Body Mechanics (IF YOU LOOK AT THIS AND THINK I DON'T WANT TO READ THAT MUCH, THEN SKIP TO THE BOTTOM AND READ THE SUMMARY)
     It is disturbing to me how comfortable we can become with dissatisfaction in our lives. These moments call for a person to reevaluate him- or her-self. Just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit act in one accord so must we --right down to the individual. A person has 3 images that reciprocate the trinity from what I can see:
1) The Doer (God)
          Just as God is defined by His deeds, so are we. Our actions represent our entire beings. How often do we hear a single action that someone has done and think that person differently for it (for better or worse). Take Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, yes I am about to reference Pride and Prejudice, this man is detestable. A totally prejudice jerk that breaks up a wonderfully happy couple. The horror! Yet, he redeems himself through his actions and suddenly we find ourselves not only liking the character, but wishing him the utmost happiness. Now, we are not defined by the actions people talk about, but the ones that they do not talk about. Picking up a piece of  trash when nobody's looking or paying for that family behind you at the grocery store. This is our first image, for better or worse there is no stable ground; it is always striving to be better or unattended is left to become worse.
2) The Talker (Jesus)
          Jesus was a man, it is in this that our hope lies, he had no supernatural birthright or special abilities, he was simply human. That is what makes him so special. Every deed he performed was through the power of God's actions. All Jesus did was speak the way God intended man to speak. His humanity is what made him just like us today. He did not plan. There was no deal made with God about how his life would play out. That is evident in the Garden of Gethsemane before his trial began, when Jesus says to God, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." He had no idea what was about to take place, but he trusted God to give him the strength to do whatever needed to be done. Never once does he speak in a manner displeasing to God. You want to know why we focus on what Jesus said? Not to simply memorize his words and spit them back out as though we are doing God's work, but to let the Speech of Christ manifest in ourselves to produce speech pleasing to God all day every day. Don't focus on What Would Jesus Do. Focus on What Would Jesus Say. If this is still hazy to you, go into PDX, LAX, or any airport of your choosing and yell "I have a BOMB," you will most likely notice that it provokes a lot of reaction in the people around you and stir up quite a bit of action. Congratulations, you have experienced what it was like when a person is constantly striving to speak in a Godly manner --it provokes action, but not from people, from God.
3) The Thinker (Holy Spirit)
          In the movies when we see that angel randomly appear over someones shoulder on the opposite side of the devil, that is the Holy Spirit. We are beautiful replicas of God's Image, but that makes us copies. Our senses are what trigger our thoughts and each sense is like a fax machine that is dialed in to our brain.      
          Whatever is within range of our perception is automatically scanned and sent to the brain. One of these fax machines is our thoughts. Which will be the one that I will focus on. The devil and the Holy Spirit have access to this machine and are constantly sending information through it. Then it is our brain's job to throw the information in the trash or file it. I hope you are still with me, if not reread this paragraph or you'll get really confused.
          The Holy Spirit is constantly working to help us purify our thoughts and prepare us for the challenges that are going to happen each day. If yesterday I received a message that had a cover letter from the Holy Spirit, and told me to donate half my savings account to the church, then I may decide to be stingy ad selfish and toss that letter in the trash. If I do this a few times, then I will get in the habit disregarding all letters from the Holy Spirit without even reading them. Meanwhile the devil is saying:
you earned that money on your own and you already tithed your ten percent, God is the one being greedy not you.
Which fax do you think I want to hear?
 Our free will is in that we can file the thoughts that we choose, but they are never our own thoughts. Remember this. Read it AGAIN. These are not our own thoughts, they are merely what we have in the file cabinet. That means the sinful thoughts in our heads are not ours, they belong to Satan, but neither are the righteous thoughts in our heads, They belong to God.

Thoughts are the foundation for both our speech and our action, therefore they are the most important. PERIOD. The deeds that we have done are a report of whether we have been filing the Holy Spirit or Satan's faxes. That is all they are. A pattern. A pattern that must be consciously changed by us. We must not only delete, but replace old files. Even from the Holy Spirit, If we have a job to do, we do not want to be looking at the schedule sent to us from last Tuesday, we want to know what is happening today, right now.

SUMMARY: Deliberately focus on your thoughts today, listen for any negative words that are not from the Holy Spirit and throw them out DO NOT DWELL ON THEM. Then you need to multiply the Holy Spirit's words by dwelling on them, fill your head with these words until there is no room for Satan's negativity. This is how you change the Words that come out of your mouth and the actions that you have and will choose to do.

May the Holy Spirit, be sending you all messages throughout the day to encourage and prepare you all for the trials of today. I love you all from the bottom of my heart and pray that you all know that impossible is the devil's word. May God do as He sees fit and each of your lives and may it come to pass with hope enveloping your hearts.

Ryan Reyna

Be Intentional: Be Righteous

Be Intentional

     After reading 1 John I better understand that the sin we carry in our hearts can be given completely to Jesus. We no longer live in sin which is described as lawlessness, when we live as intentional loving beings of God. This is what separates the righteous people from the rest of the world. Righteousness I do not mean to be interpreted as a boastful badge, no not at all, it is the greatest mark of humility, as John states in chapter 3:30 Christ must increase and I must decrease. 1 John 2:1 helps the righteous remain in God through Christ as the advocate which is what gives victory over evil. Thanks to Christ, the righteous no longer have sin abiding in them, meaning they no longer continue to sin, they stop diluting any part of the truth and choose to live for the entirety of the truth not just portions they deem beneficial.
     Perhaps it's better to state it simply, God sees our hearts. When love is intentional in all our decisions and we deliberately place others before ourselves; in other words, when we choose to care enough about those around us that we will intentionally deny ourselves and bear our cross then the effect should cause us to say, "hey, I'm sorry I haven't been loving you guys, but that changes today" or "hey, I realize I am hurting you through these things, that stops today" or "hey, I know we haven't talked in a long time and you hurt me really bad, but I need to forgive you so that you don't have to feel horrible about what you did your entire life, withholding forgiveness stops today"
     Righteousness is not a badge to be worn and shown off, it is a cross that is to be carried around daily, but if we fix our eyes on Jesus we will be able to endure that cross because at first glance it seems impossible, but it is a day-by-day process. We must deny ourselves daily and be intentional beings developing into more serious Christians daily. Be intentional today. Take action. There is only the righteous and the unrighteous, it doesn't matter what you've been, only what you will be today. and the same will be true when tomorrow is today and when Halloween becomes today, or Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, St. Paddy's Day, the Fourth of July, becomes today. Be intentional today.

I love you all more than you know, even if you doubt I can say this and truly mean it, I do in all my heart love every one of you,

Peace be with you,

Ryan

jesus at the university of oregon

awwww, school is back in session

there are so many fresh faces parading around

jesus lingers in the corners of the campus

everyday we follow teachers, friends: strangers

who would we turn to if our world turned

what would we do if clarity died

where would we be if the certainty of security fell

when will it happen, throughout history it always happens

why would god allow a culture to stray so far

yet there is hope on the corners

a light

who am i to spend each day serious about school

i want to be serious about god

he tells me to love people

i pray i never see people as jesus does in this life
jesus looked into the eyes of liars and loved

jesus looked into the eyes of adulterers and loved

jesus looked into the eyes of sinners and loved

jesus looked into the eyes of pedophiles and loved

i am not that strong

may my eyes gaze seriously into the heart of the lord

contemplating on his word daily

remember: hate the sin, love the sinner

welcome back to the university of oregon friend

Finishing the Race

Since when was school designed for procrastinating God and God for procrastinating school? A person constantly strives to categorize people, animals, objects, any form of phenomenon in life just as he or she does so with God, even if it is indirect or unknowing.
I never realized how much I separate God from school (perhaps this is due to religion being taboo in public education). I dread mixing God and school and much less try to harmoniously combine the two. Do I want to finish an educational race, then start my lifelong marathon with God or do I want to dropout of my educational race and get a "head start" on that lifelong marathon? There's way too much "I want" in there and I have come to realize through education I will learn more about truth than any other option available at this point in my life. I know that all truth points back to the creator so not just whom then shall I fear, but what shall I fear. Nothing is the answer, there is no truth, no teacher, no student, and no school that will be able to with hold God's truth.
Therefore Education and religion are both in sync. Each moment of every day that I am in school is no different than all other moments --they are opportunities to welcome wisdom and understanding.

Don't use God as an excuse to bail out on education and don't use education as an excuse to bail out on God. Learn the habits required to be a lifelong learner and the discipline to achieve it, it is then that a person can teach the younger generations how to adapt to an ever-changing culture.

Run and finish the race, if not for yourself than your family, your friends, your kids, and even more importantly those who have never truly seen Christ reflected in a Christian otherwise we are no different than the Jews of the Old Testament and wicked servants in the eye of the Lord. Remain encouraged and search your passions!

Labor Day Family Camp

What an amazing weekend. I volunteered up at Cascades Camp in Yelm, Washington. I brought my brand new Canon Rebel T2i along in order to document the experience, unfortunately I did not get to take many pictures during camp because the volunteer work load that started at 7:00 a.m and ended around 11:00 p.m. with breaks only for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I should thank Carlie for the wonderful photos.
Overall I am exhausted, but the exhausted a person feels after a very accomplished day of work. There is so much joy to be shared with others and it's amazing how a mere change of attitude by a single can affect an entire group of people for the better --or worse. I had the pleasure of meeting a man named Jake, aka Aflac, who was wonderful with the age group we were working with --1st-3rd graders. His presence in the group was the very boost I needed to make it through the weekend. He was confident in who he was in Christ and relied on the Holy Spirit to work in the kids. I learned that no matter what happens there is joy to be had under every circumstance, which includes school and work. I learned that the joy and fun that was spread at camp does not need to stop when we get back into the routine of our daily lives, but should press on even harder to show this love to those who never had the opportunity to experience camp or Christ for that matter.
I will bring joy in the classroom, especially to those who do not know Christ, in hopes that people will see Jesus in me and a seed will be planted in their lives. May people not only see the joy in my life, but be compelled to seek out the location of its source --Christ.

May all of you bring your own form of camp home with you as school starts, whether you are a parent or child, look past the stereotypes you have against those whom you feel you know so well, offer forgiveness and love to one another as Christ has offered forgiveness to us. After what was done to our savior's body to save us there is no sin against us that should be unforgivable. Forgiveness is the spark to the fire in our hearts that becomes the beacon of hope to those who are lost.

Blog/Faith Revival

Agape Kai Pisti has grown into a handsome young dog and I have grown in my love and faith. Over the past year I was able to trust God, follow His calling, and accept my role as a youth pastor.
It all took place gradually and then happened with a Bang! I felt God deprived all year, as though I was unable to do His work to the extent I wanted to/was able to. Now I see, God was preparing me for the Cascades Summer Camp where I am known as Seeker. I arrived on June 18th and left on August 8th. That's approximately 7 weeks at Cascades. The first two were spent in training and setting up the themes for camp, the next four were spent as a counselor, and my final week I was able to work in the kitchen for the Ranch camp. Nothing taught me how to love UNCONDITIONALLY like being a counselor. I had been setting up for two weeks and gave up a money making job (which is important for a college student) in order to serve these kids and sometimes their actions made it a tough job to love; however, if we are to truly love as God intended, then we are called to love without any expectancy weighing down our hearts and caging in the people we love --easier said than done.
Faith, I never truly grasped the word until my first camper came through the cabin door, he was a nice kid. He was quiet, tall for his age, loved to smile, but needed reasons to do it. His dad came in and chatted with me for a while and I could tell right away that I was going to be looking after what mattered most in the world to the father. I realized in this moment that I had to have faith in God doing work through me because I, Ryan Reyna, can accomplish anything, not by my own accord, but by the Jesus in me. That week I found out that his mom had passed away and it was really hard on the family because they were farmers and the dad did the physical labor while she did the house work and tasks such as signing the kids up for camp and driving them around. We talked and prayed about it for a long time. At the end of the week I met his older sister and what did I ask! "Are you his mother?" Fail. I prayed that this single moment would not nullify the actions of the week and if anything would show my camper that he must rely on God and God alone. I have faith that moment of failure did not destroy my camper's relationship with God, bu God was able to use that moment for His greater good.
At the end of the four weeks of counseling I knew --God was going to call me to be a youth pastor. I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. Why can't I serve God and make money Lord? God replied, "Store up your riches in heavens because although doctors heal the body, you will heal the soul." What do I say to that? Nothing. I just nod my head and stare in awe. The hard part now is listening for God's direction while trying to tell my parents my plans for school in order to be a certified youth pastor. God will provide, altough it would have been nice if there was one more book in Revelation telling pastors to major in _______ at ________ University with a minor in _______.


May God Bless you every day of your life with a knowledge of the little blessings He bestows upon you in hopes that you will be able to show grace and unconditional love and constantly grow in faith, just as the world must constantly go round.

"Love each other as I have loved you" - Jesus

Tired of Sleeping

By Ryan Reyna

I lay here in the wake of my own ambitions
The tide that washes over me by day and drowns the hope by night
Every night it rises, hindering the progress of a voyage still breathing
By day the water is calm, light reveals my destination
I've been ship wrecked on an island which is neither here nor there
God calls out, a ship he can guide, an island he will not
I am still, my motions mean nothing if I refuse to venture into the rolling waves
When I lay at the edge of the water I feel I am moving, but awake on the same island
I need not fear the failure to survive, but embrace the hope of living
I will build my arc and set my sails, the time is now
Summer has passed, how many more seasons will I wait
The outcome depends on the choice to lie here in the wake


Ah, I feel Better :) Writing is truly the catalyst from feelings into actions and reasoning the backbone. My reasoning is faith.