Posts where you don't know where to begin are always some of the best...  I guess I'll just start out by saying that I've spent the past hour driving around Murfreesboro, crying and worshipping God after watching a movie that really moved me.  Love has been a constant message throughout this year and the most recent reminder was tonight in this movie where good is battling evil.  Good says to evil that you'll never know love or friendship and I feel sorry for you.  Then evil flees.  This one statement rumbled deep and loud within my spirit.  It reminded me of the love that is extended to us through our relationship with Christ and how those who don't know Him will never know that same love...  It makes me feel sorry for them, but moreso reminds and motivates me of my responsibility to share God's love with them through living it and giving them the opportunity to know it too.  Salvation is extended to us because of love.  Everything God does is motivated by His love for us.  In the movie the God character held back from man character, which frustrated the man because he didn't feel the love that he once felt from the God character.  At the end, man gets to ask why the God character drew back and it's because he loved man so much that he stepped away in order to protect the man and make the man grow.  We get so caught up in our own lives sometimes that we forget about the love and our commission to share it.  We complain that we don't feel God near, but He is still protecting us and He is making us grow.  His love is addictive...  we experience it and want more, but we get too comfortable and just expect it to be there instead of chasing it or pursuing it passionately.  So tonight in driving around I did just that...  there's just something about driving around with the windows down, praying and worshipping out loud that just feels like I chased Him.  There was such a sweet presence in my filthy car (it needs washed and vacuumed something awful).  I spoke in my prayer language for about thirty minutes with tears streaming down my face... crying out to God to break our hearts again for the lost, to raise up a generation of young people who will fight for Him- a generation that He will pour His spirit upon, greater than any of us have ever known....  how we are not worthy of His love....Then I just kept singing Mighty God until I got home.  I felt such victory and a sense of completion, like God was saying it is finished...  all the stuff I have been going through is finished...  my finances will turn around, my pursuit of a teaching job is coming through, the energy and crativity that I need for VBS and camp has arrived...  I felt like God told me to put my credit card bills in my Bible and that I need to contact friends to remind them that I love them and value their friendship.  If you are reading this, you are my friend.  Chances are that we've laughed and cried together.  Even though we may not be in frequent contact, I want each of you to know that I love you and I value your friendship more than you'll ever know!

I went to Mexico on a mission trip with the kids PEAK team.  As the big guy on the trip, I was the watch dog and the setup and tear down guy.  I didn't get to do any ministry really, but I got to stand back and watch it all happen...  the healings, the deliverances, the salvations, the storm clouds opening up and the hole of sunshine following us....  the kids even cast out a demon which was really awesome!  It was awesome!  We had some amazing worship times and God broke my heart there too...  I was asking the kids why the Bible says the workers are few for the great harvest and we concluded that the workers are few because there are so many people who are willing to give up everything to do it....  how holding on to any part of ourselves is selfish and that what we hold onto can be an idol in our life.  We talked about consecration and how we want to be set aside and to follow Him with abandon...  I'll have to tell you all the details of the trip later, but the pastors who took us loved me and wants me to come with them on their other trips which is awesome because a part of me has wnated to be more involved with short term missions but time and money has always been an issue...  Once I am a teach I hope that I will be able to do more...

I know all of this may seem like rambling to you, but I just had to get everything that I felt God speaking to my heart written out as a reminder to me of this place that I am in.

Good night friends!

~Brooks