Life--Worry

"I don't know what I want to do with my life." "I don't know where I want to go to school." "I don't know what I want my job to be." "I don't how I am going to pay for school." 

      Life seems to be inundated with questions and we are pushed to know what we want to study, where we want to work, and who we want to marry. Society tells us that we must be able to see our future and know our life. You see the world takes on the view that James writes about in chapter 4:13-17.  "13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." The world believes that they know where they are going and how much they are going to make, and when they are going to retire. They put their confidence in themselves and in their flesh. But God clearly shows us here that we have no control over tomorrow, or even the rest of today for that matter. It is good for you to not put your faith in what you think you know. It is a sin if you think that you will do things apart from God. He calls your planning arrogant schemes. Wow that hurts, and can be painful to hear, but it is required so that we may look to the Author and Perfecter of life in order to plan our lives. While not knowing still may scare some of you, I would encourage some of you with Matthew 6:26-27: " 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" You see God designed us to lean on Him. When we decide to plan our lives in our own hands, we get overwhelmed and we worry. We forget that Abba will provide. We lose sight of who is guiding us, and we become prideful in our flesh and sin. So next time you are feeling overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, praise God and  thank God that you do not know. The only thing I take confidence in knowing, is that God is God! Ps. 46:10:"He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth.' " In the midst of not knowing I praise Him, because the one thing I know is the He is God. God doesn't call us to continue in our worry and busyness, no He says to be still and know that I am God. So next time you find yourself worrying about life, go and still your soul and know that He is the Lord! 

   

      His unworthy servant and your brother,

            Stephen Hargis

My time in Brazil

Howdy,

Sorry it's taking awhile to get this post up. It's Sunday night at 11:30, I probably should be getting to bed, but I am just really prompted to write this! The point of this blog post is just to give y'all a feel for Brazil and the work God did through us. This post is going to be a timeline of everything we did in Brazil. I am just taking this out of my journal that I had while in Brazil. I'll hopefully be sharing and going more in depth about the things I learned in Brazil this next week!

1/7- We flew out of Atlanta as a whole group to Brasilia, which is the capital of Brazil. We left at like 8 or 9 at night and had a nine hour flight! Didn't sleep at all on the flight, but it was fun.

1/8- We landed in Brasilia around 9 am (there is a 3-hour time difference), Brazil is beautiful. We toured the city and just got a feel for the culture and everything. Got to see the president's house, which was awesome. We drove to Aqua Viva which was our home whenever we were in Brasilia. Aqua Viva is camp which is hopefully where LifeShape Brazil will be headed up!

1/9- We hung out at camp and got to rest and hang out. Swam and played volleyball today. We prepped for our upcoming trip.

1/10- My team of 15 left for Porto Alegre today. A little sad having to say bye to the other half of IMPACT, but it was exciting to see what God was going to have in store. We flew out of Brasilia to Sao Paulo, but our flight out of Brasilia was late, so we missed our connecting flight from Sao Paulo to Porto Alegre, so we had chill time in the airport. We got to Porto Alegre and went to the camp where we are working

1/11- 1/14 Working at Palavra da Vida (Word of Life) Camp this week. It was cool because this camp is connected with where my mom went to Bible School in New York. This week was staff training, so we learned the different duties we could potentially have. These included: cleaning bathrooms and collecting trash, setting up and tearing down for every meal, helping with the various activities throughout camp, or doing the dishes. Each day we were trained in a different area. We have had rice and beans at every meal except breakfast so far! There are a lot of missionary kids (MK's) and a lot of people who speak english, which is really helpful.

1/15 So today we left for the city of Porto Alegre. We hung out and just learned about the church and met the pastor. Figured out our host homes. My host home was TK, the youth pastor, and I roomed with a classmate James and Daniel or SLC (RA).

1/16 Today was fun, we hung out at the church and prepped for VBS tomorrow. Through google translate and spanish, I was able to hear my host's testimony! It was so cool to see God through him, and see a fellow brother in Brazil. After VBS prep, we went to a juvenile center for guys and girls, and Jessica shared her testimony with the girls and I shared my testimony with the guys. This was such a humbling experience, and it was such a privilege to love on these kids!

1/17- Led worship for VBS and got to hang out with the kids at the church. We did arts and crafts and games. We went into the city to go shopping. We just walked around and took in the city. One of our teammates had to go back to the U.S.A today because of an injury. We had a celebration with the youth of the church at night. Helped with worship and just had fun dancing and singing.

1/18 We changed churches today. We also got another translator. It is so helpful to have more people who can speak both english and portuguese. Today was a rest and transition day. I was able to go to a wedding tonight with a few of my classmates, which was awesome! My clothes were dirty, so I was a little underdressed.

1/19 Went to the local park and had a service for the kids. A lot of people showed up and we had Mary Anna present her testimony which was incredible! We had a puppet show for the kids at the park and presented the Gospel! So incredible to see the body of Christ in action in the world!

1/20 Went to a foster home today! Loved seeing the kids, and seeing that adults had a heart for those deemed "unloveable". Christ was definitely showing me who He was and is through Porto Alegre.  We played games and ate there. We headed back to the church, and I helped lead worship for the Sunday night service, which was incredible. They did songs in portuguese, and we sang them in english!

1/21 Went back to camp today, and picked our jobs for the week. I picked dishes, thinking that it was going to be easy, but I had forgotten that there were campers this week and not just staff. Just hung out with camp staff and got ready for campers!

1/22-1/27 Did dishes the whole time. I got pretty close to the kitchen staff, and in particular a guy named Japa and Victor, and a classmate Bruce! I loved getting to know them and seeing the friendship has no language. If you smile, they smile back. I got pretty darn good at cleaning dishes. It was sometimes exhausting, but God humbled me through this work. I met some awesome campers and was able to hear some of their testimonies, which was incredible Our God knows no limits, He has a heart for the nations. Loved just getting to know and serve the people at Palavra da Vida.

1/28- We left today. A really sad day, I honestly didn't think that I was going to get close to anyone, but I for sure did. It was bittersweet. I still miss my friends and brothers and sisters in Christ back at PV-Sul camp. We flew back to Brasilia, and were picked up by our girls SLC, Karen. We drove to a church where we were going to be having VBS that week, and were surprised by the Sao Paulo team. Went out to eat a Burger King that night, and then went back to Agua Viva farm.

1/29-2/1- Worked in the mornings setting up a ropes course at Agua Viva, then in the afternoon, we did VBS at a local church in Brasilia. I did to music part for every team. We met a family from Texas who had recently moved down to Brasil. It was so encouraging to talk to them, and the fact that they were from Texas, was a blessing. Ate a lot of cotton candy and food over this week! The church had food for all the volunteers, so I definitely took advantage of that, and ate some of the snacks! Loved hanging out with these kids and seeing their joy. It was difficult getting them to pay attention sometimes, but it was an awesome learning experience.

2/2 We went to the mall today and flea market. Bought a few souvenirs for family and took in Brasilia. Today was a relaxing day with everyone.

2/3 Went to church today, and worshipped with my Brazilian brothers and sisters. They had breakfast at the church, so we ate there. For lunch we went to a Brazilian steakhouse. They are amazing! They have so much food and so much meat. After lunch, we went to the mall for a few hours, then we went back to church for a main night service and then a youth service. The church was very traditional, but was really cool. The youth service was fun as some of them spoke english. Last night, so we all just said our goodbyes, which was hard.

2/4 We left today :( We debriefed the whole trip and said goodbye to all our helpers and translators. We  had lunch at camp, then went to McDonald's for dinner and then off we were. Definitely a sad day. Brazil was incredible and God did some awesome things. Hopefully He will allow me to go back some day!

Sorry this post is super late! I started it a month ago, but just finished it in the middle of March! Times flies. Hopefully I'll be posting more about what I experienced God doing there, but this is just a small timeline of what went on while we were in Brazil!
To all those who supported me through prayer and/ or finances, THANK YOU! You guys made this trip possible, and I am truly grateful for all y'all did.

His unworthy servant,
Stephen Hargis

Confessions Pages & Our Response

So recently, there have been new and disturbing pages popping up all over Facebook and Twitter, all for the same purpose- anonymous confessions. I have seen and read a few of these pages to see what is being said, and my heart is deeply saddened by the posts. So many are sexually explicit talking about people's body parts and wanting to have sex with a certain person. Some of them are also cyber bullying, and belittling or demeaning towards others. One such post from my high school's twitter confessions page says "It makes me cringe that (name omitted) claims God turned him straight. If gays can't accept themselves then how will society?" I think it is scary that people think that because what they say is "private" they can just spout of at the mouth. Such put downs and belittling is the perfect example of how sick and demeaning our society has become. So what is our response in dealing with these bullies and "anonymous" confession pages? I fully believe that as Christian we are not to be a part of such destructive pages and not be involved with the puttiing down of others. If you, a Christian, are an admin or creator or even an "anonymous" poster of such a page, you are not doing your job as a witness and are in fact destroying the potential of other believers every possibly reaching out to the people who are being affected by the hurtful posts. Ephesians 4: 29-31 shows us how we should be dealing with these pages and posts, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." We are commanded to let no unwholesome talk come out your mouths, how dare we talk behind others and hurt our witness as the Body of Christ. We are called to speak or post in order to benefit those listening, or in the case reading. IT GRIEVES GOD'S HEART WHEN WE TALK CRAP ABOUT OTHERS. Y'all that is crazy, God's heart is grieved by our actions... God cares about what you do, that is awesome, but it also means that we must be aware of our actions in light of the glory of the King. I think an awesome way to minister to the people anonymously would be to create an encouragement page, and share encouragement with your peers! The last verse from above says that we are to be compassionate to one another, what better way than to encourage your classmates!!!




Be lights, shine for the Kingdom!

His unworthy servant,
Stephen Hargis

Serving with Love and Humility

This past month God blessed me with the opportunity to go to Brazil to serve with my IMPACT 360 classmates. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing what God showed me through my time in Brazil, I hope you enjoy and and I pray that we, the body of Christ, will begin to take His Word seriously. 

Serving 

So during the past month I was given multiple opportunities to serve, and while I may not have taken every opportunity to serve, which is selfish and prideful, God still decided to teach me what true servant hood looks like. Philippians 2:3 states "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." So often when serving I find myself wanting recognition or I end up trying to do the least amount I can for it still to be considered serving. My goal is no longer what can I do to serve, but what can I do to get out of serving. This is half-hearted serving. This past week I had the opportunity to serve, and I took it, but in the middle of it, I wanted to stop and found myself questioning why this person deserve my service. I was sinning, and I tried to justify myself for doing it half-hearted. I wanted to still be seen as a servant but I didn't have a servant's heart. My goal was fleshly, I was serving out of selfish ambition and vain conceit, I honored my time and my flesh above my brother's and sister's needs. Galatians 5:13 shows how we should be serving one another; "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love." When serving and you began to focus on yourself rather than those you are serving, you are sinning. I had never really realized this truth and I have never been convicted of it until my mission trip to Brazil, but it became more apparent to me when I returned home to the USA. We are called in Colossians 3:23 that in "Whatever [we] do, work at it with all [of our] heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." When we take our mind off of serving and place it on what can receive through our serving, we are not serving with our whole heart. When serving even though initially you may have the right heart, but your heart changes into one of selfishness and how you can cut corners, you are not serving whole-heartedly, and you are sinning. I sin when my serving becomes an obligation and it is not out of love, but out of duty. So what should we do when we find ourselves serving and the serving starts to become selfish and prideful? I believe that we should continue to serve, because your flesh doesn't want you to continue to serve, but in Matthew 16:24, Christ calls us to "deny [our]selves and take up [our] cross and follow [Him]." We have to deny ourselves in order to be Christ's disciple, that's some heavy stuff. We have to proactively combat our pride and selfishness, and deny our desire to serve half-heartedly. If you recognize yourself not truly serving in love and humility like we are called to do, I would cry out to God for humility, but then combat your pride by serving with everything. Deny yourself and instead of serving for the required amount, go over your service hours and shows Christ's love. Don't just stop at folding the laundry like your mom asked you to do, but do the dishes as well, go and get the groceries for the week. The more you combat your false serving, the more enjoyable serving becomes, and you will find yourself with a desire to serve rather than a desire to do the minimum. God wants us to serve out of love, and He will not fail to give you a servant's heart if you seek Him out and cry out for humility.

His unworthy servant,

Stephen Hargis

Brazil

Oi,
Greetings from Brazil. My team and I have been all over Brazil this past week. We started out flying to Brasilia from Atlanta on the 7th. We stayed there for 2 days and just rested and had prep time. Brazil is so beautiful, God definitely is a creative and imaginative God. We then flew out on Thursday to Sao Paulo, and then from Sao Paulo to Porto  Alegre. We missed our first flight from SP to PA, and so we had to take a later flight, but all went well! We have been at a camp called Palavra de Viva, which is Word of Life. It has been really awesome getting to know the staff and train along side them. A lot of people here speak english, so it has been nice learning new portuguese words from the translators! God has been faithful through everything. I love just resting and seeing His creation and His awesome work. We are leaving today to go into the city of Porto Alegre and we are staying in host homes. We are going to a juvinile center and an orphanage this week, so please pray that God's unfailing love would be shown to the kids of Porto Alegre! One of the awesome things God is teaching me, is that the body of Christ is everywhere. I am so often consumed with American culture and my way of life, that I forget that God is everywhere. The staff down here are my brothers and sisters in Christ. How awesome is that! The body of Christ is present throughout the world! Praise God!

Prayer:

• A member of our team was injured, so please pray for a quick recovery and that God would heal him in His timing
• Patience in everything, as we have to have almost everything translated!
• Love for the people of Porto Alegre and Brazil in genneral
• That God would start a revival in Brazil and that He would be praised

In Him,

Stephen Hargis

Mission Trip

Howdy!
My team of IMPACT 360 students are about to head out to Brazil today! I am super excited to see what God can and will do in Brazil. Please pray however you feel led!

Specific Prayers for team:

• We would be unified in Christ and that His love would radiate from us
• Strength and finding joy in trials
• Patience

Please pray specifically for me:

• That I would have humility and do nothing out of selfish ambition so that I may not boast in myself, but that I would boast only in Christ
• Pray for receptiveness to God's will and that I would follow through and listen to what He is saying

God bless! 

I will try and update y'all a little over the trip, but if not, we return February 5th! Feel free to check out IMPACT's blog on the trip and follow what we are doing! http://www.impact360inbrazil.org

In Him,

Stephen Hargis

Break and Pre-Break

Sorry, it has been a while since I have updated y'all on my life! So the week before the break we had an awesome time learning from Frank Turek who co-wrote "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist". We learned and re-learned some very important issues necessary to defend our faith and some talking points to bring up with atheists or agnostics. His lecture was very insightful and helpful. Sunday we had a Christmas party at Chickfila and we were able to meet the founder of Chickfila, Truett Cathy and his wife. We also met all of Truett's children who are all involved with Chickfila. Throughout this year, I have grown to respect and love Chickfila even more than before I started IMPACT 360. Chickfila is such a solid and grounded company, willing to hold fast to its values in the midst or radical attacks from an increasing immoral generation. We had a white elephant gift exchange on Thursday which was pretty fun. It got quite loud with all 30 of us in the living room, talk about the noise! We ended off the week before heading home with a day of prayer. It was pretty awesome. I flew home December 7th and was pretty excited to come back. I was the only one from my core group of friends to come home so early. But I had a friend from LSU come home the next day, so it turned out to be fine. I hung out with that friend for pretty much the first week till the rest of my church's old senior bible study group showed up. I got a job at UPS the week of December 9th and started work that next week. I have had a lot of free time, and the UPS job was fairly easy and I got paid fairly well. My last day for UPS was Christmas Eve, so that was fun. I got my wisdom teeth taken out the 19th, and didn't really do anything for a few days, so I hung out and slept and watched movies without my parents getting upset! I had a few other friends who also got their teeth taken out, so I hung out with them as well. My family had a chill Christmas this year which I really enjoyed. I loved being able to celebrate Christ's incarnation as a man and the gift of salvation He brings through His birth. I worked on a puzzle with my family and we looked at lights and I went to the Meineke Bowl game this past friday to watch Tech wreck Minnesota! This break was definitely needed, but it was not without its struggles. I definitely found myself slipping back into apathy and laziness and not being proactive. Please pray that  I would be self-motivatated in the coming days as my team leaves for Brazil January 7th. Thanks y'all for reading and Happy New Year!

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray pray for my team and me as we head out for our mission trip to Brazil in a week!
• Pray for my family and that God would bring His peace and love into our house
• Pray for my friend's father who was recently diagnosed with cancer- pray that God's will would be done and for peace my his family
• Pray that God would reveal what I am doing this summer

Praise:

• Jesus became flesh a little over 2000 years ago and He died for me and you!
• ALL my funds have been raised for Brazil! Praise God
• For awesome time with family and friends
• A new year full of new and amazing opportunities

Thank you for reading!

Gig 'em & God bless,

Stephen Hargis