Into His Throne...

For the last couple weeks, I've been pretty busy as Anthem has lined up a lot for us students. We had Drew Berryessa come to our church and he taught 4, 3 hour classes with Anthem. His main point is taking God's people and helping them move into health and wholeness. Obviously being healthy and whole is good, and we feel good being that way, but why? As I ponder this thought with God I'm reminded of His presence where when we are submerged into it, there is nothing sweeter. At times I'd say we are even entering into the courts of the heavenly.

We had a class today with our senior pastor here at Living Waters and Garris talked about how we need to move past the cross. We look to the cross for forgiveness and repentance, as God sent His Son to pour out His grace. But then God says, "I have more for you" and we are filled with mercy and redeemed. At this point God asks us to move past the cross and into His courts to sit with Him on His throne. This is a life of Christ, led by the Spirit, that gets us here, and we are called holy, as in set apart, because his mercy has made us complete and whole.

What's New? In the Neighborhood?

Well, i'm not sure about how many people are still checking this, but i had sometime today and thought i might just say what's up with me. If you get a chance check out Cindy McGill, an amazing evangelist who goes to Burning Man, a new age gathering, every year, as to do outreach. She came to our church and did a conference on outreach, and moving in the spirit. Really this meaning that we are living moment by moment, sensitive to what God is saying, and coming to Him seeking His guidance so that we can walk in obedience and see Him pour out His love for people by depositing encouraging words, prophetic words, healing of hearts, and bodies. It was an awesome time, and to wrap up the conference she spoke for our two Sunday services, and i got the pleasure of leading worship for both services. It was such an amazing time where i was really able to move in the anointing of God while speaking destiny and hope into people's lives.

So yesterday our Anthem school got to go and spend some time with Cindy. We went to the Rogue Valley Mall in Medford for an hour and went out in two's to talk with people and give encouraging words to people as the Spirit led us. I went went with a first year girl, named Sarah, who by the way is 21. We walked for about 10 minutes then we sat down, and both of us without talking, felt like we would just let the Lord lead someone to us. Within 2 minutes a guy came and sat down next to us and started talking to us about his children. I was like, here it is!! So i began to talk with him about how i was hearing that he tries very hard at all he does, yet it doesn't quite work out how he hopes. Nothing he does is perfect enough, and he tries so very hard to be a good dad, yet can't be good enough. So... i told him how God is so very proud of him and wants him to know things will work out for the better and to begin to trust in Him. He was so thankful and began to tell us how his girlfriend had left him and their 2 kids because she is struggling with some addiction to some drug, and now he's homeless for the first time, and it's also his first time in Medford and he's new to the town. Pretty huge stuff, but he was very encouraged, and i prayed for the guy and he was sweating immensely by the way. Anyways pretty awesome stuff, God is so good.

FREEdom?

I just thought that i'd write about how tight things are getting right now. I'm trying so hard to continue to conserve my money but i am constantly having to buy things for myself, food and such. I just spent 20 bucks for a halloween costume, now i have probably less than a hundred bucks left after i pay for my car insurance, not forgetting to mention that it cost me a hundred dollars just to register my car under my name. Who knew driving legally was such a huge issue.

That makes me think of a book i read called Into The Wild, where the boy has so many problems about our world such as we claim to live in a society that has freedom, yet he can't even canoe on a river because someone owns it and there are a bunch of laws against people canoing without licenses and experience. Sooo, what about driving, if i made a car myself, i wouldn't even beable to drive it for free, i'd need a license, tags, it be registered, insurance - so much for FREEdom.

Maybe i'm just being too literal...

Phoebe in Wonderland/College

So these two things are tied into eachother, suprisingly. I had a conversation with Tracy Curtis this summer and she told me about a new thing starting in colleges called music psychotherapy. I looked it up and it is very very interesting and appealing to me. How? (you may be asking) Well... I love music and teaching it, and i think God has giving me a heart for caring for children (specifically girls) with disablities. This then leads me to the movie, "Phoebe in Wonderland" because the girl in the movie has Tourette’s syndrome and is very hard for her parents, but... the girl is totally normal and amazing when she is acting, because she is able to focus on doing one thing, so she does it very well and doesn't have outbreaks. Side note- i think this is my new favorite movie. This brought me to thinking about how music could totally be that for children with disablilities like this. I looked on google and found something on Tourette’s syndrome that came from the Center of Music Learning, that is under the name of The University of Texas at Austin. So i think that college's are making the connection with using music to help children with disablilites, and they have created courses for this career in councilling. All that to say, I'm very interested and may be looking into that for college. I think it would be incorporating psychology, music, counciling, and teaching. All things that i love to do/talk about.

A new year, and a new season.

So it's been since June 6th, since i've last posted anything. Even though i'm sure that there aren't many people who have checked out my blog much since then. However, despite the critics (just kidding) i will continue to write and update my blog.

Recently i've been in a very blah state of place because my time in Sisters is growing very very short, and i'm not sure if i'll return for a good chunk of time. But... as i've been encouraged to do, i will end my time hear going up a ramp, that will propell me off into Anthem. I'm going to Medford the 21st, Monday, and i can't wait to get there and start doing something with my life.

Speaking of life, in the past i have questioned what life is about, and asked others what they feel it's all about. One thing i know for sure is that, it's not all about this life here on Earth (phew, thank you Jesus) and one thing i think that is important to this life is relationships. A new thing that God is showing me, parts i'm receiving from reading "The Shack", is that we live for independance, which is wrong, because we should one to be one body, one church, and united with God. So then it takes me to lives in the Bible, like Paul. He was totally off track, killing Christians, i don't think you can get much worse. But then he discovers the love of God and the goodness and life that God is, and all the sudden we see someone who is devoting everything, literally everything to serving and loving God. Soooo, then i go, well why am I not living like Paul. I know the goodness, truth, hope, love, and completeness God brings, so why am i still sitting here drinking my coffe, worrying about money, jobs, relationships? (I just lost half a page of things i wrote, ahhh, very frustrating, but i will try to re-write what i had)

Colossians 3 says, to set our sights on Heaven, not on this world.

I can't go on... i lost half a page, as i already mentioned, and i can't get it back. Guess i'll leave it at that.

Sin Effects Everyone

I was in the shower this morning and God popped a thought in my head and made me think of how people talk about how when we sin we hurt ourselves but we also effect the people around us. (Sorry if I'm using the wrong form of "effect" for all you linguists - Mom) So i began to ponder, with God, how much do we actually effect others with our sin? The main instance that i can relate this concept to is Kyle Whips death. I think about how he died of an overdose and how he was in the company of so many Christians up to this point. This reminded me of how when we sin, we separate ourselves from God more and more, and how we refuse to listen to God and don't hear him more as we sin. So... how many times, i wonder, did God speak directly to someone, to say something or do something with Kyle that would have radically changed the circumstances of his death. I worked with Kyle, so for me, I can even look at times when i sinned while i worked with him, and wonder if God was trying to direct me to help steer Kyle back to the heart of God. Now maybe God did tell me something and my own selfish crap got in the way, but i wonder how many times an opportunity came up for someone to minister to him, and it was turned down by our own flesh getting in the way. We know that Satin comes to steal, kill, and destroy, so how many times does Satin use sin to help kill someone else, who has been effected by someone else's sin, without even knowing it.

This brings me to Adam and Eve. Eve went and ate of the Tree of Knowledge and directly disobeyed God, which is a sin. And then Adam who didn't even know what was going on was totally effected by Eve's sin, because her flesh led her to convince, or manipulate Adam into eating the fruit. If Eve would have not sinned, Adam would have not sinned, thus Jesus never would have had to die on the cross. To take this even further, (you might be tracking with me already) Adam and Eve's sin, now and forever has effected us all, by allowing sin into this world. Adam never knew how much his sin was going to effect the entire human race, but it did. Now we wait until the day of Judgment when God will come again to rid this world completely of evil. Praise god that we are forgiven of sin, because sin in this light, has opened my eyes to see how much more destructive my flesh is. I understand that Jesus took all the pain and suffering for my sin, but now I see that my sin, pain, and suffering is multiplied by like 100 because it goes on to effect other people in ways i will never fully understand.

I just to a look at Leah, the three year old amazingly cute, and precious daughter of the family I'm staying with; and i pray to God that my own sin and flesh won't hurt her, forgive me God if some how it does.

May 13th Update

So it's been awhile, once again. But we, Anthem, got back from our end of the year missions trip to Compostella Mexico, and La Grande Oregon, yesterday. It was a lot, and i mean lot of traveling. It was 9 hours from Medford to La Grande and back, and we drove first from San Fransisco to Medford. So, like i said, it was a lot of traveling. Overall, it was a very fun, succesful trip. There was a lot of drama on account of us all spending so much time together, and traveling so much (especially being in Mexico), but we are all home and somewhat healthy, with no signs of The Swine Flu, but some sign of colds (me included) I apologize ahead of time for the horrible grammar in this post, but bear with me. I will hopefully get a slideshow of all my favorite pictures on my blog soon. For now, we are taking our last days in Anthem to rest up, pray with eachother, talk with each other, and have fun with each other, until our graduation on May 20th. Exactly one week away. But my plans for this summer are still not clear, i am still waiting on word for whether i will get the worship/youth internship at Beaverton Foursquare Church, or not. If i don't get the internship, my next plan in to go to Sisters Oregon and hopefully work, see friends, help out at Joe Cockrum's church in Bend, and hopefully get a car, and live with the O'Herns like i did last summer. Overall, it should be a pretty awesome summer no matter where God takes me, i will just continue to trust in Him.

Anyone interested in buying me a guitar? I found my next guitar i'm getting and here it is - http://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez-Artcore-AG95D-Electric-Guitar-512564-i1173410.gc

2nd Year of Anthem

I'm still praying about what to do this summer and next year. But I definitely feel that a second year of Anthem would be so awesome for me. Now that I'm in the worship/church rotation, i get the opportunity to help with worship every week, and almost every Sunday a passion for another year is reignited in me. Almost every Sunday i tell my self that i could do another year of Anthem, even if all i got to do was help out with worship. And what's awesome is that i would get even more if i did another year. In prayer for my future i become confronted with the fact that i would miss out on making more money, going to college, seeing family, being in another ministry area, and more. Honestly, i feel some pressure to do college from some people but i know that God has me here for a reason, and it's bigger than college. The other day i read this verse and i think it is very perfect for me and everyone to hear:

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For the sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage (poop), so that I could gain Christ and become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! - Philippians 3:8-11

The Muck & The Mire Bio

So i have working on recording this CD, The Muck & The Mire, and in it i am going to talk about what the title of the CD comes from, and here's what i got, give me feedback on what you like, any editing, or even what you don't like.

It's all about relationships. We are in relationship with God, and we are constantly coming in contact with people in our lives. We must realize that relationships grow, form, and mature, and in order for this positive thing to happen we have to learn and develop through life's up and downs. If every time we came in contact with a pressing issue, hardship, or struggle, and all we did was push it aside and run away, we would never get anywhere in life. Relationships would be stale, dull, and superficial, our trust in God and walk with God would be lacking, uneventful, and depleting. We have to step back from our lives, put it in God's hands and see that this relationship with God is what it's all about. Everything in life falls under the authority and reign of God, and He loves us and knows what's best for us. If we want to grow in life, learn and develop, we must grow in our relationship with God, but that will never happen if we run from the areas in life that God is wanting us to grow in, and the places he wants to heal us in, the places where he cares about our heart and wants to work in. This is the muck and the mire, that when we find God, we begin to desire more, we desire truth, life, and love; but that would never come if we continually avoid the muck and the mire that He wants us to go through to grow and have healing. Our hearts would become like Israel's where they knew about the goodness, completeness, and perfectness of the promise land, but turned from trusting in God, and ran away from the posing threats. They saw the hard things that they where going to have to go through to get to the promise land, and they were afraid of hurt, change, and putting to death their lives. So, they walked away from it to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, but God never left them, He cared about their hearts and desired for them to have truth, life and love. But they never could have that, unless they went through the muck and the mire, dying to themselves, pushing through the hardships with God. God is looking for a generation who will have “faith of a mustard seed” to believe that God cares about their heart, and knows what's best for them. Who will go through the muck and the mire and press into their relationship with God to find truth, life, and love; and then deposit that into this world. To put God as their center in everything, relationships, dreams, everything! and love people as Jesus first loved them. We must go through the muck and the mire, that's what relationships are all about.

Living Waters Artcert Fundraiser

Hosted By:
Jonathan Hillis

When:
Saturday, March 07, 2009

Where:
Living Waters Church
2200 Roberts Rd.
Medford
97504

Description:
The "Artcert" is an art show, silent auction and acoustic style concert all rolled into one amazing event. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door. We are providing childcare, refreshments, and espresso drinks at no additional cost. All proceeds go directly to Anthem School of Ministry's year-end outreach to Compostella, Mexico. Features: Emily Overstreet, Josh Capehart, and Jonny Hillis

Click Here To View Event

Sisters!!!

Hey "everybody, yeah, rock your body..." -Backstreet Boys, just kidding. Anyways this weekend was one of the most amazing weekends ever, i pretty much sprinted up a mountian, however i also hit the top, tripped on the tip and fell strait down to the bottom ha. But thankfully God caught me and i landed on another mountain, a bigger one. (If you listen to Garris Elkins Message from this sunday on Prophesy Hope to The Seed, i think he made this analogy as well).

So i left on Thursday arrived around 9 at night, Cale my roomate drove me and we had an awesome time, being able to talk, and be men and find our own way without ever needing guidance, we never had directions with us either, we just glanced at them before we left. Anyways, we sat with a friend of mine, Ashton, in his hottub for probably an hour or so, and just talked to him about God, and what He was doing in us, and teaching us. Ashton went on to share things with us that me and Cale recognized as we were like, "Oh my gosh we totally had a class about that." Ha, it's actually true, thanks Ryan. To sum up Sisters quick is to say, Minister. I saw so many friends, adults, teachers, and leaders. In all this time God totally gave me things to say to these people to minister to people, i had no planned idea or thought in what i wanted to do or say while i was in Sisters, but God continually brought me to a place where i began talking about God and what He was doing.

One major event, that i think God brought me to Sisters for was for my hair dresser. ha. I got my hair cut by the way, once again, the fohawk. But my hair dresser, Tracy, is a Christian who has been though countless hard times, and she continues to follow God. She ended up falling into God's trap as she asked me what I am doing in Medford, and bam, open door. I just started talking about all the amazing things God has been doing, then she asked questions about my opinion towards our culture. As i shared my biased, christian belief, ha, she totally agreed with me as i told her about Jesus walking with the girl who's going into the abortion place and not standing in the crowd yelling at her. "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner."

Here's where it gets good!!! She told me how she is divorced twice and has three children with her first husband, and she got married to here second husband last year and it totally failed and within a year divorced once again. How broken and useless she felt. This is where God's love comes in. Ryan shared with us, in a class, Thursday morning, the day before I talked to Tracy, about how God uses our life as a testimony, and it doesn't become a testimony until we get healing, but we can't have healing until we go through the pain and receive it. But so many times we pray that God will just take away the pain and hurt. God may let us avoid going through that, but until we want to go deeper and have healing, God takes us back to that pain so that we can have complete freedom, and that testimony. (This concept can be seen in Israel's struggle towards getting to the promise land. I also used this concept for my EP-CD i'm hoping to release soon titled, "The Muck and The Mire") Sorry, off track, but as I said this, Tracy stopped and turned and looked at me and said, "Wow, I really needed to hear that." I proceeded to tell Tracy that i new God brought me to Sisters for a reason and if it was only to tell her that, then awesome! God's loves her, and God imparted that wisdom into me only the day before sharing it with Tracy and hopefully turn her life around. Praise God that that love is true and for me and you.

Listen to Joe Cockrum's Message, from this last sunday at:
http://www.westsidechurch.org/Connect/Audio-Video/319320.aspx

You have to right click the audio hyperlink and save the target as to download it.

Ryan Rhoden Teaching Old Testament Survey Class

Been Awhile?

Yes. Yes it has been awhile since my last post, I can't blame this one on business however, the delay comes from my lack of commitment to this ha. So what's been new Jonny? Well I am doing great, the last couple of weeks have been some of the greatest weeks of my life, not because i won the lottery, or made a winning shot in a basketball game and received fame, or because i played a song at a coffee shop and got signed to a 10 year contract with a major record label. No those things do not attribute to these past great weeks. It's more than having good things happen to me, it's that in hard things God has been faithful to be there always. Not saying the past two weeks have been hard or bad. Actually nothing really bad ever happened. Had a few deep, confrontational conversations with a few choice people, but God has been faithful to shower me with His love, comfort, gifts, joy, and peace. I've also been talking to God more, and have been hearing Him more as He speaks to me. (Just to let you know I just had a coffe so I'm pumped right now, that was my 2nd burst of coffee today)

I'm going to get some TBell right now. Then i got church tonight and I'm taking care of the kids, it's going to rock, hopefully i don't have a down after my caffine fades away.

Lastly I have an opportunity to potentialy be an intern at Beaverton Four Square this summer, so be praying for me and that God will give me clarity. Love ya guys, sorry that I'm kind lame and type random stuff, that's not really inspiring and challenging, such as Garris Elkins blog. (It rocks, everyone should check it out!!!!)

Gibson or Epiphone?

So I have been wanting an electric guitar for myself for some years now. My dream is a 1967 Custom Black Beauty Gibson Les Paul. But it's around 4 thousand. So my conflict is should i be saving up for that? Or another Gibson Les Paul? Or maybe an off brand Les Paul, such as the Epiphone Les Paul? Answer my poll help me!! Don't just not vote because you don't think that i shouldn't buy one at all.

Rachael's 19th Bday