first week in Redding

This has been a very exciting week. We have begun to learn the town of Redding. We located the important stores like Best Buy and Michaels craft store. Of course we also found the grocery store. Our house is about 7 miles from all the stores. Gas is 45 cents higher per gallon than in Ohio.

Church at Bethel is an amazing experience. The church looks to hold about 1000 people. It is full every service with Sunday overflowing into an overflow room. One must arrive about 30 minutes before service to get a good seat. The worship team looks to have been practicing for at least an hour before service. There are about 10 singers, guitar, sax, drums, keyboards, bass, violin, and at times other instruments. There are a group of people on the right side of the stage painting pictures as the Holy Spirit gives them inspiration. The dancers switch off about every 10 minutes. The arts are in full manifistation as we worship God.

Worship last at least an hour. The front is full of young people worshiping with all their heart. There is great freedom in worship. The glory of God is present right from the beginning. I have never experienced anything as awesome as this worship.

The speakers have been just amazing. It is very hard to explain how good it is. You can experience some of the teachings with a free download or Podcast at http://www.ibethel.org . On the right there is a link for "Tape of the week" or you can get the teaching from the ITunes store for free.

I am in wonder at how these men and women of God have been able to receive such anointed revelation of our Lord. It is SO good.

Some of the highlights from this week were.
Bill Johnson teaching on grace.
Faith is the result of surrender or yielding.
The requirements of grace is much greater than the law but the difference is that grace has the built in ability to accomplish the requirement. When we yield to grace then sin is no longer appealing to us.
Chris Vallotton teaching on becoming an apostolic people.

• People do not need a hand-out they need the Kingdom of God to come to them.
  
• Chris no longer believes in a 5 fold ministry but in 6 fold ministry because the 5 fold ministry gifts are meant to teach believers to do the work of the ministry.
  
• We need people in the work place doing the works of the Kingdom.
  
• The word Apostle came from the Romans. It was a general who conquered a land and brought the culture of Roman to the citizens. This is the context in which the 12 understood what Jesus was saying about them when he called them Apostles. They were to bring the culture of the Kingdom to the people under their influence.
• When resolving a conflict the other party must leave feeling empowered.

Jason the first year Pastor of the BSSM students taught on love.

• He taught about how we must love ourselves before we are able to love others. He talked about how love is everthing.
  
• We can not do any ministry until we learn to love our own self and see our self the way God sees us.

Dan taught an awesome message on church government.

• God's justice is very different than the world's idea of justice.
• God's justice seek to reconcile relationships.

All of this and school has not even started yet. We are blessed to be here.