More youth worship team singing a Hillsong song.

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

James 2:14-17

I've always liked this verse because it was the beautiful balance. It can stop legalism and false guidance in it's tracks. It says the focus is not on the outside, but there can be no substantial internal beliefs without a fruitful external. You can't judge a man's heart but you can see his actions which should reflect his heart. You can't know if his heart is good by his actions alone but you can tell if his heart is bad.

How many good deeds do I do? If you can tell a tree by it's fruit then based upon my actions, how does my heart look?

Personal verse summarization: You cannot say, "I have a heart for God" and have nothing to show for it.

I call this the bootleg version, like someone with a camera in the theater. The sound isn't that good but maybe that's a good thing? No, JK. I don't know. I lost my voice whilst singing!

"Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!"

James 2:12

It goes along with "whatever you sow, you will reap". Not only should I be mindful of my own actions because I love and fear God, but this says we also need to guard every little action we take because every little thing we do to others will come back and bite us! And this will not be a fun thing.

If that's not motivation for self re-evaluation then I don't know what is. Whatever you dish out, God's going to dish right back at ya. (Kinda makes me ponder in case I don't know why things aren't going my way...)

It's not called "karma". It's called "GodisJUSTma".

So I need to make sure I dish out good and not bad.

Here is one video of us singing The Heart of Worship. It's a teaser because there are more to come and because I already have a video of us singing this song. More is coming! Be patient.

Make me a servant
Humble and meek
Lord, let me lift up
Those who are weak
And may the prayer of my heart always be
Make me a servant
Make me a servant
Make me a servant today

As I prayed tonight I felt so much peace. I'm not one to trust my emotions. I trust that God will provide and He will take care of me and therefore I can feel better but it was so comforting. I just prayed for about an hour and He just calmed my soul. I was putting life into perspective. Seeing it through His eyes focussed for a while and then patience and peace came.

This song came to my head and I felt like this is what I need and want so bad. I feel like I should just pray this way so that peace would come over me and I can handle what the world throws at me. If only it were that easy. I'll need to train myself. Constant training, constant prayer and constant self-control.

Humilty is the hardest thing. It goes strictly against our nature. We so badly seek justice but don't realize that we do not deserve anything. This realization makes humility easier.

We had our first Youth Fellowship retreat at Windsor, California. What's in Windsor? A candy store and Walmart. Oh and a high school that looks straight out of High School Musical. It's looks perfect. Too perfect.

We all look extremely happy in this picture by Ryan Eng. I know I made tons or weird faces in all the other pictures. I'm currently downloading all my three gigs of pics and video to see if I have anything worth sharing.

Now tell me... are we happy or what?

Here are some off of Nikole's flickr. Aw man... my flickr is about to expire...

Youth councils went great. Our youth worship team led worship for two meetings and everything went smoothly. I lost my voice which was not so good. Had to pull a Kirk Franklin and speak the the song while dancing and jumping around the stage. Pictures and video to come.

Aw man. I'm so sick. I hope I'm better by the end of the week. Going to lead worship at youth councils. Me head is throbbing, but I'm not sobbing.