So what's next?

So I got done with the outreach that came after the School of Biblical Studies, and have been in my hometown of Sisters, OR since March 31st. Since being back I have primarily been studying with University of the Nations, Youth With A Mission's (YWAM) international university doing something called the Directed Reading Course. I have been so blessed to have read a few very intense books, which have been about church history, biblical background and various theological topics that have only strengthened my faith and given me more confidence to know that as I Christian I am following in the footsteps of thousands intelligent men who have gone before me who, after countless hours of study, prayer and living, can still confidently say they are convinced that the Bible is the inspired, true, reliable and authoritative word of God Himself! The Bible is awesome! It's so good to be a Christian!

So what's next? Over the last few years since joining Youth With A Mission (YWAM) God has taught me a lot about the importance of prayer and simple intimacy with Him. 1 Thess. 5:17 simply says “pray without ceasing” and all throughout the Bible we see that it is people who know God that are able to stand strong and obey Him with confidence in any circumstance. I’ve personally experienced such transformation in my own life as I sit at His feet and learn from Him. God has really showed me more and more how much He deserves the love, worship and obedience of every human being on the planet, and that He is longing to answer our prayers in line with His will and pour out His Spirit so that many souls would be saved and come to know Him. All across the Earth God is moving and raising up communities of prayer, prayer rooms and even 24/7 houses of prayer. His house truly will be called a house of prayer for all nations (go to ihopkc.org for an excellent and very influential example). I’m convinced that from the place of prayer we will see many people come to know Jesus, who will then start praying and see more people come to know Him! There will be an awesome explosion of salvation all across the Earth! God is truly doing something powerful!

Because of what I’ve learned and how God has led me, I’m staying with YWAM but moving to Washington DC. There is a base in DC that is seeking to establish a community of 24/7 prayer in the capitol of America, and I’m going to join them on June 9^th, 2013. We really desire all of America to come to know Jesus, and to be a blessing to the nations and believe that 24/7 prayer will be a vital part of seeing that happen. This year they’re also running two Discipleship Training Schools and are going to set up a tent on a big patch of grass (called the White House Ellipse) right next to White house for 40 days of nonstop worship to the one true God and His divine Son Jesus from September 24th-November 5th. As for my part, there are many roles to be filled, so I will probably do many different things as they are needed. At the same time, the enduring template of this base is that everyone would spend about half their time contending in the place of prayer, Bible study, worship and intercession, while the other half will be spent in service to the base, partnership with local churches or outreach to the lost. Only God knows exactly what I’ll be doing when I get there, but that is the basic template for time management. I’ve also decided to stay in DC until God moves me somewhere else.

As always, I need your help! I’m in desperate need of God’s grace in my life, and He said to simply ask and we shall receive. Please pray for me, Washington DC and all of America that we would come to know God and love Him with all of our hearts. If you feel led to give financially, that’s also very needed and appreciated! I’m seeking to raise $1,500/month to cover my expenses and be able to help out others in need. Please prayerfully consider partnering with me as I seek to know God and make Him known in America. Feel free to click on these words here to donate electronically, or click on these words for directions to write me a check and/or email me at uttleynathan@gmail.com if you’re interested in supporting me financially. Thank you and may God bless you in whatever He’s called you to do!

For the Lamb to receive the reward of his sufferings,

Nathan Uttley

Titus is over and God is good!!!

Hey everyone!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I have been so blessed on outreach and filled with joy as I was able to share God's word with many hungry people. By God's grace we were able to spend 8 weeks sharing much of what we had learned during SBS. My favorite part was to share the Bible Overview, which was a short summary of the entire redemptive story of the Bible. There are so many stories in the Bible that have so much encouragement, revelation and application to offer us. During the teaching time my greatest joy was to see people get excited about the Lord and His plan for the world and respond in love and obedience to Him. Thank you all the opportunity to share God's word with Philippines for 6 weeks and Taiwan for 2 weeks. I hope and pray that the past 3 months of training and application has started me on a journey of enjoying God's word and sharing that with others.

I hope that this video is encouraging as you see the pictures and some videos that we took from outreach: 

Paying taxes for the glory of God

For the last couple years, I've really struggled with paying taxes. Not only struggling to have the right attitude in my heart, but dealing with the conscience of giving money to a government that pays for stuff that morally I'm opposed to. I actually once considered not paying taxes as a protest against the government's use of my money to pay for abortions. That was a little intense...

Yet this year the Lord has done a change in my heart, and there have been some biblical texts that have changed my mind and heart.

The first is realizing God's heart for giving and obedience: "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Cor 9:7 ESV)

 The second is realizing that paying taxes was God's idea: “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” (Matthew 22:21 ESV)

^"6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed." (Romans 13:6-7)

So I've come to the conclusion from Scripture that paying taxes is not just the mandate of the U.S. government, but also the mandate of heaven. That really makes it more exciting when I get to obey God by giving money to someone that may not know Him. I'm also confident that the people who handle that money will answer to the most just Judge that ever existed. So I can vote, speak my mind publicly and pray constantly, and after it's all said and done GOD will right every wrong and clean up the mess we've made, and those that have rejected Him will receive their just punishment. God is in control! And yet at the same time I'm grieved when I hear the statistics of how my money is being used, even it's for one intentional abortion, because for whatever reason is one death is still too many.

So what do we do in this tension of being citizens of heaven while living in a dark world that needs the light? There are many godly responses, (and however we do it, paying taxes is a must) but for me as I've been led by the Spirit the words of Paul have been a comfort to me while thinking about taxes:
⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Why rejoice? Because ultimately all government comes from God, and is responsible to God and He loves a cheerful giver. So why not turn that frown upside down and pay our taxes with joy this year? If we don't have enough money to pay for it this year, let us pray with thankfulness with all that we've already received. God has given us so much in Christ (Eph. 1:3ff)! And then let us work hard for the glory of God, making the most of every moment we're alive so that we can give even more away to those that may be in need. I guarantee no matter how poor we are, God has a plan to provide for us everything we need and there is always someone in greater poverty than us. And of course, let us pray for the government that they will have the fear of the LORD, for the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Pr 1:7, 9:10).

So, I appeal to you, if you call yourself a Christian and want to submit to the authority of the Scripture, pay your taxes with joy and thankfulness, out of obedience to a generous, just and holy God who is watching everything that we do, and pray that our government will walk in the fear of the LORD and use those taxes for His glory as well. And pray for me that I will do the same. We are all in need of His grace :)

Journal entry after outreach in Philippines

Dear Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, I come before you in humility to thank you for all that you've done. Thank you that all things started with you, that you are the Creator and we are your creation. Thank you for the Bible, and that in the Bible we see your constant revelation to humanity. Thank you for all the prophecies, the predictions, the miracles, the warnings, the commandments, the promises, the judgements, the stories, the psalms, the songs, and the joy that I've found in your word. Thank you Jesus so much that more than 4 years ago you reached down and you grabbed my life in such a way that I've never been the same. Thank you for revealing yourself to me.

And thank you so much for the last 9 weeks of my life. Thank you so much for the Titus Project, that you sent teachers to teach us how to teach others. And thank you that by your grace for the last 6 weeks I've found such delicious joy in proclaiming who you really are. Thank you for the Bible Overview, for the opportunity to share the redemptive history that we see in the Bible. Thank you for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hope, redemption and life we have through simple faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you that you're coming back again, and as Bible teachers we were simply able to proclaim the greatest story ever written, and thank you that it was completely inspired by your Holy Spirit. Thank you that the power of your Spirit was with us to preach and teach with all boldness, having confidence of the tradition that was passed down to us from Jesus Himself.

Thank you so much for the Philippines, that you have created those beautiful people to love you and adore you and live their lives for you. Thank you for the gracious hearts that they have had. Thank you that even in their weakness they are so loved by you. God I pray that you would pour out your Spirit upon them even more, that they may know you as you can be known, so that they may love you as you can be loved. Jesus you are so worthy of all the honor, glory and praise. Fill them up with the knowledge of you!

And God as I look forward to the next 2 weeks in Taiwan of outreach and 1 week of debrief, above all else I desire that you would pour out your Spirit, that through our weakness you would be seen as great and glorious, and that every high and lofty thought that raises itself up against the knowledge of you would be taken down. God pour out you Spirit upon Taiwan like never before and raise up a church that glorifies you!

In Jesus mighty name I pray, amen.
Your son that was purchased by the blood of the Lamb,
Nathan

Lecture phase is over, time for outreach!

Hey everyone!

Thank you so much for praying for us all in the the Titus Project as we have been preparing for outreach. (Wondering what is Titus Project? Go to http://titusproject.com/ to find out more!) This last 3 weeks we had much time in the classroom, both receiving in lectures from our staff and practicing teaching to each other. We covered various topics, such as teaching the Inductive Method Overview (inductive method is explained more below), preaching on a specific passage, Bible Overview- going from Creation all the way to the Second Coming of Jesus, and team teaching through a specific passage while going through the text inductively.

By God's grace I was able to teach the Inductive Method Overview. 1=Observation 2=Interpretation 3=Application

For those of you who don't know, the inductive method is human made method, and it is an attempt to humbly come to the Scriptures, not by imposing our preconceived ideas upon the text, but allowing the text to shape our beliefs and practices. We practically do this by being very prayerful, observing the text, studying historical background to figure out what the text meant to the original audience, and then figure out how we can apply the truths that were spoken long ago to ourselves today. It is so exciting, and this is the method that we used through the School of Biblical Studies (SBS) that I was a student of last year in Taiwan. We just learn so much when we come to the Scriptures humbly with a desire to learn so that we may be transformed!

And it's because I've had such an amazing time day after day learning from God's word that I'm so excited to take what we learned and impart to some of the people of Asia. I really have been so blessed by being a part of SBS I feel compelled to bless others. My team leaves tomorrow, Monday January 28th and we go to the Philippines for about 5 weeks, and then come back to Taiwan for the remaining 3 weeks. We're going to be teaching the Bible quite a bit, and I'm so excited to be on my amazing team! I'm the only young man, and I'm with three other young women, all of whom love the Lord with all of their hearts! It's going to be fun!

Team Philippines from left to right: Nathan, Cari, Jeanine, Annet

If you want to pray for us, please pray that:
1. God would pour out His Spirit in power, that we would have the boldness to speak His word, many would be convicted and signs, wonders and miracles would follow us everywhere we go.
2. We would be able to be fully pleasing to God in all of our conduct, that all of our speech, thoughts, actions, etc. would be out of love for our great God and for others.
3. We just want God to be glorified, so please pray that God would help us live for Him wholeheartedly every single day!

Merry Christmas and enjoy this song about Jesus!

Hello everyone who reads my blog and has probably prayed for me and supported me financially!

I am so excited, because the Lord has given me so much this year and I get to give some back to all of you as well! Just as Jesus said "You received without paying; give without pay.” (Matt. 10:8b, ESV) Throughout the course of the past few years since seriously following Jesus, I've been super blessed to able to receive from the Lord and write down some songs. Most of them are praise, adoration and worship to the Lord, and some of them are messages from God to me, His saved children or everyone in general, and some are me preaching to my soul truth about God like the psalmist did (Ps. 42). By God's abundant grace I hope to continue to work on them and record them all so that they may be a blessing to the nations of the Earth. As a Christmas present to help you celebrate Jesus, here is the first song I've ever shared publicly called "Highest Praise" which is simply about Jesus, how amazing He is, and just giving Him the praise due His name. I hope and pray that it is a blessing to you all. (email me at uttleynathan@gmail.com if you want me to send it to you for free so you can freely share it with others as well. Sorry I couldn't just the file on Blogger, Blogger wouldn't let me) Enjoy, and I hope this leads you to worship Jesus and live your whole life for His glory!

SBS is over!

Praise the LORD!

I never thought I would make it through, but now that SBS is over it seemed to have gone by so fast. But life is but a mist (James 4:14) so what do I expect. I've been seriously so blessed by all that God has given me and blessed me with during these last months. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me financially and spiritually through prayer and finances. I'm so blessed by each one of you who have given me money for school, food, and little extra to bless others, and even get ice cream sometimes. I certainly have been well taken of. Thank you all!

As for what is next, right now I'm spending time just looking back at all that happened this past year, meditating on Scripture, and seeking the LORD to know Him more and more. I hope it's going to be a great time of refreshment. I also hope to spend time catching up with old friends, family and supporters, and if anyone wants to Skype please let me know, I'd be happy to talk with y'all! (Skye name=thenuttley) I also need to read a few books before the end of this quarter, and I'm also working on recording and refining some of the songs that I've writing lately. 

Then, on January 7th I'm starting the Titus Project, which is a 12 week program, consisting of 3 weeks of lecture phase and 12 weeks of outreach. It is specifically for SBS graduates, to equip us all to teach and preach and to take Bible teaching where it is most needed and we can most effective. (http://titusproject.com/) I will going on outreach to the Philippines for a month and then to Taiwan for a month.

If anyone feels led to pray for me, please pray above all else that I would hear God's voice clearly and do all that He wants me to do, so that I would walk in a manner worthy of His calling on my life and be fully pleasing to Him. (Colossians 1:9-11) Also, please pray that I would have more wisdom to use my finances skillfully and that I would have all I need to go on outreach. Please pray for the anointing of God on our words as we teach and preach, that the Holy Spirit would lead us all into believing truth (John 16:13), would cut us to the heart and bring us to repentance (Acts 2:37), so that we would lay down our lives and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23-24), loving God wholeheartedly and loving people like Jesus loves them. (Matthew 22:37-40, John 15:12). I would also greatly appreciate prayer to know what exactly God wants me to do with the songs I've been writing. 

Thanks!