Inside Out - Upside Down.
That is the national youth theme for this year. Changing our lives from the inside out, and turning our world upside down. This past weekend we had our local youth camp at the beach. It was such a beautiful environment and atmosphere, being able to see God's creation all around us with the luscious, green bush on one side of the camp grounds to the brilliantly blue, calming ocean on the other. Going for midnight walks a long the beach really made me think about how great my God truly is.
Our youth were blessed with the anointed ministry of Bro Dan and Sis Hailey McLeod on the weekend and God used them to speak to us in such a mighty way that it is hard to sum it all up into words. Without even knowing our theme, Bro Dan's messages aligned so perfectly with the overall theme and also the individual needs of our young people. It was clear to see that God had placed his hand over our camp even before it began in the early stages of preparation.
On the Friday night bro Dan spoke a message that impacted my life so greatly. The title of his message was "Hide and Seek" and he related our life to the well known childhood game. When playing hide and seek with younger children it is often very easy to know where they are hiding, because they tend to hide in places where half of their body is sin plain sight. Children hide and believe that they are unseen to the proverbial "it", but they are completely oblivious to the fact that half of their body can be seen. Sometimes in our lives we tend to hide the things that we are doing from our ministers and we tell ourselves that if the Pastor cannot see it then it is okay. But what we do not realise is that God see's everything, and He knows what we are doing, even though we try to hide it. The scripture that Bro Dan used was Genesis chapter 3 when Adam and Eve are in the garden and they know that they have sinned, and they try to hide from God. They think that because they have covered their nakedness and their sin with leaves, that God will not know what they had done, but what they didn't understand is that God already knew what they were going to do even before time began.
Often in our lives we try to play hide and seek from God, but it's time that we come out of hiding, we accept not only the things that we have done in the past, but that we also accept God's forgiveness and from there we move on to greater things.
On Saturday Night, Bro Dan spoke again and this time his title was "Is Jesus Where You Think He Is?". The scripture that he used for this message was Luke 2:41-45 when Mary and Joseph were returning home from Jerusalem after the Feast of the Passover. They traveled with their family a whole days journey before they realised that Jesus was not with them. Bro Dan spoke about two mistakes that were made in these scriptures.
1. The assumption of God's presence when we're really not sure. - often we can go through life assuming that God is with us and that because His presence was with us on Sunday at the altar, that is is still with us throughout the week. Just like Mary and Joseph, we assume that God is with us, and so we don't check, or we don't call out to Him because we think 'well He was with us before, so He would still be with us now'. As Paul said; we need to die daily. Calling upon Jesus' presence and inviting Him into our lives every single day to ensure that He stays with us, and that we don't continue our journey without Him.
2. Depending on other people. - Luke 2:44 "but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances." Mary and Joseph just assumed that Jesus was with their friends and family, and so they did not bother to check. They depended upon other people to ensure that His presence was with them. We cannot live our lives depending on other people to connect us to God. Just because our family are saved, and our friends serve God, does not mean that we ourselves are okay. We need to serve God for ourselves and make a personal commitment to Him.
How far in life are we going to travel before we realise that God is not with us?
On Sunday Morning we had split sessions and Bro Jono and Sis Mel taught us about the five distractions that young people face.
1. Unbalanced Diet
- You cannot effectively serve God while you are dating the devil. The Bible says that man cannot serve two masters, we must love one and hate the other.
- Often between meals we like to snack on sweet things like biscuits and chocolate and lollies, but all that they do is give us a short surge of energy and temporarily satisfy our cravings, but it is not long before we fins ourselves wanting more. If we have these things in our life they will destroy our Spiritual appetite.
- The Word of God is the bread of Life. In order to remain spiritually healthy and strong we need to eat it every day. We need to read it, meditate on it and study it, as well as praying about what we have read. If we do not, then we will grow weak and die.
2. Ungodly Music
- Does the music I listen to glorify God? Can I honestly say that I feel the presence of God when I am blasting my favorite playlist? Sure the lyrics not may not be entirely bad, but if it doesn't glorify God, then who does it glorify? And do we really want to be bringing glory to any other thing than God?
- Music feeds our soul. It is easier for us to remember song lyrics than it is for us to remember the things that we write down in our diary. Think about that for a minute. The lyrics in the songs that we listen to will be stored in our memory whether we know it or not. Whether we intend to learn the words to songs or not, we will be able to retain them. Does the music we listen to feed negative feelings?
- How can we step up onto the platform on Sunday to lead worship knowing that those lyrics are stuck in our minds? Knowing that they do not bring glory to God and that we could be secretly creating idols in our lives. Ungodly music is a distraction from total submission to God.
- If God came down in flesh and started physically scrolling through our iPods, computers and phones, would he be pleased with the things that He finds, or would He be ashamed? Well the truth is, He already knows what we listen to, and He is probably already disgusted with it.
3. Negative Conversation
- Gossip. Sarcasm. Hurtful jokes. Racism.
- Gossip is anything that destroys another persons reputation and makes other people think badly about them, even if it is true! So often we think that we aren't gossiping because the information that we are passing on is true. But making sure people are "aware" of others wrong-doings is not okay! If someone has hurt you, what gives you the right to tear that person down in front of others and involve people in situations that do not concern them? If it does not directly involve the people you are talking to, or if it speaking negatively about another person, then it is gossip! We try to cover up our gossip by saying that we "just needed to vent". Well, that's what prayer is for! Sometimes we may think that because we are not the one actually gossiping, that we are okay, but by not stopping it, we are still partaking in it. Next time someone tries to negatively tear down a brother or a sister, say to them "let's stop this conversation right here. Instead of verbally bashing them, let's pray about them instead!" because think of it this way - people who gossip to you, will gossip about you!
- Sarcasm is labelled as the lowest form of wit. It pulls people down! Sure you may just be joking when you make a sarcastic comment or joke, but the hurt will still remain. If you have a flat piece of paper and you scrunch it up and try to straighten it out again, it will never fully sit in the perfectly flat way that it origionally was. Although you tried to straighten it out by adding "jokes!" to the end of your insult, the damage has still been done and the hurt will always remain.
- Acronyms - just because you abbreviate something does not mean that it is okay! It still implies the same thing, and everyone still understands the meaning of what you type.
- When you partake in these types of conversation you fall prey to the attack of the devil and instantly cheat on God when it comes to your relationship with Him.
4. Peers
- Not everyone around you is here for the same purpose as you. While you are trying your best to serve God, there will always be those people in your life who do not want the same thing, they don't really care about what is going on in church, and they will try to distract you in every possible way.
- You cannot let what others are doing around you determine what you will end up doing with your life. Be different and stand out!
- We need to disconnect ourselves from people who sow seeds of discord from our lives. They are toxic relationships and they do more harm than good.
5. Idle Hands
- Whatever we do when we are by ourselves will determine who we will be when we are with others. Never allow yourself to have free time, but in all things glorify God!
- Ask yourself this: What do I do with my spare time? Do I sit around watching television, surfing the internet, watching movies, aimlessly texting or just being plain old lazy? Idle hands are the devil's workshop!
- The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching our goals, but it lies in not having a goal to reach. Stay busy, keep your mind focused, and do not become distracted!
1. Keep a steady balance of God in your life
2. Keep watch over the music you listen to
3. Keep your conversation holy and pure
4. Keep people in your life who will build you up
5. Keep your hands doing the work of the Lord!
Out of the five distractions, the one that I struggle with the most is idle hands. Bro Jono always tells our youth that as young people we will never have as much time and money as we do right now, so the decisions that we make involving our time and our treasure is very important. Thinking about this I realised how much spare time I have, and how much more I could be doing for God. Last time bro Dan came to Australia, it was for our National Youth Camp in 2009 and he was only 19 years old. That really made me think about my life and the things that I am doing, because I am 19 years old, and I always think that I have to wait until I'm older until I do something great and mighty for God. But last night I was reading Jeremiah and in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 6-8 it says;
"Then said I: "Ah Lord God! Beonld, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." But the Lord said to me: "Do not say 'I am a youth,' for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and wherever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you," says the Lord."
Wow! What a scripture! Here I was thinking how could I possibly do something that great for God, and then BOOM God hits me with that big one! Well I tell you what friends, that convicted me! I could be doing SO MUCH more than what I am doing right now, and so I made a commitment to do more and to do something great for God. No more hiding!!!
The second morning session on Sunday was taught by Bro Jono and the title of his message was "Abide". He spoke about being connected to the vine (John 15:1-8) and bearing fruit. Throughout his message he spoke about the importance of abiding in the vine and bearing fruit. But God is not happy with just one fruit. He wants us to bear more fruit, and in order to do that He prunes us. He cuts us up so that we will be able to produce more fruit, and although the process may hurt, He is not doing it to destroy us, but rather to help us grow. If we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off and thrown into the fire. He needs us to bear fruit in all seasons.
The last service on Monday morning before we packed up and left was taught by Bro Dan, and he spoke about witnessing. Now if you know me well then you know that I am not particularly good at outreach, and I am not very good at bringing people to church, but this message truly changed my whole perspective on witnessing, and now I have such a great burden for souls.
When we look at people in the world, our physical eyes profile them. We look at their expensive clothes, their nice house, their popularity and their picture perfect eyes and so we say to ourselves "they would never come to church" and we walk on by. But spiritual eyes look at people and they penetrate them. They look past their fancy clothes, they look past their nice house, they look through their popularity and they see the brokenness, the emptiness and the hurt of their "picture-perfect" life. We need to look at people and see past what they appear to be on the outside, and look into their soul and see that really they are hurting, and they need Jesus. Just because someone may seem popular or famous, or well liked, and it looks like they have it all together, on the inside they may be broken, worn out, hurting and in need of saving. So it is my goal from now on to not focus on witnessing to a whole group of people, but to focus all my attention on just on person. To love them, care for them, nurture them, and to lead them to the cross that is higher than I. That is my aim from now on, and I encourage you all to do the same.
This past weekend has been so amazing, and it has literally given me a greater passion and a new perspective. Before this weekend I had convinced myself that "just getting by" was okay. I had convinced myself that I was "living", but oh how wrong I was! Hiding from God has not benefited me one single bit, and it has only drawn me further and further away from the things that I love. One of them being children. I have such a heart and a burden for children's ministry, and I love it with all my heart. There is nothing that I would rather do with my life than to teach and guide them. But lately I have been quite half-hearted about my Sunday school efforts putting in the bare minimum and leaving planning to the very last minute. A few months ago our Sunday school lesson was on the Salvation and as an activity for my group I made them fill out a worksheet about salvation so that I could know exactly what they knew about it and where they were at. When I was collecting the sheets I noticed that one of the older girls had scribbled out her whole answer to the importance of the Holy Ghost. When I asked her about this she just shrugged and said she didn't know, so I asked her what she thought about it and she began pouring her heart out to me and telling me about how she thought she couldn't get the Holy Ghost because she wasn't perfect enough and that she wasn't worthy. My heart simply melted, because so often I had just assumed that the children in my class didn't really have an opinion on the Holy Ghost or baptism, and here she was telling me about everything that she felt. So that night at the back of the church we prayed together for the Holy Ghost. At first she said that she didn't want to and that she didn't want to pray while everyone was watching her, but as soon as she closed her eyes, lifted her hands and began to pray, tears started to stream down her face. I knew that she was hungry and that she wanted to get the Holy Ghost, but after a few minutes she would stop praying and say that she didn't want to because the music wasn't playing and she didn't want people to see her. I told her that from now on, every altar service we would pray until she go the Holy Ghost, but it turns out that after that I was away on the weekend for a long time, and so it had been over a month since we spoke about the Holy Ghost.
Anyway, this weekend she was at youth camp, and when I was at the altar on Sunday night I felt a pull on my heart when I had finished praying. I sat still for a minute in silence and the pull got stronger, so I prayed that God would lead me to the person that He wanted me to pray for, and as soon as I opened my eyes and turned my head, my eyes fell exactly on that young girl from my Sunday school class. She was kneeling at the altar with her arms raised, tears streaming down her face and crying her lungs out to God. I went over to her and began to pray for her and I could feel that she was desperate for God. I started praying that whatever was holding her back would be crushed and that her chains would be broken, and she continued to call out to God so loudly. After a while she stopped, so I asked her if she wanted to get the Holy Ghost and she said yes, so I started to remind her what she needed to do, and as she began to repent and praise God I could feel that whatever was holding her back in the months before was gone. After a while she stopped praying and she asked if she could go and get a drink, so I let her and when she came back I asked her if she wanted to keep praying and she said yes, so we continued to pray, but she stopped again telling me that her back was sore, so we rested for a few minutes and then we continued to pray, and this time her lip began to tremble and after a while God filled her with the Holy Ghost. By this stage my voice was so sore and tired that I could barely even talk, but I was just thanking God so much for what He had done. When she stopped I told her that God has just filled her with the Holy Ghost and she looked at me and said that she didn't get it, and I said to her "could you feel your mouth moving in a different way?" and her response was yes, and I said "and were you controlling it?" this time her response was no, and I said "that is the Holy Ghost" and as soon as I said that I just saw joy flood her face. Her hands instantly went to her cheeks in shock as she continued to ask me "did I really? I got it? Did I really?" in such unbelief that God would bless her with such a gift. She started to jitter with excitement and joy and it made my hear swell so much.
After the service was over Bro. Jono announced that 3 people had been filled with the Holy Ghost that night. What a great and tremendous blessing! He then started to talk about baptism and announced that if they were willing, we would baptise them down in the water at the beach. Then she told me that she wanted to be baptised, but she didn't understand it, so we sat down at a table and I explained to her, just like in Sunday school the importance of being baptised in Jesus name and I asked her if she understood and she said yes. So we all went down to the beach and at around 10pm in the freezing cold water we baptised her by flashlight in the saving name of Jesus.
It was by far one of the best nights of my life because it reminded me of why I am in children's ministry. It is these reasons that I am teaching God's children, so that they will grow to love and serve God for themselves. It is my duty to train up God's children in the ways of the Lord so that when they are older they shall not depart from it. It is my duty to teach them, to mentor them, to pray for them, to pray with them, and to love them, and I am so glad that I have been blessed with such a desire and a passion to do so!
I encourage you all dear friends, to come out of hiding and to discover your passion.
Thank you for reading.
Stay Blessed!
-Brooke ox
