping God, singing songs etc., are not the only ways to glorify God with my life. That in fact my "work in this world is my greatest form of worship" (possibly quoted from John Piper). This has brought me to the conclusion that living out a life in ministry is NOT the only option for properly devoting my life to God.
3) Evangelism is a life style and does not always entail directly delivering the gospel to everyone you come in contact with. Not to say that delivering the gospel is not essential, but evangelism is more relational than I previously made it out to be. Simply and in part it is showing love for one another. John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
4) My pride is a monster that continuously steals glory from God. If I have anger toward it even in that I sin against God by not accepting God's grace and making it all about me. I need to be consistently looking towards God's glory and comparing myself to him. In that my hope is to be overwhelmed by his glory as Isaiah was in Isaiah 6 and be humbled.
5) I suck at loving those whose personality I do not appreciate. They are God's creation and are a portion of the body. 1 Corinthians 12:21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!"
My desire is to initiate towards these people regardless of the desires of my sinful nature.

Things with the team and program continue to go well. There is one member of our team who has become sort of excluded from the group. This is most likely due to the fact that he is not rooming with anyone on our team and is an introvert. Pray that we would be intentional around him and desire a relationship with him. He is a solid an of God who has a large amount of bible knowledge which adds greatly to out bible studies.

I had a sweet interaction with one of my coworkers from Starbucks. She was raised Catholic, she was disillusioned with Christ during that time, and knew that I was a Christian so she started asking questions. I believe that she has a real desire to know the truth about Christ. We are having a BBQ this Friday where we were encouraged to invite friends from work and I invited her. Pray that John 13:35 would be made visible to her if she comes. Pray that she will come. Pray for me to have wisdom on whether or not to have her invite her boyfriend.

I could write so much more but my time has expired. Thanks for praying.

-Jon

A Second Job is provided! Praise God!

Good Day,

I was out on my search for jobs walking throughout downtown Burlington in an attempt to find a secondary job which could compliment my job at Starbucks, which will only be able to provide 15-20 hrs a week. It was hot and sweaty and it seemed as though all of my options for a job had been exhausted. All I could recall was all the stories from fellow GMS'ers whom God had miraculously provided jobs through "random" circumstance." I longed for such an experience.
He provided me with one. Just the events were not as close together. I applied to TJMAX last monday and talked to a guy who said he had one maybe 2 spots to fill. I called back a few days later and talked to someone else and this guy said that they didn't have any positions available. Basically saying that I was hosed. Despite this fact in the middle of my desperate trek through downtown the guy I initially talked to gave me a call saying I could have the job. I start this upcoming monday. I will be working with womens shoes in some capacity, but I am unsure of the specifics as of now.
Lesson I cam away with from God: He is always working to give himself the glory. If I had a solid job right at the beginning I would not have given God the glory, but now it is most obviously due him. I need to be continually trusting him. I need to have the attitude of a child who is always trusting his parents with his safety. Trusting them that going down a slide is safe despite the child not knowing what is at the bottom of the slide.

Prayer List
- For those who do not have jobs. It can be rather depressing to be consistently turned down. Pray for their emotional health and for them to get jobs as well.
- Praise God for me getting a job.

-Jon

The Search Continues

When it came to getting a job I never knew that it felt like to be denied in such succession. God has certainly showed me what it feels like. It has been quite the humbling and hard experience. I do not fail often so this is a new experience for me and has created quite the struggle in my own life and has caused me to form an even greater dependence upon God. I was feeling pretty down because of it but my time with God really encouraged me this morning.

I have been going through Acts and I am finally coming near its end. I was reading through chapter 27 this morning. Paul was given an explicit promise from God stating "Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you." You can read Chapter 27 yourself if you would like more back story but basically this statement means that God promised Paul that he and the men with him would survive this storm and make it Rome. In spite of this promise God did not make their journey to Rome easy, he put up road blocks and struggles for Paul and the men with him. These struggles are stated explicitly in verses 7-9 and 14-15.

To me these verses meant that though I have not received an explicit promise of a job I have received a promise for God to be working me towards my good. (Romans 8:28) Which is my promised destination. Regardless of what I may desire or what I may want God is doing what is best for my eternal life and I need to trust in that. Has that fully happened yet, no, but it is a process and will be an on going process for the rest of my life.

Other than the job search everything is awesome. I feel like I have known pretty much everyone here for years already though it has only been a week. We had our first bible study last night and it was awesome. We were going through John 15:1-11. That verse is jam packed, check it out. It was sweet just to get solid time with my group. Those times will be cherished above all others when the summer is looked back upon.

There are people hanging out downstairs and there is also a Jazz Festival downtown I might check out later.

We will be working with Burlington Street ministries tonight. Basically just meeting people on the street and just forming relationships. Not necessarily going straight to sharing the Gospel.

Prayer List
- Continue to pray for a job for others as well as myself. ( Other people still need jobs and are feeling the effects of not having one as well)
- That we would be able to truely love the people downtown that we are interacting with
-For my team: Dennis(team leader), Phil, Brian, Dave(room mate)


Jon

The job search

Good Day,

So apparently the Starbucks that I planned on working at is already overstaffed and will not be able to take me on for the summer. That is a pretty big bummer for me. I have been making attempts at other Starbucks around town but have been unsuccessful so far, well at least with getting a solid position. My current hope is to just work at least once a week at one of them to maintain my position in the starbucks system and then work somewhere else for the summer.

Just be praying that I will be able to find a job quickly.

Thanks Jon