Jonah

I remember hearing the story of Jonah when I was young. Jonah, you know,  the guy who disobeyed God. Tried running away from God only to be swallowed by a great big fish and spit up on dry land. Sad to say, I don't think I've really studied Jonah all that much. Just remembered the story and that was that. 

Well, a couple weeks ago in Youth Group, Kent mentioned some stuff about Jonah that were really interesting. The next week Sarah talked about Jonah and she too had a lot of good stuff pulled from the story of Jonah. So I thought I'd share with you all some of what we talked about. 

Jonah 1:1-2, "The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.'"

God chose Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach to the people of Niveveh against their wickedness. And what did Jonah do? I think we all know. He ran away. He tried to hide from God. Why didn't he want to go to Nineveh? The Ninevites were evil! And Jonah knew it. He also knew that God is merciful and forgiving. He didn't want to go to Nineveh, preach against their sins and have God forgive them. He didn't think they deserved that. So, his "brilliant" plan? Hide from God. 

Psalm 33:13-14,"From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth-"

You can't hide from God! God sees everything!! There is nowhere where we could ever possibly hide from Him. 

Back to Jonah. He gets on a ship bound for Tarshish and the Lord sends a storm. The sailors of the ship start to get rid of anything on the ship that they don't need and finally they go wake up Jonah. Jonah tells them that he serves the God of the land and the sea. And they knew that he was running away from God. They ask Jonah what they can do to make the storm calm down. His reply:

"Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."

Instead of throwing Jonah into the water, the sailors try to row back to land. I think I probably would have done the same thing as the sailors. Imagine deliberately throwing a man overboard. It would be murder and they knew it. But when the storm didn't calm down... (vs. 14-16)

"Then they cried to the Lord, 'O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.' Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him."

It's neat to see that God has a plan for everything. Jonah disobeyed and ran away from God, but God used it to bring Himself glory. How? Verse 16,

"At this the men greatly feared the Lord..."

God used Jonah's disobedience to bring the sailors to Himself. Wow!  

What happened next? Was it the end? Did God let Jonah die? No! God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah! That must have been extremely terrifying to be sinking down, down, down into the depths of the sea when out of nowhere a giant fish comes and swallows you right up! I'd feel very weird! But this fish doesn't just swallow Jonah and then spit him out immediately, no, no, God keeps Jonah inside the fish's stomach for 3 days and 3 night. Then (2:10)

"...God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore."

First of all, Jonah made it out of the fish alive. Secondly, what I thought was really interesting, was God spoke to the fish. He told the fish to vomit up Jonah. It wasn't that all of a sudden the fish just felt like vomiting. No, God commanded it to! 

Colossians 1:15-

"He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

Christ is in charge of all things! Even the vomiting of a fish! Wow!

Ok, Jonah 3:1-3a, 

"Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.' Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh."

Jonah obeys this time. And who wouldn't after what had just happened!

Jonah 3:4-10

"On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: 'Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.' The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: 'By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.'

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened."

Sure enough, just like Jonah thought they would, the Ninevites repented of their wicked ways. They fasted, wore sackcloth (even the animals!) and urgently called on God. And God had compassion and did not destroy them. 

How did Jonah respond to this? You would think that he must be rejoicing! God had compassion on these people!! But no! We see in chapter 4 that Jonah was angry! Angry! Why?

"He prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.'"

"I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love..." He's angry with God for being gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love! Woah! So angry in fact that he wanted God to kill him right then and there. He couldn't stand the fact that God could forgive evil sinners like the Ninevites. 

The ending of the book of Jonah is neat,

"Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint."

We once again see God's awesome power over all creation! In the first chapter we see Him controlling man, the sea, a fish. Here we see Him controlling plants, worms, wind and the sun. You would think that after living inside of a fish for 3 days and 3 nights that you would see how awesome God is! And fear Him. But what does Jonah do? Does he start praising God saying, "O Lord! You are the ruler of creation. The Lord of all! Who am I to be angry at Your love? It's only by Your love that I am here."  Unfortunately, no. His response... 

"'It would be better for me to die than to live.'

"But God said to Jonah, 'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?'

'I do,' he said. 'I am angry enough to die.'

But the Lord said, 'You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?'"

God brings it all to prospective. Did Jonah make the plant? No. So what did he care wether or not it died? The same for the Ninevites. God did make them. God loved them. And that is why He was concerned for their city. 

There is so much we can learn from the story of Jonah. First of all, throughout the entire book of Jonah we can see how powerful God is! It's amazing! Secondly, we see God's compassion. He had compassion on the people of Nineveh. He sent them someone to warn them of their wickedness. And then had compassion to save the city. Also we can appreciate it and know that He knows best. Jonah was complaining that God had compassion instead of being thankful for it. It was God's compassion that sent the big fish to save him yet Jonah turned around and got angry at God for saving the city of Nineveh. I think it's a good lesson for all of us. We need to trust God. He knows the plan for our lives and even though we may think it is all wrong. God knows, and His plans are never wrong. 

Youth Group

Last night, Elijah shared in youth group. We started off reading Joshua 1:8-

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

Psalm 77:12-20-

"I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.  The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.  You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron."

Psalm 119:15-16-

" I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in Your decrees; I will not neglect Your word."

The main theme of all these verses is meditating on God's Word. His question was, why? Why should we be meditating on God's Word? 

In John 1:1, John calls Jesus the Word. In John 6:48, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." The Word of God, the Bible,  is our food, our nourishment for our soul. 2 Timothy 3:16a- "All scripture is God-breathed."  The Bible is what is feeding our soul. We need it to grow more in Christ! ... That's where meditating on God's Word comes in. We can't just open up our Bible every day and read a chapter, close it, and feel good cause we read our Bible. Nooo! We need to dig into what we're reading chew it and taste it! 1 Peter 2:2-3:

"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."

We're told to crave the Word. Crave it like newborns crave the milk of their mom's. Yet, how often do we neglect to do that? How often do we just read a chapter and then push everything we read aside and get on with the day? How can we grow when we're not eating?? We can't! How can we show love, kindness, gentleness... how can we produce any of the fruits of the Spirit when we aren't feeding  our spirit? We need Spiritual food to grow spiritually! 

We then moved on to encouraging one another to spend time in the Word. Kent said that one night at youth group he was in a group with all the other boys when he took a step back and replayed in his mind everything that had just been talked about. It ranged from mustard to beer commercials. Not once was anything about God mentioned! And this was during youth group. If we're spending time meditating on God's Word and it's not coming out... what is that saying? ... There's the saying that goes, "What goes in must come out." If we are feeding ourselves with the Word it should be gushing out! We should be speaking about Christ all the time! And yet, it's so easy to just keep it all bundled up inside of us. One question that was asked was, "What kind of friend are you if you don't care about each other's spiritual life?" ... We, as believers, need to be encouraging one another in their walk with God. It's so easy to talk about everything under the sun... and never once mention Christ! There comes that verse again... "The world and its desires will pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." - 1 John 2:17. We need to not be so focused on the styles, or newest things of today... they're just pulling our attention off of God. Instead we need to be yearning to learn more about Him! And encouraging friends to do the same. Praise the Lord, we aren't in it alone! He is with us every step of the way. And He is the one who enables us to understand His Word and help apply it to our lives. But we need to be doing our part. We need to put away the desires of the world and instead turn to Christ and give Him our all to use for His glory!!!  

I thought this song fit perfectly with what we had talked about:

"This is my desire
To honour You
Lord, with all my heart
I worship You
All I have within me
I give You praise
All that I adore
Is in You

Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord, have Your ways in me"

Amen!

Ps- A lil' side note, that I thought was pretty neat, what Elijah shared was just what I've been reading about in my quiet time:) Isn't God great?! It's always nice hearing others expound on thoughts that you've been thinking for a while :)

Run the Race!

"Dear Christian, your life is a candle;

You have only so long to blaze.

Are you shedding the light of the Master?

Remember: too brief are your days."

Last night in youth group Kent shared this poem with us. After hearing about Ben's passing, I think it all made us realize just how quick life comes and goes. 

"I fade away like an evening shadow;

I am shaken off like a locust."

-Psalm 109:23

We don't control how long we're going to live. For all we know we could die tomorrow! And yet, we somehow end up saying, "Well, I'll start doing this and that when I'm older." "I'll start living for Christ with all my life when I'm in college." We may not even have till then! Why are we wasting the precious seconds, minutes, days, months, years of life that we have... right now!! Living for Christ, following Him, desiring Him more than anything else isn't just for adults!

"Even a child is known by his actions,

by whether his conduct is pure and right."

-Proverbs 20:11

Even a child, even we are known by our actions! We aren't just nobodies here living our every day life. People are observing us! And we need to be living out our lives for God in ever aspect of our lives!! We need to be running the Race! Not doing in place running, and getting no where. We need to start breaking out of our comfort zones, doing hard things for Christ! 

"Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

-1 Corinthians 9:26-27

Paul is a good example of someone who was running the Race! He didn't just lazy back, and wait to get to Heaven. No! He knew that the whole reason for living is to bring glory to God!!! He ran the race, and went out of his comfort zone! He preached to the Gentiles when everyone else was preaching to the Jews. He was beat, stoned, mocked, shipwrecked and imprisoned and yet he still kept pressing on! He still strived to glorify God in everything he did!! That is how we should be living our lives!! Living it for Christ! Striving to glorify Him and only Him in everything we do! For who are we to receive glory? ... Christ deserves it all! 

Don't waste your life!!!

Dying to Self

We started going through this poem Tuesday in youth group. we split up into groups during the week and found scripture to back up each stanza! Wow! What an amazing poem! And how truly hard it is to die to ourselves! Praise the Lord He helps us! Anyways, here's the poem, "Dying to Self" by Bill Britton:

"When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting or hurt with the oversight, but your heart is happy being counted worthy to suffer for Christ;
That is dying to self.

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence;
That is dying to self.

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any annoyance; when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus did;
That is dying to self.

When you are content with any food, and offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God;
That is dying to self.

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown;
That is dying to self.

When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and you are in desperate circumstances;
That is dying to self.

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart;
That is dying to self."

We finish going through it next week... so I'll have to write what everyone says about it :)

Humility

"The funny thing about the human body is, that when you pat it on the back, it's head swells."-Kent, quoting a newspaper article

Last night it youth group, we talked about humility! Wow! First we discussed pride, and what is wrong with pride. Pride is praising yourself for something you've done, or have. For example we may be proud of our looks, or intelligence, or the country we're from. But why should we be proud, we should instead be giving all the praise and glory to God. We didn't decide that we should be born with good looks, or a smart brain, or even in the country we're from. So, we should be giving all the praise to God, which is humbling ourselves. 

Next we looked at some examples in the Bible of people who were humble. First was Moses,

"(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)"-Numbers 12:3

Wow! That sure says a lot about him! He didn't take it all to his head when someone said, "Wow! Moses! That rocked! You just split open the Red Sea!" He gave all the praise to God! Knowing that he was nothing. 

Second was Paul. He showed humility through everything he did! He never boasted about how he had 'this bruise from this, cause he's just so special'. No, he counted it all as nothing compared to the glory of God! He strived to serve and glorify God no matter what the cost! And in it all he humbled himself, showing everyone that he wasn't anyone special, it was God working through him!

Last, and definitely not least, Jesus Christ! He gave us the perfect example of humility!

"Who, being in very nature God,did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."-Philippians 2:6-11

Something that Kent stated about Christ's humility, was that He deserved all the glory and honour, so when He humbled Himself, it wasn't like when we humble ourselves. When we humble ourselves, we realize that, "Whoops, I'm nothing without Christ! I need to be praising Him and giving Him all the glory instead of myself!" Yet, when Christ humbled Himself, He laid aside that glory and honour that was rightfully His! He put it aside for us! He came to earth as a man something so low, compared to what He was! And then if that wasn't enough, He came in the very nature of a servant, which we can see when He washed the disciples feet, and died for our sins! And finally He died a criminal's death, to save us all from the sin which we have committed! Wow! Praise the Lord that now He is at His rightful place, the highest place! And that one day every knee will bow to Him and give glory to God! 

After going through those examples, we turned to the question, "How can we be humble?" 

"This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." Isaiah 66:2b

We need to be in fear, reverence, or awe, of God and Who He is! He created us! He designed where every molecule in this world would be place! He deserves all praise and glory! We shouldn't be praising ourselves, for what have we done that God didn't ordain, that He didn't create in us? He and only He deserves all praise!

To close it, Kent reminded us that we are nothing without Christ. He makes our hearts beat, our blood flow, our planet from colliding into the sun. We haven't done anything to be praised for. When people praise us we need to turn around and give the praise to God! For He is the One who deserves it!

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!

Psalm 51

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

In youth group Tuesday, we went over Psalm 51. It was really good. This Psalm, David wrote after he had sinned with Bathsheba. It's a Psalm of repentance.

Anyways, here's just a few of the things that we, as a youth group, pulled out of this Psalm.

1. "Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions."

David is saying a few of God's attributes in the beginning, saying, "You Lord are loving, You are full of compassion." He, David, pleads with God to have mercy on him. He knows he's sinned! He pleads, "Blot out my transgressions!" He wants them removed forever! Not just the blood of an animal covering them, he pleads for his sins to be obliterated! Kent also pointed out, how David came with a humble heart. He pleads for forgiveness! He doesn't just say, "Well, God, I uh, sinned so yah, could you please forgive me?" He realizes the weight of sin and that what he did was wrong and only God can forgive him.

2. "Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin."

As Thomas L. pointed out, David basically says the same thing 3 times.

"...blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin."

He's been convicted and doesn't want his sin anymore. He wants it gone, blotted out, washed away, he wants to be clean!

4. "Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge."

As Andrew W. said, at first glance you do a double take. Like woah! Wait a minute! He says,

"Against You [God], You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in You sight,"

David had committed a sin with Bathsheba, than murdered her husband, Uriah, or had him killed, then because of David's sin God let Bathsheba's first born die. And yet, David says it's against God that he's sinned?! Why? He goes to the very root of the problem. From the second he first started committing the sin, he was sinning against God. He acknowledges that and is repenting of it so that, God is proved right when He speaks and justified, or have reasons, when He judges. David knows what he did. He knows it was wrong. And he's saying, "God, you are justified that yes it is I who have sinned. And I have sinned against you."

7. "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow."

Ok, I didn't know what hyssop was, so for those of you like me [ ;) ] here's a definition: A wild shrub of uncertain identity whose twigs were used for sprinkling blood during sacrifices. So in here David is beseeching God to please cleanse him with hyssop, not just the sprinkling, he wanted to be covered, he wanted to be washed, so that he could be whiter than snow. He wanted to be cleansed from his sin!

9. "Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity."

In verse 3, he's saying how his sin is always before him. So here he's begging God to turn His face away from his sin! He's begging Him to blot it out. Whenever I hear blot, I always think of white out. And I think that's what he's wanting done. He doesn't want it erased, (At least with me an eraser never takes everything away) he wants his sin blotted out. Blotted out so that he can't see it.

10. "Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11. Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12. Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."

Now he's begging for a pure heart. He wants to be clean! He wants a new slate, and a steadfast or steady spirit. He doesn't want to sin again. He doesn't want to be cast away from God's presence but wants Him to restore unto him the joy of His salvation! He's already repented of his sin, and now he wants to be clean and experience the joy of the Lord again.

13. "Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you."

This was interesting, David went from saying what a sinner he is, to asking for forgiveness, to now saying that he will teach transgressors God's way. David knew what he did was wrong, he repented of his sin, God forgave him, and now he wants to go tell other sinners what God does! He forgave him! And restored joy unto him!!!! Wow!

18. "In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem."

This also was a contrast. He goes from saying everything he was before, to talking about Jerusalem and Zion? It's a metaphor. He is asking God to build up the walls of his heart to guard him against sin. And to make him prosper in the Lord according to God's will. :)

Anyways, we had a lot more of a discussion about it, but here's just a lil'. It's definitely a great Psalm showing how we need to be humble when we come before God to repent!

And yet...

Tuesday was youth group and what Kent talked about was very good. Very good! He talked about our tongue. Well, ok not about how it moves and all the muscles but about what we say. We started off with: "

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless."- James 1:26

And how we are instructed to keep a tight reign on our tongues. Which is very hard to do! Then in

James 3:9-10-"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be."

This should not be and yet how often we do it. We can say mean stuff about someone and with the same mouth praise God! It sounds horrible and it is!! Then we broke up into groups and each had a verse. Mine was

2 Timothy 2: 23-25a-"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct,"

And how often I do get into foolish arguments about nonsense! And that just leads up to quarrels and it says here have nothing to do with them! I thought it was interesting how this very comes right after Paul is telling us to feel the desires of youth. And when you think of it, it usually is the youth who argue more than the adults. Anyways, it was definitely conficting. We ended with

1 Timothy 4:12-"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

Speech is included in that. And yes actions matter a lot, but if your actions show love and your speech doesn't well it just doesn't work that way. And none of us are perfect, we all say bad stuff! But Praise the Lord that we have a forgiving Saviour! And let's use our breath to praise and glorify Him and not to tear others down!!

Youth Group Notes

Last night, Tuesday, was youth group. It was soo nice having the Woodrows back! They always make you think harder about stuff. Anyways, last night we split up into groups and then read 1 John 3 and then discussed it and got back together and talked about it as a whole. Kent brought out some pretty convicting yet true stuff. First was:

"Are we showing love?"

It is SO easy to say," I love you and you're a great person." But words can be decieving! It is by our actions that people know we are living in and for the Truth!

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."- 1 John 3:18

So are we really loving people? Especially our bothers and sisters blood related and in Christ? And the other question was:

"Are we obvious?"

Are we obviously living for Christ and Him? Or are we trying to fit in with the world? It's not easy to be different! But Christ said it wouldn't be easy! But we need to be abvious followers of Christ and with His Spirit in us we can abide in truth and our actions will show the love of Christ!
Anyways, they were some pretty thought prevoking questions and something that I needed some... convicting in. :)

Joy in suffering

In my quiet time, I started reading in 1 Thessalonians. I came across this verse and it really stuck out!1 Thessalonians 1:6-"You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit." And so I was like WOW! look at these people they welcomed the message, they took up their cross to follow Christ admist severe suffering! And they did it with JOY!!!! Then I turned to James 1:2-"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds," Consider it what? Pure Joy!!!!! So what is joy then and where does it come from? Well, joy isn't an emotion, cause if it was than it would change according to circumstances! Joy is something that the Holy Spirit fills us with. We find Joy in Christ!!! Psalm 43:4-"Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp,O God, my God." David, the Psalmist, calls God our Joy!!! Philippians 4:4-"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" In Christ we find joy!!! Elizabeth George in her book,"A young Woman's Walk with God" gives a really neat example of joy. A diamond. When a diamond is put up against a black background it shines so much more beautifully!! Whereas putting it up against a white background, kinda dulls it. And how true is that about joy?! It is when we [the diamond] are put through the toughest trials [black background] that our joy in the Lord truly shines!!! 2 Timothy 3:12-"In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," If we are truly follwers of Christ then we will suffer!! But when we do may we rest in Christ, may we look to Him for our joy and comfort and not to the things of this world!!! Let us be like the Thessalonians who in spite of severe suffering welcomed the message with joy!!!!!