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Upon standing on the ocean shore I believe after playing tag with the waves, i asked the Lord to open my heart to what He had to show me in His word. I had Psalm 86 on my heart and opened to it. i then asked Him if there was anything else. I got Psalm 92 on my heart and opened to this:

Psalm 92
A psalm. (A song of praise, just as the trip began with)
1 It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
How great are your works, O LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
The senseless man does not know,
fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be forever destroyed.
But you, O LORD, are exalted forever.
For surely your enemies, O LORD,
surely your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.
You have exalted my horn [a] like that of a wild ox;
fine oils have been poured upon me.
My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, "The LORD is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

i looked up and saw this picture, palm trees and all

perfect.

as for the rest of the trip... where do i begin... i must say i was seriously encouraged by the Lord in seeking to go on this trip as well as when i was there. my prayer is that those who see and read this will seek to draw near to Him. His faithful word and still small voice blow my mind every time. It is written, the Lord rewards those who diligantly seek Him. So here's my trip in a nutshell...

Before leaving, I sought the Lord and kept coming to verse upon verse saying "i will send you" or 'go". Sometimes, its quite simple i usually say, ok Lord, i'm going out of faith and i go.

something i read while on the trip in the airport and shortly before i left in a book called Knowing the Heart of God by George Macdonald is this:

"Do you want to live by faith? Do you want to know Christ aright? Do you want to awake and arise and live, but do not know how?
I will tell you:
Get up, and do something the master tells you. The moment you do, you instantly make yourself His disciple."

and this:

"Hard it will remain, while the things he tells you to do, things you can do, you will not try. How will you grow capable of trusting Him to do His part by you, as long as you do not do your part by Him? True faith, tru belief, is not possible where there is not a daily doing of the things He says. They are what make faith take root and spring to life."

here are some of the verses i was greatly encouraged by while there and before i left:

It began with this...
John 8:10-11
Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

when we arrived at the dream center, someone gave me a bible and this is what i read:

psalm 67
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

all about being thankful and singing with and being blessed through it. later that night, i was extremely fatigued and had quite the headache and did not end up going out to the red light district prositute outreach which i was a bit saddened about. but in the morning as i pondered that His mercies are new every morning, i asked Him to open my heart to what He had to show me in His word and i got Isaiah chapter 26 on my heart. no knowing what it was, as is usually the case i read this:
Isaiah 26
A Song of Praise (which was also psalm 67's theme)
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.
Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.
He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.
Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.
The path of the righteous is level;
O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.
Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.
Though grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the LORD.
O LORD, your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.
LORD, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
O LORD, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.
They are now dead, they live no more;
those departed spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.
You have enlarged the nation, O LORD;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.
LORD, they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.
As a woman with child and about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, O LORD.
We were with child, we writhed in pain,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth;
we have not given birth to people of the world.
But your dead will live;
their bodies will rise.
You who dwell in the dust,
wake up and shout for joy.
Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.
Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.

i can barely begin to express the joy in reading this that morning. i began to see that the place i was at was the feet of the oppressed and the footsteps of the poor with the poor and oppressed. the lofty city... LA. and the end, "stay in your rooms" was exactly what we did that last night which lifted a great concern from my heart that i had not gone out the night before despite my headache thinking that i had lost the battle. in reality, the battle is the Lord's.

So that is exactly what I was there for. To show them Jesus is all about forgiveness and loving people no matter what or where they're at.

shortly before leaving on the trip, i recieved in the mail a cd i had ordered by never heard. nearly every song is about going to the streets to find the one who is lost but deeply loved. each song is a picture of God seeking us just as Jesus said He came to seek and save the Lost not those who think they're righteous. He meets us wherever we're at always. the cd is 100 Portraits' truly beautiful first album.

one last quote from Knowing the Heart of God:
"If that man spoke the truth when he was in the world, He is near us now."

these are the rest the photos i will post of my trip and experience to california this may to the dreamcenter and the ocean:
[IMG][link]
this is me spanging with a blank sign...

[IMG][link]
while playing uno with some of the kids at the dreamcenter, this guy forgot to say uno and someone called him on it causgin him to flip out of his chair and pound the ground in distress...

[IMG][link]
the public bathroom we stopped at just before going to the red light district. never have i been somewhere that people so consistantly carved tags in toilet seats... how odd...

[IMG][link]
the ford hotel food run where we prayed for people and kicked down food. as shaggy say's "there ain't no nation like a donation, the greatest city is generocity" i got to pray for a guy who was sick and another who hadn't got to see his family in a very long time. the way the people from the dream center are is this... when they first started going there, people did not recieve them for the most part, but as they began to see that they weren't just around for a little while, but really care enough to keep coming. truly amazing.

[IMG][link]
after the dream center we traveled to the ocean with our friend mike spots. this is a cave there that i really wanted to add a writing to. the thing that came to mind after praying was this.

[IMG][link]
just before leaving the beach, we found a bottle there and desired to put a message in it. i grabbed the bible i was given and tore out a page at the beginning outling salvation for whoever was to find it. i believe the title was "are your ready for this message?"
perfect.

Description
Upon standing on the ocean shore I believe after playing tag with the waves, i asked the Lord to open my heart to what He had to show me in His word. I had Psalm 86 on my heart and opened to it. i then asked Him if there was anything else. I got Psalm 92 on my heart and opened to this:

Psalm 92
A psalm. (A song of praise, just as the trip began with)
1 It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
How great are your works, O LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
The senseless man does not know,
fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be forever destroyed.
But you, O LORD, are exalted forever.
For surely your enemies, O LORD,
surely your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.
You have exalted my horn [a] like that of a wild ox;
fine oils have been poured upon me.
My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, "The LORD is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

i looked up and saw this picture, palm trees and all

perfect.

as for the rest of the trip... where do i begin... i must say i was seriously encouraged by the Lord in seeking to go on this trip as well as when i was there. my prayer is that those who see and read this will seek to draw near to Him. His faithful word and still small voice blow my mind every time. It is written, the Lord rewards those who diligantly seek Him. So here's my trip in a nutshell...

Before leaving, I sought the Lord and kept coming to verse upon verse saying "i will send you" or 'go". Sometimes, its quite simple i usually say, ok Lord, i'm going out of faith and i go.

something i read while on the trip in the airport and shortly before i left in a book called Knowing the Heart of God by George Macdonald is this:

"Do you want to live by faith? Do you want to know Christ aright? Do you want to awake and arise and live, but do not know how?
I will tell you:
Get up, and do something the master tells you. The moment you do, you instantly make yourself His disciple."

and this:

"Hard it will remain, while the things he tells you to do, things you can do, you will not try. How will you grow capable of trusting Him to do His part by you, as long as you do not do your part by Him? True faith, tru belief, is not possible where there is not a daily doing of the things He says. They are what make faith take root and spring to life."

here are some of the verses i was greatly encouraged by while there and before i left:

It began with this...
John 8:10-11
Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

when we arrived at the dream center, someone gave me a bible and this is what i read:

psalm 67
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

all about being thankful and singing with and being blessed through it. later that night, i was extremely fatigued and had quite the headache and did not end up going out to the red light district prositute outreach which i was a bit saddened about. but in the morning as i pondered that His mercies are new every morning, i asked Him to open my heart to what He had to show me in His word and i got Isaiah chapter 26 on my heart. no knowing what it was, as is usually the case i read this:
Isaiah 26
A Song of Praise (which was also psalm 67's theme)
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.
Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.
He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.
Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.
The path of the righteous is level;
O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.
Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.
Though grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the LORD.
O LORD, your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.
LORD, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
O LORD, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.
They are now dead, they live no more;
those departed spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.
You have enlarged the nation, O LORD;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.
LORD, they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.
As a woman with child and about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, O LORD.
We were with child, we writhed in pain,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth;
we have not given birth to people of the world.
But your dead will live;
their bodies will rise.
You who dwell in the dust,
wake up and shout for joy.
Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.
Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.

i can barely begin to express the joy in reading this that morning. i began to see that the place i was at was the feet of the oppressed and the footsteps of the poor with the poor and oppressed. the lofty city... LA. and the end, "stay in your rooms" was exactly what we did that last night which lifted a great concern from my heart that i had not gone out the night before despite my headache thinking that i had lost the battle. in reality, the battle is the Lord's.

So that is exactly what I was there for. To show them Jesus is all about forgiveness and loving people no matter what or where they're at.

shortly before leaving on the trip, i recieved in the mail a cd i had ordered by never heard. nearly every song is about going to the streets to find the one who is lost but deeply loved. each song is a picture of God seeking us just as Jesus said He came to seek and save the Lost not those who think they're righteous. He meets us wherever we're at always. the cd is 100 Portraits' truly beautiful first album.

one last quote from Knowing the Heart of God:
"If that man spoke the truth when he was in the world, He is near us now."

these are the rest the photos i will post of my trip and experience to california this may to the dreamcenter and the ocean:
[IMG][link]
this is me spanging with a blank sign...

[IMG][link]
while playing uno with some of the kids at the dreamcenter, this guy forgot to say uno and someone called him on it causgin him to flip out of his chair and pound the ground in distress...

[IMG][link]
the public bathroom we stopped at just before going to the red light district. never have i been somewhere that people so consistantly carved tags in toilet seats... how odd...

[IMG][link]
the ford hotel food run where we prayed for people and kicked down food. as shaggy say's "there ain't no nation like a donation, the greatest city is generocity" i got to pray for a guy who was sick and another who hadn't got to see his family in a very long time. the way the people from the dream center are is this... when they first started going there, people did not recieve them for the most part, but as they began to see that they weren't just around for a little while, but really care enough to keep coming. truly amazing.

[IMG][link]
after the dream center we traveled to the ocean with our friend mike spots. this is a cave there that i really wanted to add a writing to. the thing that came to mind after praying was this.

[IMG][link]
just before leaving the beach, we found a bottle there and desired to put a message in it. i grabbed the bible i was given and tore out a page at the beginning outling salvation for whoever was to find it. i believe the title was "are your ready for this message?"
perfect.