Stuck in Mediocrity?

Over the past few weeks, I've read several books about doing something huge and out of the ordinary for God. A couple from Mark Batternson, "Wild Goose Chase" and "In a Pit with a Lion on a snowy day", and now I'm reading "Your God is too Safe" by Mark Buchanan.
It's so easy to fall into "borderland", as Buchanan calls it, or being stuck with God. We're in the safe zone with God. We want Him to stay at a distance, and not call us to something uncomfortabe, because we LOVE comfort. But most times, God is calling us to something big and dangerous so that we actually have an impact for His Kingdom.

These books have been challenging me to do something HUGE for the One who did something HUGE for us.

Some of our teen leaders will be heading out for Kids Kamp weekend training tomorrow. Maybe this is where my passion will be renewed and I'll actually DO SOMETHING BIG for God.
Maybe I'll get UNstuck from this pit of mediocrity. That's my prayer.

1Life

Another great week gone by at TLC 09 at Bogg Springs. Nothing like meeting new friends, pick up lines, speedos and incredible worship. Summerhill did a fantastic job with music and Bro Billy Driggers brought the Word. Great challenges from Bro Driggers this week. The theme of the week was 1Life, because we only have one life to live and when we miss opportunities, we will never get them back.

I think the week did a lot of good for much of out youth. Just an incredible week over all. Hearts moved. Students changed. New friendships. Most of all, God glorified.

A Sticky Situation

As I was reading from Daniel chapter 3 tonight, I caught a great idea of something that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said. King Nebuchadnezzar had built a 90 foot tall image of gold and demanded that everyone bow down and worship it, and whoever didn't, would be thrown into the fiery furnace.

You know the story.

The trumpets sounded and the 3 refused to bow down to the image, so they were brought to the king. Nebuchadnezzar gave them one last chance to bow down, and then said "But if you do not worship it, you will be immediately thrown into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?"

I absolutely LOVE the response Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego give to the king."O king, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

WOW!

Incredible response to the KING. I think these three servants knew something that we could all learn a lesson from. They KNEW that the God they served was capable of bringing them out of the furnace. But even if God didn't rescue them, they would keep worshipping Him, and would refuse to bow down to the image of gold, because our God is the only one who is worthy of our praise.

Sometimes when I get in a situation like this(I realize it's nothing this extreme), I just expect God to rescue me. I expect God to give me my every want, even if it's not what I need. So maybe what I need to do is to continue to worship God and instead of underestimating Him, praise Him because I know that He is in control no matter what happens.

Another City Reach Gone

City Reach is over, and I'm pretty disappointed it's over. Being home is always nice, but I miss everyone. I miss Aaron Johnson and Tim Ward and everyone from MD and everyone else that was there. I miss messages from Mark Tanious and worship with Matt Miller. I believe there were 43 professions of faith this week, in which some were with the CR groups. But it's not about the numbers. It's about the individuals whose eternity is secured and heaven is rejoicing over them. This week wore me out, as well as everyone else from our group. But that's what happens when you serve. Serving is hard, but it's what we're called to do. I think City Reach gets better every year, and I cannot wait for New Jersey next year with Stephen Keith. I can't wait to see what God has planned for the rest of the summer. I pray that we fix our eyes on Jesus and don't let this world distract us.

Problems

As we make out way to WAPA, for City Reach, we have expierenced a few problems. We get around Nashville, TN, and we get a call from the youth pastor of Beech Grove Baptist Church if Fordyce, AR. Their van has broken down, and they need some transportation. It's about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and we try to find Beech Grove. It took us about 30 minutes to find the stranded City Reachers. Somehow or another, we have exactly enough seats for the Fordyce church to hop on. Divine Intervention? Probably. We took about an hour and a half trying to fix their van..unsuccessfully. They get on with us, and we get about 45 minutes down the road to take a dinner break. We stop at Mcdonalds for a nice meal, and tried to hit the road. We got a few miles down, and noticed our lights going out on our bus, and realized our alternator was going out. We're 4 hours from our destination from the night, about 20 minutes outside of Bowling Green. And of course, rain comes down as hard as ever, along with some nasty storms. A few of us drive about 45 minutes out of the way to find an Auto Zone, in which the Auto Zone was only about 10 minutes from our hotel. As I write this, our bus is being worked on. Pray for us. Pray that our bus is fixed and we can successfully make the rest of the trip to WAPA to impact lives. I guess this is the first time that I've really noticed the power of Satan. I've never really noticed Satan at work like this, but he can definitely throw some obstacles our way, and lots of them. Now that I think about it, why is it that our church bus is always breaking down on the way to conferences, mission trips, and other activities that impact lives for the glory of God? It's not a church trip anymore if a vehicle doesn't break down..guess that's just how it works now. So I guess what we do now is pray, pray, pray.

City Reach 2009

Tomorrow morning, Sharon Baptist Church will be leaving for Washington, Pennsylvania. This will be my thrid year at City Reach, and it far surpasses any other camp, conference, or church trip I've ever been on. Maybe it's because of the other people who attend City Reach. I've never been around 250 other students who have been so dedicated to Jesus Christ. Maybe it's because the thousands of people in one city that are positively impacted for the glory of our God. Maybe it's because it's the first time that I opened my eyes to where God wanted me in His ministry. How will you impact others for God's glory this year? What are you going to do that just maybe someone will be shown the Light of Jesus? But I have one question. Why is it that we wait for a time like this to share the Gospel? What's the point in driving 1500 miles to share the Gospel if you're not already doing it where you're at? God bless. Pray for CR09.