Where I'm at......

Well hello to my brothers and sisters, my blood family and friends. I've started this blog as a place where I can chronicle the work that the Lord is doing in my life and in my heart... And as much as possible, to chronicle the adventures that my Father is placing me in the midst of in order to learn these lessons.

So here I am, sitting in the basement of a family that I do not know, in pleasant grove, Utah. I can just barely process all that the Lord is trying to teach me. As a means of catch up, I am on a missions trip with the school to Utah. We left for this journey just 8 days ago and it has been hard.. but nothing short of amazing the entire way.

To understand where I am on this trip, and where I am in my walk with the Lord in general, let me delve into where the Lord has brought me this last yar and a half. I am in my third semester at Calvary Chapel Bible College, and it has been the most incredible time in my life. If I were to attempt to log even half of what the Lord has taught me since I have been here, then tonight would not contain the hours it would take to embark upon this venture.

However, I do want to take jut a few moments to capture the main themes of the semesters that God has been impressing on me.

First semester, (Feb 2006), God had to break me of everything that I have held onto so tightly for so long. Through so much time in prayer, specifically with Shane, God brought me to the point where I was willing to surrender not only the possessions that I have held in so high of a regard, but also the people that I love the most. Nothing had been so hard as coming to the oint where I was going to completely trust the Lord with the livesof the two people that meant the most to me.(Mary & Kelly)

Something I also should have learned, and did to some extent was unconditional love. The Lord will obviously need to constantly be working on in my heart. But He was teaching me about how to stand by my brother no matter what happened, no matter how much it hurt, and no matter how bad he didn't want me to. And through this, God granted me a brother that has done nothing short of change my life.

I ended up staying over that summer break to work security, which gave me an opprotunity to really develope a constant and unwavoring devotional life because of the amazing influence of brothers like Dan Ruiz. I also came to know Emma, who was and has continued to be one of the most godly women I have ever met. As I said before, I cannot begin even to chronicle the events and lessons that I have learned in this short time from these individuals so I will continue on to my last semester.

Second semester was by far the hardest time I have ever faced in my life. My 'frieds' from Colorado came out this semester. Daniel, Laurie, Zac and Erin. I had put so much stake in them coming... What happened ended up being nothing that I expected. I really didn't become to close to them at all, but rather came to know the closest friend I have ever known. All semest I hung out with Patrick, Brenton, and Emma. This group of friends brought more growth, more failure and more pain than I could have ever imagined for the semester.

Patrick and I became so close... Getting to know each other and really being Galations 6:2 and bearing each others burdens. Getting to know him, the Lord has taught me what it is to love someone to the point where I wouldn't hesitate to die for him. In reality... I grew to love Pat in the way that God desires for me to love Him; the way that He and only He deserves to be loved. Unfortunately, the times and love I had with and for him brought the relationship to the point where it was an idol in my life... An object that was receiving love that belongs to my Jesus. It was so hard, and it broke my heart more than it has ever broke as our friendship that brought me closer to the Lordthan ever before came to the point that it was no longer edifying in any sense. The friendship had to be broken off at points so that my heart could be corrected and the main theme of last semester could be manifested in my life. This is that the Lord must be my one and only, and that He must be my priority and object of my affection before ANYTHING else.

Well, again, this does not even penetrate the surface of that which happened last semester. But to continue, I stayed again over break... and things between Pat and I grew ever steadily worse as we came to the point that we never prayer or spent time in the word together anymore. And I was left to face the statement by Emma earlier on in the semester that, "If a friendship isn't edifying, it has no place existing." This was so hard, but so necessary for me to learn.

That brings me to this semester. So far I don't think there has been a point where there has been joy at all. First of all, I have missed Pat and not ceased to fear for him as he has returned home skipping a semester. It has been hard as I worry for my friend, but yet the Lord has taught me so much about the importance of unceasing prayer.

This semesters theme has without a doubt been falling in love with my Lord. What is it? and what does it look like? Well, these are a few things that I will in time explain as I am learning as I continue to write in this blog.

Heh... I will write tomorrow that which God has shown me thus far on this trip... But I'm far to tired, and I don't want to leave out anything that needs to be journaled. So until then, thank you for reading so far, and God bless you all!

-Because of His Grace
Dave-