Live It

Today I asked one of my friends who attends FCA regularly with me if he is a Christian. I have asked him this before and he gave me the same response. I told him quite boldly that even though he claims to be a ChristianI never see him act like one. From the way he talks with and about girls, and his potty mouth it's quite obvious he has no relationship with Christ. He told me he is Catholic and blamed them for making him who he is. I just wanted to know if he knew that he was living a double lifestyle. He said he knew that and he wanted to talk about it more. I am glad that I spoke out in boldness questioning what he believes and I pray that I will be able to share the gospel with him very soon in FCA. When you say one thing do it, don't be double faced and live in hypocrisy. When you know what is right and don't do it, it is a sin.

Legacy

As I am a senior, I am aging and will eventually graduate from school and youth group. What kind of legacy am I leaving behind? Who am I bringing up behind me? Titus 2:6 states that as a leader I must encourage the young men to live wisely by living the example. Sometimes I ask myself, am I consistent? Some times at school I feel I joke around too much or am too lighthearted, I still want to maintain a focused mindset on my studies but also be able to have fun with the relationships I am in at school. I must make sue that even when I am at school to encourage and challenge the other believers around me, and non-believers to live wisely and to see the sin in their life for what it is.

Putting first things first

Yesterday in FCA we had small groups. I took charge of my group of Dakwan, Michael, Chris, and Brandon. The topic of the small group time was about priorites, there was some good feedback from the guys and i know i stressed the imortance of our relationship with God. As I was listening to the Holy Spirit he gave me some other questions to ask along with the initial discussion question. I also remembered a PD quote:"If you don't put first things first and do secondary things then you won't get either of the tasks done." At the end of our time I encouraged my guys to really remain focused in what their priorities are, which as a group our priorities are:
                                                 1. Relationship with God
                                                 2. School
                                                 3. Family/friends (relationships)
I encouraged my guys to not be distracted but to lay aside the distractions and focus on running the race to get the prize.

Lifegroup Invites pt. 2

WOW..Where do I start.. First off tonight, Uturn Lifegroup was really good and Adam did a great job leading the mens small group time. When I first picked up Dakwan his grandma came out to my car and said, "Let me hold your hand," then looking into my eyes she thanked my for taking him to youth group and that she has been praying for him and that I am an answer to prayer. well tonight Dakwan rededicated his life to the Lord. He realized that he was not where he needs to be and he knows that he need to get plugged in to the church. I was able to pray with him while Adam led him to rededicate his life. It is so awesome that he has come to this point in his life. I was talking with him in the car when I took him home and shared my story with him and encouraged him with the decisions he made tonight. I hope to be able to watch him grow as well as teach him and mentor him. God is Good! Dakwan is rededicated to Christ, never to come away.

Lifegroup Invites

I am so excited. My family is hosting Uturn Lifegroup at my house and this is perfect because it is really easy for me to invite my friends to a Bible study that is not 45 min. away in Brentwood. Yesterday Kelsey Shockey called me asking about if Adam Kinder and I could head worship for Lifegroup I agreed, and then Kelsey told me to invite all my friends and tell Sarah and Anthony to do the same. What I think was the Holy Spirit was, because He was placing specific people on my heart and I knew that I needed to invite them. So I called Nick Ferran and Dakwan Balfour and they are both not doing anything tonight and I will be picking up Dakwan at 5:30 and I am so excited about Nick coming to get a taste of what I am taught. I was also able to get through to Scott and he said that he will be coming tonight as well! God is good! And besides being able to invite my friends God is continually healing by body from a virus I have had for now 3 days, God is my healer.

God is moving in FCA

On October 26th in FCA I journaled this in my DLJ but did not have time to post it on my blog, so here it is. In FCA Jeremy Fuller (the FCA student leader) told everyone that we were going to have small groups, so in my group I got Michael Baily, Dakwan Balfour, and Kyle Reece. To start off the time, since I already know what they say they believe, I asked each of them to share with me when they became a Christian. After all of them shared I was able to give my testimony and I make myself available if they had any questions about being a Christ-follower. After asking them that we jumped right into the small group question, and their attentive feedback and honesty was amazing. I am so exited that I am sharing the gospel with people and using my testimony as an example of Gods grace and loving kindness. The boys I shared with were receptive to my words, and I hope they will remember the teachings in FCA and the small group times. Got is good and I am excited about even greater opportunities that God would give me!

See you at the Pole

Wow! God is good! Yesterday playing at see you at the pole went really well I played with Mrs. Rich singing. At first there was just a couple of FCA kids but within minutes there was like maybe 100 or so students there. The time of worship was really good we played Mighty to Save and How Great is our God. The response in worship was amazing many believers unashamedly raised their hands in adoration and worship to the Lord. A youth pastor from one of the girls churches in FCA spoke, he spoke on how that we may be the only Jesus to kids at our school. As Christians we must not be of this world we must reflect and be Jesus to all our friends, believers and nonbelievers. I am excited for what God is gong to do through FCA this year, and more through the body of believers at Riverdale High School. I actually had an opportunity today to connect with a couple of boys that attended see you at the pole and they said that what the man said was really good and true in their own lives. So hopefully I will be able to talk with these boys some more about where they are at spiritually.

Example

At school I have the opportunity to talk and impact the lives of my peers with the words I say. I am honest with people because that is what is right and true. If I were to tell someone that I live my life with conviction and am a Christian because I have a personal relationship with God, but my life and/or actions were to not reflect what I said it would be a joke and a lie to them. I want what I say to not only convict others to live a pure, holy, sanctified, wholehearted life but for my life to reflect what I say. Our words must do the speaking, and our lives doing the proving. Saying one thing and doing the opposite is two-faced and hypocritical, as Christians in a dying lost world we must watch how we are living. Ask yourself the question: Am I living what I say and believe to be true? We are to confess Christ, and be Christ to others. Live as Christ would, no mixture. Hypocrisy 

II Corinthians 5:9-10

II Corinthians 5:9-10 "So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body."

Romans 12:1-2 "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living sacrifice-the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you by the renewing of your mind. Then you will know and learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

There is so much good stuff to absorb out of Romans 12, the main thing that is the key thing between both of these scriptures is serving the Lord. We are on this earth to please and glorify the Lord, Romans 12 says that when we give our lives fully (devote) to the Lord that our minds will be renewed. When we seek God, first our minds will be renewed so we can continue to focus on the Lord and his statutes. Psalms is all about praising and worshiping the Lord, worship is what we were created to do. There is nothing better we can do that offer our lives up as worship to the Lord most high and our bodies as living sacrifices. Am I giving my best to the Lord? Are there areas I am withholding from him? We will all be judged when we stand before Christ, I desire for my life to be a holy, sanctified sacrifice unto the Lord, holy and acceptable. The first part in Romans 12 say to "present your bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to the Lord," then it says, "don't copy the customs of this world, renew your minds and be transformed," then here is the promise, "then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing, and perfect."
When you seek the Lord and don't sway to the left or right in this world and focus on worshiping and praising God, He will reveal his purpose and will for our lives. But ultimately in heaven we will be judged by the good or evil we have done on this earth and rewarded or disciplined. What good am I doing on this earth, at Riverdale?

Worship

This past Friday in FCA one of the leaders, Jake Goodman, read from the passage in John 4 about the woman at the well. After that we split out into groups of 2. Since Nick Ferran, my strong Christian friend came in late he was in mine and a girl named Emily's group. Emily is a little Filipino girl who is also in my 1st period.
In the groups we were told to discuss what the scripture meant to us and how we understood it. No one really took the lead so I took initiative and basically shared what I had just completed in the Disciples Handbook and about worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth.
Worshiping the Lord is not and should not be limited to praising the Lord at church, we are always worshiping someone or something and we can worship the Lord by serving others and glorifying the name of the Lord. We worship the Lord when we do homework, chores, talk about the Lord, praise the Lord, and spend time with him. How do we worship someone or something? When we spend time doing it or focusing on it. The Lord has called us to live a lifestyle of worship and how we do that is to evaluate our lives: Who am I worshiping?
Basically that was the gist of what I shared, Emily said she never saw it put like that before and it was good, Nick totally loved it and was inserting comments as well. I like this new way that FCA is going in with breaking into small groups and discussing the word and how it applies to our lives.

Sanctified

In Romans Paul writes: "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God." In I Corinthians 3:16 Paul writes yet again: "Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?" vs. 17.."For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." So it is pretty clear that we are God's temple and God's temple is holy. As a temple of God with the Spirit of God in me I am called to live my life sanctified. Sanctified; set apart; holy. To live my life holy and acceptable to Christ and to see his kingdom come I must live counterculture, opposite of what the world teaches. We are in the world but not of the world. Nothing can come between us and God, He is the main focus for our lives. Our first priority as disciples of Christ is to glorify the Lord in everything we do. Second, and more like along with, we must put it all on the line to preach and evangelize to the lost to see the Gospel and Good News of Jesus Christ spread to all people.

We are instruments of the Lord, " Where You go I'll go, you what You say I'll say Lord."

I am yours God, here I am send me to do the work of your hands, I am set apart wholly for you. Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Unity at Riverdale

Today was a two hour day for students at Riverdale High School. We got our schedules and went to each of our 7 classes. Later on this evening at about 5:30 I got together with my good friend Nick Ferran and we prayed together over this upcoming school year. We prayed that the Lord would use us as an influence among the other students at Riverdale. One other point we prayed for was a unity within the student ministries. I have seen that FCA, Young Life, and Timothy Club do their own gatherings and outreaches. Something I learned at camp regarding student ministries is this: you can reach more people and leave a greater impact when you partner with others in the body of Christ. I want to see a unified body of Christ at Riverdale, I want to see young men and women rise up, from different backgrounds and denominations and come together to see the Good News of Jesus Christ spread throughout Riverdale. One way I think that we can unify the Christian clubs at Riverdale is to  go to war together in prayer. There is a battle for our minds and only by the power of God and the community of the church we will overcome the enemy and Riverdale will be won back, one person at a time.

Camp Reflections

God is good! This past week I was able to go to camp with my church and God did amazing things in and through the leaders teachings. The theme of the week was Indelible this definition means marks that cannot be removed; enduring, unfading, unforgettable. The big question that week was this: How am I going to leave an impact in my school? The whole week we looked in the book of Acts at specific men who lived their lives putting it all on the line to preach the gospel.
I desire to become more of a missionary like Paul, even in the face of rejection and persecution he continued preaching the gospel. The biggest takeaway for me is to continue steadfastly witnessing to kids even in the face of rejection, because even if it seems they aren't listening to me I am still impacting their lives. I am on mission with God at Riverdale High School, not in my own strength but the power of the Holy Spirit. I want to use every opportunity at school to be a light to my classmates.
I must preach and put it all on the line,what could happen? Rejection? Resistance? In Luke 6:22 it says that we are blessed when people hate, mock, and curse us. If I am secure in who I am in Christ then it doesn't matter if I am rejected. Don't be discouraged or dismayed when turned down, be bold and courageous the Lord is my strength, my trust is in him. Persevere and endure in the Lord.
Walk in the boldness that the Lord has given you. We must preach, we cannot sit silently at school when we have the greatest message the world has ever heard. I commit today to be committed to follow Christ and focus on reaching out to others. Paul was set apart, totally focused on Christ and meeting the needs of others, and set ahead, committed to pressing on in difficult times. I desire to become like Paul.
"Lord here I am, use me to impact my school campus. As I seek you everyday and am filled with your Holy Spirit use me to reveal truth to my sphere of influence. I love you Lord and commit my life to the Great Commission. Use me and give me opportunities to advance your kingdom. I choose to obey you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I am your servant, I humble myself and choose to follow you. I pray that your will would be done in my life and you would guide and direct my paths."