After a long day 1, we woke up refreshed and renewed for another day. After breakfast, we got right to business in studying God's word. We sang praises together and I will tell you there is nothing sweeter (besides my three boys' voices) than to hear 22 youth sing "Unstoppable God" to the top of their lungs early in the morning. Then to stop and invite the Holy Spirit and to tell him that he is welcome here.. He is here., we do know that. One of the kids told me tonight as we walked on the beach together and discussed the evening service that the house felt so much different than when we entered. It truly does.
We started the morning off with three pieces of scripture. We began in Exodus 20:12 with the commandment of "Do not commit adultery" and discussed why God has this commandement to keep us from breaking the Holy Union he made between husband and wife, when he created Adam and Eve. He also commands this of us, to protect us and our hearts from the pain and betrayl that comes from adultery. We then hopped over to the New Testament to Matthew 4:3-5 and learned that we are to abstain from sexual immorality and to have control of our bodies and not give into passion of lust. Consequences can come from passion of lust and often those consequences can stay with us a lifetime and leave us feeling empty. However, we were reminded that God can wipe away anything that is sinful and dirty if only we come before him, repent and asked to be made new.
During small group time, stories were shared and it was so sweet to see our girls slowly draw closer together as sisters in Christ and then to have our boys come up excited from their talks with Richard and Lee. What was going to be an hour and a half service turned into three hours of pure joy, worship and drawing closer to Jesus.
We then got our good clothes on and finally fixed our hair with hairspray and ventured out to Pirate's Voyage. We giggled, we screamed when the cannons fired, we ate, (oh did we eat a feast), and we oooohhhhheeeedd and aaaahhhheeeeddd at the acrobatics and the cutest little sea lion named Salty. It was good to get out and enjoy our time together. Each child said "thank you" as they got on the bus. It wasn't forced or encouraged. They want our church to know that they appreciate that and they really enjoyed it.
We came back to get back to God's word. They were so eager to dive in and they asked me to start earlier. While we met this evening a storm came up and we opened the door to the balcony and listened to the thunder roll and the rain pour down, washing away the dirt of the day, as we studied Matthew 6:24 and how we cannot serve two masters. We either follow God or the world. We then travelled to Psalm 23. Oh how I love teaching from Psalms, and we discussed how by choosing to serve God that we are asking him to be our shepard and we began to take the scripture bit by bit and talk about each line and what that looks like in our life.. I don't know about you, but I am pumped to know I have a God who is with me in the valley of the shadow of death, who uses his rod and his staff to protect me and to bring me back in, when my sinful flesh wants to stray.
When our closing worship time came, the Holy Spirit began to work in our kids. We raised our hands, we sang to the top of our lungs, we cried and I watched as youth sat and prayed over their friends. I am so thankful to have this opportunity. I am thankful to serve a loving God who loves these kids and wants to be the focal point in their lives and I am so pumped to see these kids opening their hearts to Jesus and beginning to drop years of guilt, shame, confusion, that were chained to them at his feet and allowing him to take over it all. It is such a sweet sight to see.
One youth rededicated their life tonight. To see them take that step is worth it all.
Keep the prayers coming. We can't wait to share this with you when we get back!
Love ya'll. Nite.
We started the morning off with three pieces of scripture. We began in Exodus 20:12 with the commandment of "Do not commit adultery" and discussed why God has this commandement to keep us from breaking the Holy Union he made between husband and wife, when he created Adam and Eve. He also commands this of us, to protect us and our hearts from the pain and betrayl that comes from adultery. We then hopped over to the New Testament to Matthew 4:3-5 and learned that we are to abstain from sexual immorality and to have control of our bodies and not give into passion of lust. Consequences can come from passion of lust and often those consequences can stay with us a lifetime and leave us feeling empty. However, we were reminded that God can wipe away anything that is sinful and dirty if only we come before him, repent and asked to be made new.
During small group time, stories were shared and it was so sweet to see our girls slowly draw closer together as sisters in Christ and then to have our boys come up excited from their talks with Richard and Lee. What was going to be an hour and a half service turned into three hours of pure joy, worship and drawing closer to Jesus.
We then got our good clothes on and finally fixed our hair with hairspray and ventured out to Pirate's Voyage. We giggled, we screamed when the cannons fired, we ate, (oh did we eat a feast), and we oooohhhhheeeedd and aaaahhhheeeeddd at the acrobatics and the cutest little sea lion named Salty. It was good to get out and enjoy our time together. Each child said "thank you" as they got on the bus. It wasn't forced or encouraged. They want our church to know that they appreciate that and they really enjoyed it.
We came back to get back to God's word. They were so eager to dive in and they asked me to start earlier. While we met this evening a storm came up and we opened the door to the balcony and listened to the thunder roll and the rain pour down, washing away the dirt of the day, as we studied Matthew 6:24 and how we cannot serve two masters. We either follow God or the world. We then travelled to Psalm 23. Oh how I love teaching from Psalms, and we discussed how by choosing to serve God that we are asking him to be our shepard and we began to take the scripture bit by bit and talk about each line and what that looks like in our life.. I don't know about you, but I am pumped to know I have a God who is with me in the valley of the shadow of death, who uses his rod and his staff to protect me and to bring me back in, when my sinful flesh wants to stray.
When our closing worship time came, the Holy Spirit began to work in our kids. We raised our hands, we sang to the top of our lungs, we cried and I watched as youth sat and prayed over their friends. I am so thankful to have this opportunity. I am thankful to serve a loving God who loves these kids and wants to be the focal point in their lives and I am so pumped to see these kids opening their hearts to Jesus and beginning to drop years of guilt, shame, confusion, that were chained to them at his feet and allowing him to take over it all. It is such a sweet sight to see.
One youth rededicated their life tonight. To see them take that step is worth it all.
Keep the prayers coming. We can't wait to share this with you when we get back!
Love ya'll. Nite.
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