Spring Break- came and went

I had a tremendous break from classes here in Kauai and I am so excited to get back into my studies. Some highlights from my break are:

• Swimming in the Blue Room- a cave swimming hole. This was so awesome. I loved this little swimming hole. The water goes down up to 300 feet and there is a blue glow to the water- hence the name blue room.


• Tunnels beach day- We had a fabulous day at the beach: Playing Vollyball, singing, swimming with a ginormous sea turtle, and of coarse catching rays.


• Kalalau Hike/ Day up North- We climbed on some rocks. We trudged through some thick jungle to saw down an out-of-reach guava branch. We swung on some vines like tarzan (I landed on my back once). Then we picked up some hitch-hikers, got broke down, God healed our car (miraculously), Saw some sights etc.


• Condo Break: Our buddy Paul let the whole Bible College come and take over the condo his mom rented for two days. We cooked homemade pizza, we went in the spa, and had a study party


• Kipu Falls- A sweet waterfall swimming hole. I had a blast climbing trees with my jungle loving friends. We also did some crazy jumps off ropes swings and branches that hung 50ft above the water. It was a crazy time of fun.

I had an absolute blast with friends and the whole break was awesome. I am almost caught up on sleep and I praise God for such a great break. I pray that you are all walking with God and loving Him with everything you have!!!! He alone is worthy of our all. He alone is worthy of everthing that we have. He waits open-armed to accept us in His Son Jesus Christ. Let us all turn our hearts to Him today.

Agape Love= True Christianity

I preached this morning for Kauai Calvary Chapel and the Lord's gifting and calling is confirmed. I am meant to teach the Bible and I am so so grateful for the work of God in my life. I want to summarize my sermon for you titled :

Agape Love= True Christianity.

The 1st epistle of John Chapter 2:3-2:8

The apostle John is writing to a church that is being infultrated by false teachers and people who claim to know God, but are in fact not born again. People were sitting comfortably within the church thinking they knew God, but in fact they did not. John is writing as a grandfather to his spiritual children within the church. John is writing to bring his brothers and sisters of the Church back to what they heard from the beginning by Jesus Himself. John seeks to establish what it means to be an authentic Christian or one who is indeed born again.

1 john 2:3-8

Verse 3: "Now by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments."

To know Him means a personal knowledge as in a relationship. It does not mean to know about God or have our facts about God in order. Do you know God? Does God know you? Have you and do experience a relationship with God.

Keep means a careful observation. It is like keeping time- It matters to you to keep time and be on time. It doesn't mean you won't ever be late, but it is very important to you that you are on time. What commandments are we to carefully observe or to keep?

The greatest commandments are these: "To love God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength, and the second is this: love your neighbor as yourself" -Jesus. Love God with everything that you have and love others with God's agape love, which is a divine love and a love that only God can give.

Do you care about loving God? Do you care about loving others with Agape love?

verse 4: "he who says that he knows Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him."

to say that you know God and not care at all about loving God or loving God's people proves a person to be a liar and proves a person to not have the truth in him. John needed for his church to know this and it is important for us to know that. Do you carefully observe that your life is a life that exhibits love for God and love for people? Do you care?

verse 5: "Whoever keeps His word, the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him."

The love of God being perfected is best found in the fact that "God demonstrated His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 Jesus died for us when we were in our most filthy, dispicable, and nasty state. When we were performing our most heinous sin God chose to die in our place on the cross. The perfect love of God is seen best when we are found loving those who are difficult to love and loving people who we would not ordinarily be able to love. It is easy to love those who love you back, but Jesus says to love your enemies, pray for those who spitefully use you and bless those who curse you. This is the perfect love of God. How is this possible?

By Keeping/ carefully observing God's word. The holy scripures train one to love like God loves. Bind the Bible on your wrist like a watch and always take inventory to keep what it says. You cannot keep what you do not know and ignorance is a great barrier to godliness. Evidence of this process is a sure sign that we are right with God.

verse 6: "He who says that he abides in Him ought to himself also walk just as He walked."

Abide means to be connected and remain connected. A branch of a tree is connected to the trunk. Jesus is the trunk. If we are connected to Jesus we will bear fruit. If we are not connected to the trunk we are good for nothing and just a branch on the ground. How did jesus walk? Jesus was always concerned about doing His Father's will. When we walk like Jesus walked we seek to do what God wants with our lives. Is your life typified by: What is my will for my life or do you ask, "God, what is your will?" My will be done or "God, your will be done." Jesus grew in wisdom and understanding from the time He was twelve. Are you growing in wisdom and understanding? Jesus devoted Himself to investing spiritually into the lives of others. Are you concerned with the spiritual condition of your loved ones and strangers? Jesus gave his very life for us. Do we sacrifice our lives for the brothers and sisters of the church? All of this is the fruit of abiding in Jesus. As we grow we should see the likeness of Jesus come out of our lives.

Verse 7 and 8: Basically, in my own words: these commandments are nothing new, but make sure that they become new in your life today. Don't get confused with other teachings and other philosophies. Love God with everything that you have and lay down your lives for others. Let this be what you live by and let these commandments be the most important thing in your life.

This is a very short version, but hopefully you got the jist. To my friends and family and other readers: I love you guys so much. I love to see my friends and family walking in the truth. Keep the faith and stay strong in Jesus!!!!!

Steve Jones

Life is Good!!

I get to preach in front of the whole church next weekend and I am so stoked. I will be sharing from 1 John and talking about what it means to be an authentic Christian. I preached the sermon a few weeks ago at a Wednesday night study and I get to share it again to the rest of the church. I am so stoked and humbled that God could take a messed-up, disfunctional kid and make him a leader of a church. I am on a continual adventure and loving life.

Hike of a Lifetime

This last weekend was a great adventure. Five other guys and myself hiked 11 miles (22 miles round trip) along the Napali Coast in search of the Kauai legend of the Kulalau valley. We hiked in constant anticipation to discover if the valley's rumors were true of finding- exotic fruit trees, caves, waterfalls, and especially the supposed vagabond clan of free-spirited, unclothed hippies.

The trail is known to be one of the best hikes in the world. After walking through four rivers and toeing miles along the edge of a cliff I would have to agree. The mountinous landforms at the end of the hike were as if sugar cones were stacked together and covered in moss. Add a waterfall and a secluded white-sandy beach and you have one of the most exquisite landscapes on the planet. The trail itself offers tropical foliage, fresh guavas, exotic flowers, mountain goats, and plenty of red mud. God was so gracious to us to not allow it to rain- especially considering we were hiking in one of the wettest places on earth. We were so tired and hurting by the end. Our bodies could barely handle the workout, but luckily the way back was a lot easier after eating most of our cans of chili and drinking most of our water. We went to celebrate George's up-and-coming marriage and we had great fun together. After the eleven miles back the next day we were so glad to have tackled this two-day challenge. I was very blessed.

I really wanted to hike this hike since coming to Hawaii and I was so fortunate to have a spot on the trip. I thank God for experiences like this that allow me to see God's wonderful creation and have an opportunity to grow closer to my brothers. It was truly a wonderful time. We only saw one naked hippie while we were there. We were too tired to search for many of fruit trees and the tides were a bit high to sleep in the caves. all in all...Good times.

Classes about Jesus

I really like school right now. My only responsibility is school and so my life is very focused at the moment, which I really like. I love the way this campus is established. They allow the students to practice what they preach by serving and doing a lot of practical ministry. I really like my classes and the effect that the Bible is having on my heart. I am recognizing that my need for God is constant and daily. I absolutely cannot live godly without the grace of God each day (a humbling point to admit). I am learning to spend time with God each morning and I am growing to love God even that much more.

God is so amazing in how He reveals Himself in His inspired Word. The Word of God really is "powerful and effective". It challenges, corrects, reveals, and trains every man or woman how to live in this life and God's true character is revealed all the while. There is no God like the God of the Holy Scriptures. There is only one God and He has given us written revelation of Himself. I encourage anybody reading this to learn or continue to learn of this incredible God that loves us and offers salvation through Jesus Christ. I will never get tired of reinforcing my mind and heart the truth of God revealed through His written word.

Other then this, I threw a spear three times at some wild boars last night and sadly misses three times. I was about fifteen feet away and unfortunately I cannot throw a spear that well. I set up a trap today that will hopefully catch one for a killing. They have been a huge nuisance to the church and the camp. I am praying for pork chops.

Week One is Paradise

I was greeted on the plane by a sweet stewardess named Shannon and I think I made her blush when she saw my painting of her. She really was a great stewardess and I was glad to leave her with my painting. Keep up the great work Shannon!!! As you could tell I had a lot of time on the plane, but it was so great to have time to prepare my mind and heart for Kauai.

The first week in Kauai::: I LOVE KAUAI!!! The lush green pasture outside my safari tent is filled with goats and a few renegade boars that I intend to knife one of these nights. The sporadic, five-minute downpours with constant tropical warmth is a pleasant change. The camp-life-- no electricity, no Internet, and cold showers make life a bit rustic. I love how the other students are so fun and energetic and full of life. I love eating communal meals. I love the sweet times with God at night as I look up at the stars or in the morning as the sun rises over the ocean. All these little details make for a great time so far.

Classes started today and I am so excited to study the Word of God. I am taking Discipleship 101, Genesis, Romans, Luke, Acts, Homeletics (I get to preach), and Church History. I hope to keep up with the work load, but it should be ok. I am also on the construction crew on the property and today I had the glorious duty of troubleshooting/ cleaning the composting toilet. Let me just say that there was no composting going on in there, but I loved getting a little dirty for the sake of Jesus. Thats what its all about, right?

I fly tomorrow

I am excited to fly to Hawaii tomorrow and I had a great week full of working, packing, saying goodbyes, and running. My last day in SLO, I attempted a sub-5 minute mile after only three weeks of training, but I hit an invisible wall after lap three and felt like dying after crossing the finish line. If it wasn't for Shane yelling in my face to not give up, I would have quit the last hundred meters. I was proud to run 5:30 and maybe I can knock 30 off my time with some more training. I am currently in Santa Cruz visiting my buddy Josh and his wife Stephanie. I fly at nine tomorrow morning and I am pretty sure my suitcase is thirty pounds over the limit.