As I said is my last post, these next few posts are going to be a bit different than the posts I normally write. Today's post is what the summer camp speaker, Jacob Jester, spoke about the first day of summer camp. He titled it "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.
Some of the best stories ever written are in the Bible. There are good stories, bad stories, and ugly stories. The Good- The story of creation: God was saying It is good". [God saw all that he had made, and it was very good... Genesis 1:31] God didn't create us and everything else He created and say that it was "okay" or "sorta good". He said that it was "very good". The Bad- The story of Moses: God was saying "I am stronger than the false gods you worship". [So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fastening it with a tool. Then they said 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' Exodus 32:3-4] God was going to unleash His anger on the Israelites because they turned away from Him and started worshipping golden statues. God was going to show them that He was stronger than any of the false gods they created. And lastly… The Ugly- The story of the cross: [Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified… They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again… When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots… Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the Jews.] When you get to the lowest place you've ever been before, Jesus reaches out His hand and says "Let me pull me out of the places I've already been". God let His One and only Son go through everything He went through so that we could never say that Jesus or God doesn't know what we're going through. So when you think that God would never understand what you're going through, remember that He was lower than we ever will be.
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These next three posts are going to be a little different than the posts I normally do. I was at summer camp with my youth group last week. I wasn’t able to post because they don’t have wifi at the campground. But today, Friday and next Monday’s posts are going to be about what the speaker talked about at camp. The preacher’s name is Jacob Jester. I’m adding a link to some of his previous sermons at the end of this post and I encourage you to check them out. So anyways, today’s post is what he preached about the second day of camp.
Pain is bound to happen. The only people who can prepare for pain are the people who have gone through it. This was the illustration he used to explain this: Say you’re taking a hike and you get poison ivy, but you didn’t bring a first aid kit. You didn’t know that you were going to get hurt, so you weren’t able to prepare for it. But now that you’ve experienced pain, you carry a first aid kit wherever you go so that you’re always prepared for pain. If you’re experiencing pain, whether physical or emotional, you’ve probably been praying about it. But sometimes God doesn’t heal right away. It might seem like God doesn’t care about your pain because He’s taking so long to heal you. Or, you might be wondering “why would God heal me?” Here are 4 reasons why God would heal you. 1. God heals because He is the healer. “…for I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26. You need an I Am God. Not an “I could be God” or an “I might be God”. God said that “I AM the Lord who heals you.” Not “I could be the Lord who heals you”. 2. God heals because of His promise. “…and by His wounds, we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5. We ARE healed. 3. God heals because faith moves God. “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 16:20b. “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well…” James 5:16 4. God heals so you can have your own story. “Praise the Lord… who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.” Psalm 103:2-3. My story will never be exactly the same as your story. So when you’re feeling pain and you’re wondering why God would want to heal you, remember these 4 reasons. https://vimeo.com/channels/1261333/221683197#t=0s https://vimeo.com/channels/1261333/218567484 https://vimeo.com/channels/1261333/216758873 Forgiveness is a really big thing. Sometimes people do things to us and we don't want to forgive them. But we have to. I know it's easier said than done, believe me. I just went through the process of forgiving someone and it wasn't easy. But through God's power we can do it. The Bible says in Matthew 6:15 "But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." Are you still debating about whether or not to forgive that person that hurt you? Forgiving people can be difficult, especially if they've hurt you in a big way. And often, our hearts don't want to forgive them. We want to keep that hatred or anger in our heart. But we cannot do that. Look back at the scripture I wrote. If we refuse to forgive the people in our life that hurt us, God in heaven will refuse to forgive us for hurting Him. Forgiving someone doesn't necessarily mean that all anger toward the person will go away. I know some people may have different opinions about whether or not you can forgive and still be angry, but this is my opinion. It isn't a sin to be angry. It is, however, a sin to let your anger control you and to sin in your anger. The Bible also gives us a limit to how long we can stay angry. Ephesians 4:26 says "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger". So the Bible says that we are allowed to be angry, we just can't sin in our anger. And we can't let the sun go down while we're still angry. Another thing about forgiveness is that you have to be willing to ask for it. When you do something that hurts someone in some kind of way, own up to it. Admit what you did and ask them to forgive you. Remember that they may still be angry with you and you can't control that. But by apologizing for your wrongdoings and asking for forgiveness, the person's anger is likely to go away. As I said, I know giving and asking for forgiveness is not easy. But if you want to get forgiveness, you have to be willing to give it.
Prayer. One of the most powerful things ever. I mentioned the power of prayer in one of my other posts, but I really wanted to go deeper into this subject. James 5:16 says "...the power of a righteous person is powerful and effective." When people have problems, prayer is normally not the first thing they turn to. They turn to friends or other things that they think will help them. For example, when people get sick what is the first thing they normally do? They call a doctor or run to the store to grab some medicine. But what if before doing any of that, they stopped and prayed? You can pray alone, get your family or friends to pray, ask your pastor to pray for you, or all 3. James 5:14-15 says "Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up..." If you have faith that prayer will heal you or someone else you're praying for, then the Bible says that they will be healed. Prayer can heal anything and everything, even the "un-cureable" diseases like cancer. The Bible says that it takes faith the size of a mustard seed. Prayer is the most effective and powerful weapon you can have. With prayer, you can have a one-on-one conversation with God, the creator of the universe. The reason some people don't go to prayer first before anything else is because we don't always get an immediate response. Sometimes we can pray and just like that God gives us an answer, but it's not always like that. We have to be patient and learn to wait on God and put our full trust in Him. When we do that, God will answer our prayers. That brings me to another thing. When I say that God will answer your prayers, that doesn't mean that He'll always give you the answer that you want. He might say "yes", "no", or "wait". So next time you have a tough problem, turn to God in prayer first, then you'll see the power of prayer.
This post is about something that I really struggle with. Controlling my tongue. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29. Before you speak, do you think about whether or not what you're saying will be beneficial to the person you're talking to? Is what you're saying putting them down or building them up? Do you realize the power your tongue has? Proverbs 18:21 says "The tongue has the power of life and death." Life and death. Whenever you say something, it affects someone in some way. You're either speaking life into that person's life, or you're speaking death. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I know it's cliche, but it's true. I know it's difficult and like I said, I struggle with it too, but you could literally ruin someone's life if you don't watch your tongue. So say your sister is really good at art and has the dream of becoming an artist when she grows up, but you continuously discourage her from her dream and tell her that she'll never be able to do it. At first she might not believe you, but the more you say it she'll start to believe it more and more and eventually she might throw the dream away. If people had told me that I wasn't a good writer or that I could never start and run a blog, then I probably would not be writing this right now and you wouldn't be reading it. Here's another cliche for you. What goes around comes around. If you're constantly using your words to put others down, then you can be sure that you'll get an equal dose of discouragement. I'm adding a youtube video and I encourage you to listen to the words of the song and realize how much power your words have. |
MissionIn short, I started this blog because I want to give girls all over the world hope. All of the topics I write about on this blog are things that I have struggled with or am still struggling with. I want to help young women everywhere achieve freedom through Christ. Archives
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