Hyphen Tour 2012!

After a long 3 hour drive just to go a puny 60 miles or so plus taking time off work,  this event was actually quite a challenge for me to get through, but I’m glad that I did….

We were able to pre-register for the event by  going to the website…and let me just say, the registration was super simple…there's nothing that frustrates me more than a complex registration process…..seriously. It may be sad to admit, but I’d rather not go to some things due to the fact that the registration process was a mess…I know…it's sad.

But, Anyways!

Friday night opened with a variety of things but the thing that I loved the most was the topics that were discussed. The topics that night were about Dreams, Image, and Pain.

DREAMS: Bro. Miraflor—This topic alone could have had its own conference and still we would not have covered everything that could have been talked about. I guess, for me, as a twenty something year-old…at this point, its easy to get tired of the dreams that started growing during my teens years. BUT! That should not be the case since this is the age where we have more freedom and energy to actually work on our dreams. It really is easy to let go of our dreams due to tiredness or just the routines of life…but as Bro. Miraflor spoke on Friday…its NOT about OUR dream…it’s about the GOD of our dream.

If we are chasing after something without God, then we do not need to even go there….just that simple.

Something else that really stuck with me during the talk was the fact that how God used dreams to communicate with Joseph. In the two instances that was pointed out, Joseph was given a dream…. he listen to the dream…. and due to that, he was helping to fulfill prophecy! And not only did he listen to the dreams, BUT he listened to them even after they changed…. Don’t believe me? Read Matthew 2 yourself and then get back to me

IMAGE: Bro. Brown—Ahhhhh….Image…this little booger is QUITE the handful here…As some of you may or may not know, false image can lead to something horrible…and I know this from experience (see Here).  Bro. Brown spoke on how if our own self-image is not health, then we cant do God’s will very well since your self-image will limit how far you can go. If you don’t think that you have the ability to do something, you will not try to do that something…. that simple.

There really was is so much that I can say about this section, but the thing that REALLY stuck in my head was this: the Bible says that Satan is the accuser of the Brethren, BUT….if he is able to convince you to start accusing yourself of all your own faults…then he doesn’t even have to work anymore! We willing took on Satan’s job!! I think when I heard that, my brain melted a bit…. it was that profound to me….

PAIN: Dr. Littles—Pain… this is a topic that really makes since to address at our age. We aren’t really kids anymore, but I guess, we aren’t really full-fledged adults yet since we only have to really care for ourselves. But by this time in our lies, we have felt hurt…. some people are paralyzed by that hurt as well.

Toward the end of his teaching, Dr. Littles had himself get ‘roped’ in on the platform by tape. This was Life…. we may not like the area that we are roped in…we may feel suffocated in our position…. but God, allow us to stay in our box that you have placed us in. Allow us to become worshippers for you since all’s the angels can even do is tell you that you are Holy, Holy, Holy…we are the only ones that can give Glory, Glory, Glory to God. That is what we are created to do. 

Dr. Littles then asked if anyone would like to get prayed for….and he did. He literally prayed for every single person there…..and call me carnal, but I was listening to see if there was going to be any ‘repeat’ prayers….but there wasn’t….every single prayer was different for every single person….

After service that night….alot of the church went to the nearby In-and-Out….now, that alone is such a trivial fact that I normally wouldn’t mention that. BUT I wanted to say that I was approached by two separate groups of non-church people at different times asking me “ I just have to ask….where are you all coming from? You all are the nicest looking group of people that we have seen all night!”…..Seriously, this happened…. So remember, We are a light wherever we go, but ESPECIALLY when we are a group.

SEXUALITY--Saturday Morning opening Panel…Wow…people have some amazingly hard questions….I would NOT want to be in the shoes of the people that were on the panel since things from sexuality to relationships, to boundaries (and A LOT more) was touched on….The thing that sticks to me (and I wrote it down in the handy dandy books they gave us) was the advise that we need to Make our decisions to the best of our abilities in the context of our environment…..just ruminate on that for a few minutes…it’s amazing!

MONEY: Bro Johnson—Hmm….something that we are all interested in. especially since we are starting off with carrerrs that we HOPE will get us money. Bro Johnson spoke amazingly about his personal testimony from his carreer to his personal life. He had ‘success’ as the world defines success…and he was able to be a blessing in his job since he was putting God first….but since he put God first, he ‘gave it all up’ to work somewhere else.  

He said something that really stuck with me and it was along the lines of this: Sometimes, with peoples lives, we can only see the highlights, but we don’t see all the lows that built up to create those highs….Profound! Really…..

The Holy Ghost fell in such a sweet way in this session though….Are you really Trusting in God? Really, REALLY?? Give it all to God…Surrender!

Someone later said that out of all the tour stops, this was a first for the Spirit to fall in the money session…..Maybe us in California are just too money driven? Hahaha!

THEM: Bro. Nathaniel—The way that we need to reach our World is through both Discipleship and Evangelism. The difference of both of these is that Discipleship is done through institutionalism and often requires a specific skills set to be effective. Evangelism is done through Worship…and please note that we are all called to be worshippers…and ALSO please note, that ‘worshipping’ God should actually be done with our lives so that others can see God. So we have no excuse to not be Evangelizing in some way.

Bro. Nathaniel mentioned something amazing that really hit me (among other things…I seriously filled the whole notes page while he was talking) and that is: Not ONCE in Acts will we see people just sitting down after getting the Holy Ghost….They were always getting a Call to do SOMETHING with that same Holy Ghost….Work for God, Preach, SOMETHING! We are DESIGNED to spread the Word.

ANOTHER thing that really got me…..We have reduced God to Consumerism….We have come to God and have Consumed all the blessings that he has given us without giving back….And the World sees us do that…they see us as only consumers of God…That should not be…Don’t be treat God like the Tapatio of your life, where you sprinkle a little here and a little there to add that extra ‘Umph!’ to your taste…This will NOT impress the secular world since they know that Tapatio does not CHANGE your food into something else…its just adds to it….why do should they try our ‘add-in’ when there are so many other add-ins to try? They need to see an absolute CHANGED life.

I really could go on and on about this tour…but something I loved about this was the REALNESS of everything…from the people helping to put this tour on, to the speakers and topics that were addressed. I think that every single person that was either a speaker or a behind the scenes person, took time to go talk to us in the crowd… “ How do you like it? ……What do you do for a living?........THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING!” …..Especially the last one….Every single one of them thanked us for being there….Sincerely thanked us….Let me just say…Sincerity goes ALONG ways….it’s felt….Truly.