San Luis Obispo Summer Time

The Slo life is not so slow. I have juxtaposed in my mind the serenity of the garden isle (Kauai) with the "SLO" life and am realizing how environments cater to one's desired lifestyle. I thank God that today I was able to slow down and paint this picture of a San Luis Obispoesque landscape. The fog that frequently sits upon the base of our green, rocky peaks are one of the things that give San Luis its special character.

I am having a good time delivering pizzas as a part-time job and the internship through Shoreline Calvary Chapel has been delightful thus far. I spent some time this morning taking care of an older man from my church named Doug. He and I have a lot in common. I love reading, praying, and chatting with him. I taught him some watercolor techniques today. He loves to paint with acrylic and oils. I hope to save enough money to go back to Kauai in late August. In the meantime I will have to remember to SLO things down.

Final Two Weeks in Kauai

I am getting to the end of this Hawaiin journey. My heart is full and my spirit had been ministered to thoroughly. I have made incredible friends and I have established some wonderful contacts. I hope to work hard and finish finals week as strong as I can. I have not kept up with this blog only because too many good things have clouded out its importance. Some highlights from the past few months have been a teaching at a college retreat, family camp, beaches, soccer nights, studying, fishing, and sleeping on the beach. I am so excited to go back to SLO (san luis obispo) for the summer.

I plan on interning at shoreline Calvary Chapel, working to save money, and hopefully returning to Kauai for a final semester of Bible College. After that.... only God knows.

God is so amazing and worth serving with my whole heart. I wish I could describe Him to you, but the God of the Bible can only be discovered through one's own personal quest. Through His son Jesus Christ one may be born anew and through the gift of the Holy Spirit one can come to grow- walking each day with the Heavenly Father. God is coming soon to judge all the works of men, whether good or evil- even the secret things of man. God commands all men everywhere to repent (change the course of their minds) and to trust fully in His son Jesus Christ.

I hope to have a little fun before I leave this place. I am excited, however, for the next season of life. I miss home: family, friends, and the SLO life.

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.