Love That Will Not Let Us Go

            A crazy, crazy weekend! God is faithful and I am pretty happy to be in his graces. A lot to share J

1: LET ME SERVE YOU

            Our motto at the Blue House has been “Let me serve you!” It usually involves some Christian bickering but all done in love and service. I love this community. It’s the coolest thing ever. We have the most random weirdos coming over all the time and it’s the best ever. Please be praying for Kyle. I love him a lot and I know that God does too. He’s opening up a lot more and he’s just the funnest thing. All the interns here and it’s great because God is good.

2: The love of the god of Mormonism

            When I talk to Mormons they like to tell me that I need to realize that God loves me. Like I believe he hates me or something. But lemme tell YOU something, Mormons believe in a deceptive, uncaring and I’d venture to say evil god. He sent his children away, MADE them forget about him, told them they could only come back to him if they joined a certain church and then judges them in the last day and only the best of the best of them get to be with him again. He won’t even VISIT anyone that doesn’t cut it. The thing that really bothers me though is that they believe that god took away all the evidence that what they believe is true so that they would have more faith. What an evil god! He only accepts them if they join a church that teaches crazy things that he makes it impossible to believe. They believe that Christ’s atonement and grace is only enough to cover those who have repented of all sins and become perfect. It’s sick. But hey, I know (tear, tear) that Heavenly Father loves us, SO much, and I KNOW that this church is true. Sorry, I’m not a crier. And I KNOW that if Heavenly Father wants us to return to him if we obey his commandments. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. (That’s a Mormon testimony. Look them up on youtube. It’s funny.)

3: The love of the God of the Universe

            Oh, wow. God REALLY does love us! Read Hosea, it’s insane. God is outside of time so the worst sin that you have EVER committed or that you ever will, the one that totally shocks you and shames you, has been known to God since he chose you. Think of a time when God did something SO good to show you that he loves you. In that moment, he knew you fully and fully knew what you were going to do to disgrace him. He didn’t think that maybe he could be nice enough to keep you from making that mistake. He just loved you. We don’t know God’s language so we don’t often understand it when he says “I love you, child.” But he says it often and shouted it when his only Son hung on a cross. We should never forget that. But we do, every day. Lucky for us, God is patient and tells us new each day. How has he told you he loves you today and how are you celebrating that?

4: The Love of God for Mormons

            God loves Mormons. It’s insane. Super crazy. The LDS temples are a slap in God’s face. They are disgusting and weird, creepy things go on in there. Real weird. Look it up. It’s gross. And at the base of the Manti Temple, each year thousands of Mormons congregate to watch nearly a thousand Latter-day Saints put on a production about how great Joseph Smith is. White Jesus gets a little shout out when he appears at the base of the Mayan Temple (look up what practices the Maya did, and consider that LDS prophets teach that those things were acceptable worship to God-it’s AWFUL). However, when it comes time at the end of the show for a happy married couple to go to heaven (where a bunch of people in white robes are doing a dance that is sorta like the Macarena), Jesus doesn’t make a come-back. He isn’t there. Weiiiiiiiird…. But what is the craziest to me is how much God loves these people. As they make this pilgrimage to take part in this (and all leave crying, so moved by the whole production), God sends hundreds of his ambassadors to share the message of his grace to them. Think about that for a second. That should bring us to our knees. God loves Mormons so much more than we do. He sends his people from all over the place (I met tons of people from Iowa, groups from California, Arizona, the South, Canada, etc) to share his good message in this gross place. Praise God for being SO much better. He loves us. He loves them. We should too.

5: Manti highlights

            One group of us went down Friday. Aubrey, Allie and I stayed back and we had a four-hour conversation at Jimmy Johns about God’s work in our lives and our responsive love for him. They love God a lot more than I do and I am so excited to get to spend the summer with them. Saturday we went down to Temple Square and did a prayer walk there. I was praying the whole time to see Sister Brevard and Sister Rodriguez and I ran into Sister Rodriguez right as we were leaving. She was with a new companion but we talked and were both really excited to see each other. We got caught up and then we all prayed together. She really was excited about it and asked when I was coming back. I told her I’d be there Tuesday afternoon so I’m excited to find her today. I love her so much.

            We made it down to Manti and got there to pray and do worship before. I talked with some guys who were born-again Christians who became Mormons for like thirty years, found out they were Jewish when doing the family genealogy stuff and then became Jews for Jesus who love Mormons. It was super cool. I was having trouble talking with Mormons, but I did get to share the gospel with a guy from the Church of Christ, Righteous Branch. They are an FLDS Church, which means they are polygamists. It was a cool conversation. There was a group from Rancho Santa Margarita who were doing worship and painting on a corner so I talked and worshipped with them. It was awesome. When I finally found Aubrey, Allie, Colleen and Ryan they were having awesome conversations through this thing called “soularium.” Very cool. Look it up. I prayed with a couple named Miles and Jackie with them and a woman named Lisa from the SoCal team. Later on, Miles found Lisa, and asked what we were all about and when she shared the gospel vs the impossible gospel (the Mormon gospel that you have to be perfect), he took it very seriously and agreed that the LDS gospel is not right. He told her he would really look at it. Pray for him. God loves him and is pursuing him. My friend Aaron was doing some really great street preaching and people were really listening. It was a great night and the next day at church was awesome. I made a lot of connections with Christians who love Mormons. Please pray that those connections continue.

6: Best Friends

            Sunday, Aubrey and I took Aunt Martha, and 88-year-old family friend of Russ, down to the bottom of Utah to a tiny town called Kanab on the border of Utah and Arizona. It was really beautiful which was cool. We went to an animal shelter called Best Friends which is the largest pet sanctuary in the country. We stayed in a hotel where (thanks for praying) we found cedar bat mites in the bed rather than bed bugs (which we were fearing). We drove back up the next day. Aunt Martha insisted on driving for a bit and Aubrey and I once again realized how much God loves us. Because he kept us from dying. She was driving in two lanes in crazy traffic around Provo while people honked and we tried to get her to get out. It was dangerous. But God loves us. J

7: Prayer requests

            Pray for Kyle and Miles mostly. I’m getting a little bit worried about money with unexpected expenses with the garden and my car. God has me, I know, but it’s still something he’d like to be asked about J