The Difference

I am amazed at the difference that God makes when you simply step out and allow him to do his work. I know it's hard to believe that I am already working towards summer camp, but I am. I am trying something different this year with fund-raising. I am working on sponsorship packages for students to start sending out to people I know and for my leaders to give out. So I sent out this message today asking a few students to answer a few questions.

Favorite Bible Verse:

How has God impacted your life this year?:

What is your favorite thing about Church?:

What callin do you believe God has called you to?

Favorite Activities?:

Why do you want to attend camp?:

Write a brief description of where you are at with your relationship with God. PLEASE be honest, no Sunday school answers.

The two responses I have received so far has been humbling in many ways.

1st Response 


My favorite verse is in 2nd corinthians. Remember how you put it in my letter?
God has actually opened my eyes and I think I'm more aware of all the blessings and now I actually thank him for everything that happens and keep in mind everything is his plan and on his time.
 
My fav. Thing is small groups and talking about everything and asking questions and also the fellowship and wingstop!

I think he's called me to share in sufferings with all people in any and every way I can.
My favorite activities are spending time with friends and my girlfriend.

I wanna go to camp because it helps me regain anything lost with God. All these people come together for one purpose, its truely inspirational and it actually impacted me last year.  

2nd Response 

•Ephesians 6:11-17
•He has given me the most amazing ppl and thinks i could ever ask for
•Hereing the work of god and seeing everyone here his word
•To be in law in forcement
•Football,softball, all sports,and hang with friends
•Every year could be a good experience and it would be fun.
•My relationship in god is good I feel like I'm close to god and I live my life by the way god what's me to. 

By the way I didn't change any of the grammar or spelling, left it just the way I received it for you. The reason this was humbling to me is because it was God's way of showing me that we are on the right track. My prayer was that it could become less about a program and more about lives being transformed.

^{The Message}  2 Corinthians 4

^1-2Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.
 ^3-4If our Message is obscure to anyone, it's not because we're holding back in any way. No, it's because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention. All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won't have to bother believing a Truth they can't see. They're stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we'll ever get.
 ^5-6Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we're proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.
 ^7-12If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!
 ^13-15We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!
 ^16-18So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever. 

That was the verse I sent to that young man...okay it was a chapter. The difference is that now I am seeing lives transformed and not just a change here and now. Listen to me allot of our students are still raw and we still a work in progress. Which is why every Wednesday before we go into small groups I always say the following.

This should be a time and place for you to come and ask any question and struggle with anything that has to do with the Lord. Leader's your teaching should always point back to the cross and the salvation that the blood of Christ bought for us. I don't care if there are 10 of them here today or three it is God's plan.

It has been that message from my leaders and the relationships built that has brought change. It's kind of funny when you beg students to bring there friends to church, they won't. When you point them to scripture about their calling and responsibility it seems to click. When you tell them....  

if you have no interest in praying for your friends and reaching out but you will bring them for a prize or to be recognized for doing something good...that is not how God fly attended it to be and that will not fly with us either. You keep coming, you are welcome and if your friend decides to come they are more than welcome to come, but we need to partner together in reaching people. So please do this because you care deeply about their salvation.    


It has been because of that we have been able to see God come in and take care of his children. We have to work at allowing God to be the change not us. Going to God in prayer and begging for someones soul.  

²If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us.

God please help me to get out of the way and your will to be done. I want to hear so bad "Well done Good and Faithful Servant." 

 

Here is our King

He is our God" and since he is our God what does he command from you and I? For so many people the Bible has more to do with what we are to do and not to do. I believe most of us would understand "the rules" but do we truly understand what it takes to live as our God? We read about his son on the cross and how to the end he loved. He was a man that was spit on and looked down on. Before we he was sent to that cross he was beat and was a savior that went last so you and I could be first. The cross is something that should be celebrated by his people and at the same time we should show the cross to others.

I believe the one thing that would have changed my life growing up would be someone showing me the cross. I must admit, it is so hard to show. We make it seem easy but it's not. That day on the cross it was so much more then just a man hanging there....it was man hanging there calling us out of death and into life. To think at one point I was dead and now I am alive is not easy to understand. But what I do understand is that my life should show the same dedication.

1John ^7-8My dear friends, I'm not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you've known it from day one. It's always been implicit in the Message you've heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!

In 2010 when I look around I ask myself is this what God had in mind? I know God knew what would happen and what is to happen. But the last couple of weeks with an earth quake in Haiti and mud slides in California it makes you think for a minute, is this the way God wanted? I believe the answer is NO! However I am understanding what God wants more and more.... I believe he wants the cross to be a blazing light in a dark world. When I read about human tracking I ask myself, "What can I do?" I believe showing that God is love and allow the cross to do it's job will make the true difference.

The last year of my life I believe I have made a huge change in how I think and believe. I believe so many times we make the cross selfish and we feel that God is most satisfied when we feel good. I am understanding more and more, when I don't feel very comfortable that is when God has me right where he wants me. Please hear me, I am not saying we are bad people because we want the American dream. I am saying I believe God has something bigger for you and I. I believe it has more to do with how we respond!

So with Haiti how will I respond? We'll last week I did my # whatever to give but I believe I am going to follow the lead of a fifteen year old I know. He was at lunch one day and was thinking about the people in a land of poverty and distress and how they were living before an earthquake. So he made the choice to still take the lunch money from his parents but use that to give to a fund. His friends started follow his lead and now there is a lunch table at a local school with a bunch of students who throw there lunch money and a bucket and have started to fast from food one meal so someone else could get the help they needed.

You see at the cross we find something more then just love, we see what sacrifice should look like. I have kids in our youth group that is going to start fasting so that they can give. I believe with all of my heart God has called his people to so much more then just living a life and Going to a Bible study so we can grow spiritually. I believe we must receive from him so we can give to others. I now believe that is a time for God to show up and rescue his people from what Satan meant for evil. This is our chance to fulfill the will of God and to open our eyes to what God has for you and I.

My prayer: Dear God please help us and rescue us from ourselves and what we believe to be comfortable. God show us what it means to carry our own cross. 

Take a look

This is very awesome...Found it on a friends blog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something New

The least few month God has been doing a new work in me. Not in a ministry way or even in a personal way....but from a view point and how I see things as a human. Understanding people and there culture has become very important to me and how I do my work and ministry. Working with students in the Bible belt can become draining and very hard. Even though daily I encounter student's who are hurting from their mistakes or the mistakes their parents have made. I believe this is because we live in one of the greatest cities and so many people are not happy with it. This includes me at times. But when I sit and thank about all that I have here is awesome...God's house is all over this town. Their is a place for every person in this city to worship...but yet we struggle. Now I could extend this and say that when we look at America as a whole, we have the same type of attitude. I started thinking about this when I met two students from different countries. They were in my class, their English was broken and they struggle to understand...but when I asked "What is so different about America?" they replied people aren't happy, they are always mad. WOW, now I understand this not everyone and I believe there are people who are thankful in America. What hit me was "I can be that person they are talking about." For those two students they came here to become better people and to find a new way of life.

I need to understand that God has done so much in my life and when I look around I have so much. This is something that I believe that God will honor. Is it okay to have stuff??? Sure! Is okay to have fun??? Sure! Is it okay to enjoy life??? Yeah it is! But lets not forget we also have a job and I believe it's more then a Bible study, it's a life style!