As we all plan our days to go to the YMCA to work off our Thanksgiving Day pounds, let’s remember that giving thanks to God for everything he gave us does not stop now because the holiday is passed. We should always give thanks no matter what time of the year it is. Sometimes I believe that we think it is okay to just give thanks over the holidays and thats enough. It is not enough. Think of how much God gives us on a daily basis that we don’t thank him for. Throughout your week try to thank the Lord for everything (I know that is a lot) that he does for you!
Until next week,
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4 days ago
So last week on this blog I talked about your friends. Do you tell them that you want to be their friend forever? Well as I said last week forever sure does not end so why don’t we look at our school (which is where you make most of your friends) as a mission field? Our schools are the perfect mission fields for all of us! We seem to want to go out of town to do missions and witness. I know that is easier to witness to someone that you don’t know, trust me I feel the same way, but we should care about our friends more than a total stranger. Now I am not saying that witnessing to strangers is a bad thing, because it is a GREAT thing, we just need to use our schools as a place to witness to everyone! This week while you are in school I challenge you to look for an oppurtunity to witness to not only a stranger but a friend too.
On a sidenote here. DNow is creeping closer and closer and we need to start looking for hosts and co-hosts! Men and women of the church this is a great oppurtunity to become involved with the youth ministry. It is a life changing experience to see your youth of the church on FIRE for God! Ask any adult chaperone that went to Mission Fuge last year, they will tell you how awesome it is to witness this amazing thing! I promise you will never forget it
Until next week…
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2 weeks ago
Do you ever wonder why our youth group doesn’t grow? I know what I do on a weekly basis. The reason that we don’t grow is WE WON’T GET OUT OF OUR COMFORT ZONES! Bro. Chuck tells us every week that the only way to grow is to get out and witness to our peers. Everyone knows someone that does not know the Lord as their personal savior. My eyes were opened last night when I thought about forever. Folks, forever does NOT end. Do you want that friend to burn for eternity? Or spend an eternity in a place with streets made of gold? Throughout the week I challenge you to think of friends you could possibly invite to church and remember, lets get out of our comfort zones!
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3 weeks ago
Rachel Hampton- God showed me that I don’t have to be in a position of leadership to be a leader. He showed me that I can be a leader everyday in the way I live my life. He showed me that being a leader is a lifestyle. He showed me that I don’t have to be perfect all the time to be a leader. He showed me that I don’t always have to do the “right things” and always be right- he hasn’t called me to that. What he has called me to do is to live a righteous life. He does want me to be righteous, to be a person of integrity. I can’t do that on my own, but with His help, I can. This is what leadership is- being a follower first and foremost. To be a leader you have to follow Jesus, and then you serve. You serve Him, and serve others- THEN you’re a leader.
Logan Daniel- At Pursuit Leadership, I learned that there is a leader in every one of us; it just has to be brought out. If you are a leader you aren’t the boss, you’re a servant. You have to serve in order to lead.
Taylor Walker- That being a leader isn’t just telling others what to do. Being a leader is about service to others. I also learned that I need to be genuine in how I act. The person I am on Sundays is the person people should see in me outside of church. I learned that there were two ministries for me. They are where I’m gifted, and where I am needed. Trying to be in a ministry I’m needed in to grow.
Mallory Perkins- At the start of this weekend, I had some doubts about me actually standing up and actually being a leader. But as the weekend progressed I finally decided to just stand up and be a leader. I finally realized failure will only make me stronger. And it’s also worth it if I’m actually serving the Lord. Also as this weekend progressed, I learned about my spiritual gift. My spiritual gift is encouragement. So I came up with a ministry. So please go to this leadership academy, you will learn A LOT.
1 month ago
Have you ever had a Sunday morning that you knew you had a lot to do but you didn’t want to do any of it? I felt that way this morning. Just getting back from M-fuge and staying out again that night with a family thing. I just didn’t look forward to all I had going on Sunday. However God redirected my thoughts as the day progressed. Here is how he did it. Two girls committed their lives to Christ this Sunday. This Sunday that I was too busy, but God was at work in their life and I had a chance to be apart of that. Boy, that changed the way I looked at Sunday.
I pray that we all would look differently at Sunday, not as a drudge but an awesome time we have with other believers and a wonderful Savior.
4 months ago
It is late or should I say early again as I type on this blog. It is hard for me to realize that tomorrow is our last day at site. Boy, this week has flown by. Today we had the evening off for free time in the city of Birmingham. What an experience, we went to the Mall; however everyone had a pleasant time. We invited our church host, Misti with us for the activity and supper. However we had a change of plans. Misti was a real blessing to us today.
What also made this day even more interesting was the fact that tonight’s worship service was at 9:00pm. It was amazing; once again God was drawing Ignite students closer to Himself. As we headed to Church group devotionals some students were dragging themselves to the room and complaining that they were tired. I once again was calm and reassuring. I told them to suck it up and come on. Only later did I realize that it was almost 11:00pm and that was the reason they were tired.
Something that I noticed this year at M-fuge was the closeness of the men’s group. The stories we shared and the laughs that we had were great. My prayer is that continues on when we get back home. I pray that the Holy Spirit moves in our worship services like He did here at camp. I am praying that a spirit of Revival will sweep through or church and congregation. So we can only say that it was a God thing.
4 months ago
Wow, what a worship service tonight. The Spirit of God was heavy on the place. The invitation was given and a room full of students responded to the Gospel. Our M-fuge pastor gave a second invitation for Christians to take a stand and many responded and flooded to the altar for prayer. I know many would say that was good. It was, however during Church Group time, God began to open up many of the students’ hearts. Many prayers and tears were shared this evening. It was an awesome experience that went on for an hour. Through this sharing time, I realized that it was exactly the same time that the prayer meeting was going on at Second Baptist Church at home in Hopkinsville, KY. I would like to say to all the people that are praying and have been praying Thank You. Your prayers were answered and I honestly hope that we can share this experience with you and fan the flame of faith to our church as well. Thank you Lord for moving in our midst despite ourselves.
I have heard some funny this that have happened this week but this one has to take the cake. Logan has placed Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the freezer. He gave one to Jim, Jim’s response was and I quote, “This is my High, this is my Crack?” “You could chop this up in a fine powder and sniff it up it is that good. We laughed till our sides hurt when we heard about this. It has been a great week.
4 months ago
Tuesday July 7, 2009 M-fuge log. The first full day at M-fuge many students had funny stories to tell about their events at the mission sites today. I guess the most random story would be the one Rachel Hampton experienced today. Her mission group is Creative and they went to visit area Nursing Homes. The main goal was to visit with the patience and just have a personal contact with many of the elderly that are there. Rachel began listening to a white hair lady that had several interesting stories to tell and the longer that Rachel would listen the more interesting the stories became. Needless to say Rachel learned a lot about this lady. It would be worth your while to ask Rachel about her experience.
For me the morning started earlier than I had wanted it to. Monday night I found out that many of our ladies need water and toilet paper from Wal-mart. So at 11:30pm I decided to find the local Walmart. I got as far as the front gate of the University only to find it locked. Trying to find a solution to my issue I called the Camp Director, which was unavailable. I reasoned that I would just do the run in the AM. Finally getting into bed around 12:30 am I could not get to sleep, finally asleep it was time to get up at 5:45am, I did not know there was a 5:45am, which leads me to say as I pen this tonight or should I say morning (12:04 am). It has been a long day, but a good one.
4 months ago
M-fuge Log Monday July 6, 2009, after 2 potty stops and lunch we arrived safely at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. A sigh of relief came across our faces seeing the first M-fuge sign. Then when we stepped out of the vans the true Southern humidity hit us right in the face. I guess we have been spoiled with low humidity and cooler temps in Kentucky.
It is seemingly funny that our motto for the week is “move” considering that we moved several miles today and moved into a new home for a week. This is common for many of us because we are on the move so much. But here is the question to ask, where is our move taking us? Is this movement moving us closer to God or farther away from God? I think we as American Christians need to ask ourselves are we becoming busy to fill a void that God needs to be in or are we trying to avoid hearing from God? I have heard preachers tell us we are constantly moving in our relationships with God. One either closer to Him or away from Him which one are you? What direction are you moving in?
4 months ago
I guess my favorite cookie of all time would have to be the Oreo and it has to be double stuffed. I don’t know why? Although, I am glad my wife doesn’t buy a lot of oreos. If and when she does she hides them, putting them in a cookie jar in the cupboard where I cannot see them. If they were at eye level it would be easy for me to eat them, all of them.
I heard a statement this weekend that made me think, “we are putting the cookies on a little higher shelf.” I believe that we have had enough of eating from the lower shelf. Therefore the shelf has been raised. Once the shelf is raised, complaining then follows. Just like when the little kid can no longer reach the cookies he cries and throws a fit until something happens.
Hearing comments like, there is nothing to do, where is everyone at, or there is nothing for me to do. It sound alot like, it is all about me. Well it isn’t about you it is about going to a higher level with God. It is ultimately up to you on how far you want to go.
9 months ago
