Youth Group

Last night for youth group, everyone shared a lil' about what's been on their heart's and/or what they've been reading in their quiet times. 

Gracie started us off with a story out of Brio about a girl in Indonesia who had been persecuted for her faith. We then turned to Hebrews 13:5b-6:  

"'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, ' The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'"

and Matthew 5:11-12:

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

We may or may not be persecuted for our faith. Yet, even if we are we don't need to fear! God says that He will never leave us. For

"What can man do to me?"

Man may hurt our bodies, but he can never destroy or take away God's love from us!! How amazing!

Next was Ian, he shared out of Psalm 139:13-16:

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Ian shared just how amazing it is, and kinda hard to comprehend how God knows everything! He knew what each day will and would hold for us before any one of those days ever came to be! And this verse also shows God as the Creator! He knit us together in our Mom's womb! He saw us before our parents ever did :) Wow!

Next was Thomas. He shared from Psalm 15:

" LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart, and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken."

Thomas said that when he first read this he was like, "Cool, so if I do all these things, then I can dwell in the Lord's sanctuary!"... And then he reread it and was like, "Woah!" Only those whose walk is blameless... who does what is righteous... who has no slander on his tongue... who keeps his oath even when it hurts.. etc.  Wow, uh, who can do that?? Thomas pointed out how much this chapter points to God's grace! It's only by Him, sending His Son to take the punishment for us all that we can dwell in the Lord's sanctuary! It sure isn't by anything we've done! God's grace is incredible!

Next was Andrew. He went through Psalm 73. Sorry, it's a long Psalm so I won't write it all out here, but basically Asaph is saying, "Lord, all these people who aren't following You are getting away with so much stuff!! Why aren't You doing anything? I'm here suffering and yet I'm the one following You?!" He keeps going on to say how maybe he should turn away from God, cause it sure seems like the other people are living better! Andrew said how sometimes we think like that too. Like when we hear about these people who stand outside and say, "If there is a god I command him to strike me dead!" And he doesn't get hit by lightning! And we're just bewildered at why? Why didn't God strike him dead?! I think it's like Andrew said, God doesn't take commands from us! He has everything planned out! These couple of verses tie it all in, Psalm 73:21-24:

"When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory."

Asaph, after thinking that everything He's ever done in his life, while living for Christ, was in vain turns around and says,"No, it wasn't in vain! Look at what I was, a sinful, ignorant person, and You saved me! Now You are with me, guiding me and helping me! And one day I will be with You in glory!!!" Asaph realized that these times in his life were just a sliver of a trial and one day he would be with God forever! So he kept his focus on the things ahead!

After Andrew was Damarise. She shared from Hebrews 12:5b-6:

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

Damarise said how encouraging this verse is. The Lord punishes those He loves! She referred back to when we were kids and getting disciplined and how we hated it! But now, now we look back and we appreciate it! We're thankful that our parents did discipline us! They showed their love by doing it! Cause we would be pretty out of control right now if we hadn't been disciplined when we were younger! So, I think now, now that we're a lil' older and not being disciplined by our parents, now God disciplines us when we do something wrong. He's bringing us back into His arms by doing it. Showing us that we are wrong and helping us to reevaluate what we were doing.  At the end Kwacha said that in verse 11:

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Is so true! It definitely doesn't seem pleasant at the time, but in the end it produces a bountiful harvest of peace!! 

I came next and shared from Lamentations 3:22-24:

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

I basically shared what I had written here. It's definitely been a great encouragement to me these last couple of months! 

Sylvia was next and she shared from 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

It was neat how a lot of what everyone shared tied in together! Like this tied in with being persecuted and with what Andrew had to say too.  Outwardly we are wasting away. The 2nd law of thermodynamics (hehe, learned that one from Dad ;) ) talks about everything is decreasing in energy. We are all gunna die one day. Outwardly, we're just slowly fading away, but inwardly Christ is renewing us day by day! Everything that we go through, all the trials we face, is nothing compared to God and His eternal glory!!! So, we look ahead, we need to keep our focus on what is unseen. For everything of this world will waste away, but God will reign forever!

After Sylvia came Sarah Ellen. she shared from Job 37:5:

"God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding."

She wanted to share from the all of Job 37, but we didn't have enough time. (It is an amazing chapter though to read!) Anyways, the whole chapter is saying all of the marvelous things that God does! It is amazing! He breathes and the water freezes, he calls the snow out of the store houses!! He does things beyond our understanding. God is so awesome! And we are privileged beyond words to be His children and worship Him!! Kent was saying how he's taking human biology and how things in our bodies are so complex and confusing and so intricately designed! It just blows your mind away that God created and controls all of it! Wow! 

Last, but not least, came Bethy. She shared from Psalm 1:

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."

Bethy said that what she got out of this verse was, how good it is to delight in the law of the Lord, and to meditate on it day and night! She said that is the cool thing about Christianity, is that it's not a bunch of rituals that we need to do. No! It's that we find joy in reading God's word and learning more about Him! And when we do we are like that tree planted by streams of water. We prosper spiritually! We grow more and more in our understanding of God and Who He is! :) How great!

Kwacha tied everything together with Romans 8:38-39:

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

He said how this ties in with everything that we've been talking about! Nothing will ever separate us from God! Whether we go through trials or persecution, God's love will never leave! How encouraging!!

It was a great youth group, getting to hear what's been on everyone's hearts lately and getting to learn more about Christ! Wow, but do we serve an awesome God!