This past weekend I went to a conference called One Thing. Throughout the entire conference I felt as though it wasn’t about God, or if it was, not the biblical God. I felt as though it was about a political agenda, that it was about making delusional teens into robots, and that Lou Engle was going to have an aneurism. Now many supporters of this conference will probably say, “Aren’t you being awfully judgmental?” My answer is no. I am writing this only to warn, not to judge, and anything I say will be backed up by the Bible or logic. If it is not, take it as my opinion.
The speaker on the first night I attended (Friday) was a man named Lou Engle, who had a very hoarse voice (from lots of shouting) and tendency to rock back and forth when excited (hence the possible aneurism). Lou begins his spiel innocently enough by asking people to come sit at his feet. Yet with this simple request, he is attempting to put himself on the same level as Christ himself, making it seem as though he has disciples. Nobody is on the same level with Christ. When a sufficient number of people had gathered, he really begins. He starts not by telling a story or a bible passage, but rather by yelling. And the entire thing progresses with him yelling. At the top of his lungs as it were. What about? Any number of things with one central theme: the government is full of “Jezebels” and we must cast them out. He yells about Nazi’s who are blessings; he yells about prophecies of which he has no proof; he yells about the Red Warriors he wants to make out of teens(I found this last one amusing since it’s also another name for China’s Red Army). First, let’s explore Nazi’s and prophecies.
In the beginning of his rant he yells about how the governor is a Nazi. Later on he says that the gubernatorial recall was a miracle and the Arnold is a blessing. Contradictory? Perhaps not, for he also mentioned that one of his friends had a prophecy about a blond haired blue-eyed man who had come from God to take California. Maybe it wasn’t a dream from God. Perhaps it was an Aryan aspiration. The books of the New Testament repeatedly warn against false prophets and men of desolation. (Matt. 24:15, Mark 13:14,22) I believe that Lou is one of these very men. Why? Here is a quote from his own website, elijahrevolution.com.
God is serious about bloodshed. The allusion to the Appomattox Courthouse in this dream is a clear indication that if we do not rise up with a comment on this grave offense of abortion, it means nothing less than that God is going to settle this case of blood with the retribution and repayment of the blood of our nation for the 45 million babies slain on our soil…The message God is speaking to us is clear! The injustice of slavery was not dealt with in the American courts as evidenced by the infamous Dredd Scott decision in 1857; thus, God dealt with slavery in the Court of Bloodshed – the Civil War, symbolized by the Appomattox Courthouse in our dream. The message is the same today as it was then: God cannot ignore the cries of the innocent blood calling for justice. Because the Supreme Court has disregarded their plea, this case is now before another court, the Court of Heaven, where God will pronounce judgement on our bloodshed – it is the retribution of blood for blood.

First I would like to point out that he can’t even spell judgment correctly. That is copied and pasted directly from his site. This man, a supposed prophet, is preaching death and, at the risk of being redundant, desolation. He gives these prophecies that no one can verify and has a near Nazi agenda, saying the governor should use his power and his office to fight against homosexuals. That’s not what Christ taught. Rather, he taught us to love them and to try to turn them away from their sins and to him. Mr. Engle says to force them to both. Bit of a contradiction, no? Still, it’s time to move on to Dwayne.
Dwayne was the Conference MC and is apparently a leader at IHOP (International House of Prayer) which I will discuss some other time. So what do I have against him? Nothing? However, the prayer in which he would “lead” us in was the very sort Christ warned us against. Loud and for the public (Matt. 6:5). How do I know? He wasn’t still and waiting for God. Rather his was pacing across the stage and watching everyone else very closely. He also had the audacity to command God in prayers of supplication instead of ask God. His prayer was intoned and phrased as a command. (i.e. Lord, come down on this place and give us your spirit ! vs. Lord, may we receive your spirit tonight and your blessing.) How can anyone dare to command God? He’s not tame; he’s God! This style of “prayer” led to a worship that made me want to cry.
Now many may say they cried too (in fact some one did say so) and that they shed tears of joy. I, however, shed tears of sorrow. Not for past sins and grievances, though they do exist, but for many of those “worshipping”. I do not accuse anyone specifically or in fact everyone of this, so don’t be offended. The worship was, in a word, chaos. In 1 Cor. 14, verse 26, the Bible says the god is a God of peace, not a God of chaos. In the sanctuary, people are yelling, moaning, and jerking around as if they’re marionettes being made to dance by a five year old. No doubt if asked one of these people would say, “I was filled by the Holy Spirit.” But honestly, the only time people in the Bible acted like that was when they were possessed by a demon. Good? I think no. The worship was selfish (people were too caught in doing their own thing rather than worshipping together) and chaotic: two things God doesn’t like. You can draw your own conclusions.
I have only one topic left for now: healing. There was a holy healing session in which all those who were ailing in some way (sore shoulders to diabetes) stood up to be prayed for and be healed. The only people I saw that were healed were those with had been in pain but no longer were. Two words: placebo effect. The dictionary defines placebo effect as this: “the beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patient's expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself.” Therefore, you think there should be no pain, your brain agrees, it cuts off the pain from the injured or sore area, now you don’t feel it! Miracle! Seriously, I don’t doubt that God does miracles. But this trivializes him. Makes him seem like a pet dog. Personally, I’m glad God made doctors and Advil.
There’s more I want to say, and perhaps one day I will. But this is all for now. Much of it I only know through my feelings and discernment, and therefore will not burden you with it. May you remember though, I’m not judging. I’m warning you that not all who say they come in Christ do indeed come in him, including those at One Thing. Remember, Christianity is not about looking righteous. It’s about being so.

So what was my break like, you're probably wondering. Or not. Well, it consisted of five things: Sean, Kayla, Kassie, Henderson, and bowling with out Josh (Diaz). The first three people and I went bowling 3 times (for a total of 6 games) and Henderson came with us twice. We went twice for Josh, but both times he didn't come. Sad. Oh well. I played volleyball with him and his team twice, and I think I'll start playing with them on Monday nights in the summer. What else...
I got probably over a hundred songs for my iPod over break. What were they? Norah Jones, Bright Eyes (that was most of the music actually, Bright Eyes was), Beck, and David Crowder. I helped paint my youth room. That was a lot of fun. Now that I'm back in school, I don't like any of the people here as much as I thought I did.

I was really close to God on Friday night. It was really awesome. Who knew God liked York St. at eleven pm so much?

So I was on the internet and I searched blah on google. The first result is blah.com. Now this made me very happy; then I realized that I was getting excited over blah.com. Geez...
In other news, I printed a shirt the other day. It's super-cool. Check my photobucket for the designs I'll be using. The sub album is Butterfly Imprints. I did the blocky one yesterday. Time to go back to google-ing.

So I decided that I'm sick of you. Of course you've probably degenerated who I am so much in your mind now that you will never even read this. Too bad. I'm sick of you. You've lied to me. Repeatedly. You've talked crap about me. Repeatedly. And now I can't stand you anymore. I still love like a sister, but I just don't want to be anywhere near you.


Sorry 'bout that folks. Needed to get that out of my system. The afore mentioned "you", would be Joselyn Perez. Yes-now you can see her in the real light.

Youth group last night was awesome. We prayed for about a half-hour beforehand and that was really cool. Afterwards was good too. Over the past year or so, we've had a big problem with cliques. Last night after youth group pretty much everyone that didn't leave right away hung out in a big group. It was so cool. I don't want to move. I'm going to do everything I can to stay here.

So this weekend I had my first pet rabbit come back from the dead and suck my brains out of my head.

Where did that come from?

Really though, on Friday I worked and stuff until 6:15ish when Elli picked Mark and I up at the Copy Corner and we went to Sushi Mambo. That was fun. Except for seeing MAggie on the way. Then we waited forever to eat. Afterwards I went to middle school group to help out and it was a mess. They were doing a soap in a bucket game and the water was everywhere. So we mopped it up. The mess got worse though. The kids were given popcorn. Bad idea. It was literally ground into the carpet. Fortunately, we're redoing the youth room next Tuesday. (Or is it Monday?) On Saturday night I had people come over and play cards. That was fun. I felt sorry for Christine because she didn't really have a friend other than me. But still, the tennis nerds united and she talked to Ryan a bunch. That was fun and Trevor and I planned to do a picnic after church the next day which, alas, never happened. That was my weekend. How was yours?

Oh yeah, FCC people, picnic after second service next Sunday. Westwood hills. Be there or be square.

I promised an entry, and I am delivering. So youth group last nigh was really cool. Except Jermaine was sick so that kinda stunk. But we prayed for like half-an-hour before hand and that was awesome. A lot of the cliques are breaking up, and those that aren't are leaving anyways.

I hung out with James (Barker) today cause he's back for spring break. It was fun. We went to Browns Valley Market for lunch and then went to Church and played Burnout for two+ hours after making fun of Evan. How many of you actually know who I'm talking about?

My legs are sore.

I'm really good at massages. I now give them to people at youth group. I have nothing more to say other than I have to go to work now.

On Saturday I spent 3.5 hours at the bowling alley with Sean and his friend Castiel. We're so lame. It was fun though. We had water drinking contests and did other stuff. The pizza was gross though. We even bowled a couple of games! Then on Sunday I went to church, helped with the three year olds (there were 14 kids-12 were girls), talked to Jermaine, learned how the youth room is being redone, and went home. Later on I went out to dinner with Ellie, disconered that Sushi Mambo was closed much to my disappointment, and ate at applebees. I ordered off of the kids menu. Yum. What's even funnier is I ordered pizza not five minutes after saying I didn't want anymore pizza for a week or something. It was fun though. Now I'm here. And I'm tired. No I'm not. I guess that's something I reflectively say. I will probably have to move in August unless I can find someone to live with. Sad. That will be four high schools in four years.



Done.

So today we had the coolest test. It was called the ASVAB, which stands for Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Our school counselor made it required, alas, which made many of us angry. So this morning when we arrive at school for the stupid test, the proctor is this woman named Sylvia who's really annoying. She tells us that the test is three hours long and if we don't want to be there, then leave. Needless to say, the counselor was like "No way Jose!" So we all had to stay. (Rhyme not intended). Then we discovered this part of the test that we had to sign to let our results be released. If we didn't want to sign it then we couldn't take it. things were pretty bad before, but then they erupted. My friend Collin who was sitting next to me ripped his test in half (they said you couldn't leave even if you didn't take the test), got up, and left with the counselor yelling at him. All hell broke loose. About fifteen other people left after that (including myself). When we were gone, the proctor said that we were the most disgusting students in the world. At this, a guy named Roy jumps up yells "F*** YOU!" to her and sprints out of the room holding his skateboard with our schools registrar trying hopelessly to run after him. This will go down in the annals of Tech.

Ah...work is in 30 minutes, then middle scholl group.

So my weekend was pretty good. Sure, I feel sore as heck and my toes got blood blisters (they're gone now thankfully) and I didn't get to watch Vertigo, but it was really good. Friday afternoon was really bor ing. I collated about 700 South Pacific programs at work. No bueno. Then it got better when I got off of work. I got to help with middle school group at church which is always a lot of fun. The kids played games, I played them in foosball and Mariokart, talked to Jermaine (my youth pastor-he's the coolest) about how only 5 people other than yours truly signed up for summer camp, and went home feelin' good.

On Saturday I slept in, ate lunch, went driving with my dad for two hours, developed some pictures that had ended up in my bag after last years summer camp (they were Jermaine's), then went to guys night out at my church. We hung around and played foosball and videogames for a little bit, then watched a movie about cowboys who know each other really well (it was more than that, but I don't feel like explaining), then played two hours of dodge ball. That was fun. We only stopped playing because I developed blisters on my feet and started to bleed (on my feet). Then we played burnout. That was it.

On Sunday I woke up, missed first service so I didn't help with the four year olds, went to second service, drove upvalley with my dad, and then went to the George Winston concert with Kate. It was insane! That man is so good. He played stride piano, which was crazy because he had like four parts going on at the same time. Then he played harmonia and slack key guitar (hawaiian style). After the concert, Kate and I walked dopwntown, but our ride intercepted us and spoiled our fun. Grrrr...

I found a really cool band called Roxette. I'll lend you (whoever you are) their CD if you want to listen. Go eighties pop!

So I decided that I cannot write while listening to music. At all.

In other news, I'm no longer on Vicoden. My mouth is less sore (though I still can't talk) and I wrote some poetry. I established a literary journal here.

Enjoy.

What else...
I need to call Anna Trego. Why? She seems to be interested in creating more drama. Lalo was telling me she was asking all these questions about why I hate her (which I don't) and other such things. Silly girl.

Wisdom teeth was...
-Talking about shower caps then finding myself twenty feet away having trouble sitting upin a chair.