Thoughts on One Amazing Week in Philly!

One of our students, Caroline loving on the children of Philadelphia.

My God never ceases to surprise me! Last week our students were in Philadelphia, PA serving on a life-changing missions trip! While there we had the opportunity to spend the entire week serving, loving and teaching the people of Philadelphia about Jesus Christ. Our youth group’s theme verse for the week was Ephesians:1-2, “Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children. And walk in love as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.” My heart is still on “cloud nine” because of the way our students carried themselves last week. I am so proud of the way that they just jumped in and let God lead. I am also proud of the way that they were obedient to the Spirit’s leading in their own lives as some of them responded with life time changing decisions.  It’s an honor for a youth pastor when they see a student commit their life to doing the Lord’s work, but it’s mind-boggling when a youth pastor can see how ALL his students will one day be serving the Lord in ministry! Throughout the week we focused on what it meant to pursue Christ’s authority and sovereignty in our lives. We learned how to proclaim God’s truths and live them out through faith in word and deed as we seek to proclaim the gospel. We also learned what it means to submit our lives to the Lordship of Christ and seek to walk with Him daily.  As I take a moment and let it all soak in, I am blown away by God’s grace and goodness and words cannot explain the impact this week in Philadelphia has  had on my own life and ministry. I have included some testimony from some of our students below about their week in Philly. I want to close by saying that for me personally, Philadelphia was one of my all-time greatest camps ever!       

 

“This past week at Fuge has been AMAZING! There aren’t enough words to explain how much

God has worked in my life, in my youth group and with everyone that we served. Seeing a child’s

face light up when you are playing with them is one of the best feelings in the entire world. Just being in a big city like Philadelphia, the need there is so clear and around every corner. It was an eye-opening experience

that I will never forget. ♥”

                   

“Our God is amazing! WHBC youthies showed the love of God to the city of Philly 🙂 Words can’t express the greatest joy of serving with youth that are rooted in Christ.”

 

“This past week at FUGE was absolutely amazing! Playing with those precious kids and telling them how God created the whole entire world and Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins was so hearttouching! I will never forget those kids! God has definitely made an impact on my life and brought my youth group so much closer! I can’t put in words how amazing this trip was!!”

 

“So, when FUGE camps have the motto “life-changing camps”, it’s not to make it sound cool or to have a catchy name…it’s reality. My life, as every year, has been changed after having the privilege of serving God in Philadelphia! Bonding with my youth group, meeting so many new people, worshipping my AWESOME God, and loving on precious kids while sharing the Gospel with them, only scratches the surface of what happened this week. The memories with those sweet children will stay in my heart forever. ♥ To say that I am blessed is an understatement.”

 

James 1:22, “But be doers of the word and not hearers only…” That is my hope and prayer to all of the Saints and believers in Christ Jesus!

Devotional for Monday

The Truth Is the Sanctifier

“Sanctify them through the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17

Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that new living principle by which he becomes “a new creature” in Christ Jesus.

This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways: mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and vivification, by which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.

This is carried on every day in what is called “perseverance,” by which the Christian is preserved and continued in a gracious state, and is made to abound in good works unto the praise and glory of God. It culminates or comes to perfection, in “glory,” when the soul, being thoroughly purged, is caught up to dwell with holy beings at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

But while the Spirit of God is thus the author of sanctification, yet there is a visible agency employed which must not be forgotten. “Sanctify them,” said Jesus, “through the truth; your word is truth.”

The passages of Scripture that prove that the instrument of our sanctification is the Word of God are very many. The Spirit of God brings to our minds the precepts and doctrines of truth, and applies them with power. These are heard in the ear, and being received in the heart, they work in us to will and to do of God’s good pleasure.

The truth is the sanctifier, and if we do not hear or read the truth, we shall not grow in sanctification. We only progress in sound living as we progress in sound understanding. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

Do not say of any error, “It is a mere matter of opinion.” No man indulges an error of judgment, without sooner or later tolerating an error in practice.

Hold fast the truth, for by so holding the truth shall you be sanctified by the Spirit of God.

Adapted from Morning and Evening.

Committing to Live a Life of Faith!

This article is taking from “Rethinking Youth Ministry” and I have included my own thoughts and responses at the end.

Question of the Day: Should We Force Youth to Go to Church?

 

Should we force youth to go to church?

 

The professional pastor in me says “Yes, of course! How else will we ever have a chance to teach them about the gospel and Jesus and Church?”  But the former teen in me says “Wait a minute.  That’s not how it happened with you.  Nobody made you go to church as a teen.”

 

It’s true.  My parents dutifully took us to church as children. My brothers and I went through confirmation and then decided we hadn’t heard enough yet — we weren’t ready to join.  Then a falling out with our youth ministers in middle school ended with my brothers and I dropping youth group and church altogether. For the next four years, my parents never made us go to church…and we didn’t, even though my dad was a retired pastor who continued to go every Sunday.  

 

Then, a funny thing happened. In my senior year of high school, somewhere around early spring, some friends invited us to visit their Sunday night youth group meeting.  My twin brother and I went, we liked it, and we kept attending.  The group was preparing to go on a mission trip. We had not been around for the fundraising and planning but the youth pastor said “It doesn’t matter. You are welcome to join us.”  So we went on the trip — which turned out to be the experience that influenced me to go into teaching and eventually the ministry.  I haven’t been out of the church since. While all my friends were dropping out of church during college (some never to re-engage), I was returning to the Church ready to get my hands dirty for Jesus.  But my devotion was not a result of my parents pushing or forcing me to attend Sunday services or youth group meetings.  Rather, I attribute my longevity in the Church to a personal decision I made on my own and without coercion at the age of eighteen to choose a life of faith.  

 

Does this mean I’d like to see all the youth in my church drop out and wait a few years before deciding whether or not to come back? Well, no, but it does make me wonder: We expect teens to wait until they are older to make lots of important decisions. Why not do the same with the decision to commit to a life of faith?

 

Rob’s Part:

It’s funny how I can relate to this article in more than one way! See, for me, I was raised as a church’s custodian, so I was literally at church what felt like 8 days a week! But on top of that I was also brought to church every Sunday morning and evening and every Wednesday evening. I was at church for almost every funeral and wedding service. I was at church before and way after Vacation Bible ever started or ended! As a teenager, I was still at church despite my social and sports life because my parents were trying to instill in me the importance of God, His word and church over other things in life. I have to admit that I didn’t always like their decisions and at times resented those decisions. It wasn’t until the beginning of my Senior year of High School that I began to understand some of the decisions I was making on a daily basis and I knew I had two choices… Live my life and continue sinning against God or completely surrender my life to God’s leading. It actually didn’t happen instantly but I chose to live my life for the glory of God and in my second year of college I completely surrendered to God’s leading and call on my life into full-time ministry!

Here’s my point… I know there are way too many over published books about how students “leave the faith” after high school and do not come back to the church until their late twenties or early thirties (most of those books are on my shelf in my office!). And in every book they challenge church leaders and pastors how to prevent this from happening, but the truth is, WE can’t prevent anything from happening! We are not called to save a person, we are not called to live someone’s spiritual life for them, but we are called to do our best to equip them and instill the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives and commit to pray for them daily! And here’s the thing, that’s hard for me to do because I am a “fix it” type person and I forget that God is the one who is in complete control and knows all things. I love what the author said in his article, “Rather, I attribute my longevity in the Church to a personal decision I made on my own and without coercion at the age of eighteen to choose a life of faith.

Does this mean I’d like to see all the youth in my church drop out and wait a few years before deciding whether or not to come back? Well, no, but it does make me wonder: We expect teens to wait until they are older to make lots of important decisions. Why not do the same with the decision to commit to a life of faith?“

 

What about you? Are you seeking out a student or young adult in your church and carrying their cross with them, encouraging them to stay in God’s word, praying with them as opposed to “praying for them”? Let me challenge you to begin helping the students/young adults in your church or life to commit to a life of faith right now! See, I believe that if a person believes they are cared for by more than their pastor or youth pastor, that will have the biggest affect on their lives spiritually and physically! I want to strive to live out Titus chapter 2 for those students or young adults in my life, what about you?  

 

Monday’s Devo

A Cake Not Turned

“Ephraim is a cake not turned.” Hosea 7:8

A cake not turned is uncooked on one side. So Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left.

My soul, I charge you, see whether this be your case. Are you thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very center of your being so as to be felt in its divine operations in all your powers, your actions, your words, and your thoughts? To be sanctified, spirit, soul, and body, should be your aim and prayer, and although sanctification may not be perfect in you anywhere in degree, yet it must be universal in its action—there must not be the appearance of holiness in one place and reining sin in another, else you, too, will be a cake not turned.

A cake not turned is soon burnt on the side nearest the fire, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burnt black with bigoted zeal for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred to a cinder with a vainglorious Pharisaic ostentation of those religious performances which suit their humor. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. The saint in public is a devil in private. He deals in flour by day and in soot by night. The cake that is burned on one side, is dough on the other.

If it be so with me, O Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of your love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burnt side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and want of heat when I am removed from your heavenly flame. Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace—for I know well that if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of your grace, I must be consumed forever amid everlasting burnings.

Adapted from Morning and Evening.

Our Hope Is above the Sky

“. . . in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” Hebrews 12:27

We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things.

Yet, we have certain “things which cannot be shaken,” and I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain.

Whatever your losses have been or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus’ precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him—no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that.

You are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, “He is my Father still. In my Father’s house are many mansions, therefore will I not be troubled.”

You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate nature—nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it doesn’t matter to the man who can sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel’s land, our hope is above the sky. Therefore, calm as the summer’s ocean, we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.

Adapted from Morning and Evening.