NIPTO, Day 126

Wow. Lots has happened today.
We had music/church this morning. Meeting thingy after church. DRIVING for a little over an hour. NIPTO. Encounter. Applebees. Home.
WOAH.

Okay. Expanding on things a little bit. Minus driving. Because that's an entirely different post!

Music practice went well. Church went well. Our pastor is taking a 4 week vacation/sabbatical. Kinda crazy. But he deserves it after almost 30 years of non-stop pastor-ing.

Meeting thingy after church with a bunch of people who live around the church to find out what could be improved/what needs we can meet&whatnot went well too. As far as I know. I sat at the kid table and read a book. (The Irresistible Revolution. Very good book. I'm 3 chapters in :)

DRIVING=Driving with Abby post! Look for it tomorrow. Or the day after.

NIPTO... I'll talk about that in a minute.

Encounter! The birds and the bees. Boundaries. Defining "sexy." Making a timeline of a typical 5ish month high school relationship. Discussing timeline.
It was a good discussion. Somewhat awkward at times... but still good.

Applebee's! We went to Applebee's with Erin, Brandon, and Michael. It was fun. We got dinner and talked about life and whatever. Fuuuuntastic!

NIPTO! Revelation. We went over two churches. Philadelphia and Laodicea. It's a lot so I'm going to jump right in!

Revelation 3:7-13
7"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:


These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.
 
Who Jesus is: Holy. True. He holds the key of David. He opens things no one can shut and shuts things no one can open. BOO to the YAH. It gets better. (By the way, key of David opens&shuts the doors? Yes? No? Maybe so?)
 
 
8I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
 
Something that Hannah pointed out was that there isn't really anything negative about this church. It's all positive/encouraging.
Jesus is saying to them "I know what you've been doing" but doesn't reprimand them for what they've been doing, so they've obviously been doing something right!
He tells them that they have an open door in front of them. No one can shut it. He acknowledges that they've been through the mill and that they don't have much left. But even through the trouble and hardship they've been faithful and have obeyed God's commandments and haven't denied his name.
 
 
9I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.
 
Okay. This was kinda crazy. So it seems like the people who are "of the synagogue of Satan" are oppressing the Jews. The real Jews, not the ones who claim to be Jews, don't have much power. BUT Jesus is telling them that these "powerful" people will fall down at their feet. Not to acknowledge them, but to acknowledge that Jesus loved them. Fantastic, no? (Not to mention that things get all topsy-turvy with the "powerful Jews" falling at the feet of the real Jewish people... interesting.)
 
 
10Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
 
They haven't strayed. They're faithful. They're patient. And as a reward, they get to chill during the "hour of trial." Uhm... can I transfer church memberships? hahaha. Seriously though, because they've gone through the trials and trouble now, they're being spared later. What a fantastic reward!
 
 
11I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.
 
Reassurance. He's coming soon. You don't have to hold on much longer, but hold on in the time remaining so no one will take your crown.
 
 
12Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. 13He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
 
Alrighty. Overcomer statement: These people are going to be pillars in God's temple. We were talking about how they seem like a stable church. And this kind of proves it. They're so stable that they can be pillars. They can support God's temple.
Not only are they going to be pillars, they're going to be imprinted with God's name and the name of the new Jerusalem. AND Jesus' new name.
Verse 13=If you have ears, you should be listening and heeding what's being said.
 
Okay. Got all that? Now: onto Laodicea.
 
Revelation 3:14-22
14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:


These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation.
 
The Amplified version says this: These are the words of the Amen, the trusty and faithful and true Witness, the Origin and Beginning and Author of God's creation.
A good reminder. Just in case you forgot that God created the earth. You know.
 
 
15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
 
Soooo Jesus knows these people's deeds... and they weren't on fire. They weren't cold either.
A little background: in the "olden days" they had aqueducts that brought water from hot springs and cold springs. But after it traveled the distance that it needed to go, it was usually warm. Just... warm. Hot water is useful. Cold water is useful and refreshing. Warm water... not so much of any of these things.
But to have Jesus tell you that he wishes you were one or the other... kinda harsh! But wait. It gets even better.
 
 
16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
 
Because they're not useful in any way, shape, or form, Jesus is about to SPIT them out of his mouth. Hannah brought up the example that a speaker gave during IGNITE this past winter. She was at a Christmas party and was eating cheese&crackers or something. She took a bite and someone asked "Is that mold on the cheese?" And she spit it out of her mouth onto the ground as quickly as possible. Spit. Completely out of her mouth. That's what Jesus is talking about here. Nothing dainty. Full out spit out of the mouth.
One of the key words, though, is "about." He hasn't already spit them out of his mouth. He's about to...
One of the things that was said about hot, cold, and luke-warm was this "Hot tea, cold water, moldy cheese." Don't be the moldy cheese.
 
 
17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
 
They thought they had everything they needed. They didn't need anything else. But guess what? They were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. Uhm... that doesn't sound like a great example... This is coming from someone who loves them. It doesn't sound loving. But it's a rebuke in love. We'll get to that a little more in a second.
 
 
18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
 
He's telling them to buy gold from him. Gold that's refined. Something that was pointed out was that "true wealth isn't money. The gold of God isn't the same as the gold of man."
Man's gold is just money. Or stuff. Or whatever satisfies you materially.
God's gold is tested by fire. Which means that whatever "money" we get, we're going to have to work through some tough stuff to get to it.
White clothes: Kind of the "Jesus clothing." Pure. It covers shameful nakedness.
And a salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Kinda what it says it is.
 
 
 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
 
The amplified version of this verse was awesome. So I'll let you read it :)
19Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude].
This is a challenge to not be luke-warm! And it's all because he loves them. And us for that matter!
 
20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
 
He's waiting. He's knocking. If you hear and respond, he'll come in. And EAT. In the middle-east, meals together were a sign of intimacy. That verse shows what kind of intimacy we can have with God. I mean, tonight at Applebees was great! We sat and talked about life and just random things. Imagine eating with your best friends. And then imagine something even BETTER than that. Eating with GOD. Kinda crazy.
 
 
21To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
 
To him who overcomes... the right to sit with Jesus on his throne... just like how he overcame and sat with his Father. Woah.
Material riches now, or sitting on Jesus' throne with him later? NO CONTEST!
Again. If you have ears, you should be hearing and processing and applying this. You have no excues not to.
 
 
Woah. that was a lot of stuff! I hope that you got something out of it. If you saw something that we totally missed, feel free to comment! It's always nice to get feedback and new opinions! :)
 
Hope you had a good weekend?! Back to the weekday grind tomorrow =P (I don't have anything planned... Probably blogging and cleaning my room some more...and practicing piano...... maybe going to the library? And VBS in the evening! I definitely have stuff to do tomorrow. It's just not "the weekday grind" =P)
Adios! (Driving with Abby post up soon! Annnd yeah!)

NIPTO, Day 112

Good Evening. Morning. Afternoon. ya know.
I'm sitting in the living room with my family&the Karen girls. We're watching The Spy Next Door. There were 2 Yackley lines in a row. Where did they get these lines?!

I thought it would be a good time to blog since everyone is occupied :)

I've been a little bit sick over the past couple days... just swollen tonsils/lymph nodes/sore throat. I guess I need to sleep. But I like staying up late... *sigh* bummah. Sleep. Water. Lots of water. Maybe some tea. You get the idea :)

Today is Day 29 of 100 Days of Holiness.

NIPTO was good. Encounter was good. We talked about Revelation 3:1-6. It was fun? Goofy. I think we were all tired and a little out of it... I guess I'm speaking for Brandon, Hannah, and myself. I don't know about Erin :)
Encounter was good too. We talked about intimacy and what it really is. We also talked about the mistakes that girls make when dating... the guys get their turn on Wednesday =P It was interesting to see what other people thought about intimacy and how people's opinions differed. Very interesting... :)

Okay. Everyone is in their place. 

Sooooo... I guess it's NIPTO time.

Revelation 3:1-6
¹"To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
      These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

This verse is CRAZY. So you've got this picture of Jesus goin' on. Ya know. The one who holds the 7 spirits&the 7 stars. Then: I know what you're doing. (I might seem like a creeper, but I'm not. I'm Jesus.) People think you're alive. Heck. You might even think that you're alive. But you are dead. 
The people in this church were like "Yeah! We're alive! Other people think we're alive! We must be doing pretty well." Then Jesus gives them this letter "You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." That's pretty intense. 
When we were talking tonight as a group, we were talking about how much we base our perceptions of ourselves off of what other people say&think. We think that our business is our business. NOYB. But God's up in everyone's business. No getting away from that!
But as a church, how do you know if you're alive? How do you know if you're dead? 
Thoughts, anyone?

²Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

God is telling them to WAKE UP. Get what you have goin' cuz it's about to die. Why? Because what you do isn't complete and fulfilling to God. He knows they're alive. They do stuff. But they're on the verge of death. Crazy!


³Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

These people had what they needed to be revitalized. They had the prescription for the illness. They just weren't using it. If they didn't start using it, Jesus was (is?) going to come like a thief in the night. They (we?) won't know what time he'll (he's) come (coming). 
We talked a little bit about how both Jesus and Satan are referred to as thieves. There was something else that they were both compared to, but I'm blanking out right now.  

⁴Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

Verse 4 is basically a "pre-overcomer" statement. But before I get to that, we were talking (or Brandon was talking) about how fantabulous our lives could be if we followed everything that God ever told us. Even a fraction of what God told us. It would be incredible to see how different my life would be. Your life would be. Our lives would be. I wrote down the following: "What could I become if I invest the amount of time and energy that I should?" 
Okay. On to "pre-overcomer" awesomeness:
There were a select few people who hadn't fallen into the trap of "we're alive!" These people didn't have on the slightly worn, slightly stained white t-shirt.  In heaven, they're going to walk with Jesus. Dressed in white because they are worthy. I am so unworthy it isn't even remotely funny. But we're made worthy. Because Jesus was worthy of heaven, and because he died for us, we are worthy to be with him in heaven. We're even going to be dressed the same as him! Crazy. More in the next verse:


⁵He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

He who overcomes... will be dressed in white. Like those other people. He who overcomes will have his name in the book of forever. Not only is it not going to be blotted out, it's going to be announced by Jesus to God and his angels. Woaaaaaaaaah.
I feel like things are going to go down something like this: Jesus-This is ___. They're awesome, aren't they? Oh yeah. And we're also twins! We're wearing the same clothes! What?
And then there might be a booyah or a boomshakalaka from the crowd. 

HAHA that's ridiculous. It's late. I sounded like a smoker just now when I laughed. Ohhhhh the joys of having a scratchy throat =P  

There's also major debate in the church about this verse about whether your name can be blotted out of the book of life. I'm not going there because it's late. And I'm not completely sure what I think about it. HUH. 

⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.


Now Jesus is basically saying "don't be a dummy. You have ears. Use them."



Hah. Sorry it got a little crazy near the end! I'm a little tired.
Tomorrow morning we're going to take the Karen girls with us to the parade! And then we're going to go home and chill. It should be a fun day! I'll try to post pictures from the parade! Especially if there are cute ones. Or really fun ones! Kay?

Hope you have a fantastic Memorial Day!

NIPTO, Day 105

WARNING: Loooong post. Just so ya know :)

NIPTO and Encounter were very interesting tonight.
I'm sitting in Panera right now. They're closed. They're having a staff meeting. I'm listening, b'cause I'm really cool like that. Either that, or my sister didn't have time to drive me home before it started. :P
You decide what happened.
(I feel like I can't look at them! Because I feel like it would be creeeepy. But it wouldn't be. But I don't want to attract attention. EEK! haha... I am hoping to get hired here... hm...) It's really interesting to listen to what's goin' on.
They're done. Kinda. I looked over. I don't feel creepy. But I do feel like I attracted a little bit of attention. Wow. I'm over analyzing this. A lot. I don't think it really matters.

So I took electronic notes tonight (aka I brought my laptop and typed. WOOHOO) so it should be slightly easier to work on this tonight. Not as much actual remembering as referencing. (Someone *cough*Brandon*cough* was impressed that I could look elsewhere when I type. I stated the fact that I type a lot. And he pointed out that I blog every single day. Massive amounts. "One post is about how much I blog in an entire YEAR!" Yup.)

Okay. I'm home now. The day's stories have been mostly told. I'm sure they will be told over and over again. I love youth group stories. And I'll tell you one right now.
Tonight, for our game, we had a Karaoke-off. Team 1 (Hannah, Katie, and Jessica) sang "In The Jungle", Team 2 (Sam, Matt, and Ashley) sang Leave (Get out) by Jojo... no one knew it well besides Brandon, and Team 3 (Me, Meg, and Connie) sang "A Whole New World."

Team 1 won, probably because of Hannah's harmonizing. But I think I had the most fun singing "A Whole New World" because it has to be one of my favorite Disney songs. In fact, because I love it so much, it's going to be a YouTube video today! BOOYAHHHHH. You might have to turn it up a little bit. But that's okay. It's sooooo worth it!

Did you watch it? If you didn't. CLICK ON PLAY! haha.

Today is Day 21 (beginning of week 3!) of 100 Days of Holiness! Woot! This was a good devotional.Go read it. It's good. (I'm going to demand that you do a lot of reading tonight. It's a long'un. So be prepared)

Okay. So for NIPTO tonight, we read through
Revelation 2:18-29
 ¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
      These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. ²⁰Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. ²⁴Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): ²⁵Only hold on to what you have until I come. ²⁶To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
 ²⁷'He will rule them with an iron scepter;
      he will dash them to pieces like pottery'— just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Okay. So I didn't write anything. You should've just read that through straight. Okay?
Now, I'm going to go back through it and interject Brandon's, Erin's, Hannah's, and my thoughts into this. (It is taking me forever to write this! I feel like I'm having an intense bout of ADD... not to mention that it feels like it's about 50 bazillion degrees in here b/c I'm sitting on my bed (warm) with my laptop (REALLY HOT) on my lap. I'm going to go get a fan. Maybe it'll help.(elapse about 2 minutes) Oh my goodness. It got cooler&cooler with every step going down... and hotter and hotter with every step coming up. But now I have a nice breeze from the fan blowing on me. And I don't have my laptop on my lap any more. But my eyeballs feel like they're about to fall out after having contacts in all day... and wearing mascara. And now there's dry air blowing on my face. I'll survive I guess. =P OKAY. Done rambling!)

Revelation 2:18-29
 ¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
      These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

I'm coming back to this. Meet me at the bottom after you've finished reading this. (Yes. that was a super-secret-spy-mission like Morgan gets on Chuck! ha! (Lost finale tonight is nothing. Well, maybe it is. I mean, it is the series finale. But there is a 2 hour Chuck finale tomorrow night that I am STOKED for!) Back to your spy mission: read the rest of this, and we'll talk I'll talk I'll type more at the bottom. You read. Get it? [got it] Good! (Court Jester! Good movie! haha) 

¹⁹I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Okay. Just in case you've forgotten how the "Revelation structure/outline" goes, here's a brief rundown: Intro/who Jesus is, where the church currently is, overcomer statement. (That's basically it.) 
This was one of the verses that stuck out to me. God knows what's goin' on. He knows when we're going through tough things and we stay faithful. Which is amazing. He knows when we're trying and when we're not. He knows when we're not being challenged enough, and he'll give us something that might seem like too much. But it never is! Crazy.  


²⁰Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

Something that was a pattern in every single letter that Jesus is writing through John was a call to repentance. Repentance was something that we talked about a lot tonight. If the people reading these letters hadn't realized that this was about repentance, they probably would've gotten it then. Because this was crazzzzy. Like. Seriously. Keep reading. It gets crazier.


²³I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Are you serious, John?!?! Striking children dead?!?! Yes. Striking the children of the one who didn't repent dead. Notice verse 21. That's not in this section. But scroll up. Read it. Go. Now. 
Okay, are you back? yeah. okay. good. It says that he gave her time to repent. But she didn't. 
Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds. UHM. RIDICULOUS! God is crazy ridiculous. He searches hearts and minds. "... and I will repay each of you according to your deeds." That, my dear readers, is called judgment.
Earlier tonight, I wrote this: God is judging by proving that he saw hearts and minds. He wasn't messing around. God doesn't play games. He was serious.
And it's true. It's important to remember that one day we will stand accountable for our actions. And if we haven't accepted the fact that Jesus died to save us, we will be punished for our actions. But if we believe that Jesus died for us, he'll step in between and take our punishment. He already took our punishment while he was hanging on the cross. He died so we wouldn't have to. Ridiculous. 


²⁴Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): ²⁵Only hold on to what you have until I come.

He's basically saying "Keep on keepin' on!" You're doing well so far. Just keep doing what you're doing. Hold on to what you have. Hold on until I come. I'm coming. [As surely as the sun will rise, you'll come for us. Certain as the dawn appears]



²⁶To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
 ²⁷'He will rule them with an iron scepter;
      he will dash them to pieces like pottery'— just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸I will also give him the morning star.

OVERCOMER STATEMENT! These tend to be a favorite point of discussion during NIPTO. This one especially. Brandon had Hannah read it. She read verse 26. And then he made her stop. Authority. Over the NATIONS. Okay. Keep reading: Verse 27. SCEPTER! OH SNAP! We get scepters! I'm sitting here laughing. Because it was funny. I love NIPTO/Encounter/youth group. It's always really encouraging. 
Then there's this mysterious "morning star" thing. Hannah is supposed to be googling/reading up/researching that this week. I'll let you know if she finds anything interesting. As Brandon said "if it's something we're getting, we might want to know what it is!" Amen to that! haha


²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Do you have ears? Yeah. Okay. Then you have no excuse to not hear what the Spirit said to the churches. Because it's there. All you have to do is listen.

Oh, hey! Remember your super-secret-spy-mission? Yeah. I almost forgot about it! OOPS. But I didn't, so I guess that's all that matters =P 
 ¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
      These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Okay. So the picture of Jesus that is presented to this church has eyes like blazing fire. We were talking about how this really kind of corresponds to verse 23. His eyes that are like blazing fire search our hearts and minds. I think it's a crazy kind of picture to imagine. But does that make sense? Would you agree with that?



One of the heavily discussed points tonight was Forgiveness vs. Repentance. 
Is God's forgiveness conditional based on repentance? 
What's your opinion? I have a few answers that I'll probably throw into tomorrow's post, or next week's post. (I think I might start a tag that's something along the lines of NIPTO Sundays or something like that so all of these Revelation posts go together for easy referencing.)


That's all for tonight. The talk at Encounter was interesting. We're going through the Summer Lovin' series. It's about sex and relationships and whatnot. Tonight was about homosexuality. There were some interesting points brought up. I'm not going to address anything right now. Because it's late and I want to sleep. But if you're really curious, e-mail me or facebook me, or comment on this and I'll give you a rundown of what went down :)
(Speaking of Summer Lovin', last year we did a "Late Night Encounter" where we watched a movie and discussed the theme of love throughout it. This movie just happened to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Do you know what it is?
The Princess Bride. And I was reminded of it because I have this gorgeous black&white photograph of Westley and Buttercup standing together before Westley leaves to sail the ocean blue. And it's so cute. And it reminds me of love. (Is this a Kissing Book?) And that's all. Well. Not quite. If you've never seen The Princess Bride, GO GET IT. Or ask me to borrow it. We have the VHS and DVD. Soooo you can borrow one or the other :) Okay. Now I'm done with that)

Today, when we drove to church, it was SUPER foggy. Like, when we drove over the bridge in Akron, you couldn't see anything. It was like driving through a white tunnel! It was crazy! I wish I had gotten my camera out to take pictures, but I didn't. Speaking of pictures, I'll try to put the grad party pictures up on facebook tomorrow. I'll link them here. It takes too much time to upload them all on here. But I'll try to write a post about the party. Because it was awesome!



Goodnight lovely blog readers. Let me know if I forgot anything important. I'm tired. It's late. I'm getting kinda bug eyed... HEH. Love you all!