Grant Thiessen

Utalizing film

what an awsome time last night at the Experience. my message was called "NEVER SURRENDER". it was a look at never surrendering to the attacks against us in life. i used the story of moses when he had to keep his hands lifted in order to win the battle. and the story where the expert sailors who were transporting Paul lost all hope during that storm. i opened with a 5 min clip from "Kingdom of Heaven" where the guy surrenders Jerusalem and then he tells the queen, "your brothers kingdom was in his head and in his heart, and that kingdom can never be surrendered". at the end of the message i played a 2 min compiled clip i made from scenes from "saving private ryan". i added the movie theme song as a background audio and while it played i made this statement.

"Never surrender. When life crashes in on you… never surrender. Life is worth fighting for. If you surrender where will you be then? So even when you think “I can’t do this anymore” it’s really your only option. You can make it through anything if you never surrender… when depression attacks you – never surrender; when you cant find the answer to WHY your even doing what your doing – never surrender; when your sick and tired of all the bad things in life falling on you – never surrender; never surrender yourself to bitterness even though it seams to have you…never surrender yourself to hate, even though it seams to have you… never surrender yourself to arrogant pride even though it seams to have you…never surrender yourself to lust and perversion even though it seams to have you… never surrender to the thought that God is not on your side because He created you…never, never, never, never surrender……" then i went right into a time of prayer as we totally surrendered to God, the only way to be able to NEVER SURRENDER to the attacks in this life..

serving the community

after flooding rain finally stopped, we unloaded the soup and shared a meal with some homeless folks for Christmas.

WOW...God completely worked it out...

 well, God has worked it out and we'll be staying at our new location. Paul who heads up Carden School really wants us to be a positive influence on campus. we will be using the sight at basically no cost..... we just use it. of course we will be honoring our original financial comitemt each month by giving to the parents fund-raising committee, and buying costco and smart & final gift cards some months at the amount of our agreement. to give to the school. this is working out well for us as we now have access to the property any night of the week, and all day Saturday and Sunday. even though we still set allot of stuff up, and break allot of stuff down, it's much better to store it under the stage than hauling it out to a trailer.

g

we knew there would be opposition!

Well, the first week of our new series,"HOSTAGE" was a great time. new people showed up, and even Paul, the guy who runs Carden school where we meet. second week in the new location, and I just found out yesterday that the Ocean View school district decided to not allow subleasing at their sites any longer. well, we sublease from Carden school, who has leased from the OV school district for the last 25 years. To just decide to stop all subleasing violates there contract, so Paul is going to fight it. It's one of those, "it's just the devil" things. God help us reverse this decision..

"HOSTAGE" series

This is the new series we'll start on Oct.19th.  Doing a series has always helps people reach out to their friends. it just gives a point of conversation to get some talkin started ya know.

urban legends

don't miss our upcoming series called, "URBAN LEGENDS"....

the Stillness

proud of you guys.... G

Blueprint for 2008

have you ever tried to read a set of blueprints? wow. at first it seems like a giant scroll unrolled and just a bunch of blue lines. a big maze of confusion. but when you take a little time to look closely, its really pretty understandable. you just got to take it a piece at a time, and just slowly go through it, and it all becomes clear how to build whats before you. last nights message was about creating a blueprint for our lives in 2008. its a simple plan really. full of Godly principles in the areas of spirituality, relationships, physical fitness, finances, and our professional life. the key to it all is having a COMMITTED, ACCOUNTABLE, and PURPOSED approach to it all. i hope it works for all of us this year.

what did he mean?

Neh. 1:3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."

it just proves the ongoing point that physical deliverance doesn't always assure mental, emotional, and spiritual deliverance. like in everyday life, fixing the outside is necessary for daily survival, but we must continue to rebuild the walls and gates that encase our heart.

g